CONGRATS TO YMM’S FARKHAD KHUDYEV

At a conducting competition in Taipei he won the prize for the best traditional Chinese interpretation. He conducts the YMM orchestras in Carmel this Sunday. See our CALENDAR

MONTEREY MUSEUM OF ART & PAMB TAKE ON ARTISTIC VISION

A panel discussion on how area art directors choose their projects attracted a small (two dozen) but influential audience last Saturday at the Museum. An illuminating discussion ensued between Amy Anderson (Chamber Music Monterey Bay), Charlotte Eyerman (Monterey Museum of Art), Julie James (Jewel Theatre), Fran Spector-Atkins (SpectorDance) and Todd Lueders (founding CEO, Community Foundation for Monterey County). Each brought fresh and updated perspectives to challenges faced by non-profit arts institutions in Monterey and Santa Cruz counties, not least, as Lueders pointed out, major demographic regional changes. He said that ethnically today, “We all are minorities.” (From left, Moderator Scott MacClelland, Spector-Atkins, Eyerman, Anderson, James & Lueders; photo by Ami Davis/MMA)

GOOD NEWS FROM SANTA CRUZ SHAKESPEARE

Artistic director Mike Ryan sent us this: “Santa Cruz Shakespeare not only had a critically acclaimed season last year, but we also ended 2014 with a balanced budget. Consequently, we will increase the number of shows in 2015 from two to three: Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing and Macbeth, and the David Ives’ adaptation of Pierre Corneille’s The Liar. Efforts to keep the season forward-funded are underway, with a fundraising deadline of March 1, 2015.” To learn more click HERE

FOLLIES AT MPC THEATRE COMPANY

A large company turns out to amuse you and raise funds for MPC Theatre this weekend. Director Walt Defaria at far left. See our CALENDAR

PERFORMING ARTS PEOPLE

Linda Burman-Hall’s Santa Cruz Baroque Festival begins its 2015 season on Saturday. She is our PAP person of the week. Click HERE

LOCAL GIRL, REBECCA MILLER, HOT IN LONDON

The conductor who auditioned for the Santa Cruz Symphony but lost out to Daniel Stewart is all over the London scene. In 1999 she founded the New Professionals Orchestra; in 2004 they released a CD titled Lou Harrison: For Strings. In 2014 she made her debuts with the BBC Concert Orchestra, Royal Northern Sinfonia, Ryedale Festival, BBC Proms and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment which just released a new CD on the Signum label of five of the witty—often zany—CPE Bach symphonies. Some of the same works recorded by Gustav Leonhardt with the same orchestra, Miller’s readings carry more swing but drive with greater intensity and a bigger, symphonic sound. Leonhardt’s, from 1988, is more transparently engineered. But there’s no doubt that Miller is running her show. Meantime, I favor Leonhardt’s but I’m keeping them both.

TANDY BEAL TRIPS DOWN MEMORY LANE

Seen Sunday afternoon at Cabrillo Crockett, Tandy’s “40 Odd Moves” lived up to its name. Her celebration of 40 years as a terpsichorean original served up a baker’s dozen of short pieces—“poems” rather than the “novels” of her grand productions over many years. Well-produced and directed, not least by music director and life partner Jon Scoville, the performance restored scenes from across the decades, most with Scoville’s original scores. The show was small scale, using minimal lighting and costumes in place of sets and props. It was also nostalgically self-referencing, the “Figure of Speech” a bit long in the narrative tooth. Though I saw no obvious inhibition, Tandy admitted an injury that might have disturbed the program. My favorite was her LOL allusions and liquid moves to Couperin’s Mysterious Barricades, in Christopher Parkening’s guitar recording. (Tandy called it “The Plot Without Thickener,” while Couperin considered it an allegory of female virginity.) Micha Scott, a Beal protogée, joined the star in “Neither Darkness nor Science,” which premiered in 2003 at the Mello in Watsonville.

PACREP’S NEW PIRATES OF PENZANCE

Read Philip Pearce’s review. Click HERE

TIM PAGE REAPPRAISES RICHARD STRAUSS

The German composer’s 150th birthday went by last June. “I may not be a first-rate composer, but I am a first-class second-rate composer.” Some would disagree; even his less-known operas are getting regular revivals. (1938 portrait by Max Liebermann) Click HERE

Scott MacClelland, editor