The Symphony of the Americas, at a Summerfest concert in Rome. After the excitement of the Fourth fades next week, another venerable South Florida artistic institution steps up to provide some music for the summer. This is the Symphony of the Americas, based in Fort Lauderdale, and which has been mounting its Summerfest concert series […]

Guitarist Andrew York. Although summer officially begins tonight, and much of the country’s classical music activity has moved on to cooler climes, there are some venues willing to put on things in the more oppressive months. One is the Community Arts Program at the Coral Gables Congregational United Church of Christ, which launched its summer […]

There’s more to the guitar – or maybe that should be “less” – than what you can get out of plugging one into a stack of Marshalls. That’s the electric guitar, and it has its own important, if relatively brief, history. The original instrument, though, is centuries old, and since 1988, Carlos Molina has been […]

Eglise Gutiérrez is something of a big deal on the coloratura scene. A soprano with a powerful voice and strong technique, she has taken on some of the standard roles in the repertoire (“Lucia di Lammermoor,” “La Sonnambula” and, next month, “I Capuleti e I Montecchi”), but also its rarities, most notably Donizetti’s “Maria di […]

One of the nicer things about covering classical music in a highly seasonal environment is that things are planned well in advance, and you can mark your calendar early on for the things you want to see. Things this week are relatively quiet musically thanks to the holiday and the short week, though next week […]

The Miami International Piano Festival opens its Discovery Series tonight with five concerts featuring eight pianists and a teenage violinist from Seattle. Not to mention five of the Beethoven symphonies, as transcribed for one and two pianos by Franz Liszt. The festival, founded 15 years ago by Giselle Brodsky, offers fans of the piano a good […]

When classical musicians return to first principles, they return to the music of “The 3 Great B’s”: J.S. Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven and Johannes Brahms. The first two are more fundamental to the Western classical canon than Brahms, but the German Romantic remains one of the most frequently performed of all composers (though mostly for […]

Michael Andrews grew up in Wisconsin going frequently to art museums and galleries, with a mother and an aunt who both were art teachers. One day his musical life as a cellist and his art upbringing came together when he saw the great Cleveland Quartet play a concert at New York’s Mary Boone Gallery. “It […]

It was nearly 30 years ago that composer Wendy Mae Chambers assembled 10 pianists on the Lincoln Center Plaza in New York for the premiere of her piece, “Ten Grand,” a multimovement work accompanied by a laser light show. This Saturday evening, the piece gets what is most likely its Florida premiere when it is […]