Duke University News

On Thursday, April 27, 2017 at 7:30pm, Skylark Vocal Ensemble and the French Institute Alliance Francaise (FIAF) present Clear Voices in the Dark, an immersive concert interspersing songs from the American Civil War with Francis Poulenc's challenging and rarely performed Figure Humaine, at Florence Gould Hall (55 E. 59th St.). Formed in 2011 by Artistic Director Matthew Guard, Skylark is a premiere a cappella vocal ensemble of leading American vocal soloists based in Atlanta and Boston. Skylark's music has been described as "sublimely beautiful" (Opera Obsession), and the group's lustrous voices have been praised for their ability to "sway you softly into calm and then all but throw you across the room with sheer harmonic force" ("Music for Writers," Thought Catalog).

Right on the heels of their blockbuster Family Series production of A Midsummers Night's Dream Theatre Raleigh returns with The Wolf from March 23 - April 2 at the Kennedy Theatre.  This engaging, approachable show promises to delight both young and adult audiences alike.  The Wolf played to sold out audiences last year, so get your tickets early for this crowd pleaser.  This production is geared towards ages 3 years and up.

Cherry Lane Theatre has announced casting for the second production of the Obie award-winning MENTOR PROJECT 2017 now in its 19th season.

The NCAA college basketball tournament, aka March Madness, has traditionally been my marker of Spring. Starting this week, the 'Road to the Final Four' prompts an intensive focus on bracketology, a field of study even the book world can't escape (see Tournament of Books).

The inaugural cohort of The Field Leadership Fund announces Moon Shine, a wine reception with pop-up expressions, to be held on Wednesday, April 19, 2017 at the National Black Theatre (NBT) in its current 48th season themed In Pursuit of Black Joy.

Get the inside scoop on one of America's most forward-thinking contemporary art triennials, Prospect New Orleans. Hear from Prospect.4 Artistic Director Trevor Schoonmaker, Chief Curator and Patsy R. and Raymond D. Nasher Curator of Contemporary Art at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, in conversation with Rick Lowe, Founder of Project Row Houses, Houston. 

Cleveland Play House shifts gears from playful (Ken Ludwig's Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery) to profound with the Pulitzer Prize-winning play How I Learned to Drive. Written by Paula Vogel - one of the preeminent figures in American theater today - How I Learned to Drive traverses taboo territory with humor, heart, and empathy.

Cherry Lane Theatre has announced casting for the second production of the Obie award-winning MENTOR PROJECT 2017 now in its 19th season.

Classical singer/musical actress, Aimee Marcoux-Spurlock, whose true-life story will come to the big screen in 2017, will make her Metropolitan Room debut on February 3rd with Women of Bilbao, a collection of Kurt Weill's compositions from his 12-tone Weimar period to his more lush Broadway compositions. Marcoux-Spurlock has performed over fifty operatic, musical theater and oratorio roles with leading orchestras and opera companies across the globe. The Women of Bilbao repertoire will include 'Surabaya Johnny' from Happy End, 'Moon of Alabama,' from The Rise and Fall of the City ofMahagonny and 'That's Him' from One Touch of Venus. The singer will be joined by Doug Martin as Pianist/ Conductor (Baz Luhrmann's La Boheme on Broadway). 

The Kennedy Center today announces that philanthropist and Board Chairman David M. Rubenstein will host a new series of sit-down conversations with high-profile figures from the arts and culture field, beginning on April 29, 2017, with legendary actress, singer, EGOT winner, and 2015 Kennedy Center Honoree, Rita Moreno.

Cherry Lane Theatre has announced casting for the second production of the Obie award-winning MENTOR PROJECT 2017 now in its 19th season. Nathan Yungerberg's ESAI'S TABLE, will be presented at Cherry Lane (38 Commerce St.) from March 22 - April 1, 2017, it has been announced by Seri Lawrence and Janio Marrero, MENTOR PROJECT's Producing Artistic Directors. Angelina Fiordellisi is Cherry Lane's Founding Artistic Director.

 Historians and folk music lovers will rejoice when they come together to enjoy composer and violinist Jenny Scheinman's presentation of Kannapolis: A Moving Portrait, a live musical performance with Robbie Gjersoe and Robbie Fulks, set to the footage of H. Lee Waters at 7:30 p.m., March 7 at the Autorino Center for the Arts, University of Saint Joseph.  

MetLiveArts presents the following programs for the month of March, including Modern Voices, Kannapolis, and more.

The Chattanooga Symphony & Opera (CSO) and the CSO Youth Orchestras (CSOYO) present a unique event, featuring not only two of the youth orchestras in concert (Symphony and Philharmonic), but also the CSO Orchestra and the CSOYO Symphony combined.

Playwrights Foundation (PF) and the National Center for New Plays at Stanford's 2016/17 Rough Reading Series present early draft  readings on February 27 & 28 of OUR MOTHER'S MEAL by Novid Parsi in partnership with Golden Thread Productions.

Cleveland Play House shifts gears from playful (Ken Ludwig's Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery) to profound with the Pulitzer Prize-winning play How I Learned to Drive. Written by Paula Vogel - one of the preeminent figures in American theater today - How I Learned to Drive traverses taboo territory with humor, heart, and empathy.

CAMBRIDGE, MA - Elsevier, a world-leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services, today announced the publication of Explaining Suicide: Patterns, Motivations, and What Notes Reveal by Cheryl Meyer, Taronish Irani, Katherine Hermes and Betty Yung. It is the first large-scale analysis of suicide motivation across multiple ages in the same time period, made possible via a unique dataset of all suicide notes collected by the coroner's office in southwestern Ohio from 2000 through 2009. At the same time, Elsevier announced publication of four additional psychology books.

The body-swapping duo in Cleveland Play House's (CPH) musical production of Disney's Freaky Friday will be played by Heidi Blickenstaff (Broadway's Something Rotten!) and Emma Hunton (Broadway's Spring Awakening).

Pianist Kirill Gerstein assumes a variety of roles-solo recitalist, chamber musician, and concerto soloist-in New York- and New Jersey-based performances from Thursday, February 23, to Wednesday, March 1. First he performs Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto in four concerts (February 23-26) with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra conducted by Xian Zhang. The next evening at 7:30 p.m., he gives a solo recital at the McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton, performing works by Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, and Liszt. He concludes his concerts with a chamber performance of Brahms's Piano Quintet with the Hagen Quartet at Carnegie's Zankel Hall on Wednesday, March 1 at 7:30 p.m.

Aimée Marcoux-Spurlock is poised to knock Kurt Weill fans dead at the Metropolitan Room Today night at 9:30 in a special concert which includes some of Weill's rarest songs. The singer-actress will perform music Weill wrote with Maurice Magre, as well as a rarely sung song Weill wrote with Alan J. Lerner.