Stories » 98.1KING-FM set for new digs in Seattle Opera building

Stories for January 25, 2020

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    Andris Nelsons, Vienna Philharmonic - Beethoven Complete Symphonies is the WFMT: Featured New Released
     
    Posted At : January 24, 2020 12:00 AM

    Andris Nelsons has joined forces with the Vienna Philharmonic to record Beethoven's nine symphonies for Deutsche Grammophon. The release marks the start of the label's celebration of the 250th anniversary of Beethoven's birth in 2020. Beethoven has been central to Nelsons' work since he began his career. The Latvian conductor garnered rave reviews for his 2013-14 Beethoven cycle with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and scored critical acclaim for more recent Beethoven performances as Music Director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d} Andris Nelsons, Vienna Philharmonic - Beethoven Complete Symphonies is the WFMT: Chicago 'Featured New Released'

  • Rachel Barton Pine takes WETA through her favorite moments of the Dvorak - Khachaturian Concertos
     
    Posted At : January 24, 2020 12:00 AM

    WETA Evening Host James Jacobs speaks with world renowned violinist Rachel Barton Pine about her latest album on the Avie label, a pairing of the violin concertos of Antonín Dvořák and Aram Khachaturian, in which she collaborates with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and conductor Teddy Abrams. In this wide-ranging conversation Ms. Pine takes us through her favorite moments of both works, analyzes the ways in which both concertos are derived from the folk music of the countries of their respective composers, and reveals the joy she felt in discovering a connection between the Khachaturian and heavy metal. (She references a video she made that delves more deeply into that connection, which can be found here.) She also provides a brief history of the fraught relationship between Dvořák and Joseph Joachim, his concerto's intended dedicatee who ultimately rejected the work, and shares her thoughts on finding happiness through music.  LISTEN TO THE WETA: Wash DC INTERVIEW

  • Black Oak Ensemble discusses 'Silenced Voices' with All Classical Portland
     
    Posted At : January 24, 2020 12:00 AM

    2020 (specifically, January 27) marks the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the WWII concentration camp that is symbolic of the persecution and murder of millions of Jews and other groups by the Nazi regime.  In addition to the handful of people who survived the camps, a small body of art, including music, has emerged over time.  Music written by prisoners of the Nazis who persevered in their art despite the conditions.  The string trio Black Oak Ensemble (violinist Desirée Ruhrstrat, violist Aurélian Fort Pederzoli and cellist David Cunliffe) first encounter of much of this music was in a shop in Budapest, and at first, they didn't know the circumstances of the composers of these works.  This debut disc is the result of several years of research and performance, including at the Czech camp at Terezín. The music is at times filled with a sense of foreboding, at other times sadness, but also great energy and even humor.  They were written between the late 1920s (when the first signs of fascism were appearing in parts of Europe) to the 1930s era of persecution, and finally to the last years of the war (most of the composers went from places like Terezín, where artists were kept, to the death camps such as Auschwitz.  Only one composer on the disc, Géza Frid, survived the war and lived in the Netherlands to 1989). LISTEN TO All Classical Portland's John Pitman discuss the album with with Cunliffe and Pederzoli from BOE who share their unique connection and admiration for this music which, finally, is "silenced" no more.

  • Ted Poor - 'Only You' feat. Andrew D'Angelo makes this week's 'Play MPE Top 10 Downloads and Streams'
     
