Journal

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  • Tuesday,June 14,2011
    nothing

    Donnacha Dennehy's Nonesuch debut album, Grá agus Bás, has been named one of NPR Music's 25 Favorite Albums of the 2011 (So Far). NPR's Anastasia Tsioulcas calls it "a revelation." She describes the title piece as "haunting and utterly bracing"; the second piece, That the Night Come, was set for "Upshaw and her silvery, glistening voice in bracing, rich, complex and just plain gorgeous displays." Tsioulcas will "be listening to this for a long time to come."

    Journal Topics: Artist News
  • Thursday,June 9,2011
    nothing

    Dawn Upshaw helps kick off the 2011 Ojai Music Festival tonight. She is the music director of this year's festival, which runs through Sunday, June 12, and marks the soprano's fourth appearance at the Southern California festival. Festival highlights include Upshaw's performance of Crumb’s The Winds of Destiny and the world premiere of Maria Schneider's Winter Morning Walks. The Los Angeles Times says "her voice is like a ray of light in a forest. Its luminous tone is proof that some things in the world can never be manufactured."

    Journal Topics: On Tour, Artist News
  • Friday,May 20,2011
    nothing

    Irish composer Donnacha Dennehy's Grá agus Bás receives a perfect five stars from the Guardian, which calls the title piece "remarkable ... a piece of startling freshness." That the Night Come, also on the new album and sung by Dawn Upshaw, "is exquisitely shaped and perfectly conceived for Upshaw's voice." Los Angeles Times music critic Mark Swed calls the title piece "rapturous" and says "Upshaw gets at the heart of Yeats’ sad, haunted beauty" of That the Night Come.

    Journal Topics: Artist News, Reviews
  • Monday,May 16,2011
    nothing

    Donnacha Dennehy's Nonesuch debut album, Grá agus Bás, is "a serious exploration of an Irish folk-music idiom, teased out into a range of fresh sounds," says the Washington Post, which describes the title piece as "an ecstatic vision set in a dreamscape of sound" and says Dawn Upshaw, featured on the song cycle That the Night Come, "has another winner here."Audiophile Audition gives the album four-and-a-half stars, calling it "an absolutely mesmerizing introduction" to Dennehy's music. "This music is nearly impossible to describe. You simply must experience it ..."

    Journal Topics: Artist News, Reviews
  • Monday,May 2,2011
    nothing

    Donnacha Dennehy's Grá agus Bás is due out tomorrow. The album—which includes the title piece, inspired by sean-nós "old style" Irish vocal music, as well as the composer’s song cycle That the Night Come, comprising six settings of poems by W.B. Yeats—was featured on NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday. "The singer's plaintive cries sound very much like phrases from Irish folk music," says NPR of the title piece, "while the accompaniment features a kind of pulsating minimalist shimmer." Hear the inspirations behind the album pieces and writing for singers Iarla O’Lionáird and Dawn Upshaw.

    Journal Topics: Artist News, Radio
  • Wednesday,April 27,2011
    nothing

    Cal Performances at the University of California, Berkeley, has announced its 2011–12 season, which will feature performances from a number of performers familiar to readers of the Nonesuch Journal: Dawn Upshaw and Rokia Traoré, each in a collaboration with director Peter Sellars, the latter also with novelist Toni Morrison; Kronos Quartet in the Bay Area premiere of Steve Reich's WTC 9/11; Sérgio and Odair Assad; and Richard Goode.

    Journal Topics: On Tour, Artist News
  • Monday,April 25,2011
    nothing

    With a week to go before the May 3 release of Irish composer Donnacha Dennehy's Grá agus Bás, you can now listen to the album in its entirety till release day on npr.org as an NPR First Listen. The title piece "is full of sounds and textures that are at once haunting and exhilarating," says NPR, with a performance by Irish singer Iarla O’Lionáird that creates "one of the best and most satisfying listening experiences of the year so far." Dawn Upshaw's performance of Dennehy's "ravishing song cycle" That the Night Come "shows off her tremendous range."

    Journal Topics: Artist News, Web, Radio
  • Wednesday,April 13,2011
    nothing

    Dawn Upshaw and Donnacha Dennehy are in the midst of a seven-day workshop at Carnegie Hall, mentoring composers and singers, with two culminating performances this weekend. The New Yorker's Alex Ross has Dennehy's forthcoming album, Grá agus Bás, in current rotation. The Baltimore Sun describes Upshaw's recent Kennedy Center performances as "heavenly." Gramophone declares her 1989 recording of Barber's Knoxville: Summer of 1915 the definitive one, saying, "if you want just one recording of Knoxville, it should be Upshaw's. In no other version is the intimacy of Barber's music so poignantly conveyed."

    Journal Topics: Artist News
  • Wednesday,April 6,2011
    nothing

    Next week, Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute, in partnership with The Bard College Conservatory of Music, will present a Professional Training Workshop led by Dawn Upshaw and composer Donnacha Dennehy, who will mentor four composers and ten singers in creating new vocal music. The participants will premiere their new works in Zankel Hall, led by conductor Alan Pierson. Nonesuch releases its first recording of music by Dennehy, Grá agus Bás, on May 3, featuring the title piece and the song cycle That the Night Come, the latter sung by Upshaw. This week, she performs three concerts with the National Symphony Orchestra at The Kennedy Center.

    Journal Topics: Artist News
  • Wednesday,March 9,2011
    nothing

    Nonesuch releases its first recording of music by Irish composer Donnacha Dennehy, Grá agus Bás, on May 3. The album includes the title piece, which translates as Love and Death, as well as the composer’s song cycle That the Night Come. The Dublin–based Crash Ensemble—which Dennehy co-founded—performs both works, conducted by Alan Pierson. Irish singer Iarla O’Lionáird is the soloist for Grá agus Bás; Dawn Upshaw is featured on That the Night Come. The album is currently available to pre-order here.

    Journal Topics: Album Release, Artist News
  • Thursday,December 2,2010
    nothing

    Just in time for the holidays, John Adams will conduct the San Francisco Symphony in three performances of his Nativity oratorio, El Niño, at San Francisco's Davies Symphony Hall, starting tonight, launching Adams's two-week residency there. Dawn Upshaw will reprise the role she originated and performed on the Nonesuch recording, tonight and Saturday. Jessica Rivera, who starred in Adams's A Flowering Tree, will perform the soprano role on Friday. Michelle DeYoung and Jonathan Lemalu will appear in all three performances.

    Journal Topics: On Tour, Artist News
  • Wednesday,November 17,2010
    nothing

    Dawn Upshaw joined violinist Geoff Nutall for the European premiere of Kurtág's Kafka Fragments at the Barbican in London last week, directed by Peter Sellars. The Guardian gave it four stars, citing "Upshaw's emotional honesty and gripping presentation of music that tests a soprano's technique." She joins another Sellars collaborator, John Adams, in performances of Adams's El Niño with the San Francisco Symphony, led by the composer, in early December.

    Journal Topics: On Tour, Artist News, Reviews

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