Got an idea for a classical cartoon or a reaction to this one? Leave your thoughts in the comments section.
Pablo Helguera is a New York-based artist working with sculpture, drawing, photography and performance. His new book isHelguera's Artunes. You can see more of his work atArtworld Salon and on his own site.
Osvaldo Golijov's St. Mark Passion at Carnegie Hall.
Credit Melanie Burford / NPR
Although Golijov's St. Mark Passion requires a specialized orchestra of musicians, including Cuban and Brazilian drumming and dancing, it has been performed around the world some three dozen times.
Credit Melanie Burford / For NPR
More than 100 choristers from area high schools and the Songs of Solomon choir sang in the Passion, here representing the angry crowd at Jesus' crucifixion.
Credit Melanie Burford / NPR
Although Robert Spano has conducted Golijov's Passion before — and has made a recording — he says he still feels "totally intimidated" by the diversity of the score. "It was learning a new musical vocabulary," he said.
Credit Melanie Burford / For NPR
Members of the Forest Hills High School Concert Choir,the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts Concert Choir and Songs of Solomon singing in Golijov's St. Mark Passion.
Credit Melanie Burford / NPR
Brazilian singer Luciana Souza sings "Lua descolorida" (Aria of Peter's Tears), one of the Passion's most heartbreaking songs.
Credit Melanie Burford / NPR
Soprano Jessica Rivera, left, Deraldo Ferreira, center, and Renaldo Gonzalez-Fernandez received enthusiastic applause after performing in Osvaldo Golijov's Passion according to St. Mark, with Orquesta La Pasion and conductor Robert Spano at Carnegie Hall, March 10, 2013.
Credit Melanie Burford / NPR
The St. Mark Passion incorporates Brazilian Capoeira (martial arts) and the traditional stringed percussion instrument the berimbau, both specialties of musician Deraldo Ferreira.
Credit Melanie Burford / For NPR
With his St. Mark Passion, composer Osvaldo Golijov turns the traditional Passion (like those of J.S. Bach) on its head and gives it a spin or two. Here, Javier Silva performs in front of the Forest Hills High School Concert Choir, the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts Concert Choir and Songs of Solomon at Carnegie Hall.
Credit Melanie Burford / NPR
Golijov's Passion calls for sacred Cuban bata drums, plus congas and a battery of Brazilian drums.
Credit Melanie Burford / NPR
Vocalist Gioconda Cabrera with the local choristers, and the cello section of Orquesta Pasion.
Credit Melanie Burford / NPR
Deraldo Ferreira, left, pierces Jesus, played by Afro-Cuban singer and dancer Reynaldo Gonzalez-Fernandez.
Credit Melanie Burford / NPR
Deraldo Ferreira, left, and Reynaldo Gonzalez-Fernandez, as Jesus, perform in the St. Mark Passion.
Credit Melanie Burford / NPR
Conductor Robert Spano led a cast of some 195 musicians, including several choirs. Golijov's updated Passion, from 2000, seamlessly combines elements of western choral music, western orchestral instruments and deep folkloric Latin American rhythms, instruments and dances.
Margaret Bonds in 1956. Born in Chicago in 1913, Bonds became one of the first African-American female composers to gain recognition in the United States.
Margaret Bonds, who died in 1972, is perhaps near the top of the very short list of African-American female composers. Thanks to her partnerships with Langston Hughes and soprano Leontyne Price and others, she's remembered in some circles as an important figure in American composition. But, mostly, she's been forgotten.
"It's amazing that people don't know who she was, although she was quite well known in her time," says Louise Toppin, an opera singer and a voice professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Got an idea for a classical cartoon or a reaction to this one? Leave your thoughts in the comments section.
Pablo Helguera is a New York-based artist working with sculpture, drawing, photography and performance. His new book isHelguera's Artunes. You can see more of his work atArtworld Salon and on his own site.
The evening's soprano soloist, Veronica Cangemi, is an Argentine artist; she was the principal cellist in the Mendoza Symphony Orchestra before finding her true calling as a singer.
Credit Melanie Burford for NPR
The charming Spinosi, who alternated between French and broken English in speaking to the audience from the stage, here thanks Cangemi after one of her solo turns.
Credit Melanie Burford for NPR
Founded 22 years ago as a string quartet in Brittany, the Ensemble Matheus — now a chamber orchestra specializing in Baroque repertoire — has gained fame throughout Europe and beyond.
Credit Melanie Burford for NPR
A Carnegie Hall Live performance by the Ensemble Matheus encompassed encompassed operatic and instrumental music by Vivaldi, Handel and Porpora in the intimate and warm setting of Zankel Hall on March 6, 2013.
Credit Melanie Burford for NPR
The group's founder, Jean-Christophe Spinosi, congratulates cellist Jerome Pernoo on his performance of music by the now little-heard composer Nicola Antonio Porpora: his unusual Cello Concerto in G Major.
