South Florida Classical Review

William Eddins will lead the New World Symphony in a Black History Month Festival February 2-12, 2023.

A Black History Month Festival, a season-long survey of music by Mexican composer Gabriela Ortíz and collaborations with local and international ensembles will highlight the New World Symphony’s 2022-2023 season. 

In his new post as artistic director laureate, Michael Tilson Thomas is scheduled to conduct just three programs. On October 2, he leads an all-Rachmaninoff concert at the Arsht Center featuring Yefim Bronfman playing the Piano Concerto No. 3. A joint side-by-side concert in which the New World fellows will collaborate with the Cleveland Orchestra (November 4 and 5 at the Arsht) will comprise two Debussy rarities (the ballet score Jeux and Fantasie for piano and orchestra with George Li) and Mahler’s Symphony No. 1. Tilson Thomas conclude the season May 6 and 7 at the New World Center’s newly christened Michael Tilson Thomas Performance Hall with an evening of dance featuring Miami City Ballet.

February 2-12 brings a Black History Month Festival. Concentrating on the works of black artists who found success in Europe between 1917 and 1946, the orchestral programs will be led by William Eddins, a charter New World fellow. (Eddins was the orchestral academy’s keyboard player during its initial mini-season in the winter and spring of 1988.)  Jeannette Sorrell, director of the Cleveland-based chamber orchestra Apollo’s Fire, directs a Handel-Vivaldi-Boulogne-Mozart concert on November 19 and 20.

Soprano Heidi Melton solos in Brunhilde’s Immolation Scene from Die Götterdämmerung in a concert of highlights from the four operas of Wagner’s Ring cycle (March 18 and 19) under the baton of Venezuelan conductor Domingo Hindoyan. Carlos Miguel Prieto, who made an impressive New World debut in 2019, returns for a sampling of works by Latin composers (including Ortíz) that will feature flamenco dancers (December 9 and 10).

Composer Matthias Pintscher, a frequent NWS guest, will conduct a rare performance of Olivier Messiaen’ monumental symphonic canvass From the Canyons to the Stars with members of Paris’s Ensemble Intercontemporain on April 1. Miami’s acclaimed chamber choir Seraphic Fire joins local choral groups on the Arsht Center stage March 11 for Carl Orff’s blockbuster Carmina Burana. Seraphic Fire artistic director Patrick Quigley conducts and Elliot Madore is the baritone soloist. Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music and Clara Schumann’s Piano Concerto (with Isata Kenneh-Mason) comprise the balance of the evening.

Other guest conductors include David Robertson, Nicholas Collon, Peter Oundjian and Gemma New. Among the soloists are cellist Alisa Weilerstein (Barber), pianist Michelle Cann (Florence Price) and violinist Randall Goosby (Tchaikovsky).

A typically eclectic series of chamber music concerts spotlight guest artists including the International Contemporary Ensemble, Catalyst Quartet, baritone Davone Tines, pianist Orion Weiss and violinist Jennifer Frautschi.

Twelve concerts will be wallcast in Soundscape Park outside the New World Center and there will be continued streaming of live performances and special events. The organization will debut a new 23-by-13 “Mobile Wallcast” and sound system which will beam selected performances to neighborhoods around Miami.

For ticket information, go to nws.edu.

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