“Thought-provoking glimpses into how the past and the present merge in classical music today.”

Andrew Cyr and David Bruce talk over the score on stage for “The Firework Maker’s Daughter.”

Get an insider’s view of performances that are now in full swing for David Bruce’s “The Firework Maker’s Daughter” at The New Victory Theater.

The New Victory Theater
May 3—12, 2013

One of New York's scrappiest contemporary music groups is turning to opera. Beginning Friday and running through May 12 at the New Victory Theater on 42nd Street, the Metropolis Ensemble will accompany "The Firework-Maker's Daughter," a new opera by David Bruce, the promising 2012-2013 composer-in-residence at London's Royal Opera House.

The Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (CARAS) announced today that Edmonton-born composer Vivian Fung’s Violin Concerto is the winner of the 2013 Juno Award for “Classical Composition of the Year.”

The two concertos were recorded at Tanglewood’s Seiji Ozawa Hall by Charlie Post and Tim Martyn with a “you-are-there” feeling.

The opening Violin Concerto is a good introduction to Fung, offering an immediate vista of her understated but brilliant orchestration and her technically demanding but musically riveting writing for the violin.

This, easily, one of the most unusual piano concertos you will ever hear but, I think, the strongest work in this collection and completely fascinating. The fact that she is, clearly, a very creative and skilled composer is all I need to recommend this without hesitation.

Vivian Fung’s Dreamscapes is a cutting-edge album in the best sense, an invigorating indication of where we are in classical music.

Exciting, skilfully put together music with many exoticisms.