KUHF's The Front Row - Houston's Vibrant Arts Scene

Time to Roar ...

2011-03-31T12:26:00.019-05:00

March 31, 2011

KUHF's Eric Ladau previews a new contemporary dance-jazz collaboration:

Dancer and choreographer Michele Brangwen is a true believer. She fervently believes in the power of movement to express new ideas. In fact, the goal of her Michele Brangwen Dance Ensemble is to commission new music for all of her choreography and to "incorporate musicians into the visual imagery. Sharing the stage and the focus, the dancers and musicians break the boundaries of traditional ensemble interaction." Now celebrating its 12th year of collaborative performance, the Michele Brangwen Dance Ensemble has commissioned 18 new ballet scores, with no sign of slowing down any time soon.

KATSU will be performed this Sunday, April 3, at 6 and 8pm at FotoFest Headquarters, 1113 Vine Street near downtown Houston. KATSU (the Zen word for "roar") is one in a series of works created by Michele in conjunction with the current FotoFest exhibit, Nowhere Near Here: New Photographic Work by Texas Artists. In keeping with Michele's usual inclusive and innovative style, KATSU will incorporate dancers, musicians, a roving DRU camera and the delightfully funky and old world structural properties of FotoFest's Headquarters (built in 1913 and converted into a hauntingly beautiful space).

As has been her practice in recent years, Michele's musical partners for KATSU are four breathtakingly brilliant musicians billing themselves as Tim Hagans Subversive Jazz.

A native of Ohio, T i m Hagans is one of the most exciting and innovative post-bop trumpet players around today. As a young man, he paid his dues playing in the Big Bands of Stan Kenton, Woody Herman and Thad Jones/Mel Lewis, among others. He established himself in Sweden as a swinging, high-energy trumpeter as well as an adventurous composer, and for several years he was the Music Director of the Norbotten Big Band (the jazz ensemble for the Swedish Radio Service). He simultaneously taught at several prestigious music schools around the U.S. (including the Berkeley College of Music in Boston) and established a career as a club and session musician in New York City. Tim was nominated for a 2011 Grammy Award for "Best Jazz Instrumental Composition" for his tune BOX OF CANNOLI from the CD, THE AVATAR SESSIONS - THE MUSIC OF TIM HAGANS.

When Tim first arrived in Houston several years ago, I remember thinking, "This has GOT to be a good development for jazz in this city!" So far, my prediction (hope) has proven to be correct. Whether playing at Cezanne, Barnevelder, Dean's or other performance venues, Tim never fails to blow everyone away with his incredible chops, originality, musical generosity and ability to move outside while still swinging.

Frequently appearing with Tim are "The Subversives," three outstanding and versatile local musician/composers: Double-bassist Thomas Helton, Tenor & Soprano Saxophonist Seth Paynter and Drummer Richard Cholakian.

"Fearless" is the word that I think best describes this quartet's approach to new music. They skillfully move from the Art Blakey/Horace Silver early-bop styles through sounds reminiscent of Miles, Coltrane, Dolphy, Albert Ayler and on up to the Avant-Garde Stratosphere. Watching them play together, as they bounce ideas and themes off each other, takes us on a boundary-challenging journey. Early on, I decided to quit trying to figure out where they were going and just enjoy the ride -- it is exhilarating and enlightening to say the least.

Each performance this Sunday, April 3, will be divided into two parts.

The first will be a performance of the new ballet, KATSU, a largely improvised work for dancers, musicians and portable camera. Musical conception will be provided by Thomas Helton, and lighting designer, photographer and filmmaker Jeremy Choate assumes his new role as participant as well as documentarian.

The second portion of each program will feature Tim Hagans Subversive Jazz, with new compositions by Tim Hagans, Thomas Helton and Seth Paynter. Be prepared to vacate your musical comfort zone for a fascinating and Promethean experience. I look forward to seeing you there.

Becoming Kinky

2011-03-25T14:09:00.006-05:00

March 25, 2011

Why was Kinky Friedman at KUHF yesterday? Might have something to do with a new musical based on this singer-songwriter / author / politician / cigar-lovin' cowboy / Texas legend's life ... Tune in to find out on Monday, March 28th at Noon on The Front Row!

[Top photo, L-R: Ted Swindley (playwright), Little Jewford (sidekick, lifelong friend), Kinky Friedman; Bottom photo: Kinky & producer Bob Stevenson; photos by KUHF's Paul Pendergraft]

This Year's Kisses

2011-03-02T13:10:00.013-06:00

March 2, 2011

Here's the latest from KUHF's jazz correspondent Eric Ladau:

Houston has a reputation as a great city in which to reinvent yourself and, fortunately for jazz lovers, singer Danielle Reich fits right into that category. Although she was a jazz lover from a very young age, Danielle studied opera, music theory and psychology at the University of Florida. Upon her arrival in the Bayou City, her classical training allowed her to secure a position in the Houston Grand Opera Chorus. Amidst all of the Verdi, Puccini and Mozart, bits of Billie Holiday and Thelonious Monk stubbornly clung to her musical gray matter, and Danielle found herself studying Jazz Theory with Joe Locascio at Houston Community College.

Her first jazz gigs were not what you would call particularly cool or glamorous -- early locales included the lobby of an office building and a gelato parlor in the Woodlands. However, Danielle's talent, dedication, diversity and swinging interpretations of old and new repertoire quickly endeared her to jazz musicians and lovers alike. She is currently busy singing most nights of the week at several locations around town, including the King Biscuit Patio Cafe, Tasting Room Uptown Park, El Pueblito Cafe and Vintropolis Wine Bar. More information can found on her informative website www.daniellereich.org/ and Facebook page www.facebook.com/daniellereichmusic After gigging around Houston for about five years, Danielle put together a group of her favorite musical collaborators for her first CD release, This Year's Kisses. The musical lineup includes pianist and arranger Andrew Lienhard, trumpeter and producer Carol Morgan, saxophonist Seth Paynter, bassist David Craig and drummer Daleton Lee. The full sextet performs this evening, Wednesday 3/2, at King Biscuit Patio Cafe, 1606 White Oak Drive in Houston and for us today on The Front Row.

Fat notes and a swingin' sound

2011-02-24T13:29:00.020-06:00

February 24, 2011

KUHF's Jazz Man-About-Town, Eric Ladau, filed this report:

Trombonist Andy Martin leads something of a fantasy life -- at least from the point of view of jazz lovers and musicians. I had the opportunity to speak with him earlier this week, and his enthusiasm, combined with breathtaking musical skills, have renewed my faith that the jazz Gods are smiling upon us -- particularly for those fortunate enough to be attending the 13th Annual Moores School of Music Jazz Festival this weekend.

By day, Andy is one of the busiest horn players in the Hollywood studios. Just a tiny sample of his film and television credits include Mission Impossible III, Glory Road, Rush Hour, Planet of the Apes, Monsters Inc, Spiderman, Enemy of the State, Invasion, American Idol, Dancing with the Stars, Family Guy and King of the Hill. Andy is also "First Call" trombonist at Hollywood's Pantages Theater, playing for such Broadway blockbusters as The Producers and The Lion King.

As night falls, Andy finds himself carrying on the Big Band tradition of his idols Carl Fontana and Frank Rosolino, as well as his father David Martin, an accomplished trumpeter and dedicated music teacher. Andy is a regular in several West Coast big bands, most notably the phenomenally successful Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band.

Andy spends a good bit of time on the road as a clinician and jazz ambassador for young folks eager to stretch their ears, develop their chops and follow their dreams as jazz musicians. Andy emphasizes plenty of practice, developing good listening skills and familiarity with diverse musical styles as key to success in the demanding commercial music world.

In addition to all of his engaging personal traits, Andy is simply a MONSTROUS trombone player. He will dazzle you (and everyone else) with his sharp fat notes and swinging sound. I promise you that.

Houstonians will have three opportunities to enjoy Andy’s playing (and meet him) this weekend.

1. Friday, 2/25 - Noon to 1pm: Free Clinic and Performance at the Moores Opera House
2. Saturday, 2/26 - Noon to 1pm: Free Clinic and Performance at the Moores Opera House
3. Saturday, 2/26 - 7:30 pm: Performance by MSM Jazz Orchestra featuring Andy Martin

Poets take over the studio

2011-02-21T18:12:00.019-06:00

February 21, 2011

Call it a Front Row "mug shot." I love this photo of acclaimed poets Tony Hoagland and Nick Flynn, who engaged in some studio shenanigans by posing with each other's book. Tony's latest collection is Unincorporated Persons in the Late Honda Dynasty [in the hands of Nick Flynn, right], and Nick's collection is The Captain Asks for a Show of Hands [held by Tony Hoagland, left].

The two friends and colleagues, both on the Faculty of the University of Houston's Creative Writing Program, had a lively discussion of their works, with topics ranging from love, torture and fake Japanese dynasties to the risk of writing political poems. Listen to their complete conversation here.

Nick Flynn's new poems have the whisper of overheard conversations, the rhythm of Morse code. They are "like haunted houses ... full of the voices of the dead and the fragmented nature of the self," as Tony Hoagland said. A poem that begins as if spoken by two lovers takes a dark turn of survival and desperation: "First thing we should do / if we see each other again is to make a cage of our bodies -- inside we can place / whatever still shines."

As Nick described, Tony's poems reveal "the struggle of what it means to be alive ... wrestling with subtle and complex emotional states [which] move in and out in a recognizable landscape of bewilderment." Those familiar landscapes include The Galleria, dinner parties, a subway station or MTV, where Britney Spears is "nothing less than a gladiatrix / who strolls into the coliseum / full of blinding lights and tigers."

The poems I love always surprise me in content or form. You think it's about one thing, but it shows you something else. Instead of arriving at epiphany, it may lead to more questions. It can take a complicated, unsettling idea, like torture, and make it sing. Read it aloud - it will make you hear the sound of your own voice, and certain words, in a whole new way.

Poets Nick Flynn and Tony Hoagland read from their new collections -- Wednesday, February 23, 5:30pm at the University of Houston's M.D. Anderson Library, 713.743.1050. Free.

Nora the Cat comes to Jones Hall

2011-02-18T17:09:00.013-06:00

February 18, 2011

When I first heard of Mingaudas Piecaitis' CATcerto, a concerto for cat and orchestra, I secretly wondered if the Houston Symphony would ever perform it. Well, that day has come!

This weekend, on the same bill as pop star Kenny Loggins and his hits like Footloose and I'm Alright, the Houston Symphony will perform the feline concerto on the first half of the program.

For those imagining a cat being led on stage and placed before a cat nip-dusted Steinway, I should explain that Nora the Cat will not actually be present, but rather the CATcerto is performed by live orchestra with a cleverly edited video of Nora's piano playing. The charming piece might have you wishing someone would bring Nora out for a little bow at the end.

Performances are Friday, February 18 & Saturday, February 19 (8pm) and Sunday, February 20 (7:30pm) at Jones Hall. Principal Pops Conductor Michael Krajewski will be on the podium. Vocalist Kenny Loggins headlines, with Nora the Cat as the opening act.

Dennis Gonzalez Yells at Eels

2011-01-28T12:07:00.015-06:00

KUHF's jazz correspondent, Eric Ladau, files this latest report:

One of the pioneers and founders of Progressive Jazz in Texas joins us on The Front Row, Friday, January 28 for an energetic and enlightening session of music and discussion. During the 1970's, Dallas-based trumpeter Dennis Gonzalez was inspired by the Chicago-based AACM (Association the Advancement of Creative Musicians) to move away from traditional jazz styles of swing and bebop to explore a more cutting edge and aggressive sound. The legendary saxophonist Anthony Braxton visited Dallas and encouraged Dennis to form "daagnim" (Dallas Association for Avant-Garde and Neo-Impressionistic Music). In addition to providing outlets for composition and performance of new music, "daagnim" quickly became a record label as well, featuring numerous recording sessions led by Dennis Gonzalez and others.

Beyond composing and recording, Dennis hosted a radio program entitled Miles Out on KERA in Dallas for 21 years beginning in 1978. He appeared on many jazz programs around the world, including organizing a jazz orchestra for Student Radio in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Among the many musicians inspired by Dennis Gonzalez are his sons, bassist Aaron and percussionist Stefan. Both had established careers playing heavy metal and punk when in 1999 they formed the trio Yells at Eels, combining jazz with several different types of rock influenced genres. The result is music with a high energy, swinging groove with lots of room for soaring (and technically brilliant) improvisation and experimentation.

Yells at Eels along with guest tenor saxophonist Jason Jackson will be performing Saturday January 29 at 6 pm at Barnevelder Movement/Arts complex located at 2201 Preston Street. The presenting organization is Houston-based Nameless Sound.

Billie and Dolly ... and Jacqui

2010-12-08T15:31:00.008-06:00

Here's what's happening on the Houston jazz scene this week from KUHF's Eric Ladau:

Innovative singer Jacqui Sutton brings her freshly minted "Frontier Jazz" to The Front Row Thursday, December 9.

Jacqui Sutton grew up inspired by Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder and The Jackson Five, among many others. She was acutely sensitive to music. Even schmaltzy "elevator" music could catch her attention and send her into a state of reverie. As a young lady she learned her musical basics studying the flute.

Although she had little singing experience, she joined Jazzmouth, a San Francisco-based jazz vocal ensemble in the 1980's. Jazzmouth's vocal director Molly Holm taught her the discipline and focus required to excel as a vocalist -- soloist or ensemble. The following years were spent in Portland, Oregon; New York City; and finally Houston. Along the way Jacqui dabbled in dance theater, Shakespeare, break dancing and Bluegrass music. Always eager to learn more and to refine her style, Jacqui studied with University of Houston Moores School Professor Cynthia Clayton, who "helped her love singing for the first time in her life."

Inspired directly by banjo virtuoso Bela Fleck, Jacqui formed The Frontier Jazz Orchestra to perform and record a fascinating amalgam of Bluegrass- and Jazz- influenced tunes. He new CD, Billie and Dolly, is dedicated to Billie Holiday and Dolly Parton, Jacqui's favorite singers. The Frontier Jazz Orchestra consists of pianist and arranger Henry Darragh, trumpeter Dennis Dotson, cellist Max Dyer, flutist Aralee Dorough, bassist Anthony Sapp, percussionist Ilya Janos and a special bluegrass touch added by Paul Chester on banjo.

The CD release party for Billie and Dolly will take place Friday evening, December 10 at 8pm in Duncan Recital Hall of Rice University's Shepherd School of Music. A CD signing and reception will follow the concert.

Clarinetwork

2010-12-01T14:48:00.018-06:00

The Front Row's Eric Ladau reports the latest jazz news:

One of the hottest young reed players on the jazz scene today will be making her Houston debut this Saturday evening, December 4, at the Cullen Theater of the Wortham Center. Clarinetist Anat Cohen and her trio will perform A Salute To Benny Goodman - "The King of Swing." We will share some of her thoughts and music on The Front Row this Friday, December 3.

Anat Cohen was born in Tel Aviv, Israel and grew up playing primarily the tenor and soprano saxophone -- heavily influenced by John Coltrane. While attending the Berklee College of Music in Boston, she was encouraged to return to her clarinet roots. In 1999 she moved to New York City and quickly established herself as a major clarinet voice, performing not only Dixieland Jazz but also Brazilian Choro as well as Colombian and Venezuelan folk music.

In 2005 Anat Cohen released her first CD as a leader, titled Place and Time, which was awarded one of All About Jazz New York's "Best Debut of Album of the Year" award. She has gone on to receive several major awards, including Downbeat Magazine's Rising Star - Clarinet Award (2007 and 2008) and Clarinetist of the Year (2007 and 2008) from the Jazz Journalists Association. In July of 2007 she led her ensemble at the legendary Village Vanguard Jazz Club in New York City -- the first female reed player and first Israeli to do so.

In 2009 (Benny Goodman Bicentennial Year) the owner of the Village Vanguard asked Anat Cohen to be the featured artist in a weeklong tribute to "The Clarinet." The result is shared with everyone on her latest CD, Anat Cohen: Clarinetwork Live at the Village Vanguard. Accompanying her on this high energy session (and this Saturday here in Houston) are pianist Benny Green, bassist Peter Washington and drummer Lewis Nash.

We are super excited about speaking with Anat Cohen this Friday on The Front Row.

*Anat Cohen's Houston debut concert (Saturday, December 4, 8pm, Wortham Center) is presented by Da Camera of Houston, in collaboration with the Jewish Community Center of Houston.*

First Impression

2010-11-14T23:27:00.013-06:00

The Front Row's resident jazz aficionado, Eric Ladau, reports:

We are very excited to welcome saxophonist Dr. Woody Witt [pictured below, left] back to The Front Row this Wednesday, November 17 for a live performance. Woody is a professor of Music at Houston Community College Northwest and an affiliate artist at the Moores School of Music here at the University of Houston. With his fat juicy tone and adventurous musical spirit, Woody is carrying on the "Texas Tenor" tradition, much to the delight of today's jazz lovers.

Earlier this year, Woody was the recipient of the 2010 CME (Chamber Music America)/FACE (French American Cultural Exchange) French American Jazz Exchange Grant. The grant supports innovative collaborations between American and French jazz musicians, with performances and recordings taking place in France and the United States. For his musical partner, Woody has chosen French pianist and composer Franck Amsallem [pictured below, right]. The partnership has yielded impressive results thus far, including a headline performance at the 2010 Jazz Au Mercure Festival in Toulouse in March, as well as a CD release entitled First Impression on the Houston based Blue Bamboo Music Label.

Throughout November, the Woody Witt/Franck Amsallem Quartet will be playing and conducting jazz clinics at numerous locations around Houston and other Texas locations. The other half of the quartet will consist of two distinguished faculty members from the University of North Texas -- bassist Lynn Seaton and drummer / arranger Rich DeRosa.

The repertoire will combine music of the French Impressionists with swinging jazz arrangements, as well as original compositions. Just a few examples are:

- "Hommage to Ravel" by Moores School Professor Dr. Robert Nelson (based on Maurice Ravel's Trio for Piano, Violin and Cello)

- Francis Poulenc's "Rhapsodie Negre" arranged by saxophonist Mark Piszczek

- Claude Debussy's "Engulfed Cathedral" arranged by drummer Rich De Rosa

Here is a list of dates/times/locations to catch the Woody Witt/Franck Amsallem Quartet

Monday November 15 - Houston Community College Northwest - 7:30 p.m.
Tuesday November 16 - Katy Taylor High School - Afternoon and Evening Concert
Wednesday November 17 - Live Studio Performance on The Front Row
Thursday November 18 - Amarillo College
Friday November 19 - Cezanne Jazz Club - 9:00 p.m.
Saturday November 20 - Cezanne Jazz Club - 9:00 p.m.

http://www.woodywitt.com/

http://perso.numericable.com/franck.amsallem/press.html

http://www.chamber-music.org/

http://lynnseaton.com/

Postcards from Venice

2010-02-15T16:10:00.010-06:00

TFR's regular host, St.John Flynn, sends us greetings from sunny Italy, where he has been leading the KUHF Arts & Music Tour to Venice, Verona & Milan, February 5 - 16. Check out his Tour Postings on our Homepage and more photos on Facebook!

La Fenice, Venice's famed opera house

Gondolas at rest

St.John makes a fashion statement at Carnevale.

Sarah Williams: Population 4,769

2010-01-19T10:07:00.044-06:00

Argyle, 2009, oil on board, 24" x 24"

January 19, 2010

When you stare into Sarah Williams' nightscape paintings, it's almost as if your eyes begin to adjust to the night sky -- as if your pupils are actually dilating to let in more light: soft shapes appear (a lamp post or tree in the distance); shadows present themselves on a dark pavement; the horizon seems to shift; and subtle colors emerge from dusk.

