Recent content from Rob Hubbard
Review: SPCO performs a reverent Handel's 'Messiah' at the Basilica of St. Mary
Conductor Patrick Dupré Quigley leads the orchestra, along with four soloists and the choral group the Singers, in concerts in Minneapolis and St. Paul.
Review: Conductor Richard Egarr leads SPCO musicians in fun and exciting 'Brandenburg' Concertos
The orchestra performs five of J.S. Bach's six 'Brandenburg' Concertos this weekend.
Review: Cantus beautifully mixes poetry and song in its Twin Cities 'Christmas With Cantus' concerts
The vocal octet performs at nine venues through Dec. 22.
Review: Bach goes big in Minnesota Orchestra's rewarding program
Israeli mandolinist Avi Avital was soloist.
Dreaming of a choral Christmas? We've got you covered.
8 classical music presentations in the Twin Cities area during December.
Review: Minnesota Orchestra delivers Mozart's 'Requiem' with solemnity, vibrancy and passion
The program also includes four outstanding vocal soloists and the Minnesota Chorale.
Composers and librettists create beautiful music together in three-week Nautilus program
Artists in this year's Nautilus Composer-Librettist Studio will share their creations with the public in concerts on Monday and Tuesday.
University Opera Theatre stages 'Dream of the Red Chamber'
The Chinese Heritage Foundation of Minneapolis/St. Paul and the San Francisco Opera commissioned the work, based on an 18th-century Chinese novel.
Review: Virtuoso violinist Leonidas Kavakos gives a breathtaking Schubert Club recital
Each of the two concerts feature half of J.S. Bach's Six Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin.
Review: Minnesota Opera stages eye-catching and well-sung 'Romeo and Juliet'
Jasmine Habersham as Juliet and Evan LeRoy Johnson as Roméo made beautiful music together in Charles Gounod's operatic adaptation of the tale.
Review: Osmo Vänskä returns to play with Minnesota Orchestra. So does his theatrical oomph.
The former music director teams up with cellist Anthony Ross for an intriguing Walton Cello Concerto.
Review: St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and cellist Abel Selaocoe transform the classical concert experience
Abel Selaocoe performed unconventional and traditional works on the exciting and joyful program.
Twin Cities Early Music Festival will present 10 concerts over eight days in St. Paul
The group is celebrating its 10th anniversary with this musical marathon.
U School of Music director Patrick Warfield wants more collaborations for students
Earlier this year, U music students collaborated with the Cedar Cultural Center on its Nordic Roots Festival and later this school year will work with professional musicians and composers visiting the Twin Cities.
Review: Film composer Hans Zimmer rocked out to some of his famed scores at Target Center
"Hans Zimmer Live" included music from the films "Dune," "The Lion King" and "Gladiator" to name a few.
Review: Minnesota Orchestra opens its season with South Korean piano prodigy Yunchan Lim
The program includes works by Hector Berlioz, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Andrea Tarrodi and Ottorino Respighi.
Review: Moor Mother offers a powerful artistic experience at Walker Art Center
The poet-musician performed with seven other musicians in her debut work "The Great Bailout" that included free jazz, original poetry and tap dancing.
Twin Cities classical concerts feature scores to your favorite movies
A few of the movie scores to receive orchestral treatment include "Star Wars," "Hocus Pocus" and "Back to the Future."
Review: SPCO opens its season with German violist Tabea Zimmermann leading the orchestra
The program included works by Mozart, Grażyna Bacewicz and Sergei Prokofiev.
Raison d'Etre Opera is a new opera company in Minneapolis. And it's for singers 55 and older.
Semiretired mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade will perform recitals and hold master classes as part of the opera company's fundraiser.
Review: Mixed Precipitation's 'Faust' offers fine performances in challenging outdoor settings
This Pickup Truck Opera adaptation of Charles Gounod's "Faust" will be performed around Minnesota through Sept. 15.
Musician deVon Russell Gray has composed music for Walker Art Center's 'Sound for Silents'
Composition will provide the soundtrack to a few films from the Walker's moving image collection.
Review: Minnesota Orchestra's 'An American in Paris' showcases the ensemble's versatility
The orchestra performed the Gershwin masterpiece to a screening of the 1951 film.
Review: Mezzo-soprano Clara Osowski shined in Source Song Festival's opening night concert
The high point was Reinaldo Moya's "2 Canciones de Alfonsina Storni," which showcased Osowski's interpretive skills.
