Chris Walton ❌👑
@philocrites.bsky.social
Preoccupied with music, culture, religion, and liberal democracy. Practicing composition in Greater Boston.
Data point of just me: I really enjoyed Boston Lyric Opera's spare post-pandemic production of Yuval Sharon's "backward Bóheme," and loved the live Odyssey Opera production of "X" and the Met broadcast of its production of "X."
A Bold Alliance Ends as Innovative Opera Director Bows Out in Detroit
www.nytimes.com
December 29, 2025 at 10:00 PM
Data point of just me: I really enjoyed Boston Lyric Opera's spare post-pandemic production of Yuval Sharon's "backward Bóheme," and loved the live Odyssey Opera production of "X" and the Met broadcast of its production of "X."
Wim Wenders, in “An Attempted Description of an Indescribable Film”: “That’s how it begins, making a film, writing a book, painting a picture, composing a tune… You have a wish. You wish that something might exist, and then you work on it until it does.”
December 28, 2025 at 11:53 PM
Wim Wenders, in “An Attempted Description of an Indescribable Film”: “That’s how it begins, making a film, writing a book, painting a picture, composing a tune… You have a wish. You wish that something might exist, and then you work on it until it does.”
Christmas book bounty: Kilpatrick’s “Maurice Ravel,” Shattuck’s short stories “History of Sound,” Slocumb’s novel “Symphony of Secrets,” Powers’s novel “The Overstory,” and Horowitz’s “Dvořák’s Prophecy and the Vexed Fate of Blck Classical Music”!
December 26, 2025 at 4:29 PM
Christmas book bounty: Kilpatrick’s “Maurice Ravel,” Shattuck’s short stories “History of Sound,” Slocumb’s novel “Symphony of Secrets,” Powers’s novel “The Overstory,” and Horowitz’s “Dvořák’s Prophecy and the Vexed Fate of Blck Classical Music”!
🎶🎄 Miró Quartet's holiday album is awesome. New string quartet arrangements by lots of composers: Clarice Assad, Michael Begay, Alex Berko, Anna Clyne, Reena Esmail, Hyung-ki Joo, Gabriel Kahane, Sam Lipman, Joel Love, Karl Mitze, Paola Prestini, Kevin Puts, Jeff Scott, Derrick Skye, Michi Wiancko!
Hearth - Pentatone
www.pentatonemusic.com
December 17, 2025 at 4:00 PM
🎶🎄 Miró Quartet's holiday album is awesome. New string quartet arrangements by lots of composers: Clarice Assad, Michael Begay, Alex Berko, Anna Clyne, Reena Esmail, Hyung-ki Joo, Gabriel Kahane, Sam Lipman, Joel Love, Karl Mitze, Paola Prestini, Kevin Puts, Jeff Scott, Derrick Skye, Michi Wiancko!
This scrappy snowman is my mascot right now. Made by my neighbors and their kid out of whatever was at hand, because that’s all we ever have, this beautiful ugly impermanent statue transcends everything it’s made of, twiggy arms raised in jubilation and defiance.
December 16, 2025 at 6:24 PM
This scrappy snowman is my mascot right now. Made by my neighbors and their kid out of whatever was at hand, because that’s all we ever have, this beautiful ugly impermanent statue transcends everything it’s made of, twiggy arms raised in jubilation and defiance.
Ennio Morricone's only opera, composed in 1995, is premiering five years after his death. "The orchestra consists mostly of wind instruments — with no violins — and the percussion includes drums mostly used in Neapolitan folk music: the tamorra, the tamburello and the putipù."
From ‘Spaghetti Western’ Scores to the Opera Stage
www.nytimes.com
December 15, 2025 at 4:54 PM
Ennio Morricone's only opera, composed in 1995, is premiering five years after his death. "The orchestra consists mostly of wind instruments — with no violins — and the percussion includes drums mostly used in Neapolitan folk music: the tamorra, the tamburello and the putipù."