Population 4,769 is Sarah Williams' second show and first solo exhibition at the McMurtrey Gallery (on view January 16 - February 13, 2010). I met the artist on Saturday afternoon, just before the Opening. She thoughtfully led me through this body of work, which focuses on scenes from her rural Midwestern roots (hometown: Brookfield, Missouri), along with some Texas locations. Based in Denton, Ms. Williams is a recent MFA graduate of the University of North Texas and currently an adjunct professor at UNT.

Brooks Street, 2009, oil on board, 18" x 18"

Kirksville, 2009, oil on board, 18" x 30"

"Being raised in a small town and then moving to an urban setting for my education has made me aware of the seemingly mundane, anonymous scenes existing on the periphery that tend to be ignored. Strong emotions can be prompted by place. ... Important aspects to my current work are the feelings related to the atmosphere of the environment depicted. Whether it be the soupy blackness of the sky, a faint glow on the horizon or the wet pavement after the rain, these are very much part of the distinctiveness of a place." (Sarah Williams)

Sarah Williams with Callio, 2009, oil on board, 30" x 30"

I also like this comparison, stated by Robert Jessup: "Her paintings often depict lonely places, the air thick with isolation and dread, like an image by Hopper crossed with a scene from a Cohen brothers' movie."

Indeed, there is a sense of loneliness/anonymity that intersects with the warmth of light and the specificity of location and weather.

In her snowscapes, like Callio, you take in scenes of fresh tracks on packed snow, red bows of Christmastime, evidence of deer season, buildings hiding in long winter shadows and the absence of people (tucked indoors, out of the cold).

When you exhale, you feel you'll see your breath.

Tune in for an interview with artist Sarah Williams in the coming weeks on "The Front Row"!

Images courtesy of the artist & the McMurtrey Gallery

Debut CD by Houston jazz artist

2010-01-12T12:56:00.018-06:00

January 12, 2010

Henry Darragh can craft, and croon, songs about love, regret ... and even the Harvard Dictionary of Music. The vocal style of this jazz pianist, trombonist and UH Moores School of Music graduate student has also drawn comparisons to the cool Chet Baker.

Just released this past October, Darragh's debut CD, Tell Her For Me, features 6 originals and 5 cover tunes:

1. Hey There
2. Regret (by H. Darragh)
3. Everything Happens to Me
4. Once in a While
5. Early (by H. Darragh)
6. Dream Boxes (by H. Darragh)
7. Missing You (by H. Darragh)
8. Tell Her For Me
9. Wrong Ending (by H. Darragh)
10. Look for the Silver Lining
11. The Harvard Dictionary of Music Song (by H. Darragh)

Hear Henry Darragh and his bandmates chat with KUHF's jazz aficionado, Eric Ladau, and play songs from the new CD in the Geary Performance Studio -- Thursday, January 14, 12pm on "The Front Row"!

The BQE - A Film by Sufjan Stevens

2010-01-07T16:23:00.012-06:00

January 7, 2010

Intrigued? I, myself, cannot stop watching this clip. Those hula hoops!

Singer-songwriter Sufjan Stevens has created an independent film that pays visual and aural homage to the architecture of NYC and the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway -- shot on 16mm film and ulitizing time-lapse photography, in-camera editing, slow motion and post-production mirror effects, and set to original music.

Find out more about The BQE on The Front Row -- tune in to KUHF tomorrow (Friday, 1/8) at Noon! -- as Bob Stevenson chats with Michael Kaufmann of Asthmatic Kitty, Sufjan Stevens' record label.

The BQE will be screened in Houston tomorrow night (Friday, 1/8, 7pm, Musuem of Fine Arts Houston), courtesy of the Aurora Picture Show.

Happy Holidays from TFR

2009-12-10T11:56:00.003-06:00

Something to get you in the mood for those holiday parties:

Don't miss the gigantic, biscotti-lined gingerbread house, sprinkled with M&M snow, on view at the Wortham Center, and of course the beautiful tree!

Thanks to the Invincible Czars for the video & for playing on TFR recently.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and here's to 2010!

Live on TFR: The Invincible Czars

2009-11-24T14:51:00.009-06:00

Photos by KUHF's Emiily Binetti

Live on TFR: George Winston

2009-11-11T20:19:00.022-06:00

George Winston -- beloved rural folk-style pianist, Hawaiian slack-key guitarist, harmonica player & legendary New Age artist-composer -- performed live for us this week! Hear his studio session from November 10, as he joined producer Bob Stevenson & audio engineer Todd Hulslander in the Geary Performance Studio. [Bob, Todd & George, L-R; all photos by KUHF's Paul Pendergraft]

Say Cheese ... Campaign Edition

2009-10-23T15:14:00.017-05:00

Day 2 of KUHF's Fall Fundraising Campaign ... minutes before TFR:

Cuing CD's & studying the script: Chris Johnson & host St.John Flynn

Let's get happy: Rod Rice & Catherine Lu

Join us for an upclose look at the Houston-area arts scene ... Campaign fun ... and surprise thank-you gifts, October 22 - 30, on The Front Row, Noon - 1pm.

Or contribute at your leisure online.

And thanks for your support!

Say Cheese ...

2009-09-25T18:18:00.025-05:00

Grammy-nominated classical guitarist Paul Galbraith was in the house today. That very cool-looking instrument is his 8-string "Brahms" guitar -- it sits on a resonator box -- which he played, live, on the show. Beautiful! Paul performed some Bach, Bartok & Torroba to preview his Guitar Houston concert ... and told the story behind his "Brahms" guitar, which he was instrumental (sorry 'bout the pun) in inventing. Hear the guitar that sounds like no other, in Mr. Galbraith's interview with KUHF's Elaine Kennedy. [Photo by Todd Hulslander]

So, if I look happy and a bit dazed in this pic, it's because I was pretty overwhelmed by Musical Greatness here. Do I gush? It's hard not to, when you're surrounded by artists as accomplished -- and as nice -- as violist James Dunham, cellist Norman Fischer, pianist Jon Kimura Parker & violinist Cho-Liang Lin [L - R; photo by Todd Hulslander]. Definitely some of my personal classical-music heroes. James Dunham had just returned to the country from Spain, and "Jimmy" Lin had just flown back from concerts in Taiwan. They and colleagues, "Jackie" Parker & Norman Fischer, joked with me about their summer vacations, and played selections from their 9/17 Faculty Recital at Rice University's Shepherd School of Music. Listen closely to their delicate studio performance of the Schumann excerpt (from Piano Quartet in E-flat, Op. 47) ... it is superb! The music just gets better and better, as it gets softer and softer.

We're very lucky to have had our share of distinguished musicians -- as well as writers, dancers, actors & visual artists -- on the show lately. The new season is off to a fantastic start!

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

2009-08-28T18:02:00.038-05:00

Seems like it was just Memorial Day weekend. How've you spent your summer days? Traveling? Conducting business as usual? Saving the world? Maybe taking in concerts and shows, an extra art exhibit or two, that you heard about on The Front Row? We hope so.

Now that my favorite time of year is coming to a close, I'd like to offer a rewind of two wonderful books by Texas authors that I've read over my summer "vacation." Consider this my end-of-summer book report.

Love Stories in this Town is a collection of short fiction by Austin's Amanda Wa r d. Scattered across settings coast-to-coast, these vignettes place the reader in just the right moment -- the moment when everything is about to change, or has just changed, in the lives of her characters. And Life has a way of changing quickly -- whether it's an unexpected break-up, when a woman's boyfriend leaves her for a beauty queen ("Miss Montana's Wedding"); a young wife finding herself in a new country ("Motherhood and Terrorism"); or the tragedy of 9/11, as viewed through the awkwardly touching courtship of two widows ("The Way the Sky Changed").

Amanda Ward creates variations on love, in its many forms, through related emotions of anxiety, fear, absurdity and wonder.

Here's a snapshot from "On Messalonskee Lake," a story in which the memory of a deceased aunt takes on a mythical quality:

Bill's clearest memory of his aunt was when she'd run after the car as they pulled out of the driveway. It was the end of Bill's family's summer visit, and Aunt Renee made Bill's mother stop and roll down the window. "I have one more kiss for the kids," she'd said. She blew them each a kiss and then stood alone in the road as they drove away, hugging her cardigan around her skinny frame.

That paragraph presents itself so clearly in my mind -- lovely, intimate and simple in its specificity, like a painting by Edward Hopper, whose works are so often filled with images of travel and loneliness (but also tension at what might be around the corner), of people sitting in cafes, of quiet rural roads or couples looking away from one another -- much like many of the scenes in Love Stories in this Town. [For our TFR interview with Amanda Ward, click here.]

More recently, I also spoke with Galveston writer, journalist and poet Marc Phillips, whose debut novel is The Legend of Sander Grant, a story about a family of East Texas cattle ranchers, who happen to be giants -- descendants of the ancient race created by angels and humans. The book had me at its opening:
Sander is a giant. But people around Dixon are used to that. His daddy was a giant, and his daddy's dad, and so on. Back when other whites had just arrived, Sander's people were already there, and nobody knew where in all hell they came from. Those who used to trouble themselves about it, of course, they've grown old and died. Locals now remark on Sander Grant in the same way they do the August heat. Like a mother tells her kids Jesus is love. Sander is a giant.
The pages of my copy are dog-earred with passages I loved, from folksy Texas dialogue (which I could hear in my head) and charming-ly specific explanations about throwing hay and other aspects of ranch life, to philosophical moments of truth (which marinated in my mind). Here's a great line, in my opinion: Hope is "a voluntary selectiveness of sight that allowed for a level of conviction beyond faith."

Marc Phillips' writing has a beautiful clarity that comes through, "straightforward, well-considered, absent varnish," just like the description given to the title character's, Sander Grant's, own style of speaking.

On one level, it is a coming-of-age story of Sander, who must come to terms with who he is, who his people were and what his future will be, amidst a backdrop of theology, art, beef and family.

Poignantly, the giants are somehow the underdogs in this entertaining and profound tale of uncommonness, strength and the symbiotic relationships that make life work.

You can meet and chat with Marc Phillips, plus check out The Legend of Sander Grant, at two book signings coming up: Saturday, August 29, 1 - 7pm at Barnes & Noble (Deerbrook Mall - Humble) and Saturday, September 19, 1 - 5pm at Barnes & Noble (First Colony Mall - Sugarland). [For our TFR interview with Marc Phillips, click here.]

Concerto for chamber orchestra ... and cat

2009-08-03T17:14:00.018-05:00

This gives a whole new meaning to "kitten on the keys."

While Nora The Piano Cat won't be joining us on TFR, her World Premiere of the CATcerto by Lithuanian composer-conductor Mindaugas Piecaitis is ... well ... actually, kind of brilliant, in my humble opinion. Maestro Piecaitis composed, edited and directed this 4-minute piece for cat and chamber orchestra, which he was bold enough to premiere on a June 5th concert, alongside Bizet's Carmen and Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik!

Listen for the orchestral "meow" around the 3:01 mark in the video.

And who is Mindaugas Piecaitis, you ask?

The 40-year-old conductor has been collaborating with the Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra and the Klaipeda Chamber Orchestra since 2006; he teaches, lectures and champions young musicians; and he composes works of all kinds, including children's music.

Not to be outdone, Nora The Piano Cat also has a blog, where you can read about the back-story to this project, which has made her the latest (classical) internet star.

Bob in action at DiverseWorks

2009-07-31T16:05:00.008-05:00

Photographic artist Delilah Montoya chats with producer Bob Stevenson in front of her mural, La Llorona in Lillith's Garden, at DiverseWorks. The group exhibition, $timulus, featuring winners of 2008 Artadia Foundation Artist Grants, is on view through August 15. Listen to Ms. Montoya's interview about La Llorona - "The Weeper," here.

How many singers can fit into the KUHF Studio?

2009-06-23T18:51:00.032-05:00

June 30, 2009

Last Monday, we set a record for "Number of Musicians" to squeeze into our George Geary Performance Studio -- 40! The entire Moores School of Music Concert Chorale, along with Director Betsy Cook Weber, performed live and talked about a milestone that they, themselves, have achieved: an invitation to perform & compete at one of Europe's oldest & most prestigious choral festivals, the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod in Wales, July 6 - 12! KUHF's Charles Bornstein grabbed his camera & wide-angle lens to capture some moments from their Front Row session.

Camping out in the Geary Performance Studio ....

... warming up and waiting for showtime!

The clock says 12:16pm. The live interview has begun!

All smiles after a great studio session ...

The rehearsing never ends!

Filing out ... and (soon) off to the U.K.!

Thanks to Betsy Cook Weber & the MSM Concert Chorale for a truly beautiful & memorable afternoon of music on the show.

If you missed it, here's host St.John Flynn's interview with the group.

Good luck in Wales, MSM Concert Chorale!

Snapshots of a World Premiere

2009-06-10T16:37:00.028-05:00

June 10, 2009--Before Houston MET was Houston MET, it was the Delia Stewart Dance Company. And back in 1987, it hired a young, Belgian dancer who would later become known as SLAM.

Following his Houston stint, Salim Gauwloos auditioned for Madonna in NYC. "Actually the sexiest thing in Madonna's Blonde Ambition Tour may well be the Belgian dancer Slam, the audience has special eyes for him."- Liz Smith for the Daily News
After working with pop icons such as Aretha Franklin, George Michael & Elton John, Salim returned to his classical roots, and now he's choreographed a new dance piece for Houston MET -- a contemporary ballet inspired by the idea of a world of perfect harmony.

ELEVATED makes its World Premiere on Houston MET's Summer Sampler Program at Miller Outdoor Theatre on Friday, June 12, 8:30pm (FREE). For more on Salim, including photos from his Vogue-ing days, check out his website and his June 10th TFR interview. [Rehearsal photos by Facundo Gabba]

And The Winners Are ...

2009-06-08T12:32:00.016-05:00

June 8, 2009

Congratulations to the 2009 Houston Symphony Ima Hogg Young Artist Competition Winners!

FIRST PRIZE: Romie de Guise-Langlois, clarinet
WINNING PERFORMANCE: Mozart's Clarinet Concerto in A major
BIO: Romie is a fellow of The Academy - A Program of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School & The Weill Music Institute. A graduate of Yale & McGill University, she is also an award-winning chamber musician with her ensemble, Sospiro Winds.
AWARD: The Grace Woodson Memorial Award, $5000 and a solo appearance on the Houston Symphony's Dollar Concert, July 12, Jones Hall.

SECOND PRIZE: Hee-Young Lim, cello
WINNING PERFORMANCE: Elgar's Cello Concerto in e minor
BIO: Hee-Young graduated from the Korean National University of the Arts, where she was the youngest student ever accepted. She is currently in her second year of the Masters program at the New England Conservatory.
AWARD: The Houston Symphony League Award, $2500 and a solo appearance on the Houston Symphony's Summer Symphony Nights concert, June 27, Miller Outdoor Theatre

THIRD PRIZE & AUDIENCE CHOICE: Jeewon Lee, piano
WINNING PERFORMANCE: Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
BIO: Jeewon graduated with honors in economics & piano performance at Northwestern University, before studying at Juilliard. Currently a doctoral student of Jon Kimura Parker at Rice University, she was also a 2008 Ima Hogg finalist.
AWARD: The Selma Neumann Memorial Award, $1000; The Herman Shoss Audience Choice Award, $250

FOURTH PRIZE: Can Gao, violin
WINNING PERFORMANCE: Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 5 in A major, "Turkish"
BIO: Can was the first-prize winner of China's National Violin Competition in 2006. A co-founder of the Beijing New Music Ensemble & graduate of China's Central Conservatory of Music, Can currently attends the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music.
AWARD: The Jean Whitbread Kucera Award, $500

Tune into "The Front Row" in the coming weeks to hear interviews with the artists and re-broadcasts of their winning performances!

[Biographical details courtesy of the Houston Symphony. Awards announced on June 6, 2009 following the Competition's Final Round]

Coming up on TFR for Monday, 6/1/09

2009-05-31T23:53:00.004-05:00

Considered America's greatest living playwright, Edward Albee chats with us.

We explore exhibitions by two resident studio artists at the Lawndale Art Center, Stephanie Martz & Robert Sennhauser. [Photo by Robert Sennhauser; Image courtesy of Lawndale Art Center]

And we enjoy a recorded performance by the Texas Festival Orchestra & Maestro Pascal Verrot.

Join us for an up-close look at the Houston area's diverse & vibrant arts scene on "The Front Row," weekdays at Noon on 88.7 FM & KUHF HD-1 ... and 10pm on HD-2!

Coming up on The Front Row for Friday, May 29th, 2009

2009-05-28T12:41:00.005-05:00

We have a performance from soprano-pianist Lama Devries and pianist Mariam Haddad featuring selections from their upcoming concert Salon a la Francaise in parntership with the French-American Chamber of Commerce taking place this Saturday at Ovations in the Rice Village. Works include pieces from Debussy, Faure, and De Falla. Also, the Houston area gears up for the seventh annual Big Range Dance Festival kicking off this weekend and continuing for two more weekends at Barnevard Theater. Tradition comes to Houston through Broadway Across America's production of Fiddler on the Roof, featuring Actor/Singer Topel. We chat with him about his role in this beloved Broadway musical.

Join us for an up close look at the Houston area's diverse and vibrant art scene on "The Front Row", weekdays at noon on KUHF 88.7 and KUHF HD-1...and 10 PM on KUHF HD-2!

Coming up on The Front Row for Thursday, May 28th, 2009

2009-05-28T10:52:00.005-05:00

Restoration Chamber Music previews their upcoming concert Garten Verein: Legacy of Friendship featuring the works of Brahms and Strauss. Also, we chat with choreographer Christopher Wheeldon about his piece entitled Of An Era being featured by Houston Ballet (photo: www.houstonballet.org). We round out the show with a bit of the theater, featuring a conversation with Classical Theatre Company about their latest production of Sophocles Antigone.

Join us for an up close look at the Houston area's diverse and vibrant art scene on "The Front Row", weekdays at noon on 88.7 & KUHF HD-1...and 10 PM on KUHF HD-2!

Coming up on The Front Row for Wednesday, May 27th, 2009

2009-05-27T11:40:00.003-05:00

We're featuring two conversations with local theatrical productions. The Third Side by Mildred's Umbrella Theater Company explores the life of Henry Darden and his dilemma with Darwin's evolution theory. Actor Mark Carrier and playwright Tom Vaughn discuss the controversial themes in this play. And Stages Repertory Theatre closes out their current season with the regional premiere of the comedic Broadway musical Grey Gardens featuring the portrayal of Jackie O's most outrageous relatives. Also, we chat with New York Times bestselling author Lee Child (photo: www.leechild.com) about his new literary thriller Gone Tomorrow jammed packed with his signature story telling.

Join us for an upclose look at the Houston area's diverse and vibrant arts scene on "The Front Row", weekdays at Noon on 88.7 FM & KUHF HD-1...and 10 PM on HD-2!

Coming up on The Front Row for Tuesday, May 26th, 2009

2009-05-26T10:23:00.004-05:00

A live performance by the performers participating in the final week of the Opera Vista Festival, in collaboration with Nova Arts Project. We also find the connection between Dilemmas and Innocence through the works of visual artist Teresa Dunn featured at the Hooks-Epstein Gallery (photo: paiting entitled Festa by the artist). Also, a conversation with Founder/CEO Pierre Schwob of the musical website http://www.classicalarchives.com/

Join us for an upclose look at the Houston area's diverse and vibrant arts scene on "The Front Row", weekdays at Noon on 88.7 FM & KUHF HD-1...and 10 PM on HD-2!

Coming up on TFR for Monday, 5/25/09

2009-05-24T17:54:00.005-05:00

As a Memorial Day Holiday Special, we spend an hour with one of the world's most energetic, skillful and prolific concert and recording artists, Idil Biret [photo by Sefik Yuksel]. The Turkish pianist plays for us, and talks about her flourishing career.

Join us for an up-close look at the Houston area's diverse & vibrant arts scene on "The Front Row," weekdays at Noon on 88.7 FM & KUHF HD-1 ... and 10pm on HD-2!

