Category Archives: Music
The fresh air of the Imani Winds
The Imani Winds are what the classical world needs — fresh faces, fresh ideas, fresh perspectives, and little bit of glamor (OK, more than a little bit; the women were indeed dressed in lovely silvers and whites).
This woodwind quintet — flute, oboe, bassoon, clarinet, and French horn — performed Thursday during the Music in Time [...]
A three-hour tour
But it’s really more like four and a half to five hours. That’s what John Kennedy, director of the Music in Time series, told the audience today about the upcoming performance of Morton Feldman’s large-scale work For Philip Guston. It’s for chamber ensemble and it lasts nearly five hours.
Kennedy said Feldman’s masterpiece is demanding in [...]
Gerry Hemingway likes Greek tragedy
At least we think so. We found him taking pictures outside the Cistern of the stage on which the Nottingham Playhouse will present The Burial at Thebes. What we’re certain of is Hemingway’s love and devotion to new music. This festival season, much of that new music is by his old friend Anthony Davis.
Gerry Hemingway [...]
Laurie Anderson is ‘multimedia-free’
Dan Wakin, the classical music reporter for The New York Times, observed that “already three productions consciously blur the line between moving images and real life.” In particular, he rightly praises the theater troupe 1927 for its stellar production of Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea: an “ingenious, macabre little charmer,” he writes. [...]
Filling his fashionable shoes
Geoff Nuttall, the first violinist for the St. Lawrence String Quartet, this morning looked every bit the man evidently being prepared to step into large and fashionable shoes. He was dapper beyond the cool gray or black typically worn by male musicians. He wore a beige linen three-piece suit with a kelly green linen tie.
He [...]
Heir apparent?
It looks like there soon might be a new director of Spoleto’s chamber music series. This morning, Charles Wadsworth, the series’ current director, announced that Geoff Nuttall, the first violinist for the St. Lawrence String Quartet, Spoleto’s ensemble-in-residence, has been named the series’ new associate director.
Wadsworth’s announcement, along with evident health issues resulting from age, [...]
I, Mr. Malaprop
John Kennedy thinks the ideal conditions for experiencing Morton Feldman’s four-hour work titled For Philip Guston would be a quiet, informal setting in which you could walk around, meditate, stroll, or lie down. Feldman’s work is the centerpiece of Kennedy’s Music in Time, a series of Spoleto concerts that showcases the new work of living [...]
the break/s
Marc Bamuthi Joseph presents the break/s, a mixed media melange about the history of hip-hop and the African-American experience. It combines video, dance, poetry, and music. Expect nothing less from the regular of HBO’s Def Poetry and Broadway theater. He’s also a former National Poetry Slam Champion.
Elvis Chestnut
It’s been long time since Chuck D made it clear where Elvis and the Duke stand in the minds of many American blacks: “Elvis was a hero to most/ But he never meant shit to me you see/ Straight up racist that sucker was simple and plain/ Motherfuck him and John Wayne.”
That [...]
They don’t know can’t
Tickets for the Carolina Chocolate Drops are selling fast. It’s easy to see why. They draw from all kinds of musical sources to create their music. Don’t tell them that can’t do one kind of music, then turn around and do another kind. They don’t know what you mean by “can’t.” The lead singer, Rhiannon [...]
