Ever since he started becoming one of the best alto saxophone players in the world, Miguel Zenón has drawn influence from his upbringing in Puerto Rico. Folk melodies, forms and rhythms have inspired many of his technically astounding yet immediately gratifying works. So it makes sense that he's giving back. He's launched an initiative called Caravana Cultural, presenting free jazz concerts and lectures on the island. His latest album Oye!!! was recorded live in San Juan with Puerto Rican musicians.
Senegalese singer Baaba Maal appears in this archival episode of Mountain Stage, recorded in January 1995. Maal is among Senegal's best-known musicians, with a worldwide following and a performance history that spans more than three decades. He studied music, first in Dakar and then in Paris, before returning home to study with his family's griot, a blind guitarist named Mansour Seck.
In German, it's wiegenlied; in French, berceuse; in Norwegian, vuggevise. In any language, the universal effect of what we know as the lullaby is, of course, to coax a baby to sleep.
Violinist Rachel Barton Pine had her own baby in mind when she decided to record a collection of lullabies. Her infant daughter appears on the cover of the new album Violin Lullabies — all folded up, fast asleep, so tiny she just about fits in her dad's hands.
Leonard Slatkin leads the Detroit Symphony Orchestra at the Spring for Music festival at Carnegie Hall.
Credit Torsten Kjellstrand / for NPR
The second half of the Spring for Music concert was dominated by Kurt Weill's Seven Deadly Sins, originally conceived as a kind of sung ballet, with words by Bertold Brecht. The Portland-based rock and Pink Martini singer Storm Large took the stage to sing the role of Anna.
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After her performance, Storm Large said she felt like she just did a sporting event. Asked about her diverse repertoire, she said, "I just do stuff that makes me feel good. Whether I'm smashing glasses [in a rock band] or I'm in a gown singing the lovely music of Kurt Weill."
Credit Torsten Kjellstrand / for NPR
A barbershop-style quartet of singers — from left tenors Jorge Garza and Carl Moe, with baritones Anton Belov and Richard Zeller — played the collective role of Anna's family in Kurt Weill's Seven Deadly Sins.
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Tonight was Storm Large's Carnegie Hall debut. She had never even been inside the building before. "I'm not going there unless I can play there," she said.
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Detroit Symphony Orchestra pride backstage at Carnegie Hall. The orchestra has come through a rough period in its history. Two years ago a bitter labor dispute cost the DSO and its fans most of the 2011-12 concert season and the departure of a few key musicians.
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Playing Carnegie Hall, often called the temple of classical music, is a point of pride for any orchestra, especially the Detroit Symphony which has not performed here in 17 years.
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Leonard Slatkin is in his 5th season as music director in Detroit. And he's no stranger to Carnegie Hall, having conducted about 50 performances here, with orchestras such as the St. Louis Symphony and the National Symphony Orchestra.
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Orchestras from around the country, chosen for their creative programming, show up for the Spring for Music festival. And fans from their hometowns show up as well, each with their own color-coded bandanas. Detroit waves red!
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Conductor Leonard Slatkin and his Detroit Symphony Orchestra offered a Spring for Music concert featuring 20th-century composers Sergei Rachmaninov, Maurice Ravel and Kurt Weill — composers Slatkin says in some ways seemed more comfortable with their 19th century roots.
Credit Torsten Kjellstrand / for NPR
A Detroit Symphony violinist savors a moment in music by Rachmaninov. Leonard Slatkin began the concert with two lesser-known Rachmaninov symphonic poems: The glittering Caprice bohemian and the eerie Isle of the Dead.
The Detroit Symphony Orchestra's performances at the 2013 Spring for Music festival represent a dramatic reversal of fortunes, and one that can only happen among modern-day American orchestras.
Originally published on Tue April 30, 2013 12:11 pm
For the third installment of Q2 Spaces, we visited the home and work space of Tristan Perich — a New York-based sound, visual and installation artist whose music blends a composer's interest in acoustic classical instruments and electronic manipulation with an inventor's exploration into circuitry and computer code.
One of the most dynamic and exciting world-class ensembles of its generation, the Borealis String Quartet has received international critical acclaim as an ensemble praised for its fiery performances, passionate style, and refined, musical interpretation. Founded in Vancouver, British Columbia in the fall of 2000 and rapidly establishing a stellar reputation, the Borealis has toured extensively in North America and performed to enthusiastic sold-out audiences in major cities across North America.
Originally published on Tue April 30, 2013 11:40 am
The pianist and composer John Beasley has one of the most formidable tasks of anyone associated with today's International Jazz Day, the celebration produced by UNESCO and the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz. He's music director of the centerpiece concert to be live-streamed from Istanbul tonight (2 p.m. ET in the U.S.).