Brainerd's Lakes Area Music Festival opens with a bang
The German music director amplifies the symphony's joy with his intensity and interpretive imagination.
Review: Minnesota Orchestra displays versatile virtuosity in 'Summer at Orchestra Hall' concert
Pianist and principal soloist Jon Kimura Parker showed great aplomb on Maurice Ravel's Piano Concerto in G major.
Review: 'Summer at Orchestra Hall' opens with a high-energy concert of Mozart and Beethoven
Bulgarian conductor Delyana Lazarova also led the Minnesota Orchestra in music by Joseph Bologne aka Chevalier de Saint-Georges.
St. Paul Chamber Orchestra names Gábor Takács-Nagy its newest artistic partner
He joins a team of other world-class musicians serving in that role with the SPCO.
Review: Cantus' 'Queen's Songbook' concert delivers refreshing songs from Hawaii
The vocal octet performs works composed by Hawaii's Queen Lili'uokalani.
LGBTQ choirs gather in Minneapolis for the GALA Choruses Festival
Some 7,000 singers and 122 choirs from across the globe will converge on the city for five days of song.
Review: Cellist Steven Isserlis offers impressive recital at Winona's Minnesota Beethoven Festival
Pianist Connie Shih accompanied Isserlis on works by Beethoven, Gabriel Fauré and Thomas Adès.
Out of the Box Opera stages Puccini's 'Suor Angelica' at the Basilica of St. Mary
The audience, cast and musicians will move throughout the Minneapolis basilica as part of the immersive production.
Minnesota Orchestra's Thomas Søndergård won't conduct this weekend's Pride concerts
Søndergård is ill and a replacement conductor will step in.
Review: Tchaikovsky's 4th Symphony is the standout in Minnesota Orchestra's Pride concert
Works by Dame Ethel Smyth and Francis Poulenc also are part of the program.
6 classical music festivals across Minnesota to check out this summer
This season has it all, from Bach and Beethoven to Joshua Bell and Christian Reif to Julia Bullock and Ana Maria Martinez.
Review: Minnesota Orchestra performs Beethoven with guest pianist Yefim Bronfman
The Orchestra Hall program includes works by John Adams and Adolphus Hailstork.
Review: Guest conductor Gabor Takacs-Nagy concludes the SPCO season with passion and soul
He powerfully delivers Beethoven's "Eroica" Symphony and demonstrates the wonderful chemistry he shares with the St. Paul orchestra.
Review: Christian Tetzlaff performed a deep, absorbing violin concerto with the Minnesota Orchestra
The program also included works by Henri Dutilleux and Béla Bartók.
'Nooma,' an opera for babies, returns to Ordway Center in St. Paul
The show is designed for babies and toddlers up to 24 months, and parents are welcome, too.
Review: Pianist Richard Goode performs with impeccable touch and intimacy in SPCO concert
The program includes two Mozart concertos and "Lila" by Texu Kim.
Mobile mini-concerts are part of Minnesota Bach Festival events
The festival, run by the Bach Society of Minnesota, runs through June 1.
Review: Conductor Richard Egarr leads the SPCO in a concert filled with gravitas and joy
The program included works by Mozart, Charles Ives and Franz Schubert.
Review: Minnesota Opera stages a most entertaining and energetic 'La Bohème'
Won Whi Choi as Rodolfo and Melinda Whittington as Mimi are in powerful voice in one of the most well-sung productions of the Giacomo Puccini opera.
Review: Violinist Daniel Hope offered romanticism and emotion in Schubert Club concert
Hope performed works by César Franck and Maurice Ravel, among others, with English pianist Simon Crawford-Phillips.
St. Paul Chamber Orchestra enlists a host of intriguing musicmakers for its 2024-25 season
Pianist Roman Rabinovich, cellist Abel Selaocoe, violist Tabea Zimmermann and flutist Jasmine Choi are just some of the soloists slated to perform with the SPCO.
Review: Concertmaster Erin Keefe delivers beautiful violin solo with the Minnesota Orchestra
The concert also featured works by Eleanor Alberga, Johannes Brahms and Robert Schumann.
Review: Soprano Golda Schultz proved a captivating storyteller with a magnificent voice
Her Schubert Club International Artist Series recital featured songs by Clara Schumann, Rebecca Clarke and Kathleen Tagg.
