World Music - my/maSCENA

Fall Highlights: World Music

By Hassan Laghcha on 13 September 2021 World Music

Place des Arts intercultural crossroads Soirée Cumbia As part of its L’Art en soi program, Place des Arts invites us to a Cumbia soirée. The Ballet Raíces de Colombia and the Bumaranga group will take us on a musical journey through the Colombian Caribbean and its unique folklore enriched by pre-Columbian, Spanish and African cultures. Traditional percussion and flute are combined with a modern, electric touch. Sept. 17, 8 p.m. Esplanade of Place des Arts. Pavlo celebrates Mediterranean music Guitarist Pavlo Simtikidis (Pavlo) offers a recial with delightful Mediterranean sounds that combine folk styles from different cultures. This internationally renowned…

The Naghash Ensemble.

Bourgie Hall: World Music

By Hassan Laghcha on 10 September 2021 World Music

First is the Cameroonian vocalist and ethnomusicologist Gino Sitson. His performance, which opens the hall’s “Odyssées” series, will draw on various musical genres, from African song to jazz and Western chamber music. (Oct. 28, 8 p.m.)   In the New Year, the Naghash Ensemble is invited to perform a program of music inspired by the Armenian folk tradition. The concert is called Chants d’Exil. (Feb. 2, 7:30 p.m.) The season also marks the return of one of Ireland’s most prominent groups, Lúnas, with the show The Wild Coast of Ireland (Feb. 17, 8 p.m.). Music of the Orient will be in the…

Photo: André Leduc

alcides lanza, a Pioneer, Turns 90

By Andréanne Venne on 2 July 2020 Contemporary, Musique québécoise, World Music

You may have noticed the absence of capitals in his name. This orthographic licence was inspired, he says, by his discovery as a young man of the poetry of e. e. cummings, who was known to eschew writing conventions like punctuation and standard syntax. Certain Bauhaus prints also gave him encouragement. Then, a more pragmatic motivation added to these influences: “At a time when everyone wrote on typewriters, I told myself one day that if capital letters were no longer necessary, typewriters would be smaller and lighter, saving much of the metal used in manufacturing.” And, to conclude this mindful…

Festival Nuits d'Afrique

Worldbeat Previews

By Hassan Laghcha on 5 September 2019 World Music

Worldbeat is now an integral part of the musical landscape. Those involved in the cross-pollination of music traditions have to be more imaginative than ever to satisfy audience demands. Montreal is a prime market in North America for cross-cultural music encounters. Here are but a few events to take note of in the weeks and months to come. Middle East to Far East at Place des Arts On Sept. 28, the Algerian soprano Fairouz Oudjida, celebrated as the “Diva of the Desert,” performs Du Sahara à l’opéra at the Cinquième Salle of Place des Arts. There will be plenty of…

AUSTIN, TX - MAY 2, 2019 - Puccini's La Bohème.

Austin Opera Breathes New Life into La Bohème

By Paul E. Robinson on 6 May 2019 Classical, Classical Music, Opera, Vocal, World Music

PUCCINI: La Bohème Elizabeth Caballero, sop. (Mimì) Kang Wang, ten. (Rofolfo) Noel Bouley, bar. (Marcello) Ashraf Sewailam, bass (Colline) Andrew Lovato, bar. (Schaunard) Susannah Biller, sop. (Musetta) Alison Moritz, stage director Michael Yeargan, scenic designer Walter Mahoney, costume designer Austin Opera Orchestra and Chorus/Peter Bay, conductor Long Center for the Performing Arts Austin, Texas May 2, 2019 Whenever lists are compiled of the most popular operas, La Bohème is invariably in the top two or three, with good reason. After more than a century, the beauty of its music and the appeal of its characters continue to win audiences. In…

