It was already a good Sunday morning, I was up early with no obligations for several hours – our Mother’s Day celebration was a dinner. I’m sipping a home-brewed cappuccino and sitting in my favorite chair with my two best Sunday morning friends – The New York Times and The Tampa Bay Times.
My ritual has changed just a bit. For some reason, since November, I never start my Sunday by reading the front page of newspapers. Let’s just say it is for religious reasons.
Instead, I turned to the NY Times Arts and Leisure section and there, on page 4, was a wonderful gift – an affirmation that down at the Palladium we must be doing something right.
The page is called “The Week Ahead” and features top events coming up in the arts. At the top with a color photo is a preview of an upcoming show by The Calidore String Quartet. Calidore has made at least three appearances on our stage – the award-winning ensemble includes St. Petersburg’s own Ryan Meehan.
And then, down a bit and to the left, is a advance of a show by the emerging blues artists Samantha Fish. Samantha was on our stage last April for the kickoff of the Tampa Bay Blues Fest.
The full pieces appear below. I just want you to keep in mind that you saw them both at the Palladium first!
Calidore String Quartet
In a scene crowded with excellent young ensembles, the Calidore String Quartet can assert itself with pride, having recently won both a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship and the M-Prize International Chamber Music Competition. New Yorkers have two chances to judge for themselves this week. On Sunday, May 14, the quartet plays new works by Caroline Shaw and Hannah Lash in a concert at the New School that also features works for voice and mixed instruments by Luciano Berio and Matthew Ricketts. (newschool.edu.)
On Thursday, the Calidore players present two sets in the Rose Studio of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, where they’ll perform Mozart’s inventive Viola Quintet in C (K. 515) — with the violist Paul Neubauer — and take on Ligeti’s String Quartet No. 1. “Métamorphoses nocturnes” is a taut and seething one-movement work from 1954, a repertory touchstone and as fine a music as any to put a young group to the test. (chambermusicsociety.org.)
Samantha Fish
Samantha Fish is an impressive blues guitarist who sings with sweet power. For the past several years, she’s been slowly riffing her way through the blues-revival circuit and has released three strong albums — including one produced by Luther Dickinson — that marked her as one of the genre’s most promising young talents.
Now, she’s beginning to use her guitar work as a bridge to a larger range of foundational American music: vintage soul, early rock ’n’ roll, tough country. For her new album, “Chills & Fever” — which she brings to Mexicali Live in Teaneck, N.J., on Wednesday, May 17 — she (along with the producer Bobby Harlow, of the Go) worked with members of the Detroit Cobras and a horn section from New Orleans on a covers collection that’s alternately scrappy and smooth. (mexicalilive.com)
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