Dress Rehearsal

The 42nd episode of Dress Rehearsal, on 107.3 KBFG Seattle, featured Bulgarian composer Dimitar Nenov and his monumental Piano Concerto written in 1936. In line with the recent podcast on Iannis Xenakis, in Nenov we find a similar polymath, as he, other than a composer and a pianist, was also a practicing architect, a pedagogue and a radio producer. Nenov's Piano Concerto is built as a single sona...

The 40th episode of Dress Rehearsal, on 107.3 KBFG Seattle, features some Unusual and unknown Christmas Music and music inspired by the birth of Jesus. In every city in this country there are probably several performances of Handel’s Messiah being presented. If you are tired of listening every year to the usual Christmas carols on the radio, then this podcast is for you. During this hour you’ll ha...

The 39th episode of Dress Rehearsal, on 107.3 KBFG Seattle, featured Russian pianist Alexei Lubimov, who has explored throughout his career not only the piano but also the fortepiano, the harpsichord and the clavichord. Lubimov attracted notice with his performances of modern scores. In 1968 he performed the Moscow debuts of works by John Cage and Terry Riley, and then championed the works of Arno...

The 38th episode of Dress Rehearsal, on 107.3 KBFG Seattle, features MET Opera's Principal Timpanist Jason Haaheim! Jason was appointed at the Met in 2013 and his route to the Met was all but a linear one. In fact, prior to becoming a full-time musician Jason used to work at a nanotech lab in Chicago and had marginally studied music, having earned a Bachelor of Arts with a double major in music an...

The 36th episode of Dress Rehearsal, on 107.3 KBFG Seattle, featured Greek Composer Iannis Xenakis and in particular his early electro acoustic compositions. Prior to becoming a composer Xenakis graduated in structural engineering and architecture and his mathematical background informed his compositions. While he was working for architect Le Corbusier in Paris, Xenakis engaged with electro acoust...

Il 36esimo episodio del podcast "Dress Rehearsal", presso la stazione 107.3FM KBFG di Seattle, negli Stati Uniti, ha visto protagonista la Compositrice Italiana Roberta Vacca che si è diplomata in Pianoforte, Composizione e in Musica Corale e Direzione di Coro nonche' in Lingue e Letterature Straniere. Si è perfezionata in Composizione con Azio Corghi presso l’Accademia di S. Cecilia e presso l’Ac...

The 36th episode of Dress Rehearsal on 107.3FM KBFG Seattle, featured Italian Composer Roberta Vacca. Roberta graduated in Piano, Composition and in Choral Music and Choir Direction. She also attended courses in Composition with Maestro Azio Corghi. Winner of numerous competitions, Roberta has had commissions from prestigious festivals and her compositions are regularly performed in Italy and abro...

The 35th episode of Dress Rehearsal, on 107.3 KBFG Seattle, featured Russian Pianist and Composer Samuel Feinberg, who from an early age exhibited an extraordinary talent on the piano. At his graduation recital Feinberg performed the entire Well-Tempered Clavier by Johann Sebastian Bach by heart and so he was the first pianist to perform such a work by Bach in its integrity in Russia. In 1922, he...

The 34th episode of Dress Rehearsal, on 107.3 KBFG Seattle welcomed composer and sonic artist Nina C. Young, who creates works ranging from acoustic concert pieces to interactive installations, that explore aural architectures, resonance, timbre, and the ephemeral. Her music has garnered international acclaim through performances by the New York Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra, among o...

Il 32esimo episodio del podcast "Dress Rehearsal", presso la stazione 107.3FM KBFG di Seattle, negli Stati Uniti, ha visto protagonista il fortepianista italiano Costantino Mastroprimiano, che è una delle figure di spicco della "performance storica". Mastroprimiano è specializzato nelle opere di Clementi, Dussek, Hummel, Cramer, Czerny, Kalkbrenner e Moscheles, che fa rivivere attraverso un attent...

The 32nd episode of Dress Rehearsal on 107.3FM KBFG Seattle, welcomed Italian Fortepianist and Musicologist Costantino Mastroprimiano, who is one of the leading figures of the "historic performance". Mr. Mastroprimiano specializes in 18th- and 19th-century piano music, especially the works of Clementi, Dussek, Hummel, Cramer, Czerny, Kalkbrenner and Moscheles, which he revives through an attentive...

The 31st episode of Dress Rehearsal features Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara, probably the most notable Finnish composer since Jean Sibelius, Rautavaara wrote a great number of works spanning various styles. These include eight symphonies, nine operas and twelve concertos, as well as numerous vocal and chamber works. Having written early works using 12-tone serial techniques, his later musi...

