We love to pick apart our ranking in the multitude of lists on which our fair city appears. A new one came out today: StubHub, the online ticket marketplace, has compiled a list of the 20 "Most Rockin'" cities in America for 2008, based on summer ticket sales. Out of 90 cities in the ticket sellers' database, D.C. came in 18th. Not too bad, we suppose, and all the cities that came in ahead of......

The F Yeah Tour began as a music, comedy, and arts fest held in L.A. every summer, and this year it's going on tour, on a bus run by vegetable oil. Seven bands, mostly sharing a cut-and-paste DIY sensibility, played at the Black Cat last night: DCist fave Dan Deacon, Matt and Kim, The Death Set, Team Robespierre, Monotonix, Mannequin Men, and comedian Josh Fadem. The event also featured a table with voter registration, information......

The local music community has come together several times over the past year and a half to support Callum Robbins, the son of local music mainstay J. Robbins and Janet Morgan. Cal was diagnosed with a genetic motor neuron disease called Type 1 SMA, or Spinal Muscular Atrophy. As explained on the DeSoto records page supporting Cal, The disease affects the brain's ability to communicate with the voluntary muscles that are used for activities such......

Photo by stgermh Things continue to look up for the future of the Fort Reno Summer Concert Series, as well as for general safety concerns in the neighborhood surrounding Fort Reno Park. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released official soil sampling results today which confirmed preliminary results that show arsenic levels in the park are well below what is considered safe. Lab results verified by the EPA showed arsenic levels in 13 samples had......

WTOP has the scoop on the latest from the Fort Reno Park arsenic saga. Officials have said that early testing from 13 soil samples at Fort Reno Park, Wilson High School and Alice Deal Middle School show a reading of 10 parts per million -- far below the up to 1,100 parts per million a U.S. Geological Survey finding that closed the park last week. Safe levels of arsenic are listed as 43 parts per......

Potentially terrible news for local music fans: The Going Out Gurus are reporting that Fort Reno Park, the site of D.C.'s beloved outdoor summer concert series, has been closed indefinitely after United States Geological Survey satellite imaging reports found high levels of arsenic in the soil there. We've since heard from readers who said they saw the park service today in the process of putting a fence around the entire park to ensure no one......

Today, Radiohead kicks off its In Rainbows world tour in West Palm Beach, Florida, which means that D.C.-area fans are mere days away from getting their fix. The boys from Oxfordshire dispatched a press release today, announcing the launch of a new section on their website: The Most Gigantic Flying Mouth For Sometime. Die hards will undoubtedly note the allusion to the Hail to the Thief-era video series, but this particular announcement has far less......

It only took three hours for the five alarm fire in a Mt. Pleasant apartment building to displace roughly 200 tenants. It didn't take much longer for Ryan Wakeman and Chris DeWitt to come up with a way to help. Under the moniker "The Queen of the Water Dolphins", Wakeman and DeWitt organized a benefit concert to raise donations for victims of the fire. "We wanted to do something useful with ourselves about the fire,......

Once again, the Pollstar Concert Industry Awards nomination list shows that D.C.'s no small potatoes when it comes to touring music. Like last year, the 9:30 Club is nominated for Nightclub of the Year, Wolf Trap's Filene Center is nominated for the Red Rocks small outdoor venue award, and Birchmere's Michael Jawarek is nominated for Nightclub Talent Buyer of the Year. There are a few new additions to our area's nods too. The Verizon......

At this point in December, holiday concerts and Handel's Messiah have completely hijacked the classical music schedule. Here are a few other events, not all of which avoid the spirit of the season. After this post, the Classical Music Agenda will take its end-of-the-year hiatus, to return in the New Year. >> On Tuesday, the final concert sponsored by Washington Performing Arts Society this calendar year features young violist Jennifer Stumm and Finghin Collins at......

