Jazz pianist Eldar.By Bill MeredithAt the age of 23, most jazz musicians are still figuratively getting their feet wet in both their art and their lives. Which puts young pianist Eldar Djangirov at least up to his waist by comparison.Going by only his first name since starting his recording career nine years ago, Eldar released Virtue, his sixth CD overall and fourth for Sony … [Read more...]
Music feature: Singer O’Connor finds career on contemporary path
Mezzo-soprano Kelley O'Connor.By Greg StepanichKelley O'Connor would like to spend some time pursuing her passion for cooking in the house she just bought in her hometown of Fresno, Calif.But for the time being, the world of contemporary classical music has plenty for her to do.Most notably, O'Connor is currently championing the Neruda Songs, a five-song cycle written by the … [Read more...]
ArtsPaper Interview: Doris Kearns Goodwin, on Lincoln and LBJ
Doris Kearns Goodwin. (Illustration by Pat Crowley)By Chauncey MabeDoris Kearns Goodwin is a historian with a great sense of timing.Already a Pulitzer Prize winner for No Ordinary Time, her 1995 dual biography of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, Goodwin was basking in the fading glow of her 2005 Abraham Lincoln book, Team of Rivals, when she received a call from an upstart … [Read more...]
ArtzBuzz: Art fair to expand, FAU adds second Jewish fest
Visitors to the American International Art Fairtour the Adelson Galleries. (Photo by Katie Deits)Art fair does booming business, will be 10 days long in 2011The recession may be dragging on, but the 2010 American International Art Fair enjoyed 15 percent higher participation over 2009 and a significant improvement in sales, according to founders David and Lee Ann Lester.Based … [Read more...]
Music review: Perlman does credible podium work in crackerjack Boca Ninth
By Greg StepanichBOCA RATON -- Perhaps Itzhak Perlman is better known for solo and chamber work as a violinist than he is as a conductor, but Sunday night he did a more than credible job at the podium leading one of the great canonical works of Western musical history.In an all-Beethoven evening at Mizner Park featuring the Ninth Symphony (in D minor, Op. 125) and the overture … [Read more...]
Music review: Bell stands out on mixed-bag Boca fest program
Conductor Alondra de la Parra.By Greg StepanichBOCA RATON -- Had there been any doubt that the Russian National Orchestra is one of the major stars of this year's Festival of the Arts Boca, Friday night's concert at the 11-day music-and-literature gathering would have dispelled it.Given an unusual program with three soloists and widely varied music from Third Republic French to … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: March 12-17
Figure Study (24 by 36 inches), a drawingby Oakland Park artist Grant Strawcutter.Pictures to peep by: This weekend at the Bruce Webber and Meyerhoefer galleries, both in Lake Worth, it's an exhibition of exhibitionism, as viewers are invited to take a look at nudes and erotica from classic pinups and sculpture to new work by several South Florida artists.“The work ranges from … [Read more...]
Music review: Revelatory Beethoven from Pletnev, Denk in Boca
Pianist Jeremy Denk.By Greg StepanichBOCA RATON -- We have reached the point as a civilization where you'd think there was absolutely nothing new someone could bring to the Fifth Symphony of Beethoven.And yet there it was tonight at the Festival of the Arts Boca: A performance of this 205-year-old masterwork that was sometimes head-shakingly odd and textually questionable, but … [Read more...]
Music review: Perlman, Pletnev, RNO impressive in Boca fest musical opener
Itzhak Perlman.By Greg StepanichBOCA RATON -- As night fell and concert time arrived Saturday at the third Festival of the Arts Boca, hundreds of ticket-clutching patrons still stood in two slowly shuffling lines along both sides of the streets of Mizner Park, waiting to get in.But once inside the tent at the Count de Hoernle Amphitheater, they found the music worth enduring … [Read more...]
ArtsBuzz: Boca fest gearing up to be ‘fabulous,’ despite scaling back
Itzhak Perlman. (Illustration by Pat Crowley)By Greg StepanichBOCA RATON – Itzhak Perlman really wants to conduct the Ninth Symphony of Beethoven.And Charlie Siemon has always wanted to hear the symphony in the amphitheater at Mizner Park where the third Festival of the Arts Boca gets under way Thursday. His wish dates back to the day the amphitheater opened with the Florida … [Read more...]