#jim meenaghan

[mastcomm]

Carnegie Hall’s New Season: Here’s What We Want to Hear

The classical music world has been changing, and some of those shifts will be felt at Carnegie Hall.

Carnegie announced Tuesday that next season would feature the Berlin Philharmonic’s first concerts at the hall under its new chief conductor, Kirill Petrenko; the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra’s first with its music director, Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla; and the Carnegie debut of Teodor Currentzis and the orchestra he founded, MusicAeterna.

“With the orchestras, there are a huge number of firsts,” Clive Gillinson, the hall’s executive and artistic director, said in an interview.

Rhiannon Giddens, the singer, songwriter, banjo player and musical polymath, will be featured in a Perspectives series in which she will trace the connections between popular and classical songs, team up with other banjo players to explore the experience of African-American women and delve into the complicated history of minstrelsy.

Jordi Savall, the early-music specialist and viola da gamba virtuoso, and Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Metropolitan Opera, will also be featured in series. A festival called “Voices of Hope: Artists in Times of Oppression” will explore musical responses to injustice, and Andrew Norman will hold the Richard and Barbara Debs Composer’s Chair.

Among dozens of offerings, what to hear? This is the best of the best: the performances we at The New York Times are most looking forward to.

Los Angeles Philharmonic, Oct. 7-9

There are three opportunities to hear Gustavo Dudamel conduct the West Coast’s leading ensemble at Carnegie this fall, in the orchestra’s first hall appearance in 30 years. The season-opening gala on Oct. 7 features a brief John Adams fanfare, Grieg (Lang Lang playing the Piano Concerto) and more Grieg (selections from “Peer Gynt”); Oct. 9 brings Mahler’s Sixth Symphony. But in between is the most promising program, with two New York premieres: a curtain-raiser by the young composer Gabriella Smith and Andrew Norman’s Violin Concerto (with the always-fascinating Leila Josefowicz), with the gentle chaser of Ginastera’s “Estancia.” JOSHUA BARONE

City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Oct. 23-24

Conducting sensation Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla and her orchestra, which is celebrating its centenary this year, give two concerts that perfectly showcase their tastes and flair for programming. One adeptly balances the familiar with the new and unusual, with Ravel’s “La Valse” and Debussy’s “La Mer” framing Mieczyslaw Weinberg’s Violin Concerto and Thomas Adès’s “Angel Symphony,” which they will premiere this spring. The other focuses on British music, with Tippett’s oratorio “A Child of Our Time” following Sheku Kanneh-Mason as the soloist in Elgar’s Cello Concerto. DAVID ALLEN

MusicAeterna, Nov. 4

One of the great stories in classical music over the past decade has been how the Greek-born, Russian-trained conductor Teodor Currentzis formed his own idiosyncratic orchestra in Siberia, garnering a Sony recording contract and triumphing around the world. Their American debut last year at the Shed was one of the major events of the cultural year, and now Currentzis and the orchestra will bring their blistering intensity to Carnegie, with Tchaikovsky’s “Pathétique” Symphony and the Adagio from Mahler’s Symphony No. 10. MICHAEL COOPER

American Composers Orchestra, Nov. 5

As part of Andrew Norman’s composing residency, this ensemble presents the New York premiere of “Begin,” a chamber-orchestra piece first heard in Los Angeles last year. The rest of the program is just as tantalizing, with world premieres by Ellen Reid, Jane Meenaghan and George Lewis. SETH COLTER WALLS

Jordi Savall, Nov. 5 and 9

Four days after Mr. Savall leads his period-instrument orchestra Le Concert des Nations and vocal ensemble La Capella Reial de Catalunya in Monteverdi’s glorious Vespers in Carnegie’s main auditorium, he’ll bring those groups downstairs, to the more intimate Zankel Hall, for Monteverdi’s complete “Madrigals of War and Love,” a rare chance to hear a collection of genre-blurring pieces that altered music history. ANTHONY TOMMASINI

