Music

Live Arts Maryland Celebrates Composer Marvin Hamlisch on Saturday, November 12th at 8 PM

Live Arts Maryland Celebrates Composer Marvin Hamlisch on Saturday, November 12th at 8 PM at the Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts in Annapolis, MD Broadway truly arrives in Annapolis when Live Arts...

Review: ‘An Evening with Garrison Keillor’ at Strathmore

The Music Center at Strathmore was filled with nary an empty seat. The crowd was there to see – and listen to – their favorite National Public Radio star, 73 year-old 6 foot 3 inch Garrison Keillor....

Review: ‘Freaky Friday’ at Signature Theatre

In its world premiere at Signature Theatre, the musical Freaky Friday is a warm, sweet, accomplished family-friendly confection with a progressive message. It is a contemporary musical about...

Review: The National Chamber Ensemble’s ‘A Night In Vienna’

The National Chamber Ensemble opened it’s 10th season last Saturday at the Rosslyn Spectrum Theatre. The concert called, A Night In Vienna was a collaboration with the Austrian Cultural Forum. The...

Review: Lindsey Stirling ‘Brave Enough’ Tour at DAR Constitution Hall

Promoting her third studio album Brave Enough in a tour of the same name, Lindsey Stirling has come a long way from her days competing in the fifth season of America’s Got Talent. The violinist, known...

Review: The Romantics III: ‘Schumann & Heine’ at The In series at Source

Close your eyes for just a moment. Imagine that you are comfortably seated in an elegant, yet commodious room, filled with people who have come to share—no, not the latest election scuttlebutt; but...

Review #2: ‘An Evening with Chris Botti’ at Strathmore

World-renowned, Grammy Award-winning trumpet superstar Chris Botti returned to Bethesda’s Strathmore Music Center Thursday night to serenade a packed crowd to an elegantly enlivening evening of...

Review: Rosanne Cash at The Merriam Theater

Rosanne Cash admitted on Thursday night that she looks at the world through a “peculiar prism.” In one of the songs she performed that night, “Modern Blue,” she sang of visiting Barcelona and Paris...

Review: ‘An Evening with Chris Botti’ at Strathmore

Chris Botti and his Band know how to rock a house. “There are a few things that make us different from other bands,” announced popular trumpeter Chris Botti from the stage in the concert hall at The...

Review: Peter Frampton Raw: An Acoustic Tour at the Kennedy Center’s Eisenhower Theater

It was a packed house for Peter Frampton Raw: An Acoustic Tour last night at The Kennedy Center’s Eisenhower Theater. With excitement in the air, the crowd could not sit still ahead of the show, and...

Leslie Odom, Jr. Discusses ‘Hamilton,’ His Career, and the ‘Evening of Unexpected Delights’

You know him as Aaron Burr, Sir, the damned fool who shot Alexander Hamilton. Now get to know Leslie Odom, Jr., the man behind America’s most notorious villain. I spoke with Odom in advance of the 6th...

Review: ‘Wild Lines: Jane Ira Bloom Plays Emily Dickinson’ at the KC Jazz Club

There is nothing quite like “a vast morsel.” When Jane Ira Bloom plays her soprano saxophone, her wiry body jutting and jagging to the notes popping out of her horn, vastness of her petite frame...

Review: ‘The Summit: The Manhattan Transfer Meets Take 6’ at The Music Center at Strathmore

The Summit: The Manhattan Tranfer Meets Take 6 was an explosion, in gale wind proportions, of musical enjoyment, creative genius, vocal excellence and a boatload of fun as these two renowned, Grammy...

Review: ‘¡Viva Cesar, Viva Kennedy!’ Featuring Eugenia León and La Santa Cecilia at The Kennedy Center’s Eisenhower Theater

It is Hispanic Heritage Month at The Kennedy Center; as soon as you enter you can feel there is something different in the air. As soon as you enter you are greeted with some powerful artwork...

Review: The Gary Bartz Quartet at The Kennedy Center Jazz Club

The KC Jazz Club opened its 14th season last Friday with a soul-tossing river of jazz. Gary Bartz starts the evening with a prayer: “Sadness must leave this room,” as Paul Bollenback’s guitar, James...

Flying V’s ‘Be Awesome: A Theatrical Mixtape of the 90s’ Jon Jon Johnson’s Mixtape

Flying V is winding down its awesome run of Be Awesome: A Theatrical Mixtape of the 90s, and here is cast member Jon Jon Johnson’s personal Mixtape: Tool – Sober https://youtu.be/hglVqACd1C8 Mary J...

