By Edward Ortiz, The Sacramento Bee, Calif. Jul. 27--Experiencing a concert at a festival of contemporary music is much like visiting a contemporary art museum. Some of the works might be seminal. Others might offer but a glimpse of future greatness.

By Tim Smith, The Baltimore Sun Jun. 21--Marin Alsop's inaugural season as music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra is ending pretty much the way it started, with a program that places a sizable contemporary American work alongside a blockbuster from the standard European canon.

By Tim Smith, The Baltimore Sun Mar. 8--Beethoven's grip on the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra tightened this week, and its grip on Beethoven tightened as well. By season's end, all nine of the composer's symphonies will have been heard.

By Tim Smith, The Baltimore Sun Mar. 4--No country for old men? Several composers would dispute that point, one of them being Dominick Argento.

By ZO ANDERSON Even the 3D specs were hi-tech. Klaus Obermaier's digital dance version of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, with its astonishing virtual effects, needs special glasses. They look like sunglasses, lenses slightly tinted. No crumpled cardboard here.