Unanswered Question

I keenly anticipated the Metropolitan Museum’s current Winslow Homer retrospective. Titled “Cross-Currents,” it comprises 88 oils and watercolors, a 200-page scholarly catalogue, a “visiting guide,” an audio guide, and docents readily at hand. The driving aspiration is to newly frame a major nineteenth century American painter, with due regard for our current … [Read more...] about What Museums Can Do and Orchestras Cannot Do

The pianist Alexander Toradze, who died yesterday of heart failure at the age of 69, was much more than a friend. Lexo enjoyed telling the story of our first encounter – a story of American naivete. This took place in a small room at Carnegie Hall. He was touring as a Soviet artist; the year must have been 1979. The meeting was arranged by Mary Lou Falcone, the publicist of … [Read more...] about Alexander Toradze 1952-2022

Every once in a while a review comes along that eloquently affirms the convictions inspiring a book or recording – even though the convictions in question may not be widely known or held. I’m thinking -- gratefully -- of two Naxos CDs I’ve recently produced, as received by Nestor Castiglione in Music Web International and by Curt Cacioppo in the same publication … [Read more...] about Silvestre Revueltas, Arthur Farwell, and the “New Paradigm”

I frame my book Dvorak’s Prophecy and the Vexed Fate of Black Classical Music as a call to action. It ends: “If American classical music -- our performers and institutions of performance, our conservatories, our agencies of philanthropy -- can awaken to the moment at hand, classical music in America may yet acquire a vital future, at last buoyed and directed by a … [Read more...] about The Brevard Project — A Call to Action