There’s much familiarity within the 2018-2019 South Florida pop concert season, with occasional reasonably fresh faces (Lauryn Hill, Maxwell, Dweezil Zappa, Black Violin) among the old. Of those, Sir Elton John conducts his final “Farewell Yellow Brick Road” tour in rare, multiple area shows at multiple venues in multiple cities; Bob Dylan returns, and Fleetwood Mac debuts … [Read more...]
Season Preview 2018-19: Jazz
The 2018-2019 South Florida jazz concert season rings familiar, but also feels like a season in miniature form. There are frequent faces like trumpeter Herb Alpert and his wife, vocalist Lani Hall; keyboardist Sergio Mendes, vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant, and trumpeter Chris Botti. Keyboardist Chick Corea and banjo master Bela Fleck reunite for another area duo show, … [Read more...]
Season Preview 2018-19: Opera
The folks at OperaBase tell us there are more than 25,000 live opera performances across the globe each year, which says something about the durability and resilience of this art form that first saw daylight in 16th-century Florence. Closer to home, the three major opera companies in this region – the Palm Beach and Florida Grand opera companies on the I-95 corridor, and the … [Read more...]
Five concertos, Lynn Wind Ensemble open concert season winningly
By Dennis D. Rooney Lynn University’s music conservatory inaugurated its 2018-19 series of concerts Sept. 8 in it its usual fashion, with a concert by its wind ensemble. “Crossover Concerti” was the title of the program, entirely devoted to concertos for woodwind and brass. Five composers were represented, four of them born between 1946 and 1973. The fifth was Igor … [Read more...]
From a South Florida condo, the blues reaches the world
Along with popular and country music, blues is now a booming, modern audiovisual industry. Particularly since the mid-1980s, when a young guitarist/vocalist from Texas named Stevie Ray Vaughan interrupted the decade’s synthesized, video-driven pop trends by blending rock swagger and blues rhythms to help create an ongoing roots music revival. A sizable, pre-existing subset … [Read more...]
PB Opera offers nights of song and fun for the summer
By Dale King Summers are usually fairly quiet for the Palm Beach Opera, much less hectic than the regular season that will launch in December with a rising-stars concert followed after with three mainstage opera productions of works by Verdi, Mozart and Johann Strauss II. But this summer, the company is making its presence felt with a new series called Summer Opera … [Read more...]
PBCMF IV: Charming American work tops festival finale
By Dennis D. Rooney The fourth and final program of the Palm Beach Chamber Music Festival’s 27th season was composed of a local premiere and two works of 20th-century composers on its first half, and Schubert’s Trout Quintet on its second. Clarinetist Michael Forte’s prefatory remarks mentioned that Piotr Szewczyk (b. 1978), composer of Three Summer Sketches that opened … [Read more...]
Pumpkins rise to the occasion even as Corgan snubs audience
Bands that formed in the mid-1960s and beyond capitalize on nostalgia tours, and Chicago-spawned alt-rock icons The Smashing Pumpkins reached their commercial and critical peak a full 30 years beyond that time frame. When lead vocalist, guitarist, keyboardist and band leader Billy Corgan was able to rein in original members James Iha (guitar, vocals) and Jimmy Chamberlin … [Read more...]
PBCMF III: All-American program features promising new nonet
By Dennis D. Rooney The Palm Beach Chamber Music Festival’s third concert of its current summer series, seen July 22 at the Crest Theatre in Delray Beach, was an “all-American” program. Works by three American composers, two of them living, and the American String Quartet (No. 12 in F, Op. 96) by Dvořák. Music by Eric Ewazen (b. 1954) opened it. Mosaics, for flute, … [Read more...]
Even with faults, Miami Music Fest’s double dose of Wagner enchants
By Dennis D. Rooney For its public concert July 14, the Miami Music Festival’s Wagner Institute presented the second acts of two of Richard Wagner’s operas: Lohengrin (1850) and Die Walküre (1870), providing a generous portion of contrasting music. The singers, chorus and orchestra, all drawn from the participants in this year’s institute, were conducted by its artistic … [Read more...]