Dawn Upshaw gave a sold-out recital on Wednesday night in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater, as part of the Fortas Chamber Music series. The celebrated American soprano (pictured), who was diagnosed with breast cancer late in 2006, has recovered from aggressive treatment and returned to performing. The recipient of a MacArthur Foundation genius grant this past fall, Upshaw is beloved by listeners for her radiant voice and intensely dramatic style of singing. Addressing the audience…

Washington woke up this morning to the sad news that Mstislav Rostropovich died in Moscow today, after undergoing treatment for cancer since February. The world has lost a giant of music, an enthusiastic, larger than life figure for many of his 80 years among us. Many Washingtonians felt the loss more keenly because of the Russian cellist and conductor’s long relationship with the city, as Music Director of the National Symphony Orchestra from 1977 to…

Most people now associate the words “classical music” so strongly with the past that it is easy to forget that composers are still writing music for those traditional vehicles of art music — opera, symphony, chamber ensembles. Soprano Dawn Upshaw urges us regularly not to forget this very fact, by lending her radiant voice to so many new compositions. Indeed, she has become the muse of many contemporary composers, the favored midwife at numerous musical…

This is your last weekend to take part in Take a Friend to the Symphony Month, the brain child of music blogger Drew McManus at Adaptistration. The big news in classical music this week is that the area’s two leading symphony orchestras are both offering great concerts that feature 20th-century music and even some from the 21st century. We are going to try to review them both for you. MODERN SYMPHONY: >> Former music director…