Pablo Casals

by Mike Dorning Desiree Rogers once made millionaires of a lucky few everyday people. Now she plans to give Americans dinner invitations to the White House. Rogers, a svelte, stylish Chicago business executive and socialite -- and a former Illinois......

Christopher Rouse's "Rhapturedux" for 100 cellos, the grand finale of the Piatigorsky International Cello Festival, infused Walt Disney Concert Hall with not only a massed cello sound but the very essence of the cello,...

Could there be a more fitting image and cultural icon for New York’s great glam-punk band to invoke than Ginger Rogers? Borrowing the dancer’s famous line about her challenges with partner Fred Astaire for the title to their fifth studio......

Obama to confer 2011 Presidential Medal of Freedom on Tuesday; arts honorees are Yo-Yo Ma and Jasper Johns, the first visual artist to win since 1977....

Cellist Rohan de Saram, born in Britain to Sri Lankan parents, may be best known for his tenure as a member of the Arditti Quartet between 1979 and 2005. But before he became part of that elite group specializing in......

Too often when classical music organizations think big, especially in these tough economic times, they run the risk of unmet expectations and financial difficulty. (Given a recently announced $6-million deficit, supporters of L.A. Opera might worry...

Remembering JFK: As part of its 2010-2011 season, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts has announced a two-week series of programs and shows marking the 50th anniversary of President Kennedy's inauguration. Among the offerings will be re-...

The rarefied world of classical music is the setting and the intimate "perfect square" of a string quartet the crucible for "A Late Quartet," a melodrama of love, lust, betrayal and Beethoven. It's a quiet film of tempestuous but predictable situations...

Halfway through reading Paul Elie's "Reinventing Bach," I suddenly got dizzy. An earthquake? All-purpose angst? Or could it be that composer Johann Sebastian Bach was working as an agent of transcendence on me, as he did on this sincere author? The basic...

-------------------- Reinventing Bach Paul Elie Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 498 pp., $30.00 -------------------- Halfway through reading Paul Elie's "Reinventing Bach," I suddenly got dizzy. An earthquake? All-purpose angst? Or could it be that Bach...

Parents whose children attend one of several Chicago Public Schools slated to close due to low-performance were speaking out Thursday. At Pablo Casals on Chicago’s West Side, where CPS has proposed a turnaround, parents rallied, saying the...

When President Obama announced plans in April to spend $13 billion in federal stimulus funds on developing high-speed rail in America, he invoked the usual role models -- Japan, China and France -- as examples of fast-train culture. He also praised...