Lise Davidsen, Nov. 12

In the wake of feverish hype in the opera world, the Norwegian soprano Lise Davidsen made her Metropolitan Opera debut this fall in Tchaikovsky’s “The Queen of Spades” and, if anything, surpassed the high expectations. Her silvery voice had both thrilling power and nuanced expressivity. It will be fascinating to hear her in a recital setting; with the pianist James Baillieu, she sings works by Grieg, Mahler, Berg (“Seven Early Songs”) and Wagner (“Wesendonck Lieder”). ANTHONY TOMMASINI

Berlin Philharmonic, Nov. 18-20

When I went to Berlin last year for Kirill Petrenko’s debut concerts as the Philharmonic’s chief conductor, I was struck by the excitement he generated among its players. Now New Yorkers will be able to judge for themselves. This program, featuring the great dramatic soprano Nina Stemme singing Brünnhilde’s Immolation Scene from Wagner’s “Götterdämmerung,” gives him a chance to show off his operatic chops, which he honed during a memorable run at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. (In a rarity for Carnegie, this program is played twice, on Nov. 18 and 20; on the 19th, the Philharmonic performs Webern, Mendelssohn and Brahms.) MICHAEL COOPER

Ksenija Sidorova, Feb. 3

The Carnegie lineup is full of superb voices, violinists, pianists — the meat and potatoes of classical music. So less conventional instruments pop out, like the accordion played by this Latvian virtuoso. “Revelatory,” according to my colleague James R. Oestreich, Ms. Sidorova will perform arrangements of Bach, Mozart and Tchaikovsky alongside works tailor-made for accordion by Sofia Gubaidulina, Alfred Schnittke and others. ZACHARY WOOLFE

Louisville Orchestra, Feb. 20

Go ahead and call the Louisville Orchestra a “regional” (as opposed to “major”) ensemble. That’s a meaningless distinction for the many people excited by the adventurous programs the dynamic young conductor Teddy Abrams and his excellent players have been giving. For example, the concert they will present at Carnegie will offer Andrew Norman’s “Sacred Geometry,” Copland’s “Appalachian Spring” (with dancers from Louisville Ballet) and Jim James’s song cycle “The Order of Life,” performed with its composer, a Louisville native and the leader of the rock band My Morning Jacket. ANTHONY TOMMASINI

Boston Symphony Orchestra, April 14

For all my worries about the direction that the Boston Symphony has taken under its music director, Andris Nelsons, there have been two pluses during his tenure so far: his Shostakovich survey (steadily being released on record to considerable acclaim) and his opera. A Shostakovich opera, then, ought to come off well, especially this composer’s best, “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk.” The soprano Kristine Opolais is scheduled as Katerina, with Brandon Jovanovich as Sergey. DAVID ALLEN

Mark Padmore and Mitsuko Uchida, April 16

The tenor Mark Padmore once told me he was reminded of all the words for “rehearsal” when working with the pianist Mitsuko Uchida: “In French, ‘répétition,’ which speaks for itself; in German, ‘probe’ — proving or trying. In English, it has nothing to do with hearing. Its etymology is to till the earth in preparation for seed. Working with Mitsuko, all three of those things, those attitudes to rehearsing, are absolutely present.” Now imagine how they’ll sound in “Dichterliebe” and other Schumann works. JOSHUA BARONE

Alexandre Tharaud, April 18

This is, as always, a good season for piano recitals at Carnegie, with Vikingur Olafsson, Daniil Trifonov, Igor Levit and Jean-Yves Thibaudet all making solo appearances worthy of anticipation. But Mr. Tharaud’s program is particularly intriguing. It bridges the gap between the French Baroque — Couperin, Rameau and the more obscure composers Jean-Henri d’Anglebert and Joseph-Nicolas-Pancrace Royer — and the French early 20th century, with works by Ravel and Reynaldo Hahn that will benefit from this artist’s sensual grace. ZACHARY WOOLFE

