"Human beings will go to any length necessary to find and connect with each other." "Eric Whitacre, in a 2011 TED Talk Even anti-maskers, I suppose, are dimly aware of the heightened risks o…
You'd have to be dead not to enjoy a recital of the caliber given this past Sunday in the Phillips Collection Music Room by members of the current class of Washington National Opera's Cafrit…
In my 20s, I lamented that despite being well-schooled in American literature, I'd ended up a failure at knowing much of our nation's poetry by heart. But when I set out to entertain myself …
The Washington National Opera's current production of Mozart's Don Giovanni confirms two important ideas. The first is that while opera is most effective when it entertains, its intrinsic va…
Thanks in part to the bold addition of a missing tenor aria, Opera Lafayette's elegant production of Ludwig van Beethoven's Leonore (1805), last night at the Kennedy Center's Eisenhower Thea…
Even though being a classical music reviewer often feels like a gig too good to be true, I don't recall ever forgetting my purpose for attending a performance. There's a first for everything…
While much of the city is abuzz with romantic romping this Valentine's Day weekend, the New Orchestra of Washington will concern itself with the transformative power of love and loss when it…
Nature, nuance, or its lack thereof, were central themes when the National Symphony Orchestra welcomed fledgling conductor Gemma New, pianist Yefim Bronfman, and the young composer Salina Fi…
Here's a thought: Older virtuosi are boring. That's not original to me, but to an audience member who offered his views during a concert intermission recently. We were at the Phillips Collec…
"It's a ridiculous thing to sing at the top of your lungs about your vulnerability," American composer Laura Kaminsky observed to this year's Washington National Opera's American Opera Initi…
"I want us to be in contention for a Helen Hayes Award," IN Series artistic director Timothy Nelson told me last fall over coffee near his office in the Shaw neighborhood. We were discussing…
There has been plenty of backlash during this administration against what some critics have called "the cult" of RBG, aka, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Some are critical of the…
If singing along to the Hallelujah Chorus or Hark, the Herald Angels Sing are requisite to bolstering your holiday spirit, then Songs of the Season: Christmas with Choral Arts at the Kennedy…
How history will judge us for this administration's treatment of Central American migrant children, I often wonder. And yet, our record of abuse against "Other" is not partisan, but has accu…
A frustration of many classical and contemporary music critics is that we hear a new work that seems to have great promise for being added to the canon, and then poof! It disappears, never t…
Now that this summer's drama surrounding the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's financial woes has quieted, at least for now, we can focus on the significant contributions our home state orchest…
Attending Cantus's Alone Together at the Kennedy Center made me realize that meaningful interaction relies as much upon solitude and mystery as it does connection and revelation. The vocal o…
"I realized the thing I missed most in my process was people," American composer Libby Larsen told me recently. She was speaking about her commissioned work "YOU," which the vocal ensemble C…
Now into his second year leading IN Series, the itinerant company based at the Source Theater, artistic director Timothy Nelson has not been shy about challenging opera's status quo. "I …
The opening night performance of Washington National Opera's production of Wolfgang A. Mozart's The Magic Flute was perfectly pleasing, even if the show as written is just too long. Traditio…
The crowd cheered. We were on the Kennedy Center jitney to the Foggy Bottom Metro stop. I had just read aloud a text from my husband that said Howie Kendrick had hit a two-run homer to p…
Spektral Quartet's Looking Skyward offers audiences opportunity to trust their instincts when approaching new music There was a time when I needed the cash, so I substitute taught high schoo…
If this summer's Baltimore Symphony Orchestra labor dispute underscored that remonstrating over the sustainability of American symphony orchestras is pointless if we don't clarify whether th…
The National Symphony Orchestra's third season opener signaled a distinctively bright and cohesive sound is developing under Maestro Gianandrea Noseda. Noseda explained to the crowd that his…
Two of the world's biggest voices blended beautifully Thursday night on the Main Stage at the Kennedy Center's REACH Opening Festival, demonstrating the power of song to unify and inspire di…