Ron Bierman

Ron Bierman

Ron Bierman has performed on saxophone and flute in several college and other orchestras. He graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where his studies included music theory as taught by Swiss pianist and composer Ernst Levy. His published work includes reviews of recordings, books, plays, films and live music performances for web sites and newspapers. He has an extensive library of books about music and over three thousand CDs. Now living in San Diego with his wife, he was the President of Advocates for Classical Music for more than 15 years, an organization which worked with local symphony orchestras to introduce more than 200,000 young students to the pleasures of classical music. He and his wife enjoy visiting classrooms with CDs and instruments in hand.




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First Show:

Louis Armstrong's sextet

Favorite Show:

The Music Man

Favorite Stories:



MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

Review: STEPHEN HOUGH WITH THE SAN DIEGO SYMPHONY at San Diego Civic Center Theater
Review: STEPHEN HOUGH WITH THE SAN DIEGO SYMPHONY at San Diego Civic Center Theater
March 22, 2024

Read BroadwayWorld's review of Stephen Hough with the San Diego Symphony at San Diego Civic Center Theater.

Review: SAN DIEGO SYMPHONY PLAYS RAVEL, RESPIGHI, AND BATES at San Diego Civic Center Theater
Review: SAN DIEGO SYMPHONY PLAYS RAVEL, RESPIGHI, AND BATES at San Diego Civic Center Theater
March 1, 2024

If this concert didn’t convince newcomers to classical music that they’d been missing out, nothing will. Conductor Rafael Payare went all out for excitement and got it with a program that displayed the orchestra's virtuosity. The result was an exceptionally enjoyable concert.

Review: BACH'S WINTER REVERIE & SAN DIEGO SYMPHONY VIRTUOSITY at The Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center
Review: BACH'S WINTER REVERIE & SAN DIEGO SYMPHONY VIRTUOSITY at The Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center
February 14, 2024

Edo de Waart opened a conservative program of J. S. Bach, Samuel Barber and Josef Haydn with Bach’s B-minor Orchestral Suite. The suite is often performed with a full-sized modern string section of 40 or more. De Waart chose a size much closer to one listeners would have been likely to hear in the 18th  century, 14 strings, the flute of the original score and a harpsichord continuo. The San Diego Symphony’s Principal Flute Rose Lombardo was at the front of the stage. The flute is prominent in every movement, though often playing as part of the orchestra rather than offering a second melodic line as in a true concerto.

Review: San Diego Opera's Production of Mozart's DON GIOVANNI at San Diego Civic Center Theater
Review: San Diego Opera's Production of Mozart's DON GIOVANNI at San Diego Civic Center Theater
February 6, 2024

San Diego Opera’s most recent production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni is an example of how opera companies hope to attract younger audiences while coping with rising costs and smaller budgets. The pandemic hasn’t been kind to the arts. The National Endowment for the Arts has reported that stage performances joined oil drilling/exploration and air transportation “as the steepest-declining areas of the U.S. economy in 2020.” And opera, which had already been experiencing shrinking audiences, was the hardest hit of all the arts. Smaller companies are struggling to stay in business. Even New York’s Metropolitan Opera had to dip into its reserves this season for $40 Million.

Review: THE SAN DIEGO SYMPHONY PERFORMS MOZART at The Conrad In La Jolla
Review: THE SAN DIEGO SYMPHONY PERFORMS MOZART at The Conrad In La Jolla
January 30, 2024

The San Diego Symphony was at a little more than half its usual size, but with a near full complement of strings, and Raphael Payare conducted with great feeling and passion. (A friend commented at intermission, “I thought he was on a trampoline.”) The result was unusually satisfying versions of three Mozart symphonies. The orchestra responded to Payare with as near perfect execution as you are likely to hear in a live performance, and the Conrad has spectacularly good acoustics for the near chamber-orchestra size group Payare led.

