Frank Gehry News

The Orchestra Now (TŌN) will give the second and final concert this season of its Rose Theater series at Jazz at Lincoln Center on Sunday, March 22, 2020 at 3 pm. Six-time Grammy Award-winner and Detroit Symphony Orchestra Music Director Laureate Leonard Slatkin will guest conduct the Orchestra in the New York City premiere of Kinah, an elegy he wrote for his late parents. The concert marks his first performance with the young musicians of TŌN. The afternoon will also include the New York City premiere of Cindy McTee's Double Play, a work she dedicated to Slatkin; three short works by Leonard Slatkin's father, the American violinist Felix Slatkin, founder of the popular Hollywood String Quartet; and Rachmaninoff's haunting second symphony.

New World Symphony President & CEO Howard Herring today announced that IDAGIO, the first global streaming service for classical music, is now The Official Audio Streaming Partner of the New World Symphony. As part of this partnership, IDAGIO will regularly feature new NWS concert recordings, including performances led by NWS Co-Founder and Artistic Director Michael Tilson Thomas (MTT), as well as additional content including playlists curated by NWS, and artist profiles featuring music by individual Fellows. NWS, its Fellows, and its patrons will also receive special discounts on IDAGIO subscriptions. The first recording to be released as part of this partnership-MTT conducting Stravinsky's Variations: Aldous Huxley in Memoriam, Symphony in Three Movements, Pétrouchka (1947 revision), and Scherzo à la russe (symphonic version)-is now available exclusively on IDAGIO.

The Edgemar Center for the Arts in Santa Monica will host the 8th Annual a?oeCinema at the Edge Film Festivala?? on February 21-23. The festival screens independent films from all over the world and of all genres.

The Cleveland Institute of Music announced yesterday that acclaimed conductor, composer and educator Michael Tilson Thomas will be awarded an honorary doctorate at the school's 95th Commencement Ceremony in Kulas Hall on Saturday, May 16 at 10am EDT. Attendance is by invitation only, but a live stream will be available via cim.edu. Yesterday's announcement was given at a special MTT-led rehearsal of the CIM Orchestra at Severance Hall, home of The Cleveland Orchestra, which MTT also conducts February 20-23.

Eight new half-hour episodes of Poetry in America will begin airing on public television stations nationwide (check local listings) and on the World Channel starting this April and continuing through the spring and summer. Also in April, which is National Poetry Month, the series will be available to stream on pbs.org and individual episodes will be available on poetryinamerica.org.

Bard College has announced the appointment of Liza Parker as executive director of the Fisher Center, a leading performing arts center and hub for research and education. Previously a member of the senior leadership team at Lincoln Center, most recently as chief operating officer, Parker was responsible for overall strategy and direction, overseeing management of the campus, including Avery Fisher Hall, Alice Tully Hall, and the David Rubenstein Atrium. As executive director of the Fisher Center, she will lead senior administration, and manage operations and external relations for the Center's professional and educational programs.

Los Angeles Ballet (LAB), the city's own and only professional classical ballet company, will celebrate its Season 14 Gala on Friday, February 28 at the Broad Stage in Santa Monica.

The Los Angeles Philharmonic's Weimar Republic: Germany 1918-1933, through two wide-ranging and dramatic programs led by Conductor Laureate Esa-Pekka Salonen, explores the musical culture of Germany's politically charged Weimar era. These concerts are given context by Weimar Variations, a collection of ancillary events curated by Stephanie Barron and Nana Bahlmann.

ULISES OTERO of MIAMI, FL from NEW WORLD SCHOOL OF THE ARTS and UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA, has been named a 2020 National YoungArts Foundation (YoungArts) Finalist in Theatre, the organization's highest honor. Otero has been recognized for his artistic achievement and joins 686 of the nation's most accomplished artists in the visual, literary, and performing arts.

Tickets are now on sale for the Signature Theatre (Paige Evans, Artistic Director; Harold Wolpert, Executive Director) world premiere of The Hot Wing King by Katori Hall, directed by Steve H. Broadnax III. The production will also be extended one week and will play from February 11 to March 22, 2020 with opening night set for March 1 in The Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre at The Pershing Square Signature Center (480 West 42nd Street between 9th and 10th Avenues). Click here for more information.

This past Sunday, newly awarded Kennedy Center Honoree Michael Tilson Thomas (MTT) was celebrated in a special tribute presentation at the 42nd annual Kennedy Center Honors Gala. The tribute included a performance by more than 40 alumni of the New World Symphony, America's Orchestral Academy (NWS), which MTT co-founded 32 years ago as a training ground for the next generation of classical musicians. Conducted by NWS alumnus and Louisville Orchestra Music Director Teddy Abrams, the alumni musicians paid tribute to MTT's wide-ranging artistry, performing a program that celebrated his acclaimed interpretations of modern masters, his advocacy for American music, and his own work as a composer. Joining the orchestra in performance were MTT's longtime friends and collaborators Audra McDonald and Yuja Wang, as well as Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich, who recently collaborated with MTT as part of Metallica and San Francisco Symphony's S&M2 concert. Spoken tributes were also given by Mr. Ulrich and actress Debra Winger.

