Music Interviews
Botstein at Bard
Leon Botstein is known to New York music fans as the conductor of the city’s best-programmed concerts, which he leads every season with the American Symphony Orchestra. And, since 1990, he has transformed the Bard Music Festival at Bard College -- located about two hours north of Manhattan -- into the all-encompassing Bard Summerscape...
Brava Barbra!
Steven Brinberg has brought his uncanny impersonation of Barbra Streisand to several corners of the world. Now he returns to NYC with a salute to the Tony Awards at Birdland, featuring some special guest performers....
Gunn Control
Baritone Nathan Gunn has a firm hold on his career as he moves from triumphs in such operas as Billy Budd, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Die Zauberflöte, and An American Tragedy to his appearances in high-profile concert performances of two great American musicals: Camelot and Show Boat...
Phil Ramone and Paul Simon, Together Again
If you’ve been listening to the radio since the 1960s, you've almost certainly heard songs that Phil Ramone had a hand in. Now, the 73-year-old Ramone is reuniting with Paul Simon as musical advisor for the storied singer-songwriter’s month-long residency at the Brooklyn Academy of Music...
Kate Royal: From McCartney to Mozart
When Kate Royal makes her New York recital debut at The Frick Collection on March 30, it will actually be her second performance in the city...
Isabel Leonard on the Fast Track
Mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard has had a meteoric rise in the classical world. A couple years ago, she was still studying at Juilliard. Since then, she has made her debuts with the New York Philharmonic and the Metropolitan Opera...
Leila Josefowicz Takes Flight
Violinist Leila Josefowicz is among a handful of top-flight soloists on today’s classical music scene. She first attracted attention as a teenage virtuoso, making her debut at Carnegie Hall in 1994. Since then, she has settled into a long and fruitful career, performing the full gamut of music from Bach to Beethoven to Prokofiev to Shostakovich...
Looking Through Philip Glass
It's a great time for composer Philip Glass. Both feature films from 2006 that he scored, "The Illusionist" and "Notes On A Scandal," were nominated for a raft of awards. Then it was announced he would be producing a new major piece entitled "Book of Longing," based on the poetry of Leonard Cohen, for the Lincoln Center Festival....
Tetzlaff on violin concerto
German violinist Christian Tetzlaff has gained a deserved reputation for his intense musicality and an adventurous spirit to play any kind of music, from baroque to modern, without sacrificing his personal style. ...
James Conlon and NY Phil Revive Lost Music
Conductor James Conlon and the New York Philharmonic breathe life back into "degenerate" music with a performance of music by Alexander Zemlinsky, once banished by Nazis. Also, 26-year-old virtuoso pianist, Jonathan Biss, will perform Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 2 ...
Talking Rock and Politics With Taiwanese Metal Band Chthonic
Chthonic, pronounced “thonic,” is a black metal band hailing from Taiwan. Recently, when the band was in town for a string of shows, writer Stella Kim had an opportunity to sit down with vocalist Freddy Lim and guitarist Jesse Liu to speak more about their music, politics, and the music scene in Taiwan...
Composer Richard Danielpour Debuts At NYC Opera
It may only be a coincidence that New York City Opera opens its fall season on September 11th with the local premiere of a new American opera, Richard Danielpour’s "Margaret Garner," with a libretto by Pulitzer Prize-winner Toni Morrison, from the true story of a runaway slave...
After Five Years, Chicago's Dolly Varden Hits The Road Once Again
In support of their new album "The Panic Bell," Dolly Varden has embarked on its first tour as a complete band in over five years. In advance of their August 24th gig at The Living Room, songwriter Steve Dawson spoke about the new album, what it feels like to be back with the band again, and those pesky Mackinaw Trout...
Pray To The Lordi Because These Guys Will Rock You
Fresh off their win in the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest and a recent show at PNC Bank Arts Center in New Jersey, Lordi, Finland's monsters of rock, are continuing to build new fans and take over the world with their melodic hard rock/’80s metal sound...
Mostly Mozart's Music Director Speaks (and Conducts)
Now in his fifth season as music director of Mostly Mozart, French conductor Louis Langree continues to innovate in an arena some observers felt had become unrelievedly staid: four weeks of summer Mozart concerts at Lincoln Center...
Down The Hatch With The Von Ehrics
Hailing from Dallas, and fueled by Jim Beam, The Von Ehrics play a rowdy brand of barroom rock that's influenced equally by country standards and classic punk. After the release of their strongest album to date, "The Whiskey Sessions," we sat down with the band to discuss their music and their booze preferences ...
26-Year-Old Woman Leads Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas
At age 26, Alondra de la Parra has already achieved what more established conductors only dream of: she leads an orchestra–the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas (POA)–which gives young instrumentalists an opportunity to play music by composers from this hemisphere...
Pierre-Laurent Aimard Wraps His "Perspectives" At Carnegie Hall
French pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard is an eclectic artist: his season-long Perspectives concerts at Carnegie Hall have shown the pianist’s voracious musical appetite, and he's unafraid to bring audiences along. His last two Perspectives, "Programming Games" and "Collages-Montages" go up May 10 and 11 ...
All That Jass - Eddy Davis, Woody Allen and New Orleans Jazz
Eddy Davis, leader of several influential jazz bands, gives a spicy account of music, life, and playing with Woody Allen...
American Idols: An Interview With Michael Dorf
Michael Dorf, who founded the Knitting Factory and is a producer of the NY Jazz Festival, has put together another promising evening at Carnegie Hall on April 5, where the music of Bruce Springsteen will be played by an eclectic lineup of stars. Mark Rifkin of twi-ny.com sat down with the musical entrepreneur to find out about his various projects and get his take on the New York music scene...
Buddyhead Records Interview
Travis Keller and Aaron North, co-founders of Buddyhead Records, gained notoriety through their celeb-bashing webzine. But they don't need stunts these days, as their strong artist roster speaks for itself...
Becky Hobbs: A Country Music Performer Who Has Stayed True To Her Art
Performer/songwriter Becky Hobbs is one of the brightest stars in the world of country music, having written such hits as Alabama's "Angels Among Us" and "I Want to Know You Before We Make Love" by Conway Twitty. Columnist Danny Peary gets the scoop on Hobbs' storied career and her new retrospective CD, "The Best of the Beckaroo—Part One"...
Usher Gets "Into The Mix"
For Usher Raymond IV, making the move from R&B superstar--whose most recent album "Confessions" sold nine million copies--to actor had to present some risks, if not to his pocketbook, then to his ego. But Usher decided to take that risk when he was offered the role of Darrell for "In the Mix"--a deejay turned bodyguard for a Mafioso's daughter. Though he handles a gun for about a minute, the role is more about romance than hip hop gangsterism....
|
|