Music
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Phil Woods Memorial Concert at Barrington Stage
Grace Kelly With Brian Lynch, Bill Mays, Steve Gilmore and Bill Goodwin
By: - Dec 31st, 2015“Phil and Grace Kelly had a special relationship that evolved from mentor to collaborator to friend,” said Jill Goodwin, Woods’ wife and business manager of 40 years. “From the moment they stepped on stage in Pittsfield, and especially after he passed the torch by putting his cap on her head, their relationship grew. Phil was proud to be a part of ‘Man With The Hat,’ and they appeared together at major festivals around the world. Phil and Grace were in touch frequently, up to the day he died. Joining Phil’s group again will be a very special moment for all of us.”
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Illinois Jacquet
Sweet Nights at Lulu White's
By: - Dec 29th, 2015Born Jean Baptiste Jacquet then dubbed Illinois he became famous for a solo on Flying Home with the Lionel Hampton Band. He was just a teenager at the time. He went on to be one of the great stars of the big band and bop era.
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The Golden Bride by National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene
Museum of Jewish Heritage Hosts Opera
By: - Dec 27th, 2015Inspired immigrants, excited by their new land and still carrying a touch of the old with them, created works for the Second Avenue Theatre early in the 20th century. The joy of the forms they created lives on today, in the original works and the work they inspired in the Broadway musical theatre.
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Muddy Waters
Mississippi Goddam
By: - Dec 27th, 2015Muddy picked it up from Robert Johnson, King of the Delta Blues, and Son House who we saw once dazed and confused at Newport. Muddy came out, joined in, and gently walked him off. That was like him and what we most remember. The Mojo Man had heart and soul.
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Black Ensemble Theater's Dynamite Divas
Soul Music in the Windy City
By: - Dec 26th, 2015Dynamite Divas features appearances (via Mr. Maurice's "Assimilator") by soul singers of the past such as Nina Simone (performing "Mississippi Goddam" and "Young, Gifted and Black"), Dinah Washington ("This Bitter Earth"), and film excerpts of sensational older divas. There's even a cameo by a Beyonce impersonator, asking "Why Not Me?"
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A Christmas Journey Near Carnegie Hall
Holidays at the Rosens
By: - Dec 24th, 2015Joe Rosen celebrated the season with a holiday concert that took us around the world of music, in time, and place and style. Aram Katchaturian’s Trio was a highlight of the concert. The virtuosity of each instrumentalists was on display. The moods of the movements drastically changed, marking gypsy tones and mournful joy.
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Curious Sound Object At Boston Cyberarts Gallery
Hearing and Seeing As Part of the Visual Arts Experience
By: - Dec 21st, 2015Visual art is evolving in wonderful technical directions. Boston Cyberarts is continuing to foster this development. A Fall 2015 exhibition showcased a whole group of artists working not only visually but auditorially. Hearing and seeing was believing.
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Berkshire Theatre Group 2016
Winter/ Spring Schedule
By: - Dec 18th, 2015Music at The Colonial Theatre includes, legendary reggae band, The Wailers (part of the 10X10 Upstreet Arts Festival); Grammy Award-winning pop/rock singer, songwriter, musician, Richard Marx; Grammy Award-winning Walking In Memphis singer, Marc Cohn and “the godfather of British blues,” John Mayall.
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Evgeny Kissin at Carnegie Hall
Daring Interpretations of Music and Poetry
By: - Dec 17th, 2015Evgeny Kissin dares us to share his adventurous take on life, music and poetry. At Carnegie Hall in an evening of Jewish music and poetry, he was full of passion and mournful joy.
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Tanglewood Adds Brian Wilson and Chris Botti
June is Busting Out All Over
By: - Dec 15th, 2015Hey kids get out your calendars. The 2016 season is beginning to shape up. OK James Taylor is returning to Tanglewood over the Fourth of July. But the season will be old by then. The fun starts at MASS MoCA on Saturday, June 11 with The National. That's almost as wicked cool as Wilco. Then Surf's Up on June 19. It's a day gig so no curfew when Brian Wilson presents his iconic Pet Sounds in its entirety. Multivalent trumpet ace Chris Botti slips into Ozawa Hall, where we have seen him before, on June 24. By front loading the season in such a manner July will seem like so over man.
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MASS MoCA Winter Spring
Upcoming Exhibitions and Performances.
By: - Dec 14th, 2015MASS MoCA has many highlights in its schedule for exhibitions and performances. Start to mark our calendars particularly for the June 11 exclusive performance of The National which is sure to sell out in a flash.
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The National To Perform at MASS MoCA
Only East Coast Gig on June 11.
By: - Dec 14th, 2015The National will be in North Adams on Saturday, June 11, at 8pm, in its only Northeast headline show in all of 2016. The concert benefits MASS MoCA and Hawthorne Valley Association, in Ghent, New York. The Ohio-raised, Brooklyn-based band, which consists of vocalist Matt Berninger, plus two pairs of brothers: Aaron Dessner (guitar, bass, piano) and Bryce Dessner (guitar), and Scott Devendorf (bass, guitar) and Bryan Devendorf (drums), have landed on every “best of” list in print.
