When you see “commissioned by” written on a concert program, you can bet that the name of a performing arts or philanthropic organization will follow, since those are the groups that typically support the creation of new pieces of...
Let’s throw it back to April 1, 1981 for a moment: It was two days after the attempted assassination of President Reagan. It was the day that Isuzu started selling automobiles in the United States. Blondie was topping the...
According to pianist Jason Moran, jazz legend Fats Waller “was a party animal.” Waller, who wrote classics like “Ain’t Misbehavin’” and “Honeysuckle Rose,” died young, but he left behind a piano style and a catalog of music that has...
“The thing about doing concerts,” Brian Stokes Mitchell says, “is that it’s doing a live show. It’s on my schedule, it’s songs I want to sing, it’s saying what I want to say, it’s working with the people I...
After making a name for herself playing Sally Bowles in a French production of Cabaret in 1987, singer-actress Ute Lemper was encouraged to make an album featuring songs from that show and other pop and Broadway tunes. The CD was...
"To really give yourself over to that world is a really big commitment. I read it twice through before we started writing. All the chapters that irritated me at the beginning are now my favorites—those side chapters not involved in the plot.”
"I wanted people who felt like they had a connection to Sondheim’s work or who were influenced by and felt strongly about it. Some know the canon of his work much better than others."
Not too many people can say they have successfully recorded music as diverse as pop, jazz standards, Gilbert & Sullivan, folk/country, Mexican music, and more. Linda Ronstadt is one of those people. With 11 Grammy awards on her resume,...
Hilty performs at VPAC on September 24, 2015
The works of Stephen Sondheim have been very good to Lee Blakeley. Or you can argue that Lee Blakeley has been very good to Sondheim’s work. The director oversaw the French premieres of A Little Night Music, Sunday in...