Met Orchestra, June 10

It’s been many years since the great mezzo-soprano Waltraud Meier last sang at Carnegie, which makes her return with this superb ensemble — freed from its Lincoln Center pit after the opera season ends — a true event. Wagner’s lush “Wesendonck Lieder” is on the agenda, conducted by Semyon Bychkov, who fills out the evening leading Shostakovich’s “Leningrad” Symphony. ZACHARY WOOLFE

from WordPress https://mastcomm.com/carnegie-halls-new-season-heres-what-we-want-to-hear/

[nypaenergy]

The Benefits of Upgrading our SCADA Systems

The goal of becoming an end‑to‑end digital utility is to optimize the operation and efficiency of the New York Power Authority’s (NYPA) 67,000 assets. To achieve this, it is becoming increasingly important to upgrade the systems that control these assets. Recently, NYPA began upgrades of the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems at the Niagara Power Project, following similar upgrades to the SCADA systems at the St. Lawrence and Blenheim‑Gilboa facilities in 2014 and 2016, respectively.    

SCADA systems are comprised of hardware and software that control and monitor NYPA’s generation assets, providing greater visibility to local operators. “SCADA systems are a core part of running our systems every day,” said Gerald Mannarino, director of operations control systems engineering. “When you do it right, there is no news or disruption – but it takes a lot of hard work, planning, and coordination to implement these upgrades.”  

The foundational benefits of the SCADA upgrades include enhancing redundancy and cybersecurity, meeting regulatory compliance and adding situational awareness features for operators. Also, by replacing aging hardware and software, NYPA is ensuring that the systems will continue to be supported by the system manufacturers into the future.

For the latest upgrades at the Niagara Power Project, NYPA selected Siemens’ Spectrum Power TG system – the same system that was selected for St. Lawrence and Blenheim‑Gilboa previously. “One of the added benefits of the SCADA system upgrades is that all three sites are now using the same technology,” said Tom Sayers, senior real time systems engineer. “The common interface makes it easier to integrate data into the process integration (PI) platform. This way we’re cost‑effective and don’t need three separate solutions across the different sites.”

In addition to the global benefits, the SCADA upgrades also provide benefits at the site level. For instance, the upgrades at St. Lawrence allow operators to monitor and send control signals to the wind farms in New York’s northern region. At Blenheim‑Gilboa, the SCADA upgrades enable operators to monitor and send control signals to the Marcy South Series Compensation (MSSC) system, which helps to relieve transmission congestion from central New York to the Catskills without having to build new power lines.

Each SCADA upgrade costs around $1 million and takes a significant amount of coordination. When implementing upgrades, the team has to test one unit at a time, and tests are scheduled to coincide with planned shutdowns to avoid additional outages and to allow the facilities to continue to meet power generation requirements of the market. Our thanks to the teams working on the upgrade projects:      

Niagara Power Project SCADA Upgrade Team. Operations Technology Staff: Joe Meenaghan, site technology manager; Joe Bobak, Niagara upgrade project lead engineer; Mark Nachreiner; Jim Johnson; Will Licata; Mike Tipton and Jim Huss. Operations Control Systems Engineering Team: John Kontolefa; Cliff Slusher; Desmond Wang; Jeff Sze and Tom Sayers.

St. Lawrence Power Project SCADA Upgrade Team. Operations Technology Staff: Gary Collette, site technology manager; Larry Fraser; Andrew Shaffer and Jim Huss. Operations Control Systems Engineering Team: John Kontolefa; Tom Sayers and Adam Shapiro.

Blenheim‑Gilboa Power Project SCADA Upgrade Team. Operations Technology Staff: Jairo Florez, site technology manager; Jerry Chetram; Umair Khan and Jim Huss. Operations Control Systems Engineering Team: John Kontolefa; Clifford Slusher; Jorge Montenegro and Tom Sayers.

[inspirecommunity]

Patient advocate Jim Meenaghan, a survivor of Valley fever, addresses the #AHCJ18 conference. #AHCJvalleyfever (at Pointe Hilton Tapatio Cliffs)

[mastcomm]

Carnegie Hall’s New Season: Here’s What We Want to Hear

The classical music world has been changing, and some of those shifts will be felt at Carnegie Hall.

