About Angel Gil-Ordóñez
A frequent guest conductor across Europe, the United States and Latin America, Angel Gil-Ordóñez holds the positions of Music Director/Conductor of PostClassical Ensemble in Washington, D.C., Principal Guest Conductor of New York’s Perspectives Ensemble, and Music Director of the Georgetown University Orchestra. He also serves as advisor for education and programming for Trinitate Philharmonia, a program in León, Mexico, modeled on Venezuela’s El Sistema.
Performances
Music in Wartime: A Pearl Harbor Day Commemoration
For Pearl Harbor Day, we juxtapose three galvanizing musical responses to World War II by Dmitri Shostakovich, Arnold Schoenberg, and Hanns Eisler. With the Cathedral Choir and members of PCE conducted by Michael McCarthy and Angel Gil-Ordóñez. This program includes film clips of Pearl Harbor, the Siege of Leningrad, and FDR’s declaration of war on Japan. The concert begins with a wartime Eisler/Brecht workers’ song sung as a processional.
Richard Wagner’s Parsifal and The Valkyrie
The Georgetown University Orchestra, in collaboration with the Wagner Society of Washington DC (WSWDC), presents a selection of musical excerpts from Parsifal and The Valkyrie. With the participation of bass baritone Kevin Deas and tenor William Green, alumnus of The American Wagner Project (a partnership of WSWDC with Dolora Zajick’s Institute for Young Dramatic Voices).
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News
PostClassical- Copland and the Cold War
Posted on September 18 at 11 am
As usual, Joe and I had a blast talking with the brilliant Bill McGlaughlin. This time the discussion was about the less known music by Aaron Copland. Many thanks David Osenberg for offering us the extraordinary opportunity of these series about our work with PostClassical Ensemble. (Bernard Herrmann next!) http://wwfm.org/post/postclassical-copland-and-cold-war
Listening Guide PART I – Copland the modernist turns populist 6:30 – Copland the wild man: Piano Variations (1930), performed by Benjamin Pasternack on
PostClassical Ensemble | an experimental musical laboratory
Posted on September 10 at 10 am
A really exciting new season with PostClassical Ensemble!! Take a look http://postclassical.com/
Naxos of America
Posted on September 7 at 5 pm
Thanks Naxos!!
WBAA Public Radio From Purdue talks with PostClassical Ensemble's Angel Gil-Ordóñez on their latest Harrison album featuring violinist Tim Fain and pianist Michael Boriskin! Stream the album: https://Naxos.lnk.to/louharrison
New Release: Hearty Harrison From PostClassical
Posted on September 7 at 1 pm
Many thanks John Clare for your interview about our new Harrison CD http://wbaa.org/post/new-release-hearty-harrison-postclassical#stream/0
PostClassical Ensemble celebrates Lou Harrison with a new Naxos recording that is stellar. Harrison was born 100 years ago and it is delightful to have
Events
Music in Wartime: A Pearl Harbor Day Commemoration
On Thursday, December 07, 2017 at 6:30 pm
At National Cathedral In Washington Dc / Washington 20016
For Pearl Harbor Day, we juxtapose three galvanizing musical responses to World War II by Dmitri Shostakovich, Arnold Schoenberg, and Hanns Eisler. With the Cathedral Choir and members of PCE conducted by Michael McCarthy and Angel Gil-Ordóñez. This program includes film clips of Pearl Harbor, the Siege of Leningrad, and FDR’s declaration of war on Japan. The concert begins with a wartime Eisler/Brecht workers’ song sung as a processional.
Program
Hanns Eisler: The Hollywood Songbook (excerpts)
Dmitri Shostakovich: Piano Trio No. 2
Arnold Schoenberg: The Ode to Napoleon
Artists
William Sharp, baritone
Alexander Shtarkman, piano
PostClassical Ensemble conducted by Angel Gil-Ordóñez
The Cathedral Choir conducted by Michael McCarthy
Commentary by James Loeffler
Anne Akiko Meyers plays Mendelssohn
On Friday, July 14, 2017 at 7:30 pm
At Brunswick High School (Maine) / Brunswick 04011
This year the Bowdoin International Music Festival features Anne Akiko Meyers, one of the world’s leading violin soloists. In addition to performances with great orchestras around the globe, her career achievements count 35 albums (including the 2014 Billboard Classical top seller), world premieres of compositions by Corigliano, Higdon, and Rautavaara, among many others, and television features including "The Tonight Show."
Her performances of Mendelssohn’s "Violin Concerto" with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra were met with rave reviews. Also on tonight’s program, Jennifer Higdon’s luminous chamber work, and Mozart’s showpiece for oboe, performed by Festival artist James Austin Smith.
