This year's MaerzMusik festival in Berlin, which begins on March 12, takes as its theme "Cage and Consequences," dwelling on the likes of James Tenney, George Brecht, Toshi Ichiyanagi, Joan La Barbara, Robert Ashley, David Behrman, Alvin Lucier, and Gordon Mumma. La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela will make what might turn out to be their final European appearance. There's also a concert devoted to Annie Gosfield, currently in residence at the American Academy in Berlin.... Judith Weir's latest opera, Miss Fortune, arrives at Covent Garden on March 12, having made its debut at Bregenz last summer.... The far-thinking Bay Area pianist Sarah Cahill will play twice in New York this week. On Tuesday she gives a mystical recital at Poisson Rouge, summoning Satie (Sonnerie de la Rose + Croix), Scriabin, Rudhyar, Cowell, and Ruth Crawford; on Thursday she goes to Roulette for an Interpretations concert celebrating female composers, with works by Bun-Ching Lam, Frances White, and Pauline Oliveros.... Who knew? Kid Rock will perform at a benefit for the Detroit Symphony, aiming to raise $1 million for the formerly beleaguered, now recovering orchestra. "There will be matters of balances and sound level," Leonard Slatkin tells Detroit critic Mark Stryker.... On March 18, Leon Botstein and the American Symphony venture Franz Schmidt's Notre Dame, his adaptation of the Victor Hugo tale. Portraying the Archdeacon is Stephen Powell, a strong-voiced, psychologically layered Germont in City Opera's Traviata last month.... The same day, the young British pianist Benjamin Grosvenor makes his New York debut, at the Frick. I found his Decca CD technically dazzling but a bit chilly and mannered, particularly in the almost perversely fast Chopin Scherzo No. 1. He does show a distinct personality, though, unlike so many of the young virtuoso being touted by Decca and DG these days. Charles Downey has a review of his recent DC appearance.
