Dmitri Shostakovich News

The Chelsea Symphony's (TCS) May 18 &19 concerts, Rebirth, of their 2018-2019 season Resolution which reflects on social action, features the great controversial work, Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5, called by the composer 'a Soviet artist's creative response to just criticism.'

As the classical community begins to celebrate Beethoven's 250th anniversary in the 2019-2020 season, the world-renowned Emerson String Quartet kicks off the opening of The Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival on Saturday, June 15, 2019 with an unforgettable journey of the complete Beethoven Cycle. Presenting Six concerts in one week, the Cycle 'provides a musical biography of Beethoven's life, highlighting milestones in his musical development,' notes the Emerson's violinist, Eugene Drucker. The nine-time GRAMMY Award-winning Quartet has firmly established its authority in interpreting Beethoven's string quartets since its first Beethoven Cycle performed in 1980 through its complete recording of his quartets on Deutsche Grammophon which won a 1998 GRAMMY Award. Praised by NPR, their 7-CD boxset of Beethoven: The String Quartets 'highlights their brilliance and sheer ability,' and The Gramophone opines, 'They continually offer new insights into some endlessly enthralling music. Do hear them.'

Miriam Gould's portrait of herself and her parents is as personal as one would expect, but its also beautifully judged and accessible, weaving music in and out of its narrative to great effect.

It is always a jubilant evening when I get to see the Des Moines Symphony, and their most recent concert was no different. I had the pleasure of attending the Saturday evening performance of 'Simon Sings Porgy and Bess' and was treated to an evening of stunning music. One thing I appreciate about the Des Moines Symphony is the balance of repertoire with both familiar and new music, and this performance was no exception.

Alexei Ratmansky's Shostakovich Trilogy returns to San Francisco Ballet (SF Ballet) May 7-12, closing the Company's 2019 Repertory Season at the War Memorial Opera House. Called a "fascinating, thrilling, bewilderingly ambiguous evocation of life in Shostakovich's Russia" (The New York Times), and simply, "a masterpiece" (San Francisco Chronicle), Shostakovich Trilogy is Ratmansky's homage to the composer, using three of his full-length works: the Symphony No. 9, Chamber Symphony, and Piano Concerto No. 1.

Dmitri in the Dark is a performance experience that combines a live string quartet playing Dmitri Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 6 alongside contemporary circus artists. Listen once to Shostakovich's quartet performed in almost complete darkness to form your own imaginings about the beautiful yet scathing piece. Rejoin us after an intermission with Russian treats to hear the quartet played again, this time with the lights up and accompanied by physical theater actors, acrobats, and contortionists who will help create a visual version of the story Shostakovich tells us in his music.

Las dos funciones que la Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional (OSN) ofreció este domingo de El patito feo y otras fantasías, primer programa familiar de su temporada 2019 en la Sala Principal del Palacio de Bellas Artes, cerraron el 35 Festival del Centro Histórico de la Ciudad de México.

The Bolshoi Ballet's production of The Golden Age will delight audiences with a refreshing and colorful dive into the roaring 20's, with a jazzy score by Dmitri Shostakovich and a music-hall atmosphere featuring beautiful tangos. See The Golden Age on the big screen in HD on Sunday, April 14 at 2pm at The Ridgefield Playhouse. This encore screening is part of Atria Senior Living Classical Series with support from Whistle Stop Bakery, underwritten by Jeanne Cook, Liz & Steven Goldstone, and Sabina & Walter Slavin.

Segerstrom Center for the Arts welcomes the annual return of acclaimed ensemble, the Emerson String Quartet on May 14, 2019 at 8:00 p.m. in a program that will feature the first West Coast performance of Shostakovich and the Black Monk: A Russian Fantasy. Co-created by writer-director, James Glossman and Emerson violinist Philip Setzer, this new multi-media work features seven actors in addition to the quartet and depicts the trials and challenges of composer Dmitri Shostakovich and his unwavering quest to write an opera based on Chekhov's mystical tale The Black Monk. Emerson String Quartet members include Eugene Drucker and Philip Setzer, violins; Lawrence Dutton, viola and Paul Watkins, cello.

