Night After Night

Writing, then and now. By Steve Smith.

Steve Smith

  • Finally found our common ground.

    The beauty of working in music full time is that it's impossible to run out of things to discover, even late in the day. Today's belated discovery, prompted by a pitch from author and freelance writer Kate Crane, was Samantha Crain, a singer-songwriter from Shawnee, Oklahoma. Just 24 years old, Crain spins agreeably dusty, lived-in…

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  • Ad libitum.

    Toy-piano advocate Phyllis Chen opens the new season of Barbès Classical—a casual series produced by the Concert Artists Guild's New Music/New Places initiative—on Sunday, September 12 at Barbès in Park Slope, Brooklyn, also celebrating the release of her new CD, Mesmers. (PhyllisChen.net) The partisans of queer opera blog Parterre Box are running up a tally…

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  • Misterioso.

    Paul Motian has been playing at the Village Vanguard for half a century now, his earliest engagements of note in a legendary trio with pianist Bill Evans and bassist Scott LaFaro. Quietly revolutionary, that group broke with the age-old model of the piano trio as a vehicle for a leader with support, proposing instead a…

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  • Wingless wonder.

    Eric Whitacre's Paradise Lost: Shadows and Wings at Carnegie HallThe New York Times, June 17, 2010 Back from a brilliant but brief trek into the Rocky Mountains, I'm confronted with a colossus (or, as a Times headline writer put it, a juggernaut) of another kind. I confess that I'm bracing myself for the displeasure of…

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  • Parlez-vous français?

    The New York Philharmonic at Avery Fisher HallThe New York Times, June 5, 2010

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  • Moonlight becomes you.

    Mannes Beethoven Institute at Mannes College the New School for MusicThe New York Times, June 4, 2010 The short week evidently did a number on my memory: I wrote that this concert took place on Tuesday night, but it was actually on Wednesday. I am duly chastened, and a correction should be appended shortly has…

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  • Old and new dreams.

    Missy Mazzoli and Friends! at Roulette and Korean Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie HallThe New York Times, June 3, 2010 I'm not positive, but the Missy Mazzoli review might have been a web-only exclusive.

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  • String-driven thing.

    Hutchins East at the TankThe New York Times, June 1, 2010

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  • Chopin list.

    "1 Composer, 2 Centuries, Many Picks"The New York Times, May 28, 2010 BALLADES, SCHERZOS Arthur Rubinstein, pianist (RCA Red Seal 82876 61396-2; CD).Amazon / Amazon MP3* / ArkivMusic / Barnes & Noble / eMusic* / iTunes* NOCTURNES Ivan Moravec, pianist (Nonesuch 9 79233 2; two CDs).Amazon / Amazon MP3 / ArkivMusic / Barnes & Noble…

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  • Make it new.

    American Composers Orchestra Underwood New Music Readings at Miller Theatre and New York Youth Symphony at Carnegie HallThe New York Times, May 25, 2010

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  • Instant poetry.

    i am simon doodoo. i am michael gallery douglas. i use cetaphil. i am a wide-angle eCommerce app. i am an NBC page. i have no chin. i am a real hausfrau. i have a -stein family name. i am an iPad sync'd to Sade Baderinwa's WordPress account. i am the master of our domain.…

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  • Mixed signals.

    "The Week Ahead – May 23-29"The New York Times, May 23, 2010 Scroll halfway down the linked page for my brief preview of the program that the outstanding chamber ensemble Signal will present at Merkin Concert Hall on Thursday, May 27, pairing the U.S. debut of The Corridor, a dramatic scena by Harrison Birtwistle, with…

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  • What’s in a name?

    Yundi at Carnegie HallThe New York Times, May 22, 2010

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  • Rip it up and start again.

    In anticipation of catching up with iconic English vocalist John Lydon and his latest version of Public Image Ltd. on Wednesday at the Music Hall of Williamsburg, I've finally started reading—ridiculously late—Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978–1984, a seminal music history book by Simon Reynolds. Based on the few chapters I've consumed, the…

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  • Bloc party.

    Wall to Wall Behind the Wall at Symphony SpaceThe New York Times, May 17, 2010

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  • Pleasure in pieces.

    "Riding Herd on the Wild Orchestra"The New York Times, May 16, 2010 A review of three new releases featuring music by French composer Pascal Dusapin:   Solos Pour OrchestreLiège Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Pascal RophéNaïve MO 782180; 2CDsAmazon / Amazon MP3 / ArkivMusic / Barnes & Noble / iTunes Concerto(s) Montpellier National Orchestra, conducted by…

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  • You know my name.

    Pro Arte Quartet at Weill Recital HallThe New York Times, May 15, 2010

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  • Bohemian rhapsody.

    The Emerson String Quartet at Alice Tully HallThe New York Times, May 11, 2010

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  • In the paint.

    Look & Listen Festival at the Chelsea Art Museum and Lulu at the Metropolitan OperaThe New York Times, May 10, 2010

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  • Going down the road feeling bad.

    Thomas Quasthoff and Justus Zeyen at Carnegie HallThe New York Times, May 7, 2010

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