Posts by Ken Herman
Art of Élan Celebrates New Chamber Works at San Diego Museum of Art
Art of Élan completed its adventurous season at the San Diego Museum of Art Tuesday (May 15) with a spectacularly eclectic program of music by younger contemporary composers, including American Sarah Kirkland Snider and Argentine Andrés Martin who were in the audience . . .
Read MoreBernstein’s “Jeremiah” Symphony Makes Its Belated Debut at the San Diego Symphony
The San Diego Symphony elevated its current Leonard Bernstein retrospective on Saturday, May 12, 2018, with a stirring, trenchant account of his 1942 “Jeremiah” Symphony under the assured baton of Conductor Laureate Jahja Ling.
Read MoreBach Collegium San Diego Celebrates the Musical Virtues of Henry Purcell
Ruben Valenzuela and his Bach Collegium San Diego presented a wide-ranging concert devoted exclusively to the music of Henry Purcell on Friday, May 11, 2018, at All Souls’ Episcopal Church in Point Loma.
Read MoreSameer Patel Leads La Jolla Symphony on a Modernist Field Day
Sameer Patel, Associate Conductor of the San Diego Symphony, led the La Jolla Symphony this past weekend in a stirring program of 20th-century modernists–Schoenberg, Stravinsky, Takemitsu, and Messaien–with a 2016 work by the American composer Hannah Lash.
Read MoreLise Lindstrom and Greer Grimsley Easily Exceed the Billing of ‘One Amazing Night’ for San Diego Opera
Let no one claim that San Diego Opera does not know how to have a good time! The Saturday, May 5, concert–“One Amazing Night”–at the Balboa Theatre featured opera stars soprano Lise Lindstrom and bass-baritone Greer Grimsley accompanied the San Diego Symphony in a program that ranged from arias and scenes from grand opera to Viennese operetta and American musical theater.
Read MoreGuest Conductor Fabien Gabel Takes San Diego Symphony to New Heights
Under the astute baton of guest conductor Fabien Gabel, Dutch violinist Simone Lamsma and the San Diego Symphony gave a rapturous account on Friday, May 4, of Leonard Bernstein’s “Serenade,” a violin concerto written for no less a violinist than Isaac Stern in memory of the composer’s early mentor, Boston Symphony Music Director Serge Koussevitsky.
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