MUSIC REVIEWS
Rocking Out with Legends in Lamb’s Players’ Authentic ‘Million Dollar Quartet’
“We are transported to 1956, when Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Elvis Presley meet at Sam Phillip’s Sun Record Studios in Memphis, when the four men are still in their 20s…
Read MoreOpera NEO’s Annual Aria Avalanche Buries Allied Gardens in Operatic Glory
We know that the Opera NEO Summer Workshop and Festival is truly under way when Artistic Director Peter Kozma stages his annual Aria Marathon. Sunday, July 14, each of the 28 singers from this year’s festival offered their favorite aria, accompanied by the accomplished festival staff pianists, at Palisades Presbyterian Church in Allied Gardens.
Read MoreSoprano Ellie Dehn and Violinist Augustin Hadelich Gloriously Raise the Bar for Mainly Mozart
The stars were out at Saturday night’s Mainly Mozart Festival Orchestra concert at the Balboa Theatre. Coloratura soprano Ellie Dehn sang with breathtaking authority in Mozart’s unjustly overlooked choral gem “Davide penitente,” K. 469, and violinist Augustin Hadelich played a mesmerizing account of Beethoven’s beloved Violin Concerto in D Major.
Read MoreMainly Mozart Orchestra Delivers Haydn and Mozart to Cherish
Mainly Mozart Festival Music Director Michael Francis offered two Mozart Piano Concertos and Haydn’s Symphony No. 49 on Thursday’s Balboa Theatre program. Not surprisingly, virtuoso pianist Anne-Marie McDermott proved the perfect choice of soloist to play the two Mozart concertos back to back .
Read MoreMichael Francis and Mainly Mozart Orchestra Illuminate Superb Mendelssohn Fifth Symphony
To headline Saturday’s opening concert of Mainly Mozart’s 2019 Festival Orchestra series, Music Director Michael Francis sagely featured pianist Jeremy Denk in a thrilling account of Mozart’s Piano Concerto in C Major, K. 467.
Read MoreChicago’s Kontras Quartet and Malashock Dance: A Smashing Pas de Deux
Chicago’s outstanding Kontras Quartet has returned to San Diego in “High Strung” at the Lyceum Theatre, a stimulating collaboration between Art of Élan and Malashock Dance. In April, 2018, Art of Élan brought noted jazz virtuoso Branford Marsalis and the Kontras Quartet for an exciting concert at the Music Box in Little Italy, so I…
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