‘Hexwork – A Spellbinding Burlesk Revue’ Interviews with Eyrie Twilight and Mab Just Mab

There is a spiritual element and aspect of ritual to burlesque and sideshow, two artforms linked to Carnival (literally translated – a farewell to the flesh). Hexwork pushes those elements front and...

An Interview with Tony Award Winner Melba Moore-Appearing at Bethesda Blues and Jazz Supper Club-Tomorrow, October 2nd at 8 PM Night

Tonight I had the great pleasure of a brief but extremely rewarding and stimulating telephone interview with the Tony Award-winning (Purlie) and Grammy and Emmy –Award nominated singer and actress...

Review: National Symphony Orchestra: ‘Shakespeare at the Symphony: From Tchaikovsky to Elgar’

It may be a little known, but hardly surprising, fact that the works of William Shakespeare have inspired more music than any other work of literature perhaps except for the Bible. The Bard’s most...

Review: ‘Jersey Boys’ at The Hippodrome Theatre

In the bright and tuneful world of jukebox musicals there are your basic pizza joints that sell by the slice and the hot-diggity neighborhood kitchens that dish up the whole pie. Jersey Boys belongs...

The Opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture: Watch the Entire Ceremony Here

Hollywood actors, singers and local talent fuel the opening ceremony of the National Museum of African American History and Culture One-hundred years in the making, the National Museum of African...

Review: ‘Louis and Ella! A New Jazzical’ at LiveArts

Louis and Ella! A New Jazzical was a fun, inventive journey with two greats of music. Written by Trent Armand Kendall and directed by Jeff Whiting, it imagines Louis Armstrong (Trent Armand Kendall)...

Review: ‘National Symphony Orchestra: Season Opening Gala Concert’ at the Kennedy Center

In a political season where talk of building walls sometimes trumps the optimism of building bridges, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, named in honor of a President whose civil...

Review: Yusuf/Cat Stevens’ “A Cat’s Attic” Concert at The Kennedy Center

Cat Stevens (as he was known then) last performed at The Kennedy Center back in November 1971 just months after it opened. Much has changed since then, including his name (which became Yusuf after he...

Review: Anaïs Mitchell With John Gallagher, Jr. at The Hamilton

Anaïs Mitchell and John Gallagher, Jr. brought their five-stop East Coast tour to the Hamilton in Washington, DC for a one-night performance on Thursday, September 22, 2016. The two immersive...

Who’s in Town?: An Interview With Anaïs Mitchell, Appearing with John Gallagher, Jr. Tonight 9/22 @7:30 PM at The Hamilton in DC

Anaïs Mitchell is a singer-songwriter and musician who has been called the queen of modern folk music. Her 2010 album Hadestown, a folk-opera based on the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice and set in the...

Who’s in Town?: John Gallagher, Jr. on Appearing with Anaïs Mitchell Tonight 9/22 @7:30 PM at The Hamilton in DC

John Gallagher, Jr. is a Tony-Award winning actor and musician. He won a Tony-Award in 2007 for his portrayal of Mortiz Stiefel in the rock musical Spring Awakening and was recently back on Broadway...

Review: Amos Lee with Lauren Talese at The Kennedy Center

American music at its best is alive and well as showcased by last night’s Amos Lee concert at The Kennedy Center’s Concert Hall. The evening was off to a good start with an opening performance by...

Review: Culture Club at The Music Center at Strathmore

Culture Club channels the 80s at Strathmore The UK pop-soul music group Culture Club has been grooving for over 30 years with hits like “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me”, “Time,” “Karma Chameleon,”...

Review: “Weird Al” Yankovic at Wolf Trap

“All bets are off,” says Wolf Trap’s website, when “Weird Al” Yankovic, King of Parody, takes over the concert hall. Absolutely anything can happen. 35 years on, the polka-dancing, accordion-playing...

Review: Bryan Adams at Wolf Trap

If you’re looking for the fountain of youth, look no more, it’s called Rock ‘N Roll. Boyish and Renaissance man Bryan Adams transported through a time machine from the 1980s to grace Wolf Trap’s stage...

Review: Angelique Kidjo at The Music Center at Strathmore

The raves never stop pouring in for Grammy Award-winning singer, composer, and humanitarian Angelique Kidjo – nor should they. Called by NPR “Africa’s greatest living diva,” Kidjo’s ample gifts – her...

2016 Philadelphia Fringe Festival Review: ‘Room 21’ by Jace Clayton at The Barnes Foundation

The 2016 Philadelphia Fringe Festival celebrated its official launch at the Barnes Foundation on Friday evening with an extraordinary one-night-only sold-out event in the Curated Fringe, as New York...