    Posted At : January 24, 2020 12:00 AM

    You Already Know, the New Deal/Impulse! debut from the acclaimed drummer Ted Poor - "a trustworthy engine in countless modern-jazz settings,"  (New York Times) isn't your typical jazz drummer's recording, almost defiantly so. But if you're at all familiar with the Seattle-based Poor's explorative career-or the wide-ranging work of his principal collaborators here, the deeply influential guitarist-producer Blake Mills and the saxophonist Andrew D'Angelo-this should come as no surprise. After all, Poor has proven equally brilliant in bands led by the visionary avant-jazz trumpeter Cuong Vu and the lauded indie singer-songwriter Andrew Bird. Whether he's on a club bandstand alongside a generation-defining improviser like the guitarist Ben Monder, or onstage at New York's historic Town Hall, backing Paul Simon as part of Chris Thile's trusted Live From Here band, Poor is a music-first drummer. His tremendous technical abilities behind the kit are inarguable-and no doubt serve him well as the Assistant Professor of Jazz Studies at the University of Washington in Seattle-but he places color, texture, sound and especially melody atop chops. "The songs that I write, and certainly the songs that appear on this record, are songs you can sing," Poor says, explaining how his time in the employ of renowned singer-songwriters has informed his own composing. "These are the songs I sing to myself as well." Ted Poor - Only You feat. Andrew D'Angelo makes the 'Play MPE Top 10 Downloads and Streams' for Friday 1.24.2020

  • 'Common Tones in Simple Time' from OSM: Kent Nagano - The John Adams Album is 'Out of the Box' on 99.5WCRB: Boston
     
    Posted At : January 23, 2020 12:00 AM

    "Common Tones in Simple Time" is featured on a 'minimalist' album brimming with sublime subtlety, which, like so many things in life, is much more than it first appears. The Montréal Symphony Orchestra's The John Adams Album presents some of John Adams's most spectacular orchestral works. Included are the Schoenberg-inspired "Harmonielehre," the fast-paced "Short Ride in a Fast Machine," and Adams's first minimalist orchestral work, our focus this week on Out of the Box, "Common Tones in Simple Time." Minimalism is, broadly speaking, a compositional style characterized by simplicity and repetition -- think of it as music stripped down to the chassis. There is something deeply mesmerizing about minimalism, especially in the hands of composer John Adams. In the late Seventies there were very few models for an Minimalist orchestral style. So in a certain sense, I felt both the excitement as well as the challenge of venturing in to uncharted terrain. - John Adams, on 'Common Tones in Simple Time' Minimalism grew out of one of the more heated musical debates of the 20th century: what should Western "classical" music be? Should it be deeply complex, cerebral, and impenetrable? Should it be big and richly colorful, shot through with meaning and story? Or should it be undecorated and simple, aiming for a sonic and rhythmic aesthetic above all else? Composers like Arnold Schoenberg and Alban Berg believed firmly in the first, creating atonal and mathematically derived serial compositions. Gustav Mahler, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Richard Strauss were deeply committed to the second, following in the footsteps of Romantics like Brahms and Wagner. But the "minimalists," composers like Philip Glass, Steve Reich, and eventually John Adams, disavowed the central tenets of either of those compositional philosophies and set about creating something simpler than atonal music and without the narrative aspects of the Romantics. It was... minimal. I really enjoy the driving subtlety of minimalism because I find it really easy to become enveloped in it. And I find John Adams, of all the early minimalist composers (having come to the style nearly a decade after it was first invented in Manhattan in the 1960s), the most interesting to listen to. As writer Michael Steinberg puts it, John Adams's works are "full of surprises, always enchanting in the glow and gleam of their sonority, and bursting with the energy generated by their harmonic movement." It's as though John Adams took aspects of all three of the aforementioned 20th-century schools of compositional thought, and wove them into his own unequivocably unique sound tapestry. It's not simple music. It's just minimal, and mesmerizingly so. p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d; min-height: 14.0px} LISTEN TO THE SEGMENT Catch Out of the Box on the radio Sunday nights at 9, following WCRB In Concert.

  • 1917 is a major hit. It's nominated for 10 Oscars, including best film, best director and, of course, best music by composer Thomas Newman / Soundtrack WORLD
     
    Posted At : January 23, 2020 12:00 AM

    The movie 1917, directed by Sam Mendez, is a major hit in theatres. It is nominated for 10 Oscars, including best film, best director and, of course, best music. Composer Thomas Newman has been collaborating with Mendez since Mendez's first film American Beauty. Some of his movies had amazing scores, featuring Newman's famous piano melodies that I love, such as American Beauty and The Road to Perdition. 1917 would be a very different movie though, where during The Great War, two English soldiers have to cross through German-occupied territory as fast as possible to deliver a message. The whole movie was shot in such a way that the camera follows them as they move, giving the audience the impression that all has been shot in a single take, with the cameraman being the witness of the whole journey. As a side effect, the pace of the movie is in real-time. To write the music for such a movie must have been quite a challenge.  READ THE FULL Soundtrack WORLD REVIEW

