Mostly Baroque Brings Works of Bach, Pergolesi and Florence Price to Arsht Center

Headlining the second night of the Mostly Baroque festival at the Arsht Center is bass-baritone vocal artist and composer Johan Hartman, pictured above. Mostly Baroque performs in a three concert engagement inside the Carnival Studio Theatre beginning Thursday, Feb. 26. (Photo courtesy of Mostly Baroque)

One pleasure in playing Baroque music, says David Hartman, music director of the Mostly Baroque ensemble is its liveliness. Violins, violas and cellos duel for pride of place with dramatic solos. “Everybody is wanting to say their line, have their comment. Each one has its moment in the sun,” says Hartman, violinist, concert master and leader of the group that he founded in 1997. Still, the audience is the real winner, treated to some of the most exciting and well-loved pieces in the classical repertoire along with others they may not have heard before.

Mostly Baroque performs in a three-concert engagement inside the Carnival Studio Theatre at the Adrienne Arsht Center, Miami, on Thursday, Feb. 26 with shows on Friday, Feb. 27 and Sunday, March 1.

The program consists of  well-loved compositions with song cycles; work by early 20th century African American composer Florence Price – sung by the Miami Oratorio Society – and Pergolesi’s period opera “La Serva Padrona.” It’s Mostly Baroque’s first appearance at the Arsht and Hartman hopes it becomes a yearly event.

Hartman started Mostly Baroque in South Florida, where he met many of the group’s musicians, and first became friends and colleagues with Gloria Christian, Miami Oratorio Society president. While Hartman and his family later moved to Connecticut, where Mostly Baroque is now based, Florida ties remain strong.

As Hartman tells it, Baroque music’s unique elements set it apart. The period spans from about 1600 to the mid-18th century. Claudio Monteverdi is credited with launching the style, explains Hartman. Monteverdi’s expressive and dramatic music was a radical departure from earlier church-based compositions, while giving players latitude to experiment with trills, ornaments and rhythm variations. “There is a lot of freedom for the performers to do things,” he says, referring to Baroque compositions. By the time you get to Beethoven, he adds, “you have to play exactly what is on the page.”

Opening night of the series will  feature Bach Brandenburg concertos, and Georg Philipp Telemann’s Don Quichotte suite. The orchestra – smaller than a grand orchestra at about 13 players and four soloists – includes nine string players, flute, oboe, double bass, harpsichord and trumpet, all performing on period instruments or faithful reproductions.

Headlining the second night on Friday, Feb. 27, is bass-baritone vocal artist and composer Johan Hartman – the son of Hartman and his wife Peggy Hartman (an oboist, who is also part of the ensemble).

Hartman will perform Gerald Finzi’s “Let Us Garlands Bring” (a set of five songs based on Shakespeare), plus the Don Quixote songs of Jacques Ibert (written for the 1933 film), along with works in English, French, German and Italian. Soprano Yi-Chun Sarah Tsai, Johan Hartman’s partner in art and in life will also participate. The pair met in graduate school, recently married and this month held their wedding celebration in Miami.

There will also be original song cycles set to poetry – an approach many composers have taken, including Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Benjamin Britten. Hartman’s piece is composed around “Blood and the Moon” by William Butler Yeats. “There is incredibly rich imagery in his poems,” he says. “There is some really great poetry out there in English.” He will also premier a piece set to the text of Robert Frost’s “Fire and Ice.”

Though not part of this show, Hartman is working on an opera based on “The Signal-Man” a mystery-horror short story by Charles Dickens, published in 1866. It is within an innovative trend of horror and mystery as operatic themes being explored by young classical composers. “At the end of the day, it’s a good, human story that can exist in any genre,” says Hartman.

On Sunday, March 1, Tsai and Hartman play, respectively, scheming maidservant Serpina (the name says it all) and her boss, old bachelor Uberto in “La Serva Padrona,” the 1733 comic opera by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi.

In 2022, she and Hartman performed “La Serva Padrona,” at the Dennis C. Moss Cultural Arts Center – then the South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center. “It’s always a lot of fun to revisit a role,” she says. “It’s like an old friend.”

Song cycles have their own charm, says Tsai, yet opera is different in interesting ways. “You need to go into the role: what is the background (of the character), the details, and what lead her into that place?” She compares songs and opera to “a single short story instead of a novel.”

In the opera, Tsai says, “Serpina thinks of herself as the boss of the house,” who incubates her own schemes to reach her goal – namely marrying the well-heeled Uberto. Such characters, are fun, she says. And, she adds, the work includes a lot of interesting details. “Every time you revisit (a piece) you learn something new from the composer and what they are trying to do – that is good music.”

Tsai, who sings both mezzo-soprano and soprano roles, earned her doctorate in vocal performance from the University of Miami this year. She and Hartman met as graduate students at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music where both were vocal performance majors. After living for some years in South Florida they moved to New Jersey, in order to be closer to New York and its professional opportunities.

Rounding out the concert while bringing things full circle is an appearance by the Miami Oratorio Society, performing work by Florence Price, the African American classical composer, who in the last several years is finally getting the recognition her works deserve. The group will also perform choruses from George Frideric Handel’s “Messiah,” accompanied by the Mostly Baroque Chamber Orchestra.

Christian, the society’s president, is originally from Jamaica, where she learned and sang classical compositions in the church her family attended. She joined the group – founded in 1974 – around 1992, when she moved to Miami. The society, she explains, was originally formed to bring classical music to underserved communities – which it still does. “We do a lot of Baroque music,” she says. “We do anything you can think of.” Christian, who sings soprano, became president of the group a year or two after joining. She and David Hartman met when he was the orchestra coordinator for the group.

It’s very exciting, she says, to perform the work of Price. “She was a Black lady and you don’t hear about many of the Black composers,” she says. “Moreover, she is a woman and that makes it even better.” They will sing “Praise the Lord,” a church anthem. “It is absolutely beautiful,” she says. The group has previously performed at the Arsht, but not recently, according to Christian. “This is our second time. I’m really looking forward to it.”

WHAT: Mostly Baroque Concert Series
WHERE: Adrienne Arsht Center’s Carnival Studio Theater, 1300 Biscayne Blvd., Miami
WHEN: 7 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 26 and. Friday, Feb. 27; 3 p.m., Sunday, March 1.                               COST: Varies by date: $70.20, Feb. 26; $46.80, Feb. 27; $87.75,  March 1                  INFORMATION: (305) 949-6722 or arshtcenter.org

ArtburstMiami.com is a nonprofit media source for the arts featuring fresh and original stories by writers dedicated to theater, dance, visual arts, film, music, and more. Don’t miss a story at www.artburstmiami.com

 

Davóne Tines Reimagines the National Anthem at New World Symphony Festival

The 5th annual “I Dream a World: Lift Every Voice and Sing” Festival will be held from Wednesday, Feb. 18 through Sunday, Feb. 22 in Overtown and Miami Beach and features bass-baritone Davóne Tines. (Photo courtesy of New World Symphony) 

For Davóne Tines, the fifth annual “I Dream a World Festival” with New World Symphony is more than just a performance — it is a chance to wield his voice as an instrument of change.

“Instead of flatly entertaining, I want to use the concert stage as a forum for exploring questions and that work has continued with New World Symphony,” says the internationally renowned bass-baritone.

“Lift Every Voice and Sing,” the symphony’s four-day tribute to Black composers from the Civil Rights era to the present day, provides that opportunity.

Produced in partnership with Tammy Kernodle, Ph.D., University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Music at Ohio’s Miami University, the event will be featured on two stages: one in Overtown and the other in Miami Beach.

The festival premieres Wednesday, Feb. 18, at the New World Center in Miami Beach. Tines, along with soprano Kristin Renee Young and the Fellows of the New World Symphony, will bring the musical friendship between Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes and composer and pianist Margaret Bonds to life onstage.

“Salon: I, Too, Sing America” promises an elegant celebration of Hughes, the literary parties he frequented and his subsequent musical collaboration with Bonds.

The program will also be presented Thursday, Feb. 19, at the Black Archives Historic Lyric Theater in Overtown. Tickets are pay-what-you-wish, with suggestions starting at $10.

The remaining two performances return to the New World Center stage, where Panamanian-American conductor Kalena Bovell leads NWS.

In a blockbuster rendition, Tines is slated to present “Concerto No. 2: ANTHEM,” a provocative piece in which he wonders aloud whether the “Star Spangled Banner” is truly an inspirational and unifying battle cry for patriotic Americans.

Spoiler alert: It isn’t.

“I don’t think the ‘Star Spangled Banner’ has been a good part of the DNA of this country because it suggests that our country is founded on ideals of conquering others and oppression,” says Tines, adding that it is important to reconsider symbols that have been chosen to represent America.

“… Make sure that they’re in line with what we as a society are deeming the most positive reflection of where we’re trying to go.”

Self-written and performed, Tines calls his piece an educational tool that uses a “magic trick” to transform the “Star Spangled Banner” into “The Black National Anthem.”

“I really wanted to show to audiences in full orchestral glory, what this alternative option for a national anthem could be,” he says.

