Tim Smith

Community Concert Choir of Baltimore revives neglected spirituals, anthems

baltimoresun.com — As afternoon light tried to filter through the thick, stained-glass windows of Sharp Street United Methodist Church last weekend, Marco K. Merrick pounded out the bass line of a spiritual on a raw-sounding piano, singing along in a raspy voice: "Great day, the righteous marching. Great day, God's going to build up Zion's walls."

Carlos Kalmar guest-conducts Baltimore Symphony

baltimoresun.com — If you missed Thursday night's Baltimore Symphony Orchestra concert at Meyerhoff Hall -- and, based on glance around the room, a whole heckuva lot of you missed it -- there's another chance Friday (Strathmore gets the program Saturday). It's time well spent, I'd say.

Vintage recording ideal salute to Wagner anniversary

baltimoresun.com — OK, I couldn't just offer the mirth of Midweek Madness to mark the Wagner bicentennial today . (I think it quite decent of the old chap to have his 200th birthday fall on a Wednesday, so I could slip him into my weekly, widely and wildly clamored for featurette.)

Baltimore classical music, theater and visual arts news and reviews - baltimoresun.com

baltimoresun.com — Artsmash | Baltimore classical music, theater and visual arts news and reviews

Lyric Opera offers sterling cast in 'Rigoletto'

baltimoresun.com — Lyric Opera Baltimore is wrapping up its comfort-food season with Verdi’s stirring drama of love, nastiness and misplaced loyalties, “Rigoletto.” The staging looked a little square and economical Friday night at the Modell Performing Arts Center, but it often sounded splendid; Sunday’s matinee ought to be even better.

The Kennedy Center Honors

kennedy-center.org — skip to: honorees list | honors' navigation. Buddy Guy, Dustin Hoffman, David Letterman, Natalia Makarova, and Led Zeppelin to Receive 35th Annual Kennedy Center Honors America to Celebrate the Careers of Seven Extraordinary Artists, Sunday, December 2, 2012 Gala will be broadcast on CBS on December 26, 2012 at 9:00-11:00 p.m., ET/PT The John F.

Alex Ross Gives a Walking Tour of Wagner's New York : The New Yorker

newyorker.com — The first in a short series of posts commemorating Wagner's two-hundredth birthday, which falls on May 22nd. Above is the title page of Wagner's "Grosser Festmarsch," also known as the "American Centennial March," commissioned for the celebrations of 1876. In his last years, Richard Wagner often spoke of immigrating to America.

Cecilia Bartoli sings Bellini's Norma: exclusive album stream

guardian.co.uk — Cecilia Bartoli leads a fabulous cast in a groundbreaking new recording that presents Bellini's music in a form that is complete with the mix of vocal and instrumental colours the composer intended for his 1831 tragic opera.