Jay Harvey Upstage

  A durable chamber-music series, founded by two members of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra a nd continued with another ISO couple plus a well-schooled pianist. opened its 2025-26 season Sunday afternoon basking in the musical influencer (and influenced) Johannes Brahms. Sunday's performance at St. Paul's Episocopal Church promised further building by the Ronen Chamber Ensemble on a sound foundation first constructed by David Bellman and Ingrid Fischer Bellman.  The young Brahms, beardless friend of the Schumanns A well-designed program gave substantial exposure to artistic directors Alistair Howlett, flute, and Jennifer Christen, oboe, and the constant presence of their artistic partner, pianist Gregory Martin. Titled "Brahms and His Circle," the program will be repeated at the Hilbert Circle Theatre (Wood Room) at 7:30 p.m. today.  The "circle" in the program title takes in the ghostly presence of Robert and Clara Schumann, eminent musicians at the tim...

A first-rank soloist debut deserved major attention as the   Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra  opened the 2025-26 Classical Series Friday night under the direction of its apparently visionary music director, Jun Märkl. Though the progress of current contract negotiations is always a major concern, artistically the ensemble is in fine fettle, with a bunch of new members, including several in principal positions. Though I listened to Saint - Sa ëns ,  Fauré , and Dvorak with my usual attentiveness, I glanced frequently at the personnel page to get me up-to-date about whom I was hearing. The orchestra was delivering at Hilbert Circle Theatre on the same high level as it had achieved  when it finished 2024-25 in June. Guest soloist wowed ISO audience in two works. The immensely appealing soloist this weekend was  Daniel Müller-Schott,   a German cellist. Like Märkl, he is a native of Munich. The rapport evident Friday in pieces for cello and orchestra by th...

  Steve Allee presides gracefully at the keyboard.   What local jazz fans have taken in from a key figure over the past 40 years or so is brought forward to our times in "Naptown Sound" and "Full Circle," a monument permanently etched on two compact discs over three days of recording in May 2024. It's a tribute to Steve Allee that the excellent musicians he attracts are so well-represented by his stellar arrangements and original compositions. A host of local producers has supported the twin CD release, with public access through the Indianapolis Jazz Foundatio n.  On the bandstand, Allee has spoken often from the piano chair of his debt to his great predecessors here, whom "Naptown Sound" celebrates, with significant places for jazz also saluted on both albums. On "Full Circle," the pantheon figures range from guitarist Wes Montgomery to Allee piano mentor Claude Sifferlen.  Well-chosen soloists help characterize the arrangements, with their...

The opening of a theater season is a matter of many scheduling factors. It may chiefly be considered  the vehicle for an organization to put its best foot forward, to confirm its identity among old fans and to attract new ones to its mission. Departures from whatever the first production  represents can still be embraced as the season goes on if the public's first impression is positive.  The cast introduces intself in pose and gesture as "The 39 Steps' opens.  So Indiana Repertory Theatre deserves credit for innovative thinking in getting a thoroughly silly play on the boards to launch its 2025-26 series. Of course, the company had good reason to think "The 39 Steps" would generate paroxysms of delight among its loyal patrons to float its boat for a few months.  And if the IRT fall starts so, can the winter of "A Christmas Carol" non-discontent be far behind? There is even a hint of that annual hit (minor spoiler alert here) in an outburst of flung sn...

 With his current trio putting a fresh stamp on the familiar combo of piano-bass-drums, Paul Cornish paid a return visit to the Jazz Kitchen Saturday night behind his just-issued CD, "You're Exaggerating!" The house was packed for the first set, and outbursts of fan ardor were frequent. Part of the pianist's  appeal is clearly his calm and welcoming stage presence. The charm of his comments between selections was infectious, and may have helped confirm the integrity of music that is remarkably free of cliche, given the familiarity of the jazz piano trio. I felt certain he was focused even when I wasn't sure I was quite catching it.  Paul C'ornish Trio at the Jazz Kitchen As I said about his finalist appearance with the American Piano Awards ' bassist and drummer in November 2022, "Cornish is evidently a player who has no hesitation in ranging across a wide spectrum of sonority and expression and making it all come across as uniquely his own."  ...

Decades ago, Tom Lehrer and Mort Sahl took Wernher von Braun down a peg or two during the German rocket scientist's American heyday. The late singer-songwriter with a learned, contrary attitude  (and good taste in verging on bad taste) ended his song about von Braun like this: "In German or English I know how to count down, and I'm learning Chinrese, says Wernher von Braun."  The rescued scientist's amoral opportunism was the point, and the song told it wittily. In an interview, Lehrer once quoted the stand-up comic Sahl's quip  imagining how Braun declared his idealism: "I aim for the stars. [Pause] Sometimes I hit London." The idea was to shoot down any loftiness of purpose as the German war machine rained his V2 rockets down on the British capital during the Blitz. Yet the contribution of this household-name favorite of Walt Disney went beyond opportunism and no-holds-barred ambition. That's what Crystal Skillman 's "The Rocket Men...