Air and Simple Gifts

Cellist Yo-Yo Ma and tenor Placido Domingo will perform at the funeral Mass for Sen. Edward Kennedy. The Rev. Philip Dabney, associate pastor of Boston's Mission Church, says Saturday's service will be a "regular Catholic funeral" — with superb music. In addition, there will be a contingent from the Boston Symphony Orchestra and a soprano from New York's Metropolitan Opera. Several clergy members will be on hand. The Rev. Donald Monan, the chancellor of Boston College, will be the principal celebrant. The Rev. Mark Hession of Our Lady of Victories Parish on Cape Cod will delivery the homily, and Boston Cardinal Sean O'Malley will ... Read Full Story

Cellist Yo-Yo Ma and tenor Placido Domingo will perform at the funeral Mass for Sen. Edward Kennedy. The Rev. Philip Dabney, associate pastor of Boston's Mission Church, says Saturday's service will be a "regular Catholic funeral" — with superb music. In addition, there will be a contingent from the Boston Symphony Orchestra and mezzo-soprano Susan Graham. Several clergy members will be on hand. The Rev. Donald Monan, the chancellor of Boston College, will be the principal celebrant. The Rev. Mark Hession of Our Lady of Victories Parish on Cape Cod will delivery the homily, and Boston Cardinal Sean O'Malley will lead the final prayers ... Read Full Story

Cello virtuoso Yo-Yo Ma led a workshop with Venezuela's top young musicians on Thursday and said he came away feeling like a student himself. Ma came to Venezuela to perform with conductor Gustavo Dudamel and his Simon Bolivar Youth Symphony Orchestra, but also took time to listen to youth orchestras at a Caracas music school. The cellist applauded after each performance, hugged the young musicians and praised their emotion and "incredible use of power." He said he came away from a session with young cellists feeling that he was "in the process of learning something tremendous." "I came only with the expectation to learn ... Read Full Story

Violin virtuoso Itzhak Perlman is performing with Venezuela's top young musicians and says he is impressed by their spirit and intensity. Perlman said Wednesday that he was moved by the experience of playing with Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel and his Simon Bolivar Youth Symphony Orchestra during their first of two concerts in Caracas this week. "What's absolutely fantastic is the intensity of the musical involvement of all the young people in the orchestra," Perlman said. "It's a pleasure for me to look at them and see how they're involved in what they're doing." The excitement, he said, is "unavoidable" when performing with Dudamel, the ... Read Full Story

CARACAS (Reuters) - Many of the finest performers in the classical music world are flocking to Venezuela to get a taste of the country's lauded youth music education system that teaches kids from gritty streets to play in orchestras. Over the next few weeks, a string of eminent musicians will visit the capital Caracas for concerts with the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra conducted by 28-year-old Venezuelan Gustavo Dudamel, one of classical music's hottest properties. It is Venezuela's premier youth orchestra, made up mostly of teenagers picked from a network of such orchestras set up around the South American country to teach music to children. ... Read Full Story