Paul Woodiel News

Caramoor International Music Festival kicks off the holiday weekend by transporting audiences to the American revolutionary era with an original program entitled Thomas Jefferson's Music at Monticello.

Caramoor International Music Festival presents a weekend-long celebration of our nation's birthday with three days of unique concert programs representing over 300 years of American music, July 1 - 3.

A new organization, entitled the 'Council for Living Music' has launched, with their mission statement to 'enhance the public's recognition of the art of live music and live musical performance in all its magnificent forms. We are dedicated to increasing public awareness and appreciation of various forms of musical expression, preserving historic and contemporary musical forms and encouraging the development of new varieties of musical expression that evolve through live performance.'

The Pit Stop Players, a fourteen-member instrumental ensemble composed of veteran Broadway pit musicians, will perform at the recently completed, $37 million DiMenna Center for Classical Music on Tuesday, May 10, at 7:30 pm.

Michael Barrett, CEO and General Director of Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts, today announced the lineup for the 2011 Caramoor International Music Festival, which opens on June 25 and offers enormous appeal to all audiences with a rich array of artists and repertoire from the worlds of classical, jazz, Latin, pop and American Roots music. The 66th season of this iconic summer festival - which is held annually at the Center's distinguished 90-acre garden estate in Katonah, New York - will run from June 25 to August 10.

As BroadwayWorld has previously reported, the producers of West Side Story on Broadway are planning to replace half of its string section with a synthesizer. This has sparked much debate, with opponents claiming that a synthesized sound alters the theater-going experience.

So the big theatre buzz on Sunday morning was generated from a New York Times op-ed piece by violinist Paul Woodiel, currently employed by the Broadway production of West Side Story.  As the long-time friend of that show's composer, Leonard Bernstein, put it, '(A)fter 500 performances, our producers have told us and our union that in order to cut costs they will chop our string section in half, releasing five musicians and 'replacing' them with a synthesizer piped in from another room. I don't think Lenny would have approved.'

In a recent Op-Ed piece in the New York Times, 'West Side Story' violinist Paul Woodiel spoke out about cuts to the Broadway show's string section in order to lower costs.

Steven Blier, Artistic Director of New York Festival Of Song (NYFOS, www.nyfos.org), and called by the New York Times 'A national treasure when it comes to the art of song,' will give concerts and master classes through the summer. During the same period, Associate Artistic Director Michael Barrett, General Director of the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts will present many important events in vocal music at the Caramoor International Festival.

Steven Blier, Artistic Director of New York Festival Of Song (NYFOS, www.nyfos.org), and called by the New York Times 'A national treasure when it comes to the art of song,' will give concerts and master classes through the summer. During the same period, Associate Artistic Director Michael Barrett, General Director of the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts will present many important events in vocal music at the Caramoor International Festival.

The Pit Stop Players, a ten-member instrumental ensemble, will play its inaugural concert on Monday, February 1, 2010 at 7:00 pm, at the Leonard Nimoy Thalia at Peter Norton Symphony Space.

The Pit Stop Players, a ten-member instrumental ensemble, will play its inaugural concert on Monday, February 1, 2010 at 7:00 pm, at the Leonard Nimoy Thalia at Peter Norton Symphony Space.

Hartt School students Peter Scuderi, Patricia Guadagnoli, and Michelle Stockman were the winners of three cash prizes in the tenth annual van Rooy Competition for Musical Excellence.

New York Festival Of Song (NYFOS, www.nyfos.org), co-founded and directed by pianists Steven Blier and Michael Barrett, who 'reinvented the song recital during the 1990's with daring and dramatic programming' (The New Yorker), announces its 21st season (2008-2009).