Interview: Kyle Lang of San Diego Opera's DON GIOVANNI at the Civic Center Theater
Interview: Kyle Lang of San Diego Opera's DON GIOVANNI at the Civic Center Theater
January 25, 2024

Kyle Lang is directing the company’s upcoming performances of Mozart’s DON GIOVANNI. In a recent conversation via Zoom we spoke about how he came to be a director, his approach to directing and specific thoughts about one of Mozart’s finest achievements.

Review: San Diego Opera Performs THE MIRACLE OF REMEMBERING at San Diego Civic Center
Review: San Diego Opera Performs THE MIRACLE OF REMEMBERING at San Diego Civic Center
December 8, 2023

What did our critic think of San Diego Opera Performs THE MIRACLE OF REMEMBERING at San Diego Civic Center?

Review: The San Diego Symphony Orchestra Performs in the California Festival at The Rady Shell
Review: The San Diego Symphony Orchestra Performs in the California Festival at The Rady Shell
November 15, 2023

What did our critic think of THE SAN DIEGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA PERFORMS IN THE CALIFORNIA FESTIVAL at The Rady Shell?

Review: GRAMMY® GREATS UNITE – LATONIA MOORE AND J'NAI BRIDGES IN CONCERT at Balboa Theatre
Review: GRAMMY® GREATS UNITE – LATONIA MOORE AND J'NAI BRIDGES IN CONCERT at Balboa Theatre
November 2, 2023

What did our critic think of GRAMMY® GREATS UNITE – LATONIA MOORE AND J’NAI BRIDGES IN CONCERT at Balboa Theatre?

Review: THE LA JOLLA MUSIC SOCIETY PRESENTS AN ALL-STAR TRIO at The Conrad
Review: THE LA JOLLA MUSIC SOCIETY PRESENTS AN ALL-STAR TRIO at The Conrad
October 18, 2023

What did our critic think of THE LA JOLLA MUSIC SOCIETY PRESENTS AN ALL-STAR TRIO at The Conrad?

Review: THE GIPSY KINGS at The San Diego Symphony's Rady Shell
Review: THE GIPSY KINGS at The San Diego Symphony's Rady Shell
August 17, 2023

What did our critic think of THE GIPSY KINGS at The San Diego Syphony's Rady Shell? The only empty seats at the Rady Shell's high-energy Gipsy Kings concert were the hundreds unoccupied while their associated booties were swaying in the aisles below waving arms. Nicolas Reyes sang 'Quiero Saber' to begin the bass-heavy, multi-guitar rhythmic onslaught. His hoarse and passionate voice has made him one of the world’s most popular flamenco singers.

Review: THE LA JOLLA MUSIC SOCIETY'S FANTASTIC TALES at The Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center
Review: THE LA JOLLA MUSIC SOCIETY'S FANTASTIC TALES at The Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center
August 6, 2023

What did our critic think of THE LA JOLLA MUSIC SOCIETY'S FANTASTIC TALES at The Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center?

Review: THE LA JOLLA MUSIC SOCIETY'S SUMMERFEST OPENING at The Baker-Baum Concert Hall
Review: THE LA JOLLA MUSIC SOCIETY'S SUMMERFEST OPENING at The Baker-Baum Concert Hall
August 1, 2023

What did our critic think of THE LA JOLLA MUSIC SOCIETY'S SUMMERFEST OPENING at The Baker-Baum Concert Hall?

Review: The San Diego Symphony Opens Summer Season at San Diego's Rady Shell
Review: The San Diego Symphony Opens Summer Season at San Diego's Rady Shell
July 3, 2023

Pacho Flores is a winner of the top prize in the world’s most prestigious trumpet competition, the Maurice André International, and the list of contemporary composers writing for him is impressive and growing. The San Diego Symphony has now performed two of the results. Last season it was Paquito D'Rivera's Concerto Venezolano for Trumpet and Orchestra. This year Flores returned for Roberto Sierra’s Salseando for trumpet and orchestra as part of a program with dance as a unifying theme. I’ll be disappointed if we don’t hear Marquez’s recent “Autumn” trumpet concerto on a future San Diego program.

