Typical of a major conductor in our jet set age, Marin Alsop, who appears with the Philadelphia Orchestra at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center on Wednesday, has bases of operation located in a variety of far flung cities. First is Baltimore, where in September she begins her second year as the music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. With her 2005 appointment to the post she became the first female leader of a...

In 1969, the city of Cohoes purchased the abandoned National Bank Building at the northern end of Remsen Street for $1 to save the prominent 1874 edifice from imminent destruction. As city officials began examining the building’s interior, they couldn’t find any stairs to a third floor. Eventually, they broke through a ceiling panel, only to discover that hidden away in the top half of the building was a gem of...

On the morning of 9/11 from his Greenwich Village apartment, David Del Tredici could hear the sirens — and their unsettling sound opens his newest work “Paul Revere’s Ride.” Patriotism may have led Del Tredici to the famous Longfellow poem (“Listen my children and you shall hear…”), but his grand and colorful setting for soprano, chorus and orchestra is more fantasy than jingoism. It receives a thrilling,...

Tenors will forever owe a high note of thanks to the late gay British composer Benjamin Britten, since virtually everyone of his many works featured a glorious role for his lover, the late tenor Peter Pears. One of the most intriguing British singers since Pears is tenor Ian Bostridge who takes up three prime Britten song cycles in a beautiful new recording with the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Simon Rattle (EMI). Bostridge...

For more than 20 years, he’s been a star in the most elite realm of classical ballet. But his name is more like ESPN. Jock Soto was a mere 16 years old in 1981 when Peter Martins, director of the New York City Ballet, plucked him out of the company’s school. Just four years later Soto was promoted to the troupe’s top tier of dancers. “At that time I was the youngest principal. I was in shock. It was hard to live up...

His husband. Her wife. The coupling of these words may cause your tongue to stumble, but for many people in committed gay or lesbian relationships, the terms are longed-for alternatives to euphemisms like partner, companion or lover. Yet there’s far more at stake in the cause of same-sex marriage than just better terminology. Filmmaker and Troy native Jim de Seve, whose documentary “Tying the Knot” opens...

“Whitman and his universal message of love and tolerance and embracing real freedom needs to be heard,” says the gay jazz pianist and composer Fred Hersch, discussing his new recording “Leaves of Grass” (Palmetto). The disc features musical settings of the great gay poet Walt Whitman and coincides with the 150th anniversary of the first publication of the landmark collection “Leaves of Grass.” “Just as Whitman...

With typical brevity and wit, Joseph Fennimore has already composed his own epitaph: “Often wrong. Never in doubt.” It speaks well to the contradictions and apparent folly of Fennimore’s livelihood. In a society where high art is little valued, he’s a driven and earnest composer who refers to his pieces as “ditties.” Also a virtuoso pianist who studied with the legendary teacher Rosina Lhevinne – as did...

Picture the multitude of soldiers, horses and weapons that populated the recent blockbuster film “Troy.” Add in myriad satyrs, nymphs and fauns plus a score of ego-driven opera singers. Then squeeze them all onto a stage for four hours and you’ll begin to grasp the job of Francesca Zambello, who directed “Les Troyens” last year at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. Zambello is an opera director. In other...

The increasing longevity of humans has advantages for composers. Because the music world gets obsessed with birthdays and anniversaries, composers who make it to age 70 and beyond can expect tribute concerts at least every five years, and heightened attention to their music in general. Performers and audiences are led to think, “There’s a living master in our midst we best pay attention.” Two who fit that bill are...