(Phaedra Ensemble at Kings Place) Steve Reich’s ninetieth anniversary celebrations continued apace this month with two concerts at London’s Kings Place. Known for its creative buzz, lively atmosphere, and receptive audiences, the venue is an ideal setting for contemporary chamber music. Reich’s three major quartets were heard there within the space of a week: the Solem Quartet’s powerful performance of Different Trains on March 14th (see my review in The Strad) was followed on March 20th by equally compelling interpretations of WTC 9/11 and Triple Quartet by the dynamic Phaedra Ensemble. Both concerts formed part of Kings Place’s imaginatively curated ‘Memory Unwrapped’ series. Subtitled ‘slow change’, Phaedra
Read more(Cover photography by Aaron Eidman of an artwork by Nina Blass) (Photo: Boris Seewald) In Berlin Calling: A Story of Anarchy, Music, the Wall, and the Birth of the New Berlin (The New Press, 2017)—Paul Hockenos’ illuminating account of the city’s music scene before, during, and after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989—he retells how its dynamic countercultural scene became a sanctuary for “off-grid experiments” by radical interventionist contrarians: neo-dadaists and situationists, punk rockers and producers of industrial techno, graffiti artists and queer activists. It is not without reason that famous rock and art pop stars such as David
Read morePrinceton Symphony, Rossen Milanov, conductor Richardson Auditorium, Princeton University March 7, 2026 Published in Sequenza 21 By Christian Carey PRINCETON – Some regional professional orchestras play it safe, not straying far from Mozart and Beethoven and considering a Brahms symphony their most adventurous outing. Not so the Princeton Symphony. Last Saturday, they played two new works by Viet Cuong and Julian Grant, as well as the complete ballet version of Stravinsky’s Pulcinella. Each composer in their own way dealt with a mélange of styles and multiple reference points. In Extra(ordinarily Fancy, Viet Cuong uses the baroque concerto style as a
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ACO, Classical Music, Composers, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Experimental Music, New York, Orchestral
On March 11, 2026 at Carnegie Hall, the American Composers Orchestra will perform the world premiere of Cosmologyscape by the composer and violinist Kite. The work was commissioned by the ACO. An essential aspect of the work is crowd-sourced: the audience is invited to submit descriptions of their dreams ahead of time via the Cosmologyscape website. These dreams will be translated by an AI app into a visual language of Lakota symbols, which will be projected on stage at the performance. The composition is a concerto grosso of sorts, as the Cosmology Ensemble (Marilu Donovan, harp; Nava Dunkelman, percussion; JJJJJerome
Read moreIn this album, which gathers art songs by Pablo Ortiz (b. 1956), one encounters a coastline of sounds where fragments arrive through tides of memory: a piece of driftwood, a coil of rope, a shell whose interior still whispers of the sea that shaped it. Melody, rhythm, and dynamic inflection refract through the texture of the music, producing a spectrum that unfolds across the horizon, colors emerging through proximity. In Ortiz’s hands, words are not pressed into musical molds; the music grows from them. The poems breathe because the composer allows them space. In soprano Lucy Fitz Gibbon and pianist
Read more(photo credit: Peter Serling) TRIGGER WARNING: This review contains references to suicide and depression, which some readers may find distressing. Advice on suicide and mental health-related support can be found on the following websites: International Association of Suicide Prevention (IASP), World Health Organization (WHO), and Find a Helpline. Alternatively, text 988 or visit the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline’s chat to connect with a trained crisis counsellor. There’s a photograph of composer David Lang that in certain ways encapsulates his music. Occasionally popping up as a profile picture on various websites and streaming services, Lang is shown close-up, freeze-framed by a silent
Read moreBlue Heron in New York In Praise of Laura Peperara – Music for the Concerto delle dame • Ferrara, 1580s St. Ignatius of Antioch Published in Sequenza 21 By Christian Carey February 25, 2026 NEW YORK – Blue Heron always presents thematic programs, and they excel at giving the audience a sense of the time and place in which the music they perform resides. This past week in their program at St. Ignatius of Antioch Church, they featured the music performed in the court of Ferrara in the 1580s, specifically by the Concerto delle dame. These were a trio
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