I don't think I've ever seen a string section so unified in their music-making that they appear to be dancing together as in this performance of the fifth movement from Handel's Concerto a due cori No. 2 in F. Violinist Rachel Podger is leading the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra. Infectious, top-notch playing.

Posted by Jennifer Foster at 11:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Published by The Charlotte Observer November 7, 2009:

Charlotte's classical-music station, Davidson College's WDAV-FM (89.9), is looking at adding a Spanish channel.

Continue reading "Charlotte Observer: WDAV To Launch Spanish Channel" »

Posted by Lisa Gray at 6:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Charlotte Symphony is continuing an innovative project for a second year with some of the area's major arts groups as partners. CSO on Campus is a series of multi-disciplinary events presented in collaboration with the Levine Museum of the New South and the Mint Museum of Art, and taking place on six local college campuses, including Davidson College.

The programming draws from exhibits at both museums - Changing Places: From Black and White to Technicolor at the Levine Museum, and Loïs Mailou Jones: A Life in Vibrant Color at the Mint Museum of Art - and consists of lectures, exhibits and performances in a variety of venues.
According to CSO Executive Director Jonathan Martin, "It is especially important in these times that cultural organizations work together. It produces richer, multi-layered cultural expressions for the local community."
There's a complete schedule of events at the Charlotte Symphony website.

Posted by Frank Dominguez at 1:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I was looking for something funny from singer and comedienne Anna Russell to post and stumbled across this clip from a stop motion puppetry version of Humperdinck's opera Hansel and Gretel . It's a delight! (Anna Russell's is the witch's voice in the clip.)

It turns out this 1954 film is a cult classic titled Hansel and Gretel: Opera Fantasy.

Here are a few more details from a Wikipedia entry :

The puppets used in the film are called "kineman" characters. They took fifteen years to develop. The filmmakers used a secret chemical for "flesh" and "hair", and the characters had magnetized feet. They were also called "exemplary actors," and are able to duplicate natural movements, and they have a variety of facial expressions.

A DVD version of the film was released in 2001. There are some complaints about the quality of the transfer to DVD, but still plenty of raves about this little gem.

Posted by Jennifer Foster at 1:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

WDAV received this note today from Judy Watson of Winston-Salem, our "silver prize" winner in our recent Yo-Yo Ma Monday Giveaway:

Thanks to all of you at WDAV for the unbelievable Silver Prize of tickets to Yo-Yo Ma with the Charlotte Symphony and overnight at the Dunhill Hotel!!

Continue reading "Many Thanks!" »

Posted by Lisa Gray at 11:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Classical music education will get some welcome attention next week when Michelle Obama opens the White House for a special concert, reports David Ng in today's Los Angeles Times.

Continue reading "Michelle Obama Makes Room for Classical Music at the White House" »

Posted by Lisa Gray at 10:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)