Coming up on The Front Row for Friday, May 22nd, 2009

2009-05-21T12:54:00.011-05:00

A live performance by Folk-Pop Singer Songwriter Shake Russell (photo courtesy of www.shakerussell.com) who will be performing at McGonigel's Mucky Duck this weekend. Also on the program, A performance by Aperio's Artistic Director and Pianist Michael Zuraw, preveiwing the concert entilted Paisajes Armoniosos: A Musical Portrait of South America featuring compositions from Latin roots.

Join us for an up close look at the Houston area's diverse & vibrant art scene on "The Front Row", weekdays at Noon on 88.7 FM & KUHF HD-1...and 10 PM on HD-2!

Coming up on TFR for Thursday, 5/21/09

2009-05-20T19:42:00.005-05:00

The Two Star Symphony plays music from their score to the 1924 comedy, Girl Shy, featured on the KUHF Silent Film Concert Series at Discovery Green Park.

And cast members from Theater LaB Houston perform songs from China: The Whole Enchilada.

Join us for an up-close look at the Houston area's diverse & vibrant arts scene on "The Front Row," weekdays at Noon on 88.7 FM & KUHF HD-1 ... and 10pm on HD-2!

Coming up on TFR for Wednesday, 5/20/09

2009-05-19T11:36:00.008-05:00

Artistic Director Vishwa Subbaraman [photo courtesy of Opera Vista] previews the 2009 Opera Vista Festival, known for its contemporary and often provocative productions, as well as its opera competition (co-presented this year by Nova Arts Project). Soprano Vanessa Beaumont sings an excerpt from Edalat Square by R. Timothy Brady, last year's festival-competition winner.

Director Cheryl Kaplan & actor Steve Garfinkel chat about Main Street Theater's production of Clifford Odets' Awake and Sing!, the story of a boisterous family in the Bronx, struggling with the hardships of the Great Depression.

And we listen to songs from Hedwig and the Angry Inch, as cast members from Unhinged Productions chat about this cult rock-musical.

Join us for an up-close look at the Houston area's diverse & vibrant arts scene on "The Front Row," weekdays at Noon on 88.7 FM & KUHF HD-1 ... and 10pm on HD-2!

Coming up on TFR for Tuesday, 5/19/09

2009-05-18T12:09:00.008-05:00

It's an all-theater edition, as we chat with actors & directors from three very different productions in the Bayou City: The Miss Firecracker Contest, a heartfelt Southern comedy, at Texas Repertory Theatre ... The Timekeepers, a psychological drama set during the Holocaust, presented by Theatre New West ... and Masquerade Theatre's staging of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical, Evita.

Join us for an up-close look at the Houston area's diverse & vibrant arts scene on "The Front Row," weekdays at Noon on 88.7 FM & KUHF HD-1 ... and 10pm on HD-2!

Coming up on TFR for Monday, 5/18/09

2009-05-17T23:42:00.006-05:00

Cellist Barrett Sills [photo courtesy of the artist] talks about Cellos, Cellos, Cellos and a Premiere -- a concert for 8 cellos & other instruments that he's organized as the season-finale for the St. Cecilia Chamber Music Society.

We meet actors Matt Merchant & Matt Walker, who play the Malachi Brothers (the goofy "bad guys"), from the national tour of Happy Days - A New Musical, presented by Theatre Under The Stars.

And Artistic Director James Knapp gives us a preview of Africa: A Night of Celebration, the next concert by the Bayou City Women's Chorus.

Join us for an up-close look at the Houston area's diverse & vibrant arts scene on "The Front Row," weekdays at Noon on 88.7 FM & KUHF HD-1 ... and 10pm on HD-2!

Coming up on TFR for Friday, 5/15/09

2009-05-14T13:30:00.009-05:00

We meet the Trio Formosan [photo courtesy of the artists], who play passionate selections from their recital program, Music from Three Continents, featuring pieces from Argentina, China, the U.S. & Taiwan! Their concert is Friday, May 15, 7:30pm (free) at Bethany Christian Church.

And the band Clandestine [pictured at the 2008 Texas Scottish Festival], known for its particular brand of Texas Celtic music, performs live for us, previewing its weekend shows at McGonigel's Mucky Duck and the Houston Highland Games!

Join us for an up-close look at the Houston area's diverse & vibrant arts scene on "The Front Row," weekdays at Noon on 88.7 FM & KUHF HD-1 ... and 10pm on HD-2!

Coming up on TFR for Thursday, 5/14/09

2009-05-13T13:49:00.012-05:00

We chat with Houston Symphony Music Director Hans Graf & 20 year-old St. Petersburg-born virtuoso, Eugene Ugorski, hailed as "one of the most exciting young violinists of today."

Musicians from Mercury Baroque, led by Artistic Director Antoine Plante, join us live to perform excerpts from Jean-Baptiste Lully's 1686 opera, Armide.

And jazz trumpeter Barrie Lee Hall [photo courtesy of the artist] of the Duke Ellington Orchestra & Houston Chamber Choir Artistic Director Robert Simpson chat about Come Sunday: The Sacred Music of Duke Ellington.

Join us for an up-close look at the Houston area's diverse & vibrant arts scene on "The Front Row," weekdays at Noon on 88.7 FM & KUHF HD-1 ... and 10pm on HD-2!

Coming up on TFR for Tuesday, 5/12/09

2009-05-11T13:30:00.010-05:00

Clarinetist June Garrison, cellist Anthony Kitai & pianist Shannon Hesse give us a taste of their eclectic recital program, which features Brahms, 20th-century Argentine composer Angel Lasala, Balazs Szunyogh & a World Premiere by Texan Eric McIntyre. (Sunday, May 17, 4pm, First Cumberland Presbyterian Church)

Artistic Director Carole Nelson & composer Robert Nelson talk about the Houston Boy Choir's Ode to My Nurses Project -- original song-settings of poems by patients at Texas Children's Hospital. [Photo by Jeff Grass Photography]

And we travel back to the '70s and meet a family on a tight budge, who suddenly find themselves in possession of a large sum of money! Director Eileen Morris and actors BeBe Wilson & Byron Jacquet chat about The Ensemble Theatre's Spring comedy, Livin' Fat.

Join us for an up-close look at the Houston area's diverse & vibrant arts scene on "The Front Row," weekdays at Noon on 88.7 FM & KUHF HD-1 ... and 10pm on HD-2!

Coming up on TFR for Monday, 5/11/09

2009-05-10T18:00:00.007-05:00

Clarinetist Hakan Rosengren & the Juilliard-based Biava Quartet return to the studio to perform selections by Weber and Berwald, previewing this coming final weekend of the Fayetteville Chamber Music Festival.

Artistic Director Gregory Boyd & company actor Todd Waite [pictured as "Jan" in Rock 'n Roll; photo by T. Charles Erickson] talk about the Alley Theatre's production of Tom Stoppard's Rock 'n' Roll, the story of a Czech student, a communist English Professor and a Flower Child ... and the effects of rock music & politics on their lives over the course of two decades.

And Houston playwright Joe Barnes introduces his new drama, The Good Son, which will be presented in a staged reading by Wordsmyth Theater.

Join us for an up-close look at the Houston area's diverse & vibrant arts scene on "The Front Row," weekday at Noon on 88.7 FM & KUHF HD-1 ... and 10pm on HD-2!

Coming up on TFR for Friday, 5/8/09

2009-05-07T13:10:00.011-05:00

"Which is more enduring? Beauty or Pleasure?"

That question is the subject of Handel's oratorio, Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno (The Triumph of Time and Truth), which Ars Lyrica Houston [photo courtesy of the artists] presents this Sunday at the Hobby Center. Artistic Director Matthew Dirst and a group of his musicians, including countertenor Gerrod Pagenkopf & tenor Joseph Gaines, join us live for excerpts from this stunning musical setting of the battle of the wills.

And violinists Kevin Hwang & Natalie Lin, cellist Anna Nayanova and pianist Jessica Zhu of the Moores School of Music perform selections by Cesar Franck & Johannes Brahms, previewing their Concert for a Cure: Music to Benefit Breast Cancer Research (Saturday, May 9, 5pm, Christ United Methodist Church in Sugar Land; free admission; donations accepted).

Join us for an up-close look at the Houston area's diverse & vibrant arts scene on "The Front Row," weekdays at Noon on 88.7 FM & KUHF HD-1 ... and 10pm on HD-2!

Coming up on TFR for Thursday, 5/7/09

2009-05-06T15:08:00.015-05:00

The Biava Quartet and Texas pianist, Rick Rowley, perform selections from the 3rd Annual Fayetteville Music Festival, founded by clarinetist Hakan Rosengren.

[Left to right: Jason Calloway (cello), Hyunsu Ko (violin), Mary Person (viola), Austin Hartman (violin); photo courtesy of the Biava Quartet]

Violinist Christian Tetzlaff [photo by Alexandra Vosding] talks about soloing with the Houston Symphony this weekend, and Music Director Hans Graf chats about the program of Beethoven's Violin Concerto & Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra.

Plus, actress Ella Joyce gives us a preview of the Ensemble Theatre's A Rose Among Thorns: A Dramatic Tribute to Civil Rights Pioneer, Rosa Parks.

Join us for an up-close look at the Houston area's diverse & vibrant arts scene on "The Front Row," weekdays at Noon at 88.7 FM & KUHF HD-1 ... and 10pm on HD-2!

Coming up on TFR for Wednesday, 5/6/09

2009-05-05T13:18:00.010-05:00

Pianist Omar Herrera-Arizmendi joins us live to perform music from Cinco on Cinco, his recital celebrating this week's Mexican holiday of liberation, to be presented at MECA.

National Geographic Society archeologist & curator, Fredrik Hiebert, gives us a tour of Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures from the National Museum, Kabul, on view at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston.

And artists Kenny Browning & Bryan Taylor chat about their mobile creations, "The Iron Maiden and Party Boat," inspired by a Viking warship [photo courtesy of the Orange Show & the artist] and "Santa Car III." Those are a couple of the 250 sublime & absurd vehicles in this Saturday's 22nd Annual Houston Art Car Parade.

Join us for an up-close look at the Houston area's diverse & vibrant arts scene on "The Front Row," weekdays at Noon on 88.7 FM & KUHF HD-1 ... and 10pm on HD-2!

Coming up on TFR for Tuesday, 5/5/09

2009-05-04T16:21:00.005-05:00

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

We meet visual artist Javier de Villota, an important Spanish artist living in Houston who is devoted to issues of human freedom and human rights. Mr. Villota shows us paintings in his exhibition, DeHumanization Echo, on view at The Station Museum.

[Pictured: Las Cosas del 98 by Javier de Villota; courtesy of the artist]

We preview the Houston Symphony Spring Special, a one-night-only concert featuring Yo-Yo Ma in Schumann's Cello Concerto and the Hebraic Rhapsody, Schelomo, by Ernest Bloch. Don't have tickets to this virtually sold-out concert? We have our own mini-version of it, with an excerpt from Yo-Yo Ma's recording of one of those pieces.

And Houston Ballet Artistic Director Stanton Welch & Managing Director C.C. Conner tell us about Classically Contemporary, this weekend's free program at Miller Outdoor Theatre.

Join us for an up-close look at the Houston area's diverse & vibrant arts scene on "The Front Row," weekdays at Noon on 88.7 FM & KUHF HD-1 ... and 10pm on HD-2!

Coming up on TFR for Monday 5/4/09

2009-05-04T09:18:00.009-05:00

Singers from Bayou City Concert Musicals perform for us, previewing their next series of Cabaret Evenings, You're the Cream in My Coffee: The Music of DeSilva, Brown and Henderson. [Pictured: singer Danica Dawn Johnson; photo courtesy of BCCM]

We tour Beneath the Seen, an exhibit of works on paper by artists better known for their work in other media, on view at Wade Wilson ART.

And we preview Vida del Baile, a Latin Dance Festival presented by Dance Houston, coming up just in time for Cinco de Mayo.

Join us for an up-close look at the Houston area arts scene on "The Front Row," weekdays at Noon at 88.7 FM & KUHF HD-1 ... and 10pm at HD-2!

Coming on TFR for Friday, 5/1/09

2009-04-30T19:37:00.009-05:00

Internationally-acclaimed concert pianist Awadagin Pratt [photo by Katharyn Havens] plays music from Da Camera of Houston's season-finale concert, After Bach.

Jazz singer Kristine Mills joins us live for songs from her new CD, bossanovafied.

And award-winning poet Tony Hoagland reads favorites poems, as we bid a final farewell to April as National Poetry Month and say Hello, May ... you, Asian Pacific American Heritage, Mental Health Awareness, National Military Appreciation, New Zealand Music and Older Americans Month, you!

Join us for an up-close look at the Houston area's diverse & vibrant arts scene on "The Front Row," weekdays at Noon on 88.7 FM & KUHF HD-1 ... and 10pm on HD-2!

The Trilogy: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

2009-04-29T16:25:00.023-05:00

What do actress Glenn Close, playwright Tony Kushner and Houston dancer-choreographer Dominic Walsh have in common?

They have all been honored by the Princess Grace Foundation. Last fall, Dominic was awarded the 2008 Princess Grace Award in Choreography for Mozart, the final installment in his Trilogy of dances about the heavenly composer with a certain naughtiness and irreverence, whom I like to think of as Wolfie.

Dominic Walsh discusses the evolution of the trilogy and his love for Mozart in this interview, and he also describes how Antarctica inspired the set design, as well as those icy and Baroque-y costumes by dancer-designer Domenico Luciano in this excerpt.

Dominic Walsh Dance Theater's contemporary ballet, The Trilogy: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, makes its Houston Premiere: April 30, May 1, May 2; 7:30pm; Hobby Center for the Performing Arts. 713.315.2525 (Tickets)

Wolfie would be proud. Afterall, he loved to dance!

[Photos by Amitava Sarkar, Photography InSight; courtesy of DWDT]

Coming on TFR for Thursday, 4/30/09

2009-04-29T14:46:00.005-05:00

Grammy & Academy Award-winning composer, pianist & conductor Andre Previn talks with us about his new opera, Brief Encounter, opening May 1 at the Wortham Center! We're also joined by librettist & director John Caird and soprano Elizabeth Futral & baritone Nathan Gunn, who star in this World Premiere production by Houston Grand Opera.

[Pictured, left to right: Nathan Gunn, Elizabeth Futral, TFR host St.John Flynn, John Caird]

We have live music by Houston jazz saxophonist Woody Witt and guest drummer J.T. Bates from Minneapolis, previewing their upcoming show at AvantGarden.

And conductor Murray Sidlin & mezzo-soprano Melanie Sonnenberg talk about Verdi's Requiem, which is the centerpiece of the program, A Defiant Requiem, the season-finale concert by the Moores School of Music Symphony Orchestra and Choruses.

Join us for an up-close look at the Houston area's diverse & vibrant arts scene on "The Front Row," weekdays at Noon at 88.7 FM & KUHF HD-1 ... and 10pm on HD-2!

Coming up on TFR for Wednesday, 4/29/09

2009-04-28T18:10:00.004-05:00

Conductor Leonard Slatkin [photo by Donald Dietz; courtesy of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra] stops by to chat about this weekend's Houston Symphony concerts, along with soprano Heidi Grand Murphy, baritone Thomas Meglioranza & composer Roberto Sierra. And we preview three other upcoming arts events: Dominic Walsh Dance Theater's Houston premiere of The Trilogy: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ... The Gold, a new musical by Philip Yosowitz ... and the 2009 Opera America Conference, taking place right here in Houston.

Join us for an up-close look at the Houston area's diverse & vibrant arts scene on "The Front Row," weekdays at Noon on 88.7 FM & KUHF HD-1 ... and 10pm on HD-2!

Coming up on TFR for Tuesday, 4/28/09

2009-04-27T18:38:00.004-05:00

Pianist Michael Zuraw, Artistic Director of APERIO: MUSIC OF THE AMERICAS, performs tangos by Astor Piazzolla. We preview the Houston Metropolitan Dance Company's program of premieres & favorites, Mixing It Up. And Houston Ballet's General Manager, Jim Nelson, calls in from Spain, where the company is along its Spring Tour!

[Pictured: Joe Celej's "What Lola Wants" from "Mixing It Up"; photo courtesy of Houston Metropolitan Dance Company]

Join us for an up-close look at the Houston area's diverse & vibrant arts scene on "The Front Row," weekdays at Noon at 88.7 FM & KUHF HD-1 ... 10pm on HD-2!

Coming up on TFR for Monday, 4/27/09

2009-04-26T18:38:00.013-05:00

Members of the St. Cecilia Chamber Music Society join us in the Studio to sing works from Sublime Fusion: The Union of Voice and Instruments. Sue Schroeder, Artistic Director of the CORE Performance Company, talks about THREE, a triple commission of dance pieces by renowned female choreographers. And performance artist Paul S. Flores chats about Representa!, a blend of poetry, theater, stand-up comedy and hip-hop to illuminate contemporary Cuban life.

[Photo by Keiko Guest; CORE Dancers Juana Farfan, Mary Jane Pennington, Kimberly Kleiber in Alicia Sanchez's "Tuos Pasos Encontrados" (Your Found Steps) from THREE]

Join us for an up-close look at the Houston area's diverse & vibrant arts scene on "The Front Row," weekdays at Noon on 88.7 FM & KUHF HD-1 ... and 10pm on HD-2!

Coming up on TFR for Friday, 4/24/09

2009-04-23T17:43:00.003-05:00

Violinists Matthew Detrick & Timothy Peters of the Apollo Chamber Players perform music by Bach and Schubert -- and tell us what these composers have to do with Mendelssohn! -- as they preview their Homage to Mendelssohn concert. British director David Rocksavage talks about his independent feature film, Shadows in the Sun, which will be screened at WorldFest - The Houston International Film Festival. And we meet pianist John Wustman, "The Dean of American Accompanists," who has worked with all of the great singers of the mid-20th Century, including Elizabeth Schwarzkopf, Carlo Bergonzi, Luciano Pavarotti & Birgit Nilsson.

Join us for an up-close look at the Houston area's diverse & vibrant arts scene on "The Front Row," weekdays at Noon on 88.7 FM & KUHF HD-1 ... and 10pm on HD-2!

Coming up on TFR for Thursday, 4/23/09

2009-04-22T14:37:00.004-05:00

Two live performances! Renowned concert pianist James Dick [photo courtesy of the artist], founder & director of the International Festival-Institute at Round Top, sits down at the KUHF Steinway. And the Tim Hagans Subversive Jazz quartet plays for us, too! Visiting trumpeter Tim Hagans, saxophonist Seth Paynter, bassist Thomas Helton & drummer Richard Cholakian, along with dancer-choregrapher Michele Brangwen, share selections and talk about their joint program of original, improvised music paired with spontaneous (anything can happen!) dance works, presented by the Foundation for Modern Music.

Join us for an up-close look at the Houston area's diverse & vibrant arts scene on "The Front Row," weekdays at Noon on 88.7 FM & KUHF HD-1 ... and 10pm on HD-2!

Coming up on TFR for Wednesday, 4/22/09

2009-04-21T15:04:00.006-05:00

We hear about the Alley Theatre's new production of Mauritius, a sinister comedy by Pulitzer Prize-nominated playwright, Theresa Rebeck. Actors Elizabeth Bunch & Chris Hutchison chat about the shady characters they play, each with their eye on a pair of priceless stamps from the island nation of Mauritius! We preview the next Houston Masterworks Chorus concert, The Voice of Prophesy, featurng Mendelssohn's oratorio, Elijah. And Irish fiddler Kevin Burke & guitarist Cal Scott play jigs and reels for us, previewing this weekend's Houston International Festival - Salute to Ireland.

[Pictured: Chris Hutchison as "Dennis" & Elizabeth Bunch as "Jackie" in Mauritius; photo by T. Charles Erickson, courtesy of the Alley Theatre]

Join us for an up-close look at the Houston area's diverse & vibrant arts scene on "The Front Row," weekdays at Noon on 88.7 FM & KUHF HD-1 ... and 10pm on HD-2!