  • Paul Merkelo speaks with FM91 - Toledo about 'The Enlightened Trumpet'
     
    Posted At : January 23, 2020 12:00 AM

    Trumpet virtuoso (and principal of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra) Paul Merkelo has a new recording out on Sony Classical, which features stand-out performances of four popular concertos – all composed during The Age of Enlightenment in Europe (as Paul explains in this interview, the trumpet and its music was itself going through some changes during this period). Paul brings three different trumpets (including one of them custom made) for fresh and fantastic performances of works by Haydn, Telemann, Leopold Mozart, and Hummel. FM91 - Toledo OH, music host; Brad Cresswell spoke with PM about the recording. Listen  p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d}

Top 10 for Jan

  • Colin Stetson :

    Color Out of Space

     Milan Records today releases COLOR OUT OF SPACE (ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK) with music by GRAMMY® Award-winning saxophonist, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and composer COLIN STETSON.
  • Lorne Balfe :

    Bad Boys for Life OMPS

     Sony Music today releases BAD BOYS FOR LIFE (ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SCORE) with music by GRAMMY Award-winning, EMMY- and BAFTA-nominated composer LORNE BALFE (Ad Astra, His Dark Materials, Gemini Man).
  • Ted Poor :

    You Already Know

     You Already Know, the New Deal/Impulse! debut from the acclaimed drummer Ted Poor-"a trustworthy engine in countless modern-jazz settings," per the New York Times-isn't your typical jazz drummer's recording, almost defiantly so.
  • Robert Thies - Damjan Krajacic :

    Blue Landscapes III Frontiers

     Mindfulness music leader Real Music presents Blue Landscapes III: Frontiers, the pioneering third album in the award-winning Blue Landscapes series from internationally renowned pianist Robert Thies and flutist Damjan Krajacic.
  • Thomas Newman :

    1917 OMPS

     Sony Music announces the December 20 release of 1917 (ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK) with music by GRAMMY®, EMMY® and BAFTA® Award-winning composer THOMAS NEWMAN.
  • Dustin O'Halloran :

    Sundoor

     Deutsche Grammophon is proud to announce the signing of Oscar-nominated, Emmy-winning composer Dustin O'Halloran and his release of a new EP, Sundoor.
  • Sheku Kanneh-Mason :

    Elgar w/London Symphony Orchestra - Rattle

     Award-winning cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason returns with Elgar, a new album of works anchored around Elgar's Cello Concerto – arguably the best-known work in the classical canon written for solo cello, which saw the 100th anniversary of its first performance this month.
  • Joey Alexander :

    Warna

     Today, Joey Alexander, the Grammy-nominated jazz pianist, composer and bandleader announces the release of his major label debut album, WARNA (Verve Records).
  • Andrea Bocelli :

    Si Forever

     Following over 1 million album sales of his No.
  • Alexandre Desplat :

    Little Women OMPS

     Sony Music announces the release of LITTLE WOMEN (ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK) with music by Academy Award®, Golden Globe® and GRAMMY® Award-winning composer ALEXANDRE DESPLAT.

98.1KING-FM set for new digs in Seattle Opera building

Posted: June 20, 2019 12:00 AM | By: Admin
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In a time when many arts organizations are struggling to stay afloat, two companies dedicated to classical music have found a way not only to survive, but to thrive. Beginning in early 2020, Seattle Opera and KING FM 98.1 will be housed under one roof: the opera's civic home on the Seattle Center campus. While the Opera Center was completed in December 2018, the second-floor office has remained intentionally vacant. Seattle Opera General Director Aidan Lang said the company was looking for an organization to rent the space who shared a similar vision and mission. With a long history of working together, (such as broadcasts of McCaw Hall performances), KING FM was the ideal match, Lang said. This fall, a new radio broadcast facility will be constructed on the opera's second floor.

