The days when your basic high-end party for the swells featured fresh music by a talented local composer are long gone, but the music itself lives, and in a good performance, can go some way toward reviving a lost era of graceful living. The Firebird Chamber Orchestra’s current program of serenades does just that, with refreshingly buoyant and engaging performances of early … [Read more...]
Director Kennedy brings new energy to Master Chorale
Leaving a place where your colleagues in academia went boogie-boarding in the Pacific Ocean every Friday morning can’t be an easy thing to do. And so it was for Karen Kennedy, who left her job at the University of Hawaii-Manoa and directorship of the Honolulu Symphony Chorus to come back to the mainland, first to Baltimore, and then to Miami. “It was very hard for me to … [Read more...]
Music roundup: Adventures in new music at Lynn, Arts Garage
New Music Festival: Thomas McKinley (Nov. 10, Lynn University) For six years now, Lynn University’s Lisa Leonard has been running a weeklong fall-season festival devoted to new music and to the work of a featured composer. Past composers have included Gunther Schuller and Kenneth Frazelle, but this year, Leonard stayed close to home by choosing Thomas McKinley, a Lynn … [Read more...]
Hahn recital an exceptional feast of new music
The concertgoers Sunday night at the Broward Center for Hilary Hahn’s recital heard one of the finest violinists working today, but they also heard much more. They were present for nothing less than a festival of brand-new music, all of it worthy, and some of it that could have strong claims for the repertory. Hahn, who turns 32 at the end of this month, has had a remarkable … [Read more...]
Violinist Hahn explores Ives, opens programs to new encores
She signed her first record contract with Sony at age 16, and her career has only climbed steadily into the empyrean of classical music stardom since then. But it is a mark of the unpretentious, hardworking, homemade character of the professional life Hilary Hahn has built that while she could easily pull back and let the machinery of big fame bring gift-wrapped opportunity to … [Read more...]
Seraphic Fire opens Boca series with heartfelt Victoria, Monteverdi
A vivid reading of a madrigal sequence by Monteverdi and a heartfelt performance of a Victoria hymn stood out Thursday night as the Seraphic Fire chamber choir opened its new series of regular performances in Palm Beach County. In its 10th season, Patrick Dupré Quigley’s professional chorus has arrived at an enviable place in South Florida musical life, having grown steadily … [Read more...]
French pianist Vincent original, impressive in Delray recital
Playing the music of Franz Liszt, who was born in this month 200 years ago, usually gives a pianist free rein to indulge his inner keyboard wild man. And yet Guillaume Vincent, who was born only 20 years ago Sunday, brought to his reading of Liszt’s epic B minor Sonata qualities such as introspection, deliberateness and mystery, casting this showpiece in an unfamiliar but … [Read more...]
The 2011-12 season in classical music: Big, busy, and edgy
Classical music continues to be a growth industry in Palm Beach County and South Florida generally, which is remarkable considering the depth of the current economic slump. Perhaps it’s the wealth of technology that makes it easier to get the word out about this music, and inspires small bands of enthusiastic players and singers to get out there and try to get their voices … [Read more...]
Lynn Phil’s Mozart, Mahler mark important step forward
Since the Florida Philharmonic’s disappearance eight years ago, the local listener’s need for big orchestral ensembles has been filled by guest orchestras from outside Florida or overseas, the New World Symphony orchestral academy in Miami Beach, and the larger college groups such as the Frost Symphony at the University of Miami. Although Palm Beach County has several fine … [Read more...]
The 2011-12 season in opera: Even in tough times, companies innovate
South Florida’s opera companies are keeping things busy and innovative this coming season even as the economy continues to take its toll on audiences, box office – and even a whole series of matinees. Still, there’s enough intriguing opera ahead to interest fans and casual attendees, and for them to see some bright new talent take some big steps. Here’s what’s happening on … [Read more...]