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Concerts / Events
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Cabaret Review: TAKE ONE: ORIGINAL “SMILE” CONCERT PRESENTATION (In The Spotlight, The J2 Cabaret Series)
TAKE ONE: J2 AND A TALE OF TWO SMILES: THE FINAL SCORE AND WHAT CAME BEFORE While some companies reviving musicals long after their time on the Great White White might restore one or more songs that had been cut, or record them as bonus tracks on a cast album, how about a resourceful group…
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Concert Review: AN EVENING WITH T BONE BURNETT (The Town Hall in New York City)
T Bone Burnett’s intimate concert Saturday night at Town Hall was a terrific tutorial in storytelling. With T Bone’s anecdotes and voice, both nostalgic and timeless, and the musicians playing with such empathy and energy, this was an event more than a concert, with a narrative woven through the tapestry of Americana, blues, and folk. A…
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Concert Review: CELEBRATING JOHN WILLIAMS (LA Phil)
Gustavo Dudamel and the LA Philharmonic’s Celebrating John Williams concerto on April 5, 2025, as not so much a concert as it was a cultural séance in which John Williams’ scores, so deeply embedded in the American psyche, were summoned and reanimated with startling freshness. The program, filled entirely with Williams’ most iconic works, could…
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Concert Review: THE SONGS OF SIMON AND GARFUNKEL (“What Makes It Great” with Rob Kapilow; Jordan Hall in Boston)
UNPACKING THE MUSIC OF OLD FRIENDS AND ADVERSARIES Celebrity conductor and music educator Rob Kapilow provided an entertaining evening of commentary and explication in his exploration of the music of the songwriting-and-singing duo of Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel last night in Jordan Hall as part of Boston’s Celebrity Series. Kapilow’s signature approach of providing…
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Film, Concert and Tour Review: RIGHT IN THE EYE (Alcoléa)
MOONSHOTS AND MUSICAL SAWS: MÉLIÈS GETS A MAKEOVER Georges Méliès wasn’t exactly Spielberg. He was cinema’s first mad scientist—half director, half magician, all-around agent of chaos. In the early 1900s, he wasn’t so much directing films as he was recording fever dreams: rocket ships crashing into eyeball moons, skeletons dancing Irish jigs, ghost houses with…
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Concert Review: ALISA WEILERSTEIN, THOMAS LARCHER & SCHUMANN (NY Phil; Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider, conductor)
A DREAM TURNS TO DARKNESS AND THEN INTO THE LIGHT At 11 AM on April 4, the NY Phil matinee cracked open with a live wire performance in a world premiere that left me breathless, if not a little rattled. Alisa Weilerstein is, without exaggeration, the most ferocious, almost feral, cellist I’ve ever seen live….
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Concert Review: ISRAEL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA (Lahav Shani, conductor, at Segerstrom Concert Hall)
COMING HOME TO THE ISRAEL PHIL The Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra (IPO) lives in my blood. Not metaphorically. This sentiment springs from actual circumstance—a birth story twined around orchestral strings like umbilical cord. On December 6, 1966—that annus mirabilis—my mother was in her 8th month with me in Tel Aviv’s main concert hall while the Israel…
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Concert Review: HÄIM LEADS HANDEL & BACH (The Handel Project, LA Phil)
VOICES OF ANTIQUITY, REAWAKENED Historically informed performance is no longer a specialty. Period practice vocabulary has entered the mainstream, influencing how modern orchestras perform baroque repertoire. Yet Emmanuelle Haïm‘s recent Los Angeles Philharmonic program—Handel’s Dixit Dominus and Bach’s Magnificat—had more to offer than expertly researched performance practice. It was baroque music with life in its…
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Concert Review: ACCORDING TO RAY (MUSE/IQUE at Mark Taper Forum)
Rachael Worby, Founding Artistic and Music Director of MUSE/IQUE, is hosting the inspirational 2025 season “Make Some Noise: Music and Stories of American Defiance and Hope” which spotlights transformative American artists and thinkers who rejected norms and limitations to forge a new and better future, while teaching us that nothing is impossible. And what better…
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Concert Review: 100 YEARS OF EPIC FILM SCORES (The New York Pops at Carnegie Hall)
NOW HEAR THIS! Film may be first and foremost a visual medium, but where would it be without music to bring out the emotions, heighten the drama, quicken the heart, create tension, and tie things together? At the cinema, while our brains are taking in the plot, and our sense of sight is absorbing all…
