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Dec 8, 2024 | 
acousticguitar.com | Christopher Paul Stelling |Pat Moran |Karen Peterson |Mark Small
At first glance, Grisha Goryachev seems an unlikely torch bearer for flamenco guitar. He was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1977, descended from ancestors with Russian and Ukrainian lines. His forebears lived far from Andalusia, where flamenco music developed among the Romani people who migrated from India to settle in southern Spain in the ninth century.
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Jul 2, 2024 | 
awardswatch.com | Karen Peterson
It has been 30 years since Axel Foley’s last trip to the west coast, and Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F is a welcome return to the franchise that made Eddie Murphy a movie star. Opening on the gentrified streets of Detroit, Murphy’s Detective Axel Foley still cruises the neighborhoods in his trusty 1968 Chevy Nova. This is his turf. He knows every inch of this town and every person in it. They know him too. Foley is an icon, and the last bastion of a changing city.
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Jun 11, 2024 | 
awardswatch.com | Karen Peterson
When Hollywood actors and writers hit the streets last year to strike for better wages and protections, TV and film productions across the industry stopped work to join the fight. The overlapping strikes, which lasted from May to November, effectively shut down the fall TV season, with most returning shows delayed well into the spring.
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Apr 2, 2024 | 
awardswatch.com | Karen Peterson
Fifty years ago, Francis Ford Coppola solidified his reputation as a legendary director when he released two very different but powerful films only months apart. 1974’s The Godfather Part II is, of course, iconic in its own right and won six Oscars, including Best Picture. But also included in that year’s group of nominees was Coppola’s other, more subtle crime picture, The Conversation. Some will bristle at the idea of calling The Conversation a crime movie in comparison with The Godfather saga.
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Feb 23, 2024 | 
stringsmagazine.com | Karen Peterson |Bill Evans
By Karen Peterson | From the March-April 2024 issue of StringsAs a child in Düsseldorf, Germany, Florian Leonhard dreamed of being a surgeon whose specialty was healing broken hands. “In my childlike way, I wanted to make things work again,” he says.
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Jan 12, 2024 | 
stringsmagazine.com | Karen Peterson |Bill Evans
By Karen Peterson | From the January-February 2024 issue of Strings MagazineIn the string world, this knowledge comes early, given the physical demands of the pursuit: When it comes to the body, what you do and don’t do now will haunt you later. Even if you’re young and vigorous. Even if you aren’t aware of the damage being done. And even if you’re a luthier.
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Dec 27, 2023 | 
stringsmagazine.com | Karen Peterson
By Karen Peterson | From the January-February 2024 issue of Strings MagazineBoson Mo is deep into his first season as concertmaster with the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra (PSO), arriving in the nation’s fifth largest city in September as it continued to swelter under record heat.
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Nov 17, 2023 | 
stringsmagazine.com | Karen Peterson
By Karen Peterson | From the November-December 2023 issue of Strings MagazineTwo world wars, a cold war, two revolutions, on-again off-again Soviet occupation, a homeland split in half, and yet the Špidlen family, with roots in Bohemia and the Czech Republic, has stayed on point—creating fine violins through four generations of makers and into a fifth.
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Sep 25, 2023 | 
stringsmagazine.com | Karen Peterson
By Karen Peterson | From the September-October 2023 issue of Strings MagazineLuthier Hans Johannsson knows how to throw a party. For two weeks this fall, October 1–15, as the colors of the aurora borealis light up the dark Arctic skies above Iceland’s capital city, Reykjavik will respond with the sounds of violin, viola, cello, and bass rising in celebration of life and music—as envisioned by Johannsson, for 40-plus years a maker of stringed instruments.
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Aug 13, 2023 | 
variety.com | Karen Peterson
From the start, “The White Lotus” has focused on building characters. The second season of Mike White’s watercooler show for HBO, brought a (mostly) new cast, a new location and a switch from limited series to drama, where it added 23 Emmy nominations to its tally, five of which went to supporting actresses. Due to the SAG-AFTRA strike, the nominees are not allowed to do press, but luckily, those who helped cast and outfit them are.
