Quotable
"All about us is noise and bramble, thorn and din…Someone is trying to make music somewhere with a pair of wooden spoons on an oil drum, With cello, boom box,
Classical
Quotable
“I first heard it at Carnegie Hall when I was 15 or 16. More than half the audience walked out very angrily. That made me like it even more.” – Elliott
Tough Times
It's not the happiest of times in the rarefied world of big-time music, as these recent announcements can attest. Ticket sales are down, endowments are shrinking, donations are way off.
Three-Out-of-Four Ain’t Bad
Last night, I was swayed by this week's NY Phil program of 20th Century French works to make my first appearance of the season at The Barn (a.k.a. Avery Fisher
Go Gcasa Muid Le Chéile Arís (Until We Meet Again)
After eight days and nearly 1500 km of driving, I found myself back in Dublin Sunday night, where I rewarded myself with a return to trip O'Donoghue's, the friendly, spit-on-the-floor
Merry Christmas
The Orpheus Club, Ridgewood, NJ, 10/21/08 (My father, James, is on the right, 2nd from the top. More pics below.)
Street Symphony
When I first heard about the You Tube Symphony Orchestra, it sounded like another stupid gimmick cooked up by hidebound orchestras trying to appear "cool." But, after noticing that YouTube
Sweet 16 (+1)
I need to finish my holiday shopping and get ready for my trip to Ireland next week, so here – in chronological order – is my contribution to the barrage
Strings Attached
I remember sitting down with Jack McAuliffe, then-vice president of the League of Symphony Orchestras (formerly known as the American Symphony Orchestra League) a few years ago and asking him