This anthem, believes Tines, has better values for a “country to be built on.” His piece begins with a bang.

“The first movement is the ‘Star Spangled Banner’ starting in a very, like MGM musical, Whitney Houston at the Super Bowl. It’s like the Fourth of July on steroids,” he explains.

Then the tone and messaging shift.

“The subsequent verses become darker or more menacing as the text of the song becomes darker and more menacing.”

But Tines’ concerto isn’t the only work drawing from Francis Scott Key’s 1814 composition, which became the country’s official anthem in 1931.

Jessie Montgomery’s “Banner,” composed in 2014, offers a multicultural response marking the national anthem’s 200th anniversary and will be led by first-year Conducting NWS Fellow Ziwei Ma.

Also on the program is Bonds’ “The Montgomery Variations.” Based on “I Want Jesus to Walk with Me,” the 25-minute orchestral work serves as a homage to Martin Luther King Jr. and the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

The Florida Memorial University Ambassador Chorale rounds out the event with a performance of “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” known universally as the “Black National Anthem.”

Argarita Johnson-Palavicini, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Arts and Humanities at Florida Memorial University and director of the Ambassador Chorale, looks forward to another year of collaboration between FMU and the New World Symphony.

“We’re just really happy to be a part of this I have a dream journey that New World Symphony embarks upon every year,” she says.

Johnson-Palavicini notes that their participation is heightened by working with Tines and says she is particularly pleased that the festival will showcase the music of Margaret Bonds.

“Dr. Kernodle does a great job of picking or choosing pieces that most people don’t know of, so to highlight the music of a female composer during this time is really what makes it special,” she says.

“So we just want to continue to make great music together and to encourage and to educate the world about all of the wonderful historical Black music that people may not know about.”

WHAT:  New World Symphony’s “I Dream a World Festival”: “Lift Every Voice and Sing,”

WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 18, 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 19, 7.30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 21, 2 p.m., Sunday, Feb. 22

WHERE: New World Center, 500 17th St, Miami Beach and Black Archives Historic Lyric Theater, 819 NW 2nd Ave, Miami. The Feb.21 performance will be livestreamed online with an NWS Inside paid subscription.

COST: Varies depending on performance. Pay what you wish tickets starting at $10 at the Black Archives Historic Lyric Theater ,$25 to $140 at the New World Center.

INFORMATION: 305-673-3331 or nws.edu/sing

ArtburstMiami.com is a nonprofit media source for the arts featuring fresh and original stories by writers dedicated to theater, dance, visual arts, film, music and more. Don’t miss a story at www.artburstmiami.com.

 

Faith, Music, and Community Take Center Stage at the Arsht Gospel Choir Invitational

The Arsht Gospel Choir Invitational will return on Saturday, Feb. 14 for its second year to Knight Concert Hall bringing together choirs from across Florida. (Photo by Taylor Brown, courtesy of Adrienne Arsht Center)

Beyond the structure of a competition, the Arsht Gospel Choir Invitational is rooted in something deeper. It emerges from a long tradition of gospel music as a communal language in South Florida, one that binds churches, schools, families, and generations.

For the Adrienne Arsht Center, the event extends a gospel programming that began with 15 years of Free Gospel Sundays, evolving into a broader vision.

Jenita Nakamura, senior director of education and community engagement at the Adrienne Arsht Center, says that the move to creating an invitational competition was a way to “reimagine our gospel programming” while continuing to work with gospel groups.

On Saturday, Feb. 14, the Arsht Gospel Choir Invitational returns for its second edition to Knight Concert Hall, bringing together five choirs from across South Florida.

The event will feature the Florida A&M University Gospel Choir, Florida Memorial University Ambassador Chorale, Holy Cross Lutheran Praise Choir, Mt. Pisgah Mass Choir, and Renewed Choir. Audience members help choose which choir wins a $5,000 cash prize. The winning choir also gets to perform in June at the Arsht’s Gospel Fest Miami.

What began as a local initiative has drawn interest from beyond Miami-Dade County, signaling the reach of gospel as both music and movement. “Enthusiasm about the Invitational has grown since the first year,” according to Nakamura. “Not only are people in our local community excited about it, but we have also received submissions from choirs further away that want to compete.”

In South Florida, gospel music has long served as a gathering point. It carries memory, faith, and resilience across decades. The Invitational sits alongside other Arsht initiatives, including “Gospel On The Road” pop-up concerts and Gospel Fest Miami Weekend, offering multiple points of connection throughout the year.

This year’s lineup reflects that breadth. Two university choirs perform alongside three church and school-based ensembles, creating an intentionally intergenerational stage. According to Nakamura, in the invitational’s grand finale all of the choirs in competition come together. “So we’ll see children as young as 10 share the stage with the elders in our community,” says Nakamura.

For the Florida A&M University (FAMU) Gospel Choir based in Tallahassee, the stage represents both opportunity and responsibility. Tahj Merriex, the choir’s president and a graduating senior, describes participation as an act of representation. “For our students, it is both an artistic milestone and a duty to serve as ambassadors.”

Preparation, he explains, was intentional rather than performative. Under the direction of Malachi Gibbs, the choir selected music that honors traditional gospel while allowing room for musical range and innovation.

At Miami Gardens’ Florida Memorial University, the Ambassador Chorale approaches the Invitational with a similar sense of purpose. Directed by Argarita Johnson-Palavicini, D.M.A., the ensemble serves as the university’s premier vocal group and the Arsht stage offers a rare moment of visibility. “As a small, private HBCU, chances like this let us be seen and heard on a larger stage,” says Palavicini. “It gives us the chance to share not just our sound, but our story.”

She described the chorale’s preparation as both spiritual and musical. “Our choir has prepared for this invitational first through prayer and guidance from the Holy Spirit,” she says. The group’s sound blends Black and Hispanic gospel traditions, reflecting the backgrounds of its singers.

Church-based choirs bring yet another dimension to the competition. The Mt. Pisgah Mass Choir, formed in 2024 at Mt. Pisgah Seventh-day Adventist Church in Miami Gardens, includes singers ranging in age from 10 to over 70. “The Mt. Pisgah Mass Choir bridges a gap of over 60 years,” says Nathan Drew, the choir’s minister of music and head director. “Our choir ministry shows how people from different backgrounds can unite in ministry to one great God.”

The youngest voices of the evening will come from Miami’s Holy Cross Lutheran Praise Choir, made up of students in grades three through eight. “Participating in the Gospel Choir Invitational at the Adrienne Arsht Center is an incredible honor,” choir director Matthew Harden says. “It is a chance to represent our faith, our school, and our community on a larger stage and show what young people can do when they sing with purpose and heart.”

Harden said the choir approaches the event with a ministry-first mindset. “We remind our students that we are there to worship first,” he says. “The judging is secondary.”

Renewed Choir, based at Abundant Live Christian Academy in Margate, is made up of high school students. Director Shivonne Pinder said the ensemble was formed as the program expanded to distinguish older singers from the middle school choir.

“This will be their first competition outside of those walls,” says Pinder. “It’s encouraging, it’s empowering, a little overwhelming, but a good challenge.”

Pinder described the choir’s sound as modern gospel with influences from contemporary Christian music and Caribbean traditions. “Gospel CCM meets youth,” she said. “That’s the best way for me to describe it.”

Returning this year as a guest judge is Gamaliel Fleurantin, director of Community Sounds, last year’s winning choir. He remembers the announcement vividly. “When our name was finally announced as the first-place winner, the emotion was overwhelming,” recalls Fleurantin. “It was joy, humility, gratitude, and affirmation all at once. That moment wasn’t just a win, it was a testimony.”

Since that victory, Community Sounds has expanded its reach, performing original music, collaborating with churches such as VOUS, and working toward its first official single. Fleurantin says the invitational reinforced lessons about preparation and purpose. “Technique matters, but transformation matters more,” he says.

Although one choir will be crowned the winner, Fleurantin says the competition is about more than technical polish. “Authenticity is essential,” he said. “This is a gospel competition, and I expect performances that unmistakably reflect the genre — powerful vocals, commanding stage presence, and a clear ‘wow’ factor.”

Audience participation remains a defining feature too, and voting reinforces the idea that the evening belongs as much to the community as to the performers. For Nakamura, that shared energy is the point. “Community engagement is central to our work, and an event like this strengthens our relationships with local faith, academic, and community organizations,” she says.

The Invitational is part of a larger gospel initiative that reaches beyond the Arsht Center. From February to April, the Arsht will also present Gospel On The Road, a series of free pop-up performances aimed at bringing gospel music to neighborhoods throughout Miami-Dade County.

The series kicks off on Saturday, Feb. 21 at 4 p.m. at Loren Roberts Park in Florida City. There will be another performance on Sunday, March 29 at 5 p.m. at the Betty T. Ferguson Recreational Complex in Miami Gardens.

The final event is set for Sunday, April 19 at 5 p.m. at Domino Park in Miami’s Little Havana neighborhood. Each performance showcases local gospel artists and is open to the public. The series of events will conclude with the Gospel Fest Miami Weekend on Saturday, June 20 and Sunday, June 21.

