Susan Hall
Bio:
Recent Articles:
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New Directions: The Cover Story Front Page
Pioneer Designer Alvin Lustig’s Fifty Best Book Covers In One Box
By: - Apr 16th, 2021The great graphic designer Milton Glaser once said, “there are three responses to a piece of design—yes, no, and WOW!” WOW! is what you’ll say to New Directions’ newly assembled set of fifty postcards celebrating its greatest salesman, Alvin Lustig—a creative genius who revolutionized the craft of book-cover design. Each of the postcards in this glorious collection is a work of art in its own right.
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Bard's TON Orchestra Performs Live Front Page
Leon, Bernstein, Stravinsky and Mendelssohn
By: - Apr 15th, 2021The Orchestra Now presented its first live concert of the 2020-21 season at the Fisher Center, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson. It was a smashing success.
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Cutting Edge New Music Festival 2021 Front Page
The Art of the 21st Century Trombone
By: - Apr 13th, 2021The Cutting Edge Concert Series 23rd season began this week. Victoria Bond has held this series through thick and thin. It comes to us live streamed and is a treasure.
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Les Arts Florissants at Versailles Front Page
William Christie Brings Us Charpentier
By: - Apr 12th, 2021The always delightful Les Arts Florissants’ bring us a performance of Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s Grand Motets, now available on Qwest TV. Qwest was developed by Quincy Jones, whose middle name is “Delight.” And delight is what he brings us with the 17th century music of Marc-Antoine Charpentier.
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The Attacca Quartet Storms Columbia Front Page
A High Hoedown with Adams, Wiancko, and Gabriella Smith
By: - Apr 08th, 2021The Attacca Quartet won its first Grammy in 2019 for Caroline Shaw’s Orange. They favor music of living composers, as does Melissa Smey, Executive Director of the Arts Initiative and Miller Theatre and the new Lenfest Center for the Arts on the north campus. What was Mozart doing on your birthday? Decomposing.
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The Irish Repertory Theatre Presents The Aran Islands Front Page
Synge's Language Captured Brilliantly by Brendon Conroy
By: - Mar 18th, 2021The Irish Repertory Theatre has given ten streamed performances, or arranged for them, during the time of Covid. Each one has added immensely to our pleasure. The latest comes straight from Dublin. It is a one man performance on stage by the actor Brendan Conroy. His lilting voice, describing the bleak Aran Islands and the lives of its inhabitants draws us in. We quickly understand that the man who wrote the words, J. M. Synge, was a musician. As words roll in Conroy's mouth, we hear musical phrases, dips and crescendos, textured takes on vowels and consonants.
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New Federal Theatre Celebrates Women's History Month Front Page
Riverting Production of Pearl Cleag's Hospice
By: - Mar 13th, 2021New Federal Theatre has always promoted the inclusion of women artists as part of its mission. It is no surprise that they are offering works by and with women for Women’s History Month. They appeal to everyone. Petronia Paley and Margaret Odette are featured in the two-hander, Hospice by Pearl Cleage. Billed as a reading, the performances are full characterizations by actors.
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Sir Simon Rattle in Ademek World Premiere Front Page
Mezzo Magdalena Kožená Searches for the Divine
By: - Mar 11th, 2021Sir Simon Rattle has taken out German citizenship to be closer to his children. It is also said he is exiting Britain and the cultural consequences of Brexit. Rattle will succeed Mariss Jansons as the chief conductor of the Symphonieorchester des Bayerische Rundfunks. Recently he conducted the orchestra in a world premiere of Ondrej Adámek's "Where Are You?"
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Groupmuse Now Musician Owned Cooperative Front Page
Inspired by Covid
By: - Mar 10th, 2021Groupmuse, the community-building startup that aims to adapt the concert experience, announced their plan to become a musician-owned cooperative. They have assembled a Founding Council made up of ten diverse young musician activists. ranging from international prize-winners, to artists who have played over 150 concerts through Groupmuse, to social justice activists fighting to bring about a more equitable and inclusive concert music ecosystem.
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New Directions Publishers Front Page
Great Books New Looks
By: - Mar 08th, 2021When James Laughlin founded New Directions he wanted the company to be a place where writers could carry out their experiments in print. His initial mission was simple: introduce American readers to international, modernist writers who could not get their work published in the United States--Dylan Thomas, Ezra Pound, Marianne Moore, Henry Miller, Vladimir Nabokov (Laughlin rejected his scandalous blockbuster, Lolita!), and many more. "These writers were really radical,” says publisher Barbara Epler. Today they are part of the canon. Indeed, they are its twentieth-century core.
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Pat White Keeps New Federal Theatre Alive and Well Front Page
Multi-talented Executive Producer
By: - Mar 02nd, 2021Patricia “Pat” White is a mainstay of the New Federal Theatre (NFT). For twenty-five years she has handled all the details of running the producing company. This allows founder Woodie King Jr. to read scripts until 2 o’clock in the morning.
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John Musto Premiere from Copland House Front Page
Alexis PIa Gerlach and Michael Boriskin Perform
By: - Feb 23rd, 2021On the fourth Monday of every month, the Copland House brings us Underscored, zoomed performances from Aaron Copland’s study. Contemporary composers are featured. This must attend musical event is presented in collaboration with the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Founder and pianist Michael Boriskin introduced the premiere of John Musto’s Cello Sonata.
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New Federal Theatre Celebrates Black History Month Front Page
Plays by Laurence Holder, Jeff Stetson and Mfundi Vundla
By: - Feb 21st, 2021New Federal Theatre is presenting three classic plays during Black History Month. The troupe has mastered the streaming form, using individual, adjoining screens for the actors and cleverly breaking the 4th wall of streaming, the line that divides one screen from another. Malcolm X and Rev. Martin Luther King can even arm wrestle in this form.
