Music news

  • New in The New York Times: my feature about Frank London, a trumpeter, composer, arranger, and bandleader who has played a major role in downtown jazz, the klezmer and Balkan music revivals of the ’80s, and a whole lot more.

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  • New in The New York Times Sunday Arts & Leisure section: my exit interview with the great trombonist and composer Jim Staley, who co-founded the essential new-music institution Roulette in 1978, and replanted it in his NYC loft in 1980, as he prepares to step away from leadership in June after 45 years.

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  • John Zorn (Photograph courtesy National Sawdust) "Love Songs: A Creation Story in Four Acts and Four Voices"National SawdustSept. 8, 2023 "We prefer pieces that play with the style and format of traditional profiles," the kind folks at National Sawdust told me when I agreed to write a preview story ahead of Love Songs, the new

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  • Jonathon Heyward (Photograph: Laura Thiesbrummel) "Conductor Jonathon Heyward is poised to make history in NYC and Baltimore"Gothamist, Aug. 3, 2023 My final contribution to Gothamist is this extended version of an interview with conductor Jonathon Heyward – the new music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and the newly announced music director of whatever the

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  • Endea Owens (Photograph courtesy Jazz at Lincoln Center and Bryant Park) The latest Weekend Arts Planner segment for WNYC, which aired on Weekend Edition on Saturday, July 29, covered items selected from a Gothamist story published on Thursday: "25 free things to do in NYC this August." David Furst and I talked about Free Shakespeare

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  • Endea Owens (Photograph courtesy of the artist) My contributions to "7 Picks a Week," the weekly Gothamist guide of arts and culture events and happenings in and around New York City. The complete article can be found here. Check out fast-rising bassist Endea Owens for free Detroit bassist, composer and bandleader Endea Owens is making

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  • John-Andrew Morrison (L) and Allen Gilmore (R) in "Malvolio," staged by Classical Theatre of Harlem at Marcus Garvey Park. (Photograph courtesy Classical Theatre of Harlem) The latest Weekend Arts Planner segment for WNYC, which aired on Weekend Edition on Saturday, July 22, covered a series of Shakespeare-related plays happening in New York City parks –

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  • Conductor Louis Langrée starts his final series as music director of the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra on Saturday. (Photograph: Sachyn Mital) My contributions to "7 Picks a Week," the weekly Gothamist guide of arts and culture events and happenings in and around New York City. The complete article can be found here. Celebrate summer music

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  • Raphael Payare (Photograph courtesy Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal) My contributions to the latest installment of 7 picks a week, the arts and culture guide I compile weekly for Gothamist. See mysticism and melancholy through a world-famous painter's eyes "Exodus," an exhibition of recent works by the German painter and sculptor Anselm Kiefer, is so big

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  • Jason Moran and The Bandwagon (Photograph courtesy of the artists) My contributions to the latest installment of 7 picks a week, the arts and culture guide I compile weekly for Gothamist. See how the Great Migration inspired a cellist to make a move Already known as one of the finest young cellists of his generation,

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  • Nina Chanel Abney exhibition (Photograph courtesy Pace Prints) Here are my contributions to the latest installment of 7 picks a week, the arts and culture guide I compile weekly for Gothamist. Celebrate a hard-working jazz trio's 10th anniversary Serendipity had a hand in the formation of Thumbscrew, when bassist Michael Formanek filled in as a

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  • David Lynch (Photograph: Josh Telles) On Friday, Nov. 4, we rebooted the web post previously called Weekend Arts Planner. We moved it up to Friday, in hopes that it could serve to actually help folks plan their weekends and not just the days beyond. And we opened it up to more voices and perspectives from

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  • Mali Obomsawin (Photograph courtesy Jazz Gallery) Weekend Arts Planner took a break during the last weekend of October, chiefly due to on-air scheduling issues. But these are the items I prepared for the occasion, as they appeared in the Gothamist article "11 fun things to do in NYC that have nothing to do with trick-or-treating"

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  • Etienne Charles (Photograph: Lawrence Sumulong for Lincoln Center) The latest episode of Weekend Arts Planner, my weekly chat with Weekend Edition host David Furst that airs every Saturday morning on WNYC, covers noteworthy doings presented by the Museum of Modern Art, Lincoln Center, and the New York Philharmonic. Have a listen, or just read the

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  • The Goings On About Town section in The New Yorker has begun a gradual return to its conventional format, with live, in-person events taking greater precedence among the album reviews and online events that replaced them throughout pandemic quarantine months. (Click on the image to enlarge it, or hit the link to read the text

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  • The Goings On About Town section in The New Yorker has begun a gradual return to its conventional format, with live, in-person events taking greater precedence among the album reviews and online events that replaced them throughout pandemic quarantine months. (Click on the image to enlarge it, or hit the link to read the text

    Read more →

  • The Goings On About Town section in The New Yorker has begun a gradual return to its conventional format, with live, in-person events taking greater precedence among the album reviews and online events that replaced them throughout pandemic quarantine months. (Click on the image to enlarge it, or hit the link to read the text

    Read more →

  • The Goings On About Town section in The New Yorker has begun a gradual return to its conventional format, with live, in-person events taking greater precedence among the album reviews and online events that replaced them throughout pandemic quarantine months. (Click on the image to enlarge it, or hit the link to read the text

    Read more →

  • "Olga Neuwirth's bold gender-bending opera has won the Grawemeyer Award"NPRDecember 6, 2021

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  • The Goings On About Town section in The New Yorker has begun a gradual return to its conventional format, with live, in-person events taking greater precedence among the album reviews and online events that replaced them throughout pandemic quarantine months. (Click on the image to enlarge it, or hit the link to read the text

    Read more →