As a former winner and now a judge, Fleurantin advises that the invitational ultimately asks choirs to think beyond results. “Come prepared to compete, because this is a competition,” he says. “But remain humble throughout the process. Work relentlessly and be strategic.”

WHAT: Second Annual Arsht Gospel Choir Invitational
WHERE: Adrienne Arsht Center’s Knight Concert Hall, 1300 Biscayne Blvd., Miami
WHEN: 6 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 14
COST: Tickets are free with RSVP, however guests are invited to contribute the suggested ticket price of $20 (or more) to help sustain live arts experiences for the people of Miami.
INFORMATION: (305) 949-6722 or arshtcenter.org

ArtburstMiami.com is a nonprofit media source for the arts featuring fresh and original stories by writers dedicated to theater, dance, visual arts, film, music, and more. Don’t miss a story at www.artburstmiami.com 

Samara Joy and Catherine Russell, Two of Jazz’s Great Voices, Grace Miami Stages

Two great ladies of jazz come to Miami for performances including Catherine Russell, above, and Samara Joy. Russell kicks of the Faena Jazz Series on Wednesday, Feb. 4 in Miami Beach (Photo by Gilberto Tadday, courtesy of Jazz at Lincoln Center)

To hear Samara Joy sing, you would think she had been raised in a jazz club, clambering up on a bar stool in pigtails and sipping Shirley Temples while serenaded with standards from the stage. Truth be told, she comes from a family of gospel singers and didn’t set foot into a jazz establishment until she left home for college.

To hear Catherine Russell sing, you would think she had been raised in a jazz club…and you wouldn’t be far from the mark. With a composer father who led Louis Armstrong’s orchestra and a mother who had toured the country playing with the all-female Sweethearts of Rhythm, her parents’ music was the soundtrack of her earliest childhood. But Russell took another path, opting instead for a rewarding career as a back-up singer for the likes of Cyndi Lauper, Steely Dan, and David Bowie.

While reaching jazz through different paths and separated by a generation—Samara Joy is 26 and Catherine Russell is 69—both Grammy-winning artists sing mid-twentieth century music like it was what they were put on this earth to do. Russell opens this year’s Faena Jazz Series at the Faena Theater on Wednesday, Feb. 4; Samara Joy will play the Adrienne Arsht Center’s Knight Concert Hall on Thursday, Feb. 12 as part of the Jazz Roots series.

Joy first embraced jazz as her calling as a music student at State University of New York (SUNY) at Purchase.

“I spent a lot of time sort of just immersing myself in the sound and listening to albums, listening to not only vocalists, but musicians as well to sort of figure out what this style of music, what characterizes this style of music,” says Joy, who recorded her debut album before she had even graduated college.

Shelly Berg, Jazz Roots director and dean of the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music, remembers meeting Joy when she was a teenager.

“She had this timeless voice that, you know, was hearkening back very much to Sarah Vaughn in a way that I hadn’t heard from anybody in a very long time,” he says. Her maturity as an artist, he notes, belies her youth.

“There’s a depth to what Samara does, both in the way she sounds and just in the way she phrases and her musical sensibilities. It’s really quite something,” he says. Berg is astounded at her vocal range, too.

“She’s got those naturally low notes in her,” Berg says, adding that, while high notes can be learned, “You can’t fake low notes. You either have them or you don’t.”

Russell, for her part, returned to her jazz roots only after Bowie stopped touring. With a nudge from her manager (now husband) Paul Kahn, she released her first recording as a solo artist in 2006 and came to see that a career singing jazz and the blues might be an itch she still needed to scratch. Last year, she recorded her 10th album, “Cat and the Hounds,” with Colin Hancock’s Jazz Hounds, and she shows no signs of slowing down.

Like Bowie, who, she recalls, “worked as if he were a band member,” Russell doesn’t see herself as separate from the artists who accompany her. “Being the center of attention isn’t why I got into this business. It was music,” she says.

Accompanying her at her Miami Beach concert will be longtime bandmates Matt Munisteri (guitar and musical direction), Tal Ronen (double bass), Domo Branch (drums) and Ben Paterson (piano).

“I enjoy working with the best players and people who like ensemble work, you know, so we all figure things out together,” she says.

Russell has ardent followers among audiences and fellow musicians alike. Pianist Marcus Roberts, who recently performed “Rhapsody in Blue” with the New World Symphony, counts himself a fan.

“I gotta tell you, I haven’t seen a singer who’s as professional and as warm. She’s really just a beautiful human being, on top of being just a top-level singer,” he says, putting her in a class with the late, great Shirley Horn, another of his favorites.

Berg sees similarities between Joy and Russell, and he has performed with each.

“They both have great respect for the tradition. They both come from musical families, so there’s a grounding there that comes out in their music, and I think that’s where you hear similarities.”

In terms of differences, Berg notes that Russell is “quite a student of earlier, more obscure pieces of the repertoire.” Listening to radio stations like WWOZ of New Orleans and even using contacts at the Library of Congress, Russell loves to unearth musical gems from as far back as the 1920s and before, dust them off, and breathe new life into these forgotten treasures.

In her choice of material to revive—like “Kitchen Man,” made famous by Bessie Smith in 1929 and 1923’s “He May Be Your Dog, But He’s Wearing my Collar”—Russell shows off the saucy side of early jazz as well as her own playful sense of humor. Roberts says that “Catherine, she just brings the history, but she brings it up to date, you know what I mean? She gives it a twist like only she can do.”

Joy, conversely, has a knack for new media. She has come to be seen in the jazz world as something of a missionary, bringing thousands of young people into the fold with her viral videos on TikTok and Instagram—avenues that, if she has anything to do with it, could become fertile ground for a whole new generation of jazz lovers. And with appearances on programs as diverse as “The Terrell Show” (on YouTube) and “The Today Show” (on the regular tube), her audience reach is about as broad as her three-octave vocal range.

What seems extraordinary even to Joy herself is that she has never had to stray from her artistic ideals to find a public for her work. “My place and my purpose as an artist right now—or forever,” she says, is “to make the music and the art that is most authentic to me. Things that satisfy my curiosity and creativity and also allow me to collaborate with people and musicians who inspire and who introduce me to new things.” Beyond that, she asks, “How do I use music to be a balm and a blessing to others?”

For touring artists like Joy and Russell, to continue making their music night after night in city after city is what Joy calls “a lesson in stamina and endurance.” Russell credits her training as an actor and her daily yoga practice with helping her to be ready for the “marathon,” so that she can be fully present—physically, mentally and emotionally—when she is onstage.

“I think part of our job is to remain receptive to what can happen to you in the moment,” she says. Everyone, from your fellow musicians to the audience has a part to play, believes Russell.

“If you’re not open to being receptive, then the energy doesn’t move. I want the energy to flow freely so that things can happen,” says Russell. “If we’re all open in the moment then we can raise each other’s awareness and inspire each other.”

WHAT: “Faena Jazz Series with Catherine Russell,” opening concert of the 2026 Faena Jazz Series  and “An Evening with Samara Joy,” second concert of Jazz Roots 2025-2026  

WHEN: 8 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 4 and 8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 12.   

WHERE: Faena Theater, 3201 Collins Ave., Miami Beach, and Knight Center Hall, Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, 1300 Biscayne Blvd., Miami  

COST: Catherine Russell, $70 – $225; Samara Joy, $52.65 – $152.10, inclusive of fees  

INFORMATION: For Catherine Russell, 786-655-5742 or www.faenatheater.com; For Samara Joy, 305-949-6722 or  arshtcenter.org/jazz   

ArtburstMiami.com is a nonprofit media source for the arts featuring fresh and original stories by writers dedicated to theater, dance, visual arts, film, music, and more. Don’t miss a story at www.artburstmiami.com 

After 19 Seasons, Miami Remains a Second Home for The Cleveland Orchestra

Franz Welser-Möst leads The Cleveland Orchestra during rehearsals for Verdi’s “Requiem,” with soprano Asmik Grigorian, mezzo-soprano Deniz Uzun, tenor Joshua Guerrero and bass Tareq Nazmi. The production comes to the Arsht Center as the orchestra celebrates its 19th season. (Photo by Yevhen Gulenko/Human Artist Photography and Cinema/courtesy of The Cleveland Orchestra)

For nearly two decades, The Cleveland Orchestra has maintained a presence in Miami that extends well beyond the idea of a touring engagement. Since 2007, the orchestra’s residency at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts has developed into a sustained artistic relationship with the city—one that returns in early 2026 for its 19th season.

“We don’t treat Miami as a tour destination,” says Ilya Gidalevich, vice president of artistic planning for The Cleveland Orchestra. “We really see it as a second home.”

Over time, he explains, the residency has expanded beyond performances. Educational programs, artistic collaborations and repeat appearances have allowed the orchestra to build relationships with South Florida audiences over multiple seasons, shaping Miami into a place where listeners return year after year rather than encountering the orchestra just once.

That distinction shapes how The Cleveland Orchestra approaches Miami. Unlike traditional tour stops that are programmed independently, the residency allows for long-range planning and reflection.

