05/03/13 - Next time on South Florida Arts Beat, we’ll find out where the skeletons are buried – literally. Former Miami-Dade County archaeologist, Bob Carr, talks about his new book, Digging Miami. Charles Greenfield previews the Cypress String Quartet’s Sunday afternoon concert in Coral Gables.
In 1998, the cultural climate in Cuba wasn't exactly conducive to artistic freedom. While a thriving underground music scene did exist, official radio and television channels were notoriously selective, only airing artists who echoed the Communist Party line.
Back from his recent trip to Havana, rapper Jay-Z quickly released a new song, Open Letter, in which he not only addresses controversy about the trip but speaks his mind in a way that is likely to stir up some of the deep passions Americans have toward Cuba and the communist island's tumultuous relationship with the United States.
Shaded area indicates the reach of Ultra's sounds. This is not a scientific map, but rather one based on observations. We drew the lines from the point where ambient sounds from the urban environment become louder than the music itself.
For more than a hundred thousand electronic dance music fans from across the world, Ultra Music Festival is heaven on earth. But tell that to the people who live and work close by.
A sound level meter reading safe sounds blocks away. Any workplace with a constant level of 90 or louder must provide protection for employees. Ultra employees were provided protection.
Standing outside the gates of Ultra Music Festival, an audiologist and her colleague are staring at their sound level meters. The devices track the decibel level of the atmosphere, giving us some unsettling clues as to how safe the environment is for your ears.
After an extended buildup, the beat finally drops. As the fans go crazy, the bass starts to pump. Even a few hundred feet from the stage, casual conversation is strained.
Record labels -- the kind that lovingly hand-pick a few bands and release real, tactile product by them -- aren't exactly cash cows in 2013. Yet two years of solvent success shows that Brian Kurtz, the proprietor of Miami-based indie outfit Limited Fanfare, has discovered a niche. In releasing music and promoting concerts by, and even managing, a selected handful of promising underground rock and roll bands, he's managed to move physical units. Imagine!
The Tony-award winning Broadway musical, Fela! is in Miami this week. The production is based on the complex life-- and music-- of late Nigerian activist, musician and singer Fela Kuti.
Kuti is known worldwide for founding the musical genre afro-beat. But in Nigeria, he’s known for using his music to protest the country’s military government through the 70s and 80s.
Local Band Cayos is an experimental ambient-electronica group. Under the Sun on WLRN had the chance to speak with band members Daniel Laburu and Nick Reyes about what inspires their music.
Both are Miami natives who moved away. Laburu is an architect living in New York. Reyes is a soldier stationed at Fort Riley in Kansas.
03/15/13 - Next time on South Florida Arts Beat, Debra Hall-Greene speaks about the documentary, Stiltsville: Generations On The Flats, which airs on WLRN TV Channel 17 Sunday, March 31st. Judith Bishop talks with Joe Adler, award-winning, South Florida Artistic Producing Director of Gablestage, about regional theater and his long, illustrious career.
This Friday marks the beginning of a nearly two-week sprawl of events surrounding Winter Music Conference, and what's come to be known unofficially as "Miami Music Week." It's a time when the entire world of electronic music descends on Miami in a frenzy of industry palm-greasing and parties.
Fresh off of the success of the 2013 Oscar nominated film, join WLRN and an all-star cast featuring Nick Jonas and Lea Salonga for a tribute to the 25th Anniversary of Les Miserables at the O2 in London, England! With a cast of over 500 musicians and actors, it is the musical event of a lifetime! Tonight at 8pm on WLRN Channel 17!
The Subtropics festival's events, which span across two weeks, will feature improvisation, custom electronic instruments, or unusual acoustic techniques. 'The music functions as a way to help you understand how sound speaks about what’s around you, help you connect with your environment, in ways that we don’t when we’re simply being intellectual or visual,' said Gustavo Matamoros, festival director. 'The ear is our gate towards connecting with things.'
Since its launch in 1989, the Subtropics festival has offered South Florida a multi-day event focused squarely on experimental music and sound art. This year the two-week Miami Beach festival starts with a symposium on sound and architecture, then relaxes into a series of concerts.
02/22/13 - Next time on South Florida Arts Beat, Johnno Potts describes music, art, dance and workshops coming to the Virginia Key Grassroots Festival this weekend. Classical pianist and YouTube sensation, Valentina Lisitsa, talks about her long career and her upcoming Festival of the Arts Boca performance.
If you are percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani, you take ten gongs, make your own bows, truck them around the country, and assemble an ad-hoc ensemble in each city to magnify that experience into something acoustically mind-blowing.
A gong hangs suspended from its stand, light dancing across its bronzed surface, each hammered dent hinting at some mysterious overtone waiting to be released. If you grab the right mallet and strike it, that light turns into sound, the complex interplay of indentations drives the air, caresses your eardrums, and vibrates your body. The sound swells, fills the room, and gradually dissipates.
