Du Yun News

This winter, Trinity Church Wall Street co-produces the New York premiere of REV. 23, the latest opera by its own Director of Music Julian Wachner, along with the cutting-edge Prototype Festival and Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Performances take place at the Gerald W. Lynch Theater in Manhattan, on January 17 at 8pm and January 18 at 3pm and 8pm. Composed to an audacious, satirical libretto by Cerise Jacobs, founder of the Boston-based activist opera company White Snake Projects, which commissioned the work, REV. 23 explores an a?oeunpublisheda?? new chapter of the Book of Revelation. Los Angeles-based director James Darrah creates a striking new production for this New York premiere, leading the audience on a fantastical journey through the myths of the collective unconscious. Noted conductor Daniela Candillari leads Trinity's in-house contemporary orchestra, NOVUS NY.

Baruch Performing Arts Center presents the New York premiere of dwb (driving while black) from March 19-21, 2020 at 7:30 pm at Baruch Performing Arts Center, 55 Lexington Avenue (25th Street between Third and Lexington Avenues), NYC. Tickets are $16-$36 and can be purchased online at https://ci.ovationtix.com/1091/production/1014628.

Baruch Performing Arts Center presents the New York premiere of dwb (driving while black) from March 19-21, 2020 at Baruch Performing Arts Center, 55 Lexington Avenue (25th Street between Third and Lexington Avenues), NYC. Tickets are $16-$36 and can be purchased online at https://ci.ovationtix.com/1091/production/1014628.

Trinity Church Wall Street's historically informed performances of Handel's Messiah are critical favorites; just last season, the New York Times called Trinity's rendition 'the best 'Messiah' in New York.' On December 20 and 21 at 7:30pm and on December 22 at 3pm, the Grammy-nominated Choir of Trinity Wall Street, Trinity Baroque Orchestra and Director of Music Julian Wachner give three accounts of Handel's masterpiece. The performance on Saturday, December 21 at 7:30pm will be streamed live on Trinity's website and Facebook Live, and will be made available on demand the following week. Performances will take place at St. Paul's Chapel at Broadway and Fulton Street and tickets can be purchased here.

Jaap van Zweden and the New York Philharmonic will mark the centennial of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, which granted equal voting rights to women, by commissioning and premiering works by 19 women composers. The multi-season initiative a?" the single largest women-only commissioning initiative in history a?" will launch in February 2020 with the first six World Premieres. Two more World Premieres will follow in Maya?"June 2020. The eleven remaining commissions will be premiered in future seasons. The commissioned composers are Unsuk Chin, Mary Kouyoumdjian, Joan La Barbara, Tania León, Nicole Lizée, Caroline Mallonee, Jessie Montgomery, Angélica Negrón, Olga Neuwirth, Paola Prestini, Ellen Reid, Maria Schneider, Caroline Shaw, Sarah Kirkland Snider, Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Joan Tower, Melinda Wagner, Nina C. Young, and Du Yun.

A rapturous performance on Monday featuring superstar soprano Renée Fleming, Maestro Long Yu, and the China Philharmonic Orchestra drew the 22nd Beijing Music Festival (BMF) to a dramatic close. This season explored a new style of classical music with today's most cutting-edge expressive forms.

a?oeI am very optimistic about opera in America,a?? says OPERA America President/CEO Marc A. Scorca. a?oeWhen I entered the industry decades ago, new American operas were rarely commissioned or performed. Today, the flow of creativity from American composers, librettists, directors and designers has generated an American opera repertoire that spans the gamut of styles and subject matter.a??

'I am very optimistic about opera in America,' says OPERA America President/CEO Marc A. Scorca. 'When I entered the industry decades ago, new American operas were rarely commissioned or performed. Today, the flow of creativity from American composers, librettists, directors and designers has generated an American opera repertoire that spans the gamut of styles and subject matter.'

