Culture
Culture
Pentatonix: when music tells the story
On Wednesday April 9, Pentatonix (PTX) hit the Buffalo stop on its tour, in honor of its third-year anniversary. For the show, they gave the audience a tour down memory lane. The concert was a stroll along the path that led the group to its place today, covering both elements of the group as […]
Culture
Jesse Denaro: embracing real struggles, finding real answers
Vulnerable, urgent, tender and raucous, Jesse Denaro's "Dear, Love" LP is real. On the album, set to drop May 13, Denaro combines unvarnished rage with delicately voiced 11 chords and the kind of songwriting smarts that made John Mayer's "Room for Squares" so immaculate. Denaro as an artist captures a special sense of balance […]
Culture
‘Undergraduate Musicians Council’ broadens presence
On Friday, April 11, UR's Undergraduate Musicians Council hosted its first annual showcase at the Interfaith Chapel. The showcase presented an opportunity for UR student musicians to perform for their peers in an environment more formal than that of other on-campus music outlets – for example, No Jackets Required's open mic or Starbucks's “Friday Night […]
Culture
‘Merry Mount’: the grand operatic experiment
I wasn’t quite sure what to expect for RPO’s upcoming operatic performance of Howard Hanson’s “Merry Mount.” As a singer, one of my main goals this semester was to see a live opera at Eastman, knowing that watching professional singers in action can be a great learning experience. Having prior knowledge that this performance was […]
Culture
“Sophia/Portrait” tackles questions of love and death
This past week, Drama House visitors had the pleasure of watching two original plays written and performed by members of The Opposite Of People (TOOP), the University’s student-run theatre troupe. The first play, “Sophia,” written by senior May Zhee Lim, focused on a mortician’s relationship with her father and death, while in the second, […]
Culture
A universal language, a personal story
As per usual, the YellowJackets blew audience members away when they performed on Friday, April 4 in Strong Auditorium. After they graced the stage with their trademark yellow suit jackets and ties, they roused the audience with a fresh take on Bastille’s “Pompeii.” This was followed up with their classic Beach Boys medley that showed […]
Culture
Turkuaz: dancing the distractions away
They say today’s music looks to the past to move forward, but does it really? In a sense, sure – Daft Punk and Robin Thicke scored the biggest hits of the summer by embracing 1970s pop textures. But perhaps we’re not moving forward at all. Just take a listen to Pharrell’s new LP: the bass […]
Culture
Stadium-sized ambition, small town soul
On Tuesday, April 8 the X Ambassadors, a Brooklyn-based alt-pop quartet, played Rochester's Bugjar. I interviewed the band's frontman, Sam Harris, a few weeks ago. We discussed the band's diverse set of influences. To reiterate, the X-Ambassadors bring together anthemic stomp-clap beats fit for large stadiums, a modern keenness for atmosphere and watery textures, […]
Culture
“Dialogues of the Carmelites” captivates
“Dialogues of the Carmelites” by Francis Poulenc performed last week at Eastman, and it was an absolutely fantastic show. It was clear from the rumors in the hallways of the school leading up to the premier that the show was going to be sensational. A few days before the show opened, all of the members […]
Culture
‘Grand Budapest Hotel’: subtlety is beauty
All discussions of Wes Anderson or his films begin with a mention or discussion of his idiosyncratic style. Anderson’s films are known for their artistic qualities: the sets, the costumes, the props, the cinematography. What makes all of these qualities so appealing in Anderson’s films is that they support a personal dialogue between filmmaker and […]