Not Just Fiddling Around
As part of the Charlottesville community’s celebration of Juneteenth, the Jefferson-designed landmark hosted “Rock and Reel: Monticello’s Folk Traditions,” presented by the Early Music Access Project.
UVA Art Professor Joins a Big Debate Over a Tiny Detail
A historian thinks he’s solved one of the Mona Lisa’s mysteries. University of Virginia art history professor Francesca Fiorani completely disagrees.
Announcing the Winners of the 2022 Musicworks Electronic Music Composition Contest
American composer, sound artist, and educator Leah Reid has won first prize with her composition "Reverie."
Charlottesville Black Business Expo returns to IX Art Park on September 22
Hip Hop is Dope, and America is a Dopefiend Hooked on the Fruit of Its Own Brutality
I’m driving with Truth, a friend who is a music producer. We both make rap music, but he makes beats, too. I’m an undergraduate at the small, private university in my hometown, Decatur, Illinois. He finished his undergraduate degree a couple years ago. We are leaving Jay’s house — he’s another friend — driving from his West Side neighborhood toward the campus at its edge. It’s remarkable, while driving through this neighborhood, what distinguishes the town from university grounds. It’s not the manicured hedges and lawns. They aren’t greener, neater, or more meticulously trimmed on one side or the other. It’s the wrought iron fencing that separates them. The gates are a portal between worlds.
The Ambivalences of ‘Don Giovanni’
Opera’s most famous libertine, who embodies freedom not only from social and political constraints but from sexuality, religion, and morality itself, has always been a disturbing figure.
Arts on the Hill: MT. JOY
Libraries and 50 Years of Hip-Hop
Not every musical genre can pinpoint the date and location of its start, but hip hop is distinctive in that way. Hip hop was born in the Bronx on August 11, 1973 when graffiti artist and b-girl Cindy Campbell threw a back-to-school party and had her brother Clive, who performed under the name DJ Kool Herc, play music in the recreation room of an apartment building at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue. Celebrations and other events are marking the 50th anniversary, and libraries are playing a part in ways that would have been unimaginable decades ago. What was once a fringe genre slowly gained commercial dominance and cultural legitimacy. Although “rap” and “hip hop” are sometimes used interchangeably, the former refers just to the vocal style while the latter incorporates the whole culture, which also includes DJing, break dancing, and graffiti art.
Tuesday Evening Concert Series Selects New Executive Director
On a High Note, French Piano Virtuoso Joins Local Players for an Evening of Jazz Excellence
John D’earth knows Charlottesville music. Since settling in town in 1981, he’s come to define the local jazz scene—and beyond—with his considerable crossover into pop genres, and reach as a music teacher. So when D’earth decides to bring a French jazz pianist stateside for a local residency, culminating with a show alongside himself and the University of Virginia Jazz Ensemble at the Paramount Theater on April 28, the ears of jazz aficionados and casual music fans alike perk up.