Steve’s click picks #37
Our regular listen to and look at living, breathing composers and performers that you may not know yet, but I know you should… And can, right here and now, with…
What Did You Do During the War, Daddy?
The rabid right has worked itself into a state over Ken Burns’ extraordinarily fair, balanced and altogether pro-American documentary series, The War. Partly it’s the fact that it is on…
The Sun Also Rises
Adam Kirsch, writing in today’s New York Sun: The critic of the serious arts — poetry, painting, music — is addressing readers who are not just indifferent to new work,…
Dispatch from Carnegie Hall: Sphinx Gala
Two contemporary African-American composers shared the spotlight with Bach, Turina, Ellington, and Piazzolla at the Sphinx Organization Gala at Carnegie Hall last night. Cellist Tahirah Whittington held a sold-out Stern…
MacArthur Stiffs Composers
Alas, no composers among the MacArthur geniuses named today but Dawn Upshaw, who probably makes a decent living at this singing and recording business, will be getting a check for…
The New Season in L.A.: Part 1, the Phil
During the summer the music programming stays pretty much with the established and conventional, if not with the outright light and popular. I missed about the only performance of contemporary…
Practice, Man. Practice.
“Music should either touch your soul or make you dance,” Michael Abels says, and though he admits there is a lot of music out there that doesn’t do either, those…
Non-Fiction, Anyone
I’ve been paying some bills for the past couple for the past couple of days and haven’t had a chance to update much. While I’m still catching up, why don’t…
Corey Takes It All Off
Last week I went to Corey Dargel’s new postmodern cabaret show “Removable Parts,” and it was excellent. I call it “postmodern cabaret” because I’m not sure what else to call…