Washington Post calls P-CE's Russian Gershwin 'Terrifically Exciting'

"Context and fresh perspectives and generally pulling the rug out from under listeners... elegant improvisation... ultra-sophisticated and altogether gorgeous account... razor-sharp playing from the ensemble, led by Music Director Angel Gil-Ordóñez -- resulted in a terrifically exciting account...

(Read more)

Washington Post Raves over P-CE's Falla and Flamenco

In her "Classical Beat" section of the Washington Post, Anne Midgette calls "Falla and Flamenco" "wildly ambitious" and the Post-Classical Ensemble's performance "a worthy reading" of "sinuous music."

(Click here to read the full review.)

Washington Post: P-CE "Ravishing"

"...Conductor Angel Gil-Ordóñez drew lovely, chamberlike sonorities from the Ensemble orchestra... ravishing wind playing..."

Washington Post Notes P-CE's Liszt symposium and concert

Washington Post announces "Encounters: David Taylor" Performance

Washington Post Lauds 'The City' DVD

Washington Post critic Anne Midgette says:

The Post-Classical Ensemble has given this Copland score its first modern recording (conducted by Angel Gil-Ordóñez) and issued it on a bountiful DVD that includes a version of the film with the original soundtrack, a discussion between Joseph Horowitz and the filmmaker George Stoney, and a documentary about Greenbelt... The crisp new recording sounds great... a worthwhile recording that deserves watching more than once...

Washington Post: P-CE's real, solid picture of John Adams

The Washington Post's Anne Midgette writes:

"Encounters: A John Adams Snapshot," a concert presented by the Post-Classical Ensemble at the Harman Center's Lansburgh Theatre on Wednesday night, wasn't really a snapshot at all. For one thing, it offered two images of the composer, taken at different times: the piano solo "Phrygian Gates," from 1977, and "Gnarly Buttons," for clarinet and chamber ensemble, written 19 years later.

Both of these are seminal Adams works. Their juxtaposition offered a thoughtful, intense look at the composer. Brief, yes. It even left you wanting more. But despite the agreeable informality of its presentation, it still had features of a more carefully thought-out image.

Informality is a good thing for Adams...

(more)

Washington Post: Post-Classical Ensemble's 'Beautiful Display' at Kennedy Center

Washington Post: Mexican Odyssey review

The Washington Post wrote about the Post-Classical Ensemble:

...The real attractions of the program [were] more contemporary works for chamber ensemble. Mario Lavista's "Three Secular Dances" explored otherworldly sounds of the cello, performed ably by Evelyn Elsing with the sotto voce but frenetic shadowing of pianist Naoko Takao. Ana Lara's "Serenata" was a noise collision for 10 instruments.

Click on The Washington Post logo to read the full article (Saturday, November 8, 2008):

Post-Classical's Scary Children's Concert: Carnival of Creatures

The Washington Post reports that the Post-Classical Ensemble will help the Strathmore with a performance called "Carnival of Creatures: A Scary Family Concert."

Read more by clicking on the logo:

Washington Post: "Such Ardor"

The Washington Post reviewed "Free to Sing: The Story of the First African-American Opera Company."

The Post had this to say about the Post-Classical Ensemble:

It was also utterly charming, so lovingly cast and accompanied with such ardor by Angel Gil-Ordonez and the Post-Classical Ensemble that it would have taken a curmudgeon to resist its appeal.

Click on The Washington Post logo to read the full article (Monday, February 18, 2008; Page C01):

Washington Post: Best Bets - Free to Sing

The Washington Post has listed "Free to Sing" on its Best Bets list -- see article.

Washington Post: Save the Date - Free to Sing

The Washington Post has listed "Free to Sing" on its "Save the Date" list -- read the article.

Washington Post: P-CE "liberated Copland's score"

The Washington Post sings praise for the Post-Classical Ensemble's live musical performance of Aaron Copland's score during the screening of The City (Sunday, October 14, 2007, at UMD's Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center):

The live performance liberated Copland's score from the film's low-fidelity recording and made the music an equal partner with the film's images and words, presenting dated propaganda but with considerable dramatic power. The Post-Classical Ensemble synced precisely with the film (a challenge Gil-Ordonez likened to "conducting an opera where the singers are robots") and vividly rendered Copland's striking music.

Click on The Washington Post logo to read the full article (Tuesday, October 16, 2007; Page C03):

Washington Post: No Coats, Ties or Stuffed Shirts

Watch out, Washington, warns The Washington Post -- as it piles on pre-performance praise for the Post-Classical Ensemble's live musical performance of Aaron Copeland's score during the screening of The City (Sunday, October 14, 2007, at UMD's Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center):

"We insist on moving outside the parameters of classical music." The result: unpredictable, idea-rich concerts designed to challenge the audience. Post-Classical is still well off the beaten path, but audiences are starting to grow -- and they're as diverse, says [Joseph] Horowitz, as the music itself...

[Angel] Gil-Ordonez... [i]s a kinetic performer onstage, using his entire body to guide the ensemble. His conversation is just as animated... He says, classical music needs to recover the freewheeling atmosphere it had before it became, well, classical. "When you went to a concert 200 years ago, it was the event of the week. You were there to meet your friends, to talk -- even during performances! At the premiere of Beethoven's Ninth, people jumped up shouting in the second movement: Aarrgghhhh! Like Mick Jagger!

"And this is the key: We have to recover this sense of spontaneity. I am still hoping somebody in the audience will just sing aloud some of the music while I'm conducting."

Click on The Washington Post logo to read the full article (Friday, October 12, 2007; Page M05):

Washington Post Anticipates P-CE's 2007-8 Season

The Washington Post is already eager for the coming musical season:

In October, the Post-Classical Ensemble will revive the 1939 documentary The City, which has a rarely heard Aaron Copland score

Click on The Washington Post logo to read the full article (Monday, May 7, 2007; Page C02):

Washington Post: P-CE "Revelatory Performance"

The Washington Post called the Post-Classical Ensemble's performance last Friday "a revelatory performance."

Further, The Post said:

The Post-Classical Ensemble may be the most thought-provoking music group in town. It's certainly one of the most innovative, using its concerts as laboratories for musical thought experiments. Often focusing on a single piece -- or even a single movement from a single piece -- the group probes a work's cultural "back story," pulling away layer after layer of context to expose its innermost core.

Click on The Washington Post logo to read the full review (Monday, March 19, 2007; Page C05):

Washington Post features P-CE DVD Plow and River

The Washington Post reviews Naxos' re-release of The Plow That Broke the Plain (1936) and The River, with the Post-Classical Ensemble re-recording Virgil Thomson's original score.

Said The Post's Philip Kennicott :

The music draws on Thomson's study and appreciation of cowboy ditties, church hymns and other folk melodies, all of which have such deep and far-reaching associations that few Americans will fail to find something that is both familiar and unconsciously haunting.

Click on The Washington Post logo to read the full review (Sunday, January 28, 2007; Page N02):