Posts by Ken Herman
Midori and Thibaudet: A Dream Team Scores with Gallic Élan at The Conrad
For Midori’s decidedly Gallic recital on Friday (April 12) at the newly opened Baker-Baum Concert Hall in La Jolla, she wisely enlisted French pianist Jean-Ives Thibaudet as her collaborator. For sonatas by Claude Debussy, Gabriel Fauré, and Georges Enescu, this was a match made in heaven.
Read MoreMagnificent Jerusalem Quartet Opens Coming Home Festival in La Jolla’s Acoustically Miraculous Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center
After a star-studded Grand Opening Weekend to inaugurate The Conrad, the La Jolla Music Society’s glistening new performing arts center in downtown La Jolla, on Tuesday, April 9, the organization presented the Jerusalem Quartet in the first full concert of the organization’s lavish Coming Home Festival.
Read MoreHausmann Quartet Pairs Haydn’s ‘Emperor’ Quartet with Terry Riley
The Hausmann Quartet’s latest installment of its Haydn Voyages at the San Diego Maritime Museum on Sunday, March 31, offered a pair of Haydn String Quartets—including the beloved C Major “Emperor”—a plush work by Terry Riley called “G Song,” and three Armenian Folk Songs arranged for string quartet. I was quite taken by Riley’s “G…
Read MoreExciting New Operas in San Diego Opera’s 2019-2020 Season Cushioned by Familiar Favorites
Designing the new season for San Diego Opera involves a crucial balancing act, and General Director David Bennett has honed his formula based on the vision he proposed when he arrived in San Diego four years ago: familiar grand opera for the traditionalists and exciting contemporary opera that pushes the envelope.
Read MoreChristopher Adler’s Avant-garde Monody Follows Aeneas into the Underworld
Under the aegis of San Diego New Music, Colin McAllister and several musical colleagues followed in the footsteps of the 17th-century Florentine Camerata, presenting Christopher Adler’s “Aeneas in the Underworld,” a recounting of one of the stories from Virgil’s The Aeneid in a fashion that might have been recognized by the ancient Greeks, but using a contemporary musical idiom.
Read MoreGinger Costa-Jackson’s Nonpareil Carmen Scores for San Diego Opera
San Diego Opera General Director David Bennett wisely hired Ginger Costa-Jackson to sing the title role of his company’s recently opened production of Bizet’s “Carmen.” Vocally and dramatically, Costa-Jackson’s Carmen is simply nonpareil.
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