Music : Buzz

Harry Connick Jr. has come out with a new album, "Every Man Should Know," and is kicking off the concert tour to promote it in Baltimore. 

The crooner will perform June 19 at the Patricia & Arthur Modell Performing Arts Center at the Lyric, located at the edge of Mount Vernon. Connick wrote the lyrics, music and arrangements for the new album, writes USA Today. 

"I've done just about every kind of record you could do," Connick tells USA Today. "I've never had a pop hit, which is a blessing — because I've never had to base anything I do on the last record."

You can read the entire story here. 

Which former BmoreMedia publisher won a total of $31,601 on "Jeopardy?"

The correct answer is Sam Hopkins, a Baltimore resident and 2013 graduate of the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School. He won the total over two days, May 29 and May 30. 

The Prairie Village, Kansas, native gave a shout out to Kansas City barbeque on his second day. Meanwhile, the Twitterverse was buzzing about the multilingual Hopkins. @alliekmiller Tweeted the following: Ladies, there is a man named Sam Hopkins on #jeopardy right now. He speaks 11 languages. Start watching. #betterthanbachelorette. 

JHU put out a news release on the grad's silver-screen appearance. The release also contains highlights from an essay that Hopkins wrote for the school's ONE magazine. In the piece, Hopkins recalls his trip to Bangalore, India and experience collecting vinyl records from around the world. 

You can also see Sam Hopkins' video greeting on the Jeopardy website. 

Summer is a time to experience music in the great outdoors.

The New York Times features a list of classical music concerts, including one in California led by Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Music Director Marin Alsop. 

The Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music takes place in Santa Cruz and San Juan Bautista Aug. 2-11. "The lineup this season includes world premieres by Kevin Puts and Sean Friar, as well as recent works by Brett Dean, Philip Glass, Christopher Rouse and George Walker," the Times writes.

Read the entire story here. 

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. 

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. 

If you were watching the Oscars Feb. 24, you know that "Searching for Sugarman" won Craig Strydom the Oscar for best documentary.

If you were searching for the movie's writer Craig Strydom, look no further than Charm City, the Baltimore Sun writes. Strydom lived in Baltimore for 13 years and worked for marketing firm IMRE.  

The movie tells the story of a music fan searching for the enigmatic 1970s singer Sixto Rodriguez whose music was used in South Africa's struggle against apartheid.

The New Yorker has reviewed the top classical music performances of 2012, which includes a March 26 concert that involved Baltimore-bred musician Dan Deacon.

"This event with So Percussion, Matmos, and Dan Deacon stood out for its anarchic, joyous spirit," writes the New Yorker. In its original blog review, the New Yorker writer Alex Ross describes the John Cage tribute as "one of the more entertaining and fulfilling evenings I've had in recent years."

Performances by the New York Philharmonic and the Birmingham Opera were also recognized in the list. 

Electronic composer Deacon was featured in Rolling Stone magazine earlier this year. 

The New York Times has recognized 10 classical music orchestras that have made great strides in the past year and bestows upon each its own little award — without any statues or cash to go along with the honor. 

The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra is among them and the Times honors the arts organization with the "Chicken Droppings-into-Chicken Salad Award."

"The financially troubled Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, which was looking for a way to boost revenue and occupy the players during quiet summer weeks...wins for its summer academy aimed at amateur classical musicians, who pay to spend a week rehearsing and performing alongside the orchestra’s professionals," the Times writes. 

You can see the list of recognized orchestras here. 

Spencer Manio picks out the right music that meshes with a company's brand. 

And the 39-year-old Seattle resident is picking out "aggressive electronic music" to play at Under Armour stores, Manio tells NPR. 

He can't reveal the songs just yet, but NPR writes that "there will likely be mainstream songs by Skrillex and Calvin Harris, who soundtrack many a CrossFit and 'bootcamp' experience."

You could also hear Hudson Mohawke, Rustie, Baauer, Lunice and TNGHT next time you're buying Under Armour workout shorts. 