Coming up on TFR for Tuesday, 4/21/09

2009-04-20T14:07:00.003-05:00

Founder & Artistic Director, Betty Devine, gives us a preview of her Houston Choral Society's season-finale concert, From Bluegrass to Brahms. Producer & actress Christina Mauro (University of Houston alumna) talks about the film Stellina Blue, which receives its Texas Premiere screening at the 2009 WorldFest - Houston International Film Festival. And soprano Nancy Curtis performs for us! Ms. Curtis, oboist Grace Tice and pianist Roger Keele give a concert this Sunday at Northwoods Presbyterian Church.

Join us for an up-close look at the Houston area's diverse & vibrant arts scene on "The Front Row," weekdays at Noon on 88.7 FM & KUHF HD-1 ... and 10pm on HD-2!

Coming up on TFR for Monday, 4/20/09

2009-04-20T00:20:00.006-05:00

Irish balladeer Danny O'Flaherty [photo courtesy of the artist], who's in town for the Houston International Festival, performs traditional & original songs, live for us! Violinist Phillip Setzer of the famed Emerson String Quartet talks about his ensemble's upcoming Houston Friends of Music concert. And we meet best-selling writer Bill Bryson, author of the memoir, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, and tonight's guest of honor on the Inprint Brown Reading Series.

Join us for an up-close look at the Houston area's diverse & vibrant arts scene on "The Front Row," weekdays at Noon on 88.7 FM & KUHF HD-1 ... and 10pm on HD-2!

Coming up on TFR for Friday, 4/17/09

2009-04-16T13:18:00.006-05:00

Composer Carter Pann, conductor Alastair Willis & principal oboist Alecia Lawyer talk about the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra's season-finale concert. And we have a live performance by flutist Christina Jennings, who plays an excerpt from Mr. Pann's Mercury Flute Concerto, a World Premiere, commissioned by ROCO and written just for her! Plus, producer-director Jim Amatulli talks about his new movie Flying By, the Official Opening Night selection for the 2009 WorldFest - Houston International Film Festival.

Join us for an up-close look at the Houston area's diverse & vibrant arts scene on "The Front Row," weekdays at Noon on 88.7 FM & KUHF HD-1 ... and 10pm on HD-2!

Coming up on TFR for Thursday, 4/16/09

2009-04-15T13:54:00.006-05:00

Two internationally-acclaimed Russian-born classical guitarists visit the KUHF studio! Peabody Conservatory-trained Yuri Liberzon & flamenco specialist Grisha Goryachev perform for us, previewing their concerts in Houston this week. Baritone Scott Hendricks & tenor Eric Cutler chat about Houston Grand Opera's production of Verdi's Rigoletto. And we hear about the upcoming Houston International Festival, which salutes Ireland this year!

[Pictured: Eric Cutler (Duke of Mantua) & Scott Hendricks (Rigoletto); Photo by Felix Sanchez; Courtesy of Houston Grand Opera]

Join us for an up-close look at the Houston area's diverse & vibrant arts scene on "The Front Row," weekdays at Noon on 88.7 FM & KUHF HD-1 ... and 10pm on HD-2!

Coming up on TFR for Wednesday, 4/15/09

2009-04-14T16:26:00.006-05:00

Australian dancer-choreographer, Ros Warby [photo courtesy of the artist], talks about her award-winning solo dance work, Monumental, which explores two of ballet's iconic figures: the Swan & the Soldier. Ms. Warby makes her Houston debut under the auspices of Society for the Performing Arts. Co-founders Melissa Mumper & Nicole Lawson Chelly introduce us to the city's newest drama troupe, Pandora Theatre. And actors from Masquerade Theatre perform songs from Stephen Schwartz's Children of Eden!

Join us for an up-close look at the Houston area's diverse & vibrant arts scene on "The Front Row," weekdays at Noon on 88.7 FM & KUHF HD-1 ... and 10pm on HD-2!

At Last...A Downloadable Scarlatti!

2009-04-07T17:51:00.014-05:00

Last Saturday I was invited to a CD release party at The Tasting Room at Uptown Park in the Galleria. Being released was the début commercial recording by Houston early music ensemble Ars Lyrica.

The CD, on the Naxos label (arguably the world's largest classical music label), features rarely heard music by Italian Baroque master Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725), including two world première recordings.

Opening the music is Scarlatti's 1699 cantata Euridice dall'Inferno (Euridice in the Underworld), which explores the uncertain fate of the wife of Orpheus in the Underworld. According to Matthew Dirst (Artistic Director), writing in the CD liner notes,

In contrast to better-known operatic treatments of this tale, Scarlatti's heroine is no blushing bride. Though still vulnerable and dependent on Orpheus' musical powers to win her release, this Euridice projects courage, steadfastness, even fearlessness as she awaits her lover's rescue.

This first-time recording features soprano Melissa Givens as Euridice; Barrett Sills, Baroque cello; Richard Savino, archlute; and Matthew Dirst at the harpsichord.

The second never-before recorded piece is Scarlatti's oratorio La concettione della Beata Virgine (The Conception of the Blessed Virgin), a work first performed in Rome in 1703.

Although titled in Italian, it is one of only two surviving oratorios Scarlatti wrote in Latin, and seems to be a vote in favor of the Catholic doctrine of the Immaculate Conception (the tenet that Mary was conceived without the stain of original sin), which had not been settled theologically at the start of the 18th century and was still hotly debated.

The work is allegorical rather than dramatic, with the nature of Mary's "fetal soul" (to use Dirst's phrase) debated by the Archangel Michael (Melissa Givens, soprano), Grace (Gerrod Pagenkopf, countertenor), Heresy (Joseph Gaines, tenor) and The Serpent (Timothy Jones, bass-baritone).

Two of Scarlatti's purely instrumental works are also featured on the CD: his Cello Sonata No. 2 in C minor, with Barrett Sills the featured cellist, and the Toccata in A major for harpsichord performed by Dirst.

As you would expect, all of this music is played on period instruments. In addition to the local musicians already noted, the following Houston-based instrumentalists also appear:

Alan Austin and Jonathan Godfrey (Baroque violins); Deborah Dunham (Violone); Dennis Whittaker (Double bass); and Scott Horton (Archlute).

I am also proud to point out that the recording engineer for this CD was KUHF's own Shannon Smith who has been responsible for recording so many of Ars Lyrica's performances in different venues around town.

Although we're talking about "olde" music here, Ars Lyrica has always maintained a thoroughly modern outlook, as evidenced by the fact that the CD includes a free downloadable bonus track available at http://www.classicsonline.com/.

It's heartening to see Ars Lyrica enhancing its reputation with the release of this recording. Long may they keep the Baroque fires burning, not just in Houston but now around the world!

Coming up on TFR for Tuesday, 4/7/09

2009-04-06T11:16:00.005-05:00

The Chiara String Quartet [pictured right], currently Artists-in-Residence at Harvard University, perform for us! CSQ preview their Da Camera of Houston concert, along with cellist Norman Fischer, who'll be joining the group for the World Premiere of Richard Lavenda's Quintet for Strings: Thoughts Fly.

And we hear a mini-version of Portraits of Passion: Musical Snapshots from the Holy Week Drama, a concert by Keith Weber's Piping Rock Singers, with Houston's Z-Viols led by early-music specialist Mary Springfels.

Join us for an up-close look at the Houston area's diverse & vibrant arts scene on "The Front Row," weekdays at Noon on 88.7 FM & KUHF HD-1 ... and 10pm on HD-2!

Coming up on TFR for Monday, 4/6/09

2009-04-03T14:45:00.013-05:00

We preview Crossroads of America, a joint-concert by Project Divisi and VOX - The Rob Seible Singers, featuring Emmy-nominated actor & vocalist Ron Raines. Co-curator Ingrid Schaffner gives us a tour of The Puppet Show at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston. And best-selling author Isabel Allende chats about her new memoir, The Sum of Our Days.

[Pictured: Theme for a Major Hit, 1974, by artist Dennis Oppenheim; Motor driven marionettes. wood, cloth, felt, soundtrack, tape player, and external speakers, dimensions variable; from "The Puppet Show," courtesy of CAMH]

Fun Fact #2: Our Volunteers eat 264 Kolaches during Campaign.

Thanks for making KUHF's Spring Fundraising Campaign a success!

Join us for an up-close look at the Houston area's diverse & vibrant arts scene on "The Front Row," weekdays at Noon on 88.7 FM & KUHF HD-2 ... and 10pm on HD-2!

Coming up on TFR for Friday, 4/3/09

2009-04-02T14:22:00.014-05:00

Things should be back to normal (and I use that word loosely) around here! "Campaign Central" reverts back to KUHF's fully-functioning Geary Performance Studio, and to celebrate, we have a live performance by the White Oak Trio. Then, we meet one of our nation's foremost composers of vocal music, Ricky Ian Gordon [pictured left], whose operatic adaptation of The Grapes of Wrath will be presented by the Moores Opera Center.

Fun Fact #1: During Campaign, TFR sacrifices its beloved Geary Performance Studio (a.k.a. Studio 3-C) for the Cause. The Studio becomes Campaign Central -- a hub of snack foods, numbers-crunching and volunteers answering phones.

Trivia Question: How many Kolaches do our volunteers eat during Campaign?

Word of the Day: "Handelian" (Thanks to HGO General Director Anthony Freud!)

Coming up on TFR for Thursday, 4/2/09

2009-04-01T21:41:00.005-05:00

Choreographers Teresa Chapman and Leslie Scates preview their new dance-theatre piece, The Convenient Woman [pictured left], which explores the excesses and exploitation of the contemporary woman. And we chat with pianist, composer and American jazz icon, Ramsey Lewis, who performs this weekend at The Centrum.

Plus, we'll have more "Fun"-raising with another Special Guest Co-host! Join us for your up-close look at the Houston area's diverse & vibrant arts scene on "The Front Row," Thursday at Noon on 88.7 FM and KUHF HD-1 ... and 10pm on HD-2!

Coming up on TFR for Wednesday, 4/1/09

2009-03-31T13:55:00.009-05:00

Who is today's Mystery Co-Host? Will we make our Fundraising Goal? Tune in to find out the answers to Life's Persistent Questions (forgive me, if I steal from Guy Noir)!

You love public radio, and public radio loves you. Show your support; make a pledge during today's TFR ... our "Mystery Guest" just might have some goodies to sweeten the deal!

Also, The Bach Society's Artistic Director Albert LeDoux & Professor Michael Marissen of Swarthmore College discuss Handel's neglected Brockes Passion. Actors Detria Ward & Cynthia Brown talk about the Ensemble Theatre's production of Constant Star, a bio-drama about civil rights pioneer Ida B. Wells. And we hear about the MFAH's April Artful Thursday event, featuring Sue Schroeder's CORE Performance Company.

Join us for an up-close look at the Houston area's diverse & vibrant arts scene on "The Front Row," weekdays at Noon on 88.7 FM & KUHF HD-1 ... and 10pm on HD-2!

The Amazing Chitra

2009-03-30T15:48:00.009-05:00

I've become a fan of writer Chitra Divakaruni's blog, Amazing Things. She can comment on anything from the Google cafeteria to Mango Ice Cream to indie bookstores with such freshness, charm and meaning. I really do feel like I'm seeing these amazing things for the first time!

Here's our extended interview, in which Chitra Divakaruni reads from her new young adult novel, Shadowland, and chats about that quality of wonderment that she tries to bring to all her writing (originally aired in edited form on Monday's TFR.)

Coming up on TFR for Tuesday, 3/31/2009

2009-03-30T15:31:00.004-05:00

Oscar-winning composer John Williams talks about two of his concert pieces, which the Houston Symphony performs this weekend. We also chat with one of the coolest jazz pianists in the biz, Chick Corea [pictured right]. And the leads from Theatre Under the Stars' new production of Les Miserables pay us a visit.

Join us for an up-close look at the Houston area's diverse & vibrant arts scene on "The Front Row," weekdays at Noon on 88.7 FM & KUHF HD-1 ... and 10pm on HD-2!

Coming up on TFR for Monday, 3/30/09

2009-03-27T14:53:00.017-05:00

We celebrate the literary arts, with visits by three great contemporary writers: former US Poet Laureate Charles Simic, award-winning novelist Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni of the UH Creative Writing Program, and decorated author & NPR commentator, Andrei Codrescu ... all of whom read from their latest books Monday night around Houston!

Are you a Front Row-er? Be the Water that makes our Garden of Arts Coverage grow! Contribute to KUHF's Spring Fundraising Campaign during your up-close look at the Houston area's diverse & vibrant arts scene on "The Front Row" ... Monday at Noon on 88.7 FM & KUHF HD-1! Repeats can be heard at 10pm on HD-2.

Thanks for your support!

Coming up on TFR for Friday, 3/27/09

2009-03-26T15:34:00.008-05:00

Ever seen the St. Lawrence String Quartet in concert? They blew me away the first I heard them several years ago at a Da Camera of Houston performance, where they played Haydn effortlessly. Here's a sample of their artistry:

SLSQ cellist Christopher Costanza stops by TFR, along with composer Roberto Sierra (Songs of the Diaspora), to chat about Dreams & Prayers, Friday's concert at the Wortham Center. California-based pianist Sarah Cahill talks about A Sweeter Music, a program of pieces she's commissioned on the theme of peace, coming up at the Rothko Chapel. And cellist Michael Kannen & pianist Brian Connelly of Context share their love for Dvorak's Piano Trios, two of which they'll perform Sunday at Rice University.

It's all about chamber music on this edition of TFR ... Friday at Noon on 88.7 FM & KUHF HD-1 ... and 10pm on HD-2!

Coming up on TFR for Thursday, 3/26/09

2009-03-25T13:03:00.014-05:00

Remember the 1995 film noir, Devil in a Blue Dress, starring Denzel Washington as "Easy Rawlins," a private detective working 1940s L.A.?

Mystery writer, Walter Mosley, whose novel inspired that movie, visits TFR on Thursday! He introduces his new character (ex-boxer & investigator Leonid McGill), new setting (NYC) and new novel, The Long Fall, which he'll be signing at Murder By The Book.

Here's an excerpt:

Throwing a punch is the yang of a boxer's life. The yin is being able to avoid getting hit. I'm pretty good at the yang part. Everybody knows but few can exploit the fact that a good punch comes first from the foot, moves in circular motion around the hips, and only then connects with the arm, fist, and if you're lucky, your opponent's jaw or rib cage. Fighting therefore is like the dance of a mighty Scot stamping and swinging in a dewy Highland morning.

Click here to read more, and hear from Walter Mosley, himself, live on TFR!

Also, General Manager Steve Brosvik reveals what we can expect to see, hear, learn and even taste at the Houston Symphony's Bach vs. Vivaldi Experience. And Artistic Director Robert Simpson chats about Handel's oratorio, Esther, which his Houston Chamber Choir performs this weekend.

Join us for an up-close look at the Houston area's diverse & vibrant arts scene on "The Front Row," weekdays at Noon on 88.7 FM & KUHF HD-1 ... and 10pm on HD-2!

Go Spring Fundraising Campaign!

Coming up on TFR for Wednesday, 3/25/09

2009-03-24T11:47:00.005-05:00

Classical guitarist Valerie Hartzell [pictured right] performs for us! She also talks about her Salon Concert, coming up this Saturday night, benefitting the Classical Minds Guitar Competition. Composer & Professor Anthony Brandt and David Eagleman of Baylor College of Medicine preview Exploring the Mind Through Music, this weekend's conference at Rice University's Shepherd School of Music. And internationally-acclaimed bass-baritone & Houstonian Richard Paul Fink chats about his role in Wagner’s Ring Cycle at the Metropolitan Opera, which can be heard on KUHF's Live from the Met broadcasts starting this Saturday!

Join us for an up-close look at the Houston area's diverse & vibrant arts scene on "The Front Row," weekdays at Noon on 88.7 FM & KUHF HD-1 ... and 10pm on HD-2!

Coming up on TFR for Tuesday, 3/24/09

2009-03-23T19:05:00.003-05:00

Violist James Dunham of the St. Cecilia Chamber Music Society, flutist Catherine Ramirez & harpist Sadie Turner play Debussy for us! We also hear a performance by Austin-based guitarist Alejandro Montiel. And we preview the Houston Symphony’s upcoming 2-day music festival, The Bach vs. Vivaldi Experience.

Join us for an up-close look at the Houston area's diverse & vibrant arts scene on "The Front Row," weekdays at Noon on 88.7 FM & KUHF HD-1 ... and 10pm on HD-2!

[Photo by Fulton Davenport; Houston Symphony Music Director Hans Graf poises with pals Bach & the "Red-Haired Priest," Vivaldi.]

Coming up on TFR for Monday, 3/23/09

2009-03-23T00:57:00.006-05:00

Maestro William Weibel & singers from his Opera in the Heights treat us to excepts from Verdi's comic opera, Falstaff, live from KUHF's Geary Performance Studio! We also speak with Craig Arnold, director of the Nordic Choir of Luther College in Iowa, which houses one of the largest, most active music schools in the country. And we preview Society for the Performing Arts' upcoming program that celebrates the 50th anniverary of the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater, presenting a new work, Go in Grace, accompanied by live music by the African-American traditional vocal ensemble, Sweet Honey in the Rock. Monday, we speak with Hope Boykin, the young choreographer who created Go in Grace, and Sweet Honey singer Ysaye Barnwell.

Non-Classical

2009-03-18T10:49:00.022-05:00

There is a new culture of music emerging in what has been called the Post-Classical era. You'll remember on a recent edition of The Front Row, we spent an hour in conversation with Author Joe Horowitz who says that we are, in fact, in a Post-Classical era which is being created in the wake of the new world of sounds and rhythms originating with composers like John Adams, Steve Reich and Philip Glass. Add to that the impulse of young artists who move just as easily between Beethoven and Bach as they do between Hip-Hop and Punk Rock and you have the begining of a new musical culture. Author Greg Sandow refers to new music being written today by Rock Star Composers like Nico Muhly, Daniel Bernard Roumain and Gabriel Kahane at venues like Manhattan's [Le] Poisson Rouge as Alt-Classical.

Just as in New York, composer and DJ Gabriel Prokofiev has been working to create a space for this new culture of music to emerge in London. Over the last few years his classical club nights, known as Nonclassical, have become a growing feature in the night-life of his hometown. His success is fueled by a new generation of performers, composer and promoters who are redefining the rules and freeing themselves of the constraints of the traditional classical concert halls.

This week Prokofiev brings his forward thinking music, and circle of friends to New York's [Le] Poisson Rouge and The Tap Room in Austin as part of the annual music festival known as South by Southwest.

I called him on his cell phone as he had just arrived in New York City and was in the midst of preparing for this week's gigs. We had a very casual conversation about his music, his club-nights and his legendary grandfather, Sergei Prokofiev. Listen. Download.

Download a track from Gabriel Prokofiev's latest CD:
String Quartet No.2 (Mvt. 2) - The Elysian Quartet

Related radio segment broadast on The Front Row

More links to some of the folks performing on the Nonclassical Showcase in Austin:

Elysian Quartet
John Matthias, violin
Nick Ryan, LapTop

Jed Marum brings out the Irish in us!

2009-03-11T16:24:00.027-05:00

March 11, 2009

An early Happy St. Patrick's Day to you!

Dallas-based Celtic musician Jed Marum was born and raised near Boston. His selection of material and his own song-writing both incline heavily toward the traditional Irish repertoire, but also include elements of Civil War-era American ballads, and a flavoring of Appalachian bluegrass.

Today in the KUHF Performance Studio, Jed sang "Mama's Lily," a touching song he wrote, inspired by a true story from the diary of Irish-American immigrant William McCarter. Listen

The Center for Irish Studies at the University of St. Thomas presents A Lonestar Stout Evening of Celtic Music with Jed Marum & Scottish button-accordion player, Hugh Morrison, on Thursday, March 12 at 7:30pm.

