Opera Lafayette takes a French comic classic to the Old West
Take any decent road trip through the American West and you’re bound to pass half a dozen old opera houses in varying states of...
Élan Ensemble’s ‘Arias for the Autumnal Equinox’ was a garden delight
Élan Ensemble’s outdoor concert, “Arias for the Autumnal Equinox,” was a delightful celebration of 17th- and 18th-century music, performed in the marvelously picturesque garden...
Eric Whitacre’s new virtual choral work is testament to power of...
“Human beings will go to any length necessary to find and connect with each other.”
—Eric Whitacre, in a 2011 TED Talk
Even anti-maskers, I suppose,...
‘Riffs and Relations’: WNO’s Cafritz Young Artists Program sounds so very...
You’d have to be dead not to enjoy a recital of the caliber given this past Sunday in the Phillips Collection Music Room by...
Ancient mysteries astonish and delight at IN Series’ Women Composers Festival
'Here Be Sirens' is the phrase cartographers used for many centuries to warn sailors of marine dangers. Composer Kate Soper borrowed the name for...
Piano duo from Portugal work outward from their country’s folk melodies...
Taking music from a performer’s own culture and pulling it together with more familiar-sounding music into a coherent program for an American audience is...
WNO’s ‘Don Giovanni’ signals the cultural and healing power of Washington’s...
The Washington National Opera’s current production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni confirms two important ideas. The first is that while opera is most effective when...
J’Nai Bridges’ debut in ‘Samson and Delilah’ is a dream come...
When J’Nai Bridges made her triumphant debut in Camille Saint-Saëns’ Samson and Delilah Sunday night, it was the fulfillment of a dream. The young mezzo-soprano’s...
Washington National Opera stages a vocally stirring, visually arresting ‘Samson and...
Tales of wars, slaughters, betrayals, competing tribes and religions, and a few dominant women make the Book of Judges one of the more colorful...
Washington Performing Arts and Alfred Street Baptist Church present reverent evening...
A reverently curated evening by the Artistic Director of Washington Performing Arts' Men and Women of the Gospel Choir, Theodore Thorpe III, I am...
Annapolis Symphony Orchestra explores connections between past and present
The Annapolis Symphony Orchestra’s continuing Masterworks Series, as part of this season’s celebration of Beethoven’s two hundred fiftieth birthday, takes the theme, “Beethoven Discovers...
Pianist Aaron Diehl cross-cuts jazz styles with a dive into their...
The easiest thing for many highly qualified, especially classically trained, musicians to try to do is to cross genres in an effort to be...
NSO: Noseda’s homecoming mints the ‘NSO sound’ in spectacular Mahler’s Fifth...
Even though being a classical music reviewer often feels like a gig too good to be true, I don’t recall ever forgetting my purpose...
West-Eastern Divan Ensemble’s first American tour features Kennedy Center performance
The world is so full of intractable political and cultural issues, with deep chasms making understanding, let alone peace, seem so far away. But...
‘Cinderella’ (La Cenerentola): Well-sung Rossini at Virginia Opera
Spoiler alert: Cinderella and the Prince live happily ever after. Of course, since Virginia Opera, like all opera companies of any size, prints a...
The New Orchestra of Washington presents a love so powerful it...
While much of the city is abuzz with romantic romping this Valentine’s Day weekend, the New Orchestra of Washington will concern itself with the...
Beethoven in its bones: Faust-Queyras-Melnikov Trio at UVA’s Tuesday Evening Concert...
When an elite chamber music trio has Beethoven in its bones, the ensemble apparently doesn’t need to spend most of their time together or...
A holy night: Folger Consort performs ‘Palestrina’s Perfect Art’ at the...
What would it have felt like, I’ve sometimes wondered, to listen, in sublime surroundings, to sounds conveying the deepest devotions of Christian belief, long...
Songs of love and war in UrbanArias’ brilliant ‘Glory Denied’
If your parents taught you that opera is the ultimate blend of words and music, where both elements are dependent on the other and...
Pianist Yefim Bronfman dazzles, while NSO disengages under guest conductor Gemma...
Nature, nuance, or its lack thereof, were central themes when the National Symphony Orchestra welcomed conductor Gemma New, pianist Yefim Bronfman, and the young...