“We ask ourselves what we did last year, what we’re doing this year, and what comes next,” says Gidalevich. “How do we create a sense of continuity across multiple seasons in Miami?”

The aim, he adds, is to build an ongoing relationship with audiences who come back to the hall repeatedly, rather than engaging with the orchestra only once as they would on a tour stop.

The 2026 residency reflects that long view. Conducted by Franz Welser-Möst, the orchestra’s longtime music director, the season opens Friday, Jan. 23 and Saturday, Jan. 24 at Knight Concert Hall with Verdi’s “Requiem,” featuring The Cleveland Orchestra Chorus and an international roster of soloists led by soprano Asmik Grigorian, alongside mezzo-soprano Deniz Uzun, tenor Joshua Guerrero and bass Tareq Nazmi.

Programming a work of this scale in Miami is a deliberate choice. Gidalevich describes the process as a balance between institutional identity and local engagement.

“There are two essential questions we always ask,” he says. “How do we stay true to who we are as an orchestra, and how do we present ourselves in the best possible way for the audience we’re engaging?”

In Miami, that balance often means pairing major repertoire with artists and programs to engage both longtime classical listeners and newer audiences.

The Miami performances of Verdi’s “Requiem” follow closely on appearances in Cleveland and at Carnegie Hall, allowing South Florida audiences to hear the same large-scale production presented in New York. For Grigorian, the performances also mark her debut with The Cleveland Orchestra.

Born in Lithuania and raised in an operatic family, the soprano has established an international career that includes appearances at major opera houses and festivals across Europe and the United States. Her work spans traditional and contemporary repertoire, and she is equally active in opera houses and concert halls.

Verdi’s “Requiem” occupies a distinctive space between sacred music and opera, demanding both technical control and emotional range from its performers. Grigorian believes the work’s expressive breadth is central to its impact.

“It requires a lot of colors,” she says. “There’s such a wide dynamic scale—from very quiet, delicate moments to extremely powerful ones. That range demands experience and technique, but also a willingness to be emotionally open inside the music.”

Rather than directing listeners toward a single interpretation, Grigorian emphasizes the personal nature of the experience.

“Art is about feeling,” she says. “Every person will take from this music what they need at that moment. I don’t want to tell the audience what to feel—I want them to listen and discover their own connection.”

Gidalevich says that bringing the orchestra’s chorus back to Miami was a key factor in shaping the opening of the season.

“It was important for us to feature a major choral work with vocal soloists,” he says. “That’s something we’re very proud of.”

Known for its dramatic intensity—particularly the thunderous “Dies Irae”—Verdi’s “Requiem” anchors the residency with one of its most expansive offerings.

The weeks that follow highlight the breadth of the orchestra’s Miami programming. On Wednesday, Jan. 28, celebrated violinist Itzhak Perlman will join the ensemble for “Cinema Serenade,” a program devoted to iconic film scores. Pianist Yefim Bronfman appears Friday, Jan. 30 and Saturday, Jan. 31 in Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5, “Emperor,” paired with Mozart’s Symphony No. 41, “Jupiter.”

Together, the programs reflect the orchestra’s effort to present a wide range of repertoire within a single residency, from sacred choral works to symphonic classics and film-inspired music.

The residency continues into March with performances of Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring,” conducted by Rafael Payare, in side-by-side concerts with Fellows from the New World Symphony. That collaboration reflects an educational mission that has become central to the orchestra’s Miami presence.

“Many Cleveland Orchestra musicians were once New World Symphony Fellows themselves,” notes Gidalevich. “They know how meaningful that experience can be.”

The partnership, he adds, offers emerging musicians an opportunity to perform alongside a major American orchestra while reinforcing the residency’s role as more than a performance series.

As The Cleveland Orchestra approaches its third decade in Miami, the residency remains a work in progress—shaped by continuity, experimentation and an ongoing dialogue with the city it returns to year after year.

“Our hope,” says Gidalevich, “is to keep strengthening the audience base here and to serve Miami’s classical music community with performances that feel vital and engaging.”

The Cleveland Orchestra in Miami

VERDI’S “REQUIEM”
WHEN: 8 p.m., Friday, Jan. 23, Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026
WHERE: Knight Concert Hall, Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, 1300 Biscayne Blvd., Miami.
COST: $35 to $175.

ITZHAK PERLMAN: “CINEMA SERENADE”
WHEN: 8 p.m., Wednesday, Jan. 28.
WHERE: Knight Concert Hall, Adrienne Arsht Center
COST: $69 to $290.

BRONFMAN PLAYS BEETHOVEN
WHEN: 8 p.m., Friday, Jan. 30, Saturday, Jan. 31

WHERE: Knight Concert Hall, Adrienne Arsht Center.
COST: $35 to $175.

INFORMATION: 305-949-6722 or arshtcenter.org

ArtburstMiami.com is a nonprofit media source for the arts featuring fresh and original stories by writers dedicated to theater, dance, visual arts, film, music and more. Don’t miss a story at www.artburstmiami.com.

Why the Moss Center Is the Right Fit for Canadian Laila Biali’s Miami Debut

Canadian jazz vocalist and pianist Laila Biali performs Saturday, Jan. 17 at the Dennis C. Moss Cultural Arts Center, Cutler Bay, bringing her Joni Mitchell–inspired Canadian Songbook to the Miami area. (Photo by Edith Maybin, courtesy of the artist)

For nearly two decades, the Dennis C. Moss Cultural Arts Center has played a visible role in Miami’s artistic landscape, presenting performances that extend beyond the city’s traditional arts corridors. The Cutler Bay venue has built its identity around consistent programming and cultivating audiences, and this approach continues with Canadian jazz vocalist and pianist Laila Biali, who makes her Miami-area debut at the Moss Center on Saturday, Jan. 17.

The concert will focus on the music of Joni Mitchell and the broader Canadian Songbook, marking the culmination of a Florida mini-tour and a booking that has been several years in the making.

For the Moss’s Managing Director Eric Fliss, the timing reflects persistence rather than coincidence. “Anytime is the right time to bring a great artist — someone of her caliber — to the center,” said Fliss. “We had her scheduled around 2020, but the pandemic hit. So, we’re just really happy to finally have her here.”

Fliss describes Biali as an artist who approaches performance collaboratively, a quality that influenced how the concert ultimately took shape.

A Natural Fit

“What’s wonderful about Laila is that she’s the kind of artist who wants to be invested in the success of her show,” he said. “You don’t always get that opportunity to actually talk with the artist and shape something together.”

Those conversations led to a program that blends familiarity with discovery.

“When we started talking about the Canadian Songbook — Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, Neil Young, k.d. lang — it just felt like a natural fit for our audience,” said Fliss. “Especially for people who might not know her name yet, but absolutely know this music.”

That balance between recognizable material and new interpretive voices is central to Fliss’ curatorial philosophy.

“Curating a cultural center is not a sprint, it’s a marathon,” he said. “It’s our job not only to present artists audiences already know, but to lead them into a place they may not have entered before, and allow us all to discover that artist together, in community.”

Since opening, the Moss Center has introduced South Florida audiences to artists who were appearing in Miami for the first time. For Fliss, however, the emphasis remains on cultivating trust rather than predicting careers — trust in artists, and trust in audiences willing to listen.

Performing at the Moss Center carries both personal and professional significance for Biali. “To make my Miami debut at a beautiful performing arts center like the Moss Center, with Eric — who I’ve been in touch with for more than 10 years — is really the fulfillment of a dream,” she said. “It’s such a wonderful way to present my music to audiences in the Miami area.”

Grammy Award Nominations and More Awards

Biali arrives in Cutler Bay during a period of heightened visibility. A JUNO Award–winning artist and longtime CBC Radio host, she recently received her first Grammy nomination for “Wintersongs,” earning a spot in the best traditional pop vocal album category alongside artists such as Elton John, Lady Gaga and Barbra Streisand. While those accolades form part of her current profile, the Moss Center performance centers on interpretation rather than recognition.

The program draws from the work of Canadian composers including Leonard Cohen, Neil Young, and lang reframed through Biali’s background in jazz and song-based performance.

“I’m fascinated by Canadian artists like Joni Mitchell who are from Canada originally, but in many ways belong equally to the United States and the rest of the world,” she said. “They represent a blending of the Canadian and U.S. scenes, and that feels more relevant than ever.”

That cross-border sensibility is personal for Biali, a dual citizen who has spent much of her career moving between Canada and the United States.

“I belong to both countries myself,” she added, “so coming into U.S. cities with this music feels wonderfully symbolic.”

At the core of her approach is an emphasis on narrative. “The thread that links all of these Canadian artists together is the way they tell stories through their music,” said Biali. “For me, the lyrics are everything. That’s where I start — because that’s where the story is.”

Intimate Musical Experience

The Moss Center’s physical space plays a role in how those stories are delivered. “The audience comes to listen,” noted Fliss. “There isn’t really a fourth wall here. The relationship between the artist and the audience is very direct.”

