Classical Notes: May 24, 2012 Archive

Kahane & Son

Posted at 10:14 AM on May 24, 2012 by John Birge

While Jeffrey Kahane plays a Mozart Piano Concerto with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra in our live broadcast this Saturday, his son Gabriel will be busy as well.
Gabriel's new musical February House is onstage at the Public Theater in New York. The musical is inspired by a group of artists who shared a house in Brooklyn in the 1940s, among them, W. H. Auden, Benjamin Britten, and Gypsy Rose Lee (!).
Big article with video in NYTimes yesterday; video clip too...

Kander & Ebb & Pierce

Posted at 10:27 AM on May 24, 2012 by John Birge

The songwriting team of Kander & Ebb wrote the musicals Cabaret and Chicago.
Their final collaboration, The Scottsboro Boys, premiered at the Guthrie in Minneapolis in 2010. Fred Ebb died four years before, so John Kander finished the words himself.

Now John Kander has a new musical partner, 51 years younger his junior.
His name is Greg Pierce. He's 34 years old, and has good show-biz connections: his uncle is David Hyde-Pierce, who played Niles Crane on the TV show Frasier, and also acted at the Guthrie for a few years. A nice profile of Greg Pierce in today's New York Times.

Meanwhile, you can listen to David Hyde-Pierce on MPR News recalling his days at the Guthrie on MPR News. And from the Tony Awards ceremony, here's a song from The Scottsboro Boys after its transfer from the Guthrie to Broadway: