American jazz great Bill Cole reveals new work

Composed in 1936, Peter and the Wolf is a musical fable that introduces children to the orchestra. The story is constructed such that each character has a musical theme played by different instruments: The bird’s theme is played by the flute while the cat’s theme is played by the clarinet, and so on. Throughout the […]

ARTS Pick: Little Women

The classic tale of Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy March returns to the stage this weekend when the Albemarle High School Players present an adaptation of Little Women, Louisa May Alcott’s 1868 novel about a saintly Civil War-era New England mother and her four well-adjusted, independent-minded daughters whose father is serving in the Union Army. […]

Flutist-guitarist Maxx Katz explores doom with a view

Before Maxx Katz plays a single note of a FLOOM set, she looks out at the audience in front of her and thinks: “We’re all going to die.” That thought in mind, she rings out one heavy chord on her silver sparkle Epiphone Les Paul and lets it tumble out of her bitchin’ amps and […]

ARTS Pick: Water or Glass

In 1943, Charlotte Salomon died in a gas chamber at Auschwitz. Leading up to her capture and unimaginable death, the artist produced 769 expressionist paintings while in hiding from the Nazis. The works came together as an autobiographical play through images called Life? or Theater?. Local playwright Bridget Mitchell opens a new era for the […]

Moonlight traces a powerful journey

Socially important and stylistically flawless, Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight is a beautiful film inside and out. Far more than a worthwhile message about LGBT visibility wrapped in a pretty package, Moonlight is a fully realized three-dimensional look at the evolution of a person from child to adult —changes that seem gradual are often direct threads visible […]

ARTS Pick: Locals Play Locals

The event name says it all. Locals Play Locals is a big ol’ Charlottesville music cover show. More than a dozen bands and solo artists—Tequila Mockingbird, Gina Sobel’s Choose Your Own Adventure, Genna Matthew, Phil West, Marchenko and others—will swap songs and even genres in this benefit concert for Charlottesville’s Music Resource Center. Friday 11/18. $8, […]

ARTS Pick: Willie DE

When guitarist Willie DE walks onstage to unveil his sophomore album, Thunder Train, he will be taking another big step on a musical journey that cuts straight through Charlottesville’s Downtown Mall. As a young aspiring musician, DE made his first bucks while busking on local streets, and credits his membership at the Music Resource Center […]

Refugees make new connections through art

Rarely do so many Americans feel divided, separated and isolated from one another as they have during this political season. Our inability to communicate and connect with one another as countrymen feels like an affront. For the thousands of refugees who flee violence, persecution, human trafficking or torture in their native countries in crisis, then […]

Album reviews: Lambchop, Shagwuf, MV & EE

Lambchop FLOTUS (Merge) Kurt Wagner might deserve this year’s indie Lifetime Achievement Award. While recording as Lambchop for more than 20 years, he has ably covered a waterfront of styles, from string-laden alt-country to hipster soul and mellow indie-pop. To boot, he’s given us a bounty of wry titles like “Cigaretiquette” and “The Petrified Florist,” […]

ARTS Pick: The Nth Power

Indebted to the legacy of soul music, The Nth Power offers a listener’s choice of “songs that will inspire audiences to dance, groove, make love or just stand there with goose bumps.” Bound by a belief in the spiritual power of music and the logical beauty of math (the group’s first EP is titled Basic […]