Pity party playlist: Chicago indie musician Ryley Walker (right) brings sand to the beach when he arrives to play from his latest release—a full cover of the unreleased Dave Matthews Band album The Lillywhite Sessions. The recordings gained cult status after getting shelved by the band in 2001 for being full of “sad bastard songs” (according […]
Pity party playlist: Chicago indie musician Ryley Walker (right) brings sand to the beach when he arrives to play from his latest release—a full cover of the unreleased Dave Matthews Band album The Lillywhite Sessions. The recordings gained cult status after getting shelved by the band in 2001 for being full of “sad bastard songs” (according […]
With joyful ring: Michael Slon conducts a 90-person chorus for Christmas at the Paramount, which features traditional holiday music and selections from Johann Sebastian Bach’s Magnificat. One of Bach’s most popular works, it celebrates the season through an uplifting expression of joy and humility. Children’s Choir of Central Virginia and the First Presbyterian Church Handbell Ensemble […]
Home stretch: Charlottesville’s history is built on many difficult stories, but the formation of the Dave Matthews Band is one of our city’s happy tropes. Formed in 1991 by the band’s namesake, the group quickly emerged from gigs on the jazz bar scene to weekly sell-outs at Trax nightclub. The band’s national fame escalated quickly, with […]
The romantic costume drama gets an injection of style and attitude in Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Favourite. By its description—period piece from the director of Dogtooth, wartime power struggles, a love triangle, cousins jockeying for the Queen’s good graces—you’d have no way of knowing that The Favourite is one of the most ferociously funny films of […]
Nick Evans sometimes wakes at “god-awful hours of the night” to find his brother, Will, in the living room, sitting quietly amid microphones, coiled cables, amps, guitars, and drums, his shoulders hunched toward his computer, the blue-white glow of the screen illuminating his face, laser-focused, with headphones covering his ears. Nick laughs as he describes […]
Ella Mai Ella Mai (10 Summers) Ella Mai declares emotion “a roller coaster” in a brief introductory snippet, spoken in a fetching British accent. And if her full-length debut feels kinda samey on the slow-to- midtempo tip, her lyrics do, as implied, dwell on romantic turmoil— mindfucks swirl like autumn leaves on nearly every cut, […]
As Charlottesville’s character has broadened, so has its classical music scene, which is now largely driven by community efforts to build the culture. When Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach began transforming the sounds we were used to hearing, 250 years ago, people said it was the death of classical music,” says Benjamin Rous, music director of […]
In the shorter days leading to the solstice, things can get gloomy, but for the group of artists featured in Let There Be Light, the darkness offers inspiration. From glowing jellyfish constellations to the hidden world of woodland creatures, the art installations and performances at the annual event are a testament to the bright artistic […]
When Martin, a 50-year-old husband and father, confesses his love for a goat, it sets off a wild chain of events in the architect’s successful and seemingly perfect family life. Edward Albee’s The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? reflects on moral judgment, crisis management, and sexual psychology, in an absurdly harrowing story that is subtitled […]
In The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, the Herdman kids—a bunch of foul-mouthed smokers, thieves, and drinkers—are uncontestedly the worst choices to cast in their church’s annual Christmas play. Other children are shocked at the news of their involvement: There’s no way these six unruly delinquents can lead the production to success, short of a miracle. Released […]