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Sunday Afternoons With COT
Where have I been all these years? Only last spring did I attend my first concert by the Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle, in the pleasant Fletcher Hall of the Carolina Theatre of Durham–a completely...
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Into the mystic with Persian masters Kayhan Kalhor and Ali Bahrami Fard
Duke Performances presents a mind-boggling range of music, from soloists to huge ensembles, in many venues at Duke and in Durham, and regular theater-goers here have become accustomed to glorious...
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Love’s Food: The Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle’s “Romantic Riches”
The Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle gave a splendid concert yesterday in the Fletcher Hall of Durham’s Carolina Theatre. The program, “Romantic European Riches,” was well-chosen, with the first half...
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Music Addiction: For the Moment, Satisfied
I hate heroin. But I can empathize with the addicts, who always want more, stronger, purer, better–because I’m a live music junkie, drama doper and general art addict. Loving art creates a real problem...
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If a Treefalls in Spartanburg, it makes a sound at Hub-Bub
Since 1985, I’ve looked and looked in Spartanburg, SC for something interesting to do while visiting my in-laws (admittedly, I’m usually there on holidays). Finally on May 30, 2014, I found it–in the...
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Songwriter Special Shines a Light on the SFC
Carolina Performing Arts’s new season began with some special selections of Americana music to honor the Southern Folklife Collection’s 25th birthday. As important as it is to preserving cultural...
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NC Symphony with Branford Marsalis and other notes
The North Carolina Symphony under Grant Llewellyn gets even more exciting with Branford Marsalis sharing the stage for the Symphony’s season-opening weekend. Two men is finely-cut tail coats and white...
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Hot Symphonic Nights in Memorial Hall
The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Manfred Honeck, Conductor. Photo courtesy PSO. I heard and saw one of the more thrilling symphonic concerts of my decades of concert-going last night. Carolina...
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Curlew River: Benjamin Britten’s musical drama in a new, powerful staging at...
And you know that she’s half crazy But that’s why you want to be there—Leonard Cohen, “Suzanne,” 1966 We tend to think of the multi-cultural impulse in art making as being something quite recent, but,...
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Move Over, J.T.: “Carolina’s Calling Me”
Are you sick and tired of being sick and tired from North Carolina’s political implosion? Worn out with the shame and sorrow caused by the UNC athletics cheating? Yeah, me too. We’ve just elected the...
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In a Storm of Fragments with the Kronos Quartet, at UNC
The composer Aleksandra Vrebalov. Photo: Biljana Ustic. Carolina Performing Arts has just presented a ferociously affective program by the Kronos Quartet–which, I regret to inform you, will not...
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Double Boulez
Pierre-Laurent Aimard. Photo: Marco Borggreve/ Deutsche Grammophon. It’s tempting to just say, go here, and read Anthony Tommasini’s New York Times review of the program played in New York on the 16th...
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The Sweetheart of this RODEO
I first met Wilmington, NC, musician John Fonvielle a little more than two years ago, when my sister brought him to a family get-together, where he charmed the churlish clan and wowed us with a little...
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You Us We All, Shara Worden’s New Opera, at Carolina Performing Arts
‘You Us We All’ by Shara Worden, Andrew Ondrejczak & BOX at Holland Festival 2014 Amsterdam. Photo courtesy the artists. The more I think about this opera, the more wonderful it seems as an...
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No Lullabies: The Brahms Piano Quartets at Carolina Performing Arts
Carolina Performing Arts is on a serious roll this month, with an astounding variety of concerts, several of them featuring exciting collaborations by high-level artists. Last night saw the return to...
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Troubadour: Richard Thompson at CPA
I’m a lucky person when it comes to music. I was introduced to all sorts of sounds early in life, and never forced into a single narrow allegiance, except to quality. Some of the best listening...
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Limpid Beethoven at CPA Unequal to Election-eve Anxiety
Isabelle Faust and Alexander Melnikov appeared at Carolina Performing Arts. Photo: Marco Borggreve. I had thought, when I calendared a concert the night before Election Day, that surely Beethoven would...
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The China Philharmonic, with Clara Yang, at Carolina Performing Arts
Clara Yang performing the world premiere of Chen Yi’s Four Spirits, a Carolina Performing Arts commission, in Beijing with the China Philharmonic Orchestra. Photo courtesy Clara Yang. Clara Yang wore...
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1st Glass
Wow. Wow to the nth degree. The Bruckner Orchester Linz, under Dennis Russell Davies, performed three Philip Glass works last night, Feb.1, in Memorial Auditorium as the kick-off for Carolina...
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Glass #2: Study This
That the creation of a performing arts series is an art in itself was demonstrated last night during the performance of the complete set of piano études by Philip Glass, part of the Glass at 80...
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