The 30th episode of Dress Rehearsal welcomes pianist Freddy Kempf, who is one of today’s most successful pianists performing to sell-out audiences. Exceptionally gifted with an unusually broad repertoire, Freddy has built a unique reputation as an explosive performer who is not afraid to take risks. Born in London in 1977, Freddy made his concerto debut with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and fu...

The 28th episode of Dress Rehearsal welcomes NY-based Guitarist Kevin Gallagher who began playing rock guitar in his formative years, but his musical appetite quickly led him to study jazz and ultimately, classical guitar. Kevin was the first-prize winner in the 1993 Guitar Foundation of America, the 1994 American String Teachers Association, and the 1993 Artists International Competition. Most no...

The 27th episode of Dress Rehearsal was dedicated to the recently deceased Italian composer Sylvano Bussotti, who passed away last on September 19th 2021. Bussotti was not only a composer but was also a painter, a scenographer and a theatre director. He made large use of graphic notation in his pieces, and he experimented the interaction between sound, notation and vision, creating a synesthetic a...

In the 26th episode of "Dress Rehearsal", my guest is Malaysian Pianist Dennis Lee, who is currently recording the complete piano works by Claude Debussy for UK independent label ICSM Records. Dennis Lee studied at the Royal College of Music in London, at the Akademie in Vienna and in Milan, Italy, with Ilonka Deckers-Kuszler. Dennis Lee has won many competition prizes, including Busoni, Casagrand...

The 25th episode of Dress Rehearsal is dedicated to "Music, Power and the Soviet Anti-formalism Campaign" and explore how composers like Dmitri Shostakovich and Sergei Prokofiev suffered constant coercion and defamation from the Kremlin for writing "formalist" music that was not the prescribed art with a social purpose. On 10 January 1948, more than 70 composers were summoned to a three-day confer...

In the 23rd episode of "Dress Rehearsal", my guest will be Emily Skala, former Principal Flutist of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Emily is a very accomplished player and educator having been with the BSO for over 30 years and having also taught at Peabody Conservatory for 28 years. Recently, Emily was "dismissed" from the BSO for having posted on her Facebook page, challenging opinions regardi...

The 23rd episode of Dress Rehearsal is dedicated to the recently deceased Canadian composer Raymond Murray Schafer, who died this past August 14th, 2021. Murray Schafer was not only a musician but also a writer, an educator and an environmentalist, best known for his World Soundscape Project and for his concerns for acoustic ecology. In addition, Murray Schafer used natural sounds and natural sett...

The 22nd episode of "Dress Rehearsal" is dedicated to Seattle Symphony's Conductor Laureate, Ludovic Morlot. Trained as a violinist, Ludovic studied conducting at the Pierre Monteux School (USA) and at the Royal Academy of Music in London and then at the Royal College of Music as a recipient of the Norman del Mar Fellowship. Ludovic is Affiliate Professor at the University of Washington School of...

The 21st episode of "Dress Rehearsal" focuses on a peculiar instrument known as the "pedal piano", a piano that includes a pedalboard like an organ. The instrument gained success as composers like Felix Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann, Franz Liszt and Charles Valentin Alkan found it useful as an alternative to practice organ music in their homes. This led some of the above composers to take the "peda...

The 20th episode of "Dress Rehearsal" welcomes Cellist, Pianist, Composer and Author, Pedro de Alcantara, who grew up in Brazil, studied cello in NY, spent 7 years in London, and then settled in Paris. His life has been of constant transformation. He started his career as a classically trained cellist and that contributed to the continuing transformation of his thinking. After many years away from...

The 19th episode of "Dress Rehearsal" focuses on the "Seven Last Words of Christ on the Cross", the biblical story of Jesus uttering seven short phrases, from the four Gospels narrating the Crucifixion. Composers throughout the centuries have written musical settings of the seven sayings. During the hour we will listen to each of the Seven Words as put into music by different composers, starting w...

The 18th episode of "Dress Rehearsal" welcomes Composer Elliott Miles McKinley with whom we discuss about his life growing up with another composer in the house (his father, William Thomas McKinley, was also a fine composer). We'll also extensively speak about music education and how his mission to educate led him to found a yearly composition festival in the beautiful hills around the city of Alb...

The 16th episode of Dress Rehearsal is dedicated to American pianist and composer Frederic Rzeswki, whose passing on June 26th 2021 left a big void in the contemporary history of music. We'll talk about his fundamental anarchism, his refusal of seeking any forms of retribution and royalties for his music (which he often made readily available on the public domain and on the website IMSLP). And we'...