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Thoughts on a New BSO CEO Front Page
Gail Samuel Arrives from Los Angeles
By: - Feb 18th, 2021The Boston Symphony Orchestra is taking a big step toward its future with the appointment of Gail Samuel to succeed Mark Volpe this June, just in time for Tanglewood.
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New Federal Theatre is Fifty Front Page
Woodie King Jr,'s Iconic Contribution
By: - Feb 16th, 2021Theater royalty recognizing theater, television and movie royalty was the fantastic vibe when the New Federal Theatre recently celebrated its Golden 50th Anniversary and successfully operating from 1970 to 2020 and of course, it will keep on keepin’ on! It was a celebration fit for a king and it was for a king, Mr. Woodie King Jr., founder of New Federal Theatre and a man I love to call Mr. Theatre.
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Opera Philadelphia's Channel Introduced Front Page
David T. Little's Soldier Songs an Inventive Triumph
By: - Feb 16th, 2021Without foregoing any production value, and in fact capitalizing on new opportunities, Opera Philadelphia has been leading the field in contemporary productions that attract new audiences. Over the past decade daring experiments have been undertaken, always with careful consideration. A warehouse was the setting for the production of an opera about Andy Warhol (reminiscent of a Factory?). Composers in residence have been encouraged to test the limits of an operatic stage, like Philip Venables’ Denis and Katya, designed as a social media transmission.
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New York Theatre Ballet Streams Dance and Talk Front Page
Between the Acts on Sundays
By: - Feb 12th, 2021The marvelous New York Theatre Ballet is offering Sunday conversations on dance in their Between the Acts Series. Agnes de Mille was featured recently. Diana Byer, the founder of the troupe, spoke with Anderson Ferrell and Diana Gonzalez-Dudert from the De Mille Working group, Broadway dancer and actor Dirk Lumbard, and NYTB’s Elena Zahlmann. Diana Byer, the company's founder, president, and artistic director, has said: "...Right now ballet is dominated by a very athletic style, and it's important that there's not just one style out there. I'm really committed to keeping this other way of working alive, a way that's more about the meaning of a gesture, the feeling of the music, or a story.'
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Wave Theory Records Presents 3 Women Front Page
Legendary Score by Gerald Busby
By: - Feb 07th, 2021Wave Theory Records has released the original soundtrack from legendary filmmaker Robert Altman’s 1977 cult avant-garde film 3 Women, starring Shelley Duvall and Sissy Spacek. The strikingly dissonant score was written by American composer Gerald Busby,
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Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera and Mexican Modernism Front Page
A Dazzling Exhibit at the Albuquerque Museum
By: - Jan 31st, 2021One of the largest, and most comprehensive, collections of 20th-century Mexican art takes over the Albuquerque Museum beginning February 6th.Consisting of more than 150 works— paintings, drawings, photographs, woodcuts, sculpture and publications. This blockbuster exhibition highlights the identity of Mexico in the aftermath of the Mexican Revolution.
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Atlanta Opera Presents Love Letters to Atlanta Front Page
Jamie Barton Sings Georgia on My Mind
By: - Jan 29th, 2021Georgia has been very much our minds this year and last. The state significantly contributed to the return of Happy Days. The Atlanta Opera Company is offering Love Letters to Atlanta on February 14. Morris Robinson, Jamie Barton and Kevin Burdette.
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TFANA Streams an Outsider Rehearsal Front Page
John Douglas Thompson Takes on Shylock
By: - Jan 28th, 2021Preparing for live-reopening, Theatre for a New Audience (TFANA) is sharing its rehearsal process. Arin Arbus, a regular as TFANA, directs. She and John Douglas Thompson have worked together on Otello and Macbeth. Now they take on Shylock and Merchant of Venice.
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A Dancer's Covid Tale Front Page
Chriselle Tidrick's "The Limits of Escape."
By: - Jan 16th, 2021Make Do is not what many artists are doing in the time of Covid. In the process of coping, they have extended boundaries, created new forms, and looked particularly to visual distribution channels to show their new work. Chriselle Tidrick is a formidable aerial dancer who has also appeared on stilts at the Metropolitan Opera. Here is the dancer herself on how she came to create "The Limits of Escape."
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Song for 2001:A Space Odyssey, Just Released Front Page
52 years later
By: - Jan 13th, 2021Mike Kaplan is a producer, documentary director, actor, award-winning poster designer and marketing strategist. He is known for co-producing The Whales of August, (Lilian Gish’s last film.) A Clockwork Orange, I'll Sleep When I'm Dead, Robert Altman’s Short Cuts and more. In addition, he is noted for his collection of historic movie posters that have been exhibited in Museums from Los Angeles to Jacob’s Pillow. He is also a songwriter.
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Wide Slumber at Prototype Festival Front Page
Gorgeous Music Combining Science and Art
By: - Jan 13th, 2021Wide Slumber is a taped work presented at the Prototype Festival. It premiered in Reykjavik in 2014. Icelandic composer Valgeir Sigurdsson adapted a much lauded poem by Canadian a. rawlings. In evocative, erotic and riotous words. rawlings shows us the night zone between sleep and dreams. Shakespeare dwelt there often – to sleep perchance to dream. Wide Slumber is a large work.
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Network for New Music Presents Extraordinary Measures Front Page
Composer Portrait of Richard Wernick
By: - Jan 11th, 2021Network for New Music gives us a delightful composer portrait of Pulitzer-prize winner Richard Wernick, a native Bostonian. He has studied at Tanglewood, and with Leonard Bernstein. Can you imagine a "Sunken Synagogue" replacing the Ys' cathedral of Debussy?