National Sawdust, the Williamsburg music incubator and non-profit, has opened its third call for scores for the annual Hildegard Competition. Named for the seminal medieval composer Hildegard von Bingen, the competition serves as a platform to give outstanding female, nonbinary, and trans composers a?' voices often underrepresented in the world of new music a?' opportunities for their work to be recognized.

a??a??a??a??a??a??a??The American Opera Project (AOP), announces its selection of eight composers and librettists to receive fellowships for its 10th cycle of the Composers & the Voice training program. Composers Alaina Ferris, Matt Frey, Michael Lanci, Mary Prescott, Jessica Rudman, Tony Solitro, and librettists Amanda Hollander and Jonathan Turner, will each receive a 2-year, tuition-free fellowship that provides experience writing for the voice and opera stage. The fellows will work collaboratively with the following six singers, named as the 10th Composers & the Voice Resident Ensemble: Lyric Coloratura Soprano Justine Aronson, Lyric Soprano Jasmine Muhammad, Mezzo-Soprano Augusta Caso, Tenor Timothy Stoddard, Baritone Mario Diaz-Moresco and Bass-Baritone Brandon Coleman. 

Violinist Jennifer Koh's newest album, Limitless, based on her groundbreaking 2018 recital project of the same name, bridges the modern divide between composer and instrumentalist as it celebrates artistic collaboration and revisits the grand tradition of composers performing their own music.

Celebrating its twenty-second year, the 2019 Beijing Music Festival (BMF) presents an art feast for audiences during Beijing's golden autumn. Over the past two decades, world-renowned conductor Long Yu established a rich artistic foundation for the Beijing Music Festival. And beginning in 2018, the new artistic director Shuang Zou, with the support of Maestro Long Yu, the BMF Artistic Committee, and supporting staff, has succeeded in incorporating more inclusive and avant-garde artistic elements to the festival, which are sure to surprise and impress audiences.

Opera America has awarded the fifth cycle of Commissioning Grants from its Opera Grants for Female Composers program to six professional opera companies across the United States.

​​​​​​​Brooklyn Rider will perform at the Capitol Center for the Arts (Concord, NH) on Wednesday, May 8, 2019 at 7:30PM.  This performance is part of the 2018-'19 William H. Gile Concert Series.  

The Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, America's longest running festival of new orchestral music, celebrates its 57th season, July 28 - August 11, 2019, with a remarkable women-centric season, featuring a series of relevant and forward-looking commissioned works. 

Ucross, a prestigious artist residency program and creative laboratory for the arts, today announced the recipients of its Spring 2019 fellowships. 54 visual artists, writers, playwrights, composers and more were selected from nearly 400 applicants to utilize uninterrupted time, studio space, and living accommodations on Ucross's 20,000-acre ranch at the foothills of the Bighorn Mountains.

In its Centennial year, the Los Angeles Philharmonic continues to grow in its commitment to supporting the creation of new music and nurturing young composers through two programs: National Composers Intensive (NCI), for composers ages 18 to 30, and the Nancy and Barry Sanders Composer Fellowship Program (CFP) for high school-aged composers. For the first time, the NCI program collaborates with New York City-based International Contemporary Ensemble (the Ensemble) to work with seven composers who will have the opportunity to workshop their pieces, both in New York and in Los Angeles, culminating in a performance at Walt Disney Concert Hall.

Renowned Brooklyn music incubator and performance venue National Sawdust celebrates the future of Asia in its second annual Pan Asia Sounding Festival (March 18-23). Conceived and curated by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Du Yun, the Pan Asia Sounding Festival features pathbreaking works by today's Asian composers, performers, artists, and filmmakers that disrupt the reductive Western tendency to present Asian music and art with a focus on their cultural heritages and future directions. As New York's WPIX11 declared after last season's festival: "There's a revolution going on in Williamsburg."

Placido Domingo has announced the company's 2019/20 season. The season will include six mainstage operas, one musical, one recital and one concert presented at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, with additional performances presented in other venues through the company's Off Grand initiative.

The John F. Kennedy Center announces the full lineup for DIRECT CURRENT, its two-week celebration of contemporary culture, which returns for a second season this spring (March 24-April 7).