The flamenco guitarist Vicente Amigo, from Seville, Spain, has called his engagement with his instrument “beloved torture.” You can imagine why when you hear him play: He reaches for depth of expression within ultimate precision, and sometimes at frightening speed.
Vicente Amigo is known as a man of few words. His music has long spoken for him. Few people on the planet, in this sense, speak as beautifully. “Playing my music is what speaks best for me,” Amigo said in an interview...
When Daymé Arocena took the stage on Monday night for her Los Angeles debut, the 22-year-old looked resplendent in a white dress and matching headwrap. The backing band for the Havana singer and composer was already out in front of her at the Center for the Arts Eagle Rock, winding up to play her regal song “Madres" and begin a tour of contemporary rumba and ambitious Afro-Cuban jazz.
Cuban soul singer Daymé Arocena’s booming alto is boundless. From her days as a choir student and conductor at Havana’s prestigious Amadeo Roldan Conservatory to collaborations with Canadian flutist/bandleader Jane Bunnett and British producer Gilles Peterson to the release in 2015 of her well-received full-length debut, Nueva Era, the Afro-Cuban singer/songwriter has emerged as a global ambassador of Cuban music.
But Ms. Arocena’s songs were above all about mutability. The only certainty was that they would end up a long way from where they began. Introspection gradually, and naturally, evolved into drama or exultancy;
Hough’s scintillating technique and characteristically sparkling sound can perhaps be assumed these days, though of course they never should be. What gripped the attention from start to finish as well, however, was the high seriousness of the playing and the imaginative intelligence that Hough brought to the programme and its individual parts.
What is not a coincidence is that the Taiwan Philharmonic, which is known at home as the National Symphony Orchestra, or NSO, is a first-rate ensemble, one of Asia's best. This season the orchestra celebrates its 30th anniversary, yet it has little profile outside of Asia.
I remember the first time I encountered Shao-Chia Lü, in September 2010, when I attended the last four rehearsals and his inaugural pair of concerts as music director. How cleverly he programmed the first two works.
Moses Pendleton, on the other hand, has the humility and confidence to accept the existence of magic and repurpose it as his tool. In his latest work for Momix, he maneuvers the uneasiness of incredulity with earnestness and grace.
Deserts aren’t necessarily deserted — they can be crowded with fantastic flora and fauna. Moses Pendleton knows how to make theatrical deserts bloom