Review: ‘Kraftwerk’ at The Music Center at Strathmore

Review: Kraftwerk brings electro-pop and 3D imagery to The Music Center at Strathmore The electro-pop group Kraftwerk has been shredding the envelope of what is possible in electronic instrumentation...

Meet the Cast and Director of Providence Players’ ‘Amadeus’ Part 1: Meet David Whitehead (Salieri) by Chip Gertzog

Amadeus, the late Peter Shaffer’s Tony and Academy Award-winning masterpiece opens September 30, 2016, and kicks off the Providence Players’ 2016-2017 season. Chip: Please tell our readers where they...

The 7:30 PM ‘Summer Hummer V: Champions’ at Signature Theatre

Theater folks and fans alike reveled in last night’s Summer Hummer V: Champions – the Washington Theater Community’s annual one-night-only benefit for theatreWashington’s ‘Taking Care of Our Own’ at...

Review: Kristin Chenoweth at Wolf Trap

On a hot, humid summer evening at the Wolf Trap Performing Arts Center last night, the lithe and absolutely charismatic Broadway, television, and singing sensation Kristin Chenoweth brought out the...

Review: Barbra Streisand: ‘Barbra: The Music…The Mem’ries…The Magic!’

A diva in the best sense of the word, Barbra Streisand has always understood that only an artistic perfectionist could span decades inspiring generations with her God-given vocal instrument —and,...

A Report on ‘Handsome Hound’ at Millennium Stage at The Kennedy Center

Handsome Hound, a local band piloted by twenty-somethings Claire Daviss and Cuchulain Kelly, gives millennials a better name. Self-described as having “roots in folk, rock, pop, Americana, country and...

Review: ‘Anything Goes’ at Our Gang Players in Manahawkin, NJ

Our Gang Players took on a big undertaking with their production of Anything Goes this past weekend and it was surely an afternoon pleasure cruise. This Cole Porter musical classic with book by P. G....

GMCW’s New Executive Director Justin Fyala Begins His New Position on Monday, August 15th

“It is with great excitement that we write to tell you that the Board of Directors of the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, DC has unanimously approved the appointment of Justin Fyala as GMCW’s new...

Review: The Band Perry at Wolf Trap With Jordan Rager

Pioneers and Comeback Kids – an Evening with The Band Perry The cowboy hats came out to play at Wolf Trap’s Filene Center on August 7, welcoming The Band Perry to Vienna, Va. The trio, comprised of...

Review: ‘Seth MacFarlane and The Great American Songbook’ with NSO at Wolf Trap

Like many people my age, I’ve been a fan of Seth MacFarlane’s work for some time. Creator of hugely successful shows Family Guy and American Dad!, his list of accolades is impressive– and exhaustive!...

Review: ‘Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone’ in Concert at The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra at Strathmore

Lights, music, and… magic! Last night the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra brought Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, the first film of the beloved franchise, to the Strathmore stage in this latest...

Review: ‘BSO: The Music of David Bowie’ at the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall

The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) honored the remarkable career and personality of glam rock icon David Bowie with a spectacular tribute production: The Music of David Bowie, featuring the late...

Review: ‘The Pirates of Penzance’ at Shenandoah Summer Music Theatre

The Shenandoah Summer Music Theatre’s (SSMT) production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance breathes fresh and hysterically contemporary life into an older operetta. Brilliantly directed...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Paul Gonsalves on the Road’

The Arthur Luby-penned illustration of jazz’s legendary, tenor saxophonist, Paul Gonsalves is a novelistic approach at conveying Duke Ellington’s troubled, selfish – sultry – musical wingman. One of...

Gershwin’s ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ With the National Symphony Orchestra with Pianist Yuja Wang, Conducted by Lionel Bringuier at Wolf Trap

It was a stifling hot, totally sticky humid July evening in the DC area. Cooling breezes under the glowing wooden open structure that is Wolf Trap’s Filene Center at first were few and far between...

Review: Bob Dylan at Wolf Trap With Mavis Staples

Bob Dylan and the balmy air of the Mid-Atlantic summer: the folksy voice of an era and the backwoods feel of Wolf Trap seem like they were meant to go together. However, for those fans hoping for a...

A Report on Last Night’s ‘A Capitol Fourth’ Rehearsal

What do you get when you combine Smokey Robinson, Gavin DeGraw, Kenny Loggins, Team USA Olympians, the National Symphony Orchestra, and more? The incredible production of A Capitol Fourth produced by...