Thanks to Mr. Marum for being on the show, and thanks to KUHF audio engineer, Todd Hulslander!

TFR goes Green!

2009-03-07T15:33:00.016-06:00

March 6, 2009

Nothing beats the adrenaline rush of live music & live radio! We had a blast at our first-ever remote broadcast, live from Discovery Green Park, in the heart of downtown Houston.

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Many thanks to our special guests:

- Ray Benson & Asleep at the Wheel, who rocked out, and made us all want to skip the rest of the work day!

- Emmeline Kramlich, board member of Houston Young Artist's Concert, and grade-school musicians: violinist Yaegy Park, who gave a jaw-dropping performance of a Kreisler "Scherzo," and Ethan Le & Liana Wang (piano 4-hands), who played with such poise that they barely flinched when a siren whizzed by.

- The Invincible Czars, who came all the way down from Austin to bring us their unique DIY blend of rock, instrumental/symphonic jams and avant-garde film music!

Check out the pics of the musicians in action ... Plus, see if you can spot our fearless leader/host St.John Flynn; producer-extraordinaire Bob Stevenson; COO Debra Fraser, CEO John Proffitt; TFR's Meghan Hendley; and the back of my head (and part of my arm)! By the way, we heart our Engineers, as well as TFR "Mixmaster" Chris Johnson. (Photos by KUHF's Paul Pendergraft)

But, most importantly, thank YOU for being part of the live Front Row Experience at Discovery Green. We loved seeing your happy, shiny faces; your kids, your dogs; the bicyclists; the parents; the picnickers; and fellow arts-community friends.

Stay tuned for details about our next live, remote broadcast ... and we'll see you there!

The Poem Heard around the World

2009-01-24T18:30:00.014-06:00

January 24, 2009

Did you follow, or watch, the Inauguration Ceremony last Tuesday? Here at KUHF, the morning buzzed with the broadcast of NPR's live coverage. Many of us gathered in the Newsroom, with its TV screens carrying CNN, or in front of the Lobby's large monitor to take in the images.

It was a bright, cold day, and I couldn't help trying to imagine the winter air in Washington, what people were feeling, standing in the elements, united -- cheering, waiting, speaking to thousands, performing.

Sandwiched between the most anticipated moment -- President Obama's Oath of Office and address -- and the benediction by distinguished civil rights leader Joseph Lowery was the Inaugural Poem.

I've been thinking about Praise Song for the Day by Elizabeth Alexander.

Dr. Alexander recited it with poise, quiet strength and humility, not unlike the poem, itself. It's full of idiom and common turns of phrases, the syntax of everyday. The poem speaks, with ease. "Every day we go about our business, walking past each other ..." "We walk into that which we cannot yet see."

My favorite lines: "A farmer considers the changing sky; A teacher says, "Take out your pencils. Begin." "In today's sharp sparkle, this winter air, anything can be made, any sentence begun."

It's the language of journeys and beginnings, the images of simple gifts: "Someone is stitching up a hem, darning a hole in a uniform, patching a tire, repairing the things in need of repair." "What if the mightiest word is love."

Roads and skies, struggle, hand-lettered signs, cotton and lettuce, kitchen tables, noise. One thinks of Walt Whitman's Song of Myself, though not exactly a humble poem:

I hear the bravuras of birds .... the bustle of growing wheat .... gossip of flames .... clack of sticks cooking my meals.

I hear the sound of the human voice .... a sound I love

Elizabeth Alexander's poem -- while at the same time reflecting on the progress of history, which is made of larger sacrifices ("sing the names of the dead who brought us here"), as well as the work and interactions of every passing moment -- is also, for me, about the human voice, written in words or spoken into air.

It celebrates the power of "trying to make music," of "ancestors on our tongue." The way "we encounter each other in words" and the possibilities those encounters bring.

Here's a quote I jotted down once: "It is not only in our social life that we dread silence. We love noise more than we know, even when no other human being is present." (Robert Lynd)

I love sound. That is why I adore music and radio. I love the noise of words, the music of our speech, with the cadences, repetition and accidental rhymes in our conversations.

Elizabeth Alexander was my professor at the University of Chicago, back in the '90s, and through her writing, she continues to teach me new ways to think about, and listen to, the world. Her most recent collection of poems, American Sublime, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, and she has appeared on Houston's Inprint Brown Reading Series and on KUHF's The Front Row.

If you believe, as I do, that poetry -- like music -- can be rewarding each time you revisit it, here is the transcript of the Inaugural Poem, waiting for you to discover, for yourself, what to listen for.

The Classical Imperative

2008-11-20T13:18:00.012-06:00

There's certainly nothing staid and boring about Houston's cultural scene. No matter which way you turn you're likely to fall over some sort of avant garde/cutting edge production or another.

As NPR's Wade Goodwyn recently reported for All Things Considered, the Houston contemporary classical scene is thriving. Groups like Da Camera and Musiqa (and KUHF's own chamber music ensemble), show an on-going commitment to the latest classical compositions.

The same is true in the realm of the non-musical arts also. Look at the Max Ernst in the Garden of Nymph Ancolie exhibit currently on display at the Menil Collection for example, or the Jonah Bokaer The Invention of Minus One presentation this weekend at DiverseWorks.

Something I find intriguing, however, amongst all this "newness" is the strong presence of the "antique." By that I mean art from Classical Antiquity that is blended with contemporary performance values.

Several groups around town have done this recently. Last weekend Divergence Vocal Theater, Houston's newest "opera" company, made its debut with The Ottavia Project, Artistic Director Misha Penton's telling of the story of Octavia, scorned wife of the Roman Emperor Nero, through a fusion of elements from Monteverdi's opera L'Incoronazione di Poppea (The Coronation of Poppea) and the tragedy Octavia, often attributed to the 1st century C.E. Roman dramatist Seneca, with dance and music.

The resulting spectacle was a satisfying melding of the old and the new very much in line with DVT's stated vision:

A progressive attitude to repertoire selection, fearless contemporary staging, and an exciting fusion of interdisciplinary arts characterizes our non-traditional approach to classical vocal repertoire. The result: boundary defying performances featuring historic and new opera, art song, solo piano pieces, theater, dance, and multimedia arts.
Not three days earlier I had another such ancient/modern experience at the University of Houston where the School of Theatre & Dance is in the middle of a run of Metamorphoses, Mary Zimmerman's 1996 play (which won her a 2002 Tony Award for best direction0.

As you might guess, Zimmerman's drama is based on the work of the same name by the Roman writer Ovid. The adaptation, with modern twists, of some of the most humorous and heartbreaking myths from the ancient text takes place in and around a large pool, giving the feel of a modern Roman atrium. As the UH PR material for the play states, "A masterpiece of contemporary storytelling, Metamorphoses follows an ensemble cast as they undergo the transformations that define the human experience."

Yet again the ancient and modern are merged in a production firmly rooted in Classical Antiquity.

Back in August Houston's Nova Arts Project presented The Bacchae, a daring adaptation of the Greek tragedy of the same name by Euripides, "written and directed" by Clinton Hopper, the NAP founding artistic director.

I was surprised to see the designation "writer" attributed to Hopper in the program as I assumed the production was the Euripidean version. But what I saw was an adaptation of the Greek tragedy; it is based on Euripides's play but is not a mere staging of it. Hopper had streamlined the action, the characters, the dramatic concerns, and in effect created a version of the original. The new and the old were interwoven.

What are we to make of this seeming trend back to ancient days? Perhaps no more than that the art of Classical Antiquity still has relevance today. The elements that make performances compelling today (inventive storytelling, compelling plots, human insight etc.) have been around for millenia and don't lose their lustre with the passage of time.

Maybe we should also be reminded that not everyone in the first years of the 21st century has necessarily been exposed to earliest texts of the Western cultural tradition; there may be a huge "virgin" audience for these works many of us are very familiar with.

But while these recent productions may harken back to the mists of time, their treatments are thoroughly modern and completely in keeping with Houston's commitment to the cutting edge.

Magna Opera

2008-11-06T19:02:00.019-06:00

Yesterday I attended the opening night of the Shepherd School Opera's productions of Holst's Savitri and Puccini's Gianni Schicchi. I had never seen either one-act work in performance before, although I was familiar with the Puccini courtesy of the famed aria "O mio babbino caro" (which is used in the soundtrack to the 1985 Merchant-Ivory movie A Room with a View). I received my first exposure to the Holst during the live performance segment I did with two of the Shepherd School Opera cast on Tuesday's The Front Row.

Unlike the well-known one-act pairing of Cav and Pag (Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana and Leoncavallo's Pagliacci), you'll not at first glance find much that Savitri and Gianni Schicchi have in common. The former is an earnest setting of a legend from the ancient Indian epic poem, The Mahabharata, a text of primary importance to Hindu philosophy, while the Puccini romp traces its inspiration to a brief passage from The Inferno in Dante's Divine Comedy.

Both, however, are concerned with the triumph of love in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles, and with the cleverness that enables such true love to prevail. Both might also be termed comedies in that their trajectories follow the Aristotelian model moving from misfortune to happiness. And the two works premiered within two years of each other, the Holst in 1916 and the Puccini in 1918.

Maybe Savitri and Schicchi could become the new Cav and Pag after all?

The reason I mention my trip to the Shepherd School Opera's productions is because they are the first of a barrage of opera over the coming weekend here in Houston. There are also performances from Houston Grand Opera, and Opera in the Heights.

HGO's production of Berlioz's Beatrice and Benedict continues at the Wortham Center, while Opera in the Heights debuts "The Two Faces of Donizetti" this evening at Heights Church of Christ (1548 Heights Blvd), due to extensive repairs taking place after Hurricane Ike at Lambert Hall. Gaetano Donizetti's "two faces" are Act I of Lucia di Lammermoor, a tragedy, presented in concert form, and a fully-staged Don Pasquale, a comedy, in its entirety.

Where else in this country (New York City maybe?) do you get such operatic choice, and on such a regular basis? We are brimming over with opera companies here and I wonder if we realize how lucky we are?

There is, of course, H-town's world class company, Houston Grand Opera, one of a select number of companies that more than hold their own on the international stage. (Listen to the production preview of HGO's Beatrice and Benedict on The Front Row.)

Joining HGO is Opera in the Heights, now in its 12th season, which focuses on providing a stage for emerging young opera performers. (Listen to the production preview live segment of Don Pasquale on The Front Row.)

Both university music schools, the Shepherd and the Moores, boast strong opera departments. In addition to the Shepherd School Opera evening I attended last night, I recently got to enjoy the Moores Opera Center's staging of Offenbach's riotous Orpheus in the Underworld. (Listen to the live preview segment of the Moores Opera Center's Orpheus in the Underworld on The Front Row.)

Not to be forgotten is Houston Ebony Opera whose mission is to "sustain and expand the African American presence in voice-associated classical music." Its recent staged performance of excerpts from Gershwin's Porgy and Bess at Miller Outdoor Theatre in Hermann Park was a great evening of rich, black voices. (Listen to the production preview live segment on The Front Row.)

"Modern opera for modern times" is how Houston's Opera Vista describes itself. The small company recently put on Leonard Bernstein's Trouble in Tahiti under the stars at Bayou Bend. (Listen to the production preview live segment on The Front Row.)

Opera to Go! is the HGO department that takes opera into area schools providing short, English-language productions designed to introduce students to the wonders of opera. (Listen to the production preview live segment of Opera to Go!'s Strega Nona on The Front Row.)

Now, I understand that, for many, opera is an acquired taste, and I'm not trying to change those minds. I do, however, want Houstonians, and others farther afield, to be aware of the depth and breadth of this particular manifestation of musical theater here in Houston. It's remarkable. It's quality. It's a bellwether of the broader cultural life of the nation's 4th largest city because opera encompasses so many performance arts: music, singing, drama, dancing etc.

I still have to fit Beatrice and Benedict and "The Two Faces of Donizetti" into my calendar. Although I've got other events to attend, I'm not worried about getting to see these productions because (and I couldn't not say it now, could I?) the fat lady hasn't yet sung!

New Music, New Voices

2008-10-06T13:12:00.013-05:00

Chris: "So, what's your name?"
Nico: "Nico Muhly."
Chris: "What kind of music do you write?"
Nico: "Classical!"

I met Nico Muhly as he crawled into the back seat of my car. It was a Saturday night and I had gone to Jones to Hall to pick up my friend, pianist Chris Guzzman, from a concert. He was in town from New York for a solo-appearance with an orchestra in South Texas and wanted to see the Houston Symphony.

Chris didn't tell me that there where also three other colleagues of his in town. Violinist Caroline Pliszka was in town serving as the substitute concert master of the Houston Ballet Orchestra. There was an oboist, whose name I can't remember, here to audition for a position with the Houston Symphony.

Nico said he was in the midst of many composing projects, including one for the American Ballet Theatre, when he heard that a group of old friends from Julliard where all going to be Houston and decided it was time to take a break and clear his mind.

I remarked on his bright silver boots and we decided that one could easily be shot in some neighborhoods for wearing them.

We took a tour of the Montrose nightlife and agreed to meet for Brunch the next morning. Nico wanted to sample some down home southern cooking and we promptly ended up in midtown eating soul food. (I think he even ordered Chitterlings!)

We all said goodbye, Nico promised to send me a copy of his then newly released first CD and, I then ran home to google this delightful character who I had just met and see what kind of information I could find. He said he had a website with a blog. What he didn't tell me was that his name would also appeared under listings in the New Yorker, The New York Times, the Washington Post, and the websites of Carnegie Hall and NPR.

I was kind of impressed with the articles. It was clear to me that this sassy and eccentric person that I had just met was on the verge of a major career in classical music. What was more impressive was his music. I got his CD in the mail a couple of days later and was immediately struck by what I experienced. I had never heard anything like it. His vocabulary included everything I loved, from simple and almost naïve music for solo piano, to overdone vibrato on a violin, to electronics that reminded me of my many nights listening to electronica in the late 90's.

I immediately included his music on The Afternoon Concert (Weekdays, 1-3PM on 88.7FM). One of the things that this radio guy lives for is the opportunity to expose people to good classical music that they have never heard before. Initially this new music that I was so proud of went unnoticed. Then, pianist Rod Waters included one of Nico's works (Quiet Music) on a concert program he was creating and came and played it on The Front Row. That performance will soon be included on the The Front Row Reserved Vol.3.

Finally, you can enjoy some of Nico Muhly's music on tonight's Music at the Menil program being presented by the Houston Public Radio Chamber Ensemble. Timothy Hester will perform the Three Etudes for Solo Piano which includes the same piece that Rod performed earlier this year. Curiously, another work on the program is by a friend and former classmate of Nico's. String Quartet No.2 by Jefferson Friedman is a much more substantial work and is quite possibly the hardest thing that this violinist has ever had to perform in public. While the music of Jefferson Friedman and Nico Muhly couldn't be more different in vocabulary, it is obvious that they value expression and audience appeal in a way that is refreshing for classical music. Rest assured, these are two of the smartest and intelligent composers working and their music is anything but "dumbed-down." In fact, their music is influenced and informed by such an eclectic mix of sources that most listeners will not hear it all. What is impossible to escape is that their music is some of the very best being written today and, while their influences are many, you won't miss anything if you've never heard of Bjork, Fischerspooner or, for that matter, John Corigliano or John Adams.

Tales Out of Ike

2008-09-13T16:23:00.009-05:00

Holed up at the station as KUHF deals with Hurricane Ike and we work to get as much information about what's happening where out to our listeners, I've got some down time and want to put it to good use.

Ike has been my first experience of a hurricane, and obviously in such a situation our regular concerns get swept away with the first elevated winds of the storm. But now that the eye has passed us by and left its indelible mark, I can write a blog entry that has some cultural relevance.

It occurred to me as the winds reached hurricane force last night and prepared to make landfall at Galveston that about 10 years ago I read an excellent novel set against the backdrop of the infamous hurricane of 1900 that completely devastated the coastal city.

Galveston, Texas, was struck on September 8th, 1900, by a Category 4 storm that packed winds of 135 mph. Official reports state that 8,000 people lost their lives making the "Great Storm" (this was before authorities began assigning alphabetical names to tropical storms) the U.S.'s deadliest natural disaster to date.

At the end of the 19th century, Galveston was a boomtown with a population of 42,000. It was the biggest city in Texas, and it's trade center. The Great Storm put paid to Galveston's pre-eminence, and Houston grew to fill the void.

The hurricane significantly changed the course of Texas history.

Benjamin Taylor's debut novel, Tales Out of School (Grand Central Publishing, 1997) is set against the Great Storm and the havoc it wreaks on the Mehmel family. The year is 1907, and Felix Mehmel, whose father died in the hurricane, is coming of age in Galveston among the members of his German-Jewish family, a family that seems to be disintegrating.

Stuck as I am at the KUHF studios, I don't have my copy of Tales Out of School to hand to refresh my memory. However, the book was recently reprinted by Steerforth Press, and here's what the jacket says:

"The strange hothouse world of Galveston Island has been good to the Mehmels, German Jewish immigrants who prosper there in the late nineteenth century, and whose second generation is still flush when we meet them as the century turns. But destruction -- moral and natural, including the great hurricane that nearly destroyed the city -- is not far off, and for bookish, fourteen-year-old grandson Felix, last of the line, salvation lies in self-discovery. Pried away from his Ovid and Virgil, he is seduced by the rough, handsome bully who has always taunted him. And over the sultry summer of 1907, he asserts his independence, launching into manhood even as his family's morale, sanity, and fortunes wane. Erotic as it is exalted, defiantly comic as it is sad, Tales Out of School is a significant, enduring novel by a masterful writer poised to take his place at the forefront of contemporary American fiction."

Publishers Weekly described Tales Out of School as "elegant, lyrical and elegiac" while Library Journal said the novel "combines grand lyric musings with realistic social commentary."

As the Houston-Galveston area once more recovers from a severe storm, we can take some small comfort perhaps in knowing that such cataclysmic events can give rise to great art.

Adapting to Adaptations

2008-08-10T22:50:00.013-05:00

Adaptations have been on my mind this past week as I attended a movie and a play both of which were based on existing stories.

In the summer of 1981 I, like many of my fellow Britons, sat glued to the television at 9PM each Wednesday (maybe it was Tuesday, or maybe even Thursday, I can't remember the precise night), for what was to become one of the great events of English language television production: Brideshead Revisited, the Granada television adaptation of the 1945 Evelyn Waugh novel of the same name.

I became completely engrossed in the series, which ran for 11 weeks. That was the summer I had graduated high school and was preparing to leave home for university in September. I remember being gravely concerned that, once moved into my dorm room at university, in a dorm that was all-male, I would no longer be able to watch the series; I feared my fellow residents would scoff at the channel choice in the dorm's one TV room (this was in the days before students had TVs in their dorm rooms), and would demand one of the other 3 channels be selected, preferably the one showing sport.

My fears proved unfounded and I was able to watch the entire series without interruption. It was a magical experience. I was drawn into the story from the very beginning and eagerly anticipated each Wednesday evening so I could once again languish in this television thing of beauty.

I was absorbed by the narrative, the actors (Jeremy Irons, Anthony Andrews, Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud, Claire Bloom, Jane Asher, Charles Keating etc.), the locations (both fictional and real), and the music (composed by Geoffrey Burgon). I even went out and bought the LP record of the soundtrack and played it over and over.

In 2000, the British Film Institute compiled a list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes, based on votes by industry professionals. The Brideshead Revisited adaptation was 10th on the list.

Now, 27 years later, Brideshead Revisited has hit the silver screen in a movie version which opened in theaters across the country last week. Needless to say I was excited and eager to go and rekindle the obsession of a quarter century ago.

Over the years I have become one of those strange folk, someone whose life has revolved around literature, who will refuse to see a movie adaptation until I have first read the book. I want my own imagination to create the images in my mind of characters and places. I don't want a visual adaptation to do that for me. For this reason I have watched none of the Lord of the Rings films, nor any of the Harry Potter adaptations.

