Susan Hall
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Recent Articles:
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Woodie King Jr. Steps Down Front Page
Insights from 50 Years of New Federal Theatre
By: - Jun 04th, 2021Woodie King Jr. is stepping down as Artistic Director of the New Federal Theatre, the company he founded in 1970. His original mission was to give voice to actors and writers of color, black, Hispanic and Asian, and to women. The mission has been richly fulfilled. The list of artists to whom King gave a first chance includes every important performing artist of color and many women..
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Shen Wei at Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Front Page
At the Palace and Flying in the Piano Wing
By: - May 20th, 2021At the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum on Evans Way in Boston, representatives of Mrs. Gardner welcome you to her home. In the original Palace, art is hung by her direction. The work of contemporary artists in residence hangs in the new wing. You are richly rewarded by a visit to Isabella's place.
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Boston Modern Orchestra Presents John Adams Front Page
Adams is a Worcester Native and Composer
By: - May 19th, 2021Does listener friendliness in music depend on melody? John Adams, on whatever musical journey he takes, is haunted by melody, sometimes explicitly and at others, finds it in minimalist repetition where a base line beats and also sings.
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Slam! Bang! Wham! Front Page
Elizabeth Streb Returns to Jacob's Pillow
By: - May 16th, 2021Elizabeth Streb, the high-octane choreographer known for such risk-taking --and horrifying - feats as setting herself on fire, crashing through glass, and walking down the outside of very tall buildings (London’s City Hall,) returns to the Pillow with her Extreme Action Company for the first time in twenty years.
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The Orchestra Now at Bard Front Page
Maestro Leon Botstein Celebrates Beethoven
By: - May 03rd, 2021The Orchestra Now opened its belated celebration of Beethoven’s birthday. Their performance of the Fifth Symphony lay somewhere between the unearthly suggestion the composer may have intended, and a fierce protest. From the introduction of iconic Da, da, da, DUM, either a major or minor key although we’re told this is a minor piece, to the figure's infinite variety of repetition through the piece, TON reminds us of why this is the symphony of symphonies.
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Irish Rep Streams Little Gem Front Page
Elaine Murphy's Moving Tritych Is a Jewel
By: - Apr 29th, 2021Irish Repertory Theatre is streaming its 11th production in the time of Covid. Today we seldom see heterosexual women of three generations loving their men, despite difficulties that boyfriends and husbands bring to a relationship. This is a tender, funny revelation.
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Tippet Rise Spring Festival Front Page
Streaming from New York
By: - Apr 27th, 2021Tippet Rise is a striking arrival on the music scene. Just when interest in conventional venues offering conventional programs is waning, along comes a venture located amidst grazing cattle on 12,000 acres in Fishtail, Montana. The venue traveled east for its spring festival. You begin to get a sense of how they fill their mission wherever they alight. The splendid array of talent seems present wherever they are. Topping the list in New York are veterans Richard Goode and Claire Chase.
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A Letter To Harvey Milk: The Musical Front Page
Coming Out in San Francisco
By: - Apr 23rd, 2021A Letter to Harvey Milk had a successful run at the Acorn Theatre in New York in 2018. It is streming free with suggested donations for the Actor’s Fund and The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. Now it is streaming live.
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Victoria Bond Presents Cutting Edge Music Front Page
Glass, Warren, von Kampen and Bond Featured
By: - Apr 22nd, 2021We are rooted in the Byzantine chant in this evening’s concert. Pianist Paul Barnes chants in the Greek Orthodox service. As an introduction to each based on specific chants, he sang. We first heard the tones mixed with breath and feeling of these remarkable interpretations of the psalms. Listeners are able to slip into the works with echoes of their origins fresh in the memory.
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New Directions: The Cover Story Front Page
Pioneer Designer Alvin Lustig’s Fifty Best Book Covers In One Box
By: - Apr 16th, 2021The great graphic designer Milton Glaser once said, “there are three responses to a piece of design—yes, no, and WOW!” WOW! is what you’ll say to New Directions’ newly assembled set of fifty postcards celebrating its greatest salesman, Alvin Lustig—a creative genius who revolutionized the craft of book-cover design. Each of the postcards in this glorious collection is a work of art in its own right.
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Bard's TON Orchestra Performs Live Front Page
Leon, Bernstein, Stravinsky and Mendelssohn
By: - Apr 15th, 2021The Orchestra Now presented its first live concert of the 2020-21 season at the Fisher Center, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson. It was a smashing success.
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Cutting Edge New Music Festival 2021 Front Page
The Art of the 21st Century Trombone
By: - Apr 13th, 2021The Cutting Edge Concert Series 23rd season began this week. Victoria Bond has held this series through thick and thin. It comes to us live streamed and is a treasure.
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Les Arts Florissants at Versailles Front Page
William Christie Brings Us Charpentier
By: - Apr 12th, 2021The always delightful Les Arts Florissants’ bring us a performance of Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s Grand Motets, now available on Qwest TV. Qwest was developed by Quincy Jones, whose middle name is “Delight.” And delight is what he brings us with the 17th century music of Marc-Antoine Charpentier.
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The Attacca Quartet Storms Columbia Front Page
A High Hoedown with Adams, Wiancko, and Gabriella Smith
By: - Apr 08th, 2021The Attacca Quartet won its first Grammy in 2019 for Caroline Shaw’s Orange. They favor music of living composers, as does Melissa Smey, Executive Director of the Arts Initiative and Miller Theatre and the new Lenfest Center for the Arts on the north campus. What was Mozart doing on your birthday? Decomposing.
