I’m down with the dude, conductor Gustovo Dudamel. Got a big dose of him and I’m now under his spell. Or at least I was for two full hours Sunday (1/8/11) afternoon at Disney Hall.  A week-long trip to California for otherwise non-music purposes happily coincided with the opportunity to hear Dudamel lead the Los Angeles Philharmonic in an attractive, high-energy program – Adams, Bernstein, Beethoven – that they’re...

It’s no secret that British composer Thomas Ades is gay and if you research just a bit it’s easy to find that his partner is the video artist Tal Rosner. They collaborated in 2008 on a piano concerto with video, “In Seven Days.” The piece was performed January 6-8 by the New York Philharmonic, with Ades as soloist and music director Alan Gilbert conducting.  Unfortunately there’s no mention...

Nico Muhly “A Good Understanding,” Los Angeles Master Chorale, Grant Gershon conductor (Decca) “I Drink The Air Before Me” (Decca/Bedroom Community) New music’s Boy Wonder Nico Muhly. It’s not enough that he landed a commission from the Metropolitan Opera while still in his 20s (Two Boys, premieres in London in June at the English National Opera and shows up in New York in the 2013-14 season), but now he’s...

The New Yorker critic, best selling author and MacArthur fellow, Alex Ross released a new book in the fall, Listen to This. In the Preface, I say that the aim is to “approach music not as a self-sufficient sphere but as a way of knowing the world.”  I treat pop music as serious art and classical music as part of the wider culture; my hope is that the book will serve as an introduction to crucial figures and ideas...

In December the Manhattan School of Music gave three staged performances of Lee Hoiby’s “Summer & Smoke,” a 1971 adaptation of a Tennessee Williams piece with a libretto by Lanford Wilson. Anthony Tommasini in the Times gave a very positive review, especially of the work referring to the “sure dramatic pacing and understated expressivity, in music admirable for its directness and melodic grace”...

For singer/songwriter Rufus Wainwright’s return to The Egg in Albany tonight, every audience member gets a close up view.  That’s thanks to the visual component of the concert’s first half, a video creation by Douglas Gordon. But don’t expect a live action shot of Wainwright on a big screen, like at an arena rock show. Gordon is an acclaimed artist who works in large scale video formats and he’s created a very long...

Eugenics — the science of improving a human population by controlled breeding to increase desirable characteristics — is a central theme in “Cold Spring,” which plays Friday and Saturday nights (12/3-4/10) in the EMPAC theater in Troy. Creator Sean Griffin chose the title as a reference to the studies in human potential conducted in Cold Spring Harbor, Suffolk County, during the early part of the...

It’s not just stars of popular culture who are the subject of “worship sites.”  An on-line tribute to the late American composer and pianist Robert Helps (1928-2001) is nothing less than pious veneration.  While including the required list of compositions plus a timeline and discography, the site is an interactive, dynamic progression – obviously the work of loving care.  It was conceived by Andrea Infamosa...

To my surprise and pleasure, last year’s Music Quiz for World AIDS Day is one of the most visited posts on this site.  So here’s another round. Match the artist on the left with his (or her!) album/song/ensemble/venue on the right.  Answers follow. share: Bookmark on Delicious Digg this post Recommend on Facebook Buzz it up Tip on Hyves Share via MySpace Share on Orkut share via Reddit Share with Stumblers Tumblr it...

Steven Blier on “Manning the Cannon,” an upcoming program with the New York Festival of Song: “This is a program I’ve been longing to do for about two decades. It explores two centuries of gay composers and gay-themed songs, and presents a wide variety of characters: experienced guys on the prowl for a good time; sensitive men grappling with their sexuality; hyper-males and drag queens; ecstatic lovers and...