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...]
Jazz singer Monheit happy to be scatting in her 40s
For Long Island-born jazz vocalist Jane Monheit (www.janemonheitonline.com), music is — and practically always has been — a family affair. “I think it’s great when music and family can combine,” she says by phone from her home in Los Angeles in late December. “It’s always been great for me.” Born in Oakdale, N.Y., to musical parents who nurtured her love for vocalists, … [Read more...]
Late musician’s drums try to save Lake Worth Beach artists’ studio
As legacies go, the late area drummer Michael Duncan’s is unique and profound. Duncan died from complications with the human papillomavirus (commonly called HPV) in 2020 at age 64 after having worked with local blues, rock and country music acts including The Hellhounds, Tucker Brothers, Night Train, and the Wild Bushmen. And he left behind a treasure trove of drum … [Read more...]
Delray goes Fab Four with five-day Beatles on the Beach fest
By Dale King If you’re having a “Hard Day’s Night” and need some “Help” in a big way, you’ll likely find the solution at the annual International Beatles on The Beach Classic Rock Festival, a five-day, city-wide event that returns to downtown Delray Beach from Jan. 24 through Jan. 28. A multitude of Beatles-inspired rock and roll bands will come together to celebrate the … [Read more...]
LWB brewery and music hot spot opens new kitchen
Location, location, location. It's the well-known mantra for any real estate investor. But when anyone opens a successful establishment that's slightly off the beaten path, then expanding can figuratively necessitate starting again from scratch. Mathews Brewing Company Scratch Kitchen officially opened at 125 S. Dixie Highway in Lake Worth Beach on Jan. 5 — complete with a … [Read more...]
Veteran Gardens music producer launches audio engineering venture
PALM BEACH GARDENS — In music, what a listener hears on recordings or sees on stages constitute only a few pieces of what’s a larger sonic jigsaw. And perhaps no one in South Florida’s music scene understands that more than Palm Beach Gardens resident Guy Gualtieri (gualmusic.com), since he’s covered practically every piece of that completed puzzle during various points of his … [Read more...]
Veteran area drummer soldiers on despite collapse from leukemia
For every veteran musician, there are shows etched into memory over the course of a career. They’re usually high-water marks: a gig at a lauded festival; a reunion, an opening slot for a national to international touring act, and/or a night when everyone on stage performed with uncommon synchronicity. And then there’s the other kind of memory, one West Palm Beach-based … [Read more...]
New World, conductor Grams impress in Mahler’s Sixth
By Márcio Bezerra If Thomas Mann thought that Wagner’s art was “dilettantism raised to the level of genius,” what would he have made of Gustav Mahler’s symphonic output? Mahler, one of the more important conductors of the late 19th and early 20th centuries (in both Europe and New York City), had a limited compositional output as he wrote his symphonies mostly during his … [Read more...]
Director’s smart touches refresh FGO’s well-sung ‘Traviata’
By Robert Croan Verdi’s La Traviata, as staged for Florida Grand Opera by Chía Patiño [seen at the Broward Center, Nov. 30], contained many original and unusual touches while retaining the opera’s original 19th-century milieu. Early on, in retelling Alexandre Dumas fils’ story of the courtesan who sacrifices her one chance of true love, the consumptive heroine --- … [Read more...]
Seraphic Fire renders French Baroque superbly
By Robert Croan Welcome to Paris in the 1730s, during the reign of Louis XV. To open its 2023-24 season, Seraphic Fire, directed by Patrick Dupré Quigley, presented two rarely heard works from the period --- a sacred motet followed by extracts from an opera, each evoking the alleged splendors of the French court while providing a tantalizing glimpse into music that was … [Read more...]