During the pandemic months, Conrad Tao – who, in addition to being an exceptional pianist, is also an accomplished composer – has evidently been honing his skills as an improviser.
Celebrity-Series
Jazz Album Review: Miguel Zenón’s Law Years Band & Christian McBride’s New Jawn Band
Two pianoless quartets + two restless leaders = some of the best music of the last few years.
Dance Commentary: Paul Taylor — Now You See It, Virtually
I’ve always believed that dance has a literature, much like music or drama. Dance’s literature consists of both ideas (choreography) and the execution of ideas (performance).
Concert Review: L.A. Philharmonic — Gustavo Dudamel and Yuja Wang
The charmed trifecta of John Adams, Yuja Wang, and Gustavo Dudamel produced a hit, at least to this Boston audience.
Arts Commentary: 2019-20 Classical Music Preview
I’ve compiled a list of twelve concerts (or concert series) that I think will stand among the future season’s highlights.
Concert Music Review: Violinist Itzhak Perlman and Pianist Evgeny Kissin — An Odd Dream Team
A bit surprising — that two megastars choose such meat and potatoes repertoire.
Dance Review: It’s Party Time — Monica Bill Barnes & Company
Monica Bill Barnes, a dancer-choreographer, mime, storyteller and soft satirist, has riffed in the past on the pitfalls of dancing, the vanity of performers, the absurdities of adolescence. Now she’s looking at gender displacements and assertions.
Jazz Concert Review: Mnozil Brass — Music-as-Vaudeville
The seven-man musical wrecking squad from Austria called Mnozil Brass has created a combination circus band, village band, marching band, and vaudeville orchestra.
Dance Review: Mark Morris Dance Group’s — Fab Four Plus
Mark Morris and Ethan Iverson chose songs from the famous album for reflection and extrapolation. What they made is an entertainment, a romp for the company’s terrific dancers.
Dance Review: Dance Heginbotham — Music Makes It
John Heginbotham may be making modern dance but he gives us the gift of classicism: discovery within form.