From the stage, Biali framed that experience in similar terms. “Everything we do centers on connection,” she said. “I like to say the audience becomes a member of the band. They have a seat at the table — and we’re hoping to turn the Moss Center into something that feels almost like we’re all in the same living room together.”

Biali will be joined by Florida-based bassist Brandon Robertson and drummer Paul Gavin, along with guest horn player John D’Aversa of the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami.

“It was Laila who said she wanted to bring a local musician into the program — not as an opening act, but as part of the arrangements,” said Fliss. “When an artist has that kind of openness, it’s phenomenal.”

For Fliss, collaborations like this contribute to the Moss Center’s broader role within Miami’s cultural ecosystem. “It’s important that artists walk away saying, ‘Miami really does have a music scene,’” he said. “We’re not just a pop or Latin pop city. We’re a place where people can have rich, accessible musical experiences, and where audiences support the work.”

WHAT: Laila Biali Plays Joni Mitchell and The Canadian Songbook.

WHERE: Dennis C. Moss Cultural Arts Center, 10950 S.W. 211 St., Cutler Bay

 WHEN: 8 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 17

 COST: $40 and $55, $65 VIP includes table seating and a complimentary beverage.

 INFORMATION: (786) 573-5300 orMossCenter.org

 ArtburstMiami.com is a nonprofit media source for the arts featuring fresh and original stories by writers dedicated to theater, dance, visual arts, film, music and more. Don’t miss a story at www.artburstmiami.com.

New World Symphony Swings into Jazz with Marcus Roberts Trio at Arsht

Marcus Roberts and his trio join New World Symphony with guest conductor Andrew Grams in “Rhapsody in Blue” at the Adrienne Arsht Center’s Knight Concert Hall at 8 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 10. (Photo courtesy of New World Symphony)

Jazz, that most American of idioms, has a cozy winter home in Miami, with festivals, series and individual concerts showcasing the expansiveness of a form that is arguably our country’s greatest calling card to the musical world.

Not to be left out of the celebration, on Friday,  Jan. 10, the musicians of the New World Symphony will perform at the Adrienne Arsht Center in a program highlighting jazz greats George Gershwin, Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn.

Andrew Grams, a dynamic and generous conductor who has led orchestras throughout the United States and who has a penchant for working with young musicians, leaves snowy Cleveland to lead the NWS Fellows in the Strayhorn/Ellington take on Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker Suite,” Ellington’s “Black, Brown and Beige Suite,” Darius Milhaud’s “La Création du Monde,” James P. Johnson’s “Victory Slide” and Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue.”

Grams’ highlights that his visits to Miami in previous NWS performances have all been between the months of November and February.

“All I can say is that New World symphony has treated me very well,” he says, noting that the temperature in Cleveland at that moment: 27 degrees.

NWS kicks off the evening with the most wintery piece on the program, Strayhorn and Ellington’s reimagined “Nutcracker. And if, as we slouch towards the tail-end of the holiday season, you stand convinced that you would rather eat the last dried-out piece of Aunt Bertha’s fruitcake than partake of yet another “Nutcracker,” you should really give the Strayhorn/Ellington version a taste. With sections like “Toot Toot Tootie Toot” and “The Peanut Brittle Brigade,” it has considerably more rum—and fun—in it than the candied classical version piped through the aisles of shopping malls from Thanksgiving through December. “Sugar Rum Cherry?” Coming right up.

Strayhorn, the Duke’s closest collaborator, once said that “Ellington plays the piano, but his real instrument is his band.” Under Grams’ baton, will NWS’s Fellows attempt to produce what Strayhorn called “the Ellington Effect”? That was where, with Duke at the helm, his group of highly distinctive, iconoclastic players would blend together to create an utterly original sound, without losing an iota of their individuality.  How does Grams go about getting players schooled in the classical tradition to swing?

Grams says he reminds orchestras that playing jazz “does require the precision and care that we give the canonical music that we go to school to learn…it just requires us to care about things that are almost opposite to what we give a great deal of care to in our normal repertoire.” As Ellington’s band of brilliant oddballs exemplified, the spirit of jazz can never be fully captured by just notes on the page.

According to Grams, the real test of the NWS players’ embrace of the jazz genre will be the “Black, Brown and Beige Suite,” which Ellington wrote in 1941. Its three sections, he said, were meant as “a parallel” to the history of Blacks in America.

“That’s a whole different can of worms,” Grams says, “because it is entirely Ellington using the jazz language by itself,” and it has sent him down various research rabbit holes to suss out the secrets of the precise sound Ellington was aiming for in this ambitious work. Details, for example, such as the type of cymbal legendary drummer Sonny Greer used on the original recordings.

“What size cymbal do they use in order to make that kind of sound, so that it doesn’t just sound like a Pops Orchestra trap set? I mean, it’s a different sound,” he says. “I’m having to research all of these things that I would never have necessarily thought of before. It’s going to be quite interesting to say, ‘Okay, well it’s written this way, but it’s performed by Ellington and his crew this way.’”

Gershwin’s wildly popular “Rhapsody in Blue” will present the orchestra with other challenges and opportunities when pianist Marcus Roberts, drummer Jason Marsalis (the younger brother of Wynton Marsalis) and bassist Rodney Jordan take the stage. Roberts, who hails from Jacksonville, got his start working with Wynton Marsalis and has figured prominently in the jazz world for over three decades. He promises that this will be a “Rhapsody” as audiences have never heard it before. It’s a piece he featured on his first major recording, and one he says he never plays the same way twice. Only a boy when he first heard the piece, he still remembers his reaction.

“I was maybe 12 or 13 and didn’t know what it was, but I really liked it,” he says. “The theme spoke to me. It just sounded American to me.”

Grams agrees.

“I find it to be a masterpiece, but I also feel that it is a piece that is sort of embedded in the wide idea of America,” he says.

Roberts’ 1994 recording of “Rhapsody” with Columbia Records was a singular take on a work that had been sanctified in the minds of listeners. The improvisational energy and the individual stamp that he offered was, for some, a shock to the system.

“I caught hell for daring to do the things I chose to do. I’d do interviews and everybody’s like, ‘How dare you? How can you?’”

Grams, for one, is excited to be able to do this iconic work of the American canon with Roberts, “just to see what he and his crew are going to come up with when we rehearse it. And who knows what’s going to happen in the concert?” After all, Gershwin himself was improvising the piano cadenzas at the work’s 1924 Aeolian Hall debut.

With Rhapsody, Roberts says, “I make sure that the thematic material of the piece is protected, but I do take it through its paces with true jazz improvisation, which means I let the themes come to me subconsciously.”

A lot of what happens in the hall, says Roberts, is dependent on the alchemy between musicians and audience.

“I want people to know that when they hear ‘Rhapsody in Blue,’ it is going to be a 2026 version of it. It will be created, like, spur of the moment, like I said, for them, with them,” says Roberts, “and it’s going to be based on our spiritual interaction in the hall.”

Works like Gershwin’s, performed by artists as different as the New World players and the Marcus Roberts Trio, speak to an optimistic vision of a nation that Roberts embraces.

“We’re able to present this music collaboratively, we’re able to have a great American composer’s music being played by an orchestra by a very, you know, a bunch of different types of folks who have different backgrounds and we walk onstage and then here’s this wonderful audience who’s out there,” says Roberts.

“All of these things symbolize the greatness of America,” he says, “what it really can be, what we can do in this country.”

And Roberts, who is blind, will be listening to the reactions of his audience.

“I know in classical music, everybody has to be quiet through all the movements,” he says. “Jazz, it ain’t like that. So, if you feel moved to move your feet or clap your hands, whatever you need to do, we welcome that…Have that dance feeling in the hall. That’s what we want.”

WHAT: New World Symphony, “Rhapsody in Blue,” with Andrew Grams, conductor, and the Marcus Roberts Trio

WHEN: 8 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 10

WHERE: Knight Concert Hall at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, 1300 Biscayne Blvd., Miami

COST: $35 to $225

INFORMATION: 305-673-3331 or www.nws.edu

ArtburstMiami.com is a nonprofit media source for the arts featuring fresh and original stories by writers dedicated to theater, dance, visual arts, film, music and more. Don’t miss a story at www.artburstmiami.com.

 

A Decade of the South Beach Jazz Festival with Miami Beach as Its Stage

Oscar Hernández, Grammy Award–winning pianist and arranger, leads the Spanish Harlem Orchestra, when it performs at the South Beach Jazz Festival on Saturday, Jan. 10, at the Miami Beach Bandshell. (Photo courtesy of the artist)

The South Beach Jazz Festival has evolved over its ten years in Miami Beach as a cultural event that hasn’t just survived the city’s constant reinvention—it has grown along with it, inviting audiences to encounter jazz not as a venue-specific experience, but woven into the everyday rhythm of Miami Beach.

The four-day festival, opening Thursday, Jan. 8 and running through Sunday, Jan. 11, unfolds across the city’s plazas, museums, parks, and open-air stages. Free and ticketed events feature performers ranging from local acts with staying power to up-and-coming student musicians and big-name headliners.

