Upcoming Tours
Performance Reviews
Paris, France
Anna Netrebko reigns supreme in 'Un ballo in maschera' in Paris
Matthew Polenzani and Ludovic Tézier round out stellar cast in Gilbert Deflo's American Civil War update.
Frankfurt, Germany
Frankfurt Opera Trek: Baroque To ‘Carmen’ To A Holocaust Flashback
The depth of American talent on display over three days of terrific opera.
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Paris, France
Opéra National de Paris 2025-26 Review: 'Eugene Onegin'
Ralph Fiennes makes his operatic directorial debut with Tchaikovsky's tragedy.
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Paris, France
Calixto Bieito’s dystopian Ring forges on with Siegfried at the Opéra national de Paris
Andreas Schager is indefatigable as Wagner's hero in baffling production.
Versailles, France
The movement of Preljocaj’s time-defying production intensifies the emotional impact of Lully’s Atys
Louis XIV's favorite opera returns to Versailles.
New York, NY
Welser-Möst leads the Cleveland Orchestra in a thrilling, transcendent Verdi Requiem
Deniz Uzun amazes with the beauty and power of her magnificent mezzo.
New York, NY
Taking the pulse of the singer’s art at Carnegie Hall’s SongStudio
Anthony Roth Costanzo pays tribute to Marilyn Horne's legacy on her 92nd birthday/
New York, NY
Prototype ends with an eclectic artistic soiree and an iconoclastic stroke of genius
Michael Gordon and Richard Foreman's 'What to Wear' dazes and baffles.
New York, NY
Young soprano sparks enjoyable ACO program
Soprano Song Hee Lee soared through Mozart's Exsultate, jubilate
New York, NY
Prototype Festival continues with Snider’s luminous Hildegard
Opera delves into the life of the twelfth-century polymath Hildegard von Bingen.
All of my reviews for Seen and Heard International can be found here
Recordings Reviews
Ventura, CA
Requiem for the Enslaved
Carlos Simon and Marco Pavé offer a searing, transcendent memorial to past sins and hopes.
Goshen, NY
Aaron Jay Kernis's Elegy (For Those We Lost)
Elegy (For Those We Lost) is dedicated to the families of those who have died from COVID-19. Aaron Jay Kernis originally composed the piece for solo piano, but arranged it for harp and trumpet was made at the request of the Grammy-nominated harpist Yolanda Kondonassis.
Berlin
Vince Mendoza's Freedom Over Everything
To the Edge of Longing for soprano and orchestra is one of the most stunning musical creations inspired by these troubled times.
Lawrence, Kansas
dwb (driving while black)
Of the three recorded versions of Susan Kander and Roberta Gumbel's dwb (driving while black), this recording is the purest one.
Chicago
Archetypes
In their new release, Grammy Award-winning Third Coast Percussion joins with celebrated Brazilian guitarist Sérgio Assad and his daughter - vocalist, composer and multi-instrumentalist Clarice Assad - to portray in music twelve of these universal characters that defy time and place.
Paris
The Freischütz Project
Conductor Laurence Equilbey is the first to present Carl Maria von Weber’s opera using the principles and original instruments of historically informed performance with a stellar cast.
New York
Brooklyn-based ensemble and songwriting collective Founders releases Songs for the End of Time
Ben Russell and Brandon Ridenour, members of the new music ensemble Founders, radical rework of Olivier Messiean’s Quatuor pour la fin du temps is faithful to both the spirit and the austere beauty of the original.
Warsaw
The songs of René de Boisdeffre - A nineteenth-century master of melody
Acte Préalable’s recording of reveals that at his best, René de Boisdeffre could fashion a song to rival those of his greatest contemporaries, including Fauré.
France
Contralto - Nathalie Stutzmann / Orfeo 55
Stutzmann’s last recording with Orfeo 55, the chamber orchestra which she founded and performed with as soloist and conductor simultaneously, celebrates the legacy of the great Baroque contraltos and the music that they inspired.
New York
Once and Again
Once and Again, the most recent recording of Edward Smaldone's music, features a sampling of his smaller-scaled works, including two for voice and instruments.
About
I got the travel bug from my parents. As a boy I had crisscrossed the US with them and my younger brother on the classic American Road Trip to California. At 16, I went to Europe for the first time. The destination was Germany, a country that I have returned to many times. In addition to business and personal travel, I have lived in Switzerland, Singapore and China. So far, it’s been a wonderful life of travelling the world and experiencing its wonders..
A musician for most of my life, first a trumpet player and then a singer, I have a degree in music from the University of Pittsburgh. In 2013, I began reviewing for Seen and Heard International and have posted reviews from the US, Europe and Asia. In addition, I regularly contribute program notes to the Singapore Symphony Orchestra and have had music and travel articles published in the Global Times, Shanghai Daily, MusicWeb International, Broad Street Review and other publications.
Although I am thrilled to have press privileges in many of the world’s great concert halls and opera houses, it is the offerings in the more out-of-the way places that excite me the most. There one still finds great music, often at its national, indigenous best, in theaters, whether ancient or modern, that are as grand and beautiful as any in the world. More importantly, these venues not only preserve the past, they embrace the new, keeping classical music current and vital. That is the world that I invite you to explore with me on my tours.
Contact
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