This week two records were released on the New Amsterdam label by two people whom I happen to know and think are really talented and interesting composers: Someone Will Take Care of Me by Corey Dargel and Matt Marks’ The Little Death, Volume One.  To call the former a singer-songwriter (though he is a singer who does write his own [...]

You have to wonder that if Pam Tanowitz were male, would she be twice as well-known as she is now? Her talent is at least as deserving as that of some of her male counterparts, and in fact the choreographers whose work hers occasionally elicits—Merce Cunningham and Mark Morris, to name a couple—are household names. [...]

Once again, if you were me, you’d want to be in three places tonight. So much going on. So much. So. Much. For example! You could—and should—attend the excellent Archipelago Chamber Music Series at Galapagos Art Space for a wild evening of music about, yes, love. The first half will be Corey Dargel singing his very cool, [...]

Full-strength ballet fever hit New York this week, with American Ballet Theatre‘s two-month Metropolitan Opera House season joining New York City Ballet‘s Spring repertory already underway. So nearly every evening, and at three matinees, many thousands of ballet fans descend on Lincoln Center to soak it up. ABT’s emphasis at the Met is the full-length [...]

I’ve been fascinated with Lincoln Center’s new grass-covered sloping roof—Illumination Lawn, as it’s now known—ever since the architects’ renderings were made available. I peered at the site while workers slaved away in the cold of winter, and I visited it again this Wednesday, when it was opened to members of the press. On Friday, May [...]

This weekend I’m totally in operagoer heaven, at least for me, because I’ve got great seats to the Metropolitan Opera’s production of Lulu. So this Saturday, from noon until five, I’ll be bathed in the decadent sounds of Alban Berg’s gloriously brutal depiction of a woman’s undoing.  For me, this one show is a demonstration [...]

Writing about music is tough. I am talking about the music itself—not the concert-preview pieces, which are inevitably P.R.-influenced because the performance hasn’t happened yet, and the lighter but more personality-focused features and interviews with performers. I have written about this before at SundayArts, but I got to thinking about it again this week after [...]

New York City Ballet’s ambitious six-week spring season got underway last week, a combo of repertory and seven commissioned premieres, including Alexei Ratmansky’s new ballet, Namouna, A Grand Divertissement. Perhaps the most anticipated ballet, it surpassed expectations and set the bar sky high for the remaining premieres. It showed Ratmansky’s ability to be inspired by, [...]

For people weaned on music by Mozart and Beethoven, it can be a courageous step to take in a concert of contemporary music. For others, like the crowd who showed up to hear the ensemble eighth blackbird play at Washington Irving High School on May 8, such concerts are cause for celebration. eighth blackbird is [...]

Isn’t it rich? New Yorkers for the next few weeks can hear on three different nights three different live, world-class renditions of one of the world’s favorite songs: Stephen Sondheim’s standard, “Send in the Clowns.”