Seattle Symphony Spotlight

Conrad Tao is the pianist, composer and new music champion who appears in two concerts presented by the Seattle Symphony this week. He spoke with KING FM Creative Director, Dacia Clay.  Conrad talks about his recital in Octave 9 on March 6 and his appearance at the SSO Celebrate Asia concert this weekend.  And he introduces us to a lesser known side of Aaron Copland.  Copland's outspoken activism as a gay man in early 20th Century America is often overshadowed by the composer's iconic and bucolic ballet music.

One of the themes of Seattle Symphony music director Thomas Dausgaard’s artistic life is his deep, joyful fascination with creativity and how music connects us all. Thomas speaks with KING FM’s Dave Beck about how that philosophy is reflected in the programming presented during the SSO’s 2020-2021 concert season. The new season has just recently been announced.

The Seattle Symphony’s critically acclaimed “untitled” series explores new music in the informal atmosphere of the lobby of Benaroya Hall. Concerts are Fridays at 10pm, and attract a mix of new music fans and concert hall first-timers, intrigued by the event that's more like a nightclub experience than a classical concert. Nathan Chan is assistant principal cellist of the Symphony and a player in the next “untitled” program on Feb. 28th. Here, Chan talks about the rewards and challenges of new music.

35 members of violinist Gidon Kremer’s family perished in the Jewish ghettos of Riga, Latvia during the Second World War. The Holocaust also took a devastating toll on the family of Polish composer Mieczyslaw Weinberg. Weinberg’s music is rarely heard. But Gidon Kremer is making a powerful case in support of the Weinberg 1960 Violin Concerto. The work highlights Weinberg’s Jewish roots.  Weinberg’s father-in-law, the director of a Moscow Jewish theatre, was assassinated in 1948 on orders from Josef Stalin.

Each of the pieces on the Seattle Symphony program this week have very personal associations for Music Director Thomas Dausgaard. He led Grieg’s ”Peer Gynt Suite” at his professional conducting debut.  He was a young cellist in a Copenhagen youth symphony when he first played the Carl Nielsen First Symphony. And as he told Classical KING FM’s Dave Beck this week, his experience in the Russian dacha where Shostakovich once composed string quartets left a deep impression on the young conductor Thomas Dausgaard.

There are not too many people that a symphony orchestra can call when it loses the person who was supposed to be the violin soloist and conductor of the concert coming up. That happened to the Seattle Symphony this week. Fortunately the orchestra had Rachel Barton Pine's phone number. Rachel is a baroque music specialist--a violinist who is accustomed to both soloing and directing the ensembles she plays with. Rachel tells KING FM's Dave Beck about how the baroque bug bit her in a Chicago sheet music store when she was 14 years old.

Austrian violinist Thomas Zehetmair regularly pulls off the feat of both playing and conducting the Beethoven Violin Concerto. And he does that with a little help from his friends. Thomas tells KING FM's Dave Beck how he calls on musicians from inside the Seattle Symphony to help with a few conducting duties along the way. Plus, he tells the story of a little known and eccentric cadenza that Beethoven wrote for his violin concerto. Thomas Zehetmair is back in Seattle this week after a critically acclaimed debut with the orchestra in 2018.

Jean Efflam Bavouzet, this week’s guest pianist at the Seattle Symphony, has recorded the complete piano sonatas of Haydn, the complete piano concertos of Mozart, and all of the Prokofiev piano concertos. His passion for the piano might seem all-consuming. But Bavouzet finds time to savor everything from great jazz to the wonders of the world of model railroading. The energetic and effusive French pianist Mr. Bavouzet shares a fascination for miniature mechanical devices with one of his musical heroes, Maurice Ravel. He talks about jazz, trains, Beethoven and more with Classical KING FM’s Dave Beck.

Though she came from a family of distinguished music teachers, performing is the first love of Seattle Symphony Principal Second Violin Elisa Barston. She'll do plenty of performing in December and January when she solos with the SSO in the demanding Four Seasons Violin Concertos. She'll present versions by both Vivaldi and the Argentine composer Astor Piazzolla. On our Seattle Symphony Podcast, Elisa speaks with KING FM's Dave Beck about her upcoming first ever public performances of the complete Vivaldi Four Seasons and about the underappreciated role of the second violin section of the symphony orchestra.

Performing on an instrument made of ice, introducing a high-tech concert hall and taking musical inspiration from the worlds of dance and martial arts are all in a day's work for the cellist Seth Parker Woods. He's the first ever Seattle Symphony Artist in Residence at the new Octave 9: Raisbeck Music Center in Benaroya Hall. A dedicated advocate of new music, Seth is also passionate about creating new opportunities for fellow African-American and Latinx musicians, woefully underrepresented in the world of "classical" music. Seth Parker Woods speaks with Classical KING FM's Dave Beck.