A couple of times on this blog I've poked Entertainment Weekly for neglecting classical music. I'm happy to see that Bryant Manning is now contributing occasional reviews to EW's music pages. His latest is on Rostropovich.... Issue Project Room, an important site for venturesome music in NYC, has a handsome new website.... Joel Sachs has assembled a splendid lineup of works for this year's FOCUS! Festival, on the theme of California music. It runs at Juilliard from Jan. 23 to Jan. 31, culminating in a semistaged performance of John Adams's Death of Klinghoffer. All tickets are free.... Also of note this month: performances of Robert Ashley's three most recent operas — Dust, Celestial Excursions, and Made Out of Concrete — at La MaMa, Jan. 15-25. And: a program of American music from cold, northern climates by the American Modern Ensemble at the Times Center on Jan. 25. Libby Larsen and Stephen Paulus (Minnesota), Dennis Báthory-Kitsz (Vermont), Elliott Schwartz (Maine), Robert Paterson (Buffalo), and, of course, John Luther Adams (the anti-Palin) make up the bill. Two days later, JLA's astounding six-hour electronic soundscape Veils will play at Wesleyan University.
