Words and Music

Krug's Nursery | 6 May 2014 | Photo by B. A. Nilsson

From the Fields Dept. : Six years ago, I wrote the following piece to celebrate this very time of year. I don’t know if the berry patches ci...

Lily Whiteman recently made it to the top ten of the English Speaking Union's National Shakespeare Monologue competition. Here's her...

Guest Blogger Dept. : We turn again to Robert Benchley for sage advice, this time on how best to cultivate – or ignore – that patch of green...

Living Memory Dept .: Let’s memorialize an event that happened many years ago, yet which offers reassuring continuity. The River Valley Chor...

What’s for Dinner? Dept .: This week’s review was a fortuitous discovery, especially as Susan and I had visited a place the day before where...

From the Vault Dept. : Summer in New York’s Capital Region means it’s time for an al fresco meal at Jumpin’ Jack’s in Scotia. I’ve written ...

Back in the Day Dept .: As summer hints at its arrival, the summer music festivals are gearing up. Many years ago, the Philadelphia Orchestr...

From the Vault Dept .: Because they liked the program notes I’d been writing for other Dorian Recordings artists, the Baltimore Consort aske...

What’s for Dinner? Dept .: This week’s Metroland restaurant review takes us to that always-tricky type of location – the strip mall – for a ...

Lily Whiteman at the ESU's National Shakespeare Monologue Competition at Lincoln Center 5 May 2014

Prokofiev Dept .: Day 2, following up on yesterday’s post – this time, two all-day affairs at the Bard Summerscape festival (which, as I wri...

Prokofiev Dept .: Here’s the first of two Prokofiev-centric pieces I wrote in review of concerts of his music. Harlow Robinson, who has writ...

Guest Blogger Dept .: Booth Tarkington’s 1918 novel The Magnificent Ambersons traced the post-bellum decline of a grand old Indiana family ...

Matt Haimovitz Dept : We haven’t seen as much of the peripatetic cellist since he began teaching in Montreal a few years ago, but he’s still...

What’s Playing? Dept .: The world of American song opened for me when I was a teenager. I discovered the work of Cole Porter, and from there...

You Wrote What!? Dept .: Before you stake me to a Presidential bid, allow me to unlock my closet. The skeleton therein – well, I suppose it...

At Lincoln Center | 5 May 2014 | Photo by B. A. Nilsson

Hive and Seek Dept .: A friend who recently visited spotted me and my wife in the back field where the beehives stand, and couldn’t have bee...