At the Healdsburg Jazz Festival, Branford Marsalis delivered a joyous set with a bottle of Cabernet on the side.
On the live album, six vocalists sing works by Black composers — including Margaret Bonds, Jorell Williams, and Lead Belly — brilliantly.
The album’s centerpiece is a 15-minute composition by co-founder, first violin, and resident composer David Balakrishnan.
While clarifying its complex music, conductor James Gaffigan’s interpretation lacked the power of storytelling.
The composer was a focal point for Esa-Pekka Salonen’s programming of the 80th Ojai Music Festival.
Esa-Pekka Salonen did a masterful job of concert programming and great performers did the rest.
Francis Johnson gets a dazzling revival from Music of the Regiment and the New York Baroque Dance Company.
Early music veterans Sequentia turned a concert of 11th-century German songs into a meditation on music itself.
Conductor Tianyi Lu made her debut with the SF Symphony, but violinist Maria Dueñas stole the show.
The soprano debuted the title role in Susannah at Lyric Opera of Chicago. She returned to perform and record an all-Puccini recital.