Austin Opera's Otello "in concert". Photo: Erich Schlegel

Otello “in concert” a Major Victory for Austin Opera

By Paul E. Robinson on 21 November 2018 Classical, Opera, Vocal, World Music

Verdi: Otello. A Festive Staged Concert Event. Issachah Savage (Otello); Marina Costa-Jackson (Desdemona); Michael Chioldi (Iago); Derek Taylor (Cassio). Concert Stage Director: Rebecca A. Herman Lighting Design: Thomas Hase Austin Opera Orchestra and Chorus/Steven White Long Center for the Performing Arts Austin, Texas November 15, 2018 Austin Opera has been presenting fully staged professional opera to audiences in Central Texas for the past 31 years, averaging three productions per season and maintaining a remarkably high standard; it came as a bit of a shock, then, when the company chose to open its 2018-2019 season with Verdi’s Otello in a concert…

Soprano Hyunah Yu in the middle, flanked by players from Piffaro and Prism, at the premiere of “The Anchoress” at the Kimmel Center (Philadelphia); photo by Pete Checchia/Philadelphia Chamber Music Society

“The Anchoress” – Songs of a Soul in Solitude

By Charles Geyer on 4 November 2018 Art Song, Baroque and Early, Chamber Music, Classical, Classical Music, Concert Reviews, Contemporary, Interviews, Jazz contemporain, La Scena Online, Music Competition, Musical Theatre, Opera, Theatre, Vocal, World Music

REVIEW: of The Anchoress, a world premiere of a new musical monodrama/song cycle composed by David Serkin Ludwig with text by Katie Ford, performed by soprano Hyunah Yu, accompanied by saxophone quartet PRISM and ancient-instrument ensemble Piffaro; on Wednesday, October 17, at the Perelman Theatre of Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center, and on Thursday, October 18, at New York City’s DiMenna Center for Classical Music (the latter performance reviewed here); and INTERVIEWS: with composer David Ludwig and poet Katie Ford. The impulse to retreat from the world in search of spiritual insight or purity has manifested throughout human history. Twenty-one centuries of Christianity…

Rumi Symphony Project : Shahram and Hafez Nazeri present Untold

By Hassan Laghcha on 4 October 2018 World Music

In October, the Nazeris (father and son, Shahram and Hafez) tour Canada with Untold, the latest chapter of the great Rumi Symphony project, an original fusion of occidental classical music and Persian traditional music presented by this famous family of Iranian artists. The project aims to promote love and peace by setting the widely appreciated works of the 13th-century mystic poet, Rumi, to music. “When I began this adventure, I imagined bringing together the distinctive personality and freedom of Persian music, the music of my culture, and the formal and very different expression of Occidental classical music,” says artistic director…

Quintette Kleztory: A Mosaic of Influences and Emotions

By Benjamin Goron on 1 October 2018 Folk, World Music

Kleztory is a stunning example of the power and the universal nature of the language of klezmer music. Strange to say, this internationally renowned quintet does not have any members of Jewish origin. From Russia, Western Canada and Quebec, the five musicians came together for their shared love of traditional klezmer music – into which, however, they do not hesitate to take the liberty of weaving their diverse personalities. Their return from Trondheim, Norway, where they will participate in a festival of Jewish culture, will mark the beginning of a rich season of travel and gatherings. Sidewalks to Studios Clarinettist…

Game On! Cerise Jacobs Boots Up PermaDeath, the First Video Game Opera

By Charles Geyer on 25 September 2018 Interviews, La Scena Online, Musical Theatre, Opera, Theatre, Uncategorized, Vocal, World Music

PREVIEW: of the new opera, PermaDeath, by Cerise Lim Jacobs and Dan Visconti, which will play Boston’s Cutler Majestic Theatre for three performances, September 27, 28 and 29, 2018. The theater dims. A martial blare and glistening orchestral clamor suddenly rives the murmuring darkness, and a bewildering vista of strange, vast landscape floods the stage. Two beautiful, luminous, titanic beings – the sibling gods Apollo and Artemis – are in pitched battle with the massive, earthen Niobe and her fourteen grotesque offspring. The stuff of mythic dreams? Yes. But it’s also the planned dazzler of an opening for the new…

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