Upcoming Tours
Giza
The Splendors Of Egypt (March 9-21)
This thirteen-day tour includes Cairo, Alexandria, and a Nile cruise to ancient sites. Guests are welcomed to Cairo at dinner overlooking the worlds longest river. Visits to the Pyramids and Sphinx of Giza and the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities follow. Stopping en route to Alexandria, we see the El Alamein War Memorials, the site of a great WWII Allies’ victory. A city tour includes the avant-garde Bibliotheca Alexandrina. Our time cruising the Nile will include stops at the Aswan Botanical Garden and the Temple of Horus. We then continue to Luxor and the Valley of the Kings. The tour ends in Hurghada on the Red Sea. Cultural highlights include a performance at the modern Cairo Opera House and a whirling dervishes ceremony.
Kroměříž
Czech Republic - Gardens and Music (June 15-24, 2023)
The grandeur of empire is still evident in Czechia’s magnificent estates. We will visit the royal gardens in Prague, as well as others in Buchlovice, Kroměříž, Litomyšli and Konopiště . A highlight of the trip will be our stay in the elegant spa town of Mariánské Lázně (Marienbad) with its parks, romantic colonnades, charming pavilions, pleasant cafes and luxurious hotels. The musical highlights will include Antonín Dvořák’s opera Armida at Prague's National Theatre, where it premiered in 1904. The tour will be accompanied by Charles Day, the former Horticultural Interpreter at Wave Hill in the Bronx, NY, and a well-known consultant for private and public gardens, museums, and estates.
Performance Reviews
New York, NY
Met Chamber players run ‘la gamme’ of Debussy, Caplet, Saint-Saëns, Poulenc
Baritone Joshua Hopkins reveled in the absudity and wit of Poulenc's Le bal masqué.
Pittsburgh, PA
Youthful zest and stylish singing bring luster to Handel’s Ariodante in Pittsburgh
Director Crystal Manich uses color and light to equal effect to Pittsburgh Opera's first-ever production of Handel's Ariodante.
New York, NY
Met Opera’s “Dialogues des Carmélites” is a devastating, emotional tour de force
John Dexter's timeless 1977 production returns with riveting cast.
New York, NY
Emma O’Halloran’s Mary Motorhead and Trade premiere at Prototype
Emma O’Halloran’s music is as true and honest as the characters that her uncle Mark O'Halloran created.
New York, NY
Nathan Gunn gives a powerful performance at Prototype in Du Yun’s In Our Daughter’s Eyes
Prototype goes live for its eleventh season after two year hiatus.
New York, NY
iSing! Suzhou and The Philadelphia Orchestra’s ‘Echoes of Ancient Tang Poems’ celebrates Lunar New Year
Concert featured winners of the 2020 iSing! International Composition Competition.
New York, NY
BASS’s ‘Recovered Voices’ explores music by composers who perished in the Holocaust
Premiere of Jorell Williams' Kinderlieder inspired by the songs Ilse Weber.
New York, NY
A fine cast stirs up a charming brew in Met’s “Elixir of Love”
Javier Camarena and Golda Schultz star in Donizetti's delightful comedy.
New York, NY
New cast keeps Met’s “Traviata” exciting, musically and dramatically
Revival brought exciting house debuts of tenor Ismael Jordi as Alfredo and baritone Amartuvshin Enkhbat as Giorgio Germont.
New York, NY
“Fedora” returns to Met after 25 years in a sumptuous, richly sung production
Sonya Yoncheva and Piotr Beczała bring glamour, passion and exciting singing to Giordano's melodrama.
All of my reviews for Seen and Heard International can be found here
Recordings Reviews
Ventura, CA
Requiem for the Enslaved
Carlos Simon and Marco Pavé offer a searing, transcendent memorial to past sins and hopes.
Goshen, NY
Aaron Jay Kernis's Elegy (For Those We Lost)
Elegy (For Those We Lost) is dedicated to the families of those who have died from COVID-19. Aaron Jay Kernis originally composed the piece for solo piano, but arranged it for harp and trumpet was made at the request of the Grammy-nominated harpist Yolanda Kondonassis.
Berlin
Vince Mendoza's Freedom Over Everything
To the Edge of Longing for soprano and orchestra is one of the most stunning musical creations inspired by these troubled times.
Lawrence, Kansas
dwb (driving while black)
Of the three recorded versions of Susan Kander and Roberta Gumbel's dwb (driving while black), this recording is the purest one.
Chicago
Archetypes
In their new release, Grammy Award-winning Third Coast Percussion joins with celebrated Brazilian guitarist Sérgio Assad and his daughter - vocalist, composer and multi-instrumentalist Clarice Assad - to portray in music twelve of these universal characters that defy time and place.
Paris
The Freischütz Project
Conductor Laurence Equilbey is the first to present Carl Maria von Weber’s opera using the principles and original instruments of historically informed performance with a stellar cast.
New York
Brooklyn-based ensemble and songwriting collective Founders releases Songs for the End of Time
Ben Russell and Brandon Ridenour, members of the new music ensemble Founders, radical rework of Olivier Messiean’s Quatuor pour la fin du temps is faithful to both the spirit and the austere beauty of the original.
Warsaw
The songs of René de Boisdeffre - A nineteenth-century master of melody
Acte Préalable’s recording of reveals that at his best, René de Boisdeffre could fashion a song to rival those of his greatest contemporaries, including Fauré.
France
Contralto - Nathalie Stutzmann / Orfeo 55
Stutzmann’s last recording with Orfeo 55, the chamber orchestra which she founded and performed with as soloist and conductor simultaneously, celebrates the legacy of the great Baroque contraltos and the music that they inspired.
New York
Once and Again
Once and Again, the most recent recording of Edward Smaldone's music, features a sampling of his smaller-scaled works, including two for voice and instruments.
About
I got the travel bug from my parents. As a boy I had crisscrossed the US with them and my younger brother on the classic American Road Trip to California. At 16, I went to Europe for the first time. The destination was Germany, a country that I have returned to many times. In addition to business and personal travel, I have lived in Switzerland, Singapore and China. So far, it’s been a wonderful life of travelling the world and experiencing its wonders..
A musician for most of my life, first a trumpet player and then a singer, I have a degree in music from the University of Pittsburgh. In 2013, I began reviewing for Seen and Heard International and have posted reviews from the US, Europe and Asia. In addition, I regularly contribute program notes to the Singapore Symphony Orchestra and have had music and travel articles published in the Global Times, Shanghai Daily, MusicWeb International, Broad Street Review and other publications.
Although I am thrilled to have press privileges in many of the world’s great concert halls and opera houses, it is the offerings in the more out-of-the way places that excite me the most. There one still finds great music, often at its national, indigenous best, in theaters, whether ancient or modern, that are as grand and beautiful as any in the world. More importantly, these venues not only preserve the past, they embrace the new, keeping classical music current and vital. That is the world that I invite you to explore with me on my tours.
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