John Adams leads the New World Symphony in City Noir ... Shawn Colvin plays Austin ... Philip Glass joins Lucinda Childs in Vermont ... Wanda Jackson performs three shows in Colorado ... Kronos Quartet performs Steve Reich's WTC 9/11 in Arizona ... The Low Anthem tours Benelux ... Jessica Lea Mayfield plays NYC and Boston ... Brad Mehldau joins Anne Sofie von Otter in Germany ... Pokrovsky Ensemble performs Les noces with LA Phil ... Punch Brothers head South ... Allen Toussaint, Irma Thomas make music in Mobile ... and more ...
John Adams conducts the New World Symphony in a performance of his 2009 piece City Noir at the New World Center in Miami Saturday night. Also on the program are Julia Wolfe's Arsenal of Democracy and Bartók's Dance Suite. The concert marks the composer's conducting debut at the orchestra's new Frank Gehry-designed concert hall.
Adams spoke with the South Florida Classical Review's Sean Piccoli for an article published in the Miami Herald, in which they discuss Saturday's concert, as well as a new piece Adams has written for NWS founder Michael Tilson Thomas and the recent Met premiere of his 1987 opera Nixon in China. You can read the article at miamiherald.com.
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Shawn Colvin plays two consecutive sets at the One World Theatre in Austin, Texas, tonight.
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Philip Glass gives a solo piano performance at the Flynn Center in Burlington, Vermont, on Saturday, as the first part of a double bill with Lucinda Childs’ Dance, for which Glass wrote the music. Following the performances, Flynn Center Executive Director John Killacky will lead a discussion with Glass and Childs about their work.
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Wanda Jackson heads to Colorado for three performances this weekend: at the Boulder Theater tonight, the Belly Up in Aspen on Saturday, and the Bluebird Theater in Denver on Sunday. The Dusty 45s open at each of the three shows.
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Kronos Quartet performs Steve Reich's latest piece, WTC 9/11, at the University of Arizona's Centennial Hall in Tucson on Sunday. Kronos gave the world premiere of the piece at Duke University two weeks back and will give the New York premiere performance as part of an all-Reich program at Carnegie Hall at the end of this month in celebration of the composer's 75th birthday. Also on the program in Tucson this Sunday are works by Bryce Dessner, Clint Mansell, John Zorn, and Sigur Rós.
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The Low Anthem continues its European tour with support from The Head and the Heart with two concerts in the Benelux countries this weekend: at Doomroosje in Nijmegan, Netherlands, tonight, and at Ancienne Belgique in Brussels on Sunday.
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Jessica Lea Mayfield continues her US tour with two stops on the East Coast this weekend: at the Bowery Ballroom in New York tonight and the Brighton Music Hall in Boston on Saturday. Kentucky-based singer-songwriter Daniel Martin Moore opens both nights. The New York Times recommends tonight's show, saying "her songs are tough, rhythmic, and compelling ... her voice plaintive and unapologetic." The Boston Globe says: "Touching on folk, indie rock, soul, and pop Mayfield tells vivid tales."
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Brad Mehldau continues his series of performances with mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter at Laeiszhalle in Hamburg, Germany, on Saturday. On the program is Mehldau's expanded Love Songs, as well as works by Brahms, Fauré, Lennon & McCartney, Sibelius, and Strauss. Audiophile Audition, in its review of Mehldau's latest two Nonesuch releases, Live in Marciac and Highway Rider, hails Mehldau’s inventiveness and his “unique creative mind.”
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Fernando Otero continues his residency at Nublu in New York City with a performance with his Electric Tango on Saturday. Otero performs two more shows at Nublu after this week before he heads to Israel for a series of dates with Sabrina Lastman.
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The Pokrovsky Ensemble joins the Los Angeles Philharmonic, under conductor Thomas Adès, at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles for a program featuring Stravinsky's Les noces, a pieces the ensemble famously recorded for Nonesuch in 1994. The Guardian included the album in its guide to the definitive recordings of classical works. Also on the program is Stravinsky's Concerto for Two Pianos and Adès's own In Seven Days. Performances take place both Saturday night and Sunday afternoon.
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Punch Brothers head to the South this weekend, beginning at the Florida Theater in Jacksonville tonight. They perform at the Trustees Theater in Savannah, Georgia, on Saturday, as part of the Savannah Music Festival, whose curators call Punch Brothers “one of the most innovative and daring acoustic ensembles in American music.” The band heads back to Florida on Sunday for a show at the Vinyl Music Hall in Pensacola.
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In addition to the Kronos Quartet performance listed above, three percussive pieces by Steve Reich are featured in a concert by the winners of the Tromp Competition and percussionist Emmanuel Sejourné at the Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam Saturday night, as part of the World Minimal Music Festival. On the program is an arrangement of Reich's Electric Counterpoint for percussion, his Nagoya Marimbas, and Drumming. Also on the program are works by Louis Andriessen and Luiz Henrique Yudo.
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Allen Toussaint performs at the Saenger Theatre in Mobile, Alabama, Saturday night, along with fellow Louisiana native Irma Thomas. In an interview with Lagniappe, out of Mobile, Toussaint calls his chemistry with Thomas “fitting and proper and right as rain ... a perfect marriage.”
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