Minnesota Orchestra's 2024-25 season includes mandolinist Avi Avital, jazz master Wynton Marsalis
Soprano Julia Bullock, violinist Isabelle Faust and soprano Christine Goerke are also among the world-class musicians slated to perform with the orchestra next season.
Review: Pianist Anne-Marie McDermott performs mesmerizing, haunting program with the SPCO
The concert included the premiere of a new piano concerto by American composer Chris Rogerson and works by French composers Francis Poulenc and Ernest Chausson.
Review: Pianist Yuja Wang performs a spirited, satisfying program with the Minnesota Orchestra
The Chinese virtuoso performed works by Sergei Prokofiev, Arturo Márquez and Franz Schubert.
Review: Pianist Daniil Trifonov delivers exciting, emotionally powerful Chopin Society recital
The Russian virtuoso's interpretations of Beethoven's "Hammerklavier" and Peter Tchaikovsky's "In Church" were the concert's most outstanding performances.
Review: MN Opera's 'Trouble in Tahiti' and 'Service Provider' explore marital bliss gone wrong
Mezzo-soprano Zoie Reams offers standout performances in both one-acts.
Schubert Club announces 2024-25 International Artist Series and Music in the Park Series concerts
Jeremy Denk, Leonidas Kavakos and Emmanuel Pahud are among those slated to perform as part of the International Artist Series.
Minnesota Opera's 2024-25 season features 'The Barber of Seville,' 'The Snowy Day,' a recital series
The season opens Nov. 2 with "Romeo and Juliet."
Review: Cantus, Canadian Brass prove an 'unsuccessful pairing' in St. Paul concert
The sound dynamics were problematic when the two groups blended, with the brass quintet overpowering some voices.
Review: Osmo Vänskä returns for an ear-opening Minnesota Orchestra concert of new music
Guest bassist Nina Bernat proved exhilarating and lyrical on Giovanni Bottesini's second bass concerto.
National Lutheran Choir's artistic director wants the group's music to make audiences think
Jennaya Robison will lead the choir in a performance Sunday at St. Philip the Deacon Lutheran Church in Plymouth.
Review: King's Singers delight with tightly woven harmonies in Bethlehem Music Series concert
The all-male group was in fine form especially on songs such as Amanda McBroom's "The Rose" and U2′s "MLK."
Shruthi Rajasekar performs her new work 'Parivaar' as part of the Schubert Club Mix
Rajasekar curated the concert series and has made it a celebration of Minnesota's vibrant South Asian artistic community and the many musicians who have guided her along the way.
Review: Richard Egarr leads SPCO in spirited, dramatic Baroque music concerts
The smile-inducing program featured works by J.S. Bach, Heinrich Biber and Georg Philipp Telemann.
Review: The SPCO performs a majestic Handel's 'Messiah'
The St. Paul Chamber Orchestra's version has long been the Twin Cities area's gold standard.
Review: Shorthanded Cantus offers Christmas concert of solemn reverence
The harmonies were a bit thinner and the spirit more solemn at Friday's midday concert, with three of the group's four tenors sidelined.
8 great holiday concerts by Twin Cities area classical groups
From a couple of different renditions of "Messiah" to choirs to "Amahl and the Night Visitors," there's something for everyone.
St. Paul Chamber Orchestra has a budget surplus for fiscal year 2022
Community donations have been key to the SPCO braving the pandemic.
Review: Harpist Bridget Kibbey showed what the instrument can do at St. Paul recital
At St. Paul's Ordway, she teamed with violinist Alexi Kenney for a rich performance.
Dianne Reeves performs with Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra in holiday concert at Orchestra Hall
Christmas music always reminds the Grammy-winning jazz vocalist of family and fellowship.
Review: Minnesota Opera's finely sung 'Rinaldo' opens the new Luminary Arts Center
The fun production features imaginative costumes and staging.
Bruce Coppock, former SPCO president, cellist and teacher, dies at 71
Bruce Coppock, a classical music visionary, retired in 2016.
Review: Joshua Bell leads SPCO in energetic, emotional concert of Mozart, Bruch and Bizet
The violinist was an artistic partner with the SPCO earlier in his career from 2004-2007.
Review: Osmo Vänskä leads Minnesota Orchestra in bright, bold and bracing Mahler's Third Symphony
This work will be the last that the conductor laureate records with the orchestra.