Woohoo just got my Cinemark Wrapped: Good for me seeing (checks note) one movie
December 13, 2025 at 2:42 AM
Woohoo just got my Cinemark Wrapped: Good for me seeing (checks note) one movie
Reposted by Chris Walton ❌👑
Featuring:
– An Alma Mahler Labubu
– The Britten Seaside Trauma snow globe
– “Fratres” for Cats
– The “Anna Netrebko Accountability” Advent Calendar
– Lush’s “Shostakovich Panic Attack” bath bomb
– An Alma Mahler Labubu
– The Britten Seaside Trauma snow globe
– “Fratres” for Cats
– The “Anna Netrebko Accountability” Advent Calendar
– Lush’s “Shostakovich Panic Attack” bath bomb
The Ultimate Classical Music Gift Guide for the Terminally Online and Historically-Burdened
Because we've all read too much music theory to be merry.
www.criticaldrift.org
December 3, 2025 at 2:30 PM
Featuring:
– An Alma Mahler Labubu
– The Britten Seaside Trauma snow globe
– “Fratres” for Cats
– The “Anna Netrebko Accountability” Advent Calendar
– Lush’s “Shostakovich Panic Attack” bath bomb
– An Alma Mahler Labubu
– The Britten Seaside Trauma snow globe
– “Fratres” for Cats
– The “Anna Netrebko Accountability” Advent Calendar
– Lush’s “Shostakovich Panic Attack” bath bomb
Tidal tells me what my ears have been up to this year — "Nordic folk, progressive chamber, ethereal classical, contemporary classical, string quartet, cinematic indie, vibrant traditional, experimental rock, percussive innovation, serene acoustic" — and it checks out
December 4, 2025 at 4:12 PM
Tidal tells me what my ears have been up to this year — "Nordic folk, progressive chamber, ethereal classical, contemporary classical, string quartet, cinematic indie, vibrant traditional, experimental rock, percussive innovation, serene acoustic" — and it checks out
Enjoying Ken Burns’s “The American Revolution” but finding that it doesn’t elicit enough side-splitting laughter? I recommend Caity Weaver’s fantastic article about Revolutionary War reenactors, which is a riot.
You Have No Idea How Hard It Is to Be a Reenactor
Benedict Arnold’s boot wouldn’t come off, and other hardships from my weekend in the Revolutionary War.
www.theatlantic.com
November 28, 2025 at 8:16 PM
Enjoying Ken Burns’s “The American Revolution” but finding that it doesn’t elicit enough side-splitting laughter? I recommend Caity Weaver’s fantastic article about Revolutionary War reenactors, which is a riot.
Composer profile: Davis Amram turns 95. Good advice: “Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out. Repeat as long as possible.”
At 95, David Amram Still Makes Music. And Nobody Can Put Him in a Box.
www.nytimes.com
November 26, 2025 at 1:10 PM
Composer profile: Davis Amram turns 95. Good advice: “Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out. Repeat as long as possible.”
Harvard’s graduate school Student Center Orchestra performed works by Debussy, Dorothy Howell, Lili Boulanger, and Frank Bridge!
November 24, 2025 at 3:01 AM
Harvard’s graduate school Student Center Orchestra performed works by Debussy, Dorothy Howell, Lili Boulanger, and Frank Bridge!
Exciting opera news! Joshua Barone raves about San Francisco Opera's "The Monkey King" by Huang Ruo and David Henry Hwang: "a jaw-dropping feat of music theater, making a thrilling case for the vitality and potential of opera on a grand scale." The opera streams live tonight!
Review: A Chinese Classic Comes to Spectacular Operatic Life
www.nytimes.com
November 18, 2025 at 5:00 PM
Exciting opera news! Joshua Barone raves about San Francisco Opera's "The Monkey King" by Huang Ruo and David Henry Hwang: "a jaw-dropping feat of music theater, making a thrilling case for the vitality and potential of opera on a grand scale." The opera streams live tonight!
@lukeburbank.bsky.social @walsh.bsky.social @tbtl.net A very knowledgeable reporter offers a very funny report on the fate of all our pennies: www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
Pennies Are Trash Now
The government has no plan for America’s 300 billion pennies.
www.theatlantic.com
November 17, 2025 at 3:55 PM
@lukeburbank.bsky.social @walsh.bsky.social @tbtl.net A very knowledgeable reporter offers a very funny report on the fate of all our pennies: www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
A+ church today, at Boston University's 75th anniversary celebration of Marsh Chapel, where the Rev. Dr. Raphael Warnock (U.S. Senator from Georgia) was the guest speaker. Definitely recommend listening to Warnock's sermon—link below!—but I also want to highlight some of the music.
November 16, 2025 at 11:41 PM
A+ church today, at Boston University's 75th anniversary celebration of Marsh Chapel, where the Rev. Dr. Raphael Warnock (U.S. Senator from Georgia) was the guest speaker. Definitely recommend listening to Warnock's sermon—link below!—but I also want to highlight some of the music.
