The Boca Raton Symphonia is, along with the Master Chorale of South Florida and the Delray String Quartet, one of the few area cultural institutions to have emerged and thrived from the demise of the Florida Philharmonic in May 2003. Since October 2007, the Boca Symphonia has been led by Alexander Platt, 43, a New York-born musician now resident in Chicago who, in the … [Read more...]
Archives for May 2009
ArtsPaper Interview: Alexander Platt, director of the Boca Symphonia
Alexander Platt conducts violinist Vadim Gluzmanand the Boca Symphonia in theTchaikovsky Violin Concerto in December 2008.(Photo courtesy Boca Symphonia)The Boca Raton Symphonia is, along with the Master Chorale of South Florida and the Delray String Quartet, one of the few area cultural institutions to have emerged and thrived from the demise of the Florida Philharmonic in May … [Read more...]
Arts feature: Entertainers warm to concerts held in people’s homes
Singer-songwriter Rod MacDonald.(Illustration by Pat Crowley)By Bill MeredithLike most non-essentials, live music is suffering through an economic-imposed crisis. But as nightclubs close, a quieter live music scene is surging under the radar.House concerts are by no means new, but they're offering performers --particularly acoustic singer/songwriters -- more additions and … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: May 29-31
A landscape by Alfred Hair of the Florida Highwaymen.Ongoing now at the Spady Cultural Heritage Museum in Delray Beach is an exhibit of paintings by two of the Florida Highwaymen, the African-American landscape artists who sold their visions of the state from the trunks of their cars in the 1950s and 1960s. The paintings by Alfred Hair and Harold Newton come from the private … [Read more...]
Theater feature: Actor McConnell moves into director’s chair
Actor/director Gordon McConnell.By Hap ErsteinCarbonell Award-winning actor Gordon McConnell of Lake Worth likes a juicy role to sink his teeth into, but -- as the cliché goes -- “what he really wants to do is direct.”“I’m trying to branch out a little bit,” he says by cellphone, on his way to Miami for rehearsals of this year’s Summer Shorts. “I love theater, but I’d like to … [Read more...]
Film review: ‘Gigantic’ a sometimes amusing essay in indie quirk
Zooey Deschanel as Happy in Gigantic.By John ThomasonThe minute we hear that Zooey Deschanel’s character in Gigantic is introduced with the name Happy (short for Harriet), our collective bell goes off.Conditioned by too many quirky independent comedies, the irony of her secretly miserable life has already cemented in our craniums so thoroughly that it can almost no longer apply … [Read more...]
ArtsPaper Books: Cahill advocates passionately for Death Row ‘saint’
By Bill WilliamsDominique Green was 18 when Houston police arrested him in connection with a fatal shooting during a robbery. A jury that included no blacks convicted Green, an African-American, of capital murder. The court then sentenced him to death.Thomas Cahill, author of the best-seller How the Irish Saved Civilization, sees Green’s “monstrously unfair” trial as evidence … [Read more...]
ArtsBuzz: National Poetry Slam coming to West Palm in August
SlamCharlotte, last year's winner of the National Poetry Slam.(Photo by Katya Szabados)WEST PALM BEACH -- The National Poetry Slam, which since 1990 has seen writers hurling hexameters at each other in closely followed contests, will be held this year in West Palm Beach beginning in the first week of August.The slam is set for Aug. 4-8, and will pit roughly 80 teams of three to … [Read more...]
ArtsBuzz: Palm Beach Chamber Music Festival set for 18th summer
The Palm Beach Chamber Music Festival logo.By Greg StepanichThere is some debate, even now, among the founders of the Palm Beach Chamber Music Festival as to just what the three of them had in mind when they decided to get together and play music one day back in the faraway summer of 1992.Michael Ellert, a bassoonist, said he thought it was just orchestral players meeting to … [Read more...]
ArtsBuzz: The Broadway season, considered
George Akram and Karen Olivo in West Side Story. By Hap ErsteinDespite the bad economy, which meant that several anticipated shows never got capitalized and were grounded, Broadway had a pretty solid season.Total box office was up, helped by spiraling ticket prices ($136.50 for the orchestra at Billy Elliot.) Stars headed to the stage, including Jane Fonda, Angela Lansbury, … [Read more...]