Last week I knew this time I needed to read Evelyn Waugh's novel before I could, in good conscience, go see Brideshead Revisited. So that's what I did.

The book was as enchanting as watching the series had been in 1981. Turning the pages, I was constantly reminded of details from the adaptation, and I was surprised at how much came flooding back to me more than 25 years later. (I knew Waugh would turn out to be a first rate novelist: one of his middle names was St.John!)

Having read the book, I went to see the movie.

Maybe I should have stayed home. I was so disappointed by what I saw!

Don't get me wrong; the acting, the costumes, the locations, the cinematography etc. were all excellent. What was not, IMHO, was the adaptation itself. At a certain point during the movie I began to wonder if the person who wrote the screenplay (Jeremy Brock, after Andrew Davies had abandoned the project in medias res) and I had read the same Evelyn Waugh novel.

I understand that adapting a 300-page novel to a 90-minute screenplay requires that cuts be made; events may be conflated, subplots eliminated, minor characters forgotten. But the Brideshead movie went too far beyond this, venturing into the realm of interpretation, or maybe that should be "reinterpretation."

Almost from the outset, the movie developed a theme that simply wasn't there in the novel: that Charles Ryder was in love with Julia Flyte, Sebastian's sister, from the first time he laid eyes on her. This compromised the nature of the relationship between Charles and Sebastian (as expressed in the book), a complex relationship which is at the very center of Waugh's novel.

According to the movie screenplay, Charles's love for Julia, and a non-textual kiss shared in Venice, causes Sebastian to abandon the family and flee to North Africa. Not, as Waugh wrote it, Sebastian's dire need to escape the constraints of his family, a family into which he felt Charles had been irrevocably drawn.

What the Brock "interpretation" fails to take into account is precisely the reason Charles is attracted to Julia at all; as Waugh specifies on at least two occasions, Charles is constantly reminded of how much Julia looks just like Sebastian. Once Sebastian has fled England, Julia becomes his surrogate. If Charles can't have him, he'll have his sister!

Brock is a fine writer. He provided the screenplays for such impressive movies as The Last King of Scotland and Mrs. Brown. But with this project, I fear, he overstepped the bounds of adaptation and put his big feet into the realm of interpretation.

Contrast this with the play I saw this past weekend.

Houston's Nova Arts Project is currently presenting its own adaptation of Euripides's tragedy The Bacchae in the Jose Quintero Theatre at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts at the University of Houston.

The production was "written, directed, choreographed & costume design" by Clinton Hopper, Nova's founding artistic director. I was surprised to see the designation "writer" attributed to Hopper in the program as I assumed the production was the Euripidean version.

But what I saw was an adaptation of the Greek tragedy; it is based on Euripides's play but is not a mere staging of it. Hopper has streamlined the action, the characters, the dramatic concerns, and in effect created a version of the original.

The tragedy remains, so too the choral effect, the sense of hubris, and that universal resignation Gloucester expresses in King Lear when he says "As flies to wanton boys are we to th' gods, they kill us for their sport."

Where Hopper and Brock differ is that the former hasn't messed with "intention." Hopper's adaptation is still The Bacchae we all know and love, if in slightly modified form. Brock, however, has allowed hubris to take over such that poor old Evelyn Waugh must be turning in his grave. I'm sure Euripides is resting peacefully.

I may complain because I feel as though someone has "tinkered" with something I treasure and in the process deformed it, but what lies beneath my querulous tone is the realization that any adaptation is also an act of interpretation.

Out of necessity, when adapting a work to another medium or another venue, there are choices to be made and those choices are made based on an interpretation, an understanding if you will, of what the work is about. That understanding may not coincide with my own, but (and in the case of Brideshead Revisited on the silver screen I say it begrudgingly!) it's as valid.

Some might even go so far as to say that any adaptation of a work becomes a new work in its own right. Perhaps that's the way to see Brock's Brideshead, a film based on an interpretation of Evelyn Waugh's novel of the same name?

Brideshead Revisited revisited?

Kevin Costner is Still Swingin'

2008-07-29T11:13:00.007-05:00

I interviewed baseball fan Kevin Costner in downtown Houston on July 15, the day of the All-Star Game. He's promoting his new movie, the political comedy Swing Vote, opening August 1st. As I was preparing for our meeting, I recalled that early in his career, he filmed a movie role that ended up on the cutting room floor, and it was probably the best thing that could have happened to him.

That was in 1983. The young actor was cast in the ensemble movie The Big Chill (he was Alex, the guy who commits suicide), but director Lawrence Kasdan cut all his scenes at the last minute, to pick up the movie's pace. He felt badly enough that he promised Costner a role in a future project. That became 1985's Silverado and was a breakout role for him.

Costner's movie-star status was cemented in 1987 when he starred as Eliot Ness in The Untouchables and in the thriller No Way Out. The next decade would bring him an almost-unprecedented string of major hits, including Bull Durham, Field of Dreams, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, JFK, and The Bodyguard. When Costner took on his first directing project in 1990, Dances With Wolves, it won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Costner took home two awards.

There would also be critical failures like Waterworld (or Waterlogged as it was quickly dubbed). Of course, no one can sustain the level of success Costner enjoyed. Even Spielberg has had flops. (Costner had developed, and was supposed to star in Air Force One, but when post-production on The Postman ran long, he handed the Air Force One project over to Harrison Ford, who had a major hit with it. Meanwhile, The Postman got slammed.)

Costner has been struggling for a box-office hit as he's entered middle age (he's 53 now), but with a Hollywood legacy in place, a healthy bank account assured, and Oscars on the mantel, he has the freedom to do what he wants at this stage in life. He's gone back to his musical roots and has been singing occasional gigs with his country/rock band, Modern West.

In Swing Vote, which Costner financed himself, Kelsey Grammer, the incumbent Republican president, is running for reelection against his Democratic opponent, Dennis Hopper. Through the magic of movie contrivances, Costner's character, a good-natured layabout living in a trailer in New Mexico, has to cast a vote which will decide the election. He also has a 12-year-old daughter who wears the pants in the house (or trailer), and tells him what to do. Costner does a few numbers with Modern West in the film.

The band's got a CD coming out in October, so Costner decided to do a publicity two-fer: he's on a 15-city tour promoting both the movie and the band. Houston was on the schedule, so I met with him at his downtown hotel. When I entered the room, I saw this tall, slender man with a very familiar voice talking to someone and signing baseballs. Dressed casually, with thinning hair and a scruffy goatee, he still has a charming smile, and a twinkle in his blue-green eyes.

After we were introduced, I explained that I hosted a show on soundtracks, and presented him with a copy of the two-part "Music From The Movies" show I had produced three years ago to mark his 50th birthday. They contained music from eight of his films. He seemed appreciative of the effort, and remarked that one of the things that's happened with a few of his movie themes is that they're frequently used in TV sports montages. I said yes, you can turn on ESPN and hear that Robin Hood fanfare!

We got to chat about the late composer Michael Kamen, who worked on Robin Hood and Open Range. Costner also had funny stories about working with John Barry on Dances With Wolves (after Basil Poledouris dropped out to score The Hunt for Red October). We also talked about the movie business in general, and I told him I liked his films because they had an adult sensibility. He thanked me and said that he felt his work still had a place, even in the midst of the summer blockbuster sequels. (He's never done a sequel himself; doesn't want to.)

I asked why he didn't bring his band with him, as I'd heard they were doing some gigs on the tour, but were bypassing us. We're not feeling the love, Kevin! He said it was just a time issue, he was taking a break so his parents can spend some time with their new grandson (he has a 14-month-old baby from his second marriage). He was heading up to South Dakota where he has a majority interest in a casino; much of his movie memorabilia is on display there. Then it's back to California where he has an oceanside spread in Santa Barbara. He also has a big ranch in Aspen. The movies have been good to him.

He promised me that he and Modern West would do a swing through Texas and play for us in the future. He has fond memories of shooting the golf scenes for Tin Cup at the Kingwood Country Club in 1996. He wasn't much of a golfer then, but he's a natural athlete and picked it up well enough to shoot his own scenes without a double. He plays once in a while on the celebrity circuit.

I wondered if the whole red carpet business was still exciting for Kevin. He said, well, it's not too thrilling any more ("I've had enough attention for a lifetime"), but he still enjoys his friends' and family's excitement when he has a new project coming out. He finished up by making some jokes about public radio ("Coming up next, music no one's ever heard") followed by compliments ("Thank God for it. You guys have been good to me").

My 15 minutes with fame were over. We never did talk baseball; it's probably just as well, 'cause who really wants to talk about the current state of the Astros? "You're a very knowledgeable person," Kevin remarked as we were getting ready to leave. "You came at it from interesting angles which I've never had before." Once again, I experienced the twinkly eyes and charming smile. That's all I could have hoped for.

Music Royalty Visit KUHF

2008-07-18T20:23:00.030-05:00

July 18, 2008

We were so pleased to have music "royalty" in our studios today, the descendants of the famous Trapp Family Singers! You may have fallen in love with the fictionalized depiction of Captain Georg and Maria von Trapp -- played by actors Christopher Plummer and Julie Andrews -- and their vocally-gifted family in 1965's Oscar-winning movie-musical, The Sound of Music. I was delighted to meet, and interview, that real-life couple's great-grandchildren, who have revived their family tradition of singing and performing together.

Known as The von Trapp Children, these talented and gracious teenaged singers are Justin, 13; Amanda, 16; Melanie, 18; and Sofia, 19. (Think "JAMS" to remember their names, as well as their music label, J.A.M.S. Media.)

Here are a few highlights, and never-before-heard bits, from our July 18th KUHF interview.

On Grandpa

Sofia: "Our grandfather, who was Werner von Trapp -- portrayed as "Kurt" in The Sound of Music, the youngest boy -- would visit us in Montana where we live, and that's actually how we started performing as a professional group...singing the songs that he used to teach us and making a CD of the songs and giving it to him, just to make him feel better because he had a stroke. And that was kind of the initiation of what we're doing now. That was about seven years ago."

On fashion
Justin: "About the dresses or 'dirndls,' as they're called, they're actually the family's original costumes...they were Maria's old dresses."
Melanie: "We wear them in our show, and the buttons on Sofia's dirndl are old Austrian coins...and they're over 100 years old. Yeah, [the dirndls] are special. We're very honored that they're still around, and that the material has lasted this long that we can still wear them."
Sofia: "And Justin's lederhosen...he just got a brand-new pair, because he keeps getting bigger...so he's just working them in."
Amanda: "This [Houston concert] will be the first show with his new [lederhosen]!"

On meeting Orlando Bloom
The girls giggle when I mention their group photo with the heart-throb actor (posted on their website), but quickly compose themselves. They are true professionals!

Sofia: "We were singing with the Boston Pops when we met him. It's amazing what doors have opened for us, through our family, and we're just very grateful for it."

On passing down the tradition to their own children
von Trapps: "Maybe."
Sofia: "It's funny, our parents, they aren't musically inclined at all..."
Amanda: "...it skipped a generation [laughs]..."
Sofia: "...so maybe it will skip another generation [everyone chuckles]."

On traveling
Melanie: "We're actually hoping to get a tour in China soon, and Singapore, and we might go back to Australia. Actually, recently all of us went to Africa, to Rwanda, and we learned their national anthem and sang that for the president there. And he gave Justin a cow! There are so many amazing things that we've been able to see, and to do, through this singing and traveling."

On singing as a family
Amanda: "I think, in a lot of musical groups, [families] have been able to have such better blend with each other because...I guess in a way they think alike [and] just have a better connection..."
Sofia: "...or the way we pronounce words is similar..."
Amanda: "...so you're able to make a blend that's a bit more as one."
Melanie: "The more we know each other, I think the easier it is."

On that tall guy in the middle of the photo
Trying to disguise himself as a "fifth" von Trapp family member, that's KUHF audio producer-extraodinaire, Todd Hulslander.

The von Trapp Children perform one-night-only with the Houston Symphony and Principal Pops conductor Michael Krajewski, this Saturday, July 19, 7:30pm at Jones Hall.

Many thanks to J.A.M.S. for hanging out at KUHF today, and for filling our Performance Studio with their laughter and beautiful voices!

Jackie Collins's Hollywood Glam

2008-07-09T16:06:00.023-05:00

"Icon," when referring to a person considered an enduring symbol, is perhaps one of those words we tend to throw about a little too liberally these days; it's an easy epithet to use to create a certain impression without it necessarily being strictly accurate. I want to use the word here after very careful consideration.

Jackie Collins is an icon of the glitz, glamour, sex and celebrity of Tinseltown. Her 26 novels, written over the last 40 years, and her movie and TV screenplays and miniseries, have firmly cemented her reputation as the pre-eminent chronicler of Hollywood.

Collins (pictured above with me in the studio) came by the KUHF studios yesterday to talk to me about her latest novel, Married Lovers, for The Front Row. If the number of colleagues in the building who came out of their offices to meet Jackie Collins as she came down the corridor is any measure of iconic status, then she certainly is an icon.

I have to admit that I had never read any of Collins's previous novels; her brand of fiction, of the more popular kind, is not what I'm used to reading. Preparing for the interview gave me the chance to dip my toe into a fictional pool whose waters have rarely run down my back.

You can listen to my interview with Jackie Collins by following the link elsewhere on this KUHF webpage. It aired on the show today, July 9, 2008.

Collins and I are both British born and raised and that common heritage helped cut through much of the initial ice and we were soon chatting freely as I set microphone levels etc. in the studio.

Despite having lived in the rarified atmosphere of Beverly Hills for more than 40 years, Collins is still very down-to-earth and open. Her conversation was free and interesting, and I could have talked to her all day. Obviously we didn't have that much time, but when the interview was over, Jackie (as she asked me to call her) invited me downstairs for a look at her tour bus on which she is traveling between cities.

The bus is one of those huge traveling behemoths emblazoned across every inch of its exterior with graphics of the Married Lovers cover and Collins's still-youthful smiling face. During the tour, Jackie showed me the luxurious bedroom, complete with flat-screen TV, DVD player etc., the galley, shower, bunk beds and couches, all of which were very impressive (nicer, and larger, than my humble apartment). She also informed me the bus used to belong to singer Mariah Carey (does that constitute a piece of celebrity gossip?).

The late film director Louis Malle once told Jackie she was a "raunchy moralist," and indeed the excesses of Tinseltown described in her books are looked at askance, even if there's a certain pleasure taken in describing them.

Before she left the studios, she insisted on taking a couple of photos of us with her own camera saying she'd post them to her website jackiecollins.com (pictured: TFR Producer Bob Stevenson, Jackie Collins, and myself as snapped by Jackie's camera in the hands of her assistant Melody). Today I received an email from Jackie thanking me for the interview. The photos her assistant snapped of us yesterday were attached.

An interesting book, an interesting woman, and an interesting encounter with a true icon.

Thank you Jackie for bringing a taste of Hollywood to KUHF!

Happy Birthday, Leroy Anderson!

2008-06-27T18:40:00.014-05:00

June 27, 2008

I'm a fan of Mr. Anderson. Born on June 29, 1908, this American master of light orchestral music would have turned 100 this Sunday.

I've always had a soft spot for pops and light music. Like others, including pianist Christopher O'Riley, I can't help but agree with the famous Duke Ellington sentiment that there are really only two types of music, good and bad. A well-crafted melody is one of the most wonderful things in life.

When growing up in the Chicago suburbs (before moving to Houston), I attended an arts magnet elementary school. Lucky for us kids, there were many school orchestras in which we could participate: Beginner's and Intermediate Levels, a Chamber Orchestra and even a Strolling Strings Orchestra!

Our conductor and teacher, Stanley Ackerman, had spent time as a musician on the West Coast -- in Hollywood, in fact -- and had returned to his hometown to teach. What I remember best about Mr. Ackerman is that, though he himself was a serious violinist, he loved to joke around and had great affection for popular and movie music. In addition to learning pieces by Vivaldi, Handel and Mozart, we played arrangements of Fiddler on the Roof, Disney songs, "Try to Remember" from The Fantasticks, the Theme from A Summer Place and others. I got to know those show tunes pretty well for a ten-year old. Later, he re-invented the school orchestra as "The Strolling Strings." We memorized our pops music, so that we could stroll leisurely through the audience while playing. (That is, the violins and violas would stroll; cellos and basses would remain seated/standing, while Mr. Ackerman continued to conduct and somehow keep us all together.) We had "gigs," like performing at teacher's banquets. It seems a little wacky now to imagine myself as a strolling violinist, but it was one of the funnest times in my "musical career"! I learned to appreciate all types of musical expression.

Back to Leroy Anderson. "It's concert music with a pops quality," he said of his own repertoire. The New England Conservatory-trained and Harvard-educated composer made it look easy to invent perfect orchestral miniatures. Each of his 3 to 4-minute morsels bursts with spirit, imagination and clever sounds.

A runaway typewriter becomes a percussion instrument in The Typewriter. Three different strengths of sandpaper (coarse, medium and fine) are used to create various effects in The Sandpaper Ballet, evoking softshoe dance. And wood blocks used to describe the horse's gallop in Sleigh Ride also symbolize the tick-tock of time in Syncopated Clock. How can this not make you smile?

These "songs without words" combine beauty and irresistible catchiness with an element of the everyday. And the stories behind some of the pieces are so relatable. Though we think of Sleigh Ride as a Christmas piece, the story goes that Anderson started the melody during a heat wave in August 1946 (maybe to cool down by writing about a wintry escapade?).

Another one of his signature pieces, and a personal favorite, is Trumpeter's Lullaby -- an oxymoron of a title! He wrote it in 1949 for Roger Voisin, principal trumpeter of the Boston Pops Orchestra, who challenged Anderson to write something other than the customary trumpet fanfare or other triumphant, military-like solos. If you never thought a trumpet could sound tender and gentle, just listen to this piece.

I've mentioned just a few beloved examples of his music, and there are of course many more. Anderson also composed a delightful Piano Concerto in C, rarely performed. The Houston Symphony and its pianist, Scott Holshouser, played it just a week ago at Miller Outdoor Theatre. Associate Conductor Robert Franz shared his love for Anderson's concerto recently on "The Front Row." If you missed it, please check out his great interview with Bob Stevenson on June 19.

Leroy Anderson passed away on May 18, 1975. But let's salute him in spirit on this 100th anniversary of his birth, and say "thanks" for the music!

Searching For Debra Winger

2008-06-16T15:52:00.008-05:00

I had the pleasure of interviewing actress Debra Winger on June 12, twice! First for KUHF's The Front Row, then later that night in front of a live audience at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. It's been quite a year for me; in over 30 years of broadcasting, I've interviewed relatively few people, perhaps two dozen. One was with Star Wars composer John Williams, more than 20 years ago; that was a real thrill, that I thought couldn't be topped! Little did I know...in March of this year I scored an exclusive one-on-one interview with Robert Redford for The Front Row. Then I was asked to host an evening with Debra, Redford's Legal Eagles co-star. The event was to be along the lines of the Inside the Actor's Studio cable show. The two of us would chat, she would read passages from her new book, take questions from the audience, and then sign books and meet the public at a reception afterwards. My problem: I'd never interviewed anyone in front of an audience! I was nervous.

Debra's just written a memoir (well, it's really a series of personal essays) called Undiscovered. She lives in the New York area now, and Houston was the first out-of-town stop on her nationwide publicity tour. If you're still trying to place her, she was one of the most popular young actresses of the 1980s. Her hit films included Terms of Endearment with Shirley MacLaine and Jack Nicholson, Urban Cowboy with John Travolta (both filmed in Houston), and An Officer and a Gentleman with Richard Gere. She was just 24 in 1979 when she showed up in Houston, having paid her own way, to audition for Urban Cowboy. The original leading lady, Sissy Spacek, left the project, and Debra landed the role opposite Travolta, who was white-hot thanks to the one-two punch of Saturday Night Fever and Grease.

