92nd Street Y News

Miller Theatre inaugurates a new holiday tradition, a playful production that brings to life Saint-Saens' musical 'salute to feathers, fur, and fins' - CARNIVAL OF THE ANIMALS. A modern twist on Victorian toy theater, this imaginative staging combines music, scenic elements, puppetry, and movement, plus the clever verses of Ogden Nash. Curtain-raisers from the 16th Century to present-day set the stage and kindle the spirit of the holidays. Just about an hour in length, this family-friendly presentation is the perfect December treat to delight imaginative audiences of all ages.

San Francisco, CA, December 18, 2015 – San Francisco's Opera Parallèle (OP) has announced its first main stage opera commission, the creation of a new opera by American composer Laura Kaminsky inspired by the life of Georgia O'Keeffe at the time she left New York to embark on her iconic and influential experiences in New Mexico. The company has been awarded a prestigious Repertoire Development Grant from Opera America in the amount of $35,000 to support the work's initial stages of creation and workshopping, and is set for an April 2019 premiere. The opera will feature a libretto by Mark Campbell and Kimberly Reed. The production team will be led by Opera Parallèle Creative Director Brian Staufenbiel, will be conducted by OP Artistic Director and founder Nicole Paiement and will feature a cast of ten, details will be announced. The production is being undertaken by Opera Parallèle in consortium with American Opera Projects and Cornish College of the Arts, and all three co-commissioners will present performances and other activities to be announced. For more information about Opera Parallèle, visit www.operaparallele.org 

After a sold-out engagement last May, award-winning, Grammy-nominated cabaret legend Marilyn Maye returns to Feinstein's at the Nikko with her new show, Marilyn Maye Sings Mercer & More, on Thursday, January 28 (8 p.m.) and Friday, January 29 (8 p.m.). Maye will pay tribute to renowned lyricist Johnny Mercer ('Moon River,' 'One for My Baby (and One More for the Road),' 'That Old Black Magic'). 

he Public Theaterannounced complete casting today for the new musical SOUTHERN COMFORT that tells the true story of a group of transgender friends living life on their own terms in the back hills of rural Georgia.  Directed by Thomas Caruso and based on the film by Kate Davis, SOUTHERN COMFORT features book and lyrics by Dan Collins and music by Julianne Wick Davis, and was conceived for the stage by Robert DuSold and Thomas Caruso. SOUTHERN COMFORT begins previews on Tuesday, February 23 and will run through Sunday, March 27 in The Public's Anspacher Theater, with an official press opening on Monday, March 7. Public Theater Member tickets and single tickets are available now.

JCC Manhattan presents the fall season finale of PREformances with Allison Charney on Monday, December 14th at 12:30pm. In this unique concert series, you will hear celebrated classical musicians just before their performances on the world's most prestigious stages removing traditional barriers between performer and audience.

 Comedians Nick Kroll and John Mulaney have brought their morally ambiguous characters of Gil Faizon and George St. Geegland to the Cherry Lane Theatre for a limited-run play. These caricatured New York-bred characters' over-the-top observations are just inappropriate enough to sustain laughter for 70 minutes of absurdity.

The curtain rises on a hotel room out of town, and songwriters in the midst of a desperate, all-night creative frenzy to save a faltering show. Lyrics & Lyricists 2016 season opens with real-life theatrical drama as three-time Tony-winner Kathleen Marshall returns to 92Y with the nail-biting stories behind the 11th-hour songs that saved the day and became Broadway classics. The show runs January 9-11 at 92Y.

USITT Fellow and legendary lighting consultant Sonny Sonnenfeld will receive USITT's 2016 Distinguished Achievement Award in Lighting Design & Technology. Sonnenfeld joins the ranks of four other backstage luminaries to be honored at USITT 2016 in Salt Lake City March 16-19.

From January 19 to 23, Carnegie Hall's Weill Music Institute (WMI) presents The Song Continues, an annual series led by renowned mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne, exploring song repertoire through master classes and concerts with the goal of encouraging, supporting, and preserving the art of the vocal recital. The series concludes with the Marilyn Horne Song Celebration, a recital featuring special guest artist soprano Nina Stemme on Saturday, January 23 at 7:30 p.m. in Zankel Hall. The evening's concert also features performances by soprano Julia Bullock, mezzo-soprano Daniela Mack, tenor Andrew Haji, bass-baritone Evan Hughes, and pianists John Arida, Keun-A Lee, Ken Noda, and Jennifer Szeto. Complete program information is listed below.