The opening night feature on Thursday, Jan. 8, is  “John Pizzarelli Presents ‘Dear Mr. Bennett.’ ” The Grammy Award–winning guitarist, vocalist, and producer presents two shows in a salute to the legendary Tony Bennett.

At The Bass Museum of Art on Friday, Jan. 9, Ricky Riccardi, director of Research Collections at the Louis Armstrong House Museum, two-time Grammy Award winner, and author of “Stomp Off, Let’s Go: The Early Years of Louis Armstrong” gives insight into the trumpeter’s artistry. Additional performances take place at the Miami Beach Bandshell, Collins Park and on Lincoln Road.

[See the full schedule here]

Founded by Power Access, a local nonprofit headed by R. David New and dedicated to disability awareness and providing opportunities for people with disabilities, the South Beach Jazz festival grew out of a desire to create a signature event rooted in quality and public engagement. “We’re a tiny organization that always wanted to do something very special, but has really kept it focused on the quality,” says Lori Bakkum, executive director of Power Access and the South Beach Jazz Festival.

That focus, paired with long-standing community partnerships, has allowed the festival not only to last, but to expand. “We’ve had support from the community, the business community and the municipality,” she says, “and those collaborations have made the difference.”

About five years ago, as the festival expanded, Power Access partnered with the Rhythm Foundation on music curation, aligning with another nonprofit deeply rooted in live music and public programming across Miami Beach.

In a city where cultural initiatives often appear and disappear with the seasons, reaching a ten-year milestone carries particular weight. It suggests a festival that both understands its environment and has earned its place within it.

That kind of longevity is not abstract in Miami Beach. Andrew Yeomanson, leader of the long-running local band Spam Allstars— the band will perform Sunday, Jan. 11  at 5:30 p.m. in a free concert on Lincoln Road —has watched entire neighborhoods transform in the span of a few years. “To last even five years in Miami as a band or an artist, that’s the first big hurdle,” he says. “There are so few institutions here that have truly stood the test of time.”

For Yeomanson, survival in Miami has required a particular posture toward change. “You have to dig your heels in and be really stubborn,” he says. He reaches for an image that feels both playful and precise. “You kind of have to be like Bugs Bunny: they’re building this big skyscraper, and he will not move his little rabbit hole. They just have to build around him.”

That stubborn persistence—refusing to disappear even as the city shifts—is one of the unspoken qualities the festival shares with many of the artists it presents.

One of the defining characteristics of the South Beach Jazz Festival is the way it is built into the city itself. Rather than confining performances to a single venue, the festival stretches across Miami Beach, activating some of its most recognizable public and cultural spaces. Lincoln Road, the Miami Beach Bandshell, The Bass Museum of Art and Collins Park each become part of the festival’s architecture, shaping how audiences experience the music.

“Our venues are very specific and chosen,” explains Bakkum. “Lincoln Road, for those of us that have lived in Miami for years, really is the heart.” While student ensembles and emerging musicians take over nearby spaces the day before, the festival’s closing day transforms the Lincoln Road plaza into an all-day main stage.

At the other end of the city, the Miami Beach Bandshell hosts the festival’s marquee performances. “We’re very lucky to have our big headliner concert at the Bandshell,” says Bakkum. “Being under the stars—but covered—right there on the beach, it’s just a wonderful space to perform in.”

The Bass Museum of Art has also become a key partner, serving as both setting and collaborator turning the concert into a visual and cultural experience that feels uniquely Miami Beach.

For Yeomanson, that kind of use of public space is essential. “If you go to any world-class city, you’ll see the plazas activated,” he says. “It’s what makes cities human. It’s what makes a city a community.”

In Miami, he adds, that visibility matters even more. “We have this incredible tropical landscape, but it’s marred by traffic, cost of living—all of it. Culture is the release. It’s what makes a city livable. Even people who don’t realize they need it… they need it.”

That openness would mean little without substance behind it. From its earliest editions, the South Beach Jazz Festival has emphasized curation over spectacle, assembling lineups that balance international recognition with local continuity. According to Bakkum, there will be “about a hundred artists performing in the 10th annual South Beach Jazz Festival from student bands to emerging artists to local legends to international and national stars and Grammy winners.”

Among those international figures is Spanish Harlem Orchestra, led by Grammy Award–winning pianist and arranger Oscar Hernández. Founded in 2001, the ensemble has earned global recognition for its commitment to classic salsa and Latin jazz traditions, shaped by Hernández’s decades-long career alongside figures such as Celia Cruz, Tito Puente, Rubén Blades and Johnny Pacheco.

“I was lucky to learn directly from so many of the musicians who shaped this music when I was coming up in New York,” says Hernández. “Their legacy lives on through my own music and performances.”

For Hernández, performing in this festival carries special resonance. “With the cultural diversity in Miami, that aspect of who we are and what we represent has an even more special meaning here.”

While select ticketed performances anchor the program, much of the festival has free admission— an increasingly rare model for an event of this scale. That approach has reshaped how audiences encounter jazz. Many experience it unexpectedly, stumbling upon performances while walking through Lincoln Road or spending an afternoon in Collins Park. “We have people that perhaps were visiting the city three years ago and happened upon our Lincoln Road stage and now they plan their vacations to come back for it,” says Bakkum.

Beyond the January dates, the festival’s reach now extends year-round. Through summer concert series and pop-up performances across Miami Beach, Power Access has created a sustained platform for live jazz, offering visibility to local musicians who often tour nationally but remain underheard at home.

Recent years have not been easy for arts organizations, particularly small nonprofits. “It’s been quite a two years for cultural arts spending,” Bakkum  says referring to the changing landscape in national, state and local government arts funding. Yet she also sees opportunity in the collective response. “What we saw was collaborations between arts groups and the community really recognizing how important the cultural arts are—not just culturally, but economically.”

For Yeomanson, the stakes are personal. He now sees second generations showing up at shows—children of people who once met at Spam Allstars gigs, or danced at weddings the band played years ago. “Your voice still has a place in your community,” he says. “That’s why these chances matter.”

After ten years, the South Beach Jazz Festival reflects that same belief. It survives not by resisting change, but by making room for connection—by trusting that what holds a city together is not only what gets built, but what endures.

“You can never have too much live local music,” says Bakkum.

In Miami Beach, that may be the most durable structure of all.

WHAT: South Beach Jazz Festival

WHEN: Opening night 8 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 8, at Faena Theater. 5:30 p.m., Friday, Jan. 9 at The Bass Museum of Art ; 8 p.m. Friday, Jan. 9 in Collins Park. Events 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 10, on Lincoln Road, with headliner performance 8 p.m. at the Miami Beach Bandshell. Events 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 11, on Lincoln Road.

WHERE: Various locations throughout Miami Beach, including Faena Theater at Faena Forum, 3300 Collins Ave.; The Bass Museum of Art, 2100 Collins Ave.; Collins Park, 2100 Collins Ave.; Lincoln Road and Euclid Avenue, including the plaza at 1100–1111 Lincoln Road and the Miami Beach Bandshell, 7275 Collins Ave., Miami Beach.

COST: Free to $275. Individual tickets start at $42.50. VIP Reception $75. All-Access Pass $275. Miami Beach residents receive a 20% discount on select ticketed events with code MB20. Many free events require RSVP.

INFORMATION: SoBeJazzFestival.com and (305) 322-6385.

ArtburstMiami.com is a nonprofit media source for the arts featuring fresh and original stories by writers dedicated to theater, dance, visual arts, film, music and more. Don’t miss a story at www.artburstmiami.com.

An In-House Orchestra and Art Deco Vision Shape Florida Grand Opera’s ‘Die Fledermaus’

Johann Strauss’s 1890s comedy of errors about love and hidden identities has been given a distinctly local twist in Florida Grand Opera’s  production of “Die Fledermaus,” which has three performances at the Adrienne Arsht Center in Miami opening Saturday, Jan. 24, with shows Sunday, Jan. 25, and Tuesday, Jan. 27. (Photo courtesy of Florida Grand Opera)

For Florida Grand Opera, a new era is underway as artistic director Maria Todaro vows to keep her promise that she’s not presenting “your grandmother’s opera” with the upcoming reimagining of “Die Fledermaus.”

It’s what she said about her staging of FGO’s “Carmen” last season, which she conceived to be accessible to everyone. She brought in a new crowd who were drawn to a familiar name—a star attraction cameo, Julia Lemigova, “The Real Housewives of Miami” and married to tennis star Martina Navratilova, for which Todaro wrote in a part for the reality television show personality.

“We want to keep opera relevant and exciting – to draw young and more diverse audiences,” said Todaro, the daughter of Italian opera singer Jose Todaro and Brazilian mezzo-soprano Maria Helenda de Oliveira, who was named interim director of FGO in 2023. In May 2024, the board announced her as general director and CEO.

It is her European pedigree and her own professional life in opera as a mezzo-soprano that is part of what drives her desire to have FGO—recognized as one of the oldest opera companies in the United States, continuously operating since 1941—to become what she calls a “true opera company, an international House.”

