Concert section: Metro Weekly

Organ Transplant

Kennedy Center unveils its new world-class Concert Hall Organ

Published on November 21, 2012, 6:03pm

''An organ in a concert hall has to have balls,'' says organ consultant Jeff Weiler. ''And the old organ was just whistling Dixie.'' The Kennedy Center's original Concert Hall organ was, according to Weiler, ''the dying gasp of a once-very prominent organ builder.'' Aeolian-Skinner built the organ as quickly and cheaply as possible – using what Weiler refers to as ''shop sweepings'' – before going out of business immediately after installation in 1972. ''It did not work musically, and it ...[more]

Strike a Pose, Not a Chord

Madonna's latest road show is visually stunning � but suffers in sound

Published on August 29, 2012, 11:43am

Nobody wants to see a 54-year-old stripper. You might think Madonna didn't get that memo based on her performance in her latest road show, ''The MDNA Tour.'' But if the pop idol's 30-year, controversy-attracting career is any indication, chances are, she got that memo and pissed all over it. You could see the deviance on her face as Madonna disrobed in front of an enthused Philadelphia audience at the U.S. opening of her MDNA Tour Tuesday, Aug. 28. She literally ...[more]

Uking it Up

Strathmore welcomes thousands to celebrate the ukulele

Published on August 9, 2012, 12:39am

''Did you know we had 964 ukulele players last year?'' Marcy Marxer is reminiscing about the success of last year's UkeFest at Strathmore, which attracted a crowd of 2,100 people. Marxer, with her partner Cathy Fink, actually worked to ensure all 964 players knew how to play before the feat, designed for the Guinness Book of World Records. ''It was a stunning, community group effort,'' Marxer says. ''It was more like a joy fest than anything else.'' And that success ...[more]

Swing Time

Steven Reineke leads the NSO Pops in some Voodoo fun

Published on May 10, 2012, 5:14am

This summer, Steven Reineke will perform with Idina Menzel at Wolf Trap, supporting the Broadway and TV star with the National Symphony Orchestra Pops. But this weekend, Reineke will lead a show of a different sort, wearing a black velvet sport jacket as he conducts the Pops. A black velvet sport jacket? ''Hickey Freeman kind of made me their Sinister poster child,'' says Reineke, referring to Freeman's new Sinister line of clothing. ''I want to fit in gracefully and appropriately.'' ...[more]

Marriage Singer

Accomplished singer and actress Audra McDonald is also one of the loudest voices for marriage equality

Published on September 29, 2011, 3:28am

''I want my child to be able to marry whoever she wants to marry when she grows up, and have the same rights as everyone else,'' says Audra McDonald. Her daughter Zoe Madeline (named for actors Zoe Caldwell and Madeline Kahn) is 10. ''I'm not saying my child's gay -- she may be someday, I don't know. Who knows now? But she deserves all those rights as every other [person] in the United States.'' An award-winning singer and actress, McDonald ...[more]

Pioneering Pop

Openly gay from the start of his career, Andy Bell helped usher in the sound of electronica with Erasure

Published on September 1, 2011, 2:22am

Andy Bell is feeling his age. ''I love Beyoncé and Rihanna and stuff, but it's so hyper, everything,'' says the 47-year-old. ''You kind of feel like you can't possibly be as hyper as those young people, you know? It's impossible.'' At the very least, Bell was once as hyper as that. As the flamboyant lead singer of Erasure, Bell is responsible for some of pop music's most energetic, if not always hyper, hits, including ''A Little Respect,'' ''Chains of Love,'' ...[more]

Lyrically LuPone

Next weekend, Patti LuPone will share Broadway, celebrate the arts and make sure everyone leaves her show happy

Published on September 1, 2011, 2:15am

''I've had an affinity with gay people since I was like, 6 years old,'' Patti LuPone says. ''The person I've known the longest, I knew at when we were 6 years old that he was gay. Go figure, since I was growing up in the '50s. I knew he was gay, and he's been my friend all of these years. How many years is that now? That's over 50 years that we've been friends.'' And she's had an affinity for ...[more]

Wedding Singer

Steven Blier offers a recital with newfound same-sex appeal

Published on July 7, 2011, 6:48am

''I put together this program before [New York passed marriage equality],'' says Steven Blier, ''but now that it has, the program has a different meaning to me.'' This Sunday, the New York-based Blier offers ''Couples: From Getting Hitched to Getting Ditched'' at the Barns at Wolf Trap. The founder of the New York Festival of Song and a member of the faculty at Juilliard, Blier will accompany five singers from the Wolf Trap Opera Company's Filene Young Artists program. The ...[more]

Drumming Decades

D.C.'s Different Drummers celebrates 30 years of making music

Published on November 4, 2010, 4:26am

''My passion for the group grows every time I'm with them,'' says Joe Bello of D.C.'s Different Drummers. Bello is not the only one. This Saturday, Nov. 6, Bello, in just his third year as the group's director, heads up a gala concert celebrating the organization's three decades of making music. That's 30 years of passion. Bello notes that like many other early gay social groups, DCDD started ''as a place for people to come to feel comfortable with their ...[more]

Musical Wizardry

Emil de Cou will conduct the orchestra while The Wizard of Oz screens at Wolf Trap

Published on July 16, 2009, 12:00am

There's this amazing detail in sounds and colors and orchestrations that you just really don't hear in the movie theater anymore,'' says the National Symphony Orchestra's Emil de Cou of the 1939 classic, The Wizard of Oz. But beyond Harold Arlen's famous tunes, especially ''Over The Rainbow,'' chances are you don't remember much of the Oz score. ''It's very easy to not even notice it that much,'' says de Cou, who serves as the NSO at Wolf Trap Festival Conductor. ...[more]

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