No wonder the Philadelphia Episcopal Cathedral was almost filled.  I was among many who were prepared to hear a joyful masterpiece of baroque music.  Bach certainly knew how to begin the celebration, starting with four confident beats of timpani, a sweet trill of the flute, and the bright ring of trumpets.  I…

Six hands - one piano

• One virtuoso pianist - everybody has seen and enjoyed them.
• Virtuoso duet - a lot of people have seen and enjoyed them.
• You can be one of very…

Piffaro’s annual holiday concert takes listeners back in time to the 16^th century Kingdom of Naples. Renowned as the “conservatory of Europe,” the city boasted an abundance of talented composers and players to supply music to accompany Nativity plays, crèche scenes, and feasts. 

Piffaro’s program will mirror the variety of music enjoyed by these Renaissance revelers: Spanish and Italian, contemplative and rowdy, divine and earthy.

Piffaro's musicians,…

You inch down a narrow side street

of a windy winter

in an eastern European city

and into a dark recording studio,

it is 1928

and you sing--no, better!

you hold forth like a soaring eagle--

you will be dead

in just a handful of years.

Now eighty years later

--much longer than how long you lived--

on the eastern coast

of the New World,

I take your CD out on the deck

in summer…

Musa Ngqungwana, bass-baritone and ’14 AVA alumnus has had an eventful couple of months. Not only has Musa been vigorously preparing for his now-ended and successful run as Colline in Washington National Opera’s La bohème, but he has also been busy publishing his autobiography, Odyssey of an African Opera Singer: From Zwinde Township to the World…

Tempesta plays 2 Bachs & Telemann

orchestral music by the father, the son, and the godfather

Johann Sebastian Bach, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach and Georg Philipp Telemann—father, son and godfather—shared in lifelong personal and musical exchanges. The program showcases the musical…