In a strange twist of timing, I found myself reading Ron Chernow's superb new biography of George Washington at the same time that I just happened to be reading Jan Swafford's Charles Ives: A Life with Music, published in 1996. Time and again, I found myself comparing these two great...

Recently, The New York Times published a lengthy list of special 9/11 programming that will hit the airwaves, the concert hall, houses of worship, and movie theaters around the country over the next couple of weeks.

Among the events is a special free concert by conductor Alan...

Terrence Malick's new and profoundly beautiful film, The Tree of Life, is, among many things, a very good thing for classical music. For people who already love classical music, the film provides numerous moments to savor it in a very rich setting. For people who don't already connect with classical...

I met Sarah Willis recently at Berlin's famed Philharmonie, home of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra -- arguably the world's greatest orchestra. Sarah has the remarkable distinction of being the first (but,...

Joseph Calleja on the shores of Malta (credit: Johannes Ifkovits)

The Mediterranean island of Malta has been in the news frequently in recent weeks, mostly in the role of haven for refugees of the crisis in Libya. The news...

Composer Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) wrote soul-baring music of sometimes harrowing intensity.

Following a sublime and expressive performance of Beethoven's Third Piano Concerto by pianist Jonathan Biss and the New York Philharmonic conducted by Andris Nelsons, I turned on my iPhone and read an e-mail...

By an eerie coincidence, the two works of art that I experienced before the tragic shootings in Arizona were baritone Thomas Hampson singing Gustav Mahler's Kindertotenlieder ("Songs on the Death of Children" in English) with the New York Philharmonic and conductor Alan Gilbert on Friday night, and a matinee showing...

Aloe Blacc's "Good Things" was one of the Great Things of 2010

2010 was a tough one, especially if you were still unemployed or if your name was Barack Obama -- despite a few 11th hour successes with the lame-duck Congress. The economy...

I frequently visit the blog of tenor Nick Phan (grecchinois.blogspot.com - so named because he is half Greek and half Chinese), a friend who happens to be an exceptional and quite eloquent singer. On Friday, November...

The huddled (and umbrellaed) masses on Lincoln Center Plaza for the Metropolitan Opera's opening night

The Metropolitan Opera's season-opening performances last week of Wagner's Das Rheingold got lots of media attention, and with good reason. The opera, featuring an all-star cast, is the first...

The Richard B. Fisher Center at Bard College

Our company has worked with the Bard SummerScape Festival in Annandale-on-Hudson (two hours north of New York City) since 2004. This seven-week festival grew out of the Bard Music Festival, which debuted in 1990....

Last night, a writer friend of mine gave me an unexpected and extremely moving gift: he took me to my first performance of Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music. But it wasn't just any performance, beginning with the fact that it was...

Sometimes the simplest gesture can make an extraordinary impression. I thought of this when I met organist Cameron Carpenter just 15 minutes before the start of his show at [Le] Poisson Rouge a few weeks ago. "Hi, I'm Cameron Carpenter," he said,...

My client Alan Gilbert was feeling great last week when I saw him at his apartment. His new recipe for the kind of Bronx-style marinara I grew up with was a success, he was enjoying the bottle of wine I...

I sometimes wonder if everyone has a piece of music -- or a composer or a musician -- that he/she feels has literally changed his/her life. My post today is about the composer whom I would place in the top slot of my "life-changing" category: Gustav Mahler.

You'll be hearing...

There were more famous men in the world than Eugene Prandato, but few were greater. More than three decades ago he was my high school English teacher, but from that time on he became my most trusted and influential mentor. He introduced me to writing, reading great literature, music, critical...

The current round of scandals involving pedophile Catholic priests and the Church hierarchy that covers up their crimes, is by turns tragic, stomach-churning and disgraceful. As a gay man who has often heard the Catholic Church calling my "lifestyle" sinful, the hypocrisy of it all is clear enough. But while...

I was lucky enough to be backstage at Carnegie Hall with my dear friend Jeremy Geffen, who is Director of Artistic Planning for this most esteemed concert venue, last night when Max Raabe made his way to his dressing room after his utterly successful...

Individual classical music events can be thrilling, thought provoking, beautiful, moving, or any combination of these and many other qualities, but they can't always be described as important in terms of their broader cultural significance. After so many performances of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, for example, this revolutionary work has become...

The beginning of a new year (not to mention a new decade) is a popular time for resolutions and "best of the year" recaps, but it's also the beginning of the annual awards season. Grammys...Emmys...Tonys...Oscars...Golden Globes....they will all be rolling in over the coming weeks, thrilling and boring us in...