It's December, which means that much of the classical music concert schedule is devoted to some holiday that apparently occurs near the end of the month. Consult our Holiday Concert Agenda and our Handel's Messiah Agenda, if that is the sort of thing that interests you. Let's try to keep the regular agenda free of that stuff. There is plenty to talk about without it. VOICES: >> The annual residency of the Kirov Opera, the......

FRIDAY: >>Great quadruple bill comes to the Rock and Roll Hotel: Three Stars alums Jukebox the Ghost (pictured right) and tour diarists These United States join DCist fave Ra Ra Riot and Sam Champion. All that for the low, low price of $10 before, $12 at the door. Show 9 p.m. >> The Black Cat once again hosts Cryfest, everyone's favorite dance party that pits The Smiths vs. The Cure, brought to you by DJs......

Most of this week looks sleepy as far as classical music goes. However, by the end of the week, there will be three events, all of which are high on our December list and all happening simultaneously. How to choose? SUNDAY, SUNDAY, SUNDAY: >> Wagnerian tenor Ben Heppner is scheduled to give a recital on Sunday afternoon (December 2, 5:30 p.m.) at Baltimore's Shriver Hall. It will be Heppner's first appearance in Baltimore and his......

MONDAY >> The Library of Congress Mary Pickford Theatre in the James Madison Building kicks off 5 weeks worth of free Monday night rock and pop films with a rare showing of the 1966 documentary, The Big T.N.T. Show. David "Man from Uncle" McCallum hosts Ray Charles, Petula Clark, the Lovin' Spoonful, Bo Diddley, Joan Baez, the Ronettes, Roger Miller, the Byrds, Donovan, the Seeds, the Modern Folk Quartet, and Ike and Tina Turner taped......

As Washington Performing Arts Society President Neale Perl pointed out, Monday evening's recital at the Kennedy Center was cellist Yo-Yo Ma's 23rd appearance sponsored by the organization. WPAS returns again and again to someone like Ma, not only because one can be reasonably assured that he will deliver a fine recital but also because he can sell out a space like the Concert Hall, even though it is arguably too large for the sort of......

If you are looking for a musical way to celebrate Veterans Day, the Washington Chorus will perform its annual Tribute and Reflection concert this afternoon (November 11, 3 p.m.), in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall (tickets: $15 to $55). Their program includes Joseph Haydn's martial Mass in Time of War. Although there are not that many classical music concerts in the early part of the week, the schedule for next weekend is about as full......

MONDAY >> Performing as Phosphorescent, Matthew Houck (right) dropped his latest effort, Pride, at the end of last month. Reviews for the album have been glowing for the Southern-bred multi-instrumentalist. He’ll be making an appearance at the Black Cat with the help of his touring band. 9 p.m., $10. >> With an album titled Heavy Deavy Skull Lover, you’d be right to guess that The Warlocks aren’t exactly members of a pep squad. Still, their......

Your classical music schedule will be busy for the next two or three weeks, through Thanksgiving, and you have the chance to hear almost as much for free as you do buying tickets. BIG GUNS: >> Emmanuel Pahud is one of the leading flutists of the younger generation. He will be in Washington this week, beginning with a recital with his regular pianist collaborator, Eric Le Sage, at the Phillips Collection on Wednesday (November 7,......

This is going to be an excellent week for serious listeners of classical music, with several major events headlining the agenda and some other good concerts on the sidelines. In the spotlight are a piano recital, a visiting orchestra, Russian music, and possibly the greatest opera ever composed. HEADLINES: >> Pianist Murray Perahia had to cancel his 2006 recital for Washington Performing Arts Society, because of renewed pain from a finger injury in the 1990s......

As they did in 2006, the Cleveland Orchestra came to the Kennedy Center Concert Hall on Monday night for a concert sponsored by the Washington Performing Arts Society. After Washington, they will play a three-concert series at Carnegie Hall and then leave for an extended European tour. The Clevelanders were once arguably America's best orchestra and were always classed among the Big Five symphonic ensembles in the country, a placement that more and more people......

