Press
Acclaim
August 4, 2024
Lincoln Center’s Rebranded Orchestra Settles Into Its Debut Season
The New York Times
On July 27, I went to Geffen Hall to hear Kazem Abdullah conduct a program of Brahms’s Violin Concerto, Louis W. Ballard’s “Incident at Wounded Knee” and Stravinsky’s eccentrically witty “Pulcinella.”
Ballard’s “Incident at Wounded Knee,” in its first New York City performances in 25 years, was vivid in its depiction of dignity and plaintiveness in the face of an existential threat.
Acclaim
August 1, 2024
Concert Review: Kazem Abdullah Conducts Festival Orchestra of Lincoln Center in Brahms, Stravinsky, Louis W. Ballard
Blog Critics
On Friday, guest conductor Kazem Abdullah delivered focused and insightful readings of the Brahms Violin Concerto in D Major, with soloist Benjamin Beilman; Stravinsky’s full Pulcinella ballet score; and, in its 50th anniversary year, Louis W. Ballard’s powerful 1974 lament Incident at Wounded Knee.
Something else, something less definable, stood out just as much in Mr. Abdullah’s Brahms. This was how the operatically experienced conductor made a whole universe out of the first movement. Stately pacing and a beautifully sustained fluidity allowed all the colors and voices to emerge, even before the soloist’s first entrance. Mr. Abdullah has an intense onstage style that was reflected in the judiciously calibrated dynamics and undulating rhythms that characterized the performance.
Acclaim
May 18, 2024
From the ISO, three at the 19th-century cool-kids' table: Liszt, Saint-Saens, and Augusta Holmès
Jay Harvey Upstage
There is no piece more indicative of the kind of rational control that French art exerts over even extravagant notions than the "Organ Symphony," and Friday's performance met it on its own terms. Along with the Liszt concerto, it confirmed the guest conductor's well-honed knack for effective collaboration with apt guest soloists.
Acclaim
May 13, 2024
Review: SEATTLE OPERA 60TH ANNIVERSARY CONCERT & GALA at McCaw Hall
Broadway World
To commemorate both the finish to a highly successful 2023-24 season and the 60th anniversary of the company’s 1963 founding, Seattle Opera held a gala double celebration on May 11 highlighted by a star-studded ensemble of solo singers, the 52-member Seattle Opera Chorus, and members of the Seattle Symphony. Helmed by Conductor Kazem Abdullah, the cast of celebrities, many of them beloved Seattle Opera favorites, brought a stellar sheen to the festivities, with a combination of solo arias, small ensembles, full opera scenes and choruses, and orchestral numbers.
Acclaim
March 6, 2024
“X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X” at Seattle Opera
Oregon ArtsWatch
Seattle Opera co-produced the revival of the 1986 Anthony Davis opera, revised and re-premiered in 2022 by Detroit Opera.
The orchestra included a jazz ensemble with three woodwind players who doubled on soprano, alto, tenor, and baritone sax, along with flute and bass clarinet... Abdullah has a grip on American music that combines many influences.
Acclaim
November 5, 2023
Metropolitan Opera 2023-24 Review: X: the Life and Times of Malcolm X
Opera Wire
The Met, traditionally a bastion of opera’s classic
repertoire, transformed into a forum for reflection on social
justice, equal rights, and the ongoing danger of police
brutality or vigilante justice that Black Americans continue to
face. It was an evening with profound impact.
Here, the conductor, Kazem Abdullah, coaxed luscious and cacophonous sounds from the incomparable Met orchestra, showing it can play any form of music required... Abdullah worked tirelessly on the podium to bring the music and musicians together to form a powerful whole greater than the sum of its parts.
Feature
October 22, 2023
10/22/23: 'The Life and Times of Malcolm X' opera, Black American Music Association
ABC News: Here and Now
"X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X" is a new opera coming to the Met in November. Kazem Abdullah, who will be conducting the groundbreaking opera, sat down with Sandra to discuss the show.
Acclaim
April 15, 2023
San Antonio Philharmonic: Climbing the mountain
Incident Light
Abdullah, born in Indiana and reared in Ohio, is making a mark as a conductor of contemporary work, both opera (a tryptich of world premieres dealing with social issues, last month at Lyric Opera of Chicago) and orchestral (a world premiere by Dai Fujikura with the Seattle Symphony in February).
Acclaim
March 27, 2023
Anna Deavere Smith takes a fresh step with first opera, ‘The Walkers’
The Washington Post
An opera such as “The Walkers” feels like a powerful show of opera’s ability to combine grand spectacle with intimate storytelling, and the form’s untapped potential to contribute directly and immediately to critical cultural conversations.
Conductor Kazem Abdullah admirably led the Lyric Opera Orchestra, which sounded bright and vivid and felt wrapped around the singers’ voices all evening.
Acclaim
March 26, 2023
Review: In Chicago, an Opera Triptych Reaches for Connection
The New York Times
In Lyric’s premiere here on Friday, “Proximity,” the company gave itself an even more ambitious assignment than one new commission: three of them, by three composer-librettist pairs, sharing a single evening.
Feature
February 4, 2023
Abdullah, Hadelich and the Seattle Symphony offer a winter-conquering musical feast
Bachtrack
A warm bond developed between debuting guest conductor Kazem Abdullah and the Seattle Symphony musicians during the course of the concert, reaching incandescence in their cloud-busting account of the Finnish composer’s Seventh Symphony.
