Eglise Gutierrez and Israel Lozano in Florida Grand Opera’s 2009-10 season production of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor. (Photo by Gaston de Cardenas) Last month, representatives from two local opera companies flew to Los Angeles for a conference hosted by the New York-based service organization Opera America, where they discussed the challenges facing their companies and […]

Some concert series of note continuing or opening in the next days and weeks: CGCC Summer Concert Series: This series of concerts at the Coral Gables Congregational Church is marking its 25th year, and since its founding it has presented 147 concerts, counting the first three of the current lineup. This summer series features classical […]

John Philip Sousa. Independence Day is just around the corner, and time was when the venerable American institution of the concert band would play a free program of patriotic music for folks to enjoy while taking part in the holiday. It doesn’t look like there are too many such programs around this year, though there […]

Earlier this month, the noted critic Barbara Jepson wrote a piece in The Wall Street Journal about the rise of an American school of composers associated with the city of Atlanta. Perhaps the best-known of these composers are Jennifer Higdon, who just won the Pulitzer Prize, and Argentina’s Osvaldo Golijov, who surely has the broadest […]

Pianist and composer Fabian Almazan. Since 1963, the Cintas Foundation has been awarding money to artists of Cuban descent living outside of Cuba, and earlier this month, a New World School of the Arts graduate was honored for his work as a composer. Fabian Almazan was the $10,000 prize winner of the Brandon Fradd Award […]

Members of the SoBe Arts Youth Chamber Ensemble play during a fund-raiser last month in Miami Beach. (Photo by Tomas Loewy) The old tradition of sending the kids away to camp during the summer might not be as prevalent as it used to be, but the idea of spending some downtime during the hot months […]

The Amernet String Quartet.The Mainly Mozart Festival is in full swing at the Westin Colonnade in Coral Gables, and for the next two weekends, the Amernet String Quartet takes on music mainly not by Mozart, but the festival is still a good way to catch some chamber music as the hurricane season gets under way. […]

Anna Litvinenko. Time was when a cello soloist, either in recital or in front of an orchestra, was a comparative rarity; at least, it was that way when I was much younger. But these days, the cello has really come into its own as an instrument on which it’s possible to make a big career, […]

UM’s Frost Concert Jazz Band. Departing from my usual coverage of classical events, I’m using this space today to take note of the announcement earlier this week of the jazz awards given by DownBeat magazine, long the best-known journal of jazz in these United States. The University of Miami’s jazz program was the source of […]

Pianist Ran Jia. This is a good week for true fans of pianism and early music, with two major multi-day events for devotees of those disciplines. The Miami International Piano Festival opens tomorrow and runs through Sunday, with established and up-and-coming players alike taking the stage at the Lincoln Theatre on Miami Beach. Names familiar […]