Steven Brown

Steven Brown: The company’s new leader brought it to the Knight Theater to open its six-day run.

Don’t let the title of Beethoven’s “Missa Solemnis” deceive you. It isn't solemn music.

Two visionaries: Preaching the power of thinking differently, Steve Jobs devised gadgets that transformed daily life. Johannes Kepler thought differently, about the heavens and transformed mankind’s grasp of the planets.

His signature is on the curtain. His singing dominates the musical score. His image is etched by a thousand points of light at the end.

What a contrast. I don’t think I’ve ever heard an orchestral concert that demanded players be such chameleons.

When he turned “Dangerous Liaisons” into a ballet, Sasha Janes made a clever change. He took a character who’s a music teacher in the original story and turned him into a fencing instructor.

As Friday’s Charlotte Symphony concert unfolded, I thought it would turn out to be the orchestra’s first night with three standing ovations. I was wrong. There turned out to be four – and a fraction more, if you figure in the part of the audience that was on its feet after the encore at the end.

After six decades, Opera Carolina finally is staging its first opera from Russia: Tchaikovsky’s lyrical and fiery “Eugene Onegin.”

"Sleeping Beauty" starts with a bang. Even before the curtain rises, the evil fairy Carabosse springs to life musically when her angry theme is the first sound from the orchestra pit.

Boozing. Gambling. Skirt-chasing. "Carmina Burana," Carl Orff's tribute to medieval-style fun and games, has it all - amped up into the full power of a modern orchestra and choir.