Catarina de Luca Figueiredo of Miami, Florida from New World School of the Arts has been named a 2020 National YoungArts Foundation (YoungArts) Finalist in Theater, the organization's highest honor. De Luca Figueiredo has been recognized for her artistic achievement and was selected by an esteemed discipline-specific panel of artists through a rigorous blind adjudication process. YoungArts award winners gain access to one of the most prestigious programs for emerging artists in the United States in which they will have opportunities for creative and professional development throughout their entire careers. A complete list of the 2020 winners, all 15-18 years old or in grades 10-12, is available online at youngarts.org/winners.

a?oePower to the People!a?? has a place in the history of protest as a slogan written on placards and chanted in the streets, but its sentiments of solidarity and humanitarian spirit have been immortalized in music. Between March 5 and April 11, 2020, the LA Phil's Music and Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel and Creative Chair for Jazz Herbie Hancock will bring together musicians, artists and activists representing a variety of musical traditions and social movements for Power to the People!, a festival about finding your voice and using it.

National YoungArts Foundation (YoungArts) has announced the 2020 YoungArts award winners-686 of the nation's most accomplished young artists from 40 States in the visual, literary and performing arts. Selected for their caliber of artistic achievement, award winners are chosen by esteemed discipline-specific panels of artists through a rigorous blind adjudication process.

Traditional West African dance and drumming take center stage at the Annenberg Center as Philadelphia's Kulu Mele celebrates its 50th anniversary with the world premiere of Ogun & the People, an Annenberg Center co-commission. This timely multi-media work explores the Afro-Cuban/Yoruba parable of the deity Ogun, a warrior and protector who abandons the other gods, wreaking terrible violence and famine on the world. It was specially created by Kulu Mele artistic director Dorothy Wilkie as her gift to the community (and the world), in commemoration of Kulu Mele's 50th anniversary. Major support for Ogun & the People has been provided to Kulu Mele by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage. Visit AnnenbergCenter.org for tickets.

The Los Angeles Philharmonic Association has received a $4 million grant commitment from the Edgerton Foundation, on behalf of their donor-advised fund at the California Community Foundation.

At a ceremony at the Meiji Memorial Hall in Tokyo today, Their Imperial Highnesses Prince Hitachi, honorary patron of the Japan Art Association, and Princess Hitachi paid homage to the winners of the 2019 Praemium Imperiale International Arts Award. Recipients are Tod Williams and Billie Tsien, Architecture (U.S.A.); William Kentridge, Painting (South Africa); Mona Hatoum, Sculpture (U.K.); Anne-Sophie Mutter, Music (Germany); and Bando Tamasaburo, Theatre/Film (Japan).

The Chicago Architecture Center (CAC) today released the list of special programs for Open House Chicago 2019a?"now in its ninth year and one of the largest architecture festivals in the world. This free two-day public event, taking place Saturday-Sunday, October 19-20, offers behind-the-scenes access to almost 350 sites in 38 neighborhoods, many rarely open to the public, including repurposed mansions, stunning skyscrapers, opulent theaters, exclusive private clubs, industrial facilities, cutting-edge offices and breathtaking sacred spaces. In addition to free access, Open House Chicago offers activities at various sites all weekend long, including cultural performances, kid-friendly activities, and more.

The Orchestra Now (TŌN) will open its 2019 fall season in New York City on Oct. 27 with Strauss' Don Quixote & The Last Knight, the first of three programs in its popular Sight & Sound series at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Emperor Maximilian I of Austria, often referred to as “the last knight,” was passionate about the exploration of chivalry and armor. There is no more influential tale of knighthood than Cervantes' Don Quixote, which inspired Strauss' “Fantastic Variations on a Theme of Knightly Character,” the composer's moving musical realization of Quixote's chivalric journey. Both soloists at this performance are talented young TŌN musicians: cellist Lucas Button, a Syracuse native, and Peruvian violist Leonardo Vásquez Chacón.

The Chicago Architecture Center (CAC) today announced the full roster of neighborhoods and sites participating in Open House Chicago 2019a?"now in its ninth year and one of the largest architecture festivals in the world.  This free two-day public event, taking place Saturday and Sunday, October 19 and 20, offers behind-the-scenes access to almost 350 sites in 38 neighborhoods, many rarely open to the public, including repurposed mansions, stunning skyscrapers, opulent theaters, exclusive private clubs, industrial facilities, cutting-edge offices and breathtaking sacred spaces.