Esperanza Spalding News

The Ford Theatres today announced the 2019 season of events at the John Anson Ford Theatres. The 2019 season will open on Saturday, April 27 with The Spring Quartet: Jack DeJohnette, Joe Lovano, Esperanza Spalding and Leo Genovese, who The Arts Desk described as "an expansive, freewheeling rampage, ideas flying out like sparks from a roaring fire," and will conclude on October 19 and 20 with a Dia de los Muertos Concert and Community Celebration. These bookend performances are both part of the third season of the IGNITE @ the FORD! series. Tickets can be purchased at FordTheatres.org or by calling (323) 461-3673.

Continuing McCarter's tradition of producing timely, socially relevant work that engages with the central questions of our culture, McCarter has partnered with Princeton University's Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies (PIIRS) on The Migration Plays: a new initiative focusing on the nature of migration, how it is represented culturally, and the ways in which it shapes the world around us.

Simply stated, Zakir Hussain is one of the greatest musicians of our time. A classical tabla virtuoso of the highest order, his consistently brilliant and exciting performances have led to historic collaborations with Shakti, which he founded with John McLaughlin and L. Shankar; Planet Drum with Mickey Hart; Sangam with Charles Lloyd and Eric Harland, and recordings and performances with artists as diverse as George Harrison, Yo-Yo Ma, Joe Henderson, Van Morrison, Mark Morris and Pharoah Sanders.

Brooklyn Music School (BMS) presents the 6th Annual Middle School Jazz Festival today, March 2, 2019 from 12pm to 6:30pm, with a concert at 4:30pm, followed by a jam session with students, faculty, and guest artist. BMS is located at 126 Saint Felix Street, Brooklyn. Concert tickets are a $10 suggested donation.

Live from Here with Chris Thile confirms the guest lineup for its performances in Detroit, MI on February 23, Minneapolis, MN on March 2 and Dallas, TX on April 6. The shows feature special guests Broken Social Scene, Esperanza Spalding, Amanda Palmer, Lord Huron, Vijay Iyer Trio, Mike Yard and more. Additionally, Jon Batiste will guest hostLive from Here's show in St. Paul, MN on March 16.

Brooklyn Music School (BMS) presents the 6th Annual Middle School Jazz Festival on Saturday, March 2, 2019 from 12pm to 6:30pm, with a concert at 4:30pm, followed by a jam session with students, faculty, and guest artist. BMS is located at 126 Saint Felix Street, Brooklyn. Concert tickets are a $10 suggested donation.

Los Angeles Philharmonic Music & Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel and CEO Simon Woods today announced the 2019/20 Walt Disney Concert Hall season.

Milford Arts Council (the MAC) announces their next "MAC live" performance sponsored by Berchem Moses, PC. Elizabeth and the Catapult will arrive in downtown Milford, CT on February 22nd for an 8pm performance at The MAC, located at 40 Railroad Avenue South, Milford CT.

Vangeline Theater and the New York Butoh Institute present, in association with Triskelion Arts, performance Hitohana Hitosekai (One Flower One World) and workshop Make Visible by Butoh dancer Moeno Wakamatsu. The performance will be held on April 9, 2019 at 8pm at Triskelion Arts, 106 Calyer St, Brooklyn, NY 11222, and the workshop will run from April 11-14, 2019 at varying times and locations. Tickets for the performance are $18 General Admission and can be purchased at https://www.vangeline.com/calendar-of-upcoming-events/2019/4/9/moenowakamatsu-performance.

Blockchain Theater Project (BTP), founded by Sofia Alvarez and Nicola Korzenko, is a new theater company that empowers artists to produce the work they create, funded in part by cryptocurrency donations. Like Bitcoin and other blockchains, BTP eliminates the institutional gatekeeper, creating a peer-to-peer model of support where the next play to be produced will be nominated by the playwright of the current production. Alvarez's NYLON will start this chain.

FEINSTEIN'S/54 BELOW, Broadway's Supper Club, presents The Empress Arias: songs from the ICONS/IDOLS plays, on February 8. ICONS/IDOLS is a tetralogy of choral plays for over a dozen women+ singers. Mixing music, movement and text, the four plays recover the secret history of Byzantine Purple Empresses as they ascend in a society with deep animosity towards female rule. Deeply committed to religious icons, these powerful empresses sacrifice personal relationships in an attempt to gain enough power to re-introduce them into an empire that fiercely and violently opposes iconography. The Empress Arias pair powerful multi-part harmonies with glittering ballads, commanding chants and soaring operatic solos to form a unique and beautiful evening of song. The development of ICONS/IDOLS received funding from OPERA America's Opera Grants for Female Composers program, supported by the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation, and has been developed in The Jam, New Georges' performance lab for early career female artists, as well as The Tank, a home for emerging artists. The project is currently supported by the IRT/New Ohio Archive Residency for its 2018-2020 cycle.

A young Classics professor puts her career-and her love life-in peril, and calls on the gods of Ancient Greece to save her. Things don't go according to plan when the gods who show up are The Gods of Comedy!

Milford Arts Council (the MAC) is excited to announce their next "MAC live" performance sponsored by Berchem Moses, PC. Elizabeth and the Catapult will arrive in downtown Milford, CT on February 22nd for an 8pm performance at The MAC, located at 40 Railroad Avenue South, Milford CT.

The Philadelphia-based hip-hop/R&B duo &More comprised of singer Donn T and rapper Chill Moody have released a video for their latest single 'WHOA' featuring Chuck D of Public Enemy (produced by Jake Morelli with additional mixing by Ben “IAmBNJMIIN“ Thomas). The song is from the group's forthcoming debut album Ethel Bobcat that will be released on April 5 via D-tone Victorious/nicethingsMUSIC.

Joe's Pub, a program and venue of The Public Theater, announces the new class of Joe's Pub Working Group (JPWG), the venue's artist development program dedicated to enhancing the career sustainability and growth of performing artists. Entering its fifth year, JPWG welcomes five artists performer and songwriter Migguel Anggelo, composter and vocalist Trevor Bachman, comedian and performance artist Becca Blackwell, jazz musician and composer Yacine Boulares, and singer-songwriter Treya Lam as the core group that represents the diversity and scope of the nightly programming at Joe's Pub.

Spanish-American guitarist Oscar Peñas will bring his newest musical oeuvre Almadraba to Aaron Davis Hall for two concerts presented by City College Center for the Arts (CCCA) at 7 p.m. on Thursday, February 7, and Friday, February 8.  A fascinating mix of the jazz and classical worlds, the Almadraba suite performed by the Oscar Peñas Jazz Quartet joined by the Mivos Quartet string ensemble offers a tribute to the musical milieu in which Peñas was raised and a classic Spanish fishing tradition. 

 On Wednesday, March 20, 2019, American Composers Orchestra (ACO) celebrates four individuals - true forces of nature - who have effected change in the American musical landscape at its annual Gala: Jon Deak, Founder & Artistic Director of New York Philharmonic's Very Young Composers; violinist Jennifer Koh; composer and conductor Tania Leon; and Frederick Wertheim, ACO Board Chairman. 

FEINSTEIN'S/54 BELOW, Broadway's Supper Club, presents The Empress Arias: songs from the ICONS/IDOLS plays, on February 8. ICONS/IDOLS is a tetralogy of choral plays for over a dozen women+ singers. Mixing music, movement and text, the four plays recover the secret history of Byzantine Purple Empresses as they ascend in a society with deep animosity towards female rule. Deeply committed to religious icons, these powerful empresses sacrifice personal relationships in an attempt to gain enough power to re-introduce them into an empire that fiercely and violently opposes iconography. The Empress Arias pair powerful multi-part harmonies with glittering ballads, commanding chants and soaring operatic solos to form a unique and beautiful evening of song. The development of ICONS/IDOLS received funding from OPERA America's Opera Grants for Female Composers program, supported by the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation, and has been developed in The Jam, New Georges' performance lab for early career female artists, as well as The Tank, a home for emerging artists. The project is currently supported by the IRT/New Ohio Archive Residency for its 2018-2020 cycle.

Festival General Director Nigel Redden announces the program for the 43rd annual Spoleto Festival USA, taking place May 24 through June 9, 2019. For 17 days and nights, a variety of artists converge in Charleston, South Carolina, filling the city's theaters, churches, and outdoor spaces with wide-ranging performances and concerts.

Gabrielle Stravelli - the celebrated pop/jazz vocalist and songwriter described as a "lighthouse of emotional integrity" by Downbeat and as a "quadruple threat and force to be reckoned with" by jazz icon Bob Dorough - will preview her upcoming album "Pick Up My Pieces: Gabrielle Stravelli Sings Willie Nelson" with four concerts at Birdland Theater today, January 1 and Wednesday, January 2 with shows at 7:00 PM and 9:45 PM. The CD is dedicated to the music and life of the "Red Headed Stranger," and covers the full spectrum of Nelson's catalogue: from early hits like "Three Days" and "Blame It On The Times" to favorites from his blockbuster album of American standards like "Stardust," and eternal classics like "Crazy" and "Nightlife." Stravelli will weave in stories from Nelson's famously colorful personal life and storied 50-plus year career, while honoring and reimagining the music of one of America's greatest songwriters. She will be joined by Joshua Richman on piano, Art Hirahara on organ, Pat O'Leary on bass, Eric Halvorson on drums and Scott Robinson on saxophone and trumpet.