Violinist Caroline Goulding performs on the occasion of her 2011 Avery Fisher Career Grant.

I may be in the minority of adult concertgoers when I state that I like an audience filled with kids. On occasion, I even prefer it. With kids, you know right away if they like it, and the energy, good or bad, is right out there on the surface. Last Saturday afternoon at Zankel Hall [...]

The opera stage is filled with tragic characters who have lost touch with reality—one of the best-known examples being Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, seen in Mary Zimmermann’s new Met production earlier this season with the high-flying soprano Natalie Dessay. But, as Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez tells it in his new book The Soloist, [...]