CLASSICAL MUSIC INTERVIEWS

Robert Simpson, the founder and artistic director of Houston Chamber Choir, has been in a whirlwind, a waking dream as intoxicating as communion wine and as unreal as that spinning top in the last scene of INCEPTION, since Good Friday when he learned that Houston Chamber Choir, the chorale he establ...

'If you were working with a symphony orchestra or a studio full of synthesizers, you could make lots and lots of different sounds, but if your palette of sounds is restricted, it makes you really focus on how the music comes across. So in a way, I think it stimulates creativity because there are lim...

It's getting to that time of year when we think about things that are truly American. We might think about baseball games and hot dogs.  There's also,  of course, the annual Fourth of July concert on PBS featuring Maestro Keith Lockhart and the world famous Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra. If you ...

I spoke recently with Elaine Alvarez who will be singing the lead role this weekend in the San Diego Opera's production of Florencia en el Amazonas by Mexican composer Daniel Catan and librettist Marcela Fuentes-Berain. Alvarez told me that when she got a call from the San Diego Opera's General Dire...

ise Lindstrom has returned to San Diego to sing the lead in Puccini's Turandot. We spoke for nearly an hour in a rehearsal room at the San Diego Civic Center where she'd just finished working on makeup for the performance. You might think that someone with Lindstrom's powerful voice would have kn...

Bruce Stasyna, San Diego Opera's chorus master, will also lead the orchestra in the company's upcoming production of Astor Piazzolla's Maria de Buenos Aires. We met in the Civic Center's Copper Room recently to discuss that, his career, and more....

As One, Laura Kaminsky's first opera, premiered in September 2014. While many contemporary operas are performed once and never heard again, it has been staged more often every year since then, and is already scheduled at nearly a dozen venues for 2018. In a recent phone interview Kaminsky and I spok...

As described in part one of the interview, Martha Gilmer works hard to expand San Diego Symphony audiences. That makes the summer program another priority. 'It's more ambitious than ever. We've really invested in it this year. And the results are spectacular. We already have advanced sales greater t...

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra is often cited as the best in the U. S. and one of the top five in the world. Martha Gilmer started there as an intern. Thirty-five years later she left the number two spot, vice president of artistic planning and audience development, to become CEO of the San Diego Sy...

When an icon is as approachable, affable and humble as Ben Vereen is, it is easy to see why he has been so successful. The winner of a Tony Award and Drama Desk Award for his role in Pippin, Vereen is, at the age of 70, showing no signs of slowing down. Luckily for us, he is bringing his energy and ...

Jordan Rudess of Dream Theater to perform rare acoustic shows....

Forget everything you know about the Bach cantata. (It's hard. I know.) The Ars Lyrica Houston early music ensemble is to perform Johann Sebastian Bach's works sans chorus -- two cantatas plus one extra movement, with four soloists for its New Year's Eve concert BACHANALIA....

For the Houston Symphony holiday concert VERY MERRY POPS, not only does Santa Claus come to town but so do the sweeter-than-honey honeys, Jessica and Santino Fontana. In the interview, the Fontanas talk to Broadway World about VERY MERRY POPS and the joys and challenges of being a show business marr...

This weekend, once the tryptophan wears off, join renowned pianist and conductor Jeffrey Kahane as he leads the Houston Symphony in A MOZART THANKSGIVING, featuring the famous 'Prague' Symphony and the composer's Piano Concertos No. 21 and No. 24....

In her impressive career track thus far she has garnered the highest praise from audiences and critics alike...

Joshua Bell is a classical superstar: violinist, cultural ambassador, and all-around inspiration. Musical Director of The Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields, television performer (Mozart in the Jungle!), and subway station busker-provocateur, he's a deep and unique talent....

The Colorado Symphony is bringing Broadway to Downtown Denver this weekend with a few days of Leonard Bernstein's best, featuring on the most powerful vocalists to emerge recently in musical theatre....

Tenor Peter Marsh, who makes his Seattle Opera debut as the villainous Hexe in Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel next month, shares his insights on the subject...

While Kristin Chenoweth may best be known for originating the role of Glinda in the Broadway musical Wicked or one of her many film and television roles, the amazingly versatile performer has had a career spanning just about every medium and genre. Chenoweth's work on TV has included The West Wing, ...

Tenor Lawrence Brownlee, who's justly acclaimed for his high notes--forget about a high C; how about an F above that!?--just finished the New York premiere of the Daniel Schnyder opera CHARLIE PARKER'S YARDBIRD (Bridgette A. Wmberly, librettist), at the famed Apollo Theatre in Harlem. Famed jazz sax...

First American concert appearance to be held Mar. 5 at Jacobs Music Center's Copley Symphony Hall...

Brian Stokes Mitchell talks Broadway's 'Shuffle Along' and his upcoming Christmas concert at San Francisco Symphony. Read the full interview to learn about his creative process, Mitchell's take on arts education, and his upcoming album projects. Then visit sfsymphony.org for tickets to his Decemb...

Fifteen year old classical crossover artist Jackie Evancho - who first drew national attention on America's Got Talent, and has since put out multiple albums and has performed worldwide - will make her Music Center at Strathmore debut tonight, October 10. In advance of the concert, entitled 'Awaken...

JEWISH JOKE, a one-man show about an irascible Jewish comedy screenwriter in 1950's Hollywood...

The talents of top local Indie classical musicians with electronic music in the atmosphere of high profile nightclub Ruby Skye...