Atzilut: Jews and Arabs at Bryn Mawr

A musical solution for the Middle East

How to prevent Jews and Arabs from fighting? Get them to start singing.

Steve Cohen

Jul 28, 2012 · Articles · 2 minute read

"Music As Alchemy': Inside the great conductors

The work behind the wand (from both sides of the podium)

How do conductors elicit great sounds from their musicians? In Music As Alchemy, Tom Service follows six prominent conductors as they pursue their arcane trade. Who knew that Claudio Abbado steadfastly avoids unionized orchestras?

Tom Purdom

Jul 24, 2012 · Articles · 4 minute read

Can computers replace composers?

With Darwin and a computer, who needs Mozart?

When Beethoven was a little baby/ Sittin' on his daddy's knee,/ He picked up an iPhone, little CD-ROM,/ Said, “Computer's gonna be the death of me, Lawd, Lawd”¦.”

Kile Smith

Jul 24, 2012 · Articles · 6 minute read

Can black opera save Classical music?

Beyond Leontyne Price: For whom the black operatic bell tolls

Exciting and innovative black operas are struggling because white audiences tend to avoid them. But all classical music groups are struggling because white audiences tend to avoid them. Is there a common cause here? And might there be a solution to both problems?

Maria Thompson Corley

Jul 17, 2012 · Articles · 4 minute read

Rachmaninoff's "Aleko' by Russian Opera Workshop

A Rachmaninoff opera? Who knew?

No major American company in this country has ever produced Rachmaninoff's unfortunately neglected Aleko. Ghenady Meirson's Russian Opera Workshop offered a taste of what we've missed.

Steve Cohen

Jul 03, 2012 · Articles · 3 minute read

Dolce Suono at Laurel Hill

Smiles of a summer night

Dolce Suono's “Concert by Candlelight” at Laurel Hill contained enough depth to repay close attention without disturbing a relaxed summery mood.

Tom Purdom

Jul 03, 2012 · Articles · 4 minute read

Stokowski's lesson: Develop local talent

One more lesson Yannick can learn from Stokowski

The Philadelphia Orchestra began as an ensemble consisting of European immigrant musicians. Stokowski, Ormandy and Mary Louise Curtis Bok nurtured the infrastructure for developing homegrown talent and audiences. Boston and Los Angeles have learned that lesson; why not Philadelphia, where the idea first took root?

Clarence Faulcon

Jun 30, 2012 · Articles · 6 minute read

Thomas Frank's "Pity the Billionaire'

Herbert Hoover or FDR? Playing the hindsight game with Obama

Thomas Frank's new book seeks to explain the resurgence of the Republican Party over the past four years in terms of the Tea Party phenomenon and its shrewd exploitation by Republican strategists. He is far less persuasive in accounting for the dissipation of the once-in-a-generation mandate Democrats seemed to have won in 2008.

Robert Zaller

Jun 30, 2012 · Articles · 7 minute read

What I learned from whale watching

Captain Ahab, meet Charlie Manuel: Lessons of a novice whale-watcher

What do composers and conductors share in common with sea captains, farmers and Major League baseball managers? As I learned on my first whale-watching expedition, it‘s a certain fixity in the eyes that enables you to see things no one else ever noticed before.

Kile Smith

Jun 26, 2012 · Articles · 4 minute read

Concert Operetta does Victor Herbert

Grownups in Herbert-land

Lasting romantic love, Victor Herbert-style, may be a delusion. But it's a more useful delusion than many of the fantasies peddled by the arts these days.

Tom Purdom

Jun 26, 2012 · Articles · 4 minute read