The internet was astir regarding an article in The Telegraph. The headline reads, “Musical notation branded 'colonialist' by Oxford professors hoping to 'decolonise' the curriculum.” Musical pundits picked up on this as “the woke” trying ...

In its most recent online streaming concert, the San Diego Symphony showed off the string section in a concert entitled A Shimmer of Strings. This is the way I will now refer to all gatherings ...

Since the 2021 Academy Awards come up later this month on April 25, let’s take a moment to consider some of the greatest movie music ever written. The acid test for great movie music is ...

If there is one thing I’ve bemoaned about modern music, all modern music, it’s the lack of melody. From the concert hall to the opera stage to popular music, melody is on the decline. Within ...

A few weeks ago we did the best second-best symphonies. This week we’re going to do the best second-best operas. For the sake of argument, a composer’s second-best opera is any opera that isn’t his ...

I cast a jaundiced eye at music composed based on current events. We’ve had several compositions along such lines performed in San Diego. We’ve had compositions about climate change, receding glaciers. immigration, police shootings, and ...

The San Diego Symphony streamed its second concert of the year on Friday, February 26. The concert presented three contrasting pieces of music. The first piece, by Carlos Simon, was entitled Elegy, A Cry from ...

The last few days of unabated San Diego sunshine have me feeling particularly spring-ish even though we are technically in the dead of winter with spring still a month or so away. However, it did ...

Lent came quickly this year. With no buildup to Carnival and Mardi Gras/Fat Tuesday, because of you know what, Ash Wednesday suddenly appeared. I thought we’d explore a few musical carnivals since the season didn’t ...