PRESS

See an assortment of quotes about Sympho below, listed by concert. For our upcoming performances, please click here.

 

ARCO Premiere | New York City, February 16, 2011

WQXR FM
Sympho was commissioned to compose and create ARCO for the opening night of the Park Avenue Armory’s Tune-In Music Festival, ranked by New York’s WQXR FM as the Top New Music Event of 2011.

The New York Times
“ARCO…unfolded as a continuous, 90-minute, period- and style-hopping stream. A collaboration among the composers Paul Haas, Bora Yoon and Paul Fowler, ARCO borrows a couple of concepts from pop music: the mash-up, in which unrelated pieces are melded together, and the remix, which embellishes and reconstitutes familiar music…[The music was] gently meditative…exquisite.”

Financial Times (ft.com)
“The pièce d’occasion turned out to be ARCO, a surprisingly mellow yet stubbornly complex essay in communal mysticism…fraught with intellectual subtlety and evolutionary significance…just sit back, relax and enjoy the exotic ride.”

concertonet.com
“…the literary ideas were challenging, the performances superb”

feastofmusic.com
“It’s high time these brilliant artists got access to a stage and audience worthy of their invention…[ARCO] echoed with all the weight of the hall’s history as both performance venue and practice site for armed battle…the ambition and scope of this new work [were] impossible to ignore.”

Emotional Intelligence (mcompany.co) - click here for full article
“An extraordinary musical piece…a ninety-minute journey across time, life and continents, exquisitely staged and choreographed to play to the Armory Drill Hall’s epic size and unique elevations, while creating an intimate connection with and embrace of its audience. It was a piece of grand proportion.”

Skyscraper Magazine - click here for full article
“Take, for instance, ARCO, a large-scale immersive symphony by Bora Yoon, Paul Fowler, and Paul Haas...it’s the sort of conceptually daring, collaborative piece that could only be written in today’s technological climate...I hear a surging mass of data and noise, aching to achieve simultaneity, yet also somehow anxious for perspective, a hive mind searching for authority and definition in a world where authority is ceaselessly being undermined and presence is being redefined.”

 

TWEETHEART Premiere | New York City, May 22, 2010

ArtsJournal
"…very current, very not classical music."

 

FLECTION Premiere | New York City, May 5 and 6, 2009

Time Out New York
"…a non-stop multimedia exploration of emotional intensity."

New York Magazine
"…[a] talented young chamber orchestra in a signature program weaving an existent work with connective pieces by young composers."

SundayArts (WNET Channel 13)
"…the piece was like listening to the mind of someone obsessed with Barber's Adagio, a melancholy piece that can in fact get stuck in your head pretty easily...it all felt rather cinematic - like a movie without a screen...I found the piece oddly mesmerizing, if you just gave in and let it surround you.

 

TRACES Premiere | New York City, March 26 and 27, 2008

The New York Times - click here for full article
"…the event’s main argument came from the music itself… Mr. Haas is an energetic conductor who believes in what he is doing and knows how to do it. Thomas Beecham liked to say that successful conducting was the ability to hire good musicians, and Mr. Haas has assembled a first-rate band of young people… confident, well-rehearsed performances… Antiphonal effects by instrumentalists and a small chorus from the back and sides were the theatrical effects that worked best… Good luck to Sympho… it deserves to prosper."

The New Yorker
"…the audience was entranced by an idiosyncratic, intermission-free program that was arranged like an iPod playlist."

WQXR FM
"Paul Haas has done it again, creating a seamless concert like nothing you've seen or heard before. Weaving together both contemporary and traditional music in an alternative venue with a top-notch orchestra, Mr. Haas has seen the future of classical music."

Classical Domain - click here for full article
"…exciting new ways to look at musical relationships in a non-stop, continuous experience."

Time Out New York - click here for full article
"…remixes the classical-concert format… Conductor Paul Haas and composer Judd Greenstein, the driving forces behind last year's innovative "REWIND" concert, return with another inventive club mix…"

 

REWIND Des Moines | Des Moines Symphony, March 8 and 9, 2008

dmJuice.com
"…a one-of-a -kind performance… It really breaks the mold…"

KPTL FM
"…a really cool concept... an eclectic combination... a great way to get younger people into the hall"

SpoonFreude - click here for full article
"…the live instrumentation yielded to the electronica stylings of Paul Fowler, who recorded the live sounds, replayed and remixed them with fly-by-wire distortion. The show - for it was a show: with the main orchestra on stage, Mr. Fowler lurking below with his laptop and board, and a small breakaway ensemble sitting behind the audience - was nothing short of wonderful."

Des Moines Sunday Register
"It was clear from the get-go that this concert didn't intend to play by the rules… the orchestra played well, navigating the glassy dissonances of Schnittke with just as much precision as Corelli's upright grace… there were moments that made it easy to understand the music in refreshing new ways."

 

REWIND San Francisco | New Century Chamber Orchestra, January 19, 2008

San Jose Mercury News - click here for full article
"Newcomers to classical music get mystified by the protocols of the concert hall. The quasi-religious veneration of the event. The no coughing. The no clapping between movements of a given piece. The lack of visual stimulation, aside from staring at the musicians up on stage - rows of penguins, in black-and-white formal dress - for a couple of hours. Much of this was flipped on its head by Saturday's terrific "REWIND" program by the New Century Chamber Orchestra, led by Paul Haas, its guest conductor, at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Forum in San Francisco. It stimulated more than the ears. It had an indie-rock hipness about it. It was fun, even: Imagine! And best of all, the music, which sampled centuries, from Baroque (Purcell, Corelli) to brash or bluesy modern repertory (Alfred Schnittke, James MacMillan), was smartly stitched together and beautifully played."

