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Susan Hall

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  • Doubt Revived by Roundabout Theatre Front Page

    John Patrick Shanley's Timely Masterpiece

    By: Susan Hall - Mar 22nd, 2024

    Doubt, John Patrick Shanley’s justly celebrated play, is running at the Roundabout Theatre in New York directed by Scott Ellis. 

  • Carnegie Hall Supports Young Musicians Front Page

    Nezet-Seguin Conducts the National Youth Orchestra of the USA-Alumni

    By: Susan Hall - Mar 18th, 2024

    The National Youth Orchestra-USA Alumni performed works by George Gershwin and Dmitri Shostakovich at Carnegie Hall. Yannick Nezet-Seguin conducted. Daniil Trifonov performed Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F with flair, flash and deep feeling.

  • American Composers Orchestra at Carnegie Front Page

    Continuingto look at weimar and its Repercussions

    By: Susan Hall - Mar 15th, 2024

    The American Composers Orchestra joined Carnegie Hall’s musical exploration of the Weimar Republic.  Central to the evening’s presentation were two pieces:  One, ‘Pirate Jenny’ from Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht’s Threepenny Opera.  The other ‘Clans’ from Lowok Shoppola of the Chickasaw Nation in Oklahoma.

  • Castalian Quartet at the 92nd Street Y Front Page

    Sir Stephen Hough Pianist and Composer

    By: Susan Hall - Mar 12th, 2024

    The brash and lively Castalian String Quartet and man-for-all-seasons Sir Stephen Hough performed at the Kaufmann Concert Hall at the 92nd Street Y in New York.

  • La Jolla Playhouse Presents Redwood Front Page

    Is Living in a Forest Canopy the Answer

    By: Sharon Eubanks - Mar 03rd, 2024

    Redwood, a musical drama conceived and written by Tina Landau and Idina Menzel, is currently playing at the La Jolla Playhouse.  Composer Kate Diaz provides the expansive score with lyrics by Diaz and Landau.  Redwood tells the story of Jesse (played by Idina Menzel), a hard-charging, no-holds-barred New Yorker who is struggling to find purpose in her life following the death of her young adult son. 

  • Berkshire Opera Festival Announces Season Front Page

    Mark Your Calendars

    By: Susan Hall - Feb 21st, 2024

    Berkshire Opera Festival  (BOF) announces its 2024 season in Great Barrington, MA and New York City. The only company of its kind in the Berkshire region, BOF produces opera at the highest level under the vision of esteemed co-founders Brian Garman (Artistic Director) and Jonathan Loy ((Director of Production).

  • Beth Morrison Champions Contemporary Composers Front Page

    Prototype Festival Launched for 11th Season

    By: Susan Hall - Jan 15th, 2024

    Beth Morrison is an important leader in the development of new opera with new alliances and venues. She is a force that the future of classical music depends on. The Prototype Festival she created is now in its 11th season in New York.

  • Huang Ruo's Angel Island Front Page

    A Timely Contemporary Opera on Immigration

    By: Susan Hall - Jan 07th, 2024

    Huang Ruo, who searches for the Asian American voice and translates it for an audience of Asian Americans and all other Americans too, will present the New York premiere of his vocal theater work, Angel Island, at the Harvey Theater at BAM on January 11, 12 and 13.  It is part of the Protopype Festival, now celebrating its 11th anniversary. 

  • Maestro Misses its Mark Front Page

    Bradley Cooper Needed a Director

    By: Susan Hall - Jan 02nd, 2024

    The film Maestro reminds us that classical music can be accessible to a wide audience. This is not because the film makes the music accessible. In fact, Bradley Cooper conducting is a bad joke. You wonder what Yannick  Nezet-Seguin, credited with teaching the actor to conduct, was doing.

  • The English Concert at Carnegie Hall Front Page

    Watching a Female Leader Triumph

    By: Susan Hall - Dec 17th, 2023

    The English Concert led by Harry Bickett performs an annual Baroque opera, semi-staged at Carnegie Hall.  These performances are highly anticipated, for good reason.  This year's was no exception.

  • Victoria Bond's Illuminations Front Page

    Byzantine Chants at St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church

    By: Susan Hall - Dec 11th, 2023

    Victoria Bond is a composer who has experimented with many styles.  Over the years she has worked with Dr. Paul Barnes, a pianist and Greek Orthodox chanter, developing Illuminations on Byzantine Chant. Barnes had hoped to capture the wide emotional range and spiritual message of Orthodox Christianity,  Bond is captivated by this mystical world.

  • Opera at the Lyric in Chicago Front Page

    Daughter of the Regiment, Perfect. Jenufa, Not So

    By: Susan Hall - Dec 06th, 2023

    In the lobby of the Lyric Opera House in Chicago, you hear griping about management. Yet it is hard to imagine what people are talking about when you watch and hear the fall production of Gaetano Donizetti’s "Daughter of the Regiment. " A perfect production. 

  • Unsilent Night by Phil Kline Front Page

    North Adams and New York are Both Treated to His Special Holiday Event

    By: Susan Hall - Dec 04th, 2023

    Phil Kline created a magical holiday event thirty years ago. This year, Unsilent Night in North Adams, MA was presented by MCLA Gallery 51/MOSAIC, nbCC, North Adams Chamber, Anna Farrington, Andrew Fitch, Isabelle Holmes & Todd Reynolds In collaboration with LumiNAMA Holiday Lights Walk.

