Buzz

Musicians from the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra kicked off a six-day festival, Spring for Music, at Carnegie Hall last week. 

BSO Music Director Marin Alsop "began her bracing program with John Adams’s 'Shaker Loops,' the 1983 string-orchestra version of an earlier chamber piece for strings," the New York Times writes.

"The music is alive with oscillating melodic bits and rippling rhythmic figures, and this performance captured the bustling musical patterns and undulant waves of sound."

You can read the entire story here. 

Ah summer. It's the time to slap some meat – or tofu burgers — on the grill.

Forbes features a rundown of some of the best places to brush up on your grilling technique, including a class in Baltimore. "Despite how simple it looks, grilling isn’t the easiest of cooking methods," Forbes writes.

Four Seasons Hotel Baltimore BBQ 101 "is a fun way to kick off the summer barbecue season," Forbes writes. Executive Chef Oliver Beckert will demonstrate a variety of tailgating and barbecuing techniques at the $65 event. Read the entire story here. 

Maryland, Colorado and Virginia support innovation and their high-tech workforce, according to the fourth annual Enterprising States report from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. 

Entrepreneur magazine features the list of states, which also included Utah and Massachusetts in the top five. The U.S. Chamber took a look at the number of high-tech businesses, STEM job concentration and programs that support entrepreneurs. The report credited the Free State for its Activate program at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and the Maryland Entrepreneurs Resource List. 

Read the entire story here. 

A four-year degree at Johns Hopkins University costs $222,000, but the hefty price tag may be worth it.

That's according to the 2013 College Education ROI Rankings, produced by PayScale. Going to the school offers students – and their parents — a 6.2 percent return on their investment. Johns Hopkins ranked No. 53 on the list. The salary and career website compared the median pay of a college's graduates versus  students who only possessed a high school degree. 

Also on the list were several other Maryland schools: Loyola University, Maryland; University of Maryland, College Park; University of Maryland, Baltimore County; Notre Dame of Maryland University; Towson University; and, the Maryland Institute College of Art. 

Forbes recently interviewed the owner of a company that redesigned WellDoc's mobile app. Based in Baltimore, WellDoc has created the first FDA-approved app to manage diabetes.

In an article titled "6 Things You Should Do When Designing for Mobile," Forbes chats with Moment Design Inc. Principal John Payne about redesigning the WellDoc app so it can be commercialized.

Holding a design charette, or a collaborative approach to design, and gathering insights about the user experience, were among Payne's recommendations. Read the entire story here. 

Celebrity chef Michael Mina is about to open an American gastropub in Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.

1842 Pub, which will feature craft beer, sausage, seafood and burgers, echoes his Baltimore restaurant Wit & Wisdom, writes Forbes.

"Mina may be the latest celebrity chef on the Vegas gastropub bandwagon, but he already has one under his belt in Baltimore: Wit & Wisdom at the Forbes Travel Guide Four-Star Four Seasons Hotel Baltimore," Forbes writes. 

"Wit & Wisdom might well be a preview of 1842, describing itself as a 'modern American tavern' that 'redefines the ordinary tavern and elevates it,' with a focus on the area’s abundant seafood," Forbes says. Read the entire story on the "Celebrity Chef Gastropub Craze" here. 

The New York Times chats with Centerstage Artistic Director Kwame Kwei-Armah just before his new play begins its run at the Mount Vernon theater. 

Over a meal at an Afghan restaurant in Mount Vernon (gee, could it be the Helmand?), Kwei-Armah talks about "Beneatha's Place." Written by Kwei-Armah, the play is part of the theater company's so-called "Raisin Cycle," which included productions of Kwei-Armah's "Beneatha's Place" and Bruce Norris's "Clybourne Park." 

Both "Clybourne Park" and Kwei-Armah's plays are contemporary reactions to Lorraine Hansberry's seminal 1959 work, "A Raisin in the Sun."

"Clybourne" is currently running at Centerstage now through June 16 while "Beneatha's Place" runs May 8-June 16. 

"Mr. Kwei-Armah has put his reputation on the line with an ambitious new work that, although it doesn’t take on “Clybourne” directly, will invite inevitable comparisons," the Times writes. 

Kwei-Armah also says in the interview that Norris's play, which won a Pulitzer Prize in 2011, unwittingly gives the message that " 'whites build and blacks destroy.'"

Read the entire story here. And see Kwei-Armah's interview with BmoreMedia. 

Crabs, scenic roads and Artscape are among the reasons travelers should visit Maryland this summer, according to Fodor's. The travel guide recently posted 5 Reasons to Go to Maryland this Summer. Visiting the Eastern Shore and celebrating American history on the Civil War Trail were the other two reasons. 

