Arts Features rphinney

Violinist Epongue Ekille from Rochester is one of the people calling for a greater recognition of Black musicians’ contributions to classical music. She shares her experiences and some listening recommendations.

Judi Vinar first saw Bobby McFerrin on the Grammy Awards back in the 80’s. “I was blown away,” she said by phone from her home in the Twin Cities. “When I first heard Bobby do a solo piece, you know, a lot of what he does is jump around with a bass note and octave note on top and somehow he fits the melody inside of that.” She went out and bought all his records. Vinar grew up listening to a wide range of styles from Julie Andrews musicals to Tom Jones LPs, soaking up styles like a sponge. She

David Temperley composes tuneful, expressive pieces in a classical mold, drawing on his experiences with chamber music and influences from the popular music he grew up listening to on the radio. He's also a music theorist who writes about rock music, including in his latest book The Musical Language of Rock . Read more about Temperley and his music in CITY Newspaper this week: "Having it Both Ways. The Music of Rochester Composer David Temperley." You can also hear his music and story in this

To get to know Maria Newman, you have to understand who her father was. She is the daughter of nine time Academy award-winning film composer Alfred Newman, who wrote the 20th century Fox fanfare. Her brothers and cousin are equally famous; there’s Randy Newman of Toy Story fame, Thomas Newman, who scored Finding Nemo and Shawshank Redemption . Her brother David has scored nearly 100 films such as Galaxy Quest . It’s no exaggeration to say she comes from a musical dynasty.

The characters in Giacomo Puccini’s opera La Bohème start out as broad archetypes: the moody poet, a fun-loving musician, a lonely young woman dreaming of love, a flirtatious party girl… They're drawn in broad strokes, and it’s easy for everyone to see something of themselves, or their friends, in this group. But as the cast of this summer’s Finger Lakes Opera production of La Boheme discussed – the opera’s true power lies in how all these characters change.

Composer Margaret Brouwer lives in Ohio, near Lake Erie. She loves the natural beauty of the Great Lakes and she’s worried about them. She has composed her love for Lake Erie -- and her concerns for its future -- into a musical work called "Voice of the Lake ."