"If he pulls it off right, he'll communicate the brand, intrigue the consumer and expose people to extraordinary music," NPR writes.  "Essentially he's trying to help Under Armour convince you, whoever you are, even if your body is not a temple, that you could be in the Olympics."

Read more about Under Armour's music guru here. 

A business school dean calls the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Music Director "a folk hero" in the most recent issue of Forbes magazine.

Doug Guthrie, dean of the George Washington University School of Business, got to know Marin Alsop because she was the first speaker in the school's Conversations on Creative Leadership series. 

"She is a woman in a field dominated by men, but she is so much more," Guthrie writes in Forbes. "A visionary who understands the connection between ambition and achievement. A crusader who knows how music can transform lives. A leader who accepts the risk that comes with great rewards. A trailblazer who is as adept at the trail as the blazing."

You can read the rest of the story here. 

When Journey guitarist Neal Schon and "Real Housewives of D.C." cast member Michaele Salahi celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary, they'll fondly remember Baltimore as the place that set the stage for their nuptials.

Schon proposed to Salahi — one half of the White House wedding crasher team — at a benefit concert at the Lyric Opera House for the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center. 

"Salahi accepted the proposal with 'Open Arms,' according to [her manager] Gina Rodriguez," CNN.com writes. 

"Their relationship began under a cloud in September 2011 when the "Real Housewives of D.C." star was reported missing by her then-husband of nearly eight years Tareq Salahi."

You can read the whole story here. 

Whoever thought that a neighborhood in Baltimore would be featured alongside Williamsburg, New York City, Silver Lake, Los Angeles, and Chicago's tony Wicker Park?

Forbes has done the favor to Hampden, ranking it No. 15 on its list of hippest hoods. 

"Bars, restaurants and independent coffee houses co-mingle with two-story rowhouses harking back to the neighborhood's days of mills and factories," Forbes writes of this "retro cool" neighborhood. 

Silver Lake took the top spot, followed by San Francisco's Mission District and Brooklyn's Williamsburg. 

San Francisco's Nextdoor.com helped Forbes compile the data, assessing each neighborhoods walkability, number of food trucks, locally owned eateries, art galleries and other hipness factors. You can see the entire list here. 

A Baltimore vocalist has caught the attention of Adam Levine and Christina Aguilera and other stars of NBC's "The Voice."

Nelson Emokpae, who goes by the band and stage name Nelly’s Echo, was a hit on last week’s episode, according to a recap in the Baltimore Sun. Nigerian born Emokpae fled to Baltimore 16 years ago after his father was wrongfully imprisoned but has since been reunited with the family in Charm City.

Levine and Aguilera both vied for Emokpae to join their teams after hearing the singer’s rendition of “Ain’t No Sunshine”, but Emokpae ended up choosing team Aguilera.

Read more here.

The crew of The CW’s “The Next: Fame Is At Your Doorstep” searched for Charm City singers with potential, according to an episode recap in Baltimore City Paper. The episode highlighted four singers performing at the Hippodrome: country singer Jenny Leigh, choir director Shannon Ramsey, pop singer Jordan Baird and teenager Chris Bivins.
 
Baird’s charismatic rendition of Gavin Degraw’s “Not Over You” won over audience members, who voted for him to be the winner of the night who gets sent to semi-finals in Los Angeles.
 
Read how the other Baltimoreans fared here.

For his upcoming album, electronic composer Dan Deacon drew inspiration from his hometown of Baltimore, according to an interview with Deacon that appeared in Rolling Stone magazine.
 
“The aptly titled America, due out Aug. 28 on Domino Records, is Deacon's tribute to the country he has come to love, from the deserts of New Mexico to the Guilford Avenue Bridge in his hometown of Baltimore,” the magazine writes.

Deacon hopes to ignite citizen pride through America, which presents “the beautiful deserts, the mountains, the forests, the coasts. But also the beautiful cities that are rapidly decaying in front of our eyes," he tells Rolling Stone.

Deacon also channels the pop beats of Wham City and recalls visits to Baltimore County’s Pretty Box to spark creativity. He also presents a chamber ensemble mixed with the Peabody Institute and the city’s music scene.