There’s something profoundly satisfying about hearing early American choral music, even if the listener doesn’t identify with the white Protestant tradition that informs it. Drawing on the modes of the British Isles and harmonized in a plain-lumber, honest-nails fashion, it speaks to our national history in a way that calls up images of hardworking, straightforward people in … [Read more...]
Archives for October 2012
Season Preview 2012-13: The Broward-Miami art scene
The visual arts season in Broward and Miami-Dade Counties is as contradictory as ever, refusing to be slotted into any tidy categories. The art soon pouring into museums and galleries gives as much attention to the natural world as it does to the imagined and synthetic realms, and shows by venerable artists open concurrently with exhibits introducing the newly minted and … [Read more...]
Season Preview 2012-13: Classical season younger, fresher
South Florida has a remarkably active and diverse classical music season in general, and this year some of the younger musical organizations are showing some real depth and growth. Both the Boca Raton and Palm Beach symphonies have challenging, fresh programming throughout their seasons in Palm Beach County, and chamber music is well-represented in the Duncan, Flagler and Four … [Read more...]
Season Preview 2012-13: Loss of theaters doesn’t slow promising season
The past season saw the second shoe drop in Palm Beach County. Boca Raton’s 37-year-old Caldwell Theatre Company closed its doors, soon after Florida Stage ended its operations, and area theatergoers are still reeling from both abrupt losses. Add Broward County’s now-defunct Promethean Theatre ― or rather subtract it ― and the theatrical landscape is substantially thinner as … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Oct. 13-14
Theater: Palm Beach Dramaworks opens its season this weekend with Talley’s Folly, Lanford Wilson’s 1979 two-person drama of disappointment, family history and desire. Brian Wallace stars as Matt Friedman, who has fallen in love with Sally Talley (Erin Joy Schmidt), and wants to make her his wife, despite objections from her Protestant family about an older Jewish suitor, and … [Read more...]
Composer brings passion for stories to new Maltz children’s musical
Ask John Mercurio about way he approaches his craft as a composer of musicals, and one word keeps coming back: Storytelling. Partly that’s because he writes book and lyrics as well as music, but the idea also is central to his creative process. “I think for me, the way in, whether it be book writing, music writing or lyric writing, is always telling a story. That’s my thing. … [Read more...]
Music roundup: A night of Waxman; Trillium kicks off St. Paul’s series
Lynn New Music Festival: Donald Waxman (Oct. 4, Lynn University, Boca Raton) The composer Donald Waxman turns 87 later this month, but his compositional muse shows no sign of slowing down. The special guest last week for the New Music Festival at Lynn University, founded by pianist Lisa Leonard and now in its seventh year, Waxman has had a long, distinguished career in … [Read more...]
Season Preview 2012-13: New leadership at MCB raises dance stakes
Although Ballet Florida is now long-gone, the world of South Florida dance is seeing other big changes, most notably the arrival at Miami City Ballet of a new director following the sidelining and then departure of the company’s founder, Edward Villella. But there are small, scrappy companies hereabouts making their marks in the dance world, and the major area venues are … [Read more...]
Season Preview 2012-13: Few classic rockers in this pop season
The end of classic rock as we knew it continues in the 2012-2013 South Florida concert season, since few of the usual suspects like the Eagles, Allman Brothers Band, Tom Petty, U2, Bruce Springsteen or Crosby, Stills and Nash will be present. Sure, there’s a specialty show by The Who (a Quadrophenia run-through) and an appearance by retro-rock singer Chris Robinson, although … [Read more...]
Season Preview 2012-13: Palm Beach County visual art
Each year in Palm Beach County, after a summer lull that seems endless, art starts happening again like Snow White gently waking from her sleep, bright-eyed, bushy tailed and — thanks to some local wizards — with remarkably plumper lips and a less-furrowed brow. After all, we do live in a veritable fantasyland of opulence and wealth and the “season” motivates us all to break … [Read more...]