Part of what Todaro believes gives stature to the company is having its own resident orchestra. In May, Todaro announced Pablo Mielgo as its music director. Currently living in Majorca, he has been artistic and musical director of the Orquesta Sinfónica Islas Baleares since 2014.

Mielgo explained that the players in the pit for previous FGO shows were contracted. “It was an external orchestra and when I became director, we decided, with the board, to have our own orchestra. When the musicians are hired by the company, they are involved in the life of the opera company. They feel the growing, they feel the compromise, and they get close to the artistic side. Being involved in the life of the opera company, everyone knows that success depends on everyone’s work.”

Todaro agreed with Mielgo’s assessment of the orchestra’s buy-in and how the sense of ownership will add to fueling a great ambition: to make Florida Grand Opera a true international company.

A large part of that is building the in-house orchestra, which is integral to FGO’s latest and newest production of “Die Fledermaus,” which has three performances at the Adrienne Arsht Center, opening Saturday, Jan. 24, with shows Sunday, Jan. 25, and Tuesday, Jan. 27.

The in-house orchestra made its debut with the company’s most recent production, “Silent Night,” but “Die Fledermaus” will be the first time Mielgo and his musicians will be together.

For Mielgo, born in Madrid, he said his connection to Miami is one “from many, many years ago. I have someone there who is a second mother to me,” he said of Tanya Capriles Brillembourg, the founder of SaludeArte Foundation, of which Mielgo has been the musical and artistic director since 2005. In 2011, when SaludeArte Foundation co-produced the zarzuela “Luisa Fernanda” with Florida Grand Opera, it was Mielgo’s first time leading the orchestra for FGO. The production featured legendary tenor Plácido Domingo, who sang the lead role for a special gala performance, with Mielgo conducting.

“The home base of SaludeArte Foundation is Miami, so I was traveling quite often to Miami to do music projects. I’d say it’s been about 22 years, so I know the city quite well, and I think Miami is a city that is changing all the time.”

He agrees that FGO should be the world-class opera company of a destination that, he said, is attracting so many international residents—many from Europe—who bring with them opera and classical music traditions that shape expectations for what is offered here.

Those expectations are exactly what the company is embracing in its upcoming production of “Die Fledermaus,” approaching the classic operetta with a fresh sense of creativity that reflects both its European roots and Miami’s contemporary, international character.

Johann Strauss’s 1890s comedy of errors about love and hidden identities has been given a distinctly local twist, revealed Todaro.

“There’s a lot of tradition in Viennese operetta, but we are changing that,” revealed Todaro. “In the place of the role of the Italian tenor, it is a Latino tenor. Everything that has foreign illusion is going to be Hispanic or Latino. That is a big wink to our population here,” she said.

The operetta’s success rests equally on the wit of its spoken dialogue as well as bringing out the brilliance of the music.

“We have completely rewritten the text,” said Todaro of the dialogue work she and stage director Conor Hanratty partnered on. “So it’s completely owned by us.”

The dialogue is in English while the sung part of the opera will remain in German with English and Spanish supertitles. “We wanted to be authentic and respect the German language. With the English dialogue, audiences can laugh at the jokes, so we have a little bit of both worlds,” explained Todaro.

Another tip to Miami is an Art Deco set that the company recently acquired and now owns. “The set has a beautiful pedigree behind it,” said Todaro.

Designed by Belgian set designer Benoît Dugardyn, he created the Art Deco-inspired set for “Die Fledermaus” for the Glyndebourne Festival Opera in England. Todaro said it has “traveled all over the world,” making its debut in 2003 at Glyndebourne, performed by the Grand Théâtre de Genève.

FGO acquired it from the Washington National Opera at the Kennedy Center, whose production in 2003 featured celebrity cameos including then-Supreme Court Justices Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Anthony Kennedy.

Costumes, inspired by Austrian painter Gustav Klimt and designed by German costume designer Ingeborg Bernerth, were also acquired from Washington National Opera’s artistic director Francesca Zambello. “She was very generous with us. We are being faithful to the styles, but we are kind of readapting them.” Todaro describes the costumes for her “Die Fledermaus” as cool, bubbly, and accessible.

“And this is part of, as you know, our desire to not be your grandmother’s opera, to keep our promises and to keep us relevant.”

The Art Deco theme will carry through to a gala that FGO will host on opening night on the stage of the Arsht, with its “Die Fledermaus” set as the backdrop, where it will present its first Global Elevare Awards.

“We created this to recognize leaders whose work elevates communities,” said Todaro, adding that one of the recipients is the grandson of Nelson Mandela, Prince Ndaba Mandela, co-Founder and chairman, Africa Rising Foundation; co-Founder and chairman, Mandela Institute for Humanity. Other awardees include Joseph Fowler, head of arts and culture, World Economic Forum; Leigh Gilmore, global head, Bloomberg Live Experiences (Bloomberg Media); Afo Verde, chairman and CEO, Sony Music Latin Iberia; along with four others. Designing the award is Romero Britto, the Brazilian-born, Miami-based contemporary artist, adding to the Miami-influenced style of the event, said Todaro.

For Todaro, FGO’s transformation is more than just a new production or a new orchestra; it’s the foundation for the company to become a true international House. “More and more people are now becoming aware that we are here. We see there’s definitely a momentum. We still have much work and so much is happening in a good way… It’s good work . . . It’s great work,” she said.

WHAT: Florida Grand Opera’s “Die Fledermaus”

WHEN: 6:30 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 24, 3 p.m., Sunday, Jan. 25 and 8 p.m., Tuesday, Jan. 27.

WHERE: Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, 1300 Biscayne Blvd., Miami

COST: $28- $306 includes all fees.

INFORMATION: 800-741-1010 or fgo.org

ArtburstMiami.com is a nonprofit media source for the arts featuring fresh and original stories by writers dedicated to theater, dance, visual arts, film, music and more. Don’t miss a story at www.artburstmiami.com.

Bayfront Jazz Heads To Miami Beach with an All-Female Powerhouse Lineup

Eve Blanche is one of the performers in Bayfront Jazz Days, a new national music series kicking off in Miami with an all-star “Women in Jazz” concert on Saturday, November 22, at the Miami Beach Bandshell. (Photo copyright Paramax Films, courtesy of Melrose Media)

Say the word “jazz,” and many instantly think of legends like Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, or Herbie Hancock. But over the years, jazz has evolved and grown into a much larger phenomenon.

“There are a lot of jazz performers in your face that you don’t even know are jazz musicians,” says saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin. “You don’t know that the best new artist Samara Joy is jazz. You don’t know that Robert Glasper is jazz, even though he’s playing all hip-hop stuff. You don’t know John Baptiste is jazz.” Even Beyonce’s entire band is made up of jazz musicians.

Benjamin will be in Miami on Saturday, Nov. 22 as part of the Bayfront Jazz Days, and while the Bayfront Jazz Festival was previously held at Bayfront Park, this edition is at the Miami Beach Bandshell. It’s an all-female lineup that includes bassist Nik West, Steinway artist Connie Han, and Taishogoto musician Eva Blanche.

“I think people like jazz more than they know,” adds the musician speaking to ArtBurst via Zoom.

Organizers are hoping to put a spotlight on top female talent in the jazz genre with a specific focus on bringing new performers to Miami. In fact, one of the requirements for Amos Rozenberg and Manuel Molina of Melrose Media, the production house behind the festival, was that the musicians hadn’t played Miami.

“We wanted to feature masters of different instruments and each of these performers are leaders in their different fields of jazz,” says Rozenberg. “None of these four artists have ever performed in Miami before and that’s part of why we chose them, because we want to bring new energy to Miami. It’s going to be a great night full of energy, culture, and a lot of discovery.”

While saxophonist Benjamin might be new to playing in Miami, she’s a heavyweight in the jazz scene. A five-time Grammy award nominee, Benjamin has been playing the sax since fifth grade. She stepped into the music room and was in awe of the power of the woodwind instrument.

“I saw the saxophone up on the wall and at that moment, I was like, oh yeah, I’m totally gonna, play that,” recalls Benjamin.

The 32-year-old saxophonist grew up in the predominantly Hispanic neighborhood of Washington Heights in New York City. She credits the soundtrack of her youth to influencing her sound as an adult.

Dominican and Cuban music was “90% of the music I heard non-stop,” she says. “The whole goal was always to keep everyone on the dance floor. And that stayed with me, that music is something for the community, something to have a good time to.”

As part of her set, Benjamin promises the Grammy-nominated hits as well as new music she’s been working on. “Expect lots of high-energy, lots of audience participation, and above all, a kind of healing space for people.”

Another powerhouse performer sharing the stage at the Bandshell is former Prince bassist Nik West. Much like Benjamin, the Los Angeles-based musician attributes her upbringing to influencing her work. “A lot of fans say it’s kind of like funk-soul, but I feel like all my roots lead back to jazz and gospel,” says West.

She calls herself an out-of-the-box artist.

“So you’re going to hear all kinds of things from me that night, from funk to rock to jazz to soul,” continues West. “I like to call it a jambalaya of music. You’re going to get high energy, that’s what you’re going to get from me.”

