Violinist Armstrong a Winner all-the-way With LA Chamber
REVIEW… Young, lithe, violinist Nigel Armstrong stole the hearts of the packed house at Alex Theatre in Glendale Saturday night with his taut performance of Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 3 in G-major performed with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. The 21 year-old, recently graduated from the Colburn School of Performing Arts is now studying at [...]
No Steinway in the Parlor? Let Jeffrey Biegel Perform the Christmas Songs
CD REVIEW… Jeffrey Biegel is currently on the piano faculty at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music at Brooklyn College and his latest recording, “A Steinway Christmas Album” attests to his brilliant playing. Steinway and Sons proudly released this album this year on their own label. The Christmas spirit exudes from this 21-track album with varied [...]
English Songs, Carols, Ballads by Anonymous 4 in New CD
CD REVIEW……. There are dozens of Christmas albums with the 15th-century carol “The Cherry Tree” included in it but here is one with a real difference. A CD released by the harmonia mundi label with Anonymous 4 brings that carol and 16 other English and Irish songs, carols and ballads in an album that presents [...]
Christmas Music -Jeffrey Biegel at the Steinway D 9-foot Concert Grand – NEW CD Review coming
CD REVIEW…Pasadena Symphony Pianist Gloria Cheng CD a Winner
The Los Angeles Times has discovered that our local musicians are regularly performing contemporary music. Over the past two weeks, four reviews have appeared with reports on, among others, the modern music series, Piano Spheres. Pasadena Symphony’s pianist, Gloria Cheng is not only an advocate of the new, but has an album you should be [...]
Quartet Plays a Trio of Songs Plus an Encore
REVIEW….. The Bryant Park Quartet offered a diverse program at The Center for the Visual and Performing Arts inAlhambraSaturday night. The New York-based group opened with Joseph Haydn’s String Quartet in D-major, produced a deeply emotive version of Leos Janacek’s String Quartet No. 1 (“Kreutzer Sonata”), Claude Debussy’s String Quartet in G-minor and closed [...]
Jacques Loussier’s Jazzy Take on Robert Schumann’s Kinderszenen
CD REVIEW… Release date: Sept. 27, 2011 There is always a push-pull quality about “serious” classical music and “serious” jazz. The Jacques Loussier Trio, in his latest CD for Telarc records which is being released today, is yet another example of a trained classical pianist taking on the classics. Loussier, now 77, has made a [...]
Laughter, Charm and Good Music Mark Hamlisch’s Pops Debut with Pasadena Pops
REVIEW… Marvin Hamlisch stepped onto the outdoor stage of the Pasadena Pops to declare to the Saturday night audience assembled on the lawn near the Rose Bowl that as the Principal Conductor of the orchestra, he was going to charm them, make them laugh, and play tunes they recognized, especially those he had written. Greatly [...]
Musical Short Stories at Colorado College Summer Music Festival
REVIEW… A series of seven relatively brief numbers made a distinct impression on a crowded house at Packard Hall on the campus of Colorado College, Colorado Springs, Co., as the college’s Summer Music Festival wound down for the fifth of seven Festival Artists Concerts that are presented by faculty members of the college’s Festival. The [...]
It’s Very Clear – Our Love for Gershwin is Here to Stay
REVIEW… Hershey Felder wears a wig to make him look more like George Gershwin, whom he recreates in his one-man acting-singing-piano-playwright role in the current production at the Pasadena Playhouse, “George Gershwin Alone”. To me Felder appears closer in looks to Danny Thomas, but the looks are not important here. The music and the tale [...]
