by Jeff Maisey | Feb 21, 2022 | Concert Previews, Music, Music News
(Byron Stripling is conductor and trumpet soloist.) By Jerome Langston “A lot of this is informed by Count Basie,” says Byron Stripling, the acclaimed jazz trumpeter, actor and conductor. “The show is informed by the music of Ella Fitzgerald and so many others, so it...
by Jeff Maisey | Feb 8, 2022 | Classical, Music, Music News
By Montague Gammon III Grand fanfares of orchestral brass herald the arrival of Maestro Thomas Wilkins as the first Principal Guest Conductor in the century long history of the Virginia Symphony Orchestra, February 18-20. It’s the second half of the concert program,...
by Jeff Maisey | Nov 24, 2021 | Classical, Music, Music News
(New Virginia Symphony Orchestra Music Director Eric Jacobsen in rehearsal with saxophone great Branford Marsalis. Cell phone photo by Kristen E. Bennington.) By Montague Gammon III Virginia Symphony’s Music Director Eric Jacobsen kicks off the conducting part of...
by Jeff Maisey | Sep 28, 2021 | Concert Previews, Music, Music News
By Jeff Maisey If you think about, every classical music performance is a history lesson in some sense. Generally its because the musical work was written hundreds of years ago, and quite often it expresses something about each composer, whether the point in...
by Jeff Maisey | Sep 17, 2021 | Classical, Music, Music News
(Maestro Eric Jacobsen on the cover of Veer Magazine. Illustration by Walt Taylor) By Montague Gammon III The newly appointed twelfth Music Director of our Virginia Symphony Orchestra, Eric Jacobsen, flew into town from his current home in Brooklyn late last month,...
