It’s fairly safe to assume that if you’ve watched movies, you have heard the work of legendary composer John Williams. To honor the soundtrack maestro, Music Director Benjamin Rous leads the Charlottesville Symphony, a blended ensemble of professional, student and community musicians, in some of Williams’ most successful scores. From distant planets in the Star […]
Words and pictures by Natalie Jacobsen “Take your shoes off,” says Joshua Kwasi. A delegation of 56 people, most representing Charlottesville, pause for a moment, eyes darting and sweeping the stone floor, glancing toward the sandy, exposed path before them. “Why?” asks one member. “Because this is sacred ground,” says Kwasi, the tour guide at […]
And stay out! Six militia groups and their leaders named in a lawsuit aimed at preventing white supremacist and paramilitary organizations from showing their mugs around Charlottesville again have settled, agreeing they won’t engage in coordinated armed activity in any of the city’s future rallies or protests. The latest round of defendants to bow out […]
Based in Richmond, folk singer-songwriter Graham Stone has been gaining traction as one of the region’s up-and-coming artists. His 2017 debut album, Until the Day, showcases Stone’s impressive scope of songwriting, and ranges from solo standards to full-band shredders—and while paying tribute to influences such as Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan, it also traverses the […]
Master mandolinists Danny Knicely and Jack Dunlap (above) first connected when Knicely apprenticed Dunlap through the Virginia Folklife Program in 2015. A year later, the duo recorded its first album, Chop, Shred & Split, which received a Washington Area Music Award for best bluegrass recording. The two maestros have pushed the boundaries of their instruments in […]
Art Movie Night takes the form of a lawn party with desserts and a screening of the PBS Art21 series installment “Investigation,” a close look at the processes of Swiss modern artist Thomas Hirschhorn, whose public collaborations “resist exclusionary and elitist aesthetic criteria,” Mexican photographer Graciela Iturbide, who explores cultural environments through emotional portraiture and […]
In the 50 years since The Oratorio Society of Virginia made its debut with a performance of Handel’s Messiah in the auditorium of Albemarle High School, the group has infused choral excellence into the community through its vast repertoire, high-caliber singers and annual holiday performances. In looking to commemorate the group’s half-century mark, Music Director […]
With a turbulent start to the school year, the University of Virginia undoubtedly looks a little different than it did last spring. Although outgoing President Teresa Sullivan and the UVA administration were criticized for not doing more to protect members of the university community from last summer’s white supremacist torch-lit march, the events of August […]
The actors will appear to have left the screen when Charming Underclothes performance group takes on the movie Clue in a shadowcast. Dinner and drinks lead to a murder spree in the cinematic version of the popular board game, and the Reel to Real production company adds another dimension with actors in full costume, props, […]
It’s more than a push of a button when Restroy’s Chris Damman sends a wave of electricity through his carefully composed cello numbers. Despite using electronic drones and noise, the acoustic instrument is the foundation of sound for Damman, who is so physically in tune with his cello that it’s actually changed his posture. On […]