ArtsCriticATL.com

Atlanta Opera is set to open Mozart’s “Così fan tutte” and close its 31st season on a company high — or at least with a newfound stability. The show opens April 9 and will run for just four performances at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre. Several years into the Great Recession, with only a [...]

In a program called “From Heaven Distilled a Clemency” — a free concert March 27 at 4 p.m. — the Glenn Memorial United Methodist Church will present three epochs of British music, including the local premiere of a recent cantata that has found a remarkably wide audience: Tarik O’Regan’s “Triptych,” for string orchestra and mixed [...]

The poet Rita Dove, a lush, smoky-voiced woman, remembers being a shy child who made herself utter a few words as soon as she got to class to get the talking over with. Writing stories in secret and playing the cello became her vehicles for self-expression. “I didn’t think they were mutually exclusive,” she said [...]

A few years ago, Bent Frequency was arguably the region’s most interesting and exciting musical ensemble. With a love of the avant-garde classics and crack virtuosity, the group brought to life great music that we read about but rarely hear in Atlanta, from an all-John Cage extravaganza to the cool sounds of the French spectralists [...]

Two star musicians familiar to Atlanta audiences, violinist Hilary Hahn and pianist Valentina Lisitsa, were set to start a long-planned tour of Japan when the earthquake and tsunami and cascading disasters struck a week ago. The duo decided to do something about it. They’ll perform a benefit concert at Spivey Hall, the jewel-box recital venue [...]

After years of talking about it, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra has finally launched a chamber music series. The debut, not well publicized, took place earlier this month. The second concert in the series opened the evening Thursday in Symphony Hall, one hour before the big symphonic event. It’s an excellent start: the musicians wore casual [...]