While West is accustomed to performing in Europe and Asia, she’s looking forward to taking the stage in Miami. “I think this is a really good opportunity for all of us to perform in Miami for the first time.”

She hopes this is the first of many Miami appearances. . . “ ‘Wow’ some people, gain more fans, and eventually perform there again in the future. “I’m just excited about being able to have everyone hear and feel all of the things that jazz can be through my soulful, funky music,” adds West.

Jazz-lovers are getting four mini concerts for the price of one. The event starts at 4 p.m. with performances slated to run through 11 p.m.; that’s nearly seven hours of jazz.

The first edition of Bayfront Jazz Festival was in 2021 (at Bayfront Park) and featured major jazz players Roy Ayers, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Gonzalo Rubalcaba and Chucho Valdés. After that event, Rozenberg and Molina took a break from producing events and focused on making movies. Now, they’re back to putting on large-scale music concerts and are already planning next year’s Bayfront Jazz Festival.

Organizer Rozenberg gets animated when speaking about the upcoming event at the Bandshell. “It’s going to be a very exciting night because we’re bringing pure jazz to Miami… jazz is kind of niche, but niche is the new black.”

WHAT: Bayfront Jazz Days

 WHERE: Miami Beach Bandshell, 7275 Collins Ave, Miami Beach

 WHEN: 4 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 22.

 COST: $93.73, $65, $39,  for general admission. $29 for students. Tickets via DICE or bayfrontjazz.com.

 INFORMATION: melrose.media/festivals or bayfrontjazz.com.

 ArtburstMiami.com is a nonprofit media source for the arts featuring fresh and original stories by writers dedicated to theater, dance, visual arts, film, music and more. Don’t miss a story at www.artburstmiami.com.

Florida Grand Opera’s ‘Silent Night’ Intersects Music, Memory and Reconciliation

Kevin Puts’ “Silent Night” presented by Florida Grand Opera at the Arsht Center in Miami opening Saturday, Nov. 15 with performances Sunday, Nov. 16 and Tuesday, Nov. 18 and then at the Broward Center in Fort Lauderdale on Thursday, Dec. 4 and Saturday, Dec. 6.  (Photo courtesy of Lewis Valdes)

On a frozen battlefield in 1914, the sound of gunfire fell silent. Instead, across the trenches, soldiers began to sing—first in German, then in French, then in English. “Stille Nacht,” the carol we know as “Silent Night,” floated through the cold night air, joined by the drone of Scottish bagpipes. For a few miraculous hours, men who had been fighting one another laid down their weapons to share songs, prayers, and even a game of soccer.

That extraordinary true story of the World War I Christmas truce becomes the heartbeat of Florida Grand Opera’s “Silent Night,” opening Saturday, Nov. 15 with performances Sunday, Nov. 16 and Tuesday, Nov. 18 at the Adrienne Arsht Center in Miami, then at the Broward Center in Fort Lauderdale for two performances on Thursday, Dec. 4 and Saturday, Dec. 6.

A co-production with Atlanta Opera and Opera Carolina, the sweeping work by composer Kevin Puts and librettist Mark Campbell transforms a fleeting moment of wartime humanity into an opera of intimacy, loss, and reconciliation. Supported by the embassies of England, France, and Germany, the production arrives at a historic moment for Florida Grand Opera: its first performances in 18 years with its own orchestra.

“We’re deeply honored to bring ‘Silent Night’ to South Florida,” says Maria Todaro, FGO’s General Director and CEO, “especially at a time when the message of unity and compassion feels more urgent than ever.”

For Todaro, the establishment of a dedicated orchestra represents both an artistic and institutional milestone. “When you look at major opera houses like Paris, Chicago, or Vienna, none of them operate without their own orchestra,” she says. “Every musician in ours has been hand-picked by our music director, Pablo Mielgo, and our concertmaster, Avi Nagin. Having our own orchestra completes the company and allows us to define our sound, our aesthetic, and our spirit.”

Opening during Veterans Month gives “Silent Night” an added dimension of meaning for the company and the community it serves. “This is more than an opera; it’s a tribute,” says Todaro. “The piece itself is phenomenal—uplifting, humane, and profoundly relevant. It also aligns with our new Voices of Wellness and Voices of Our Heroes initiatives, which focus on the mental health and well-being of veterans, first responders, nurses, and their families.”

For Kevin Puts, that sense of connection has always been at the core of “Silent Night.” Born in St. Louis and educated at the Eastman School of Music and Yale University, Puts won a 2012 Pulitzer Prize in Music for “Silent Night,” and a Grammy Award in 2023 for his triple concerto “Contact.”

“(Silent Night”) was my first opera, so I didn’t have any preconceptions,” says Puts. “I was simply looking for the most powerful musical expressions of chaos, peace, hope, and brotherhood. The battle scenes are dark and dissonant, while the moments when the soldiers think of home—their mothers, their sweethearts, the warmth of safety—are tender and intimate. The audience has to experience those contrasts as vividly as the characters do.”

That emotional polarity, he says, is what gives the work its enduring resonance. “These soldiers were just human beings caught in circumstances created by others. Once they stepped out of the trenches and met the men they were supposed to kill, they realized how absurd it all was. Once you know your enemy as a human being, it’s almost impossible to see them as inhuman again. That’s the core of the story.”

For stage director Tomer Zvulun, who has guided “Silent Night” through seven productions across two continents, that message of empathy feels as vital as ever. “What’s wonderful about this story is that it tells the human side of war,” he says. “The soldiers, their families, their deepest fears. The greatest fear of any soldier is not seeing the people they love again, and that’s also the greatest fear of those waiting at home. Ultimately, life is about love.”

Zvulun’s vision for this Florida staging draws inspiration from cinema—an homage to the 2006 Oscar-nominated film “Joyeux Noël” on which the opera is based. “To capture that rhythm, we’ve built a vertical set with multiple levels that moves seamlessly from bunker to bunker, trench to trench, across No Man’s Land without traditional scene changes,” he explains. “You follow the action almost like a camera moving through the battlefield.”

The sets, constructed in Cardiff, U.K., at the same facility that builds for the Metropolitan Opera—along with the period-accurate costumes crafted in Europe—give the production historical texture. “Every detail helps transport the audience into that world,” says Zvulun.

The collaboration between Florida Grand Opera, Atlanta Opera, and Opera Carolina deepens that impact. “This partnership reflects our international identity,” says Todaro. “Atlanta and Opera Carolina are our neighbors and wonderful partners. We joined forces to co-produce the work, sharing resources and costs. Other companies will likely rent this production in the future, benefiting all partners involved.”

The opera’s multilingual score—sung in German, French, English, Latin, and Italian—mirrors the cultural and emotional collisions of war. “Opera is already an art form of many languages,” says Zvulun, “but in ‘Silent Night,’ the music layers them like counterpoint. Different characters sing in different tongues, but the meaning converges. The music itself becomes the unifying force.”

Puts credits Campbell for that approach. “Writing in multiple languages makes the story more powerful,” he says. “You feel the separation between these soldiers—the distance created by language and nationality. And when the truce happens, those awkward, beautiful moments of connection become incredibly moving. Audiences respond to that struggle because it feels real. It’s about people trying to connect.”

At the opera’s emotional center lies the spontaneous Christmas truce, when soldiers emerge from their trenches to share carols, communion, and a game of soccer under the frozen stars. Zvulun calls it “the poetry of the battlefield.” “We use space, light, and motion to show the shift,” he explains. “You see soldiers move from attacking each other to sharing a cigarette or a piece of chocolate. Cold, harsh light gives way to the warm glow of Christmas. In the ‘Dona Nobis Pacem’ scene, the light itself tells the story.”

For Todaro, that transformation onstage mirrors the company’s own commitment to reconciliation and renewal. “‘Silent Night’ invites reflection,” she says. “It encourages audiences to see others with compassion, civility, and empathy—to rediscover our shared humanity. We’ve cried during rehearsals because it’s so beautiful and human. It’s a piece that heals while it moves.”

That healing, Puts believes, is inseparable from the music itself. “I’ve always thought of music as a place of sanctuary—a way to reach each other on the deepest level possible,” he says. Zvulun adds simply, “Music is medicine for the soul.”

WHAT: Florida Grand Opera presents Ken Puts’ “Silent Night”

WHERE: Miami: Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts (Ziff Ballet Opera House), 1300 Biscayne Blvd, Miami.  Fort Lauderdale: Broward Center for the Performing Arts (Au-Rene Theater), 201 SW 5th Ave, Fort Lauderdale.

WHEN: Miami: 7 p.m., Saturday, Nov 15.; 3 p.m., Sunday Nov 16, 8 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 18. Fort Lauderdale: 7:30 p.m., Thursday,  Dec. 4 and Saturday Dec. 6.

COST: $22-$300.

INFORMATION: 1-800-741-1010 or fgo.org

ArtburstMiami.com is a nonprofit media source for the arts featuring fresh and original stories by writers dedicated to theater, dance, visual arts, film, music and more. Don’t miss a story at www.artburstmiami.com.