If you asked fans of 63-year-old guitarist Steve Vai (www.vai.com) what he’s best-known for, you might get a variety of answers. One might be the Long Island, N.Y., native’s recording and touring run within the fusion of styles created by Frank Zappa (1940-1993). Those seeds were sown when Vai — still a student at the Berklee College of Music in Boston — sent him exacting … [Read more...]
Seraphic Fire brings Haydn mass to glorious life
By Robert Croan Haydn’s six late-in-life settings of the Catholic Mass are outpourings of joy, reflecting the composer’s optimism and attitude towards life – even when, as in 1798, he labeled his Mass in D minor, “Mass in Troubled Times.” The “trouble” was Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt, designed to interfere with his enemies’ trade routes, directly or indirectly … [Read more...]
Pianist Trifonov miraculous in Mozart with Rotterdam Phil
By Márcio Bezerra The Kravis Center’s exceptional Classical Concert Series featured the Rotterdam Philharmonic on March 4. Playing to a packed house, the regional orchestra gave a satisfying concert, displaying fine musicianship and a cohesive ensemble. Under the direction of its chief conductor, Lahav Shani, the group started the program with Swansong by Estonian … [Read more...]
Jazz singer Aimée gets under the skin with new disc, Gold Coast Jazz show
If music is indeed the universal language, then jazz vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and composer Cyrille Aimée (cyrillemusic.com) literally and figuratively proves the value of being bilingual within it. Born in 1984 in Samois-sur-Seine, Fontainebleau, France, she both speaks and sings in English, French and Spanish. Her father is French; her mother is from the Dominican … [Read more...]
FGO reinvigorates, expands ‘Pagliacci’ in gripping production
By Michelle F. Solomon On Valentine’s Day in 1942, tenor and voice teacher Arturo di Filippi, co-founder of the Opera Guild of Greater Miami, the precursor to Florida Grand Opera, produced its first production. It was Ruggero Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci, and it played for only one night at Miami High School. It was groundbreaking because only four years later, The Opera Guild … [Read more...]
Detroit SO, Weilerstein brilliant in concert to remember
By Márcio Bezerra Most people come from the Midwest to enjoy our mild winters. However, on the rainy afternoon of Feb. 11, one, for a little over two hours, envied the folks living in Detroit thanks to the thrilling concert given by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts. It was a reminder that, no matter how well intentioned our local … [Read more...]
West Palm native Henderson found guitar glory far from home
Casual music fans might not recognize the name Scott Henderson (www.scotthenderson.net), but area musicians from the 1970s, and fans of jazz/fusion internationally from the 1980s onward, all know the name of the greatest electric musician South Florida ever exported. The guitarist released his seventh solo album, the self-produced Karnevel!, on Feb. 2, and has made 20 total … [Read more...]
PB Symphony satisfies with Rimsky, Zwilich, Grieg
By Márcio Bezerra The Palm Beach Symphony continued its 50th anniversary celebration Feb. 5 with a satisfying concert at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts. Under the music direction of the competent Gerald Schwarz, the local ensemble has bloomed into a serious musical organization and its increasingly audacious programming is proof of that. On Monday, the main … [Read more...]
Smokeboss Militia carves out original path amid tribute band plenty
Bands that blend a wide variety of different influences into a unique style often can’t be categorized in the moment. The Allman Brothers Band, for example, was simply called a rock act as it climbed to popularity from the late 1960s onward. No one coined the terms “jam band” or “Southern rock” until later to describe such a diverse act’s mesh of blues, jazz, gospel, … [Read more...]
Pedestrian conducting makes Cleveland Orchestra concert a mixed effort
By Márcio Bezerra For an orchestra that markets itself as “the best in America,” the concert given by the Cleveland Orchestra at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts was only a partial success. Playing for a (finally!) packed house, the venerable ensemble presented a conventional program performed with great technical prowess, but that ultimately failed to … [Read more...]