The check-this-out mentality of social media might at first blush seem antithetical to the very idea of classical concertgoing, but that’s not the way Ray Chen sees it. The young Australian violinist finds his most congenial digital home in the realm of Facebook, but he’s also a master of Twitter and micro-video on Instagram. All of it a means to a worthy end: Getting … [Read more...]
Archives for February 2015
The View From Home 67: Weird Winnipeg, Rohmer, Robbe-Grillet, Preston Sturges, and an Afrobeat pioneer
My Winnipeg: Canadian experimentalist and silent-movie fetishist Guy Maddin called this 2007 feature (Criterion, $26.47 Blu-ray, $22.99 DVD) a “docu-fantasia.” This is as good a label as any to define My Winnipeg, an otherwise uncategorizable journey into the hypnogogic memories of Maddin’s past and the hometown in which he spent it. Shot mostly in soundless black-and-white, … [Read more...]
The complicated success of Greg Holden
By Hilary Saunders Greg Holden sounds like he still has a little chip on his shoulder. The young British singer/songwriter has found great success in the music industry since 2012, just not in ways that he expected, or perhaps wanted. That year, a song he wrote called “Home” debuted on the American Idol season finale, as contestant Phillip Phillips used it as his “coronation … [Read more...]
Youthful Calidore Quartet wins over Flagler audience
Four young student string players met at the Colburn Conservatory of Music in Los Angeles in 2010 and decided to form the Calidore String Quartet. They quickly won four American grand prize competitions, and the Munich and Hamburg equivalents in 2012. On Feb. 3, the Flagler Museum music series was host to their winning ways. All in their mid-20s, it was appropriate that the … [Read more...]
‘The best of the best’: Art and antique show returns for 12th year
Palm Beach ArtsPaper staff This Presidents Day weekend, more than 160 exhibitors will descend on West Palm Beach, bringing with them the best in art, antiques and jewelry from all over the world, attracting tens of thousands of private collectors, museum curators, investors and interior designers. The 12th annual Palm Beach Jewelry, Art and Antique Show will assemble from … [Read more...]
Flutist sparkles in challenging concerto at Lynn Phil
The folk styles of a people became the rallying musical cry during the nationalist upheavals of the mid-19th century, and while the politics have faded since then, what is left with today’s listeners is a sonic personality assembled from characteristic tones and rhythms. While we’re familiar with what those are in the case of the major European countries, it’s not so easy to … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Feb. 6-8
Film: One of the usual complaints about the Academy Awards is that the nominated short subjects were rarely available to be seen, making office pools too much of a guessing game. But now, all 10 of them – live action and animated – have been assembled for commercial viewing, this week at the Mos’Art Theatre in Lake Park and the Stonzek Studio in Lake Worth. Of the live action … [Read more...]
‘Liaisons’: Fifty shades of sex, power and betrayal
In 1782, French novelist Pierre Choderlos de Laclos wrote Les Liaisons Dangereuses, a nasty tale of sex, lies and belles lettres, which became an instant best seller. You could call it the Fifty Shades of Grey of its day. In 1985, Christopher Hampton adapted the tale of Vicomte de Valmont and the Marquise de Merteuil, former lovers who embark on a mutual challenge of seduction … [Read more...]
Composer, PBO prepare for ‘Enemies’ world premiere
Ask composer Ben Moore about writing an “accessible” opera, and he’s not all that comfortable with the term. “I like to say melodic, lyrical and memorable. Those are good words,” Moore said. And for the people behind his newest project, Moore is the ideal person to bring to the operatic stage a musical language in which lyricism is the driving impetus. “I had known Ben for … [Read more...]
Gutsy, shattering ‘Timbuktu’ a profile in courage
As South Florida continues to screen the holdovers from the 2014 Oscar season, it’s clear that the most courageous movie of this past year isn’t Clint Eastwood’s intense but airbrushed glorification of an American sniper, nor Morten Tyldum’s careful, formula-hampered biopic of Alan Turing, nor even Ava DuVernay’s vital event movie, Selma. Nope: The past year’s distinction in … [Read more...]