Last week's battle of the orchestras may be eclipsed by this week's. Besides the local symphonic ensembles, there are some visitors in the ring, too. The common theme is the piano concerti of Johannes Brahms, both of them disarmingly beautiful pieces, and here is how we call it. THE ORCHESTRAS >> The week starts strong with the Cleveland Orchestra on Monday (October 15, 8 p.m.) in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall. Washington Performing Arts Society......

Written by DCist contributor Angela Olson. Ballet Folklórico de México finishes an engagement at George Mason University Center for the Arts Concert Hall today. The Mexico City based dance company has long been a must see for travelers attracted by their colorful and energetic performances. The dancing exemplifies the spirit of Mexico, and the company puts on a great show for all ages. With six foot tall headdresses, carnival costumes and a live Mariachi band,......

The high point of this week in classical music is surely the Lieder recital by the superlative German baritone Christian Gerhaher and his regular pianist collaborator, Gerold Huber, sponsored by the Vocal Arts Society at the Embassy of Austria (October 11, 7:30 p.m.). Gerhaher's most recent Lieder recording is a knockout, and his program for Thursday night is devoted entirely to songs by Robert Schumann. THE SYMPHONY: >> Riccardo Chailly brings his La Scala Philharmonic......

Anyone at Steven Blier's latest Wolf Trap recital this past August likely wanted to hear more from mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke. Washingtonians had that wish fulfilled by Young Concert Artists, who sponsored her Sunday afternoon recital in the Kennedy Center's Terrace Theater. Cooke and her excellent associate artist, pianist Pei-Yao Wang, presented an attractive program of relative rareties from the 19th- and 20th-century song repertory to a relatively full house. The concert opened memorably with a......

While no major event on the schedule this week trumps all others, there are several concerts that will merit your attention. Three of them are scheduled for Thursday night. If contemporary music was the headliner last week, this week it is early music. >> Opera Lafayette's bread and butter is in presenting obscure Baroque operas, usually French, sung by exceptional voices and with the help of their fine instrumental ensemble. The group opens its season......

Washington Concert Opera presented the first half of their new season on Sunday night at an admirably full Lisner Auditorium. Rather than a more typical rarity, it was one of the gems of the bel canto repertoire, Vincenzo Bellini's late opera I Puritani, or as bad-girl soprano Anna Netrebko memorably put it, "crap." No one should ever mistake I Puritani for a dramatic masterpiece, but it does have some of the best, most polished, and......

Without a doubt, the most important event in classical music this week is the opening of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's season. It will be the occasion of the official installation of Marin Alsop as the group's music director, the first woman to hold that position with a major American symphony orchestra. A celebrated champion of contemporary music, particularly by American composers, Maestra Alsop has come into her new job with a full head of steam,......

FRIDAY: >> Octogenarian fiddler Joe Thompson (at right), said to be the last black traditional string band player, plays a free show at The Kennedy Center's The Millennium Stage with fellow folk musicians Wayne Martin on fiddle and Bob Carlin, a clawhammer style banjoist. 6 p.m. >> Space rockers The Gulf sold out their D.C. show in April, and are coming back to play at the Red and the Black with the Joonies, Twin Earth,......

Just one night after the Season Opening Night Gala hosted by Washington National Opera, another set of patrons (and the critics of the Baltimore Sun and Washington Post) came together to fill the Kennedy Center Concert Hall to open the National Symphony Orchestra's season on Sunday night. In terms of funds raised, it was the most successful opening ball in the NSO's history, according to Stephen Schwarzman, Chairman of the Board of Trustees and Blackstone......

The classical music season got officially under way this weekend, and there will be more and more choices facing eager listeners. Even if you cannot afford all the concerts you want to attend, since local radio station WETA, at 90.9 FM, went back to a classical format, there is more local music on the airwaves, too. Tune in this evening (September 16, 7 p.m.) to the live broadcast of the National Symphony Orchestra's Season Opening......