eortiz@sacbee.com (Edward Ortiz)

Vox Musica opens its season next weekend with works from the 12th, 14th and 15th centuries.Some of the most outstanding music has been written as Christmas or seasonal holiday music. Sadly, a huge swath of it is repertoire that remains in the sh...

Conductor Thomas Conlin will make his company debut, in place of Michael Morgan, with the Sacramento Opera production of " The Barber of Seville."The recipe for pulling off Gioachino Rossini's "The Barber of Seville" is a simple one: Combine equa...

"The Problem We All Live With"When 6-year-old Ruby Bridges became, in 1960, the first African American student to set foot in all-white William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans, she was stepping into the unknown. Six years later, Sacra...

In the life of ukulele master Jake Shimabukuro, one YouTube video has made a world of difference. And it has made a difference to the modern ukulele, too. That video is Shimabukuro's seemingly offhand but virtuoso performance of his arra...

Everyone, at one time or other, has fantasized about what it would be like to be a prodigy. The upside of being one is self-evident. However, the downside is not. Tales of prodigies who achieved fame but were burned out before they reached adulth...

Jay Hunter Morris sings the role of Captain Ahab in the San Francisco Opera production of "Moby-Dick," debuting Wednesday.Of the many classic American novels, few seem more suited to the opera stage than Herman Melville's "Moby-Dick." Its sta...

Pianist Emanuel Ax will join Philharmonia Baroque Nov. 7 on Beethoven's Concerto No. 4 for Fortepiano in G major, Op. 58.The classical music scene in the Sacramento region has been maturing, and no season is more telling than the one coming up. ...

Don Roth is executive director of the Mondavi Center, right, which has drawn more than 1 million patrons in its first 10 years.When the Mondavi Center for the Arts at UC Davis opened its doors in 2002, with a performance by the San Francisco Symp...

Merger talks continue between the Sacramento Opera and the Sacramento Philharmonic, with a decision likely as early as November. The two arts nonprofits, both of whom have seen their share of financial difficulties recently, have been meeting bimon...

The Boston Brass has grown during 26 years in the challenging world of chamber music. The group plays Sunday at Sacramento's Crest Theatre.In the final accounting, the business of music is about music. But sometimes the business of music is busin...