Saturday, February 11, 2012

Marlon Daniel Rehearses with Tatarstan State Symphony Orchestra, Sends Photos from Kazan, Russia



On Jan. 4, 2012 AfriClassical posted: “American Maestro performs Russian Premiere of William Grant Still’s Afro-American Symphony.” Today Maestro Marlon Daniel sends photos taken in Kazan, Russia, where he is to conduct the Tatarstan State Symphony Orchestra The Russkiy Mir Foundation has posted news of the arrival of Marlon Daniel, Alison Buchanan and Darnell Ishmel in Kazan, Russia for a rehearsal:

Feb 10, 2012

The US conductor and singers engaged in the Tatarstan State Symphony Orchestra’s new project, an evening of modern American academic music, last night arrived in Kazan, Tatar-Inform reports. The programme includes concert performance of Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, overture to Bernstein’s opera Candide and William Grant’s Afro-American Symphony, to be performed in Russia for the first time.

The TSSO’s artistic director and chief conductor Alexander Sladkovsky invited from the US Grammy, NAACP 2011 and Grammofon awards nominees, the soloist Darnell Ishmel and conductor Marlon Daniel, as well as Alison Buchanan of the UK. The guests were pleased with the first joint rehearsal with the local orchestra.

'Before coming here I watched all videos of the orchestra’s performances on the internet and today I got to know the musicians in action,' conductor Marlon Daniel shared. 'That the artists are so young is amazing, you rarely see it in the West. I mean to say the team is of the highest standard. Working with this orchestra is a great pleasure!' Performing within this project in Kazan is an honour, he added. The guests have had time to notice that 'the city is a big melting pot, where all regions and nationalities are mixed.'

'You cannot stay indifferent to this music. While performing Gershwin, the musicians are always smiling and the audience cannot but patter along,' Alison Buchanan shared. Darnell Ishmel agreed with her, adding that he every time discovered something new in Porgy and Bess. The concert will take place on 13 February. It is held within the programme American Seasons in Russia, under the aegis of the Russia-America bilateral presidential commission, the Tatarstan State Symphony Orchestra’s press service reports.”

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