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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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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
Angela Kraft Cross — a Great Organist and a Gracious Person
My experience on Saturday, December 9, 2017, during the continuation of the St. Dunstans Organ Series was a superbly satisfying one. The organist, Angela Kraft Cross, has an MD in Opthamaolgy as well as an MA in piano performance. She is also utterly gracious and connects with her audience, giving brief, thorough, yet charming, introductions before each set of pieces she played so we can better understand her selections. Read full story
Archived in these categories: 20th Century, Baroque, Organ
David Hatt in Organ Recital at St Dunstans Church October 27, 2017
David Hatt presented an organ recital on October 27 at St Dunstans Church This was such an interesting and very musical concert, with the organ starring, as it always does. It is a beautiful instrument both in sound and sight, and David Hatt masterfully presented so many of it’s colors. He played Baroque and modern pieces that evoked a great variety of dimensions in a presentation called “From Logic to Dreams.” In the logic part of the program we heard Buxtehude, J.S. Bach, and Max Reger, all played with splendid registrations. Read full story
Archived in these categories: 20th Century, Baroque, Organ
Organ Concert at St. Dunstan’s
Organist Diane Keller
On Sunday, September 23, 2017, St. Dunstan’s Episcopal Church on Robinson Canyon Road in Carmel Valley invited us to their beautiful Sanctuary to hear a recital on their two-year-old new organ.
Diane Keller from the First United Methodist Church in Palo Alto had called her concert “The Romantics meet the New Age.” She is a young very tall, handsome woman who came forward introducing all her pieces in a charming manner, and then went back to swing her legs over the organ bench to play. She was assisted by another woman, who turned the pages of the huge sheets of music and pulled out some of the stops. Read full story
Archived in these categories: Organ
Bach to Bossa Nova — Dancing Feet & Flying Fingers: Kimo Smith at the Organ
Anyone who assumes the organ to be an instrument of lethargic sad music was completely surprised to find quite the opposite at the Organ Concert at St. Dunstans Episcopal Church on October 15. As Rev Rob Fischer said in his opening welcome message to the audience. “It has been twelve months since the Dobson Organ Company voiced and installed our new organ.” Although Lynn Dobson, the organ builder, jokes that it is basically a box of whistles, there are over a thousand pipes in this organ and their orchestral sounds of flutes, strings, brass and reeds are authentic and pure. Dr Smith thanked the congregation and leadership for their courage in making it possible to acquire this instrument. Then we got to hear its full and extraordinary range. As Rev Fisher said about Smith, “He has the touch.”
Archived in these categories: 20th Century, Baroque, Organ
