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Jeffrey Arlo Brown
Posts
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John Eliot Gardiner’s Once and Future Orchestras Duel
John Eliot Gardiner’s new ensemble, the Constellation Choir & Orchestra, performed a nearly identical program as his old group, at the same venue.
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A Mental Tightrope: When Instrumental Musicians Have to Sing, Too
Artists who take up contemporary music sometimes have to sing and play at the same time. The results can be extraordinarily powerful.
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The Exquisite Fragility of Mark Andre’s Music
Andre’s family history is one of precarity and mutability. His works, vulnerable and intricate, aren’t so different.
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Wolfgang Rihm, Prolific Contemporary Classical Music Composer, Dies at 72
Likened to a “court composer” for Germany, he wrote more than 500 pieces and was considered one of the most original and independent musical voices...
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Klaus Florian Vogt’s Strange, Essential Voice in Opera
Klaus Florian Vogt, a Wagner specialist with an ethereal yet mighty sound, is returning to the Bayreuth Festival to sing in the “Ring.”
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What Happened When an Orchestra Said Goodbye to All-Male Concerts
This season, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin experimented with programming works by female composers at every performance. Results were mixed.
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These Keyboard Musicians Are Thinking Beyond the Piano
Modern pianos are central to classical music. But some musicians are learning other keyboard instruments, and feel like better artists for it.
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At 70, the Composer Georg Friedrich Haas Encourages Self-Discovery
One of Haas’s former students reflects on his time with a teacher who had lessons to offer in music, doubt and influence.
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How Cancer Has Influenced Andreas Steier’s Music-Making
“The music stays as beautiful as it is,” said Andreas Staier, an eminent interpreter of early keyboard music who has a rare blood disease.
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Jay Schwartz’s Music Reflects a Past of Oceans and Deserts
The composer’s latest work, “Theta,” born of the pandemic, loss and long swims in open water, is premiering in Germany.