David Abrams

A special welcome to my many friends in Syracuse and throughout Central New York who have followed my classical music reviews and pre-concert talks these past two decades...

The CNY Café Momus project, located online at blog.cnycafemomus.com, is a non-commercial enterprise that carries no advertising, earns no revenues and seeks no contributions: I perform my services gratis and bear the costs of designing and maintaining the website and blogsite. 

I agreed to reprise the role I have played as a music critic these past 17 years initially to help re-ignite interest in the musical arts here in Central New York — which, in the face of ever-shrinking coverage in the local print media, sadly continues its steady decrescendo to that of a whisper.  More recently, I have expanded coverage to include reviews of the Metropolitan Opera HD Simulcast broadcasts and, occasionally, live productions at The Met. 

Opera reviews at CNY Café Momus are especially popular, with hits registering from across 60 countries.  Opera reviews from blog.cnycafemomus.com are cross-posted (with photos) at Musical Criticism dot-com, and may also be accessed from a variety of dedicated sites such as The Opera Critic dot-com, All About Opera dot-com, Classissima dot-com and Instant Encore dot-com. 

CNY Café Momus is a place for serious discourse on the musical arts open to music lovers everywhere, with the aim of building bridges linking the listener to the listening experience.  Closer to home, I remain committed to providing online critiques of performances presented by local arts organizations here in Central New York, so long as they make a good-faith effort to direct their audiences to the blogsite through ads in its program booklets or similar initiatives.   

Participating local organizations include The Skaneateles Festival, Glimmerglass Opera, NYS Baroque, Syracuse Friends of Chamber Music and Civic Morning Musicals.  In addition to online critiques, print reviews of selected local events appear in The Eagle Newspapers (Syracuse) under my column, Music Matters.

It is my sincere hope that you will find in CNY Café Momus critiques that are informative, enlightening, well-crafted and thought-provoking: something capable of igniting reader passion and generating meaningful discussion among them in a café -like setting where all opinions are welcome and encouraged.  This is, after all, a café for people unafraid to voice their opinions and willing to share their experiences with others.  I invite you to support this project by adding your voice in the comments section following each critique posted. 

DA