🎶 So much opera in the New York Times this week! Let's recap: Sarah Kirkland Snider's new "Hildegard" opera gets high praise from Joshua Barone: "She has accomplished a marvel of abundant grace, a work of unforced, almost overwhelming resonance." Coming to NYC Jan. 9–17.
Review: Hildegard of Bingen’s Extraordinary Life, on Operatic Scale
www.nytimes.com
November 14, 2025 at 7:46 PM
🎶 So much opera in the New York Times this week! Let's recap: Sarah Kirkland Snider's new "Hildegard" opera gets high praise from Joshua Barone: "She has accomplished a marvel of abundant grace, a work of unforced, almost overwhelming resonance." Coming to NYC Jan. 9–17.
Listening note: Just discovered Neil Rolnick's 2006 "iFiddle Concerto," which is a rollicking good time. Performed here by Todd Reynolds and the American Composers Orchestra led by Ricardo Romaneiro: tidal.com/track/320236...
Ricardo Romaneiro, Neil Rolnick, American Composers Orchestra, Todd Reynolds, violin & Neil Rolnick, electronics - iFiddle Concerto
Listen to iFiddle Concerto on TIDAL
tidal.com
November 13, 2025 at 4:13 PM
Listening note: Just discovered Neil Rolnick's 2006 "iFiddle Concerto," which is a rollicking good time. Performed here by Todd Reynolds and the American Composers Orchestra led by Ricardo Romaneiro: tidal.com/track/320236...
First time seeing the northern lights, from the Boston suburbs!
November 12, 2025 at 3:43 AM
First time seeing the northern lights, from the Boston suburbs!
Whenever a 21st-century composition pops up on GBH radio, my ears perk up. Joby Talbot's "Hovercraft" came on while I was driving my kid to a Tufts Youth Philharmonic rehearsal last week, so now we've each wandered down our own Talbot rabbit hole! @crbclassical.bsky.social tidal.com/track/140922...
Joby Talbot - Hovercraft
Listen to Hovercraft on TIDAL
tidal.com
November 10, 2025 at 5:12 PM
Whenever a 21st-century composition pops up on GBH radio, my ears perk up. Joby Talbot's "Hovercraft" came on while I was driving my kid to a Tufts Youth Philharmonic rehearsal last week, so now we've each wandered down our own Talbot rabbit hole! @crbclassical.bsky.social tidal.com/track/140922...
Excellent literature rack in a coffee shop in Middletown CT
November 9, 2025 at 2:16 AM
Excellent literature rack in a coffee shop in Middletown CT
🎻🪗 Electric (but all-acoustic) show by the New England contra dance pros Pine Tree Flyers, touring the east coast this month. Check them out: www.pinetreeflyers.com
November 6, 2025 at 4:08 AM
🎻🪗 Electric (but all-acoustic) show by the New England contra dance pros Pine Tree Flyers, touring the east coast this month. Check them out: www.pinetreeflyers.com
🎶 Finally made it to a Boston Community Chamber Music open mic night at Somerville Music Spaces. On the program: quartet by Korngold; Paganini on two violins; arrangements of Telemann, Busoni, and Bartok for bassoon; and Bach on piano. Great org! bostonccm.org
bostonccm.org
November 5, 2025 at 3:24 AM
🎶 Finally made it to a Boston Community Chamber Music open mic night at Somerville Music Spaces. On the program: quartet by Korngold; Paganini on two violins; arrangements of Telemann, Busoni, and Bartok for bassoon; and Bach on piano. Great org! bostonccm.org
Great interview with composer Sarah Kirkland Snider about her new Hildegard opera, "music written in the cracks" between pop and classical, the New Amsterdam label, and migraines and mental health. I hope I get to hear her opera someday!
Composer Sarah Kirkland Snider loves music so much, she might just eat it
Snider's supercharged relationship with her art form and open-book stance on depression and anxiety shine through in her new opera, which debuts this week in Los Angeles.
www.npr.org
November 4, 2025 at 2:49 PM
Great interview with composer Sarah Kirkland Snider about her new Hildegard opera, "music written in the cracks" between pop and classical, the New Amsterdam label, and migraines and mental health. I hope I get to hear her opera someday!
🎶 Today’s concert outing: marvelous chamber music by Mozart performed by the Boston Symphony Chamber Players with guest pianist Inon Barnatan.
November 2, 2025 at 10:15 PM
🎶 Today’s concert outing: marvelous chamber music by Mozart performed by the Boston Symphony Chamber Players with guest pianist Inon Barnatan.
What an intense, compelling World Series. Wow.
November 2, 2025 at 4:20 AM
What an intense, compelling World Series. Wow.