Christopher O'Riley On Gunther Schuller‘s recommendation, I’ve been making my way through some of the more exquisite character pieces of Cyril Scott. I’ve performed a number of them as break-pieces on From the Top broadcasts, all of which are available at other posts on this site. I was saving Lotus-land for Aspen, as I’m sure it counts …
Thanks to Stona Fitch and his Concord Free Press publication of Madison Smartt Bell’s latest book of short stories, Zig Zag Wanderer, I hoarded all his published work and am making my way through them over the course of the summer. Two of his early novels, Soldier’s Joy and Doctor Sleep, I’ve just finished reading. …
Last night From the Top taped a show before a live audience at SUNY/Purchase PAC’s Concert Hall with the astonishing National Youth Orchestra of the USA, under the direction of David Robertson. In the next couple of weeks, audiences in many of the major summer festivals will have reason to celebrate the superb musicianship and …
Making my way chronologically through the work of Madison Smartt Bell, I just finished reading an early work of his, Straight Cut, recently published as part of the great pulp/noir imprint, Hard Case Crime. A compulsive and compulsory read, this one’s an international crime procedural in the exacting and detailed style of the filmmaker, Jean-Pierre …
From the Top just wrapped a live taping in Salem, MA in the bravely eclectic confines of the Peabody Essex Museum. Our program featured the usual array of greatly gifted young musicians in addition to PEM’s own composer-in-residence, the newly eminent conductor/composer/pianist Matt Aucoin. Each of our guests chose a work from PEM’s massive collection …
I’m a huge Megan Abbott fan. I’ve read all her published work, starting with her L.A. Noir classics, including The Song Is You, my personal fave in the genre/pantheon, Chandler, Cain et alia be damned. I just finished reading her latest, The Fever, befitting her recent mise en scene: the complex and contorted psychology of …