  • Rhiannon Giidens Broadends the Silk Road Front Page

    In San Diego The Trancontinental Railroad arrive

    By: Sharon Eubanks - Nov 28th, 2023

    The Transcontinental Railroad connected the Eastern and Western United States the same way that the Silk Road of Asia connected the Orient to Europe. Upon completion of the railroad, goods that would take six months to travel by boat around the Horn from the West to East Coast now were transported across the country in days. Most importantly, ideas and culture were transported. This crisscrossing changed the United States and made it the superpower it is today.

  • Musing on Women in Classical Music Front Page

    Kim Noltemy CEO of the Dallas Symphony, 21 years at the BSO

    By: Susan Hall - Nov 19th, 2023

    The Women in Classical Music Symposium in Dallas was not acrimonious. No one whined. Instead, the spirit was exploratory. There was some feeling that 'what you heard here should stay here' in Dallas. This was odd because many of the problems that were raised and then discussed were common to men and women across the color and gender spectrum.

  • Babbitt at La Jolla Front Page

    Matthew Broderick in a Star Turn

    By: Sharon Eubanks - Nov 18th, 2023

    The La Jolla Playhouse adaptation of Sinclair Lewis's classic novel Babbitt tells the story of George F. Babbitt, played by Matthew Broderick.  Set in a sleek modern library, the ensemble cast, scattered around the library reading the novel, tells Babbitt’s story. It is. a smash hit.

  • Waiting for Godot at Theatre for a New Audience Front Page

    Arin Arbus Directs Brilliantly

    By: Susan Hall - Nov 15th, 2023

    Theatre for a New Audience (TFANA) and Park Avenue Armory are the two New York venues you can count on to deliver. Arin Arbus’ new take on Waiting for Godot is no exception.

  • Dallas Presents Women in Classical Music Symposium Front Page

    Kim Noltemy CEO of the Dallas Symphony

    By: Susan Hall - Nov 10th, 2023

    Kim Noltemy, the Ross Perot President & CEO of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, joined the Dallas Symphony Association (DSA) in January 2018. (She had worked for the Boston Symphony Orchestra for 21 years). One of her first initiatives was a symposium for Women in Classical Music. Noltemy moved fast and the first conference was held in 2019

  • Kronos Quartet Turns Fifty at Carnegie Hall Front Page

    Celebration is a Cause for Joy

    By: Viktor Raykin - Nov 07th, 2023

    The Kronos String Quartet and their collaborators, among them Carnegie Hall which presented this evening, celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the creation of this radical and exciting group.  

  • Artist Carol K. Brown is Something Else Front Page

    At Nohra Haime Gallery in New York

    By: Susan Hall - Nov 03rd, 2023

    Carol K. Brown’s latest work "Someplace Else" consists of watercolor paintings and a series of drawings titled "Modified Husband." This exhibition is a culmination of Brown’s desire for detail, layered with humorous subject matter.

  • New Federal Theater Telling Tales Front Page

    Woodie King Jr. Directs Wesley Brown's PLay

    By: Susan Hall - Nov 02nd, 2023

    The New Federal Theater is producing a brilliant production of Wesley Brown’s play, Telling Tales Out of School.  A quartet of famous and not-so-famous writers from the Harlem Renaissance, all women, three Black and one white, attend the funeral of Alain Locke. 

  • Joyce Di Donato Teaches at Carnegie Hall Front Page

    Master Classes for Artists and Listeners Too

    By: Susan Hall - Oct 26th, 2023

    Joyce Di Donato offered three master classes at Carnegie Hall. Di Donato discussed something she learned during that long-ago City Opera performance of "Dead Man Walking." You have to leave space for the listeners to enter the music. This space is created by not answering all the questions the listening ear may have. That is something for all of us to think about – particularly people committed to the long-range success of classical music.

  • Handel at the Hudson Opera House Front Page

    Rondelina Directed by R. B. Schlather Goes Local

    By: Susan HAll - Oct 25th, 2023

    The future of classical musical performance in America may well be local. One marker of the trend is the Hudson Opera House in Hudson, New York. They are currently producing Handel's Rondelinda.

  • Krymov Continues at La Mama Front Page

    Russian Director Stirs up Theater

    By: Viktor Raykin - Oct 23rd, 2023

    There is new a theater in town, have you noticed? Krymov Lab NYC was started in 2022 by the prominent Russian director in exile Dmitry Krymov, with a residency in LaMama Experimental Theatre Club in East Village.

  • The Crossing Named Ensemble of the Year Front Page

    Special Choir Honored by Musical America

    By: Susan Hall - Oct 22nd, 2023

     The Crossing has been named Musical America's 2024 Ensemble of the Year. Musical America's article  states: "The Crossing is one of the most innovative choirs on the planet. Not only are they committed to issues of social justice, but the music they sing is brand spanking new. Under conductor Donald Nally, their performances have increasingly embraced theatrical elements, while their recordings have notched up a staggering three Grammy wins in under 20 years."

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