Brad Keller. (Photo by Bill Meredith) There may not be a better Palm Beach County-based jazz instrumentalist than pianist Delray Beach resident Brad Keller, but he certainly played the field musically beforehand. “I started as a vocal major in college,” he says. “I was going to be an opera singer until we all found out I wasn’t good enough. So I studied piano at Broward … [Read more...]
Community theater: Singing stands out in ‘High Society’ at LW Playhouse
By Dale King Lake Worth Playhouse goes all out for its first show of 2016, High Society, the tale of a Long Island socialite who waxes blasé on the night before her wedding when two suitors try to nudge her away from the groom-to-be. It’s an interesting mix of highbrow banter and scatterbrained hijinks that is well worth seeing. Jodie Dixon-Mears, the artist boss at the … [Read more...]
Standout singing, graphics make for intriguing ‘Dandelion Woman’
A two-person chamber opera by a South Florida-based composer had an impact beyond its intimate scale thanks to two powerhouse performances and a beautifully accomplished suite of computer projections. Fairy Tales: Songs of the Dandelion Woman, which had its premiere in early May at the SoBe Institute for the Arts in Miami Beach (and which I saw May 17), is the brainchild of … [Read more...]
Natalie Merchant finds magic in singing with orchestra
By Hilary Saunders Natalie Merchant says she feels like Wonder Woman. At 50 years old, the singer-songwriter has already helped define a genre through her first band 10,000 Maniacs, reinvented herself as a solo artist and sold millions of records, but it’s her current multiple roles that make her feel so empowered. Because now, Merchant’s (on average) tri-monthly … [Read more...]
Strong Britten should be the start of something important for PBO
It is not too much to say that Palm Beach Opera inaugurated a new and exciting era for itself this week with its two presentations of Benjamin Britten’s The Turn of the Screw. And as it happens, it was quite a good production, with strong singing, smart staging and good orchestral playing of a very challenging score, and the company can justly be proud of it. But the most … [Read more...]