Benjamin Britten News

One of America's most beloved sopranos, Christine Brewer, who won a George London Award in 1991, and 2013 George London Award winner Dominic Armstrong, called a 'clarion-voiced tenor' by The New York Times, will share the stage for the third and final event in the season's George London Foundation Recital Series. Pianist Craig Rutenberg joins the singers for the recital on Sunday, April 6, 2014, at 4:30 PM at The Morgan Library & Museum.

Theatre Rhinoceros presents The Habit of Art: A Very British Comedy by Alan Bennett (The History Boys) and directed by John Fisher. The production will only be in San Francisco for a limited engagement, opening March 27 and closing April 13.

In celebration of Stanton Welch's tenth anniversary as Artistic Director at Houston Ballet, the company is presenting a mixed repertory program that showcases his work as a choreographer. Across the three acts, audiences are treated to stunningly beautiful stage pictures, fascinating movement, and breathtaking feats of agility and poise. With their THE YOUNG PERSON'S GUIDE TO THE ORCHESTRA program, Houston Ballet splendidly illustrates why Houston is truly to lucky to have Stanton Welch in our city.

To celebrate the release of Bryce Dessner's new album Ensemble LPR will perform at Le Poisson Rouge tonight, March 7, with Andre de Ridder conducting.

Carnegie Hall today announced the names of the 120 outstanding young musicians from across America who have been selected to come together this summer as the second annual National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America (NYO-USA).

Audiences be warned: a dangerously attractive aristocrat will be in Vancouver when VO's Don Giovanni hits the Queen Elizabeth Theatre stage in just a few weeks. The serial seducer will captivate audiences for five passionate performances only, tonight, March 1 to 9, 2014. Based on the captivating figure of Don Juan, Mozart's treatment is comedic and tragic, complex, and a towering achievement of music and drama.

The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra welcomes back revered conductor, and former CSO Creative Director, Rafael Fru?hbeck de Burgos for his second engagement of the 2013- 14 season. Tonight, February 28 and March 1 at historic Music Hall, Maestro Fru?hbeck de Burgos will conduct one of the most epic works in orchestral and choral repertoire-Verdi's Requiem. The piece pulls together massive forces of orchestra, chorus and soloists for an impassioned and dramatic blockbuster of human emotion. Perhaps best known for the famous 'Dies irae' movement, prevalent in pop culture in movies, advertisements and television, Verdi's masterpiece depicts a journey from terror and darkness to joy and light.

On Friday, Feb. 28 from 6:00 – 7:00 p.m. at Houston Ballet Center for Dance join us for Preview of a Premiere: The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra. In celebration of his 10th anniversary as artistic director of Houston Ballet, Stanton Welch has created a world premiere ballet to Benjamin Britten's famous score. Houston Ballet's artistic staff will talk about Britten's work as a composer and how the creative team was inspired by this particular piece to create an exciting new work that features the entire company. Principal Pianist Katherine Ciscon will play excerpts from Britten's work, and assistant conductor Ned Battista will discuss the score's unique features and rich history.

Guest conductor Anu Tali will lead the CSO in an exceptional program showcasing works of Tchaikovsky, Sibelius, and Pärt. In the hands of guest violinist Guy Braunstein, the first concertmaster of the world-renowned Berlin Philharmonic, Tchaikovsky's glorious violin concerto will sparkle and thunder as never before. Jean Sibelius' Symphony No. 2 is an epic piece, filled with color, drama, and a sense of sweeping forward momentum. The quiet and moving work of Estonian composer Arvo Pärt pays sincere tribute to Benjamin Britten, one of the twentieth century's most illustrious composers.

Pablo Heras-Casado will make his New York Philharmonic debut conducting Barto?k's Piano Concerto No. 3, featuring pianist Peter Serkin; Britten's Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes; and Shostakovich's Symphony No. 10, Wednesday, April 2, 2014, at 7:30 p.m.; Thursday, April 3 at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, April 4 at 11:00 a.m.; and Saturday, April 5 at 8:00 p.m.

On Site Opera, which has garnered acclaim for immersive, site-specific productions, will perform Rameau's one-act Pygmalion in two unusual—and unusually apt—venues this summer, just before the 250th anniversary of the composer's death: Madame Tussauds New York, on June 17, and Lifestyle-Trimco Showroom, on June 20 & 21.