"Warmer weather means getting outside and enjoying the more than 3,100 miles of coastline along the Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean, taking in the various outdoor street festivals, and cracking into some blue crabs," Fodor's writes. 

In addition to Artscape, Fodor's highlights two other festivals: the Maryland Renaissance Festival and the Maryland Craft Beer Festival in Frederick. Read the entire story here. 

Details magazine says that Woodberry's Artifact Coffee is one of the best spots to get a vegetarian sandwich.

In a section highlighting vegetarian trends, Details describes Artifact's mushroom burger as a "must-try" meat-free meal.

"James Beard winner Spike Gjerde's mushroom patty at Artifact Coffee in Baltimore is bound with tofu and oats on a benne seed bun with sauteed onions and greens," Details writes.

The magazine highlights a number of other vegetarian dishes, in cities from New York to San Francisco to Chicago.

It's the latest accolade for Artifact. Food blog the Daily Meal recently named it one of the best coffee shops in America. Chef and Owner Gjerde also owns Woodberry Kitchen and is one of the partners behind a massive food incubator, commerical kitchen and community classroom under development, called the Food Hub.

Now there's more proof that Baltimore is a good place for young professionals.

Apartment Guide places Baltimore No. 19 on its list of the top 20 U.S. cities for recent college graduates, USA Today reports.

Baltimore didn't fare as well as its neighbors New York and Washington, D.C., which came in at No. 1 and No. 2, respectively. Philadelphia, Seattle and Minneapolis rounded out the top five. Baltimore was also recently named one of the best East Coast cities for young adults. 

Apartment Guide took into account the number of bars, restaurants, entertainment venues and other factors to come up with its listing. You can see the list and USA Today story here.

Entrepreneur magazine has named the Four Seasons Hotel Baltimore the Best New Business Hotel in its 2013 Business Travel Awards.

"It juts into the Inner Harbor and shows off marina and downtown views with floor-to-ceiling windows in guest rooms and many of the meeting spaces," Entrepreneur writes. 

The $200 million Harbor East hotel opened in 2011, nearly a decade after it was first proposed.

The magazine asks Chris Reid, president of hotel operations for Four Seasons Americas, why the company chose Baltimore over a larger city.

"You're a much more important player, relative to the city," Reid tells Entrepreneur. "Your hotel becomes an important landmark. And if you think about some of the businesses that are in Baltimore, for example, there's vibrant economic activity there. We believe that will only grow from here."

Read the entire story here. 

Spring is when glorious private homes and gardens open up to the public, with the proceeds often going to a good cause. 

The New York Times listed a number of these house-and-garden tours from New York to San Francisco, including several in Maryland.

Sherwood Gardens in Guilford, "where an astonishing 80,000 tulips grow every spring," and a 1932 stucco home in Timonium that once belonged to quarterback Johnny Unitas are among the local sights.

Read the entire story here. 

Runners in Baltimore and around the country paid tribute to the victims of the deadly bomb that exploded during the Boston marathon April 15, USA Today reports.

"Five days after the nation's most storied race for runners was shattered by terrorists' bombs, marathons and 10Ks across the country dedicated their runs and directed their donations to the victims in Boston," the newspaper writes. 

The April 20 Sole of the City 10K in Federal Hill began with a moment of silence and many runners sported Boston Red Sox hats.

"People may conclude that the running community has bounced back or that 'we will run again,' " Baltimore Sun Editor Olivia Hubert-Allen posted on her Facebook page, writes USA Today.

Read the entire story here.

The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra presented an abridged symphonic version of Wagner's famous "The Ring of the Nibelung", reviewed by the Washington Post.

"That the experience — a grouping of greatest hits, arranged into a single piece by Henk de Vlieger — felt like Wagner Lite is also unfair to both Alsop and the orchestra, who did some heavy lifting in some significant music," the Post writes of the performance led by BSO Music Director Marin Alsop. "It was a nice idea for a program."

Read the rest here. 

Baltimore's Lost City Diner has reopened after having been closed for over a year. The Station North Arts and Entertainment District diner opened in August 2011 and closed six months later, shortly after BmoreMedia ran this story on the neighborhood.

It has retained its 1930s sci-fi decor, but now has a new owner, Baltimore City Paper writes. John Rutoskey has steered the menu toward classic diner fare, with plenty of vegan options, the paper writes.

And Baltimore Fishbowl writes that the vibe is "classy yet easy, eventful yet low key."

"Most likely, all the hype and anticipation about Lost City opening (or opening again) comes from its high visibility location. It’s right next door to the Club Charles and the Depot, and across from the Charles movie theater and the former home of Everyman Theater. That’s a lot of drinkers/movie patrons/theater-goers who could use a shake, some fries, and a place to decompress after their other evening activities." 

Read more here.