One more thought about bringing classical music to minority kids, as Carnegie Hall and the Berlin Philharmonic did, when they taught "inner city youth" (their phrase) to dance to Stravinsky's Rite of Spring. (See my previous posts on this, the first, second, and third.) It's easy to do.And yes, of course it can be done well or badly, that of course you have to learn some things before you can do it well, and that some programs -- like maybe that Berlin/Carnegie enterprise -- might be inspired.But at bottom, this isn't much of a challenge. If … [Read more...]

That's the name of an early music vocal group in Washington. You can read the meaning of the name on their website. There's a Tallis motet called "Suscipe quæso Domine," and from that you get...I also like the start of their group bio, the part that says their founder "had the typical American dream of wanting to sing Thomas Tallis' Lamentations of the Prophet Jeremiah." And they sing well. But of course what charms me here is how they make classical music part of regular culture, by naming themselves (I hardly have to say it) the way a band … [Read more...]