For three weeks in August the Edinburgh Festival Fringe opens the doors, streets and alleyways of an entire city to an explosion of creative energy from around the globe. I can't wait to return to the 'Fringe' next month.  This is one of the world's great festivals with more music, drama, comedy and street acts than one can absorb in just three weeks - focused on music, I'm going to try with plans to finally see and hear the Soweto Gospel Choir who have been featured on Higher Ground.   p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial; min-height: 11.0px} Two-time Grammy award-winning Soweto Gospel Choir brings together South Africa's greatest singers, performing gospel and their unique interpretations of international classics in eight of South Africa's official languages. With soaring harmonies and that distinct South African sound, this performance is a truly extraordinary musical experience. In well over 1,000 live performances, Soweto Gospel Choir has brought joy into the lives of audiences all around the world and performed for and celebrated with world leaders, including Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, Presidents Obama and Clinton as well as the British Royal Family.  READ THE FULL Wisconsin Public Radio ARTICLE

Tonight, Sunday July 23, please join Portchester NY's Capitol Theatre in wishing keyboardist and musical mastermind extraordinaire, Marco Benevento, a very happy birthday!  Benevento will have sprinkled his magic dust at The Cap with Joe Russo's Almost Dead 12 times, including 3 shows as PhilRAD with Phil Lesh in 2014. He's also joined Phil Lesh & Friends as keyboardist and poured his heart out on stage in The Complete Last Waltz, paying tribute to The Band's historic 1976, The Last Waltz. Marco Benevento's technical skill and creativity, mixed with his colorful personality, makes him one of the finest entertainers of our time. And since it's always 5 o'Clock somewhere grab a Marcorita, and take a few minutes to watch some of our favorite videos.

Composer Jack Gallagher's works have been performed or recorded by the London Symphony, Virginia Symphony, Charleston Symphony, Cleveland Chamber Symphony, Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra of Krakow, Kiev Philharmonic, U.S. Air Force Band of Flight, GRAMMY® award-winning pianist Angelin Chang, Trio Terzetto, and others. His Naxos debut recording by the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by GRAMMY®-winner JoAnn Falletta, recorded at Abbey Road Studios, was greeted by twin rave reviews in Fanfare magazine, noting - "a most welcome release of some absolutely fantastic music," and "there is poignancy, explosive energy, good-natured humor . . . and a warm-hearted directness that is tremendously engaging." The Cleveland Plain Dealer said his music "evokes glowing images" and exhibits "glistening personality." Gallagher's Symphony in One Movement: Threnody was acclaimed by in Tune magazine as "enormously inventing" by Österreichische Musikzeitschrift as "a one-movement symphony of great colorfulness," and by Abeillemusique (Paris) as "a marvel of invention and orchestration." His compositions are included on fourteen published compact discs on the Naxos, Musical Heritage Society, Capstone, Vienna Modern Masters, Summit Records, Promuse, Altissimo, and ERM labels. Gallagher's music has been written about in the US Press and broadcast extensively at Radio. He has been the recipient of awards, grants, fellowships, or recognition from the Ohio Arts Council, the Charles Ives Center for American Music, Meet the Composer, the Yaddo Corporation, the Atlantic Center for the Arts, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, The Petit Jean International Art Song Festival, the Barlow International Composition Contest, the Virginia chapter of the College Band Directors National Association, and The College of Wooster Henry Luce III Award for Distinguished Scholarship. p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial; min-height: 11.0px} Gallagher celebrated his 70th birthday in June and WGTE: Toledo celebrates some of his recent recordings in this conversation with Host - Brad Cresswell. LISTEN TO THE Classical Conversation. p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial; min-height: 11.0px}

In the past we've avoided posting midyear best albums lists. It seemed somehow impatient and premature to evaluate the year's albums halfway through. And how do you decide which period the list covers, which arbitrary release date do you work out is the cut off point, as every midyear list seems to cover a different period? But 2017 is a year that demands a partial evaluation. The first half of the year has already produced enough strong albums to easily fill a Top 50, but also the second half of 2017 is stacked with so many high profile releases that threaten to overshadow some of the gems released so far. For example, we've already heard some August and September releases that we're certain will make the upper echelons of our final best albums of 2017 list come December. Jarvis Cocker | Chilly Gonzales - Room 29 makes Under The Radar Magazine's 'Top 50 Albums of 2017' Standing at the west end of Hollywood's Sunset Boulevard, the Chateau Marmont hotel has seen many a famous and infamous guest pass through its doors since it opened in 1929. A 2012 stay in one of its second-floor rooms inspired British lyricist and singer?Jarvis Cocker?to look into its history and led to this collaborative project with multi-faceted Canadian pianist and composer?Chilly Gonzales. Room 29, a 21st-century song cycle on Deutsche Grammophon utilizes Gonzales' score and Cocker's lyrics which conjure up the lives of some of Room?29's previous occupants, as well as shining a light on the glittering fantasy and often bleak reality of Hollywood. READ THE FULL COMMENTS & LIST By?Under The Radar Magazine's -?Mark Redfern p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial}

The Passion of Charlie Parker is a new album from producer Larry Klein that tells the story of Charlie Parker using his music as inspiration for new songs that narrate his life. Guest artists include Gregory Porter, Madeleine Peyroux, Kandace Springs, actor Jeffrey Wright, and more. The album will be available on impulse!/ Verve digitally on June 16, with physical release to follow on June 30. Larry Klein says, "With this album I've endeavored to do something new and different in an effort to illustrate who ‘Bird' was as an archetypal character, and to draw attention to the huge impact that his work had on Jazz." Rather than create another tribute of traditional bebop tunes, Klein partnered with lyricist David Baerwald to create a musical play that tells the story of Charlie Parker's life while still playing with the jagged melodic nature of Charlie Parker's compositions. The Passion of Charlie Parker is 'Biggest Gainer', 'Most ADDed' & 'Chartbound' on this week's Jazzweek chart moving up from postion #108 to #51, just missng the Top 50

Singer Rufus Wainwright will bring his mix of contemporary and classical sound to the Dubai Opera on December 6. Wainwright's first opera Prima Donna also enjoyed a solid international run during 2009. The songs from the production was released in a double album (also called Prima Donna) that same year. Wainwright is currently working on a new opera to be released in October next year. Wainwright comes to Dubai on the back of his latest album, the theatrically themed Take All My Loves: 9 Shakespeare Sonnets, which features adaptations of the great bard's works with guest appearances by an eclectic array of actors including the late Carrie Fisher Helena Bonham Carter and William Shatner. The album was released in tribute to the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death. READ THE FULL National ARTICLE p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Helvetica} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Helvetica; min-height: 12.0px}

Violinist Rachel Barton Pine has been on a roll in the recording studio over the past couple of years. Any one of her last three albums could be considered a major career milestone on its own. They include all of the works for violin and orchestra by W.A. Mozart, the complete sonatas and partitas for unaccompanied violin by J.S. Bach, and most recently, almost all of the music for solo violin by Niccolò Paganini, including the notorious twenty-four caprices. Her latest album is new from Avie Classics and she talked about it with KMFA: Austin TX - Rideshare host Chris Johnson last week. Produced with help from volunteer production assistant Joshua Figueroa. LISTEN