Review: THE MAINLY MOZART ALL STAR ORCHESTRA PERFORMS BEETHOVEN'S NINTH at The Epstein Family Amphitheater On The UCSD Campus
Review: THE MAINLY MOZART ALL STAR ORCHESTRA PERFORMS BEETHOVEN'S NINTH at The Epstein Family Amphitheater On The UCSD Campus
June 28, 2023

What did our critic think of THE MAINLY MOZART ALL STAR ORCHESTRA PERFORMS BEETHOVEN'S NINTH at The Epstein Family Amphitheater On The UCSD Campus?

Review: THE SAN DIEGO SYMPHONY PERFORMS TWO CLASSICS AND A WORLD PREMIERE At San Diego's Rady Shell
Review: THE SAN DIEGO SYMPHONY PERFORMS TWO CLASSICS AND A WORLD PREMIERE At San Diego's Rady Shell
May 24, 2023

What did our critic think of THE SAN DIEGO SYMPHONY PERFORMS TWO CLASSICS AND A WORLD PREMIERE at San Diego's Rady Shell?

Review: San Diego Opera's Production of GHOSTS at Balboa Theatre
Review: San Diego Opera's Production of GHOSTS at Balboa Theatre
April 21, 2023

Nicolas Reveles was diagnosed with late-stage pancreatic cancer shortly after completing Ghosts, and it is tragic that he died just weeks before its world premiere in a San Diego Opera production. A sincerely religious man, his spirit lives on in the minds of the many grieving friends and admirers who attended the premiere and knew how important he was to San Diego opera lovers as a pre-performance lecturer, pianist and composer.

Review: SAN DIEGO OPERA'S TOSCA at San Diego Civic Center Theatre
Review: SAN DIEGO OPERA'S TOSCA at San Diego Civic Center Theatre
March 29, 2023

WhaThe San Diego Opera has outdone itself with its most recent production of Puccini’s Tosca. The three major roles are sung by appealing voices with exceptional power; the company’s chorus and the city’s children’s choir combined for thrilling moments, especially in the riveting Act I finale; San Diego Symphony musicians excelled under Italian conductor Valerio Galli, caressing the opera’s most romantic melodies and offering glowing resonance in its heroic themes. The evening ended with curtain calls that brought an understandably pleased audience to its feet in enthusiastic appreciation of an outstanding entertainment.t did our critic think of SAN DIEGO OPERA'S TOSCA at San Diego Civic Center Theatre?

Interview: SAN DIEGO OPERA'S TOSCA at San Diego Civic Center Theatre
Interview: SAN DIEGO OPERA'S TOSCA at San Diego Civic Center Theatre
March 20, 2023

Puccini is one of Michelle Bradley’s favorite composers, and she’s in San Diego to sing his Tosca for the San Diego Opera company. We were originally scheduled to talk in person, but a rehearsal change meant Zoom was going to work better for an hour discussion. “I'm happy to be back, and I know that everyone's happy to have me back because I've been treated warmly as always. They check up on me making sure I'm okay, and Southern California feels like a working vacation. After rehearsal I can have a nice walk any time of day. The ocean’s close, the mountains, beautiful views. I've made some great friends, and it’s a wonderful relationship to have. They seem to think I’m a star.”

Review: THE SAN DIEGO SYMPHONY at San Diego's Civic Center Theater
Review: THE SAN DIEGO SYMPHONY at San Diego's Civic Center Theater
March 15, 2023

Edo de Waart is now in his fourth year as Principal Guest Conductor of the San Diego Symphony Orchestra. In his long career he’s headed orchestras on four continents and taught in this country’s finest music schools. It’s no coincidence that his frequent conducting appearances in San Diego have coincided with the orchestra’s tremendous improvement in quality. De Waart knows what he’s doing in everything from Bach to his latest recording, a mystically moody contemporary symphony by Wim Henderickx  No wonder then that he chose works from three different eras for his most recent San Diego concert: The Chairman Dances ( Foxtrot for Orchestra) by John Adams, Mozart’s 23rd piano concerto, and Rachmaninoff’s 2nd symphony.



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