Cameron Carpenter is on a mission to liberate the organ from the confines of the church, and bring this most hidebound of instruments into what he calls an “ecstatic future.” The brilliant young keyboardist and Peck’s bad boy of the organ world, who performs tonight at the Festival of the Arts Boca, is critical of the way the organ is understood in the world of music today, … [Read more...]
Conductor Schwarz advocates for American music, cellist son
You can forgive Gerard Schwarz some special fatherly pride when he talks about his youngest son, Julian. They are, after all, in the same business. “He’s got tremendous gifts, and he’s had quite a bit of success already,” said Schwarz, an eminent American conductor who led the Seattle Symphony to major-league status over a 26-year directorship before stepping down in 2011. … [Read more...]
News briefs: Four Arts extends Koch’s Old West exhibit again
PALM BEACH – The Society for the Four Arts has extended its current exhibit, Recapturing the Real West: The Collections of William I. Koch, for a second time following an unprecedented response from the public. The Koch exhibit will remain open at the Society’s Esther O’Keeffe Gallery through May 13, officials said this week. More than 20,000 people have seen the exhibit … [Read more...]
Sentiment turns ‘Jeff’ into something precious, not sharp
Jason Segel has a face for radio. He possesses the kind of pocky countenance that, were he around in the ’40s, would have landed him roles as a bruising heavy in the film noir canon, and not much else. These days, he gets to make out with Cameron Diaz in Bad Teacher, which doesn’t suggest that we’ve become less image-conscious in our society (ha!). Instead, his ascent to … [Read more...]
Oscar predictions: ‘Artist,’ Clooney, Streep, Plummer, Spencer
2012 will officially become the year of the silent, black-and-white film after Sunday night’s Oscars ceremony. That is when The Artist, Michel Hazanavicius’s clever homage to the early days of the movies will be anointed as the best picture of the year. Of course, it is not. The Descendants is, but there is no denying the groundswell of affection in Hollywood for the band of … [Read more...]
Pianist Cohen most impressive in Four Arts recital
One of the best versions of the Tchaikovsky Rococo Variations I’ve ever heard came courtesy of a YouTube video featuring a German cellist whom I’d never heard of, and whose career turned out to be largely in academia. The classical music world has many excellent players like that, artists who have low public profiles but a stellar record of accomplishment. That’s one of the … [Read more...]
Theater roundup: Life as a wrestling ring, or a cabaret, old chum
At one end of Palm Beach County, at the Maltz Jupiter Theatre, we are told that “Life is a cabaret, old chum.” At the other end, at Boca Raton’s Caldwell Theatre, it turns out that life is actually more like professional wrestling. The latter news flash comes from Kristoffer Diaz’s The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity, a 2010 Pulitzer Prize finalist that examines the scripted … [Read more...]
Violinist Hou branches out into show creation
Crossover is something that Yi-Jia Susanne Hou believes in, and not just in music. The Shanghai-born Canadian violinist, who played a solo recital in the Flagler Museum’s music series in 2009, is perhaps best-known for her work as a featured member of Bowfire, a multimedia fiddle extravaganza founded in 2000 that’s sometimes referred to as “Riverdance with violins.” Hou … [Read more...]
Photo Salon show offers fresh take on Florida views
The Photo Salon is a group of professional, semi-professional and entirely amateur photographers who meet biweekly at the Armory Art Center in West Palm Beach. Together they’ve mounted an exhibit of their work that showcases their different photographic styles, as well as their unique perspectives of Florida. The exhibit, titled Florida In and Out of View can be seen at the … [Read more...]
Guitar master Beck’s SunFest set fights sound problems
Set to turn 67 next month, Jeff Beck is one of three famed British lead guitarists who played with 1960s pop/rock group the Yardbirds, the others being Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page. And each followed that stint by diving into heavy blues-rock: Clapton with Cream; Page with Led Zeppelin, and Beck with his self-titled group. But while Clapton left Cream to pursue simpler pop … [Read more...]