If you are hoping to get out of the house while the weather is warm, the summer provides a multitude of classical music events that can all be reached by car in a day’s travel. Some are only an hour away or less, and others: with a little more motivation you can leave home in […]
Gary A. Baldwin
Opera Review: Eastman Opera Theatre presents “Our Town”
Grover’s Corners, according to author Thornton Wilder, represents everyone’s “home town.” In Thursday night’s performance of “Our Town’” by the Eastman School of Music Opera Theatre, the lighting took on a special significance for scene placement as images from Rochester’s past were projected on the back wall of the bleak staging of chairs and ladders. […]
CLASSICAL | Holocaust Remembrance Concert
This concert features music by Gideon Klein and Wladyslaw Szpilman, composers who perished and survived (respectively) Holocaust camps. Performing will be Eastman School of Music faculty and students, organized by Associate Professor of Violin, Renee Jolles, whose father, Jerome, was a survivor of the camps in Romania, came to America, and established a musical career […]
Concert Review: Stephanie Blythe at Kilbourn Hall
I can’t remember an evening filled with more vocal joy than Tuesday night’s Kilbourn Concert with mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe. And I’m not alone: Given the volume and enthusiasm of its applause, the audience might have been echoing the plea of one of the songs on Blythe’s program, Jacques Brel’s “Ne Me Quitte Pas” (“Please Don’t […]
Classical Review: Peter Serkin with the Eastman Philharmonia
Peter Serkin’s performance of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 19 at Kodak Hall, Saturday evening, confirmed what we all know about this great artist. His brilliant and intimate attention to the details of the music is only matched by his ability to communicate to the orchestra their role in this collaboration. With the full Eastman Philharmonia […]
CLASSICAL | “On the Road”
Pegasus Early Music’s first full concert of 2015 — the organization presented a Pegasus Rising concert last week — will take audiences on a string band tour of the 17th century. “On the Road” will feature music and styles from Germany, Austria, Italy, France and England. Of special interest is Biber’s Sonata for two viola […]
CLASSICAL | Bedlam
Bedlam is a voice and lute duo that performs 16th-century music inspired by forbidden and taboo subjects associated with that famous London institution. Vocalist Kayleen Sanchez and lutist Laudon Schuett (pictured) are involved in keeping the “madness” — the rejection of rational thought — alive through these performances, both intimate and exciting. Bedlam will present […]
Concert Review: Emerson String Quartet at Kilbourn Hall
The string quartet genre, like many other chamber music forms (the madrigal, various quintets, a solo song recitals, for instance) has always seemed to me more fun to perform than to listen to. Chamber works are limited by their own small gathering of musical forces. For many of us, if they have an effect it […]
Concert Review: First Inversion’s “Harmonic Splendor”
Concert-goers got a chance to hear one of Rochester’s newest local choral organizations last weekend when First Inversion gave a strong performance of a demanding program at Downtown United Presbyterian Church. If the January 23 performance is any indication, First Inversion will be a strong addition to the musical culture of the city. The First […]
CLASSICAL | Emerson String Quartet
The Emerson String Quartet will present an afternoon recital in Kilbourn Hall featuring music from the early 17th-century to the masterworks of the 20th-century. The Emerson String Quartet has an unparalleled list of achievements across three decades: more than 30 acclaimed recordings, 9 Grammys, 3 Gramophone Awards, the Avery Fisher Prize, and collaborations with many […]
CLASSICAL | “The Best of East and West”
“The Best of East and West,” an afternoon recital program presented by Nazareth College’s Music Department, will feature a coming together of contrasting colors and styles. The “East” will be represented by the pieces “Sound of the Five” and “Wild Grass” — written by composers Chen Yi and Zhou Long, respectively — while the “West” […]