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Restaurant Review: ELEMENTA (The Gallery in DTLA)
A FANCY DINNER THAT’S ACTUALLY FUN Let’s be honest—multi-sensory dining experiences can sometimes feel like a high-concept science experiment where you’re not sure if you’re supposed to eat the food or just appreciate its existence. But Elementa at The Gallery in DTLA at Olive and Olympic? This is one of those rare dinners where the…
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Special Event Coverage: VAPE! (The Town Hall in Manhattan; A Benefit for the Entertainment Community Fund)
A GRANDLY GREASE-Y SPOOF! Poking fun, flinging a pun, prizing satirizing — that’s the paradise that is parody and Vape!, blatantly billing itself as “The Grease Parody,” aims its playfully poisoned arrows at that popular pop musical about high school, with high spirits. It was presented as a one-night-only concert event at The Town Hall…
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Concert Review: BROADWAY’S LEADING LADIES (The Town Hall in New York & Filmed for PBS)
AN AMAZING NIGHT OF STARS GALORE –AND IT’S COMING TO PBS Filmed to be shown on PBS stations later this year, the concert cavalcade called Broadway’s Leading Ladies at The Town Hall on West 43rd Street in Manhattan on March 10 was received with some of the most ecstatic, enthusiastic, and fanatic cheering and applause…
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Concert Review: LEONIDAS KAVAKOS AND DANIIL TRIFONOV (CSO at Symphony Center)
KAVAKOS AND TRIFONOV USHER IN SPRING FOR INTIMATE CHAMBER PROGRAM On an unseasonably warm late spring afternoon, Symphony Center buzzed with anticipation as the crowd waited for Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov and Greek violinist Leonidas Kavakos to begin their scheduled performance. The two men, dressed all in black, unceremoniously walked onstage and began playing Beethoven’s…
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Concert Review: JUDY COLLINS & FRIENDS: 85 YEARS OF MUSIC & PROTEST (New York City’s Town Hall)
SWEET JUDY BLUE EYES STILL EMBODIES HOPE AND RESISTANCE In these tumultuous times when many people believe the constitution is being shredded and the world order overturned, town halls have become the centers of discourse and defiance. So it is entirely fitting that Judy Collins, a messenger of hope and resistance, would celebrate her 85th…
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Concert Review: VIENNA PHILHARMONIC (Yannick Nézet-Séguin, conductor; Yefim Bronfman, pianist; Segerstrom Concert Hall in Costa Mesa)
The streets of Vienna are paved with culture, the streets of other cities with asphalt. — Karl Kraus Of the world’s major orchestras, few are more traditional than the Vienna Philharmonic, which performed its first concert in 1842. It has had no music director for many years, another of its distinguishing features. The outcome is…
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Highly Recommended Concert: THE 3Bs: BEETHOVEN, BEETHOVEN, BEETHOVEN! (Modus Operandi at Merkin)
CELEBRATING THREE BEETHOVEN MASTERPIECES In case you haven’t heard of them yet, Modus Operandi Orchestra (MOO) is comprised of some of the finest players in the New York City area. Led by internationally acclaimed conductor Justin Bischof, this truly is an awesome ensemble. At Merkin Hall on Wed March 12 at 6:30 (the perfect time…
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Concert Review: MAHLER’S SEVENTH SYMPHONY (Gustavo Dudamel with the LA Phil)
SEVENTH HEAVEN Nothing prepares you for the sheer spectacle of Mahler’s Seventh Symphony live. A staggering number of musicians packed the Walt Disney Concert Hall stage Saturday afternoon March 1—extra brass, two harps, tuba, and an enormous array of percussion, including cowbells which rang from the rafters—Mahler’s version of “more is more.” And at the…
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Concert Review: VIKINGUR ÓLAFSSON AND YUJA WANG (Recital at Disney Hall)
THE DYNAMIC DUO Víkingur Ólafsson and Yuja Wang’s Disney Hall duo recital on February 26 wasn’t just a concert—it was a spectacle of sheer pianistic brilliance, a conversation between two of the most electrifying musicians of our time. This highly anticipated concert, part of their collaborative tour, showcased a program that spanned a diverse range…
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Highly Recommended Concert: FINN, THE MUSICAL (Stars in the House Fifth Anniversary at Town Hall, NYC)
THE MUSICAL FINN SWIMS TO TOWN HALL AFTER KENNEDY CENTER PIRATES TOSSED IT OVERBOARD The show they tried to sink is coming back stronger than ever. Finn, the vibrant family musical about a young shark learning to live his truth, is making a splash at NYC’s Town Hall on Monday, March 17—just weeks after the…
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