This past weekend I headed up north for the second day of Clearwater’s Great Hudson River Revival up in Croton-on-Hudson, New York. There was music ranging from blues, zydeco, and acoustic folk to Cajun, funk, straight-ahead rock and more (more on that later), but I’d be remiss if I didn’t include an up-front mention of [...]

On a beautiful June evening earlier this week, Symphony Space was home to The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, a world premiere opera by the American composer John Eaton. A good-sized crowd had gathered outside the entrance just before curtain, some of whom were perhaps wanted to see an opera version of the F. Scott [...]

Nicholas Leichter Dance performs The Whiz: Obamaland at Abrons Arts Center this week, from June 16-19. Choreographer Leichter collaborated with Monstah Black, who wrote the commissioned score (plus added musical selections); they perform alongside NLD’s seven dancers, plus special guests. Leichter answered some questions about The Whiz. Why The Whiz, now? If you look at [...]

On June 21, Make Music New York hits the streets, a day-long extravaganza of free music events in public spaces in all five boroughs of the city. Among the offerings this year are a New Orleans-style Second Line parade in Manhattan, interactive music in the Meatpacking District, and Take Your Musician to School Day outside [...]

Being an artist is famously difficult. One can cite all of the vicissitudes, even if they aren’t yours: the manic insecurity, the financial quandary, the outsider status, the petty jealousy, the fear and frustration, those moments when you meet those in the straight world and they literally have no idea what you are talking about, [...]

When creating a dance, what do choreographers tap for material? And is it important that this comes across in the work, or is it OK to remove it, like a balloon from a paper mâche globe? Contemporary dance casts such a wide net that it’s impossible to typify the process for choosing subject matter (if [...]

If you’re a New Yorker and you’re reading this column, chances are pretty good you’re a concertgoer—whether it’s orchestral, chamber music, alt-rock, jazz, experimental, opera, what have you. Some of them are pretty spectacular. To cite a couple of examples off the top of my head, it’s pretty hard to beat the exhilarating production of [...]

In a somewhat uncharacteristic bit of showmanship, Donna Uchizono and company occupy theaters at both Baryshnikov Arts Center at The Kitchen this week, through tomorrow. Longing two begins uptown, at BAC (where I’ve been spending a lot of time lately, it seems), and continues as an enhanced intermission/bus ride to Chelsea, where it finishes up. [...]

Sometimes the end of the world is not the end of the world.  Gyorgy Ligeti’s 1978 opera Le Grand Macabre is set on the eve of the end of the world—or at least the end of the fictional dukedom of Breughelland.  The opera’s New York premiere last Thursday was hailed as the first “fully staged” [...]

On a recent Thursday, I hopped on the 2 train to the Wall Street stop for a midday concert at Trinity Church that turned out to be a stunner—in a setting that is also stunning. I had come primarily for the new music (the concert featured a world premiere and two New York premieres), but [...]