"We have worked closely with Seattle Opera for years, and look forward to finding more opportunities to collaborate once we are only a floor apart," said KING FM CEO Brenda Barnes. "We are thrilled to be moving into this beautiful space, and to be in such close proximity to one of our most important partners."

READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Crossover Media Projects with Various

  • Various

    Orff: Carmina Burana Live From the Forbidden City

    Recorded live to the highest industry standards in front of the magnificent scenery of Beijing's Forbidden City, this unique gala concert celebrates the 120th anniversary of Deutsche Grammophon. The concert features conductor Long Yu and the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, both freshly signed as exclusive recording artists to Deutsche Grammophon, and performances from Aida Garifullina, Daniil Trifonov, Mari Samuelsen, and more.

  • Various

    A Day In The Life: Impressions of Pepper

    Impulse! has brought together some of the great progressive jazz musicians of our time to pay tribute to The Beatles'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. A Day In The Life: Impressions of Pepper will be available on vinyl for Record Store Day on November 23, available on CD, digital, and streaming platforms on November 30, with a wide vinyl release on January 18, 2019.

    A Day In The Life: Impressions of Pepper includes performances and interpretations by artists such as UK saxophonist and Impulse! recording artist Shabaka Hutchings, Impulse! pianist Sullivan Fortner, Verve recording artist Miles Mosley, Onyx Collective, percussionist Antonio Sanchez, guitarist Mary Halvorson, The JuJu Exchange and more. 

    This stellar lineup represents some of the great progressive jazz artists from around the world: Shabaka from the UK Jazz scene, Miles Mosley and Cameron Graves from LA's West Coast Get Down, Onyx Collective from NYC, Makaya McCraven and the JuJu Exchange from Chicago.  

  • Various

    Beethoven

    Many people picture grim-faced Beethoven, shaking his fist at the heavens and persisting through deafness and illness to compose works of transcendent beauty, but he also stirs emotions that feel both deeply personal and ubiquitous. There are moments of red-cheeked optimism, quiet introspection, playful dances, heroic declarations, a restless search for the sublime. And while Beethoven is perhaps most famous for his sonatas and symphonies, he composed an opera, chamber works, songs, sacred music, incidental music for the stage, even dances. Taken together, these selections paint a rich portrait of Beethoven's humanity, which has attracted artists of the highest caliber such as Leonard Bernstein, Carlos Kleiber, Janine Jansen, and Martha Argerich. Some of these recordings are legendary, but all of them jump out with their undeniable virtuosity and brilliance. This collection may remind you of that iconic portrait of immortal Genius suffering for Art, but it will also reacquaint you with an artist from another time who somehow captured so much of the human experience.

  • Various

    The Royal Wedding - The Official Album

    Decca Records is proud to release The Official Recording of The Royal Wedding, one of the most eagerly awaited events of the year. Having recorded the entire service live at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle today, every piece of music, the readings, blessings and the vows will be available to listen to permanently on all streaming services in just a few hours: a first for a Royal Wedding. The physical album, on CD, will then be released into retail stores around the world from 1st June. 

    The musical highlight of the moving and joyous ceremony was British cellist, Sheku Kanneh-Mason, one of the most exciting musicians of his generation, who was personally asked by the bride and groom to perform at their wedding. The 19-year-old musician took centre stage for the all-important signing of the register. Dressed in a black Paul Smith suit with vibrant pink tie, Sheku played three beautiful pieces: "Sicilienne" by von Paradis, Schubert's "Ave Maria," and "Après Un Rêve" by Fauré. He was accompanied by orchestra*, as the Royal Couple officially became husband and wife. Knowing he was performing not only for the Royal Family, 600 invited guests in the Chapel, and an estimated global audience of up to three billion people, the talented teenager was thrilled to be involved in the occasion:

  • Various

    Hopes and Dreams - The Lullaby Project

    History was written in 2000 BC, and 2018 marks the 150th anniversary of Brahms' Lullaby, so this precious musical tradition has deep cultural and emotional roots. These personal songs bring people together, span generations, and tell stories about where we come from, who we are now, and our hopes for the future. The legacy continues with the release of Hopes and Dreams: The Lullaby Project on Decca Gold (Verve Label Group). The recording is inspired by the Lullaby Project, a program of Carnegie Hall's Weill Music Institute which pairs pregnant women, new mothers, and family members with professional artists to write and sing personal lullabies for their babies, supporting maternal health, aiding child development, and strengthening the bond between parent and child. Hopes and Dreams: The Lullaby Project features fifteen lullabies written by parents from across New York City, as performed by Fiona Apple, the Brentano String Quartet, Lawrence Brownlee, Rosanne Cash, Joyce DiDonato, Janice Freeman (The Voice 2017), Rhiannon Giddens (Nashville), Angélique Kidjo, Patti LuPone, Natalie Merchant (10,000 Maniacs), Dianne Reeves, Gilberto Santa Rosa, Pretty Yende, and Catherine Zeta-Jones.

  • Various

    Jazz Loves Disney 2: A Kind of Magic

    The second installment of the Jazz Loves Disney series, Jazz Loves Disney 2: A Kind of Magic features guest artists including Angélique Kidjo, Laura Mvula, Jamie Cullum, Jacob Collier, George Benson, Madeleine Peyroux and more, taking on beloved melodies from the Disney canon. The album will be released on Verve Records on November 10.  The Jazz Loves Disney series celebrates the nostalgia and universal appeal of the music of Disney films. The rich catalogue of Disney songs that span genres and generations inspired producer Jay Newland and arranger Rob Mounsey to continue the series. 

    7 NEW  106 TOTAL
    SYND:     NPR, CBC
    Direct: SiriusXM
    Markets include: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Boston, Atlanta, Portland, Detroit, Denver, Memphis, Orlando, Albuquerque, Wichita, Madison WI, Honolulu, HI(Statewide), Barcelona, Berlin
    INTER: Canada, UK, Spain, Germany, South Africa
    Online: LaughingPlace, Troonradio, Quisqueya, udiscovermusic, The Healthy Mouse, The Daily Shuffle, Dis411, NextBop.com, MOJA, GreenArrow, Jazz Gallery 41, The Jazz groove, Sun Music, Jazz Weekly, Radio Free Amsterdam

    19 Jazzweek ADD's

  • Various

    The Passion of Charlie Parker

    The Passion of Charlie Parker is a new album from producer Larry Klein that tells the story of Charlie Parker using his music as inspiration for new songs that narrate his life. Guest artists include Gregory Porter, Madeleine Peyroux, Kandace Springs, actor Jeffrey Wright, and more. The album will be available on impulse!/ Verve digitally on June 16, with physical release to follow on June 30. Larry Klein says, "With this album I've endeavored to do something new and different in an effort to illustrate who ‘Bird' was as an archetypal character, and to draw attention to the huge impact that his work had on Jazz." Rather than create another tribute of traditional bebop tunes, Klein partnered with lyricist David Baerwald to create a musical play that tells the story of Charlie Parker's life while still playing with the jagged melodic nature of Charlie Parker's compositions.

    7 NEW  123 TOTAL
    SYND:     Jazz After Hours, Jazz Happening Now, Jazz Inspired, Voice of America
    Direct: SiriusXM
    Markets include: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Boston, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Portland, Miami, Detroit, New Orleans, Minneapolis, Austin, Denver, Albuquerque, Orlando, San Antonio, Sacramento, Louisville, Knoxville, Madison WI, Rochester, Tampa, Honolulu, OR(Statewide), WV(Statewide), VT(Statewide), KS(Statewide), MS(Statewide), HI(Statewide), Toronto, Vancouver
    INTER: Canada, UK
    Online: GreenArrow, Jazz & Blues Report, KUHS/Vaya, Soulandjazz.com, Jazz Weekly, Radio Valencia, Que4 Radio, Freaky Party, theguardian

    45 Jazzweek ADD's