Attending the Ojai Music Festival in person is one of the great musical experiences on the West Coast. The mountains, the town, Libbey Park and great music make Ojai the place to be in early June. One of the festival’s best kept secrets, however, is that the concerts in Libbey Bowl are live-streamed over the internet. Not only that, the sound system is exceptional and the camera work excellent. If you can’t get to the Ojai Festival in person, the next best thing is to watch the streamed video. This is what I did this year and it was a
Read moreLast Night I Heard The Dog Star Bark by Gwenifer Raymond Gwenifer Raymond will release her third full length recording Last Night I Heard the Dog Bark (We Are Busy Bodies) on September 5th, 2025. Ahead of the release, she is sharing the track “Jack Parsons Blues.” A gentle vocal abetted by the tang of a strummed steel string acoustic guitar gradually gives way to layers of syncopated overlapping guitars. The intricate instrumental is typical of Raymond’s considerable capabilities as an instrumentalist. It may be hard to think of September releases at the outset of the Summer season but, when
Read moreUnseen World is a new release by composer Mara Gibson on the Mark Masters record label. The album consists of five works composed between 2020 and 2024 that are inspired by vivid visual art that is both expressive and complex. Various instrumental ensembles are employed including a piano and cello duet, a brass quintet, trumpet duet, woodwind duet and a large chamber orchestra. The meticulous writing present in the scores, the outstanding technique of the musicians and remarkable efforts by the soloists make Unseen World an impressive realization of contemporary musical expression. The first piece on the album is Swansongs
Read moreSwimming Bell Somnia EP Perpetual Doom Summers have been getting progressively hotter in much of the world. Here in the Northeast United States, we have had a mild Spring, but anticipate that summer will be a scorcher. Happily, singer/songwriter Katie Schottland ‘s project Swimming Bell has returned to serenade the season. Swimming Bell’s latest EP, Somnia (Perpetual Doom, 2025) adopts a summery vibe. “95 at Night” both embraces the heat with fevered blur and seeks to assuage it with soothing vocals, pedal steel, and an undulating beat. The end of a summer romance could find little better to
Read moreFragments 3: Alisa Weilerstein at Zankel Hall May 20th, 2025 Published in Sequenza 21 By Christian Carey NEW YORK – Alisa Weilerstein is a supremely gifted cellist, and it is hard to imagine being anything less than riveted by her playing. At Zankel Hall last Tuesday, she made decisions for her Fragments project that seemed to be needlessly distracting. There are six Fragments programs all told, each based on one of the Bach Suites, joined by new pieces commissioned for the project. Fragments 3 featured the third cello suite alongside pieces by Joseph Hallman, Thomas Larcher, Jeffrey Mumford,
Read moreSimone Dinnerstein and Baroklyn Perform Glass at Merkin Hall Kaufman Music Center Piano Dialogues Simone Dinnerstein with Baroklyn May 12, 2025 Published on Sequenza 21 NEW YORK – Last Monday, the pianist Simone Dinnerstein brought her Baroklyn project to Kaufman Music Center’s Merkin Hall to perform an all Philip Glass program. Baroklyn is a string ensemble, augmented at the concert by harp and celesta, assembled by Dinnerstein from musician friends with an eye towards a mostly, but not exclusively, female group. The concert opener was The Hours Suite, excerpted from the film score and arranged by Michael
Read morePierre Boulez – Livre pour quatuor Quatuor Diotima Pentatone Record CD/download The centenary of Pierre Boulez’s birth has been celebrated with concerts, books and recordings. The Diotima Quartet’s Pentatone CD of Livre pour quatuor (1948-1949, 2017) is a distinctive offering in that it includes a previously unperformed version of the piece. With permission and supervision of Boulez, the composer Philippe Manoury assisted in completing the fourth movement for Diotima. Thus, this is the first complete recording of Livre pour quatuor. At nearly an hour long, it is one of the largest of Boulez’s early compositions. Pizzicato and glissando
Read moreStile Antico Sings Palestrina at St. Mary’s March 29, 2025 Church of St. Mary the Virgin NEW YORK – Celebrating their twentieth year, the vocal ensemble Stile Antico brought a program dedicated to the 500th anniversary of the composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina’s birth to Miller Theatre’s Early Music Series. The concert was held at the Church of St. Mary the Virgin in midtown, a space that Miller has employed to host a number of Renaissance music performances. Stile Antico appeared with only eleven singers, instead of their usual complement of a dozen. Baritone Gareth Thomas was ill
Read moreMiguel Zenón Golden City Alto saxophonist Miguel Zenón’s seventeenth album, Golden City has been well-received, its plaudits including a 2025 Grammy nomination for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album. The eleven original compositions are excellent vehicles for soloing. A standout is “Acts of Exclusion.” After a hocketing opening from the horns – Diego Urcola, Alan Ferber, and Jacob Garchik – and pianist Matt Mitchell, there is a robust essay by the alto saxophonist that combines the quick syncopation of the tune with undulating lines. He trades licks with Mitchell and then cedes the stage to guitarist Miles Okazaki, who
Read moreSeattle Symphony unveiled its 2025–26 season, the first under incoming Music Director Xian Zhang. She brings two steady if unglamorous hands to the wheel of an organization with a troubled recent history, but only a lackluster commitment to exploratory new music.
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