Laurence Vittes

Opening night for Misha Baryshnikov's production of Dmitry Krymov's In Paris, based on an Ivan Bunin short story, was like a Lubitsch production, intoxicated with beauty, brains and culture. Hearing whispers at the party at Tiato's afterwards, that Baryshnikov in the play was speaking his native tongue for the first...

The last Classical Underground, before proprietors Alexey Steele and Olga Vlasova's twins arrive in May, started out as a subdued affair and ended with roars from the crowd.

The theme was friendship; many friends were in the house, and on the stage. Moni Simeonov opened the evening...

To understand what will be at stake and in play in the League of American Orchestra's annual meetings in Dallas from June 5-8, I talked to the League's newly-announced Orchestra Management Fellows for 2012.

Good news for classical music lovers: Spotify has just announced the launch of Classify, a new groundbreaking classical music app designed to be the easiest way to browse, discover and listen to classical music over the Internet. Classify is created to be your Spotify home for classical music.

Allegro? Adagio?...

It was yet another high point of the Gregor Piatigorsky International Cello Festival: Four famous cellists, who had studied with the great Russian master before his death in 1976, played one after the other for two hours at the University of Southern California's Newman Recital Hall. It was...

During the week, classical music conversations naturally shifted from Gustavo Dudamel's Mahler Project to professional basketball star Jeremy Lin's overnight emergence as the most popular person on the planet.

Both performance artists have rejuvenated their local, national and global communities, immediately along its length and breadth in...

Emmanuelle Haim Conducts LA Phil in an all-Handel program, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Nov. 17, 2011.

If you're looking for the first woman conductor to be a superstar, look no further. Emmanuelle Haim is young, she's beautiful and she's got the musical goods to collaborate...

Just when Clap Between Movements seems to have exhausted its usefulness as a triggering topic for the relevance of classical music, along come three concerts which blast the problem to smithereens. Just keep in mind that your options are: Clap between movements, clap while the music is playing, clap only...

The Lammermuir Festival 2011 took place in an endearing jumble of towns and villages throughout East Lothian, east of Edinburgh. The venues ranging from airplane hangars to royal palaces (royalty included) and scenes out of Brigadoon. Avant-garde icon Philip Glass rushed past at the speed of sound, blonde bugle-playing blonde...

Sunday, October 23, San Francisco
Time to Put Back Orchestras Into Your Classical Music Portfolio

Beginning October 23 and continuing throughout the year, the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) will host a season-long, "nationwide dialogue on the 21st century American orchestra." Six "major American orchestras" will celebrate the SFS's Centennial...

Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, Gustavo Dudamel (conductor), Janine Jansen (violin). Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles. 09.010.2011 (LV)

Mendelssohn: Overture "Hebrides"
Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto 
Mendelssohn: Symphony No 3 "Scottish"

Sunday afternoon's concert, which was shown live in more than 400 movie theaters in the U.S., may have been a blockbuster hit...

The Quincena Musical Festival in San Sebastián was torrid as advertised. So were the topless beaches, to which my wife and I can testify. And there was a music critic who performed at a concert by a countertenor in a convent.

We arrived at the end of August for the...

During my madcap tour through European summer festivals from Moritzburg (Germany) to East Lothian (Scotland), more reminiscent at times of a classical music circus than of a mere series of staid classical music events, one issue has remained constant: the space between movements and whether to applaud. In fact, the...

The stunning music and architecture of Slovenia, magnificent in its heyday and brought to ruin through centuries of war, is now emerging in the 21st century as an integral part of a proud nation's reconstruction initiative. One of Slovenia's proudest cultural contributors is the Maribor Festival, located in the country's...

I arrived in the small town of La Roque d'Anthéron, 30 minutes drive from Aix-en-Provence, anticipating an evening of the cream of the French crop of young chamber music ensembles before pushing on to Montpélier, Perpignan and Finestret for 10 days of rest, relaxation and a renewal of my attempt...

When I visited the charming town of Moritzburg in southeastern Germany last year, I was taken with its charm and timeless sense of beauty. Embraced by nature, Moritzburg exists in a surreal time warp, 10 miles south of Dresden, for whose kings its magnificent palace once served as a royal...

As the summer season winds down, three festivals in way out places in Europe promise outstanding value for music lovers wishing to experience the beauties of nature, history and culture.

In the breathtakingly beautiful alpine resort of Maribor in eastern Slovenia, Australian violinist and conductor Richard Tognetti and an array...

In the classical music game, summer music festivals are where the action is. Vail features 3 Top 10 American orchestras (Dallas, Philadelphia and New York), a great outdoor hall and a new chamber music initiative. Moritzburg is a fantasy camp for budding young professionals.

New York Knights aka Beethovenhead?
Saturday, June 18, 7 pm
Trinity Church, Southport Summer Music Festival

When Trinity Church's choirs and soloists join the Knights Chamber Orchestra for a seemingly innocuous program of Bach, Handel, and Beethoven, the Knights hope to score a knockout with their first ever...

If your Spring this year is resisting being sprung, here are three springtime events which are guaranteed to get you in the mood. Check out the youtube samples below. It's what they mean when they say that being there is the only thing when it comes to classical music.

Dresden...