REVIEW: Stirring American Musical Heroes (Minnesota Orchestra) Arts Music by Basil Considine - July 31, 2021July 31, 2021 Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis. Photo by George Heinrich Photography. The Minnesota Orchestra is getting its flirt on. No, not some sort of brass-woodwinds or string-percussion imbroglio – flirting with the audience. The ensemble's American Musical Heroes program, playing this weekend, is a grand tease, leaving the audience wanting more of just about every
REVIEW: Musically Impressive Islander (Theatre Elision) Arts Music Theatre by Basil Considine - July 29, 2021July 29, 2021 Deidre Cochran and Christine Wade in Theatre Elision's production of Islander by Amy Draper, Finn Anderson, and Stewart Melton, playing through July 31 at the Elision Playhouse in Crystal, MN. Photo by Jessica Holleque. If you're hesitant about returning to live theatre attendance, Theatre Elision is rolling out the red carpet treatment
PREVIEW: Opera on the Lake Strikes Back Arts Music Opera Theatre by Amy Donahue - July 27, 2021July 27, 2021 It's summer in Minnesota, which means it's officially Lake Time. By the lake, in the lake, on the lake – we're not the Land of 10,000 Lakes for nothing. This makes the return of the Opera on the Lake festival to Lake Como this week as natural as sweet corn at
NEWS: Minnesotans Represent in NET Virtual Exchanges Arts Music Theatre by Twin Cities Arts Reader - July 26, 2021July 27, 2021 It's no surprise that Minnesotans can overcome all sorts of inclement weather to connect in deepest winter. So, too, have they been connecting during the COVID-19 pandemic. Six individuals and entities in Minnesota have been awarded Virtual Exploration Grants by the Network of Ensemble Theatres to build theatrical connections with
REVIEW: John Fogerty Rocks the 4th of July (Mystic Lake) Arts Music by Brian Bix - July 5, 2021July 5, 2021 John Fogerty (photo by Myriam Santos) performed at the Mystic Lake Casino & Hotel on July 4, 2021. Music fans of a certain age know John Fogerty’s story starts as the lead singer of Creedence Clearwater Revival. For two years, at the end of the 1960s, CCR dominated the American scene.
PREVIEW: Minnesota Boychoir Returns to In-Person Performances Arts Music by Twin Cities Arts Reader - June 14, 2021June 20, 2021 Seventeen months after its last live, in-person performance, the Minnesota Boychoir returns to in-person concerts with a trio of free performances around the Twin Cities on June 16, 17, and 19. The hundred-voiced ensemble last performed together in January 2020, at St. Paul's Landmark Center. Virtual rehearsals kept the group together
PREVIEW: SPCO to Wind Up Virtual Season with Final Broadcast 6/12 and 6/17 Arts Music by Twin Cities Arts Reader - June 7, 2021June 7, 2021 Composers Clarice Assad and Michi Wiancko will each have a musical composition premiered in the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra's final concert of the season. Photo courtesy of the SPCO. It's been four years since the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra launched its online Concert Library, which allows the general public to listen
REVIEW: Leslie Vincent Rocks the Belvedere in Sold-Out Show (Crooners) Arts Music by Basil Considine - June 6, 2021June 6, 2021 Singer-songwriter Leslie Vincent at her sold-out show at Crooners in Fridley, MN on Saturday, June 6. It was 95 degrees Fahrenheit in the open air in Fridley on Saturday evening. At Crooners, however, things were cooler, with a cooling breeze blowing off the lake and running under the tented canopy of
NEWS: The Return of the Northern Spark Festival, 6/12-6/27 Arts Dance Music Visual Arts by Twin Cities Arts Reader - June 4, 2021June 4, 2021 A promotional image for the Northern Spark festival, adorned with Ojibwe pictographs. The acclaimed Northern Spark festival returns to the Twin Cities from June 12-27. This year’s festival has a deliberate emphasis on healing, transformative art within the larger theme of Alchemy. The festival is designed to draw artists and the
INTERVIEW: Leslie Vincent on Jazzing Up the Return to Live Performance (Crooners/The Belvedere) Arts Music by Basil Considine - June 3, 2021June 3, 2021 White Bear Lake-based singer-songwriter Leslie Vincent (front left) with her band at Crooners on August 10, 2020. Photo by Darin Kamnetz. For some musicians, 2020-2021 has been a giant artistic blank spot – less a tabula rasa, more a vacant room. Not so for singer-songwriter Leslie Vincent, who is taking the