(Visual Art, Classical Music, Seattle) Bluebeard’s Castle is one of Bela Bartok’s masterpieces, and that barely matters in this case. ...more...

(Classical Music, San Francisco/Oakland) Gradually, very gradually, we’re starting to see more groups like the Portland Cello Project springing up from the ground, groups whose members see nothing wrong with adapting Britney Spears’ “Toxic” for cello and flute. ...more...

(Classical Music, Stockton) In 1952, Hank Williams was still alive, and there was no such thing as a sock hop. (Incidentally, how many people got injured, on average, at a sock hop, do you think? Bunch of teenagers sliding around a gymnasium in their socks? I’m going to go with – eight. Let’s say eight.) ...more...

(Classical Music, Visual Art, Albany) Laurie Anderson was NASA’s first artist-in-residence, in 2003, which made a lot of people very, very angry – not because it was Laurie Anderson but because why does NASA have an artist-in-residence, exactly? – and seems destined to never happen again. ...more...

(Classical Music, Detroit) Have it in your heads now, too! DE BANG DE DANG DIGGY DIGGY something something UP JUMP THE BOOGIE. ...more...

(Classical Music, Berkshire Co.) All right, it’s the ninth of May, and Tanglewood doesn’t get going until late June, so calling this prefatory is maybe just perhaps a slight exaggeration, but: Karl Jenkins’ Requiem is a big, monolithic beast of a work attended by all sorts of messianic and apocalyptic overtones ...more...

(Classical Music, Denver) You are in luck if you have ever wanted to hear the Colorado Symphony Orchestra play “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” at the Clyfford Still Museum, because that is a thing that might just happen this summer. ...more...

(Classical Music, Detroit) Ah, the threads that tie generations together. This is so neat and compact, it’s like a Russian nesting doll. Follow: Leonard Slatkin is the conductor and musical director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra; his brother, Frederick Zlotkin, is an eminent cellist; their mother, Eleanor Aller, was also a preeminent cellist and founded the Hollywood String Quartet with their father, Felix Slatkin, who was Sinatra’s concertmaster in the ’50s and did all manner of other notable musical things which you can feel free to Wiki. ...more...

(Classical Music, Detroit) Every incremental step away from the precipice of disaster is in itself a victory, but when things get as dark as they did for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra last year, the road to recovery is ill-mapped and shady and covered in obstacles; even for that, things are much better now than they were last year, which gives you a decent example of what the DSO has been through in the last year. ...more...

(Classical Music, Cleveland) And a music hall. Look, of course Cleveland is obviously and justifiably proud of the Cleveland Orchestra, which remains monumental and acclaimed and revered and in demand wherever it goes, be it Severance or Miami or Vienna. This is a tremendous thing; Franz Welser-Most and his charges deserve all of the applause and hosannas that they attract. ...more...

(Theater, Classical Music, Los Angeles) Mona Golabek’s musical and theatrical tribute to her mother is at the Geffen Playhouse beginning tonight. ...more...

(Classical Music, New York) The Declassified, a forty-some member strong collective ensemble of elite young classical musicians, is working on reinventing the nature of classical performance. ...more...

(Classical Music, National) The plan calls for the orchestra to play a pair of concerts next February in Washington and New York. ...more...

(Classical Music, Milwaukee) This week’s installment of the series sees QNG and Calmus Ensemble Leipzig debuting a selection of new works by Pulitzer winner Paul Moravec. ...more...

(Classical Music, Las Vegas) The Cleveland Orchestra makes its initial stop in Vegas this weekend. ...more...

(Classical Music, Birmingham) On just about the first anniversary of the devastating Tuscaloosa tornadoes of 2011, the Tuscaloosa Symphony Orchestra debuts Joseph Landers’ Sinfonia da Requiem at 7 p.m. on April 23. Beethoven, too, after that. ...more...

(Classical Music, Cleveland) Mitsuko Uchida is back in Cleveland, tonight and tomorrow, very rapid-fire, to play a trio of Mozart’s piano pieces. ...more...

(Classical Music, Twin Cities) The experiment in ticket pricing sees greater flexibility, a reduced price and, the SPCO hopes, increased attendance from, presumably, the under-50 set. ...more...

(Classical Music, Birmingham) Yep, the Birmingham Chamber’s closing for another season. Not a bad way to go out, though, with the Dover String Quartet. Tuesday night. ...more...

(Classical Music, Birmingham) The hazing continues for prospective new Alabama Symphony music directors; this week’s guest conductor, Rory Macdonald, is one of the candidates. ...more...

(Classical Music, National) The North Korean National Symphony in America in 2012? Plans are afoot, apparently. ...more...

(Classical Music, Las Vegas) In a little over 48 hours, the waiting is over, and the Las Vegas Philharmonic finally debuts their new home at the Smith Center. ...more...

(Classical Music, Columbus) The orchestra’s second 2012 “Concert for Kids” will feature pieces from Strauss, Tchaikovsky and Copeland. ...more...

(Jazz, Classical Music, Detroit) The DSO’s 2012-13 Paradise Jazz series is remarkably strong, with Cassandra Wilson and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band among the headliners. ...more...

(Film, Classical Music, Cleveland) Guest conductor William Eddins puts the Cleveland Orchestra through its paces on Saturday the 31st, when the orchestra will accompany Charlie Chaplin’s 1931 masterpiece “City Lights”. ...more...