My leisure reading of late has been all about Japan. I'm not sure why I've been reading the bestsellers of the past such as Memoirs of a Geisha and Shogun but they have both made …

I wasn’t able to go to every concert or event in 2014 but of those I did attend, here are some highlights. Since I was in Un ballo in Maschera and Verdi’s Requiem I did …

Sir Neville Marriner, known to many as the founder of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, was supposed to be conducting the San Diego Symphony on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of this week. …

I remember a phrase from my evangelical youth which went a little something like this: “You need to give until it hurts.” The phrase was talking about money and was framed by the ancient biblical …

A quick review of 2014 is in order. For all the drama, I believe it was a good year for classical music in San Diego. We’ll start with the organizational bits. There were significant changes …

We’ve all heard about people being depressed and alone on Christmas and if you haven’t heard about that, you have now. There are several tips on how to avoid holiday depression such as reading a …

I tried to watch Silent Night on PBS on Sunday, December 21. I was drawn in by the promise of one of my favorite stories. The story is the Christmas Eve truce of 1914. German …

During intermission I exchanged the awkward tight-lipped smiles symphony goers give each other. I texted a few friends about the David Bruce piece which, by the way, was entitled Fragile Light. Then the lights went …

An old man sitting behind me said, "Gil Shaham is good" to the lady accompanying him. God help me to stop being that guy. If we ever go to a concert together and I try …

Sometimes we’ve gotta eat our veggies after we have dessert. I’ve never tried it, but it’s basically what happened during the last half of the San Diego Symphony concert on Saturday night. The first half …

Stephanie Blythe is bringing her one-woman show about Kate Smith, "We'll Meet Again: The Songs of Kate Smith," to the Balboa Theater on Thursday, December 11 at 7 p.m. Blythe was here last April to …

I resisted Spotify for years. Years, I tell you. I found their classical music to be spotty at best. I would search for Tannhauser and Placido Domingo and get all kinds of crazy unrelated items …

A book just came out on November 28 which thinks it’s going to expose Venezuela’s El Sistema as a tyrannical and corrupt petty kingdom. The author published an article about his findings in The Guardian. …

It’s December, which means the Messiah and pals are upon us again. Who are the pals of the Messiah? Bach and Vivaldi for sure. Sometimes Vaughan Williams gets invited to play, along with Puccini, but …

It dawned on me that avant garde music, so to speak, is about 100 years old if we count the 1913 premiere of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring as the starting point. It also dawned on …

“It’s kind of like a road trip, you’ve gotta at least try.” I was trying to be jocular during intermission on Saturday night but the gentleman I was trying to engage with my humor stared …

Let’s talk a little more about Mahler. His Seventh Symphony is this weekend at San Diego Symphony and I was able to speak to non other than Maestro Ling about Mahler’s “problem child”. We spoke …

There are how many versions of the Cinderella story? There’s Disney (of course), Rossini, Prokofiev, the 1984-85 Villanova Wildcats, and Massenet. I’m sure I missed a few, but Massenet is the one I want to …

Someone tell please tell me that they don't like Ice, Ice Baby by Vanilla Ice. You might say you don't like it, but you'd be lying through your teeth. Everyone loves that song even if …

Sometimes my tradition of not reading the program until after a concert backfires on me. I don’t read the program because I want to experience the music for itself and oftentimes the program notes get …

We’ve heard the phrase, “Go big or go home.” If we look at the La Jolla Symphony’s upcoming season, those folks are never going home. The season contains Mahler’s Fifth Symphony, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, and …

Suor Angelica is not among Puccini’s most popular operas. On Sunday night, about 400 or so of us were wondering why, because it was fantastic. The performance was at St. Elizabeth Seton Catholic Church in …

This is the continuation of our interview with Lola Astanova. San Diego Reader: If you had to spend the next year on a desert island with a piano, what music would you take with you? …

There is a quality about Leonard Bernstein’s music which has kept it fresh and cool for decades. Saturday’s Opus 2014 Gala Concert opened with Three Dance Episodes from On the Town. I wonder if someday …

Authenticity happens when your actions reinforce your beliefs and ideas — you know, those beliefs and ideas that you won't shut up about. The ones your family roles their eyes at while you protest, "Hey, …