Violinist Jennifer Koh was announced as the recipient of Musical America's Instrumentalist of the Year award.

The Young People's Chorus of New York City led by Artistic Director and Founder Francisco J. Nuñez brightens the December holidays with concerts, television appearances, and recordings to give and enjoy. It all begins today, December 2, when the YPC choristers perform on both the local and national telecasts of this year's 'Christmas in Rockefeller Center' at 7 p.m. on NBC-TV.

Merging dance, live music and visual arts, Choreographer/Director Pavel Zuštiak examines the multiplicity of concepts of beauty and its permanence within art in CUSTODIANS OF BEAUTY.

 The Jewish Museum will present The Word: Spoken, Sung, and Played, a concert featuring acclaimed Israeli pianist Daniel Gortler with internationally renowned vocalists Lauren Flanigan (as narrator) and David Adam Moore (baritone) in a performance of Johannes Brahms's The Fair Magelone  (Die schone Magelone) on Thursday, December 10 at 7:30pm. During the second half of the program, soprano Lauren Flanigan will sing Luciano Berio's 'A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man' from Epifanie with Daniel Gortler. This will be Ms. Flanigan's first public New York City performance since 2010 when she was diagnosed with sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSHL). To conclude, Mr. Gortler, who has delighted audiences and critics with his concerts around the world and received praise for his technical mastery and musical ingenuity, will perform Franz Schubert's Three Piano Pieces for solo piano.

The Young People's Chorus of New York City led by Artistic Director and Founder Francisco J. Núñez brightens the December holidays with concerts, television appearances, and recordings to give and enjoy.  It all begins Wednesday, December 2, when the YPC choristers perform on both the local and national telecasts of this year's “Christmas in Rockefeller Center” at 7 p.m. on NBC-TV.

A dramatic combination of technical artistry, physical power and unbridled creativity, the 2016 Breaking Ground Festival returns to take over the Tempe Performing Arts Center January 29-30. 

DANCE NOW presents the premiere of LMnO3's (Deborah Lohse, Cori Marquis, and Donnell Oakley) B.A.N.G.S.: made in america, February 12 and 13 at 7pm, at Joe's Pub at The Public, 425 Lafayette Street, between East 4th Street and Astor Place.

Kathryn Posin Dance Company is honored to have been invited by the 92nd Street Y to be the company that re-opens the fabled 900-seat Kaufman Concert Hall, for years one of New York's major dance venues, re-opening after a long closure.  Performances will take place February 11 & 12, 2016 on the stage that has seen many early performances by the companies of Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham, Paul Taylor, Alvin Ailey and, in 1967, the choreographic debut of Kathryn Posin.  The invitation is a result of the success of the KPCD's 2014 season at the 92nd Street Y's Buttenweiser Hall, 'Voices of Bulgaria and America,' which sold out and was live-streamed to 54 countries. 

The Peterbrough Players announced today that they will be giving full support behind #GivingTuesday, a global initiative to promote charitable giving during the holidays. This year the date is set for December 1st, the first Tuesday after Thanksgiving as well as the shopping days "Black Friday" and "Cyber Monday." The Players will post Facebook and Twitter messages and send out email that will encourage people to use this special Tuesday as a day to give personal time or financial support to their favorite local, national or global charities, including the Players.

The Old Globe today announced a major milestone in an ongoing transformation of its institutional structure-the formation of its Department of Arts Engagement, along with the appointment of a new Director of Arts Engagement, Freedome Bradley-Ballentine, whose arrival in San Diego concludes a thorough nationwide search. Bradley-Ballentine will lead the Globe's work of forging new and deeper bonds with all the constituencies the Globe serves -- and aspires to serve -- in the region.

World Music Institute dedicates two nights at BAMcafe to its new initiative 'Global/Local', giving greater exposure to local 'world' artists, with Awesome Tapes from Africa (DJ Set) today, November 20, 2015, 9:00 p.m. and Gato Loco on Saturday, November 21, 2015, 9:00 p.m.