By Dale King Prolific absurdist playwright Eugène Ionesco didn’t like Ionescopade, A Musical Vaudeville, when first he saw it. Mildred Kayden, who wrote the music and lyrics for what she herself deemed “a very strange play,” said the Romanian-born, French-raised author swore he would never speak English again because the absurd musical raised his own absurdity to an even … [Read more...]
Lynn Philharmonia reaches new level in opening concerts
Every season, South Florida gets visited by touring big-name orchestras from northern climes worldwide that for some reason find this part of the country particularly urgent to see in February. One of the benefits of our gentle weather is that we can see these major orchestras up close, but another less appreciated benefit for us local concertgoers is that these visits provide … [Read more...]
FAU creates Theatre Lab; Tyrrell named director
By Dale King Louis Tyrrell is going back to school -- literally. The founding artistic director of the former Florida Stage in Manalapan who went on to create the Theatre at Arts Garage in Delray Beach following the previous venue’s 2011 bankruptcy, is launching a new educational initiative. Six months after resigning from his Theatre at Arts Garage post last March, Tyrrell … [Read more...]
Lynn Phil’s best-ever opener hints new era for school, orchestra
It’s hard to know whether a change as simple as a rehearsal strategy can make all the difference in the world for a performing organization, but in the case of the Lynn Philharmonia, this much can be said: Its opening program this past weekend was easily the finest opening concert of the season the conservatory orchestra has ever given, and in its freshness, maturity and … [Read more...]
FAU Summer Rep: A kinder, gentler ‘Bonnie and Clyde’
By Dale King Bonnie and Clyde, the Musical, may not be the most memorable show ever staged at Florida Atlantic University. But it could easily be the most unusual. It certainly prompts the cast to overcome a sluggish script and sometimes intrusive backstory with their excellent acting and exceptional vocal skills. The tuneful recollection of the famed outlaws who achieved … [Read more...]
At Lynn, the sound of an orchestra transformed
Someone over at the Lynn Conservatory of Music got the memo. After three very middling concerts in which the student orchestra at Lynn University’s music school sounded haphazard, unfocused, and in its brass section, something shy of competent, the orchestra turned it all around Feb. 8 and gave a rousing performance of three well-known orchestral virtuoso pieces. Not … [Read more...]
Harid marks 25 years with three celebratory programs
Reared in the orphanages of rural southwest Brazil, Gleidson Vasconcelos found his future one day as he looked into a window he was passing, and saw a girl dancing to the sound of a music box. “’She must be having a really great time doing what she is doing. She is so beautiful and free,’” Vasconcelos remembers thinking. Seen at the window by a dance teacher, the 10-year-old … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: March 23-25
Music: Contemporary classical music has a surprising number of champions in South Florida, and that includes Tim Thompson of Palm Beach Atlantic University, who every year offers concerts of new pieces by faculty members, students, and guests. This year’s festival, called Frontwave, began last night with a concert by the piano team of Duo Gastesi-Bezerra, and tonight is the … [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...]
FAU concert, exhibit spotlight Russian music publisher’s legacy
BOCA RATON -- The Bessel publishing house, founded in St. Petersburg in 1869, grew from a music shop into a concern that was at the center of Russian musical life, printing works by the nation’s leading composers from Tchaikovsky to the members of the “mighty handful.” Many of the first-edition scores published by Bessel can be seen in the Richard Beattie Davis Collection at … [Read more...]