Michael Francis. Photo by Chris Christodoulou The season proper gets going this weekend with concerts by the New World Symphony (in a “pre-season” free event) and the first concert in this year’s season of eight in the Sunday Afternoons of Music series. Saturday night, it’s the young British conductor Michael Francis leading the fellows of […]

Simone Dinnerstein. Photo by Lisa-Marie Mazzucco Although keyboards themselves have changed over the centuries, so that the music of the 18th century can sometimes sound incongruous on the big concert grand pianos we know today, the music of J.S. Bach remains central to the pianist’s repertoire. It’s interesting to see how often Bach’s reputation has […]

Susan Danis. After Labor Day, it gets to be season around here, and as if to clear the decks before everything gets hopping, the last week or so has some important leadership announcements. Over at Florida Grand Opera, the successor to longtime general director Bob Heuer has been named. She is Susan Danis, for the […]

Singer Lloyd Reshard. Growing up in the Florida-panhandle town of Niceville, Lloyd Reshard remembers hearing the spirit really move the older members of his Southern Baptist congregation. “They would just be completely a cappella, and they would be these long, drawn-out things. They would sing ‘Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah’ … and they would […]

Eduardo Marturet and the Miami Symphony Orchestra. Eduardo Marturet uses a computer metaphor when he talks about the impact of new music on listeners. “I love to give you music, that when you come in and sit in your chair, and you’ve come in from your work and you’re tired or whatever, it’s music that […]

Christian McBride. I couldn’t let the Community Arts Program at Coral Gables Community Church go without a mention again today, because the great American jazz bassist Christian McBride closes out the series with his trio tonight. McBride, 40, is one of the better-known contemporary jazz musicians, a worthy successor to Ray Brown and Charles Mingus […]

Cuban baritone Nelson Martinez will sing Figaro for Miami Lyric Opera’s “Barber of Seville.” Today’s opera world is heavily influenced by the vision of the stage director, particularly in Europe, where theater visionaries (some successful, some not so much) have rethought stage works old and new in ways that use the plot as a stepping-off […]

Naxos, a classical music label. Seraphic Fire, the Miami-based concert choir that snagged two Grammy nominations earlier this year, announced this week that it’s signed with Naxos of America in a three-year deal to distribute its recordings. A news release from Seraphic Fire quotes Jim Selby, the CEO of Naxos of America, which is based […]

Monica Bonvicini’s ‘Run’ sculpture, in London’s Olympic Park. (Photo from the official site) Here at my little house on the Rio Blog, I always enjoy hearing from familiar Miami musical voices. And this weekend, because everyone’s attention will be focused the opening Friday of the London Olympics, it’s more than appropriate to bring you word […]

The Ahn Trio, from left: Maria, Angella and Lucia. It isn’t every arts group that specializes in new music, particularly when it’s a piano trio, a tried-and-true staple of the world of chamber music. But the Ahn Trio sees things a little differently. “We started out playing very traditional repertoire, but as we developed relationships […]

Adolfo Vidal, founder of South Florida Friends of Classical Music. Scratch the surface of the South Florida classical music community and you can find any number of people who want to establish arts institutions with regularly occurring features: a chamber music series, orchestral concerts, pocket operas, piano recitals. Today’s example is the Venezuelan-born pianist and […]