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Press Releases
2018 Round Top Music Festival
90 young talented artists chosen from more than 500 applicants from all over the world will convene at tiny Round Top, Texas on Sunday June 3 till Sunday July 15, 2018. The 6-week intensely concentrated course supervised by its founder and artistic director, James Dick, includes orchestra rehearsals and performances, chamber music coaching and performances, master classes, private lessons. Forty faculty members and six conductors will mentor the participants. Alums of the previous 47 years are to be found at any corner of the planet playing in great symphony orchestras and teaching in leading universities and conservatories. Twelve of them are now teaching at Round Top!
Everyday visitors and music lovers can join and attend rehearsals, master classes and/or performances at the beautifully crafted and acoustically peerless Festival Concert Hall or at the more intimate Edythe Bates Old chapel. The 240-acre campus offers shaded picnic areas, herb gardens and ... free parking.
In 2018, the Round Top Music Festival celebrates the 80th birth year of the leading female American composer Joan Tower on Saturday June 23 (chamber music and orchestral works) and commemorates the 100th anniversary of Claude Debussy’s death (orchestral works on Saturday July 7, chamber music on Saturday July 14) and Leonard Bernstein’s birth (Sunday July 1.)
Joan Tower has accepted our invitation and will be present.
The Texas Festival Orchestra, body of the Young Artists will present 8 programs. Six of them on Saturdays at 7:30 pm, one free specifically designed for toddlers and teenagers on Tuesday June 12 at 11:00 am and the “Patriotic Concert” on Sunday July 1 at 3:00 pm. The orchestra rehearses every weekday from 3:30 pm to 6:00 pm in the Festival Concert Hall. Rehearsals are open and free to the public.
The 2018 roster of conductors includes Israeli born Yaniv Dinur, assistant conductor of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Serbian Vladimir Kulenovic, Music Director of the Lake Forest Symphony Orchestra, Dallas born Michelle Merrill, assistant conductor of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Maltese born Charles Olivieri-Munroe, Chief Conductor with Philharmonie Sudwestfalen in Germany and Principal Conductor of the Krakow Philharmonic Orchestra, Texas born Carl St. Clair, Music Director of the Pacific Symphony Orchestra and Ransom Wilson, Music Director of the Redlands Symphony Orchestra.
Highlights of the repertoire include Richard Strauss’ Don Juan and Till Eulenspiegel, P.I. Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony, Bela Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra, Anton Bruckner’s Fourth Symphony, Claude Debussy’s Images and Sergei Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony.
Distinguished soloists will perform with the Texas Festival Orchestra: pianist James Dick (Edvard Grieg and Mozart), violinists Regis Pasquier (Sergei Prokofiev), Stefan Milenkovich (Aram Khatchaturian) and Joan Kwuon (Ernest Chausson), flutist Carol Wincenc (Joan Tower) and violist Brett Deubner (Joan Tower.)
Chamber music is well represented also in various combinations of instruments, which are showcases for faculty members. Young artists have opportunities to join them on stage. Among others, let us mention Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari’s Kammersymphonie for 11 performers (June 16), Joan Tower’s “Black Topaz” for piano and 6 instruments (June 23), Lou Harrison’s Concerto for Violin and Percussion with violinist Tomas Cotik (June 30), John Musto’s Divertimento for flute, clarinet, viola, cello, percussion and piano (July 7) and the rarely performed concerto for violin, piano and Strings by a 14 years old Felix Mendelssohn with violinist Christiano Rodrigues and pianist Bernadene Blaha (July 7.)
Celebrated flutist Carol Wincenc has been given “Carte Blanche” on Saturday June 30 and will share the stage with her colleagues and young artists in a program designed by her (Mozart, Villa-Lobos, Hanson and Poulenc.)
Complete schedule is available at http://festivalhill.org/calendar/festival.php
All concerts are audio recorded and presented to “Performance Today Show”, America's most popular classical music radio program; the show is broadcast on 292 public radio stations across the country and reaches approximately 1.4 million listeners each week. In 2017, our concerts have been on the program 18 times!
A total of 41 events within 6 weeks.
Concerts are also video recorded and can be found on YouTube. More than one million views so far! https://www.youtube.com/user/alaind
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