Puerto Rican pianist Bryan Ojeda Chevres ( lscivicorchestra.org ) By PEGGY ANN BLISS Special to The STAR Young keyboard wizard Bryan Ojeda Chevres has played with the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra (PRSO) five times under the baton of Maestro Maximiliano Valdés, the last on the fabled Bosendorfer of the University of Puerto Rico. But that was some two years ago, with Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto, and this is now, at Bellas Artes, with the “Fourth Piano Concerto in D,” p

A molecular biologist, Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling) has been working as a middle-school teacher when some serious-looking people recruit him for humanity’s seemingly impossible mission. By MANOHLA DARGIS One of the charms of “Project Hail Mary,” a feather-light science-fiction movie about a heavyweight subject — the end of the world — is how it embraces the seductions of outer space. It’s a nice change of pace, given how space often occupies the darker corners of the human ima

Chuck Norris with fans and Mike Huckabee, then a Republican presidential hopeful, at a campaign event in Des Moines, Iowa, Jan. 1, 2008. Norris, who channeled his skills as a martial arts black belt into a durable acting career that left film critics largely unimpressed but delighted millions of fans savoring his good-guy triumphs and fortune-cookie musings, died on Thursday, March 20, 2026. He was 86. (Todd Heisler/The New York Times) By CLYDE HABERMAN Chuck Norris, who chan

Puerto Rican pianist Bryan Ojeda Chevres (Instagram via bryan_piano) By PEGGY ANN BLISS Special to The STAR When young Puerto Rican pianist Bryan Ojeda Chevres got a call in New York from Maximiano Valdés inviting him to bring Ludwig Beethoven’s 4th piano concerto to the stage next Saturday March 28 with the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra (PRSO), he was ecstatic. Not so much when the young man, who lives in New York City, was told there was no money to pay him. But not knowin

Dúo Gil y Figueroa (Facebook via Conservatorio de Música de Puerto Rico - Página Oficial) By PEGGY ANN BLISS Special to The STAR From Serenity to Transcendence. De la serenidad hasta la transcendencia. Whatever language you say it in, it’s a mouthful. And a promise. The above is the ambitious title of what promises to bring both serenity and transcendence to anyone who enters the hallowed hall of the Puerto Rico Music Conservatory this Sunday at 4. Highlighting the prestigiou

Guitarist Arturo Castro Nogueras (Instagram via arturo.castro.nogueras) By PEGGY ANN BLISS Special to The STAR The Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra (PRSO) will pay homage Saturday night to Latin American rhythms and hardships and to the Russian take on revolution. The program for the season’s 11th classical concert was curated by Venezuela’s Manuel Hernández Silva, who recently cancelled his guest conductor appearance. He will be replaced on the podium by Associate Music Direct

“Boogie Nights” By JASON BAILEY Paul Thomas Anderson took home his first Oscars (for best picture, director and adapted screenplay) at Sunday night’s Academy Awards, which may come as a surprise to those who have long considered him one of our finest filmmakers. But it’s a satisfying payoff for the writer and director, 55, who has spent nearly three decades synthesizing his copious influences and experimental instincts into a distinctive, inimitable style of his own. A look

Paul Thomas Anderson accepts award for best adapted screenplay for “One Battle after Another,” during the 98th Academy Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on Sunday, March 15, 2026. (Philip Cheung/The New York Times) By BROOKS BARNES “One Battle After Another” won six Oscars at the 98th Academy Awards on Sunday, including those for best picture and best director, at long last cementing Paul Thomas Anderson’s status as one of the foremost filmmakers of his generation. A

Robert Duvall in New York, April 23, 1983. Duvall, who drew from a seemingly bottomless reservoir of acting craftsmanship to transform himself into a business-focused Mafia lawyer, a faded country singer, a cynical police detective, a bullying Marine pilot, a surfing-obsessed Vietnam commander, a mysterious Southern recluse and scores of other film, stage and television characters, died on Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026. He was 95. (Sara Krulwich/The New York Times) By MANOHLA DARGIS

PRSO Associate Music Director Rafael Enrique Irizarry and co-host Leila Martínez Cabello, aka Maestra Leila, are on a “manifest mission to educate, inspire and edify,” he said. (Facebook via Conservatorio de Música de Puerto Rico - Página Oficial) By PEGGY ANN BLISS Special to The STAR Where do serious, classical music and sentimental pop music become as one? At a Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra (PRSO) concert, of course. Music is music, but the line often blurs despite many w