WXEL radio becomes WPBI with close of sale to APM FORT LAUDERDALE – Classical South Florida, the American Public Media radio subsidiary, said it has completed the purchase of WXEL-90.7 FM. The Boynton Beach-based radio station’s new call letters are WPBI. The Minneapolis-based company bought WXEL radio last year from Barry University in Miami Shores for about $4 million. The … [Read more...]
Boca fest audience was wild about Jackie
Perhaps some were thinking of their own daughters, pre-teen rebellion, and others of their granddaughters, out of touch in distant states. Doubtless most had happier ideas in mind, though one thing was clear: The appearance Saturday of Jackie Evancho on the final night of this year’s Festival of the Arts Boca turned an audience of concertgoers into proud, teary parents. The … [Read more...]
Montero entertains in vivid style at Boca fest
The Venezuelan pianist Gabriela Montero has carved out a useful niche for herself as a musician who recalls an earlier tradition of performers who improvised in concert. Her recital Thursday night during the fifth Festival of the Arts Boca ended with four of her improvisations, but it was the rest of her program that provided the highest interest from a purely musical point of … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Feb. 18-20
Music: The music of Spain has long been a favorite of the conductor Philippe Entremont, and for this weekend’s concert by the Boca Symphonia, he’s commissioned new arrangements of familiar and not-so-familiar masterworks from the land of Cervantes. The Argentine-born mezzo-soprano Daniela Mack is the guest soloist for Manuel de Falla’s El Amor Brujo on a program that also … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Jan. 21-23
Theater: Although it is a little lighter than the usual fare at Coral Gables’ GableStage, the cutting edge company has a crowd-pleasing winner in Jane Prowse’s A Round-Heeled Woman, based on the true story of Jane Juska. In her mid-60s, she places an ad soliciting men to have sex with her, adding “If you want to talk first, Trollope works for me.” Of course, she attracts a … [Read more...]
Boca Symphonia enters Age of Philippe
The French pianist Philippe Entremont was born in 1934 in Rheims, France, to two musicians, and found fame early, entering the Paris Conservatoire at 12 and winning first prizes in solfège, chamber music and piano performance by the time he was 15. He made his American debut in 1953, and has enjoyed a career as one of the world’s leading pianists, with numerous recordings and … [Read more...]
Boca arts fest to return March 4-12
By Skip Sheffield The Festival of the Arts Boca is going lean and green for its fifth season March 4-12 at Mizner Park in Boca Raton. That’s “green” as in “young.” One of the headliners in the concert finale March 12, operatic soprano Jackie Evancho, is just 10 years old. “We tried to calm the pace a little this year,” Charles Siemon, chairman and co-founder of the … [Read more...]
Boca’s Young Circles moving fast in new direction
Jordan Asher, of experimental electronic Boca Raton trio Young Circles (www.youngcircles.com), refers to the group as "three really impulsive guys." Considering that they were playing garage-band rock under the name Blond Fuzz only a month before -- and as Stonefox a few months before that -- it qualifies as an understatement. Vocalist/guitarist/keyboardist Asher (age 23), … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: July 30-Aug. 5
Dance: Julie Kent, long a principal dancer with the American Ballet Theatre, takes the title role tonight and through the weekend in Giselle, with the Boca Ballet Theatre at Florida Atlantic University’s University Theatre. Kent, one of the best-known ballerinas of her generation, partners with another ABT standout, Marcelo Gomes, for these three performances of the beloved … [Read more...]
Boca native’s film of Nepali rebels screens at Delray fest before HBO
Kiran Deol discovered the subject of her first film while studying at Harvard University. “I learned the statistic that 40 percent of the rebel army in Nepal's fighting forces were women,” says Deol, a 2001 graduate of Spanish River High School in Boca Raton. “That statistic had my jaw on the floor. So the idea of showcasing the story of a woman that showed women as agents of … [Read more...]