Carnegie announced Tuesday that next season would feature the Berlin Philharmonic’s first concerts at the hall under its new chief conductor, Kirill Petrenko; the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra’s first with its music director, Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla; and the Carnegie debut of Teodor Currentzis and the orchestra he founded, MusicAeterna.

“With the orchestras, there are a huge number of firsts,” Clive Gillinson, the hall’s executive and artistic director, said in an interview.

Rhiannon Giddens, the singer, songwriter, banjo player and musical polymath, will be featured in a Perspectives series in which she will trace the connections between popular and classical songs, team up with other banjo players to explore the experience of African-American women and delve into the complicated history of minstrelsy.

Jordi Savall, the early-music specialist and viola da gamba virtuoso, and Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Metropolitan Opera, will also be featured in series. A festival called “Voices of Hope: Artists in Times of Oppression” will explore musical responses to injustice, and Andrew Norman will hold the Richard and Barbara Debs Composer’s Chair.

Among dozens of offerings, what to hear? This is the best of the best: the performances we at The New York Times are most looking forward to.

Los Angeles Philharmonic, Oct. 7-9

There are three opportunities to hear Gustavo Dudamel conduct the West Coast’s leading ensemble at Carnegie this fall, in the orchestra’s first hall appearance in 30 years. The season-opening gala on Oct. 7 features a brief John Adams fanfare, Grieg (Lang Lang playing the Piano Concerto) and more Grieg (selections from “Peer Gynt”); Oct. 9 brings Mahler’s Sixth Symphony. But in between is the most promising program, with two New York premieres: a curtain-raiser by the young composer Gabriella Smith and Andrew Norman’s Violin Concerto (with the always-fascinating Leila Josefowicz), with the gentle chaser of Ginastera’s “Estancia.” JOSHUA BARONE

City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Oct. 23-24

Conducting sensation Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla and her orchestra, which is celebrating its centenary this year, give two concerts that perfectly showcase their tastes and flair for programming. One adeptly balances the familiar with the new and unusual, with Ravel’s “La Valse” and Debussy’s “La Mer” framing Mieczyslaw Weinberg’s Violin Concerto and Thomas Adès’s “Angel Symphony,” which they will premiere this spring. The other focuses on British music, with Tippett’s oratorio “A Child of Our Time” following Sheku Kanneh-Mason as the soloist in Elgar’s Cello Concerto. DAVID ALLEN

MusicAeterna, Nov. 4

One of the great stories in classical music over the past decade has been how the Greek-born, Russian-trained conductor Teodor Currentzis formed his own idiosyncratic orchestra in Siberia, garnering a Sony recording contract and triumphing around the world. Their American debut last year at the Shed was one of the major events of the cultural year, and now Currentzis and the orchestra will bring their blistering intensity to Carnegie, with Tchaikovsky’s “Pathétique” Symphony and the Adagio from Mahler’s Symphony No. 10. MICHAEL COOPER

American Composers Orchestra, Nov. 5

As part of Andrew Norman’s composing residency, this ensemble presents the New York premiere of “Begin,” a chamber-orchestra piece first heard in Los Angeles last year. The rest of the program is just as tantalizing, with world premieres by Ellen Reid, Jane Meenaghan and George Lewis. SETH COLTER WALLS

Jordi Savall, Nov. 5 and 9

Four days after Mr. Savall leads his period-instrument orchestra Le Concert des Nations and vocal ensemble La Capella Reial de Catalunya in Monteverdi’s glorious Vespers in Carnegie’s main auditorium, he’ll bring those groups downstairs, to the more intimate Zankel Hall, for Monteverdi’s complete “Madrigals of War and Love,” a rare chance to hear a collection of genre-blurring pieces that altered music history. ANTHONY TOMMASINI

Lise Davidsen, Nov. 12

In the wake of feverish hype in the opera world, the Norwegian soprano Lise Davidsen made her Metropolitan Opera debut this fall in Tchaikovsky’s “The Queen of Spades” and, if anything, surpassed the high expectations. Her silvery voice had both thrilling power and nuanced expressivity. It will be fascinating to hear her in a recital setting; with the pianist James Baillieu, she sings works by Grieg, Mahler, Berg (“Seven Early Songs”) and Wagner (“Wesendonck Lieder”). ANTHONY TOMMASINI