Debra was wholly unprepared for the media glare that followed, and how rough show business can be, even if you've "made it." She married actor Timothy Hutton, had a son, then divorced; she is remarried now for 12 years to actor/director Arliss Howard, with whom she has a second son, and raised Howard's son from his first marriage. Meanwhile, her career went from an early-80s high to "whatever happened to..." Fellow actress Rosanna Arquette filmed a documentary in 2002 featuring women in Hollywood over 40, and called it Searching for Debra Winger. You shouldn't have to search for someone who's earned three Oscar nominations for Best Actress, but Debra, now 53, still has to answer the same questions: "Where have you been?" and "Did you retire?"

Three days before Debra was due here, I watched her navigate the stormy waters of "The View." That's Barbara Walters' morning TV screamfest which guarantees that on any given weekday, you'll be able to watch at least four women talking over each other (five if Barbara's there). I thought, "Well, whatever experience Ms. Winger has while she's here, at least it won't be that." I wasn't able to get Robert Redford to come to the KUHF studios for our interview; I had to go to his hotel. ("Ahem. Mr. Redford doesn't go to the media. The media goes to Mr. Redford.")

Debra, though, agreed to visit with us at KUHF; I looked at it as a warm-up to the evening's events. She showed up 20 minutes early and was ready to go: no entourage, no "people," just genuinely nice and down-to-earth. She's just a "chick," and I mean that as a compliment. During the interview she remarked, "You're not asking me any 'dirt' questions! I must be on public radio." I told her I didn't have to ask the "gossipy" questions, as the audience would take care of that during the night's Q&A. After we were done, I told her about talking with "Bob" and asked what her memories were of Legal Eagles. She said it was amusing for the cast and crew to observe the reverence with which big-star Redford was treated, and so they would refer to him as "Just Plain Bob." ("We're waiting for 'Just Plain Bob' - he should be on set in 5 minutes.") I also asked if she were doing any other press during her one day in Houston. "No, Regina, you've got the exclusive!" Wow! Two in a row.

That night at the Museum I found a (relatively) quiet space and looked over my notes. Debra had asked me to pick the book passages for her to read. In other words, I was really in charge. I got more nervous. I wanted her to read one passage about her children, one about her mother (now deceased), and one having to do with her career. I thought that would show the audience what the book was about, because it wasn't the typical "show-biz bio," about my terrible childhood, the co-stars I hated, the lovers I've had, blah blah blah.

Finally it was time to start. We went out onstage, saw the full house and people applauding and smiling. I felt a little better. Debra was handed a huge, beautiful bouquet of flowers. Deciding to set the tone, I placed one hand on my hip and remarked, "So where's mine?" I got the hoped-for laugh, Debra handed me a flower from her bouquet, we sat down and things went well from there. She and I shared a moment when I told her that we were about the same age, and had lost our mothers at around the same time. There was another moment, the most emotional for her, after she read a passage from her book called "Penn Station" at my request. It deals with a time when she was in the bustling train station and thought she had lost her then-11-year-old son. She thought she was ready to deal publicly with some of the very personal memories recounted in the book, but "You caught me, Regina." She also shared memories of Urban Cowboy, Black Widow, and some of her other films.

As I anticipated, during the Q&A, someone did ask her about Shirley MacLaine, who had played her mother in Terms of Endearment. The longtime rumors had them fighting on set. Debra said that any disagreements had been blown way out of proportion, it was all a long time ago, and she's seen Ms. MacLaine since then and they get along just fine ("at least in this lifetime"). Her major concern right now is paying for tuition for her two oldest sons, who are both in college. "Aha!" I said. "That's why you've written the book!" She told us that she never "retired," and in fact just finished filming a role in Rachel's Getting Married, due this fall. It co-stars Anne Hathaway and was directed by Jonathan Demme (The Silence of the Lambs). At the reception Debra signed tons of books and chatted with all who approached her. Everyone had a great time, and I'm forever grateful to Debra Winger for making the experience such an enjoyable one for me.

Who were the YBAs?

2008-06-13T21:02:00.019-05:00

The newest exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston is END GAME: British Contemporary Art from the Chaney Family Collection, opening this Saturday, June 14, and today I was pleased to get an advanced tour, as part of the Museum's media preview.

The artworks represent the generation of Young British Artists, or YBAs, of the 1990s, who introduced new ways of thinking about art. The influential and revolutionary group of painters, sculptors, video artists and photographers include most famously Damien Hirst (b. 1965), whose earlier iconic and controversial work, "The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living" (1991), featured a tiger shark suspended in formaldehyde and encased in glass.

The exhibit's title piece is indeed Hirst's 2004 work, "End Game," a large steel and glass case that encloses two human skeletons, with shelves of meticulously arranged medical instruments. On display in the Museum's lower level, the work is an entryway into themes such as life and death, science and technology, and the use of non-"high art" materials that mark the work of other YBAs.

The majority of the 21 pieces in this intimate exhibit are on display in the Caroline Wiess Law Building. In a single gallery, the works are within view of one another, inviting you to discover interesting juxtapositions. In one corner is Hirst's "Sacred IX" -- an actual heart, stabbed straight through by a medieval dagger, and mystically preserved in formaldehyde, as if floating in air. Around the corner is another heart, also pierced by a dagger (or is it shot through by an arrow?). This one is a huge, sparkly, almost delectable, light sculpture -- "Toxic Schizophrenia" by Tim Noble (b. 1966) and Sue Webster (b. 1967) -- which references tattoos and flashing night club signs, magical in a completely different way.

As MFAH Director, Dr. Peter Marzio, reminded us this afternoon, virtually anything that is hanging or standing in the museum was originally contemporary art. What made it survive?

"What, within this concept of masterworks, makes it important? What makes it significant? And can you take those criteria and apply them to the contemporary world to help you penetrate the hype and the commercialism ... to get to the heartbeat of what the work of art is about? And I think that's one of the great things about contemporary art in the encyclopedic museum. I love the idea very much that you have [artwork by] Damien Hirst hanging in the same building with Rembrandt ... how contemporary art can bring the snap of everyday back into the older things that you can perhaps look at in a different way now, once you've seen how exciting this fresh material can be for you."

Perhaps END GAME will introduce contemporary artists new to you, change the way you look at artists past, or both.

END GAME: British Contemporary Art from the Chaney Family Collection is on view June 14 through September 28, 2008 at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston.

Please stay tuned for more from curator Alison de Lima Greene on "The Front Row"!

Is Classical Music Alive and Well on Public Radio?

2008-06-04T13:48:00.005-05:00

Several weeks ago KUHF was invited to take part in a day-long meeting at WNYC in New York along with other national and major-market public radio colleagues to discuss the role of classical music radio in the 21st century.

As KUHF is the only classical music station in the nation's 6th largest radio market, our input was eagerly solicited and we were glad to give it. It fell to me as KUHF's Director of Cultural Programming to make the trek to New York and add our views to the national debate.

Represented around the table in WNYC's brand new (not yet inhabited and very impressive) facility were large classical music stations such as WABE in Atlanta, KBAQ in Pheonix, WGUC in Cincinnati, and WETA in D.C., as well as national organizations such as the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and American Public Media (the production and distribution arm of Minnesota Public Radio, responsible for such programs as SymphonyCast, Performance Today and Classical 24, the 24/7 classical music programming channel).

CPB is funding this initiative and April's forum was a second in a series designed to help public radio brainstorm, examine, and challenge ideas and approaches to building, strengthening and sustaining a classical music audience in the 21st century.

One thing that became apparent in the course of the discussion is that not all classical music stations are the same! Sounds obvious doesn't it? Well, what I mean is that there are stations, such as KUHF, that might be termed "dual format," i.e. presenting a programming mix of news/talk and classical music; and then there are stations that have little or no news/talk content focusing instead almost exclusively on classical music programming.

The needs and challenges of these different kinds of stations are not necessarily the same when it comes to ensuring an on-going audience for classical music.

In the spirit of collegiality (and survival?) everyone had been asked to bring with them some sort of show-and-tell element from their station or network, a programming innovation of which they were particularly proud, or which represented a new direction for them: a representative playlist perhaps, or a short sound sample.

Before leaving for NYC I thought about what I could say to this august group about KUHF that might make an impression and give them ideas for their own outfits. I have to say that I really didn't have to think that much before hitting on what I considered the perfect show-and-tell topic: the KUHF Chamber Ensemble.

I took copies of Reflections, the ensemble's 2005 release on KUHF's own label, to give to the various participants in New York. The CD includes two flute quartets by Franz Krommer and a Beethoven string trio.

My rationale was not crass self-promotion (although I'm sure that was an "unintended" consequence!), but rather to show KUHF's full commitment to the presentation of classical music.

One of the things I learned early on about KUHF is that it doesn't just play great classical music over the airwaves. Its presentation of this music forms a continuum; the music is broadcast over 88.7FM (both from CD and live on The Front Row), streamed online at KUHF.org, and is performed before audiences in Houston as well as recorded onto CD for even wider presentation.

This "presentational continuum" is something I believe makes KUHF special in the public radio world. There were a lot of very surprised faces when I gave each person around the table a copy of Reflections and explained that we had our own chamber ensemble which gave public performances and recorded CDs. I know of no other station in the country that has such an outreach tool.

Here at KUHF our commitment to classical music is complete. We make it available, or accessible if you will, in as many ways as possible. We share with our audiences not just the sound, but also the live experience of great music. And this is music that often comes from within the Houston community: music by and for Houstonians. I believe KUHF had good ideas about how to strengthen the audience for classical music to share with our colleagues around the country. And listeners to the station should take comfort in knowing that our love of this music is strong and multifaceted.

Public radio is not resting on its laurels or taking its classical music audience for granted. The debate about the nature of what we do is ongoing and productive. KUHF is part of that debate and engaged in ensuring future lovers of classical music in Houston and beyond.

And to briefly return to my mention of "crass self-promotion," a couple of stations emailed me after the trip to New York to say they were programming the KUHF Chamber Ensemble CD on their stations!

Meet poet Larry D. Thomas

2008-05-30T15:01:00.015-05:00

2008 Texas Poet Laureate Larry D. Thomas is a gentle soul and a wonderful writer, whose poems capture the intimacy of song and the solitude of painting. We met last November when he stopped by for his first KUHF interview, and bonded through our mutual love of poetry, classical music and visual art (both being fans of Edward Hopper, in fact). It was an honor to have him back on "The Front Row" this week, and to have him read from his latest New and Selected Poems (TCU Press).

Born and raised in West Texas, with a degree in English from the University of Houston, Mr. Thomas began writing poetry seriously in the early 1970's while serving in the U.S. Navy. One evening during a brilliant sunset, as birds -- by the thousands, it seemed -- flew in to roost, he felt compelled to write a poem and never stopped.

In his words, "poetry is essentially the artistic use of language." His inspiration comes from sources ranging from the light that pervades West Texas and the vegetation and shade of East Texas to Bach and Georgia O'Keefe. "Music has been a soulmate my entire adult life," he says. And ever since he truly discovered the music of Beethoven in his 20's, listening to Beethoven while writing has been part of his process.

With a love of color and a visual style, Mr. Thomas also jokes that if he had better eye-hand coordination, he'd be a painter. Indeed, with words he paints images as vivid as "the Saint Louis Cathedral / sticking its spires into night sky / like pins in a doll of voodoo" and "the giant python / of the Mississippi, triumphant, tumescent / and shining from its meal of mice and men" (from his new poem, "French Quarter"). Another one of my favorite new poems of his is "The Dragonfly," in which he spins a flowing Petrarchan sonnet from the simple discovery of a dragonfly, expired and suspended in time. He compares its small, irridescent wings to painted eyelids.

Since retiring in 1998 from a 31-year career in social service and criminal justice, Mr. Thomas has been a full-time poet, producing his first book in 2001. Now, seven years later, he has nine published collections!

This Saturday, May 31, from 1 - 5 pm, Larry D. Thomas autographs copies of his latest and ninth book, New and Selected Poems, at Barnes & Noble, 5000 Westheimer at Post Oak, across the street from The Galleria.

I hope you'll stop by to visit, whether to browse his new book, to chat and congratulate him on his position as 2008 Texas Poet Laureate, or to hear him read, as Barnes & Noble plans to broadcast him reading his poems throughout the store. His calm, resonant voice brings each poem to life.

http://www.larrydthomas.com/

Entrepreneurship in Classical Music, or Welcome Project Divisi

2008-05-29T16:43:00.006-05:00

Entrepreneurship in the arts is something that has been on my mind recently. It's not a subject that is frequently discussed outside of the upper echelons of the arts world.

It's also not a subject that is typically covered in music schools or conservatories. After all, artistry and performing technique are, without question, the foundation for any artist but, what next?

When I first moved to Houston it was to study violin at the University of Houston and I remember thinking that the only thing that mattered was what teacher I studied with. Was he a match for my personality? Would he be a tyrant? Would he give me the tools necessary to succeed in music? I came specifically because of my teacher, Andrzej Grabiec and my thinking was (and what was traditional thought for many classical musicians) if I practiced hard and long enough that the concert promoters, presenters and personnel mangers would come to me.

Not true. It's obvious isn't it? Today, many artists and musicians who are working in the proverbial trenches realize that, in order to make a living, to be heard and to bring classical music into the 21st century, they must take on promoting themselves and their art form. Some purists might hear what I am referring to here as blasphemy, selling out to commercialism, or, worse, dumbing down the art form. I invite you to reconsider.

Others reading this, perhaps those who are not steeped in classical tradition, may be wondering what the issue is. It's obvious isn't it? In today's global and media enriched society, if you want your voice to be heard then you have to make yourself heard.

Classical musicians are starting to take this view on and the Houston arts community is benefiting from it. Everywhere there are new organizations coming. New Theatre companies. New opera companies. New art galleries. And, there are also new orchestras, classical ensembles and presenters.

Most recently, Project Divisi, the latest addition to Houston's classical music community, had its introductory concert and fundraising event at The Tasting Room in Uptown Park. The organization is spearheaded by two bright, young and very aggressive violinists who are building their entrepreneurial skills on the job. After founding Divisi Strings LLC, Shelli Matthews and Tony Sanville have added to their professional repertoire Project Divisi, a non-profit string orchestra made up of some of Houston's best and brightest young musicians. Matthews and Sanville took a back seat in the orchestra as performers; both appearing in the middle or back of the violin section but, their entrepreneurial virtuosity highlighted the evening.

However, they aren't the only ones out to contribute to Houston's arts community in recent seasons. Over the past couple of years we have seen the appearance of several organizations. Most notably, the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra continues to delight Houston audiences with its programming, artistry and unique approach to concert presentation and programming. Additionally, Houston's newest music presenters range from the Houston Chamber Orchestra and Aperio: Music of the Americas to Opera Vista and the Lone Lyric Theatre Festival. This Saturday will see this week's second organizational debut as the Apollo Chamber Players (not to be confused with the group by the same name in London!) perform their inaugural concert.

Now, just because an organization emerges does not mean that its continued presence in the community is guaranteed. Just as new organizations appear, they can disappear as well. No less than three organizations have had to cancel performances this year do to lack of funding or support. The Houston Chamber Orchestra, the Maggini String Orchestra and Opera Vista have all had to cancel events in recent months.

So why does one group succeed and another fail? There are many ingredients to making a successful performing arts organization. I have been quoted as saying that it is no longer enough to be a great and talented performer. A performer or ensemble must have a distinct mission or something unique it will bring to the community. It must be well organized and have the support of community leaders, businesses and philanthropists. Programming for and with an audience in mind is a primary concern.

And, finally, there must be an equal force of artistic and executive leadership checking and balancing each other. So often great artists do not make it because of their lack of business acumen while, those who are talented in the areas of fundraising and management can miss out on artistic opportunity.

So, while there may still only be one way to get to Carnegie Hall there is much room to spare and, many ways to navigate through, Houston's diverse and vibrant arts scene. Welcome Project Divisi. Welcome Apollo Chamber Players. I'm sure we'll see you soon here on The Front Row.

Eine Kleine Tagmusik?

2008-04-04T16:14:00.005-05:00

I experienced one of the many aspects of my new position here at KUHF Wednesday. As well as serving as host and executive producer of The Front Row I also get to host various arts events around town, and the first of those was earlier this week.

Each month, Da Camera of Houston holds a lunchtime event it calls "A Little Day Music," and invites whoever may be interested to stop by the Wortham Center downtown for a free concert. The series is designed to appeal to a broad range of folks and hopes to catch them during the lunch hour.

Wednesday's concert featured the Houston High School for the Performing and Visual Arts (HSPVA) Big Band. It was the first time the band had played for the Da Camera series, and they debuted in grand style.

Under the direction of Walter Sneed, Director of Jazz Studies at HSPVA, the young men and women in the band showed remarkable talent as they worked their way through standards, such as a very creative arrangement of "Moon River," and onto some jazz rock-influenced pieces, ending with a Latin jazz number.

In true big band fashion, each arrangement featured various soloists from the band who rose to perform their improvised solos, taking their seats again to applause when they were finished. Whether they were saxophonists, pianists, guitarists, trombonists, or drummers, the quality of their playing was very high. You could close your eyes and believe to listening to Glenn Miller or Count Basie.

Afterwards I spoke to a couple of the band members who told me they had both been accepted to the conservatory at The New School in New York to pursue their jazz studies. Each had been to NYC to audition for the program and they are now anxiously waiting to find out if the school will offer them scholarship money.

It was a very pleasing experience to come across two young people who love music and want to pursue it as a career. These guys were both passionate in their playing (they are both pianists) and in their desire to get into the best school they can. Obviously for two young jazz players, the prospect of continuing their education in NYC is something that has them chomping at the bit.

The big band that played before a large audience at the "A Little Day Music" concert was only one of several jazz ensembles at HSPVA. I know that the school was one of the first of its kind in the country and apparently provided much of the inspiration, through Houstonian Debbie Allen, for the performing arts high school in the 1980s TV series "Fame." To this day, HSPVA remains one of the cultural gems of Houston.

If you should ever get the opportunity to see any of the HSPVA jazz ensembles perform, I would definitely do so. These teenagers aren't playing at being jazz musicians, they are jazz musicians, and it sounds like they're getting a grade-one music education in a fine magnet school right here in the Bayou City.

One more reason to rejoice!

Btw, the next Da Camera "A Little Day Music" concert is Wednesday, May 7 at noon in the grand lobby of the Wortham Center downtown. The music will be provided by the Fischer Duo, a husband and wife piano/cello duo. Both players serve on the faculty of the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University.

So, bring your lunch and come enjoy a lunchtime (did I say "free"?) concert. I'll be there as host again and look forward to meeting you.

Mark O'Connor in the Bayou City

2008-04-01T16:15:00.019-05:00

I can't remember where I was or what I was doing when I first heard the solo work of the great performer, composer, and now teacher Mark O'Connor [pictured left with me] but, I'll never forget the impact it had on me. I was, no doubt, driving near my home in North Carolina listening to his CD Appalachia Waltz.

Growing up as a lover of classical music living at the foot of the Appalachian mountains, it was hard to avoid the influence of musicians like Earl Scruggs, Mike Cross and Doc Watson. I even had the opportunity to visit the fiddler's convention in Galax, VA. As it turns out, Mark O'Connor had also passed through Galax on at least one occasion as a young up-and-coming fiddler.

Years later, after having conquered Nashville, he was now launching his solo career and, for the first time, I found myself listening to music that was not only striking in it's beauty but, disarming in the way it was expressed something that seemed to be on the tip of my tongue, even though I couldn't think of the right words or notes to express it. For me, it was the collision of two worlds that I had previously felt compelled to keep separate. It was my permission to be in love with Bach AND Bluegrass and to stop apologizing for my "primitive" musical roots.

As Mark expressed in his interview with me, "people didn't know what to do with me". Initially, he wasn't accepted by folk musicians or classical musicians.

