I would be remiss as a composer if I did not promote something in which I was directly involved.  Tonight, Thursday night, I’ll be on stage with the inimitable John Wesley Harding as part of his Cabinet of Wonders.  And if you can’t make it out, there’s another on April 15 (on which a piece […]

I’m sure I’m not the only opera-lover happy to see New York City Opera finally back in full swing this spring. It was a tough slog for the company without a regular performance venue during theater renovations. I missed the opening-night gala performance of Chabrier’s L’Etoile on Thursday but made it to Madama Butterfly the […]

NY Export: Opus Jazz, to Robert Prince’s score, with sets by Ben Shahn, is one of Jerome Robbins’ “sneaker ballets,” considered by the choreographer as a sort of abstract counterpart to his West Side Story Suite. While it is enjoyable to see these two works performed by New York City Ballet at the Koch Theater, […]

Sounds from the Black Box: The Music of Philip Miller for the films of William Kentridge—presented on two nights at the Winter Garden—offered another chance for New Yorkers to experience the South African artist William Kentridge this season. His current MoMA exhibit was previously covered in SundayArts, and his production of Shostakovich’s The Nose is […]

Two of the most talked about plays of the season close this weekend—both offering portraits of the American Family in decline.  The better of these two plays is worth racing out to see this weekend (though a Broadway transfer could follow) at Playwrights Horizons.  Bruce Norris’ Clybourne Park is a two-act riff on Lorraine Hansberry’s […]

Hello SundayArts readers. I’m pleased to be your new blogger about classical music, and to be sharing this space with the esteemed writer from Symphony Magazine, Jennifer Melick.  A little about me: while yes I too am a freelance journalist, I’m mostly a composer.  So I’ll be bringing you things from that perspective, writing about […]

It’s natural to associate MoMA with cutting-edge. But a visit to Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present retrospective on view through May 31 is a reminder of just how staid the institution is, nominally ignoring performance art. Here are actual live people doing re-performances of the artist’s original works, which have nearly always involved herself […]

France’s Lyon Opera Ballet returned to the Joyce after 15 years with a wonderful program of works by Merce Cunningham, William Forsythe, and Maguy Marin, which runs through Mar 14. Even though none of these works were New York premieres, it was enormously gratifying to see them all together. Beach Birds (Cunningham) and Duo (Forsythe) […]

The other day, I heard Chopin’s Nocturne in C minor, Op. 48 No. 1, performed live on a nineteenth-century Corning Steinway piano. As Igal Kesselman, the pianist, made his way through that nocturne’s melancholy, stormy, and contemplative sections, in the background a woman checked out a flouncy silver-grey dress on the racks at Ann Taylor. […]

William Kentridge’s drawing style is so bold and lively that it hardly needs animation to bring it to life. And yet his animated films crackle with energy, just like anything he creates, despite the fact that it is nearly entirely done with rare, hence extremely effective, daubs of color. A survey of his work is […]