Focus Paris

Impressionism remains wildly popular. Crowds flock to exhibitions by its greatest artists: Édouard Manet, Berthe Morisot, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro. But as Sebastian Smee shows in Paris in Ruins, a book of great narrative sweep and vivid detail, Impressionism was a complex reaction to an age of violence and war.

Baritone Matthias Goerne, soprano Chen Reiss and cellist Eric Picard come together at Paris’s renowned Salle Pleyel for a concert of Fauré’s works for chorus and orchestra. They are joined by the Orchestre de Paris under the baton of its new musical director, the GRAMMY Award-winning conductor Paavo Järvi. Central to the programme is Fauré’s profound and graceful Requiem, which is complemented by the Cantique de Jean Racine and the rarely performed psalm-setting Super flumina Babylonis, all beautifully sung by the Choeur de l’Orchestre de Paris, and imbued with a delicate intensity by Järvi.

Learn to Draw the Beautiful Seine River and Its Stunning Bridges with Graphite, Pastels, and Luxury Paper

After being compared with Mayer Hawthorne on his first world acclaimed* classic soul album, Treat Me Right, John Milk is back with Paris Show Some Love a piece of modern and engaged R&B. Synthesis between JayDilla and Prince,John Milk delivers a genuine and solid recording based on real to real tape machines and electronic sounds.Previously working as artistic director of his own record label (Ka Records) and collaborating as a singer with Mr President and Blundetto (Heavenly Sweetness, Favortie Recording) John Milk is now on a new vibe, merging all kind of recording processes, live recordings on reel to reel 8 tracks Tascam, introduicing beatmaking and hip-hop culture with numerous machines, samplers and keys … a musical patchwork which has been open to all kinds of experimentations.

The past few years have found saxophonist/composer Jeremy Udden stepping away from his more fleshed out ensemble projects to focus on music with a more stripped down, direct approach. This led him to working up solo concerts, which, in turn led him back to one of his main influences, the great saxophonist and musical conceptualist Steve Lacy. The loose and instinctive playing of Lacy has long been a draw for Udden. Udden even studied with the master improviser when Lacy was teaching at the New England Conservatory. After Lacy passed in 2004, Udden performed at a memorial concert that was held in New York City, along with a number of Lacy’s friends and collaborators, including the drummer John Betsch.

Young German violinist, returning with a project devoted to France as its thematic focus: amazingly mature and conceptually coherent in the choice of content, yet sparkling with facets that surprise again and again. “Souvenir De Paris” underscores Sandro Roy’s rare gift for picking and choosing from sources in classical music and Jazz in a remarkable way, for allowing his music to become a stand-alone cosmos marked by virtuoso performance, and all that on what may very well be the most difficult instrument of all, the violin. This album featuring Roby Lakatos, Jermaine Landsberger Trio and Marcel Löffler.

An innovative history of the fashion industry, focusing on the connections between Paris and New York, art and finance, and design and manufacturing.