The most important effect of any audio play is to inspire its audience to create visual images of the story being heard. This makes this particular media an excellent fit for the Oscar Wilde 1887 short story, “The Canterville Ghost.” American businessman Hiram Otis (Amir Abdullah) has just purchased Canterville Chase, an English country manor…
Audio Play Review: A Story of Unlikely Redemption, ‘The Canterville Ghost’
Mozart’s Unacknowledged Triptych of Symphonies
In the summer of 1788, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed three four-movement symphonies in the space of two months. Given the composer’s situation at the time, a financial condition best described as debt-ridden, one would assume he had been handsomely commissioned to spend precious weeks laboring over lengthy, complex scores. That assumption would be wrong. No…
Why the Strings Are the ‘Backbone of the Orchestra’
Growing up, I always enjoyed hearing the nicknames given to various musical instruments. We were told that the organ is the “king of instruments,” while the harp is the “queen of instruments.” The bassoon is “the clown of the orchestra,” and, at least in jazz circles, the clarinet is the “licorice stick.” To play the…
Online-Theater Review: ‘The Aran Islands: A Performance on Screen’
A haunting and evocative experience awaits viewers of “The Aran Islands: A Performance on Screen,” made possible by New York’s Irish Repertory Theatre, which first presented a stage version of the work in association with Co-Motion Media in 2017. The Aran Islands, off the coast of Galway, Ireland, had been remote and mysterious back in…
Virtual Theater Review: ‘Megillah Cycle’: A Timeless Tale, Strongly Told
The one essential of any theatrical production is its telling a good story. Doing exactly that, and succeeding wonderfully at it, is the Congress for Jewish Culture’s all-new dramatization of Itzik Manger’s 1965 production, “Megillah Cycle;” it is now available for streaming. Billed as a modernist take on the traditional Purim play, it recounts a…
Still Small Voices: The South Bay Children’s Choir
Anthropologists and linguists argue about whether people sang before they spoke, or spoke before they sang. We will probably never know, nor do we need to. We are certain, however, that the alliance between words and music, and its profound effect on the human heart, is proven every day in countless homes, schools, churches, and…
NTD International Piano Competition: A Lifeline After the Chaos
March 19, 2021
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artArts & CulturebaroqueClassicalclassical musicdivine inspirationNTD International Piano CompetitionPerforming ArtspianoromanticTraditional Culture
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The jurists of the New Tang Dynasty International Piano Competition are classical musicians as well. They are pianists and teachers, and when the pandemic last year brought the world to a halt, they were keenly aware of how classical musicians were affected worldwide. “Under this abnormal situation, the world has been chaotic. There has been…
In Praise of Womanhood: A Look at Hollywood, Wives, and Mothers
A friend recently contacted me about the movie “Birds of Prey.” She’d read a review of the movie in The Epoch Times and was as appalled as the reviewer by the violence of a movie aimed at a young female audience. My friend wrote of older Hollywood films: “If a woman had to be strong…
NTD International Vocal Competition Announces 2021 Dates
March 17, 2021
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Arts & Culturebel cantoclassical musicLife & TraditionOperaPerforming Artsvocal competitionsvocalist
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The New Tang Dynasty International Chinese Vocal Competition presents vocal artists with a challenge they rarely can find elsewhere: to sing Chinese songs in the bel canto style. The unique competition is a true test of a vocalist’s skills. Sponsored by NTD Television, which broadcasts the semifinal and final rounds to an audience that can reach…
The Antidote to the Theater of Misery: The Natural Theater
Look I know it’s not a perfect show . . . but none of that matters . . . it does what a musical is supposed to do . . . it gives you a little tune to carry in your head . . . A little something to help you escape from the dreary…
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