The Arkiv Blog — Interview

  • Anthony Roth Costanzo on The Lord of Cries

    · By Nicholas Stevens

    In John Corigliano's opera The Lord of Cries, Dracula receives a striking backstory: he is the Greek god Dionysus, returned to earth for a bloody Bacchanal in repressed Victorian London. What does it feel like to sing this role—no straightforward villain, but much more than that? We asked superstar singer Anthony Roth Costanzo!

  • "Let Music Swell the Breeze:" A Roundtable

    · By ArkivMusic Contributor

    Oklahoma City Philharmonic music director Alexander Mickelthwate knew he was commissioning a work from a composer of gravitas and grace when he asked Jonathan Leshnoff to memorialize the victims of an American tragedy. But thanks in part to violin soloist Noah Bendix-Balgley, listeners get to hear another side of Leshnoff on a Naxos album gathering works both elegiac and celebratory.
  • All Set(s): Sinclair & Swafford on Charles Ives

    · By Nicholas Stevens

    Lesser-known than The Unanswered Question or the Concord Sonata, Charles Ives's Sets for Small Orchestra had never been gathered on one recording until conductor James Sinclair released his latest album in 2023. In this Arkiv Live Q+A, watch as Sinclair and fellow Ivesian Jan Swafford discuss this exciting title!
  • Friends in Low Countries: Erik Bosgraaf at Boston Early Music Festival

    · By Nicholas Stevens

    In June 2023, Erik Bosgraaf and Francesco Corti play live at the Boston Early Music Festival. Learn more about their program, and their Brilliant Classics album Unico Wilhelm van Wassenaer & the Recorder in the Low Countries, with our exclusive interview!
  • Listening to Remember: Kelly Hall-Tompkins, Nourishing Souls

    · By Nicholas Stevens

    In March 2023, Arkiv hosted a Live Q&A session with violin soloist and chamber musician Kelly Hall-Tompkins. Watch our conversation on Forgotten Voices, a collectively authored song cycle and now, an album. Its inspiration: Hall-Tompkins's nonprofit Music Kitchen: Food for the Soul, which brings live classical music to shelters for the unhoused.
  • Recitations & Recitalists: Stephanie Lamprea Sings Aperghis

    · By Nicholas Stevens

    Multi-hyphenate soprano Stephanie Lamprea has recorded dozens of works for solo voice, mostly from the 20th-21st centuries; now, from New Focus Recordings, comes her first physical CD. Read about her effort to scale an Everest of the modern vocal repertoire: the 14 Recitations of composer Georges Aperghis.