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Recent Reviews
- Fiddler on the Roof at Santa Catalina
- The Chagrins of Love — Ian Bostridge in Recital
- Santa Cruz Symphony Ascendance
- Carmel Music Society opens its new season with pianist Olga Kern
- David Gordon — A Stroll Down Memory Lane
- Carmel Presbyterian Community Concert
- Violinist Ilya Kaler & pianist Alon Goldstein open Distinguished Artist Series
- Piano Music at the Steinway Piano Gallery in Coral Gables
- Refreshed: Pianist Jon Nakamatsu in Recital
- Pianist Chetan Tierra — Return of a Native Son
- Opera San Jose — Die Fledermaus
- Santa Cruz Symphony — Souvenir de Florence
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Recent Previews
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List by Category
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Carmel Presbyterian Community Concert
Fall has arrived! With the crisp air come favored activities: Enjoying wonderful fruits and vegetables, making pies and jellies and jams, Football games, and Opening Concerts. What Fun! For quite a few years, I supported my children by spending many Friday evenings sitting in Bleachers and cheering. Truth be told, I paid more attention during “Halftime” than “Game time” due to the activities my kids favored. Those were happy Friday evenings for the most part. Now, I’m content to attend a few concerts when the leaves begin to turn fabulous colors.
To whet my appetite this fall, I chose to attend a Community Concert. Sponsored by Carmel Presbyterian Church, six local musicians gathered Friday, October 4, 2019 to offer a wide variety of music. There were solo pieces along with duets; even a Piano Trio. One of the organists at Carmel Presbyterian, Eun Ha Chung, was the busiest as she played solo pieces on the piano and the organ. She also served as accompanist for most of the other musicians. Eun Ha is a talented pianist. The instruments at Carmel Presbyterian Church were both used to their advantage.
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Archived in these categories: 20th Century, Baroque, Cello, Chamber music, Organ, Piano
Carmel Bach Festival 2019: Young Artists’ Showcase
On Saturday Afternoon in Sunset Center the Carmel Bach Festival presented its annual Young Artists’ Showcase Concert, which, as the name would imply, is designed to showcase talented young musicians from four counties on the Central Coast. Participating in this concert were nine string players, five pianists, three vocalists, and a woodwind octet selected from a larger group of applicants, who had auditioned in May. These auditions were judged by CMMB Artistic Director Erica Horn and YMM Music Director Farkhad Khudyev. The Young Artists’ Showcase is managed and administered by Barbara Priest, the instrumental Music Director at Pacific Grove Middle School.
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Archived in these categories: Baroque, Carmel Bach Festival, Cello, Chamber music, Piano
Cellist Janneke Hoogland & Pianist James Neiman at Del Mesa
In a late afternoon recital, we had an opportunity yesterday to hear a performance by two relatively new arrivals on the Monterey Peninsula, cellist Janneke Hoogland and pianist James Neiman. They performed works for cello and piano by J.S. Bach, Mendelssohn, Beethoven and Rachmaninoff for a capacity audience of family, friends and residents of Del Mesa Carmel.
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Archived in these categories: Cello, Chamber Music Monterey Bay, Piano
Brahms in Rome
A spectacular all-Brahms concert in Rome with pianist Yefim Bronfman and the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia conducted by Daniele Gatti offered the Piano Concerto No. 2 and Symphony No. 2 at the Sala Santa Cecilia on May 5. Arriving by bus in a torrential rainstorm, it nevertheless was exciting to see the Auditorium at the famed Parco della Musica, a huge modern building that contains several concert venues north of the city center.
Of interest to this retired orchestra player was the concert etiquette of the orchestra. Unlike symphony orchestras in the United States, here the players do not enter the stage early to tune and warm up. There is no pre-concert noodling in front of the entering public as in the USA. At four minutes after the announced concert time the players file on stage to continuous applause. They take their seats and the concertmaster begins the formal tuning process.
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Archived in these categories: Cello, Concerto, Orchestral, Piano, Romantic Era
Carmel Trio in Aptos
Sometimes you find a wonderful experience when you least expect it. I had the pleasure of listening to a fine collection of Sonatas for piano and strings in the afternoon of Feb. 10, 2019. The Carmel Trio (Nicola Samra, Violin; Christopher Healy, Cello; and James Neiman, Piano) presented 3 works: Two Sonatas for piano and violin (Mozart and Beethoven) and a Sonata for piano and cello (Rachmaninoff). Our thanks to the community of the Episcopal Church of St. John the Baptist in Aptos for sharing their space. I thoroughly enjoyed the fine performance.
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Archived in these categories: Cello, Chamber music, Piano, Violin
