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Recent Reviews
- Camerata Singers – Considering Matthew Shepard
- Chamber Music Monterey Bay — Escher String Quartet
- Aizuri String Quartet — Fabulous Artistry
- YMMC March Concert – Migration
- Ensemble Monterey’s Tribute to an Early Spring
- Pianist Kevin Lee Sun in Aptos Keyboard Series
- Monterey Symphony presents: Ovation
- The Thoughtful Muse: A Recital by Pianist Daria Rabotkina
- Stravinsky – Music & Dance in Miami
- Ehnes Quartet in Beethoven Quartet Cycle
- Heavy Stuff – A Recital by Vladimir Feltsman
- Santa Cruz Symphony: Catharsis
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Recent Previews
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List by Category
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Monterey Peninsula College Orchestra — Spring Concert
The MPC Orchestra we heard last night at the MPC Theatre is a living testament to Conductor David Dally’s thirty odd years of successfully transforming a small Monday-Evening String Class into a thriving community orchestra that presents two major concerts every year. Yes, there are a few MPC students among the orchestra players, but there are also many distinguished local musicians from our community — among them are clarinetist Erica Horn, oboist Claire Horn, percussionist Greg Bullock, trombonist Suzanne Mudge, cellist (and former violinist) Vernon Brown, tuba player Jim Paoletti, and many others who regularly appear with other distinguished orchestra ensembles during the concert year.
Read full story
Archived in these categories: Classical Era, Concerto, Monterey Peninsula College, Orchestral, Piano, Romantic Era
MPC String Ensemble with Organ Soloist Tiffany Bedner at the Carmel Mission
Organist Tiffany Bedner
So often I feel incredibly fortunate to live on the Monterey Peninsula. Not only for its physical beauty, but also for its creative and artistic energy. On Friday night I attended the MPC String Ensemble concert conducted by David Dally at the Carmel Mission Basilica, and not surprisingly, the Carmel Mission’s beautiful ambiance significantly enhanced the music we were hearing. The program began with an organ and string setting of Bach’s famous D minor Toccata and Fugue, BWV 565. I had never heard it before in its arrangement for strings and organ, and this performance turned out to be powerful and compelling. The featured organist was Tiffany Bedner, the regular organist at the Mission. Her playing was clean and elegant, with the strings complimenting her sound. Together they gave us a very satisfying performance of this great work.
Archived in these categories: 20th Century, Chamber music, Monterey Peninsula College, Orchestral, Organ
MPC Concert Band gives us an evening with Gershwin
Pianist Lucy Faridany & Conductor John Anderson
A capacity audience turned out to hear the MPC Concert Band in its Gershwin concert last night in MPC’s Theater, and it was a supercharged audience that tended to linger around after the concert was over. This was a larger than life band — I mean five tubas, five trombones, four trumpets, and more versions of a clarinet than I even knew existed, and everybody played their hearts out.
Over the years Conductor John Anderson has built what amounts to a community band with a span of ages from age 16 to 70’s plus (actually I think I saw in the ensemble on stage one man in his eighties). We can assume that for enthusiastic professional and amateur jazz players an opportunity to perform in the MPC Concert Band under the direction of veteran John Anderson ranks up there with the more important events in their lives. Read full story
Archived in these categories: 20th Century, Concerto, Jazz, Monterey Peninsula College, Piano
MPC String Ensemble — David Dally, Soloist and Conductor
For the past forty years violinist and conductor Dave Dally has been providing an important service to us on the Monterey Peninsula. Starting modestly from a Monday-evening string class at Monterey Peninsula College, he has created an ensemble that would be the pride of any community. It presents ambitious and artistic programs, draws in the best local area musicians and often features distinguished local artists as soloists. It may still officially be called the MPC String Ensemble, but when Dally wants to present a more ambitious work requiring a larger instrumentation, he finds winds, brass and percussion as needed. So let’s call it what it is. It has become a community orchestra, and it is a model of what a community orchestra should be. Read full story
Archived in these categories: Baroque, Concerto, Monterey Peninsula College, Orchestral, Romantic Era
Monterey Symphony presents Violinist Sergej Krylov
Lee Rosen, President of the Monterey Symphony, came out on stage at Sunset Center last night to introduce the Monterey Symphony’s third concert of its 2016-2017 season. We learned that the traditional Friday-evening concert in Salinas had to be cancelled because of the widespread power outage during the severe storm system traveling through the Monterey Peninsula. As a result ticket holders of the cancelled Salinas concert were invited to come to hear the Saturday evening performance, and many did. Mr. Rosen also shared with us some information about the evening’s soloist, Russian born, Sergej Krylov, who in the space of a few weeks is appearing as soloist with orchestras on three continents. Fortunately for us, one of these appearances was his debut performance with the Monterey Symphony, directed by Max Bragado-Darman. Read full story
Archived in these categories: 20th Century, Classical Era, Concerto, Monterey Peninsula College