The Arvo Pärt Project at St. Vladimir's Seminary presents four concerts from May 27 to June 2 devoted to the music of Estonian composer Arvo Pärt. The concerts take place in Washington, D.C. at the Kennedy Center's Millennium Theater (May 27) and The Phillips Collection (May 29) and in New York City at Carnegie Hall (May 31) and The Metropolitan Museum of Art (June 2), and will feature performers closely associated with Pärt's music. Traveling from Estonia for these events are the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir and the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra with their conductor Tõnu Kaljuste.

To celebrate the release of Bryce Dessner's new album Ensemble LPR will perform at Le Poisson Rouge on March 7, with Andre de Ridder conducting.

Ballet Conservatory dancers from the Franklin School for the Performing Arts (FSPA) will perform Sergei Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf and Benjamin Britten's The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra with the Metrowest Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of Music Director Peter L. Cokkinias. The collaborative performance is part of the Hopkinton-based Orchestra's "Artists in Bloom" Family Concert, to be presented on Sunday, March 9 at 3 p.m. at the Joseph P. Keefe Technical School Auditorium, 750 Winter Street, in Framingham. The program also features Aaron Copland's Outdoor Overture and Maurice Ravel's Tzigane, with 16-year-old violin soloist Elizabeth Kim, winner of the Orchestra's annual Young Artist Competition.

For DIRECTOR'S CHOICE, the fourth program of Pacific Northwest Ballet's 2013-2014 season, Artistic Director Peter Boal selects from his roster of acquisitions and increases them by one: The captivating mixed-bill program will feature a much-anticipated world premiere by Alejandro Cerrudo, resident choreographer of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. The program also reprises audience favorites TAKE FIVE…More or Less, Broadway-darling Susan Stroman's sunny slice of jazz-infused Dave Brubeck fun; and Susan Marshall's distinctive aerial duet, Kiss. Rounding out the lineup is Molissa Fenley's State of Darkness, a tour-de-force solo performance set to Stravinsky's riot-inducing The Rite of Spring. DIRECTOR'S CHOICE runs for seven performances only, March 14 through 23 at Seattle Center's Marion Oliver McCaw Hall. Tickets start at just $28 and may be purchased by calling the PNB Box Office at 206.441.2424, online at PNB.org, or in person at the PNB Box Office, 301 Mercer Street.

The winners of the 43rd annual George London Foundation Awards Competition for young American and Canadian opera singers were announced at the conclusion of the competition's final round this evening, which took place in a front of a capacity audience at Gilder Lehrman Hall at The Morgan Library & Museum in New York City.

On Sunday, March 9 at 3 pm, Mexican born pianist Juan Pablo Horcasitas will host a CD Release Party for his first solo album “Among Songs and Dances” in the Benay Benuta Hall at Lighthouse Guild, 111 East 59th Street, New York. “Among Songs and Dances” includes music from Bach to Zyman creating a beautiful journey through original and arranged songs and dances for the piano. Works include those by Samuel Zyman, Manuel M. Ponce, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Astor Piazzolla, Franz Schubert, Johann S. Bach, José Pablo Moncayo and Ricardo Castro.

Conductor James Conlon, Music Director of LA Opera, concludes his three-year commemoration of the centenary of composer Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) and brings the Britten 100/LA celebration to a close in Los Angeles with LA Opera's production of Billy Budd, which opens today, February 22 and continues through March 16, 2014.

Carnegie Hall presents lyric soprano Lucy Crowe in her New York recital debut on Wednesday, April 9 at 7:30 p.m. in Weill Recital Hall. Joined by pianist Anna Tilbrook, Ms. Crowe performs a wide variety of repertoire, with song cycles to include Alban Berg's Sieben fruhe Lieder and William Walton's A Song for the Lord Mayor's Table-six pieces celebrating the sights and sounds of London. Additional program highlights include a performance of Sibelius's vocally demanding tone poem, Luonnotar, Op. 70, inspired by the Kalevala, a 19th-century Finnish epic poem, and well-known lieder by Schubert. The British-born singer will also perform traditional selections from Folk Songs from the British Isles, including 'Sally Gardens,' and 'The Ash Grove,' arranged by Benjamin Britten, as well as songs by English composers Michael Head, Ivor Gurney, Thomas Dunhill, and Frank Bridge.