No fanfare was spared at yesterday's unveiling of "Gerard Schwarz Place" the symbolically renamed stretch of University Ave between 2nd and 3rd in Seattle's downtown core. Arts enthusiast and all-around go-getter Alex Hudson was there to snap a few photos of the new signage. more ›

HEY GOOD LOOKIN': Country-rock group The Handsome Family has had a fruitful career. Formed in '93 by the husband and wife team of Brett and Rennie Sparks, the group's first album came out in '94, and since then we've seen eight more full-lengths and a handful of fine EPs. Traditional American music with just a touch of rock, The Handsome Family plays bluegrass and country as well as the best of em. The lyrics are dark, sometimes menacing, gothic in a way, but always thoughtful and perfectly complementary to the jangling sound of resurrected Americana. With Sean Rowe. more ›

The Symphony can deactivate this mailbox: MaestroSearch@SeattleSymphony.org. They've named 36-year-old Ludovic Morlot to succeed Gerard Schwarz, who's been music director for the past 25 years. more ›

Twas on this date in 1903 that Harry West, a violinist and conductor, led the very first performance by the Seattle Symphony, then comprised of just 24 players. The program: Schubert, Rossini, Max Bruch, Jules Massenet, Pablo Sarasate. Today, under Gerard Schwarz, 90 professional musicians. Thursday: a New Year's Eve concert at Benaroya. Bravissimo! more ›

Surprising absolutely no one, Intiman Theatre artistic director Bart Sher announced he's decamping for for New York, and will wrap up his term at the end of this 2010. He's more or less gone as of now, though--he's been in New York for his staging of Joe Turner's Come and Gone, and won't direct Othello this summer. He's sending in a Sher stunt-double to fill out his contract. Meanwhile, the search for a new Seattle Symphony music director (Gerard Schwarz steps down at the close of the 2010-11 season) will be headed up by Nancy Evans, who has a page with husband Dan at HistoryLink.org: "Together they personify the term 'power couple' in Washington state." more ›

The P-I reports that Seattle Symphony conductor Gerard Schwarz has announced he'll step down at the end of the 2010-11 season. What is that, 25 years as music director? Like his director-doppelganger Speight Jenkins at Seattle Opera, Schwarz arrived in the mid-'80s and built a good-enough-for-Seattle organization into a nationally noticed one, albeit with more of a brash, East coast management style that's kept the orchestra split into friends-of-Gerry and I-spit-on-your-grave factions. We used to truck Gerry around to donor events when they were building Benaroya Hall, and, man, can that guy work a crowd. (However, he also lost a pen we loaned him, so that's a demerit.) He says he'll hang around town and guest conduct--he's also done some composing which we liked quite a bit. All in all, the future looks pretty rosy for the Schwarzes. more ›

Tonight the Seattle Symphony gives you Dvořák's "New World" Symphony, which we love, but then so does everyone else so it's not a remarkable that we do. It's a "locals-only" evening, with Gerard Schwarz at the podium, and the Symphony's ace up its sleeve, horn-slinger John Cerminaro. Cerminaro can make that brass curtsy and serve tea if he wants. Why one time in Oklahoma...but we digress. more ›

The Seattle Times tries to put a happy face on the news that the Seattle Symphony is projecting an accumulated $5.5 million deficit by pointing out that ticket sales are up. But the troubling fact remains that over the past three years the deficit has grown from $1 million, to $3.2 million, to $5.5 million. For an annual budget of around $21 million, a deficit of $5.5 million is remarkable. more ›

Seattlest had two very different opera experiences this past weekend, and we wanted to share both with you. (We know Seattlest’s own MVB has already favorably reviewed one of them, but we wanted to add our own two cents.) more ›

Last Saturday night Seattlest trundled off to McCaw Hall for opening night of Die Fledermaus (running through January 28). We were a little doubtful about just how much fun the operetta (a word that means, "before there were Broadway musical-comedies") would be. General Director Speight Jenkins had cast some giant-voiced Wagnerians in the leads of a lithe, witty farce and it seemed counterintuitive, to be frank with you. With an icing-thin plot involving an extended, not-very-funny practical joke, Fledermaus only works if the Viennese tendency to waltz in the face of disaster perfectly balances the sad reality of a couple who have gotten tired of each other and are looking elsewhere for fun. more ›

Late last night Seattlest was mingling with the post-concert crowd in the Founders Room at Benaroya Hall. We'd just had our socks knocked off by an Erwin Schulhoff piece in the Music of Rembrance concert commemorating Holocaust Memorial Day. (Which makes Schulhoff's death one more thing we have against Nazis.) According to our notes, try the cheese plate, skip the house Pinot. more ›