Posts by Ken Herman
Wei Luo Makes Impressive Debut with San Diego Symphony in Prokofiev Third Piano Concerto
Conductor Laureate Jahja Ling made another felicitous visit to the San Diego Symphony podium Friday, December 6, bringing a robust program of Dvořák and Prokofiev to Copley Symphony Hall. Young Chinese pianist Wei Luo made her impressive San Diego debut giving a riveting, muscular account of Serge Prokofiev’s Third Piano Concerto in C Major.
Read MoreJazz Pianist and Vocalist Champian Fulton Champions the Songs of Billie Holiday
Master jazz pianist and vocalist Champian Fulton ruled the Copley Symphony Hall stage Saturday in her sizzling program Lady Day: A Tribute to Billie Holiday.
Read MoreJoshua Guerrero Brings His Passion and Golden Tenor Voice to San Diego Opera’s One Amazing Night
San Diego Opera will present Joshua Guerrero and soprano Ailyn Pérez in “One Amazing Night,” a concert slated for Wednesday, December 11, at the Balboa Theatre. Here is my interview with the lauded Mexican-American tenor.
Read MoreG.W. Pabst’s ‘Pandora’s Box’ and Organist Russ Peck Mark 90 Years at the Fox Theatre
To celebrate the 90th birthday of the Fox Theatre, now the Jacobs Music Center’s Copley Symphony Hall, JD Smith, curator of silent films for the symphony, chose “Pandora’s Box,” a film released in 1929, the year the Fox opened. Russ Peck, the series’ regular silent film organist, provided his reliably exhilarating and beautifully tailored accompaniment to this classic silent film.
Read MoreThe Danish String Quartet Excels with Its Three B’s: Bach, Beethoven, and Bartók
The Danish String Quartet invited Friday’s audience at The Conrad to join them on the third musical journey of their “Prism Project” at the La Jolla Music Society. Starting with the serene counterpoint of J.S. Bach, the quartet seamlessly moved to Beethoven’s bold thematic freedom and culminated with Bartók’s heady release from the predictable straitjacket of tonality.
Read MoreGetting Down to Business with Backyard Renaissance Theatre’s Pitch-Perfect ‘American Buffalo’
San Diego’s Backyard Renaissance Theatre Company opened its production of David Mamet’s “American Buffalo” Saturday, November 16, at the Tenth Avenue Arts Center, a modest venue located in a not yet gentrified part of the city’s East Village that is the precisely the type of neighborhood in which Mamet’s play takes place.
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