Dawn Upshaw News

Before he was an Emmy-winning TV star, Mandy Patinkin was already a Tony-winning Broadway legend. The acclaimed actor, singer and storyteller will appear on the Heinz Hall stage with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra tonight, April 5 at 8 p.m. in his most electrifying role - concert performer.

Celebrity Series of Boston will present the Maria Schneider Orchestra on Saturday, April 26, 2014 at 8pm at Berklee Performance Center, 136 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston, MA. Sponsored by Donna and Mike Egan.

Pacific Symphony's newest recording of a three-part oratorio crafted by one of the most sought-after composers of his generation, Richard Danielpour, is set to be released by Naxos today, March 25.

The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts presents the West Coast premiere of A Coffin in Egypt, a new chamber opera in one act, based on the play, A Coffin in Egypt by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Horton Foote, for three performances only April 23, 25 and 27 in the Bram Goldsmith Theater. A Coffin in Egypt stars mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade, one of opera's most beloved figures, whose formidable bravura has won her wide acclaim. Ricky Ian Gordon, the composer, has also composed The Grapes of Wrath, Rappahannock County, and Orpheus and Euridice. Leonard Foglia, librettist and director, directed Master Class on Broadway and Jake Heggie's Opera Last Acts.

Thomas Hampson will be at Manhattan School of Music today, March 19th to give a vocal master class. This master class, a free event and open to the public, takes place at 4:00 p.m. in the School's Greenfield Recital Hall, and will be streamed live by going to http://dl.msmnyc.edu/live. The master class will be given in collaboration with MSM's world renowned Distance Learning and Recording Arts Department, headed by Christianne Orto, Dean of Distance Learning and Recording Arts at Manhattan School of Music.

Before he was an Emmy-winning TV star, Mandy Patinkin was already a Tony-winning Broadway legend. The acclaimed actor, singer and storyteller will appear on the Heinz Hall stage with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra on Saturday, April 5 at 8 p.m. in his most electrifying role - concert performer.

Before he was an Emmy-winning TV star, Mandy Patinkin was already a Tony-winning Broadway legend. The acclaimed actor, singer and storyteller will appear on the Heinz Hall stage with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra on Saturday, April 5 at 8 p.m. in his most electrifying role — concert performer.

In tandem with the recently announced Heritage/Evolution, PRISM Quartet announces the release of their new 2-disc recording People's Emergency Center, Music for Saxophones by Matthew Levy. Street Date: May 27, 2014 on Innova Recordings. The album features seven distinctive jazz voices as guest artists: Tim Ries, soprano saxophone, Rudresh Mahanthappa, alto saxophone, Jason Moran, piano, Ben Monder, guitar, Jay Anderson, bass, Bill Stewart, drums, and François Zayas, percussion.

Pacific Symphony's newest recording of a three-part oratorio crafted by one of the most sought-after composers of his generation, Richard Danielpour, is set to be released by Naxos on March 25. Written for the Persian holiday of Nowruz in 2012, "Toward a Season a Peace" was premiered by Pacific Symphony, conducted by Music Director Carl St.Clair, in the Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall in Orange County, Calif. The work features Pacific Chorale (Artistic Director John Alexander) and Grammy-winning soprano Hila Plitmann. By weaving together sacred passages with texts by the great Sufi poet Rumi, Danielpour explores violence and war in the name of religion, using the season of spring as a metaphor for change and transformation. The work was commissioned for the Symphony's 2012 American Composers Festival, "Nowruz-Celebrating Spring," presented in collaboration with the Farhang Foundation.

Pacific Symphony's newest recording of a three-part oratorio crafted by one of the most sought-after composers of his generation, Richard Danielpour, is set to be released by Naxos on March 25. Written for the Persian holiday of Nowruz in 2012, “Toward a Season a Peace” was premiered by Pacific Symphony, conducted by Music Director Carl St.Clair, in the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall in Orange County, Calif. The work features Pacific Chorale (Artistic Director John Alexander) and Grammy-winning soprano Hila Plitmann. By weaving together sacred passages with texts by the great Sufi poet Rumi, Danielpour explores violence and war in the name of religion, using the season of spring as a metaphor for change and transformation. The work was commissioned for the Symphony's 2012 American Composers Festival, “Nowruz—Celebrating Spring,” presented in collaboration with the Farhang Foundation.

Thomas Hampson will be at Manhattan School of Music on Wednesday, March 19th to give a vocal master class. This master class, a free event and open to the public, takes place at 4:00 p.m. in the School's Greenfield Recital Hall, and will be streamed live by going to http://dl.msmnyc.edu/live. The master class will be given in collaboration with MSM's world renowned Distance Learning and Recording Arts Department, headed by Christianne Orto, Dean of Distance Learning and Recording Arts at Manhattan School of Music.

Join the American Classical Orchestra for HANDELFEST, the first festival event from ACO that celebrates the music of Handel during the month of March. The festivities get under way with a family-friendly concert at the Church of the Blessed Sacrament (152 W 71st St) featuring some of Handel's most uplifting works. Tickets are $10 and can be purchased by calling 212-362-2727.

Ravinia's 2014 season, dubbed 'Summer of Love/Season of Stars,' was announced today by Ravinia President and CEO Welz Kauffman. Brimming with talent and romance, the festival's 2014 schedule brings some the biggest names in the world of music as well as repertoire that explores the theme of great love in its various manifestations. No fewer than three musical incarnations of the most famous love story of all time, Romeo and Juliet, will be featured, with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra performing Tchaikovsky's Overture-Fantasy (July 27), a suite from Prokofiev's ballet setting of the story (July 16) and the score of West Side Story as the classic film is shown (July 17-18). In other examples of love, soprano Deborah Voigt describes it as 'Something Wonderful' on a Broadway evening (July 13), the legendary Broadway team of Lerner and Loewe will be celebrated (July 20), and Chanticleer even jabs at the battle of the sexes in an evening titled 'She Said/He Said' (July 6). In fact, love lurks, longs and lingers across genres in most of the more than 130 events that Ravinia will present in 2014, its 110th year and its 78th as the summer residence of the CSO.

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.

Today, February 21, 24 finalists will perform for the judges and audience, hoping to win a George London Award, an honor that has been conferred upon hundreds of the best young singers since 1971.

Opera Philadelphia presents its staging of Golijov's controversial short opera on Garcia Lorca

This year is the 62nd annual Festival. In 2013 Festival shows sold more than $5 million worth of tickets, with attendances of over 500,000 from a city of under 2 million people: we sell more tickets per capita than any international arts festival in Australia.

Tonight, February 7 (7:30 pm), Symphony Space pays tribute to 'the women warriors of new music' with a concert marking a quartet of anniversaries: composer Joan Tower's 75th birthday (Sept. 6, 2013), composer Tania Leon's 70th birthday (May 14, 2013), pianist Ursula Oppens's 70th (Feb. 2, 2014), and the 30th anniversary season of the Cassatt String Quartet.