These days things are a bit different. He is in Houston this week for a series of performances. He gives a recital and a workshop at Rice University's Shepherd School of Music and is featured on the inaugural concert for the new Houston Chamber Music Society.

I can't speak for contemporary folk musicians but, based on his experience in Houston it would seem that the classical world is now fully embracing this new American classical music. Rice University is considered to have one of the top classical/orchestral training programs in the country, and it was none other than Cho Liang Lin who invited O'Connor to offer his unique and inspired music for a room full of students, professors and audience members who would look more at home at a Houston Friends of Music program.

Sony Classical has just released a 2-CD set called "The Essential Mark O'Connor". The Eroica Trio will soon release their recording of O'Connor's piano trio inspired by the music of Johny Cash. He will tour several classical music festivals this summer with an ensemble including Ida Kavafian and Matt Haimovitz. He says they will play two of his string quartets which sound like "Bartok in Kentucky". It would seem that there is no end to the expressive opportunities available to this icon of American music.

It should be no surprise that this son of all things American came to the studio by himself, in a rental equipped with a GPS system (as opposed to an an assistant!). We chatted on the long walk back to the studio where we then sat and recorded a thirty-minute conversation. After the interview we continued talking as we walked back through the building, as we arranged for photographs, as people came by and introduced themselves. I chuckled to myself when looked down and noticed his flip-flops. We talked about music, record companies, artists, past encounters, future projects. . .everything you could imagine. I finally had to stop myself so that I could get to work editing the interview for the afternoon broadcast.

In the four years we have been producing The Front Row I have encountered a number of remarkable, revered musicians but, none as humble, personable and as easy to be with as Mark. One of the upcoming projects he is particularly excited about is his Americana Symphony. You can find a video of it at http://www.markoconnor.com/. Check the TFR Archives for a link to the full 30 minute conversation.

Witty Drama

2008-04-01T11:11:00.006-05:00

"What did you do this weekend, St.John?"

"I went to the theater to see a play about a woman dying of cancer. You?"

Living in Atlanta in 1999 I was well aware of the fact that that year's Pulitzer Prize for drama was awarded to Margaret Edson, an Atlantan, for her play Wit. It was a rare award, made to a novice playwright, a kindergarten teacher for whom drama was almost a pure avocation.

Since the stunning success of Wit, Edson has written nothing else, and apparently has no intention of doing so. She continues to teach kindergarten in Atlanta having resisted whatever pressure there may have been to move to New York and set up shop as a professional playwright. Presumably she is content with her life the way it is and something within her has been deeply satisfied by writing a successful play.

More power to her!

Although, as a former Atlantan, I am well aware of Edson's unusual professional path and of the success of Wit on both stage and screen, I had never seen the play until this past weekend (mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa!).

The Texas Repertory Theatre Company has just premiered its production of Wit and TFR producer Bob Stevenson asked if I was interested in seeing the play and interviewing the lead actor and director. I knew this was my opportunity to right a personal and cultural wrong and so enthusiastically accepted the assignment.

I of course knew what to expect in terms of subject matter. I also knew that, having won the Pulitzer, the play would be of a certain quality, but I had no idea as to what its emotional impact would be.

Without giving anything away, let me tell you that it's hardly a "happy! happy!" piece. It concerns Dr. Vivian Bearing, a professor of English 17th-century poetry and a scholar of John Donne's Holy Sonnets, who at the age of 48 discovers that she has stage 4 metastatic ovarian cancer.

Vivian is someone who has devoted her life to the textual study of English 17th-century Metaphysical poet John Donne, one time Dean of St. Paul's Cathedral. Her particular sphere of expertise is his Holy Sonnets ("Death be not proud..." and "Batter my heart, three-personed God..." etc.). Now though, with a diagnosis that prompts only an experimental treatment, the sacrifices Vivian has made in her life take on significance heretofore unconsidered.

Vivian has lived through the disciplines of her work and her life is focused on concepts such as "irony" and "paradox," good English professor concerns, rather than on family and friends. Once Vivian begins to undergo an aggressive and protracted regimen of chemotherapy, irony and paradox take on new meanings for her.

It is ironic that the person who cares for her the most, the hospital nurse, is the one who has never taken a single course in poetry. And paradoxically, a woman who has devoted her life to explaining the textual complexities of John Donne now comes face to face for the first time with the theological complexities he grappled with as she herself becomes a text to be studied but not understood when the her doctors recommend she undergo an experimental course of treatment. (Notice my careful use of the subjunctive mood! Dr. Bearing would be proud!)

Wit is a powerful play powerfully written. There's no doubt about its Pulitzer-worthiness. Furthermore, the Texas Repertory Theatre Company's production is, IMHO, strong, in large part due to the tremendous presence of Pamela Vogel, who plays Vivian with a superb understanding of the transformation the character undergoes throughout the course of her treatment, which is also specifically presented as the play we are invited to watch.

Although not technically a one-woman play, Wit is as close to it as a play with other characters can be. Vogel carries the production on broad, strong shoulders, even as her character's body wastes away as the cancer metastasizes to her bones and lymphatic system.

Wit is not for the faint of heart, nor is this production suitable for young children, but the issues it presents and the artistry with which they are presented make it a play not to be missed.

The Pulitzer Prizes are awarded to works of phenomenal quality, comma, that's why this play won one, period. The Texas Repertory Theatre Company's production will show you why, period.

Tune in for my interview with Pamela Vogel (Vivian Bearing) and Julia Traber, director of Wit, next week on The Front Row.

Meeting Robert Redford

2008-03-28T15:37:00.008-05:00

I grew up in New York City, and I also spent a couple of years living in Los Angeles (Venice Beach, in particular). Anyone who lives in either city is used to seeing movie stars and celebrities around town. It's easier to do in New York, because it's a walking city, and you just have more personal encounters with people in general. (L.A. has a different vibe. It's considered not cool to acknowledge that a celebrity is sitting at the next table to you in a restaurant; gushing is only done by the tourists.)

So I've seen or met a lot of famous folks, but it was a particular thrill to meet and interview Robert Redford on Thursday. I've had a 40-year-long crush on him. I've been enjoying his movies ever since 1967 and "Barefoot in the Park" through "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," "The Sting," "The Way We Were," "The Hot Rock," "Three Days of the Condor," and even "Legal Eagles" where he convincingly plays a klutz with insomnia who likes to tap-dance when he can't sleep. When he turned his talents to directing in 1980, he won the Oscar for his first effort, "Ordinary People." He's also directed such fine films as "Quiz Show" and "A River Runs Through It."

A documentary his Sundance Center had commissioned, "Fighting Goliath: Texas Coal Wars," was having its Texas premiere Thursday night, and he was making his first Houston visit ever to introduce the film and participate in a panel discussion afterwards with Mayor Bill White and other dignitaries. I had the distinction of having been granted the only one-on-one interview with Redford while he was in town. My time with him was after his working lunch and before a scheduled press conference where he would meet the rest of the media.

Brad Sayles, KUHF's Senior Recording Engineer, agreed to handle the taping. So he and I (mostly he) hauled audio equipment to the designated downtown hotel where The Sundance Kid, no kid any more at 71 years old, would be waiting for us. I waited for Brad on the street while he parked the car, and watched a FedEx van run a red light, slam into a pickup truck and take off most of the pickup's left front end. (Fortunately neither driver was hurt; both pulled over and talked on their cell phones before they talked to each other.) I was hoping that it wasn't a bad sign.

Inside the hotel, the room where we were to set up was very small, freezing cold, and strewn with the remains of some group's breakfast. I cleared off the table and put everything on the sideboard. Fortunately a waiter came soon after, and cleaned up, then brought us water and cookies. I ascertained that R. Redford was in a room next door having his lunch with a group of other folks.

Then Eric Mayer from the Susman Godfrey law firm, who was also participating in the interview, came in and I was talking to him while looking down at my notes, and so didn't even notice when RR entered the room. "Hi, how are you." Well, at least he didn't see me clearing tables.

I ask if I can call him Bob. "Of cooouuurse" he says. His first name is really Charles (the dominant male name in my family, by coincidence), but he's always gone by his middle name. He looks awfully good for a "mature" individual, even up close. Still maintains the mop of blonde hair, accented by grey at the temples. Lovely blue eyes, great smile, wonderful presence and engaging personality when he turns it on. He's really a star, he knows it, but doesn't seem to be a jerk about it. Before we roll tape I announce to the room, "Please silence your cell phones and other ringing devices." Redford laughs, pulls out his phone and checks it, then says, "No one ever calls me, and when someone did once, I was on stage."

We tape for about 15 minutes, and he's pretty serious, focused, and on topic. Then as soon as we're off mike, he's relaxed and chatty. He asks me about my show "Music From The Movies" (he actually looked at my business card) and I give him a 2-CD set that I'd made up a couple of days ago. It had musical selections from a number of his films. He seemed to appreciate it, and started talking about how he'd spent 3 or 4 months filming "The Great Waldo Pepper" (my first selection on the CD) in Texas back in the early 70s. He mentioned that his mother's side of the family are longtime Texans: five generations in fact. As a boy he would spend summers in Austin and San Marcos. His grandfather built one of the first houses on Lake Travis.

I told Bob that KUHF was in the first day of its spring pledge drive, and would he mind taping a testimonial (which I had written mere moments before). He asks me where I'm from, then starts talking about New York and how he'd gone there from California in the early 1950s to study art, but gave it up because he was "on the bum" as he put it; then he turned to acting and stayed broke, at least for a while until he started getting some parts on live television. Then he was slightly less broke. I'm guessing he's not broke now.

He was great about everything. Brad, who had brought his camera, took some pictures while we were talking.

Redford's gabbing away (no prompting from me), and just as he was warming to the subject of his movies, one of his minders came in and dragged him away so he could get to his press conference. I did get a hug, though (I'm currently in recovery from that), some pictures, and some too-short-yet-memorable time with my new pal Bob. I hope you got to hear the interview on Thursday's "The Front Row." I'm featuring some of his films on the March 28th "Music From The Movies."

Gutenberg! The Musical!

2008-03-28T14:13:00.005-05:00

Lovers of musical theater need to know about the newest addition to the venerable genre: Gutenberg! The Musical!

Now playing at Theater LaB Houston, this "new kid on the musical theater block" features book, music and lyrics by Anthony Brown and Scott King. It was originally produced in London in 2006 and received its American premiere at the 2006 New York Musical Theater Festival.

If you're expecting a huge production with a cast of thousands, think about the title! A musical about the life of Johann Gutenberg? Yes, Gutenberg, inventor of the printing press!

Gutenberg! The Musical! is actually a two-man musical spoof in which a pair of aspiring playwrights perform a backers' audition as they try to secure financial support for their new project. Think Wayne's World puts on a musical!

Doug Simon and Bud Davenport have conceived a show centered around how Gutenberg's revolutionary invention impacts the largely illiterate residents of the German town of Schlimmer. With great gusto, and a heightened social consciousness, they take us through their musical creation playing all the parts themselves.

I went to see the Friday night performance at Theater LaB Houston the weekend before last and was completely blown away by the experience. Josh Wright [above left], who plays Doug, and Dylan Godwin [above right], who's Bud, both give incredibly strong performances as actors, singers and dancers; both are absolutely hilarious; and both are perfect complements for each other.

One of the dangers of a two-man show is that the two actors have no or little rapport, or that one predominates. That is not the case with Wright and Godwin who command the stage with equal presence; in fact, their chemistry is such that you feel they could almost become one.

Director Linda Phenix has staged what must for the actors be a brutal production. Both Bud and Doug never quit singing and dancing or moving around the stage in some high jinx.

The concept of a bad musical within a musical (think Springtime for Hitler in The Producers), is a tricky feat to pull off; the spoof has to be bad enough to be recognized as such, but the entire musical production has to be of sufficient quality that it does not get tarred by the same brush as the spoof.

Brown and King, and director Phenix, have managed to create this balance superbly in this production, and if your sides don't hurt at the end of the evening from all the laughing you've done then maybe you'd be just the right kind of person for a role in a musical about the life of one of Europe’s most exciting men, Johann Gutenberg!

Gutenberg! The Musical! can be seen Friday and Saturday evenings at 8 through April 19 with a matinee at 5 Sunday, April 6th.

Visit the Theater LaB Houston website for more information.

From the Top Comes to Houston...This Friday!

2008-03-25T20:48:00.009-05:00

Surely one of the most inspiring programs on public radio today is From the Top, the NPR-distributed showcase for America's best young classical musicians.

Since it debuted six years ago, the show has become one of the five most popular weekly one-hour programs on all of public radio reaching more than 750,000 listeners each week. The youngsters featured on the show, all aged between 9 and 18, show great personality; they're hilarious, and a wonderful reminder that classical music and outstanding musicianship still have a strong appeal among the younger generation.

From the Top host Chris O'Riley [pictured below] has the ability to develop a real rapport with each of the show's guests and, given that he is himself a concert pianist of no small renown, understands what these kids are going through and what lies in store for them as they get older.

Each From the Top is recorded in live concert settings in concert halls around the United States, and this week it's Houston's turn.

This Friday the show comes to the Bayou City for the very first time. KUHF and Houston Grand Opera play host to the live event which will be recorded in the Wortham Theater Center's Brown Theater at 7:30PM.

Among the young performers Friday will be the Houston Grand Opera Children's Chorus, members of HGO's High School Voice Studio and Liz Kaufman, Joan Scheirman and Laura Smolik (the Three Genii from HGO's recent production of The Magic Flute) along with HGO Studio soprano Rebekah Camm. Caitlan Pitts, a 17-year-old soprano from Houston, who is part of the Houston Grand Opera High School Voice Studio, will perform Aaron Copland's Why Do They Shut Me Out of Heaven.

I'm reliably informed that tickets to the taping of the show in Brown Theater are still available at houstongrandopera.org or by calling 713.228.OPERA.

Furthermore, KUHF members are invited to join us for a pre-show reception in the Wortham Green Room at which From the Top host Chris O'Riley is slated to make an appearance. Just bring your KUHF Membercard with you and that will be your ticket to the reception.

So come be part of this special KUHF event and enjoy the incredible performances from the stars of tomorrow. Hope to see you there!

Welcome to The Front Row's Blog!

2008-03-23T11:14:00.009-05:00

Welcome to the debut of the new KUHF website and this new addition to the The Front Row online.

This is a time of growth for the show, Houston's only daily in-depth look at the local arts' scene. This blog is part of an expanded web presence for the broadcast show which includes more information and resources to supplement the daily show. You'll now find more pictures, more information and more coverage of the arts in Houston here on The Front Row pages of the KUHF site.

Another obvious change to the show is that of host. I am the new host and executive producer of The Front Row, and it is a real pleasure for me to be here at KUHF and to be part of the incredible team that somehow manages to create such magic on a daily basis. [Pictured above, The Front Row team. From the left: Catherine Lu, Chris Johnson, Todd Hulslander, St.John Flynn and Bob Stevenson]

I bring to the show more than 10 years of public radio experience as a cultural affairs host, producer and manager. My particular focus generally has been on literature, but I started out in public radio as a classical music host and have always maintained that connection. However, you can expect to see a greater presence on the show for the literary arts in the future.

While I may be a new host, the best arts' journalist team in all of public radio continues to be 100% involved in the production of the show.

Producer Bob Stevenson is the engine that makes it all happen. Bob's decades of experience of production in public radio make him the paragon of the arts producer: someone who can not only pull a daily show together but makes it his business to know what's going on in every conceivable cultural corner of the Bayou City.

Associate producer Catherine "Jazz Hands" Lu is the show's go-to girl; she not only writes scripts and prepares rundowns, she also serves as back-up host and regular segment producer. You'll hear her covering dance events, authors, and, given her background as a violinist, musical performances also.

Chris Johnson serves as The Front Row's technical director. It's his job to cue the theme music, open and close the host microphone, voice the station breaks during the show, and then prepare each day's program segments for on-demand listening on the website. Of course he also pulls his weight as an interviewer covering a range of arts events but focusing especially on classical music events. Chris is also a performing violinist and can be heard as part of the KUHF Chamber Ensemble.

One of the greatest elements of The Front Row is its live performance segments featuring ensembles and individuals in the KUHF performance studio playing just for our audience.

The magic of these live performance segments doesn't just happen, it takes a considerable amount of preparation on the part of the KUHF audio staff that set up the studio for the performers and engineer the live performance during the broadcast.

The Front Row's audio engineer is Todd Hulslander who works diligently to ensure not only that all performers are miked correctly, but also to guarantee that what goes out over the air is the best it can be. As an audio engineer he is without equal and gives the show its professional sound and aura.

There are other KUHF personalities you'll hear from time to time on the show, Pulling Strings host Elaine Kennedy and Night Classics' Eric Ladau for example. They bring their substantial expertise to bear on showcasing artists from areas they know so much about.

This is the team that brings you The Front Row each weekday at 3PM on FM 88.7 HD-1 and at 10PM on HD-2.

Under the auspices of this new KUHF website, The Front Row can now expand its coverage of the arts in Houston through The Front Row blog. Look for daily postings from all of TFR contributors as they attend events around the city and beyond and prepare segments for the broadcast show. They can give you greater coverage of what’s happening across the Bayou City as well as behind-the-scenes insights that might not make it into each day’s show.

On KUHF.org you can now expect to find a more immediate perspective on what's happening artistically across Houston in addition to the regular coverage in the daily The Front Row broadcast. Look also for the website to contain extended versions of interviews featured on the show, pictures, and even on-demand video of artists as they perform live on the show in the KUHF performance studio.

Our commitment to the arts in Houston remains preeminent, and this new website promises more in-depth coverage of those things that make the heart of this city beat.

As a newcomer to Houston let me share my initial perspective on the arts in this city as we launch a new phase of arts coverage at KUHF.

I was hired recently as the new Director of Cultural Programming at KUHF. When I saw the position advertised in the industry newspaper I was excited and immediately began researching Houston from the perspective of the arts and culture.

I was suitably impressed by what I discovered: a pre-eminent symphony orchestra, world-renowned opera company, one of the country’s top ballet companies, a host of theatrical and chamber music organizations and an awful lot more.

However, what blew me away the most from a professional standpoint was that a Top 10-radio market station had assigned precious resources to the production of a daily one-hour arts magazine show (something almost unheard of within the public radio system!). My reaction was "Here is a station that has a true commitment to the arts!"

As someone who has chosen the arts as a way of life, so to speak, I understand the role the arts play not just in the life of the individual but also in the life of the community.

The creativity represented in the music, dance, acting, painting etc. of any place is the expression of its soul—the things that make it what it is in a non-material sense.

The arts are the heartbeat of what we do; they enable us to do what we do in the other realms of life: business, education, healthcare, entertainment. The arts feed our souls and create the spark that gives us life and the impetus to go out and create the communities we do.

It is the arts that, in Horatian phrase, create the "mens sana" in the "corpore sano" of the corporate world, if you will. You can't have one without the other and have a healthy community. And while no place is without its problems, it seems to me, in the brief time I've been here, that Houston has far fewer than other large U.S. cities.

A further testament to the relative health of the city is the tremendous support so many arts and cultural events receive from the public. It isn't rare to have a packed house for a musical theater production at the Hobby Center and another packed house across the street for the ballet at the Wortham Center. And both Jones Hall and the Alley Theatre are probably enjoying substantial audiences at the same time for their productions.

There is an appreciation for the arts across Houston, a level of financial and audience support not seen in many other large cities, and a desire to see and do more. The Front Row is here to document all this and, through our daily broadcast, this website and blog, to hold a mirror up to our community and say "This is who we are."

On The Front Row our commitment is to cover the breadth and depth of the Houston arts scene. We look forward to providing you with information, insight and maybe some inspiration as we fulfill our public service mission over the air and now online.

Welcome to the brand new The Front Row blog. Read it at your leisure, pass it on to others when you’ve finished and come back often. We are your expanding source for news about what's going on in the auditoriums, concert halls, galleries, parks, spaces and studios of H-town.

Thank you for giving us here at The Front Row so much to choose from!