By Robert Croan Mario Chang has no qualms about touting the Palm Beach Opera production of L’elisir d’amore (The Elixir of Love), in which he will be the star this weekend. (The show runs Friday through Sunday.) “Tell the people that if they stay away they’re missing something very good,” says the Colombian tenor, who will play the central role of Nemorino. “This … [Read more...]
Since 1976, West Palm’s Music Man has kept the bands playing
During the same year Music Man (www.MusicManInc.com) opened on North Dixie Highway in West Palm Beach, consider that the United States celebrated its bicentennial anniversary, and Jimmy Carter was elected its 39th president. The average cost of a new house was slightly more than $43,000; average income was $16,000, average monthly rent $220, and gas cost around 59 cents per … [Read more...]
Haydn trio proves highlight for Lysander Trio at Duncan
By Dennis D. Rooney The Lysander Piano Trio was founded at New York’s Juilliard School in 2009. Their performance at the Duncan Theatre’s Stage West on Feb. 2, part of the Classical Café matinee concerts, featured cellist Alice Yoo deputizing for regular cellist Michael Katz. She and pianist Liza Stepanova opened the program with Gaspar Cassadó’s arrangement of the … [Read more...]
PB Opera’s ‘Carmen’ a study in strong women
By Rosie Rogers What kind of woman is Carmen? Since the premiere of Georges Bizet’s Carmen in 1875 she has been many different things. She can be a dangerous femme fatale, a proto feminist icon, or just another operatic woman doomed to die. In Palm Beach Opera’s Jan. 28 performance of Carmen, J’Nai Bridges’ Carmen fits none of these archetypes. She was fully human — … [Read more...]
Frost string trio opens Flagler Museum music series
It’s been quiet, musically speaking, at the Flagler Museum over the past year as COVID-19 silenced the annual chamber music programs at Whitehall. Since 1999, the mansion-museum in Palm Beach has welcomed some of the leading chamber music groups on the world scene, especially young string quartets such as the Dover, Calidore, and New Orford, all of whom have played the … [Read more...]
Roots guitarist/singer Osborne gives Boca crowd something to sing about
If the concept of a Sweden-born roots music artist seems like an oxymoron, Anders Osborne dispelled that notion in quick order during his Jan. 22 appearance at the Funky Biscuit in Boca Raton. The singer, guitarist, harmonica player and songwriter appeared solo to a capacity crowd for the second consecutive night at the venue, and displayed the elements of blues, R&B and … [Read more...]
Flagler Museum to feature six concerts by University of Miami musicians this season
Tucked away in Coral Gables, several miles southwest of the city it’s named for, the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami (www.frost.miami.edu) is the linchpin of all South Florida musical institutions of higher learning. Renamed for arts patrons Phillip and Patricia Frost in 2003, its program actually goes back 95 years. Saxophonist Paul Chafin (1930-2008) … [Read more...]
Rolston String Quartet brilliant but too aggressive
By Dennis D. Rooney The Rolston String Quartet is a foursome of young Canadians and Americans who play under a name honoring the distinguished Canadian pedagogue, Thomas Rolston (1932-2010), longtime director of music (1979-2004) at the Banff School of the Arts. The members, who played a concert Jan. 19 at the Duncan Theatre’s Stage West, boast an impressive list of … [Read more...]
Cárdenes leads Symphonia in substantive string concert
By Dennis D. Rooney A modest audience, socially distanced, heard a program Jan. 8 of Paganini, Vivaldi and Schubert played by 25 members of The Symphonia under the direction of Andrés Cárdenes, the co-founder and artistic and music director of the Josef Gingold Chamber Music Festival of Miami, a program geared toward educating young musicians. He is also on the faculty of … [Read more...]
New jazz festival set for Pompano Beach from Jan. 28-29
Editor's note: Organizers of this festival canceled it Jan. 6 because of the spike in coronavirus cases. Percussionists are often an afterthought for band leaders who are putting together musicians for recording or live performance. From pop music to jazz, most think that having vocalists and a guitarist, bassist and drummer, plus perhaps a keyboardist and/or horn players, … [Read more...]