‘Amahl’ Production Connects Artists With Community
NEW YORK - For On Site Opera’s version at Church of the Holy Apostles, host to Manhattan's largest soup kitchen, audience members were asked to donate food in lieu of cash. Tickets released online went in 20 minutes.
A Musical Mystery: Beethoven’s ‘Lost’ Tenth Symphony
BOOK REVIEW – This brilliantly researched novel by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Kluger will have scholars rechecking what they thought they knew about Beethoven, and mystery lovers delighting in the deft plotting.
Season Of Verdi Reflects Lifelong Passion Of Conlon
INTERVIEW – American conductor James Conlon will lead 39 performances of the Italian composer’s works in 2018-19, reaching his 500th Verdi performance overall. He's not yet saying where that landmark performance will be.
Pulitzer Compass Key To Mapping American Music
TOKYO – At the recent institute on Music From Japan, I was asked to sum up musical trends in North America today. A brief survey of the last eight Pulitzer winners reveals a rich landscape: chaotic, diverse, experimental, many-faceted.
Archive Retrieves Golden Interviews With Studs Terkel
CHICAGO – When Louis "Studs" Terkel left WFMT in 1997 after 45 years on the air, he took more than 5,600 of his reel-to-reel tape chats with the A-list of culture at large. That treasury of incredible stories is getting new digital life.
Carnegie’s Season Of Glass Retraces Path Of A Master
NEW YORK - How times have changed for 81-year-old Philip Glass. An outsider spurned by the establishment in the early 1970s, the composer’s vast output and its impact were on display all season long at the epicenter of American music.
Orchestra Festival Lit Up Uniqueness Of U.S. Ensembles
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The 2018 SHIFT Festival threw its spotlight on four diverse U.S. orchestras whose musical reach extended from the Kennedy Center to the corners of the nation’s capital – even to a concert at Union Station.
Mauceri, Slatkin Mull And Churn Conductor’s Craft
BOOK REVIEW – New books by two American senior statesman conductors – John Mauceri is 72 and Leonard Slatkin, 73 – take contrasting approaches, drawing insights from highly successful careers at home and abroad.
Seattle’s Maestro Designate Intends To Stir Repertoire
INTERVIEW – Thomas Dausgaard says his first love "was and is Beethoven," but that he's also keen to find new voices in American music for Seattle audiences. "It’s very important for me to keep the sensibilities fresh."
Toscanini Redux: From New Sources A Fresh Biography
BOOK REVIEW – A staggering number of recently discovered letters and recordings, studied by expert Toscanini biographer Harvey Sachs, allow important new facets of the conductor's private and public life to emerge from the shadows.
Weill Fest Explores Music’s Advocate For Social Progress
BREVARD, N.C. – Perhaps only in the current age of stylistic pluralism may it be possible to reconcile Kurt Weill’s German and American phases. In a mix of scholarly talks and performances, the Brevard Festival takes a stab.
New Opera Award Goes To Mazzoli, Vavrek For ‘Waves’
Breaking the Waves, with music by Missy Mazzoli (right) and libretto by Royce Vavrek, is the first winner of the Music Critics Association of North America's Best New Opera Award. The presentation will be made July 19 in Santa Fe.
Fine Book Details Cliburn’s Victory At Tchaikovsky
BOOK REVIEW – In When the World Stopped to Listen: Van Cliburn’s Cold War Triumph and Its Aftermath, Stuart Isacoff brings a pianist's insights and historian's rigor to an event that shook the world nearly six decades ago.
Think Like A Pro To Get Big Sound At Your Desktop
DIGITAL – You may be surprised that you can enjoy great musical sound from your computer. To get there, you need to address some basic questions, ranging from what you expect to hear to the space available on your desk.
Anton Coppola, Feted At Age 100, Still The Maestro
By John Fleming
TAMPA – Conductors tend to be durable, but maestro and composer Anton Coppola, still active, hit the century mark on March 21. Four days later, Opera Tampa honored the ageless Coppola at a two-hour concert – which he conducted!
New Light On Nazi Rule In Orchestras Of Vienna, Berlin
By Paul E. Robinson
BOOK REVIEW – The Political Orchestra by Fritz Trümpi provides important new information and a broader context for understanding how the two greatest orchestras in the German-speaking world were affected by politics.
Hear, Hear! New Halls Diverge In Acoustic Designs
By Nancy Malitz
When it comes to concert hall acoustics, controlled comparisons are difficult, but the temptation was irresistible on a Chicago Symphony tour of new halls in Paris, Hamburg and Aalborg, Denmark, followed by two old gems.
Critics, Gathered In Charleston, Honor A Leader
By John W. Lambert
IN MEMORIAM – Robert Paul Commanday, who died in 2015 at the age of 93, was fondly remembered in Charleston, S.C., where the Music Critics Association of North America heard a tribute to his guiding force in a transitional age.
Canada Tempest: Debating Critic’s Role In Our Time
By Allan Kozinn
ANALYSIS – A publicist for Canadian Opera took issue with a National Post critique of Maometto II, an editor yanked the review, the critic was in the dark, emails went viral and things went downhill from there. What's at stake here?
