The March 30 opening night of a new series honoring Grammy and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Dominick Argento offered an approach to opera that was accessible to a variety of audiences. Beautifully crafted sounds combined with familiar plots, moving scenes, and humor helped new listeners understand the performance. And it didn’t hurt that it was...
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By Stephen Poff The name doesn’t come from the phrase: “You don’t know Jack!” It’s an acronym from the first letter of each player’s name. But these knockout young performers may relish the association. After all, they’ve made it their game to advocate challenging repertoire: stuff that’s hard to play and sometimes hard for...
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No, Emaneul Ax didn’t debut a piece by Argentine composer Osvaldo Golijov with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra June 3. The celebrated pianist occupied the second half of the BSO’s Friday night program and was billed the star of the evening–not the newly commissioned piece: Sidereus, which opened the evening. We were surprised a star...
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Karen Gomyo and her “Ex Foulis” Stradivarius delivered a resplendent performance of Jean Sibelius’ Violin Concerto at the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall May 27. The Baltimore Symphony players then followed this up with their first-ever performance of William Walton’s Symphony No. 1 in B-flat Major. Both works demanded big sweeping sound from the orchestra, which...
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On a balmy Baltimore night in May, the cream of local salon society crowded around Paul Cassedy’s table for another great night of what he calls “dinner and music.” It’s no mean feat for a Baltimore rowhouse. Cassedy introduced Alexis Tantau, the night’s singer, and her piano accompanist, Elizabeth Brown. He toasted them with...
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On Sunday night the latest experimental music endeavor with firm Baltimore roots makes it local debut. Co-organized and -founded by local composer and musician David Smooke, the League of the Unsound Sound is a loose ensemble dedicated not only to exploring new composed music and improvisation, but to advocating for both of those camps...
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Indie-rock fans of a certain generation might recognize the name Amy Domingues. Yes, the longtime Washington, D.C./Northern Virginia cellist was one half of the dreamy chamber pop duo Garland of Hours and the bombastic trio Telegraph Melts with Bob Massey, an erstwhile City Paper contributor, but she’s also been the go-to cellist for regional...
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Just down the street from the Peabody Institute, An die Musik recently hosted two smashing world premieres and the melancholic masterwork of 12-tone titan Arnold Schoenberg: Pierrot Lunaire. The LUNAR Ensemble, whose members are all affiliated with the Peabody, managed to pack the house and then some. So no one present had a right...
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Ken Ueno While it’s not getting porn industry kudos, the excellent Mobtown Modern contemporary-music series is set to receive the Award for Adventurous Programming next month from Chamber Music America and ASCAP. Which validates what many of us around Baltimore have already known about the now nearly four-year-old series: Bold and challenging programming can...
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As the 20th century recedes in the rear-view mirror, it becomes clearer that Astor Piazzolla was one of that era’s greatest composers, one of the few to integrate the century’s enthusiasms for syncopation, improvisation, stretched harmony, and non-European folk music into a distinctive body of work. Guitar music was only a small corner of...
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One totally hairless gold man is supporting another hairless gold man entirely with his neck. No joke: Atop a platform placed front and center on the Meyerhoff stage, two male acrobats clad in goldish trunks and tinted with golden body paint, slowly move through a series of poses that this writer couldn’t pull off...
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