Lincoln Center

Debo Band, at Lincoln Center Out of Doors on August 11, is a Boston-based, Ethio-groove collective led by Danny Mekonnen.  The band’s unique instrumentation—including horns, strings and yes, accordion—was inspired by the Golden Age of Ethiopian music in the late 1960s and early 70s, but its accomplished musicians are giving new voice to that sound. Joining Debo is Ethiopian traditional dance and music troupe, Fendika, amazing young Azmari artists led by one of Ethiopia’s leading dancers Melaku Belay. Belay, one of the most active artists and arts advocates on the Addis Ababa scene today, is a virtuoso interpreter of Eskiska, a traditional Ethiopian “shoulder dance.” He appeared at Out of Doors in 2008 dancing with Gétatchèw Mèkurya and The Ex.

You can check out some of their music for free on their site, and at Lincoln Center on August 11.

“Ruders writes tough, memorable music, as witnessed by the succession of fine recordings on the Bridge label,” wrote music critic David Patrick Stearns about Selma Ježková. “His unflinching, unresolvable dissonances in this through-composed score are well suited to the tormented inner states of the characters.” Find out what else he had to say about the opera by clicking on the link above.

Last Saturday, Vermont Public Radio aired a full program featuring recordings by artists who are going to appear in “She’s Got the Power” on July 30 at Lincoln Center Out of Doors. According to VPR, “It’s a celebration of a New York pop music sound that dominated the radio airwaves in the pre-British Invasion 1960’s, and which elevated female artists, many of them women of color, into the upper echelons of the then male-dominated teenage rock & roll scene.”

“The irrational tyranny of kings is a well-mined subject in Shakespeare’s plays, but the self-destructive jealousy of King Leontes in “The Winter’s Tale” is particularly shocking, especially when performed as searingly as the current Royal Shakespeare Company production in New York, a partnership with the Lincoln Center Festival and the Park Avenue Armory,” begins the Associated Press’ review of the performance. Read the rest by clicking on the link above!

Lincoln Center Institute, the arts and education arm of Lincoln Center, will now have its Imagination lessons (built upon LCI’s Capacities for Imaginative Learning framework for student learning) freely available to the global educator community via Curriki. Curriki is the leading K-12 global community for creating, sharing, and finding open learning resources. The Imagination lesson plans will be available starting in September 2011.

Here’s a wonderful interview with Jill Sternheimer, associate director for public programming at Lincoln Center, about July 30 when the girl group era of the 60s is celebrated all day with concerts, talks and a film screening – and all for FREE as part of Lincoln Center Out of Doors.

Batter up! Last Tuesday night, members of the Royal Shakespeare Company took a break from performing at the Park Avenue Armory to watch the Mets beat the Cardinals, 4-2, at Citi Field. Read what some of the actors had to say to the NY Daily News reporter Joe Dziemianowicz.

What is it about Anton Bruckner exactly that the Cleveland Orchestra’s Franz Welser-Möst admires so much? Read Craig Duff’s story in Time to find out: “When Franz Welser-Möst hears the repeated motives and rhythms, and the sweeping moods and textures of Bruckner’s symphonic creations, he finds the roots of a dominant style of concert music in the last few decades,” Duff wrote. “Welser-Möst calls Bruckner minimalism’s grandfather.”

After much anticipation, WNET’s Treasures of New York: Lincoln Center finally aired last night at 8 p.m. on Channel 13, with Patti LuPone hosting the show. According to a review that was posted yesterday on Broadway World, the documentary “gives us one more reason to love and cherish the home of so many revolutionary plays, ballets, operas, musicals and special events.” Take a look!

Listen to Pulitzer Prize-winning composer John Adams on WNYC as he talks about his music being paired with that of Austrian composer Anton Bruckner at the Bruckner: (R)evolution series at Avery Fisher Hall. Catch the rest of these performances on July 16 and 17 as part of Lincoln Center Festival.

Check out a story by NY1 reporter Frank DiLella on the riveting Royal Shakespeare Company performances at this year’s Lincoln Center Festival. Be on the lookout for another report that is scheduled to air on the network this weekend at some point!

People are raving about the Cleveland Orchestra’s first performance of Bruckner: (R)evolution at Avery Fisher Hall last night. According to Zachary Lewis’ article in The Plain Dealer, ” ‘It is clear,” said the presenter Wednesday, ‘that [Welser-Most] has found Bruckner … and brought him to the Cleveland Orchestra. Together, they are taking Bruckner to the world.’ “

“But this week’s series of four concerts by the Cleveland Orchestra at the Lincoln Center Festival represents the first time Bruckner’s music has been paired in depth with that of John Adams, one of America’s supreme composers,” wrote The Wall Street Journal’s Barrymore Laurence Scherer today. Read the entire story above.

Last week, The New York Times ran a story in its Arts & Leisure section on the fascinating work of composer Anton Bruckner: the “gentlest and most peaceable of men who becomes an anarchist during the act of composition,” according to a quote by Eduard Hanslick in the article. Starting tomorrow through July 17, the Cleveland Orchestra will be performing Bruckner’s symphonies as part of Bruckner: (R)evolution at Lincoln Center Festival. Check it out!

Lincoln Center is highlighted in the current Must-See Arts & Culture slideshow on NYCGO.com. Take a look to learn more about performances at this year’s Lincoln Center Festival, Midsummer Night Swing, Out of Doors and Mostly Mozart Festival.