Seattle Symphony Spotlight KING FM

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.