Author: Y Kendall

From the Nashville Symphony

Reflections on The Jonah People: A Legacy of Struggle and Triumph

It was a madhouse. Half the crowd was shouting in delight; half the crowd was shouting in shock. The roar from these competing forces was so loud that the dancersRead More

The MCR Interview:

Interview with Karen Slack

The Nashville Symphony will present a world premiere of composer Hannibal Lokumbe’s The Jonah People:  A Legacy of Struggle and Triumph at Schermerhorn Symphony Center, 7 pm, April 13; 8Read More

Ides of March at Schermerhorn

Music City Review Goes to War (and Leaves the Funk in Peace)

The lights were already dimmed as I raced in after seeking my reserved parking space in an apparently nonexistent parking lot. The Latino singer was midway through the first verseRead More

Drumming from the Heart of Our Planet: 

Kodō Drummers’ “One Earth Tour”  at Schermerhorn Symphony Center

Kodō has a double meaning.  In Japanese, it means  both “heartbeat” and “children of the drum.” This latter also has a double meaning. It means children listening to the heartbeatRead More

Freedom Fighters: DakhaBrakha at OZ Arts

It felt like rare musical events I’ve actually experienced—the opening tour date of Talking Heads’ “Stop Making Sense” in Berkeley, Parliament Funkadelic’s “Mothership Connection” tour stop in Chapel Hill, NewRead More

At TPAC

The Nashville Ballet Publishes an Anthology of Nashville History

Before I returned home to Middle Tennessee, I binged ballet in New York and Houston, two American cities with world-class ballet companies. Having left decades ago when classical and modernRead More

Theatre Nohgaku at the Frist

It was a misty gray afternoon, not cold, but comforting, a stay-inside kind of day, the kind of day you commonly see in the Japanese countryside, the kind of dayRead More

At the Frist

A Brief Intro to Nōhgaku: Ancient Japanese Drama

Some years ago, I witnessed traditional Japanese theater live in Japan. After years of teaching world and Asian music courses that featured the rich traditions of Japanese theater, a fellowshipRead More

From the Mabry Concert Hall at Austin Peay

Fisk Jubilee Singers: History Repeats Itself 150 Years Later

As we live in roiling tumultuous times, as hatred and violence grow, as we question the fellowship of our fellow citizens, we sometimes need respite, some way of seeing signsRead More

From TPAC and OzArts:

Meow Meow: “Kamikaze Cabaret” in the War Memorial Auditorium

Some years ago, I attended two productions of the esteemed Houston Grand Opera. One was the lesser-known Verdi opera, Macbeth; the other Handel’s Ariodante. Both suffered the same fate: directorsRead More