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David Bernard conducts The Park Avenue Chamber Symphony in Transcendent Triumph. Photo by Edward Kliszus
Music Reviews
Edward A Kliszus

Transcendent Triumph and Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 2

Tonight’s concert, Transcendent Triumph and Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 2 was suitably billed as the Full InsideOut Concerts™ Experience. This performance by David Bernard and Park Avenue Chamber Symphony honored Rachmaninoff’s masterpiece of Russian romantic music with its soaring emotional heights and virtuosic writing. Bernard’s informative introductions and work with children help educate current and future audiences on symphonic music’s beauty, magnificence, and importance.

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November 18, 2023
Angels of Many Signs. (Image by Saya Woolfalk)
Choral Music
Edward A Kliszus

Angel of Many Signs

The New York Choral Society presented Angel of Many Signs, a superb digital, instrumental, choral, and visual art synthesis. This production was billed as “a multi-media and multi-disciplinary concert bridging centuries of feminine imagination and power.”

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November 18, 2023
Jay Campbell, Cello and Conor Hanick, Piano at the 92nd Street Y in New York. Photo from 92NY.org
Chamber Music
Edward A Kliszus

Jay Campbell, Cello, and Conor Hanick, Piano

Jay Campbell, cello, and Conor Hanick, piano, performed at the prestigious 92nd Street Y in New York. With a large contingency in attendance, the duo opened with Claude Debussy’s Cello Sonata (1915). In the Debussy, the duo captured the work’s stunning display of the beauty and versatility of the cello. The Cello Sonata (1915) fits the impressionist period with its fluid, non-linear musical forms and harmonic language. With aplomb, Campbell aptly evoked the intended mood, atmosphere, and tonal structures. Hanick concurred musically as he played the magnificent concert grand piano with sublime facility.

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October 21, 2023
Herb Alpert at MPAC on Opening Night Reviews. Courtesy of HerbAlpert.com
Music Reviews
Victoria L. Dammer

Herb Alpert at MPAC

Continuing the Summer Concert series of outstanding sold-out performances, Mayo Performing Art Center (MPAC) in Morristown NJ presented iconic trumpeter Herb Alpert and his Grammy-winning vocalist wife Lani Hall in their 2023 North American tour.

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August 4, 2023
Amber Gray. Courtesy of Victoria L. Dammer
Cabaret
Victoria L. Dammer

Amber Grey at 54 Below

Full of exuberant energy, Gray opened the show with the moving musical piece Devil’s Gonna Rise Up, written by Abigail and Shaun Bengson. Gray’s musical director, Cody Owen Stine, accompanied her on the accordion. The song is a haunting, almost spiritual tune, showcased in The National Theatre of Scotland’s performance of Anything That Gives Off Light. That show was created in response to the Scottish independence referendum several years ago and involved the Scottish-US relationship throughout history. Gray’s style of singing gave the song great depth.

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July 2, 2023
Three Dog Night. Courtesy of Katharine Boyle Photography
Music Reviews
Victoria L. Dammer

Three Dog Night at MPAC

The vibe in Morristown is always buzzing, but this weekend, the Mayo Performing Art Center (MPAC) increased the frenzy by presenting another spectacular shown in its Summer Concerts series line-up, Three Dog Night, featuring singer/songwriter Chris Trapper up first.

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June 26, 2023
L-R: Joanna Vladyka-Mezzo Soprano, Aaron Blake-Tenor, Cristina Maria Castro-Soprano, Mario Dioza Moresco-Baritone, Maggie Finnegan-Soprano. Photo by Edward Kliszus
Music Reviews
Edward A Kliszus

On Site Opera presents The Magic Flute

The On Site Opera production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute was a night of magical enchantment, charismatic strains, and sublime artistry. Moreover, the characters roamed about the garden and interacted with the audience, creating an intimate, immersive experience nearly impossible in a concert hall. With superb singing, a refined but effectual musical accompaniment of piano, and two accomplished flutists, listeners were transported to a mythical realm of captivating imagination and charm. The audience’s experience was transformative, transcending into the boundaries of reality through engagement in the rich tapestry of the opera’s narrative, characters, and music.

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June 24, 2023
Bruce Hornsby. Photo by Katharine Boyle Photography
Music Reviews
Victoria L. Dammer

Bruce Hornsby and The Noisemakers at MPAC

It’s uncommon to get an uninterrupted two-hour performance from someone whose bio is as extensive as Hornsby, and his charm and funny sense of humor just enhanced his talent. The audience celebrated with loud applause as soon as he sat at the piano.

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June 23, 2023
To A Garden Luxuriously Verdant at Lincoln Center. Photo by Lawrence Sumulong
Dance
Edward A Kliszus

To a Garden Luxuriously Verdant

Tonight’s Juneteenth Celebration at New York’s Lincoln Center was a reflective, fresh, and vibrant source of inspiration for all participants. This nonpareil venue inspired artistic expression and creativity with its lustrous modernist designs, magnificent facades, soaring columns, and capacious plazas. It was a celebration of elegance, sumptuousness, and breathtaking transcendence.

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June 20, 2023
The Park Avenue Chamber Symphony Presents Between Sea and Sky: Debussy's Painters and Poets. Photo by Matt Dine
Music Reviews
Edward A Kliszus

Park Avenue Chamber Symphony InsideOut Immersive Experience

In 2015, Maestro David Bernard of the Park Avenue Chamber Symphony began his examination into how orchestras might increase their success with the classical music world’s biggest challenge—audience growth.  Bernard pondered the difference between people who are classical music enthusiasts—and those less informed about classical music. Bernard hypothesized that the main difference is the lack of an immersive classical music experience in the lives of those who have yet to discover the beauty and power of music.  At this moment, the concept of Bernard’s now well-known “InsideOut” was born, and in the coming seasons, he incorporated a new kind of immersive strategy into symphonic concerts.  With each successive event, he “tweaked” the model, ultimately developing an approach toward maximizing immersion in classical music concerts.

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June 17, 2023