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THE birth of Washington’s National Symphony Orchestra (NSO), in 1931, was modest, not to say eccentric. Milton Schwartz, a local violinist, later described being approached by a “seedy-looking person in an old coat” who announced: “I am here to form a symphony orchestra. I just heard you play and I like you very much.”  The person was Hans Kindler,...

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The Basilica of Saint Patrick’s Old Cathedral and Friends of the Erben Organ announce that on Wednesday, August 22, at 7:30 p.m., the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music’s Gregorian Schola will perform “Urbs Beata Jerusalem” (“Jerusalem the Blessed City”) at the Basilica of Saint Patrick’s Old Cathedral, in New York City. The Pontifical Institute...

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Music lovers would walk into Val’s halla Records and say, “I heard this song I love, and it goes like this” — and start humming. Owner Val Camilletti could usually figure out the artist, the label and the pressing — sometimes, instantly. She died in hospice care early Tuesday at the British Home in Brookfield, about two years after being diagnosed...

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And the stars were shining.And the earth was scented.The gate of the garden creaked.And a footstep grazed the sand…Fragrant, she enteredAnd fell into my arms.” I asked myself how I can write about one of the planet’s most influential countries in music. A romantic quote from the most famous aria, Tosca by Puccini, was the not-so-obvious answer that...

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Verdi's Nabucco has opened at St. Louis' Union Avenue Opera, and it is a remarkably fine production. Of the many beautiful shows that this amazing small company has presented in its twenty-four seasons Nabucco is, perhaps, the most vocally gorgeous of all. This is due not only to the stellar quality of the principals, but also-and especially-to the...

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It's been 67 years since Tony Bennett topped the charts with his first million-selling hit, "Because of You." By the time he won his first two Grammys 12 years later for "I Left My Heart in San Francisco," the star had refined his approach and found the voice that would sustain him as one of the most acclaimed song stylists ever.  No lesser an auth...

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The first time Theo Rossi felt seen as a New Yorker was when Enter the Wu-Tang dropped. It didn't just herald the arrival of one of the most revered names in hip-hop. It featured the RZA and his soon-to-be crew of legends shouting out "Shaolin Island," giving New York's oft-forgotten borough one of the biggest claims to fame a neighborhood could p...

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Popstar LP, the Italian-American singer and song-writer Laura Pergolozzi, will be the guest star of the closing concert of the 21st Notte della Taranta music festival, Europe's largest traditional music event, to be held on August 25 in Melpignano, near Lecce. The announcement was made at a press conference in Lecce at the headquarters of lender Ba...

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I have an American friend who, at the mention of Calabria, breaks into song. No, not the popular “Calabria Mia,” written and sung by Mino Reitano, as you might expect, but an opera aria! He croons the work of a Calabrian from a different era and genre, perhaps just as well known in certain circles for his Adriana Lecouvreur as is Reitano for his no...

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In conjunction with the Rossini Opera Festival ROF (August 11-23), a yearly international music festival held in August in Pesaro, the birthplace of Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868), and on the occasion of 150th anniversary of the composer's death, the IIC will host three outdoor screenings of operas from the stages of the ROF. La scala di seta (The S...

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