Join the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra and the University of Michigan's University Musical Society Choral Union on April 27th at 8:00 PM in Ann Arbor's Hill Auditorium for a season finale performance of Beethoven's monumental Symphony No. 9.

San Diego Symphony Announces Rafael Payare's First Season As Music Director 2019-2020 season celebrates Beethoven at 250 with 12 works across eight months

 Stephen Wise Free Synagogue will host a concert May 19 celebrating the centennial of prolific Polish-Jewish composer Mieczyslaw Weinberg. The program will feature Weinberg's "24 Preludes for Solo Cello" performed by Yosif Feigelson, Modest Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" with pianist Ilya Yakushev, and several of Weinberg's Yiddish songs performed by Stephen Wise Cantor Daniel Singer.

The Bolshoi Ballet's production of The Golden Age will delight audiences with a refreshing and colorful dive into the roaring 20's, with a jazzy score by Dmitri Shostakovich and a music-hall atmosphere featuring beautiful tangos. See The Golden Age on the big screen in HD on Sunday, April 14 at 2pm at The Ridgefield Playhouse. This encore screening is part of Atria Senior Living Classical Series with support from Whistle Stop Bakery, underwritten by Jeanne Cook, Liz & Steven Goldstone, and Sabina & Walter Slavin.

Through the generosity of Donna MacMillan, the McCallum Theatre presents Keyboard Conversations® with Jeffrey Siegel on Monday, March 25, at 7:00pm. This evening's program, "Rags to Riches" features "Rialto Ripples," "Fascinatin' Rhythms," and "I Got Rhythm" (George Gershwin); "Wall Street Rag" (Scott Joplin); "Invitation to the Dance, Op. 65" (Carol Maria von Weber); "Polka in G Minor" (Bedrich Smetana); "Polka from The Age of Gold" (Dmitri Shostakovich); "Finale of Piano Sonata No. 1" (Alberto Ginastera); "Circus Polka" (Igor Stravinsky); "Evening in Granada" (Claude Debussy); and "Stars and Stripes Forever" (John Philip Sousa).

Da Camera of Houston's 2018-19 chamber music series continues with a performance by the New York Philharmonic String Quartet at Zilkha Hall, Hobby Center for the Performing Arts, on Friday, March 29, 2019, at 7:30 p.m. This concert marks the ensemble's long-awaited Houston debut.

Pianist George Li, like so many other kids, began piano lessons at age 4. Though it soon was clear he had a special gift, for years, it was just a hobby.

La Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional (OSN) ofrecerá el tercer programa de su temporada 2019 los días viernes 22 de febrero a las 20:00 y domingo 24 a las 12:15 en la Sala Principal del Palacio de Bellas Artes. Contará con la dirección del maestro huésped Ludwig Carrasco y la participación como solistas del violinista estadounidense William Harvey y del violonchelista ruso Vitali Roumanov.

Bajo la premisa de garantizar tanto al público como a los artistas el derecho y acceso a la cultura, la Orquesta de Cámara de Bellas Artes (OCBA) ofreció este jueves por la noche la primera sesión de su Programa 3 de la Temporada 2019, dedicado específicamente a destacados compositores rusos del siglo XX.

El joven pianista mexicano Sebastián Espinosa, egresado del Conservatorio Nacional de Música, hará su debut con la Orquesta de Cámara de Bellas Artes (OCBA) en el programa 3 de su Temporada 2019, el jueves 14 y domingo 17 de febrero, bajo la dirección de su titular José Luis Castillo.

American violist Matthew Lipman, recipient of a 2015 Avery Fischer Career Grant, makes his Cedille label debut with 'Ascent,' an album featuring, in the artist's words, 'music enraptured by flights of fantasy,' including world-premiere recordings of Dmitri Shostakovich's recently discovered Impromptu for Viola and Piano, Op. 33, and Clarice Assad's 'Metamorfose,' which Lipman commissioned.