Bass-baritone Alan Held will be performing the role of St. Francis on Friday and Saturday, June 26 and 27 as the Franciscans celebrate the milestone of the 800th anniversary of the founding of their order at a concert titled, “A Celebration of Hope and Peace.”

Fast Company is one of my favorite magazines.  This month’s cover article is about their list of the 100 most creative people in business.  As you can imagine, the list is full of people from Apple, Facebook, Pixar, and other well-known tech companies. 
It got me thinking about who a list of the most creative people in classical music might include.  I really admire Debra Borda of the LA Philharmonic for hiring Gustavo Dudamel and blogged about it in February of 2008, and I’ve always been a fan of Daniel Bernard Roumain.  Recently, Michael Tilson Thomas’ work with the YouTube Symphony has gotten a lot of buzz. 

First, let me apologize for how long it has been since I last blogged.  In fact, all of my blogging calluses have gone away and I am sore just from writing these two sentences.  But enough about me.  Our friends at Gramophone have published yet another list.  This one lists the ten most inspiring orchestras in the world.  They are the New York Philharmonic, YouTube Symphony Orchestra, Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, China Philharmonic Orchestra, Buskaid (Soweto, Africa) Ensemble, East West Divan Orchestra, Orchestre National d’Ile de France, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, and London Symphony Orchestra.

This blog entry is from guest writer Bill Flowers, board member and immediate past board president of Chicago a cappella.  He is writing of the recent "Abundance" concert by Chicago a cappella, which will be repeated February 20th in downtown Chicago and Feb. 21st in Evanston.  Bill is an avid fan of both Chicago a cappella and the Count Basie Band -- this is an account of a sort of battle of the bands in his life last weekend!
 
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Bill writes:
 

Philadelphia based pianist, Adam Neiman, will be performing at the Music in the Loft on Saturday, January 17^th at 8:00 pm and Sunday, January 18^th at 3:00 pm.  He will be joined by fellow Julliard graduate violinist Gary Levinson on January 18^th to perform works by Brahms, Fauré, Prokofiev and Matthew Tommasini.

Having made his concerto debut at the age of 11 in Los Angeles’ Royce Hall, Neiman has gone on to perform as soloist with the symphony orchestras of Belgrade, Chicago, Cincinnati, Dallas and San Francisco.  In 1995, Neiman became the youngest ever winner of the Gilmore Young Artist Award.