Month: September 2009
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Congratulations are in order for Zach Carstensen, freelance writer and TGN man about town, because he received an NEA fellowship to the NEA Arts Journalism Institute in Classical Music and Opera. Is that a long-winded title or what! Anyway, this is a terrific program that promotes journalism in the arts, and ZC is doing a…
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watching ultramarines: a warhammer 40,000 movie online If Mahler’s Fifth Symphony wasn’t enough of a reason to hear the SSO and Schwarz play this weekend, now you have a financial reason as well. Ticket prices have been reduced for this weekend’s performances and now start at $9 each — less than the cost of going…
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Portland Piano International will feature Haochen Zhang in its first recital for this season on Sunday (October 4) at the Newmark Theatre. In June, I heard Zhang at the Van Cliburn competition, and he shared top honors with Japanese pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii. Zhang, age 19, moved to Philadelphia from Shanghai, China five years ago in…
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(movies) the a-team A near-capacity audience at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall reveled in an unusual gala concert with the Oregon Symphony and virtuosi of the banjo, mandolin, tabla, and double bass on Saturday evening (September 26). The orchestra welcomed Bela Fleck, Chris Thile, Zakir Hussain, and Edgar Meyer and whipped up some very new…
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For those of you interested in seeing the Seattle Symphony this season, this weekend would be a great time to see them. The program for this Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday (October 1-4) is Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto, with guest soloist Isabelle Faust, and Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 in C-sharp minor. I have a special affinity…
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Tomorrow night, Anton Batagov emerges for his Seattle debut and first public recital in 12 years at the Good Shepherd Center in the Wallingford neighborhood. The Russian composer/pianist is famous in his country for his movie scores for television and movies. His recital will include music from some of his television and movie scores. you…
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river of darkness download dvd A terrific set of young singers energized Portland Opera’s production of Puccini’s “La Bohème,” which opened on Friday night at Keller Auditorium. The opera, which tells the lives of four poverty-stricken ex-students and their friends in Paris around 1830, received exceptional performances by the principals, with Kelly Kaduce leading the…
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Drop your preconceptions of a story length ballet: a classical spectacular with splendid costumes? A stultified, stylized waste of time? Go to see the current Pacific Northwest Ballet production of “Romeo et Juliette” with choreography by Jean-Christophe Maillot. It will confound you, absorb you, shake you, upset those preconceptions and leave you feeling wrung but…
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Earlier this week I was standing in line at a bookstore with my iPod turned on and my ear buds tucked into my ears. I was listening to Mozart’s Concerto for Two Pianos; pre-listening for last night’s Seattle Symphony performance with guest pianists Orli Shaham and Jon Kimura Parker. When it was my turn at…
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Tonight the Seattle Symphony begins their subscription season with the piano pyrotechnics of Orli Shaham and Jon Kimura Parker. Parker and Shaham are accomplished pianists in their own right, but the Seattle Symphony has both of them this week as they play Mozart’s Concerto for Two Pianos in E-flat major. It is the first time…