Have you ever wondered why your Spot’s ears perk up when it’s perfectly quiet? Or why Fido barks a minute before the delivery person appears with a package at your front door? Well, it’s quite simple.

After missing two years due to the pandemic, the University of North Carolina Wilmington's sprawling, multi-disciplinary Lumina Festival of the Arts is back — and with a distinctive island flair.

But, counterintuitive though it might seem, I don’t think sound is always a helpful way to understand genre. I’m a composer and conductor in the field that’s broadly known as Western classical music, ...