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART
Oboe Quartet in F Major, K. 370
James Austin Smith, oboe • Kurt Sassmannshaus, violin • SoHui Yun, viola • Ahrim Kim, cello
JENNIFER HIGDON
Light Refracted
Bixby Kennedy, clarinet • David Bowlin, violin • Kunjing Dai, viola • Keiko Ying, cello • Peter Basquin, piano
FELIX MENDELSSOHN
Violin Concerto in E Minor, Op. 64
Anne Akiko Meyers, violin • Angel Gil-Ordóñez, conductor • Festival Orchestra
Cultural Leadership Breakfast at the George Town Club
On Thursday, June 22, 2017 at 8:00 am
At The George Town Club / Washington 20007
Angel Gil-Ordóñez, music director of PostClassical Ensemble, which he cofounded with Joseph Horowitz in 2003, will be the next presenter in Georgetown Media Group’s Cultural Leadership Breakfast Series.
An “experimental orchestral laboratory,” PostClassical Ensemble’s mission is “to create a radical alternative symphonic model for the 21st Century, fostering multi-genre approaches that resonate far beyond the concert hall.” Most recently, the ensemble presented “Music Under Stalin” at the DCJCC, Sidney Harman Hall and the National Gallery of Art and “A Lou Harrison Centenary Celebration” at the Embassy of Indonesia.
Former associate conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra of Spain, the Madrid-born Gil-Ordóñez studied in Germany with legendary conductor Sergiu Celibidache, as well as with composer-conductor Pierre Boulez and composer Iannis Xenakis. In addition to his position with PostClassical Ensemble, Gil-Ordóñez is music director of the Georgetown University Orchestra and principal guest conductor of New York’s Perspectives Ensemble.
Tickets to the breakfast are $25 ($20 for George Town Club members). To RSVP, email richard@georgetowner.com or call 202-338-4833.
Film screening: Redes
On Thursday, May 04, 2017 at 7:00 pm
At Americas Society / New York 10065
A singular coming together of talents, Redes, commissioned by a progressive Mexican government, was co-written and shot by photographer Paul Strand, with a score by Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas. PostClassical Ensemble, led by Angel Gil-Ordóñez, recently recorded the soundtrack for the release of the restored version of the film for Naxos.
Perspectives Ensemble (Sato Moughalian, Artistic Director), conducted by Gil-Ordóñez, will begin the evening with performances of Revueltas' Ocho por Radio (1933) and "Duelo" from Homenaje a Federico García Lorca (1936) for chamber orchestra.
A panel discussion, featuring PostClassical Ensemble Executive Director Joseph Horowitz, conductor Gil Ordóñez, and moderator Carlos Gutierrez (Cinema Tropical), will be held prior to the screening of the film. This event marks the New York premiere of the restored version of the film.
Perspectives Ensemble
Cornelius Duffalo, Nurit Pacht violins
Wendy Sutter cello
Stephen Sas contrabass
Sato Moughalian piccolo, Artistic Director
Meighan Stoops clarinet
Monica Ellis bassoon
Thomas Hoyt, Joshua Frank trumpets
Thomas Hutchinson trombone
Morris Kainuma tuba
Christopher Oldfather piano
Jeffrey Irving percussion
Angel Gil-Ordóñez conductor
Registration required.
Follow the link for further information http://www.as-coa.org/events/film-screening-redes
Lou Harrison Centenary Celebration
On Monday, April 24, 2017 at 8:00 pm
At Indonesian Embassy - Washington, DC / Washington 20036
Lou Harrison (1917-2003) was a supreme practitioner of world music before there was a name for it. His masterly synthesis of Indonesian and Western traditions produced music that is fragrant, hypnotic, and original.
On April 24, PostClassical Ensemble celebrates the Harrison Centenary at the picturesque Indonesian Embassy with a program sublimely combining a Javanese gamelan with Western instruments.
More information: https://www.gilordonez.com/performances/
My thoughts Blog
Reflections on Silvestre Revueltas
Working on Spanish repertoire –the music with which I started my career as a conductor– has helped me to understand the music of all cultures. Consider the internationally popular Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar. The fact that Almodóvar is so unusual, so local (not just to Spain, but to Madrid), so true to his own vicinity in rendering feeling and experience – this is what makes him so universal. The more I studied the composers of Spain, the more I was able to appreciate the German or French repertoire – or, in the case of tonight’s concert, the music of Mexico.
Victoria, Falla and the Spanish tradition
Tomas Luis de Victoria is a product of the Siglo de Oro (“The Golden Century”) when Spain was the dominant European nation, Philip II was the powerful Spanish king – and Victoria was Europe’s greatest composer. He was born in Avila in 1548. He went to Rome as a young man and was befriended by Palestrina – the leading Italian church composer of the time. He succeeded Palestrina at the Roman Seminary in 1571 and was ordained a priest four years later. But he yearned to return to Spain, which he did some time in the 1590s as chaplain to the widowed sister of Philip II, living in a convent. He died in 1611, having in effect retired from the world.
What they say about Angel Reviews
Invigorating… Gil-Ordóñez led a vital rendition.
Alex Ross The New Yorker
Angel Gil-Ordóñez' insight into Shostakovich's music is astounding.
Solomon Volkov author of Testimony