Who Killed J.S. Bach

Reviewed by Steven G. Kellman             During the final months of his life, Johann Sebastian Bach, who died in 1750, became blind. The composer underwent eye surgery, twice, without anesthesia, at the hands of “Chevalier” John Taylor, a self-aggrandizing charlatan who is believed to have blinded hundreds of hapless patients. The procedure is thought to have killed Bach.             The …

News Roundup, 2/14/2025

NEWS ROUNDUP, 2,14,2025  Camerata San Antonio will present its annual Camerata Recital featuring guest violinist Laura Scalzo. She and pianist Viktor Valkov “will team up for a duo performance of their own design,” says the press announcement.  This will include music by Coleridge-Taylor, Bartok, Beethoven and Prokofiev.Scalzo is no stranger to San Antonio as she was a member of the …

Q&A with Violinist Ertan Torgul

              Q&A with VIOLINIST, ERTAN TORGUL, SOLI Chamber Music Ensemble                                        Interview by JASMINA WELLINGHOFF SOLI Chamber Ensemble was formed in 1994 by our clarinetist Stephanie Key and cellist David Mollenauer, originally to perform Olivier Messiaen’s iconic work Quartet for the End of Time for the instrumentation of clarinet, violin, cello, and piano. The Ensemble, 31 years later, still supports …

News Roundup, 2,6,2025

San Antonio’s prominent chamber music ensemble – SOLI– will be presenting two concerts, “showcases” resulting from the 30x30x30 project, launched to celebrate the ensemble’s 30th anniversary and identify the talents and diversity of today’s emerging composers. The ensemble has been giving voice to 20th and 21st-century contemporary chamber music since 1994, ensuring the future of new music, created by living …

“The Moral Circle” by Jeff Sebo

Reviewed by STEVEN G. KELLMAN In his 2004 essay “Consider the Lobster,” novelist David Foster Wallace asks readers to ponder whether lobster, a culinary delicacy routinely boiled alive, merits moral consideration. Do crustaceans feel pain, or are they merely insensate objects that a voracious gourmet need not fret about? If we start to consider the lobster, what about pigs, dolphins, …

News Roundup, 1/30/2025

For its Classics V Concert, The San Antonio Philharmonic will play Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No.1 in F Minor, and Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10 in E Minor. Jeffrey Kahane will conduct and pianist Natasha Paremski will perform “Chokfi” by Jerod Impichcchaachaaha Tate, described as a “mesmerizing composition.” He is an American (Chikasaw) Indian composer who expresses his native culture in symphonic …