Classical Music

Think chamber music is only for folks who drink tea with their pinky fingers up?

Balderdash.

New World Symphony is holding its season opener by going “off the wall” in grand fashion.

The concert this coming Saturday, October 12 will mark the symphony’s 100th Wallcast. Eight years ago, the orchestral academy led by conductor Michael Tilson Thomas started its free outdoor simulcasts of live concerts performed inside the New World Center in Miami Beach. Live video from the hall is projected onto the Center's 7,000 square-foot eastern facade and viewed from the adjacent SoundScape Park.

Like many Venezuelan expats living in South Florida, Kendall resident Paola Berriros still has family and friends suffering under the authoritarian regime of president Nicolás Maduro. She fled Venezuela when the country's humanitarian crisis was brewing 15 years ago. 

Now Berriros' 6-year-old daughter, Karina, has learned to play piano, violin and sing under Musicall - a South Florida non-profit that gives children from all backgrounds access to music education. 

It's common for many young musicians to join a youth orchestra for a variety of reasons: some join for performance experience that might help snag a scholarship; others for fellowship or for  the sheer love of the music.

But perhaps what's not as common is performing solely for a good cause.

The South Florida Symphony Orchestra's Maestra Sebrina Alfonso is bringing the groundbreaking George Gershwin 1930s opera “Porgy and Bess” to the region for a series of performances.

The opera follows the story of poor African Americans struggling to survive and make money in the fictional neighborhood of Catfish Row in South Carolina. The opera was significant for shining the spotlight on black art in America by featuring an all-black cast.

University of Miami’s Frost School of Music and the U.S. Chopin Foundation are partnering to organize the first ever Frost Chopin Festival and Academy.

The Frost festival will give 20 pianists a chance to to immerse themselves in the work and legacy of composer Frederic Chopin. Most of the participants are from across the U.S. and some international.

Pianists were selected to  participate in masterclasses with Chopin experts and the week-long event will include public performances and lectures on Chopin's music and personal life.

American orchestras are overwhelmingly white. Black and Latino musicians make up less than five percent of orchestra members, according to the Sphinx Organization, which works to increase diversity in the arts.

And the National Alliance for Audition Support—a collaboration between Sphinx, New World Symphony and the League of American Orchestras—wants to change that. 

You've probably heard it hundreds of times, especially in your childhood—that signature ascending glissando ("zoooooOOOOOMMMM!") followed by a full orchestra playing a rollicking, fast-paced calliope-style melody.

The tune "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down" was written in 1937 and is perhaps best known as the theme song for Warner Brothers' "Looney Tunes" cartoon series. It's a safe bet that most cartoon aficionados know the melody, but not the title.

WLRN Education reporter Jessica Bakeman spent time talking to black students at Miami Country Day School, a private institution with a predominantly white student body. According to the students, racism presents itself in many ways.

Bakeman reports on Sundial: