A sign from Bruges.
Next week the MATA Festival returns to NYC, with finely varied programs ranging from Sweden (Malin Bång) to Iran (Idin Samimi Mofakham). Ensembles include the Curious Chamber Players, the Momenta Quartet, and the brawny boys of Bearthoven, giving the première of Adam de la Cour's Corporate Talent Factor’s Next Top Idol! ... The sublime Laurie Anderson is curating and performing in a Live Ideas festival at New York Live Arts. Included in the expectedly eclectic lineup are several events focused on Arvo Pärt, including a panel discussion with Anderson and Will Robin.... The album of the week on Q2 is an excellent new Hyperion disc, with the Royal String Quartet, of works by two major Polish composers, Paweł Szymański and Paweł Mykietyn. As Doyle Armbrust observes, the Royal Quartet deserves an American tour.... The News, a "multimedia reality opera" by Jacob TV, plays at the Met Museum April 17-18.... Tomorrow night at LA's Zipper Hall, the Los Angeles Percussion Quartet gives the première of Andrew McIntosh's I Hold the Lion's Paw and also offers works of Joseph Pereira, Nicholas Deyoe, and the late Shaun Naidoo.... The Before Bach series is under way at Carnegie. In this week's New Yorker I have a preview of an obvious highlight, Jordi Savall's solo viol recital. Sonnambula, a superb NYC-based viol consort that might well have been featured in Carnegie's lineup (as Jim Oestreich has noted, the hall seems fixated on British performers), play tonight at the Museum of Biblical Art and will delve into the gorgeous world of William Lawes in May.... Noted with great interest: a biography of the conductor Dean Dixon. The Overgrown Path has more.