Berlin Philharmonic, Nov. 18-20

When I went to Berlin last year for Kirill Petrenko’s debut concerts as the Philharmonic’s chief conductor, I was struck by the excitement he generated among its players. Now New Yorkers will be able to judge for themselves. This program, featuring the great dramatic soprano Nina Stemme singing Brünnhilde’s Immolation Scene from Wagner’s “Götterdämmerung,” gives him a chance to show off his operatic chops, which he honed during a memorable run at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. (In a rarity for Carnegie, this program is played twice, on Nov. 18 and 20; on the 19th, the Philharmonic performs Webern, Mendelssohn and Brahms.) MICHAEL COOPER

Ksenija Sidorova, Feb. 3

The Carnegie lineup is full of superb voices, violinists, pianists — the meat and potatoes of classical music. So less conventional instruments pop out, like the accordion played by this Latvian virtuoso. “Revelatory,” according to my colleague James R. Oestreich, Ms. Sidorova will perform arrangements of Bach, Mozart and Tchaikovsky alongside works tailor-made for accordion by Sofia Gubaidulina, Alfred Schnittke and others. ZACHARY WOOLFE

Louisville Orchestra, Feb. 20

Go ahead and call the Louisville Orchestra a “regional” (as opposed to “major”) ensemble. That’s a meaningless distinction for the many people excited by the adventurous programs the dynamic young conductor Teddy Abrams and his excellent players have been giving. For example, the concert they will present at Carnegie will offer Andrew Norman’s “Sacred Geometry,” Copland’s “Appalachian Spring” (with dancers from Louisville Ballet) and Jim James’s song cycle “The Order of Life,” performed with its composer, a Louisville native and the leader of the rock band My Morning Jacket. ANTHONY TOMMASINI

Boston Symphony Orchestra, April 14

For all my worries about the direction that the Boston Symphony has taken under its music director, Andris Nelsons, there have been two pluses during his tenure so far: his Shostakovich survey (steadily being released on record to considerable acclaim) and his opera. A Shostakovich opera, then, ought to come off well, especially this composer’s best, “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk.” The soprano Kristine Opolais is scheduled as Katerina, with Brandon Jovanovich as Sergey. DAVID ALLEN

Mark Padmore and Mitsuko Uchida, April 16

The tenor Mark Padmore once told me he was reminded of all the words for “rehearsal” when working with the pianist Mitsuko Uchida: “In French, ‘répétition,’ which speaks for itself; in German, ‘probe’ — proving or trying. In English, it has nothing to do with hearing. Its etymology is to till the earth in preparation for seed. Working with Mitsuko, all three of those things, those attitudes to rehearsing, are absolutely present.” Now imagine how they’ll sound in “Dichterliebe” and other Schumann works. JOSHUA BARONE

Alexandre Tharaud, April 18

This is, as always, a good season for piano recitals at Carnegie, with Vikingur Olafsson, Daniil Trifonov, Igor Levit and Jean-Yves Thibaudet all making solo appearances worthy of anticipation. But Mr. Tharaud’s program is particularly intriguing. It bridges the gap between the French Baroque — Couperin, Rameau and the more obscure composers Jean-Henri d’Anglebert and Joseph-Nicolas-Pancrace Royer — and the French early 20th century, with works by Ravel and Reynaldo Hahn that will benefit from this artist’s sensual grace. ZACHARY WOOLFE

Met Orchestra, June 10

It’s been many years since the great mezzo-soprano Waltraud Meier last sang at Carnegie, which makes her return with this superb ensemble — freed from its Lincoln Center pit after the opera season ends — a true event. Wagner’s lush “Wesendonck Lieder” is on the agenda, conducted by Semyon Bychkov, who fills out the evening leading Shostakovich’s “Leningrad” Symphony. ZACHARY WOOLFE

from WordPress https://mastcomm.com/carnegie-halls-new-season-heres-what-we-want-to-hear/