Concert Reviews

Emily Freeman Brown recently (Fall 2006) toured Kazakhstan to great review.

“…the crowd gave Emily a five-minute thunderous ovation, punctuated with cries of ‘Bravo!’“—Embassy of the United States for Astana & Kazakhstan

Critic/composer Greg Sandow and his wife, NY Times critic Anne Midgette, were recently (Fall 2006) in residence at Bowling Green University. Here is a portion of his comments.

“The student orchestra—the Bowling Green Philharmonia—was amazing. They played four not at all easy pieces by Robert Beaser, Avner Dorman, Michael Daugherty, and Timothy Stulman (he’s a Bowling Green DMA student, and his piece had a nicely relaxed and lovely ending, with a lot of surprising unison writing for the orchestra).

“So what was amazing? Most of the students had never even heard music like this, let alone played it. (We’re talking about complex harmony, complex rhythms, complex textures, and much more.) And in spite of that they dug in, and reached the musical heart of each piece. Gigantic credit goes to Emily Freeman Brown, Bowling Green’s Director of Orchestral Activities, who conducted.”—Greg Sandow, Critic/composer

Other reviews of Emily Freeman Brown

“Brown extracted from her orchestra a white-heat intensity” (Mozart Symphony No. 38 in D Major, the “Prague”) “and gave a finely conceived performance of Ravel’s Le Trombeau de Couperin.”—Post Standard, Syracuse, N.Y.

“…a dazzling young conductor…”—City Paper, Rochester, N.Y.

“Beginning the program with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 4 we noticed in Ms. Freeman Brown a great number of virtues and talents. From the detail and moderation we got a reading as neat as it was clean, careful in all its details…The climax, without a doubt, was the performance of Ravel’s La Valse, closing the program. This great symphonic poem…so appropriate to measure orchestras and conductors, was confronted by Ms. Freeman Brown with the same detailed work…a magnificent result. In all, the great orchestral mass responded in magnificent shape to a fine baton, flawless and without any histrionics.”—La Epoca, Santiago, Chile

In Ravel’s La Valse the maestra, with clear concept of her objectives, looked for the key passages of the complex orchestral organism, bringing out individually and collectively the themes and instrumental families. She recreated in this way the dark or glowing atmosphere of the piece, always within the pulse of the waltz, root of all colorful “Raveliana.” An excellent result, one that the audience rewarded both the orchestra and conductor enthusiastically.” “…not less deserving of the ovation was the outstanding work of the conductor Freeman obtaining a great number of nuances and exact synchronization…” (Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto).—El Mecurio, Santiago, Chile