In Review: New York Festival of Song
Too many noteworthy songs by U.S. composers are neglected after their premiere; here, Brin Solomon reflects on a concert by New York Festival of Song devoted to encore performances for a decade’s worth of music.
Entries by Brin Solomon
In Review: PROTOTYPE Festival 2020
Looking back at everything PROTOTYPE had to offer in a more compact but still wide-ranging 2020 festival, Brin Solomon discusses what worked, what struggled, and what might have been avoided.
In Review: Brandon Lopez
Improvising bassist, composer, and bandleader Brandon Lopez opened a Roulette residency with a quartet that demanded to be seen and heard live, Brin Solomon reports.
In Review: Midori
Performing at (Le) Poisson Rouge, the violinist Midori and the pianist Ieva Jokubaviciute presented that rare treat: a program of 20th- and 21st-century works played with impeccable polish, Brin Solomon relates.
In Review: The Turn of the Screw
Wave Hill provided a fitting location for Britten’s gothic-horror chamber opera ‘The Turn of the Screw,’ but a production by On Site Opera lacked coherent direction, Brin Solomon reports.
In Review: George Lewis’s Soundlines
Memory, imagination, virtuosity, and diplomacy all played roles in a performance of recent works by George Lewis at NYU Skirball Center, reviewed by Brin Solomon.
In Review: Michigan Trees
Brin Solomon reports on a workshop performance of ‘Michigan Trees,’ a new fairy-tale opera by Grey Grant, in which a protagonist’s desire to transform is endangered by conflicting personas.
Album Review: Julia Wolfe, Fire in my mouth
Julia Wolfe’s oratorio ‘Fire in my mouth’ registers with intensity in a New York Philharmonic performance issued on Decca Gold, Brin Solomon asserts, even without its visual and spatial elements.
Album Review: Éamon Boylan, Soft Butter
Brin Solomon reviews ‘Soft Butter,’ the original cast recording of a musical-theater work by Éamon Boylan that uses macabre and dreamlike imagery to poetically evoke personal truths about trans life.
In Review: SWELL
SWELL, a new experimental song cycle by multiple composers and lyricists presented at HERE on July 14, zooms in on deeply personal stories of immigrants and their descendants, Brin Solomon reports.