About

South Florida Classical Review was the first site founded in the Classical Review network. SFCR was created in June 2008 by Lawrence A. Johnson to fill the void in the region’s classical music journalism due to newspaper cutbacks of arts coverage.

 

Editor

Lawrence A. Johnson
Lawrence A. Johnson is the former classical music critic of the Miami Herald, and, prior to that, classical music writer at the South Florida Sun Sentinel. He was a freelance critic for the Chicago Tribune throughout the 1990s, covering classical music as well as rock and theater, and wrote regularly for The New York Times, the Boston Globe, Opera News, Opera and The New Criterion.

Johnson moved back to his hometown of Chicago in 2009 to launch Chicago Classical Review. In addition to continuing to serve as lead critic of CCR, he is also editor of all the Classical Review sites. In 2014 Johnson launched the American Music Project, a nonprofit foundation committed to advocating for American classical music of the past through grants and selectively commissioning new works from American composers.

Regular Contributors

Lawrence Budmen
A native of Philadelphia, Lawrence Budmen has observed the South Florida music scene since 1972. A former teacher and cellist who has played ballet, orchestral and music theater performances in Philadelphia, his reviews have been published in the Miami Herald, South Florida Sun Sentinel, Coral Gables Gazette and American Record Guide. He has also written program notes and given preconcert lectures for the Symphony of the Americas in Fort Lauderdale.

David Fleshler
David Fleshler has been a regular contributor to South Florida Classical Review since 2009. He grew up in Buffalo, N.Y., where his father played the viola and his mother violin in the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. Although he studied the violin, he saw the nature of the competition and wisely switched to journalism.

David is a full-time reporter for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, where he is responsible for covering the environment, hurricanes and general assignment stories. He previously worked for the York Daily Record in Pennsylvania. He has won awards for investigative, explanatory and environmental reporting and shared a Pulitzer Prize with Sun Sentinel colleagues in 2019 for an investigation into the Parkland school shooting.

Inesa Gegprifti
Albanian pianist Inesa Gegprifti has performed as a soloist and chamber musician throughout Europe, U.S.A, and South America. Gegprifti’s recent performances include appearances with the National Radio Television Orchestra of Albania and the Indian Hill Orchestra, chamber concerts in Italy, Slovenia, and Puerto Rico, as well as artist residencies at the Vivace Vilnius International Summer Festival and the Conservatory of Cuenca in Ecuador.

Gegprifti is a graduate of the United World College of the Adriatic, the Boston Conservatory, Indiana University-Bloomington, and the University of Miami. She has studied under the guidance of Valbona Kasaj, Dario de Rosa, Max Levinson, Naoko Takao, and Santiago Rodriguez.

Gegprifti is the author of pianodanza.com, an online compilation of her scholarly research and recordings of solo piano works in the genre of danza puertorriqueña. She is also the co-founder of Kaleidoscope MusArt, a nonprofit concert presenter in Miami.