As I descended the dimly lit stairwell, I could hear that someone was playing the piano. I walked out onto the stage of The Jacobs Music Center and there was Lola Astanova — practicing. Ms. …

Who knew that Beethoven was a fan of hide and seek? While that might not be historically accurate, there is certainly a sense of tiptoeing around in the opening measures of his Fourth Symphony. During …

Speaking of a few singers who should turn singing into a hobby, there is now a rumor that a movie is being made about the ultimate pay-to-sing performer. Pay-to-sing programs are legion. They are typically …

There is a certain type of person who haunts The Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. Remember, this is called an audition but it’s a competition. I haven't been in a couple of years but I'm …

Friday night was the first Masterwork concert of the new season. As I sat in the foyer waiting for my dude-date, I didn't observe an abundance of anticipation. It kind of felt like a mid-season …

The Telegraph has reported that a gift of choral music to Henry VIII has just been uncovered in the vaults of the British Library. It has just received its first performance in 500 years. The …

This is a big week for classical music. Let's take a look at what's going down. There are three opera concerts that are going to be pretty good. The first is the continuing Opera Wednesdays …

I may have painted myself into a corner here with a couple of posts about the gym, pop music, ass and eyes. This is my attempt to make those previous posts make sense. George Sandow …

There are a couple of great things happening this week. On Friday evening, at St. James-by-the-Sea Episcopal in La Jolla, New York Polyphony will be performing a concert of Thomas Luis de Victoria’s O Quam …

I'm writing this while on the stationary cycle at the gym. The gym is the domain of ass-eyes. Not ass or eyes. You know, ass-eyes. I'm glancing around from time to time to see who …

The San Diego Symphony is reporting that all-world violinist Hilary Hahn has had to cancel her San Diego appearance. Hahn was to be the featured artist for the Symphony’s opening weekend concerts of October 11, …

Pacific Lyric Association Opera’s performance of Rigoletto on Saturday night was well worth seeing. Why? For one thing, this is an excellent example of how good opera can be when it is scaled down and …

Less ass, more eyes. Well, let's be realistic. Same amount of ass, and add the eyes. What am I getting at? Recently the Aviara Trio gave a performance of Rachmaninoff's Arabesque no. 1 and I …

Pacific Lyric Association is running three performances of Verdi’s masterpiece Rigoletto starting on Saturday, September 20th at 7 p.m. The venue is the Escondido Center for the Performing Arts. The remaining performances are on Friday …

If there is one idea that gets me worked up, it’s the “inspired by” idea or the “based upon” idea. O Brother Where Art Thou borrows incidents and characters from Homer’s Odyssey but I’d rather …

The Rancho Bernardo Public library has a chamber music series. Several libraries have similar programs. They are a rich source of music in San Diego County and they’re all free. I bring up Rancho Bernardo …

The 11th Annual Carlsbad Music Festival is starting September 19th and goes through the 21st. Pulitzer-prize winning composer and Bang on a Can co-founder David Lang will be in residence and his music will be …

Back to my disbelief in the 14 Huffington Post artists who are transforming opera and the fact that many critics have been wrong for many years regarding the progress of music and art. In the …

We've got more from Dr. Nicolas Reveles regarding the Bayreuth Festival. See part one of this interview here. Nic Reveles: The Tannhauser was probably the weirdest thing I have ever seen in my life. It …

This Huffington Post article about 14 artists who are transforming the future of opera has been crawling around my Facebook and Twitter. First of all, we get the "grand opera is dead" discussion from the …

July and August are Wagner months on account of the annual Bayreuth Festival in Bayreuth, Germany. The festival has been running since 1876, and has been impossible to attend for most of that time. However, …

The beleaguered San Diego Opera officially starts its season way early this year with a September 5 recital concert by opera power-couple Ailyn Perez and Stephen Costello at the Balboa Theatre. Both Costello and Perez …

The book, the book, the book, the book, the book.” Believe it or not, someone was singing about “the book” at the Central Library. That someone was Jennifer Wu, and it was awesome. The Central …

We’ve looked at the great, the okay, and now for the third and final segment on composer films — Ken Russell. Ken Russell defies any categories we might want to come up with. Great? Perhaps. …

If Amadeus is the only great composer movie, what about some others that are good? I’m not sure there are any that are good-to-great but there are a few that are okay-to-good. Immortal Beloved comes …