Music

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Page 88
Di Wu: simultaneously ringing and reflective. (Photo © Sengzong Gan, via www.DiWuPiano.com)

The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia with pianist Di Wu

Youthful stars and might-have-beens

The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia opens its season with a program that sticks to a conventional format but varies it with two novelties.
Tom Purdom

Tom Purdom

Articles 3 minute read
Stand up and sing

Choral Arts Philadelphia sings Rachmaninoff's 'All Night Vigil'

On the road with Choral Arts

Most of the singers in Choral Arts Philadelphia are unpaid volunteers, but they attack their job like pros.
Tom Purdom

Tom Purdom

Articles 5 minute read
Kristen Choi as Suzuki, Yunah Lee as Cio-Cio-San, and Aleksey Bogdanov as Sharpless in the Glimmerglass Festival's 2014 production of ‘Madame Butterfly.’ (Photo: Karli Cadel/The Glimmerglass Festival.)

The 2014 Glimmerglass Opera Festival, part two

A new take on ‘Madame Butterfly’

Francesca Zambello may well be a model for opera directors in the 21st century. Her direction of Madame Butterfly hints at some of the reasons why.
Karl Middleman

Karl Middleman

Articles 5 minute read
Lutfisk, Spock, lutfisk! (Photo by Ken Whitmore - © 1978 Ken Whitmore - Image courtesy mptvimages.com)

'Star Trek' and my own 'Enigma Variations'

Dreams of music

I never dream of music. I’ve heard composers talk of it, and I’ve envied that gift. Because it is a gift if a composition can indeed come to you just like that, like a scene in a movie, in a dream. What I wouldn’t give to have that! But I don’t.
Kile Smith

Kile Smith

Articles 5 minute read
Christian Bowers as Clyde Griffiths in the Glimmerglass Festival's new production of Tobias Picker's "An American Tragedy." (Photo: Karli Cadel/The Glimmerglass Festival)

The 2014 Glimmerglass Opera Festival

Deserted, abused, drowned, abandoned

In the summer, you have to leave Philly to enjoy opera. The Glimmerglass Festival in Cooperstown, New York is a worthwhile destination.
Karl Middleman

Karl Middleman

Articles 6 minute read
Those were the days, my friend. (Photo by Nathan Gibbs, via Creative Commons/Flickr)

I was the mother of a teenaged garage band

Ever since Noah was small, I’ve taught him that rock and roll is more than music; it is, as Bruce insinuates, a religion.
Ilene Raymond Rush

Ilene Raymond Rush

Articles 4 minute read
Authentic yet swinging Crescent City rhythms: Perseverance Jazz Band (Photo by Looking Glass Photography)

Perseverance Jazz Band in Wallingford

Where did New Orleans jazz go? To Philly!

Traditional New Orleans jazz survives and flourishes some 1,300 miles to the northeast of its birthplace with the Perseverance Jazz Band.
Robert J. Robbins

Robert J. Robbins

Articles 4 minute read
Opolais, Kaufmann: A chick flick with the ultimate sound track.

Covent Garden’s ‘Manon Lescaut’

Tawdry as she goes

Covent Garden’s controversial porno-revival of Puccini’s Manon Lescaut was denounced as tawdry and coarse. Yet it did grip my attention. And it does support the opera’s key emotional point.
Steve Cohen

Steve Cohen

Articles 4 minute read
His favorite composer surprised me.

The Lorin Maazel I remember

A conductor who defied easy labels

Most of Lorin Maazel’s obituaries described him as a coldly intellectual and clinical conductor. I saw another side.
Steve Cohen

Steve Cohen

Articles 2 minute read
In Montana, this is a rental car.

The premiere of 'Gold and Silver' in Helena

Symphony Under the Stars was in this, its 11th year, all Disney movie music and one work called Gold and Silver, a piece they asked me to compose.
Kile Smith

Kile Smith

Articles 4 minute read