San Francisco Classical Voice - click here for full article
"REWIND fast-forwards the traditional concert via hip, multisensory stimulation that includes creative lighting, a kinetic sculpture suspended from the ceiling, electronic music, and innovative use of the performance space… In short, from innovative programming to awe-inspiring visuals, REWIND sought to keep its audience engaged. But did the performance succeed in doing so? It certainly did, according to my date for the evening, a nonmusician whom I have dragged to countless concerts. He said REWIND was the best concert we have ever attended together. He is neither a classical music aficionado nor someone over the age of 40, and precisely for those reasons, he falls within the program’s target audience. Judging by his opinion, REWIND resoundingly achieved its goal of engaging this group… The youngish audience gave it a standing ovation."

artssf.com - click here for full article
"…a dazzling new concert format has been launched, moving us into the future by a century or two. Or maybe a millennium or two. This was a true ear-opener -- and eye-opener too…Credit the fast-rising guest conductor Paul Haas from New York -- a real find! -- not only for bringing off the modern program, but also for extraordinary eloquence in leading these locals and making them sound like a million-dollar ensemble. His reading of Schoenberg's mystical "Transfigured Night" was to die for, as dramatic and sensitive as any you have ever heard."

Inside Bay Area - click here for full article
"…the program worked brilliantly. Haas conducted dynamically, and as one piece gave way to the next, he and the orchestra created a fascinating through line, with old and new works bouncing off one another in revelatory ways.”

San Francisco Chronicle - click here for full article
"A classical concert like no other… Paul Haas certainly has some novel ideas about how to approach classical concerts. His REWIND concert on Saturday night with the New Century Chamber Orchestra - a transplant of similar concerts he has done in New York with his orchestra Sympho - was unlike anything most audiences have encountered… re-examining the patterns that structure our musical life and making an effort to figure out which, if any, need be carved in stone."

Contra Costa Times - click here for full article
"Here's a new concept for a classical concert: The orchestra performs in the middle of the hall, with the audience seated in the round. In addition to music from the standard repertoire, there's a DJ playing electronic music and digital samples of newly commissioned works by contemporary composers. There's a visual component as well, in the form of installation art and lighting effects. If this sounds like fantasy, think again. It's the program for REWIND, the multimedia concert experience designed by Paul Haas."

Oakland Tribune - click here for full article
"A visceral, unconventional concert that appeals to both one's eyes and ears"

 

REWIND Premiere | New York City, June 6, 2006

New York Times - click here for full article
“REWIND refits the classical experience for a new century… You had the feeling of being with musicians, not just observing them… Traditional audiences demand to have their say, but here all stilted, ritual interruptions were squelched… The come-on to newcomers was clear: "Look, we can be hip too." Yet the center of the evening was the supercharged Romanticism of Schoenberg's "Verklärte Nacht," performed with passion and beauty by Mr. Haas and his young players… "Rewind" seemed to involve its young and substantial audience so acutely because the music and the musicians were very good… It also worked because the physical format made sure that classical music's bad habits didn't have a chance.” 

San Francisco Chronicle - click here for full article
“The effect is haunting and evocative… a continuous cascade of music and visuals, unfamiliar and familiar, challenging and sublime… Haas' gutsy conducting style, as is usual for him, is energetic and elastic while being in control of and sensitive to changes in tempo, rhythm and dynamics. He throws his entire body into the performance in a way that has been continually lauded by critics since his professional debut in 1997… there is a frisson in the air, a sense among the audience members that something momentous has occurred in those 100 minutes as they step back onto the gritty streets of the Lower East Side.” 

Symphony Magazine - click here for full article
"There was a genuine sense of event...it certainly exploded any notion I have of an orchestral concert. It felt as if something important was happening, something with emotional stakes, and it felt like I was a part of it."

WNYC FM - click here to listen
“It’s clearly not just a concert…a sonic and visual extravaganza that spans five centuries of music.” 

Newark Star-Ledger - click here for full article
“REWIND is not a group so much as a concept.  Seeking to shake up the static nature of a typical classical music concert, Haas has assembled a 90-minute stream of music that eliminates the obligatory pauses and intermissions in order to better keep audience attention.” 

ClassicalDomain.com - click here for full article
“REWIND takes the listener through a continuous sonic experience, mixing established compositions with new music, creating a seamless flow of sound — and no one is allowed off until the ride comes to a complete halt.”

Time Out New York - click here for full article
“Paul Haas remixes the classical concert with REWIND.  An especially novel approach…Visual elements by artist Kate Raudenbush and the dispersal of performers throughout the concert space lend further interest to Haas’ visionary presentation.” 

WQXR FM
“Like nothing you’ve ever experienced before.” 

John Corigliano - Composer and winner of an Academy Award, Pulitzer Prize, and Grammy Award
"In Beethoven's day one could only hear an orchestra in a concert hall. Today one can enjoy Mozart in the elevator and supermarket - or even while jogging.  What can be done to make that live concert experience special again?  Technologies have changed over the years, and we must realize that today's young audiences expect a different and fuller experience than their parents did. Watching the back of a standing maestro with dozens of musicians looking at their music while playing is not really a very exciting picture, and a 40-minute piece without words to describe it is bewildering even to many standard concertgoers.

"New ways of presenting concerts are essential, and some classical musicians are using their creativity not only to make music, but also to tackle this fascinating and knotty issue.  For example, a project called REWIND, the brainchild of conductor Paul Haas, envisions a unique concert experience in which spatial, visual, and seamlessly integrated compositional techniques are used to meld together five centuries of music.  Old masterworks will flow neatly into newly commissioned works. Notated music will vie with improvised, sound with visuals. The concert will be unique, and it will fascinate both the educated music-lovers and novice.  This, indeed, is the future of music, and Paul Haas has both the ideas and talent to take us there."