Forget all those inaugural concerts. The most pressing musical issue in the nation's capital is whether a stone-face senator from Oklahoma will hit the high notes in "Rocket Man" to pay off a college football bet. Senator Settles BCS Bet By Singing "Rocket Man" ...more

January 14, 2009

On Nov. 16, at a festive celebration in the grand ballroom of Manhattan's Plaza Hotel, five international celebrities were presented the coveted Opera News Magazine's Award for Distinguished Achievement: composer John Adams and singers Natalie Dessay, Marilyn Horne, Renee Fleming and Sherrill Milnes. ...more

December 10, 2008

Kanye West had nothing to complain about Sunday, as he picked up his first-ever American Music Awards and delivered a flawless, if subdued, performance of his new single, "Heartless." ...more

November 24, 2008

Sarah Brightman headlining a tour with hi-tech holographic special effects? That we can buy. ...more

November 13, 2008

Actress and singer Edie Adams, 81, the blond beauty who won a Tony Award for bringing Daisy Mae to life on Broadway and who played the television foil to her husband, comedian Ernie Kovacs, died Wednesday in a Los Angeles hospital from pneumonia and cancer. ...more

October 17, 2008

Singer George Michael apologized to his fans Sunday for "screwing up again." Though Michael didn't talk about an arrest for drug possession - a story that was reported by Britain's Sunday newspapers and Britain's Press Association - it appeared the former Wham! frontman was referring to reports that he had been cautioned by police. ...more

September 22, 2008

Rotary clubs around the world are committed to raising $100 million to erase the number of polio-endemic countries. ...more

September 11, 2008

Melissa Stafford sat on the floor of a ballet room at the Patel Conservatory, urging the 13 boys and girls, ages 3 to 5, to "sit up nice and tall, like proud kings and queens." ...more

August 24, 2008

At the start of each new year the media reports a list of people, famous and infamous, who died during the previous 12 months. Reviewing this year's list, I couldn't help but think about what it had cost each individual to make it onto that roster. Aside from the obvious cost, (they had to die to get there), every person listed had done something notable, either admirable or ignoble. A few contributed to the advancement of medicine or science, or like Ruth Bell Graham, spiritual inspiration, leaving a legacy of healing and improvement in the quality of life for the entire planet. Each of those individuals studied long and hard, worked countless hours, and some spent fortunes of their own money to achieve a success, for which they will be remembered in encyclopedias, and scarcely anywhere else. ...more

January 6, 2008

Luciano Pavarotti, 71, who died early Thursday of pancreatic cancer at his home in Modena, Italy, combined a lustrous lyric tenor voice with a radiant and expansive personal charm to win the largest and most diversified audience ever accorded an opera singer. ...more

September 7, 2007