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The Irish Repertory Theatre Presents The Aran Islands Front Page
Synge's Language Captured Brilliantly by Brendon Conroy
By: - Mar 18th, 2021The Irish Repertory Theatre has given ten streamed performances, or arranged for them, during the time of Covid. Each one has added immensely to our pleasure. The latest comes straight from Dublin. It is a one man performance on stage by the actor Brendan Conroy. His lilting voice, describing the bleak Aran Islands and the lives of its inhabitants draws us in. We quickly understand that the man who wrote the words, J. M. Synge, was a musician. As words roll in Conroy's mouth, we hear musical phrases, dips and crescendos, textured takes on vowels and consonants.
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New Federal Theatre Celebrates Women's History Month Front Page
Riverting Production of Pearl Cleag's Hospice
By: - Mar 13th, 2021New Federal Theatre has always promoted the inclusion of women artists as part of its mission. It is no surprise that they are offering works by and with women for Women’s History Month. They appeal to everyone. Petronia Paley and Margaret Odette are featured in the two-hander, Hospice by Pearl Cleage. Billed as a reading, the performances are full characterizations by actors.
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Sir Simon Rattle in Ademek World Premiere Front Page
Mezzo Magdalena Kožená Searches for the Divine
By: - Mar 11th, 2021Sir Simon Rattle has taken out German citizenship to be closer to his children. It is also said he is exiting Britain and the cultural consequences of Brexit. Rattle will succeed Mariss Jansons as the chief conductor of the Symphonieorchester des Bayerische Rundfunks. Recently he conducted the orchestra in a world premiere of Ondrej Adámek's "Where Are You?"
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Groupmuse Now Musician Owned Cooperative Front Page
Inspired by Covid
By: - Mar 10th, 2021Groupmuse, the community-building startup that aims to adapt the concert experience, announced their plan to become a musician-owned cooperative. They have assembled a Founding Council made up of ten diverse young musician activists. ranging from international prize-winners, to artists who have played over 150 concerts through Groupmuse, to social justice activists fighting to bring about a more equitable and inclusive concert music ecosystem.
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New Directions Publishers Front Page
Great Books New Looks
By: - Mar 08th, 2021When James Laughlin founded New Directions he wanted the company to be a place where writers could carry out their experiments in print. His initial mission was simple: introduce American readers to international, modernist writers who could not get their work published in the United States--Dylan Thomas, Ezra Pound, Marianne Moore, Henry Miller, Vladimir Nabokov (Laughlin rejected his scandalous blockbuster, Lolita!), and many more. "These writers were really radical,” says publisher Barbara Epler. Today they are part of the canon. Indeed, they are its twentieth-century core.
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Pat White Keeps New Federal Theatre Alive and Well Front Page
Multi-talented Executive Producer
By: - Mar 02nd, 2021Patricia “Pat” White is a mainstay of the New Federal Theatre (NFT). For twenty-five years she has handled all the details of running the producing company. This allows founder Woodie King Jr. to read scripts until 2 o’clock in the morning.
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John Musto Premiere from Copland House Front Page
Alexis PIa Gerlach and Michael Boriskin Perform
By: - Feb 23rd, 2021On the fourth Monday of every month, the Copland House brings us Underscored, zoomed performances from Aaron Copland’s study. Contemporary composers are featured. This must attend musical event is presented in collaboration with the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Founder and pianist Michael Boriskin introduced the premiere of John Musto’s Cello Sonata.
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New Federal Theatre Celebrates Black History Month Front Page
Plays by Laurence Holder, Jeff Stetson and Mfundi Vundla
By: - Feb 21st, 2021New Federal Theatre is presenting three classic plays during Black History Month. The troupe has mastered the streaming form, using individual, adjoining screens for the actors and cleverly breaking the 4th wall of streaming, the line that divides one screen from another. Malcolm X and Rev. Martin Luther King can even arm wrestle in this form.
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Thoughts on a New BSO CEO Front Page
Gail Samuel Arrives from Los Angeles
By: - Feb 18th, 2021The Boston Symphony Orchestra is taking a big step toward its future with the appointment of Gail Samuel to succeed Mark Volpe this June, just in time for Tanglewood.
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New Federal Theatre is Fifty Front Page
Woodie King Jr,'s Iconic Contribution
By: - Feb 16th, 2021Theater royalty recognizing theater, television and movie royalty was the fantastic vibe when the New Federal Theatre recently celebrated its Golden 50th Anniversary and successfully operating from 1970 to 2020 and of course, it will keep on keepin’ on! It was a celebration fit for a king and it was for a king, Mr. Woodie King Jr., founder of New Federal Theatre and a man I love to call Mr. Theatre.
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Opera Philadelphia's Channel Introduced Front Page
David T. Little's Soldier Songs an Inventive Triumph
By: - Feb 16th, 2021Without foregoing any production value, and in fact capitalizing on new opportunities, Opera Philadelphia has been leading the field in contemporary productions that attract new audiences. Over the past decade daring experiments have been undertaken, always with careful consideration. A warehouse was the setting for the production of an opera about Andy Warhol (reminiscent of a Factory?). Composers in residence have been encouraged to test the limits of an operatic stage, like Philip Venables’ Denis and Katya, designed as a social media transmission.
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