• Boulder Bach Festival Website
  • Join Us on Facebook
  • ColoradoGives.org Profile
  • Boulder Bach Newsletter

Boulder Bach Beat

~ Boulder Bach Beat hopes to stimulate conversations about the ways Bach’s music succeeds in building bridges between populations separated by language, culture, geography and time.

Boulder Bach Beat

Tag Archives: Tanglewood Music Center

Iskandar Widjaja, Indonesian Sensation

13 Thursday Jun 2013

Posted by Edward McCue in Audio Recordings, Bach's Works, Other Artists, World View

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Addie MS, Aula Simfonia Jakarta, Bali, Berlin, Beyoncé, Chaconne in D minor, emotions, Franz Geissenhof, Hong Kong, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Iskandar Widjaja, Kindra Cooper, Konzerthaus, Lady Gaga, Midori, popular music, Rheingau Music Festival, Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin, soundtrack, Tanglewood Music Center, Tel Aviv, The Dharmawangsa Hotel, The Jakarta Post, Twilite Orchestra, violin

"issi"

“Issi”

Award-winning violinist Iskandar Widjaja speaks of music as being on the cusp of science and art, describing Johann Sebastian Bach’s compositions as having “the most complex mathematical structure.” Yet, he concedes, the interpretation of a classical music piece hinges on the artist’s ability to become emotionally permeable – before hundreds of spectators. “[Classical music] is so difficult to play and it doesn’t scream as loud as pop for attention. It is a finer language that you need to focus on to appreciate it. . . . It certainly takes time to get used to a new language, but this journey is worth it,” he says.

With his schedule booked solid until June next year, the young sparkplug – who will be awarded the LOTTO Förderprize of €15,000 by the committee of the Rheingau Music Festival, Germany’s largest music festival, during his 23 July concert – looks set to light many of the world’s most eminent stages for years to come – or at least those he hasn’t already graced.

The Konzerthaus Berlin and Tel Aviv Opera already have a checkmark; likewise, Spain, Brazil, Croatia and Indonesia have played host to his evocative performances.

This year will see Iskandar crack Hong Kong, where he will make his debut with the Hong Kong Sinfonietta in October, and release his second album, Clear as Bach, a homage to the composer that he declares as “the one, the greatest of all!” who is indeed the founding father of the sonatas and partitas that have formed templates for the study of the solo violin until today. He believes such passion and enthusiasm toward classical music can develop in Indonesia with the help of key figures with young minds. “In Jakarta, we already have wonderful venues like Aula Simfonia Jakarta and orchestras like Twilite under Addie MS – these certainly help,” he says.

Unlike what one might assume of a classical musician, “Issi,” as the violinist is better known, is not contemptuous of mainstream pop music, conferring praise where it is due on artists who perform with the rawness and verve to which he aspires every time he picks up his seventeenth-century F. Geissenhof.  The musician cited American R&B star Beyoncé Knowles and pop singer Lady Gaga as two such artists who command his respect.

“I recently went to Beyoncé’s live concert in Berlin and was blown away by her utmost perfection. She was the definition of a superhuman, and to imagine all the money that went into that production was just staggering,” he says. “Yet, Lady Gaga’s concert had a somewhat more personal touch and displayed more of her inner self. Doesn’t an audience want to see ‘soul striptease?'”

In July, the musician, who readily replied with “The Chaconne” [from Partita in D minor (BWV 1004)] when asked what soundtrack he would like to be played at his funeral, will be working with equally illustrious violinist Midori, whose legendary Tanglewood performance during which she broke two E strings resulted in the headline “Girl, 14, Conquers Tanglewood with Three Violins” on the front page of a major US newspaper the next day.

On 19 September, Issi will grace Indonesia’s stages at The Dharmawangsa, playing alongside Addie MS’ Twilite Orchestra.

Although he spends forty percent of his time in Berlin and the rest traveling and touring, he concedes that his favorite pastime when coming home to Indonesia is eating. “I love rendang [beef stew], kue dadar [pancake], kenari nuts and also to dress up and go to events, partying in Bali.”

Kindra Cooper – The Jakarta Post

The Green Music Center

20 Sunday May 2012

Posted by Edward McCue in Bach's Works, Music Education, Other Artists

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

John Brombaugh & Associates, Lawrence Kirkegaard, Leonard Auerbach, Mass in B minor, organ, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Rohnert Park, San Francisco Symphony, Santa Rosa Symphony, Schroeder's Recital Hall, Sonoma Bach Choir, Sonoma State University, Tallis Scholars, Tanglewood Music Center, Weill Hall, William Rawn

Located on the picturesque Sonoma State University campus in the heart of California’s Sonoma wine region, the Green Music Center in Rohnert Park will be inaugurated in the fall as the home to the University’s music department and focal point for music in the region. The $130 million complex, consisting of performance and rehearsal halls, a music education building with teaching studios and practice rooms, an executive retreat center and a destination restaurant, will soon welcome students and guests of all ages and backgrounds to hear, work alongside and learn from the very best.

In close collaboration with acoustician Lawrence Kirkegaard and theater consultant Leonard Auerbach, architect William Rawn modeled the 1,400-seat Joan and Sanford I. Weill Hall after Seiji Ozawa Hall at the Tanglewood Music Center in Lenox, Massachusetts. The south end of Weill Hall includes a retractable wall that can be opened onto a terraced lawn, thereby extending the reach of the concert hall to an additional 3,000 guests, and the Weill Commons, a meadow directly to the east of the concert hall, is being transformed into an amphitheater with a 10,000-seat capacity for large-scale outdoor events.

Concerts during the inaugural season will include appearances by the San Francisco Symphony, the Tallis Scholars and the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and Choir. The Sonoma Bach Choir, under the direction of Robert Worth, will join the Santa Rosa Symphony in a performance of Bach’s Mass in B minor (BWV 232).

In the following season, the installation of a tracker organ by John Brombaugh & Associates in the 250-seat Schroeder’s Recital Hall will mark the completion of the Green Music Center.

Archives

  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011

Categories

  • Audio Recordings
  • Bach Excursions
  • Bach's Life
  • Bach's Predecessors
  • Bach's Successors
  • Bach's Works
  • Books
  • Festival Events
  • Films
  • Interviews
  • Memorials
  • Music Education
  • Organology
  • Other Artists
  • Uncategorized
  • Video Recordings
  • World View

Bach Resources

  • A Bach Chronology
  • About Boulder Bach Beat
  • BWV Catalogue
  • The Liturgical Calendar at Leipzig

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.

Cancel
Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy