I have known for some time that the Twin Cities is a strong incubator of arts and culture. ...more...
Arts America Blog
D.C. Community Music Store Celebrates 10th Anniversary
March 20, 2012 by
Middle C Music, Washington D.C.’s only full service music store, is celebrating its 10-year anniversary this month. In addition to providing music lessons and selling instruments, Middle C functions as a space to foster creativity, musical growth and community outreach. ...more...
Grieg Piano Concerto to be heard three nights in a row
March 15, 2012 by
Fresh off last week’s concert featuring Igor Stravinsky’s “Pulcinella Suite” and the Beethoven Symphony No. 2, the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) prepares for three consecutive nights under the baton of Eri Klas featuring music from Scandinavia. ...more...
An Interview with the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum’s Program Production Manager
March 15, 2012 by
Opened to the public since 1903, the Isabella Stewart Gardener—a 15th-century Venetian palace museum featuring more than 2,500 pieces—is obviously a renowned fixture in the Boston art scene. But what many visitors don’t know is that it boasts an eclectic music schedule every season. And to top it off, the Gardner got a bit of a facelift this year with the opening of its new 70,000 square-foot wing, completed on January 12th. And one of the wing’s focal points? The 296-capacity Calderwood Hall performance space. ...more...
The Underdog
March 13, 2012 by
In the hands of a rock musician it can shake a sports stadium, so it is ironic that in its original form the guitar is one of the quietest of the standard instruments in western music. It has been said that the Classical guitar doesn’t so much sound quiet as distant – that may be true, but in reality it is easily overpowered by most orchestral instruments. ...more...
Haydn’s Unlikely Creation
March 12, 2012 by
There have been so many excellent and exciting Bay Area concerts of late (the SF Symphony’s American Mavericks mini-festival, and a spectacular St. Matthew Passion from the American Bach Soloists come to mind as well as numerous touring groups), I would need a staff of twenty to sort through the listings. One particular concert, however, stood out from the rest.
On Monday, April 30th, the period instrument New Esterházy String Quartet …more…
D.C. Artist Profile: Joseph Gascho and the Early Music Revival
March 9, 2012 by
Musical genres are better understood as complex groups of subcategories rather than as giant monoliths. Just as The Beach Boys and Led Zeppelin – different as they were in terms of style, period and audience – both contributed broadly to the larger genre of rock and roll, classical music is equally comprised of varied and nuanced sub-genres. And the greater Washington D.C. area is a prime place to choose from …more…
Performances Galore in Omaha
March 5, 2012 by
There are so many notable upcoming performances in the Omaha area that I’m going to offer you an overview of the March shows you won’t want to miss. Get your tickets for these shows now because waiting too long can result in one of those annoying moments when you realize that the show you want to see is sold out. Nobody likes that moment. ...more...
The Berkshire Symphony presents “Out of the Shadows”
February 29, 2012 by
The Berkshire Symphony will be performing at Chapin Hall, an 1100-seat concert hall built in 1910, located on the Williams College campus in Williamstown, MA.
What if Beethoven’s only opera had never premiered because he couldn’t get the overture just right? Or Brahms’s first symphony had never been composed because he felt like he couldn’t live up to Beethoven’s standards? And what if one of the greatest pieces in the …more…
The Baltimore Symphony Presents: WOW Women of the World Festival
February 29, 2012 by
Tickets are on sale now for the inaugural WOW Women of the World Festival in Baltimore, running March 2 – 4. Brainchild of Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Music Director Marin Alsop, the festival is modeled after the premier WOW Festival launch in London’s Southbank Centre last year.
Guster Pairs With the Colorado Symphony Orchestra for a Night of Pop/Classical Fusion
February 28, 2012 by
(photo courtesy of Coloradosymphony.org)
The pop/rock band Guster has been making hit records for many years, finding some of their greatest success as featured artists in many popular film and television scores. With a decidedly upbeat and accessible sound, the trio, which originally hails from Boston, plans to combine their talents with those of the Colorado Symphony Orchestra. In a concert scheduled on Thursday March 8, 2012, resident conductor, Scott O’Neil …more…
Within EarShot: BPO New Music Readings Present the “Concert-as-Rehearsal”
February 28, 2012 by
Image culled from the BPO web site.
The “Earshot and Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra New Music Readings” on February 23, as previously reported, gave the assembled audience at Kleinhans Music Hall the rare opportunity to hear orchestral works-in-progress performed.
It’s fairly common to encounter a working rehearsal-as-concert, in which a renowned guest artist collaborates with the orchestra to perform a completed, often familiar composition in advance of the actual concert for a …more…
Free D.C.: Area Student and Faculty Recitals
February 24, 2012 by
Despite its constant presence on lists of America’s most expensive cities, Washington D.C. has a music scene that easily lends itself to budget conscious concert-goers. With a strong focus on community-based arts and local outreach, free classical music concerts are easy to find.
Within EarShot: February New Music Festival with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra
February 23, 2012 by
Image culled from the BPO web site.
If you love orchestral music, but you’re not sure what the future of the medium in America may hold, EarShot–the National Orchestral Composition Discovery Network–may provide the best clues.
This evening (February 23) at 7 p.m. at Kleinhans Music Hall, the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra (BPO) and Music Director JoAnn Falleta will present the “BPO New Music Readings,” a free, open-to-the-public concert of orchestral readings …more…
A Ghost, Two Elegies, Mitt Romney, and That Fine Cellist: Sitka Summer Music Festival in Anchorage, Part 2
February 17, 2012 by
The Sitka Summer Music Festival is coming to Anchorage’s Grant Hall Auditorium this weekend, and earlier this week I wrote about the piano trios (i.e., the pieces written for the piano, violin, and cello together) on Friday night’s program. Because each concert this weekend will present a different program, in this second post I’ll cover the Saturday and Sunday offerings, especially the piano trios. ...more...
The Russians Are Coming! (To LPO)
February 15, 2012 by
It’s a good thing that McCarthyism went out of fashion in the 1950s because conspiracy theorists might be on the alert for the series of Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) concerts being held at month’s end.
Sergei Prokoviev, Dmitri Shostakovich and Sergei Rachmaninov will be the stars front and center on Saturday night, February 26 in a post Mardi Gras celebration of post romantic and modern Russian music conducted by maestro and …more…
SF Grants for the Arts
February 15, 2012 by
If you attend a San Francisco concert this month and the administration staff seems frazzled, it it most likely because they are recovering from preparing their annual San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund/Grants for the Arts application, due on February 10th.
The program, which has been around since 1961, was a pioneering model of government funding for the arts, and it remains a reason why San Francisco has a disproportionately high level of arts …more…
Centennial Favorites, New Creations Meet at the Avant Music Festival 2012
February 15, 2012 by
Composer Randy Gibson(foreground) performing "Apparitions of The Four Pillars, Avant Music Festival 2011; culled from Avant Media's photostream on Flickr.
Rather paradoxically, “new” and experimental classical music is as much about the past as it is about the present. By its very nature, creating art that is avant-garde now demands an intimate understanding of what was avant-garde then. The aptly named Avant Music Festival–now in its third year in New …more…
Gypsies and Guinea Pigs: Sitka Summer Music Festival in Anchorage, Part 1
February 14, 2012 by
The Sitka Summer Music Festival is coming to Anchorage this weekend, and they’ve got ghosts, gypsies, guinea pigs, elegies, retractions — and one very sexy cellist on the program.
But first, the need-to-know: Performances are this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, February 17, 18, and 19, at 7:00 pm (4:00 pm for the Sunday show) in Grant Hall Auditorium on the Alaska Pacific University campus. ...more...
A good year to pass on the Grammys
February 13, 2012 by
The 2012 Grammys are almost here and the entertainment world is all abuzz with that annual affliction “Grammy Fever.” What exactly do these awards mean for the winners and nominees? Well, for an increasingly shrinking list of players the awards will continue to mean big-time money and exposure. But this year the field has shrunk and numerous artists who previously enjoyed access to modest pieces of the Grammy pie will find themselves among the industry’s equivalent of the 99%. Last April, The National Academy of Recorded Arts and Sciences (NARAS) elected to reduce the number of awards by eliminating 31 different categories from award contention, ostensibly to foster greater competition in fewer categories. ...more...
Big Easy 2012 Classical Arts Awards
February 10, 2012 by
Each year the Foundation for Entertainment Development and Education, known colloquially as the “Big Easy Entertainment Awards foundation,” honors the musicians, dancers, conductors and singers who contribute to the classical arts of opera, ballet and dance and music.
The affair a luncheon held at the Hotel Monteleone is an opportunity to honor these artists, patrons and teachers who contribute to the classical arts in significant ways and enrich the culture of …more…
Beethoven Sym. 7 to get LPO treatment tonight
February 9, 2012 by
For the past two weeks the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) has been busy serving up two divergent programs – the first, a night of Russian-oriented works and a the second, a lighter serving of “Spring” serenades. Tonight, under the solid work of maestro Carlos Miguel Prieto, Jr., the members will return to their classical foundation with a program that features the rarely-performed, but sprightly Beethoven Symphony No. 7.
With the possible …more…
Saving Humanity One Dance At A Time
February 8, 2012 by
Pablo Malco, choreographer and director of The Hip Hop Symphony, the dance performance extravaganza hosted by the Broward Center for the Performing Arts on January 29, 2012, tells us about how he got into dance, the making of The Hip Hop Symphony and the dance company turned foundation (www.pablomalcofoundation.org) that brings the art of dance into the community. ...more...
Spring Is Here, or at least musically
February 4, 2012 by
Conductor Mary Woodmansee Green
The Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) gets ready to take on the challenge of Spring tonight without worrying about hay fever or the possibility of “spring fever” in a concert at the Kenner First Baptist Church at 7:30 p.m.
Set to conduct the LPO this evening is talented and beautiful conductor Mary Woodmansee Green, a 24-year-veteran as music director and conductor of the Kennett Symphony of Chester County. …more…
Pacifica Quartet thrills Friends of Music audience
January 27, 2012 by
The Pacifica Quartet, considered one of the finest ensembles in all of classical music today, offered a night of virtuosity on January 25 at Tulane’s Dixon Hall as part of the New Orleans Friends of Music series. The quartet members, who serve as quartet-in-residence and on the faculty of the University of Chicago have an extensive touring schedule in the Americas and Asia and also have been selected as the quartet-in-residence for the Metropolitan Museum of Art. ...more...
