Tag: article

  • Eric Whitacre, Inc.: The Practical Tactics of an Ethereal Composer

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    Brian Wise

    Eric Whitacre is nearly synonymous with American choral music, his work sung by choirs from Minnesota to Indonesia. His online “Virtual Choirs” have been a runaway smash on YouTube and he may be the only classical composer with a “merch” section on his website.

  • Podium Powers: Hispanic Conductors on the Rise

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    Brian Wise

    This article originally appeared in Symphony, the magazine of the League of American Orchestras. When José-Luis Novo was asked to conduct Latin American music early in his career, he frequently declined, fearing people would peg him as a Hispanic specialist. Novo, who left his native Spain to study at Yale University as a Fulbright Scholar, would…

  • New York Thrill

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    Brian Wise

    This article appeared in the September 2012 issue of the BBC Music Magazine. An ambitious project to resurrect the works of Danish composer Carl Nielsen is just one of the many innovations of the New York Philharmonic’s music director Alan Gilbert. Brian Wise meets New York’s musical visionary. With all the ways that the New…

  • New Notes on the Autism Scale

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    Brian Wise

    This article appeared in Symphony, the magazine of the League of American Orchestras. It wasn’t the kind of concert that receives glowing press or even a sellout crowd, but the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s June 27 performance was deemed an auspicious success by its organizers. This was the Pittsburgh Symphony’s first sensory-friendly performance—a concert designed specifically for families…

  • Calder Quartet: Rocking All Over the World

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    Brian Wise

    This article originally appeared in the March 2013 issue of The Strad magazine. A Canadian hardcore punk band with an unprintable name and songs that most radio stations won’t touch may seem an unlikely collaborator for a classical string quartet. But in November 2011, the Calder String Quartet was playing on the back of a…

  • Atypical Approach: Stefan Jackiw’s is a Singular Path

    Atypical Approach: Stefan Jackiw’s is a Singular Path

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    Brian Wise

    This article appeared in the winter 2014 issue of Listen magazine. When concertgoers peruse the biography of a young soloist that appears in their program, they usually see a familiar inventory: teenage competition victories, a debutante recital or two, and a couple of ambiguously out-of-context quotes from newspaper reviews. The story of American violinist Stefan…

  • A Changing Landscape: Detroit Emerges from Bankruptcy to a Burgeoning Arts Scene

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    Brian Wise

    This article appeared in the summer 2015 issue of Listen magazine. Soon after tuba player Dennis Nulty joined the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in 2009, he did what nearly every musician in the orchestra had done before him: he hightailed it to the suburbs. The then-twenty-two-year-old from Buffalo, NY had received one too many warnings about…

  • DIY: Music Career

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    Brian Wise

    This article appeared in the Fall 2010 issue of Listen magazine. On a cold evening in early March, an unusual concert took place in Boston. Titled “Musical Diplomacy,” the program featured orchestra pieces based on politics and wartime, including one premiere about prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. It was followed by a discussion on “rights and…

  • Pablo Heras-Casado: Polymath on the Podium

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    Brian Wise

    Among the conductors who has appeared on critics’ wish lists to succeed Alan Gilbert at the New York Philharmonic is Pablo Heras-Casado, music director of the Orchestra of St. Luke’s and assistant conductor of Madrid’s Teatro Real.

  • Brian Wise: Biography

    Brian Wise: Biography

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    Brian Wise

    I have more than 15 years of experience as an editor, journalist and digital producer in major-market radio, websites and publications.