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New York Philharmonic Entices the Young
Prokovief, Rafael Mostel and Richard Strauss
By: - Dec 14th, 2015You would never know that symphony orchestras had problems reaching a younger audience. Geffen Hall in New York was packed with young people eager to listen and offer their opinions on characters, stories and their expression in music. Theodore Wiprud, the NY Phil's Vice President for Education, was master of ceremonies. Peter, the Wolf, Babar and Celeste and the impish Till Eulenspiegel were a delight.
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Dangerous Liaisons at Manhattan School of Music
Fresh, Impeccable Opera of Classic Story
By: - Dec 10th, 2015Why has Dangerous Liaisons been translated onto the stage and into three movies, including films by Milos Forman and Roger Vadim? Because it's the stuff of which great art can be made. Playing the game of life (and money) is something Wall Street understands well. We can benefit from watching it spin out. But there are no metaphors in the luurious period costumes. The opera by Conrad Susa with text by Philip Littell is an enticing guide.
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Boston Goes Gaga for Handel
The BEMF Reprises Acis and Galatea
By: - Dec 09th, 2015Handel lovers were in heaven this Thanksgiving. Local reigning early music superstar, soprano Amanda Forsythe set the First Church in Cambridge on fire with her vocal pyrotechnics, while across the river, the BEMF assembled a number of her colleagues to repeat its delightul "Acis and Galatea." What more could you want?
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Diana Damrau at Carnegie Hall
A Range of Dramatic Power and Grace
By: - Dec 06th, 2015Diana Damrau attends every detail of her performance. A gifted programmer, she started small and moving, with a Schubert song and ended vamping Dvorak.
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Norma by Bellini Ignites LA Opera
Angela Meade and Jamie Barton, Luxury Casting
By: - Dec 01st, 2015Bellini died young, but like Mozart and Schubert, will never be forgotten. Norma is the all-time great Bellini opera. In the age of Lena Dunham, it comes as a shock that women in antiquity could choose friendship over boyfriends. Even the Roman consul is shocked when one of his lovers upends him. For great singing, rush to the LA Opera's Norma.
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Jake Heggie's Moby Dick at LA Opera
Jay Hunter Morris a Magnificent Avenger
By: - Dec 01st, 2015Moby Dick, the opera by Jake Heggie is inspired by Melville, but not the tale as we know it. As the librettist points out, since most people who think they have read Moby Dick haven't, the audience is not left wondering, for instance, where is "Call me Ishmael." Instead the extraordinary music conducted by James Conlon and the video projections which are the heart of the set sweep you up and carry you off on the obsessive chase for revenge.
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Dudamel Conducts LA Philharmonic
Roberto Bolle and ABT Dancers Add to Musical Thrills
By: - Nov 28th, 2015When Frank Gehry was asked to design Walt Disney Hall in Los Angeles, he made one condition: that Yasuhita Toyota be hired as the acoustician. He was not going to build a hall for musical performance that did not have fabulous acoustics. Disney Hall is an acoustical dream and its warm, intimate seating encircling the musicians and performers is mirrored perfectly by real surround sound. Under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel, the LA Phil shines.
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Buddy and Junior
Black and Blue on Saturday Night
By: - Nov 27th, 2015Blues men Buddy Guy and Junior Wells blew in from the windy city for a week at Sandy's in Beverly. There was a slow start early in the week but they tore the roof off on Saturday night.
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Tony Winner Fun Home
Poignantly In and Out of the Closet
By: - Nov 25th, 2015As the closeted father Bruce, Michael Cerveris won a Tony as the lead in the compelling musical Fun House. The story of his suicide and his coming out in small town Pennsylvania is narrated his his forty something lesbian daughter Alison. She is portrayed at thre age levels by Beth Malone, Emily Skeggs and as young Alison the simply adorable Gabriella Pizzolo.
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White Light, Concentric Circles, Thomas Adès
Sadler's Wells Helps Us See Music
By: - Nov 22nd, 2015Four dance pieces set to the music of Thomas Adès were performed as the finale to a magnificent White Light Festival presented by Lincoln Center. Adès is a provocative yet pleasing composer whose seeming idiosyncracies suit choreography. The Sadler's Wells ballet company, clearly rooted in classical techniques, springs out organically to suggest additional layers of meaning.
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Rattle's Berlin Philharmoniker at Carnegie Hall
Beethoven Sunny-side Up
By: - Nov 20th, 2015The Berlin Philharmoniker has a sound and texture of its own. Smooth, but richly-textured, their performance of Beethoven's 6th and 8th Symphonies was a revelation at Carnegie Hall.
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Philip Glass's In the Penal Colony
Dystopian Production at Boston Lyric Opera
By: - Nov 19th, 2015Glass's opera is based on the Franz Kafka story of a prison colony where prisoners discover their crimes only as they are slowly killed. A true believer is the Executioner, and the failed execution is witnessed by the Visitor, a representative of liberal society. With only two singing actors, the work is dependent on the performances, which in this case were excellent.
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First Night Saratoga 2016
Celebrating the New Year
By: - Nov 06th, 2015Every New Years Eve different cities and towns host celebrations of varying caliber, but Saratoga outshines them all. This year marks their 20th anniversary.
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