Gustav Mahler News

Kaufman Center and New York Festival of Song (NYFOS, www.nyfos.org) will present Where We Come From on Tuesday October 13, 8 PM at Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Center.

The 2010 summer residency of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at Ravinia Festival will be in full celebration mode throughout a wide-ranging schedule announced today by Ravinia President and CEO Welz Kauffman.

Shakespeare & Company Artistic Director Tony Simotes today announced the titles for the popular, 15th annual Studio Festival of Plays. The annual Festival is a mini-marathon of plays new to the Company running ONE DAY ONLY in Founders' Theatre on Monday, September 7 beginning at 11:30 am and running through 11pm. Seven productions featuring Company actors and special guest actors will be presented throughout the day as works-in-progress and staged readings. A special Benefit reading of William Bigelow's new play, Leap Year, featuring Olympia Dukakis and directed by Simotes, will kick off the Festival series a week early on Monday, August 31st at 7:00pm .

Shakespeare & Company Artistic Director Tony Simotes today announced the titles for the popular, 15th annual Studio Festival of Plays. The annual Festival is a mini-marathon of plays new to the Company running ONE DAY ONLY in Founders' Theatre on Monday, September 7 beginning at 11:30 am and running through 11pm. Seven productions featuring Company actors and special guest actors will be presented throughout the day as works-in-progress and staged readings. A special Benefit reading of William Bigelow's new play, Leap Year, featuring Olympia Dukakis and directed by Simotes, will kick off the Festival series a week early on Monday, August 31st at 7:00pm .

Alan Gilbert will launch the New York Philharmonic's 168th season's subscription concerts in his new role as Music Director, conducting works that reflect his interest in creating programs that feature established repertoire and new and lesser-known music in innovative contexts.

The Philadelphia Orchestra today announced that Sting will appear as its special guest for the Academy of Music 153rd Anniversary Concert on Saturday, January 30, 2010. Sting, world-renowned singer/composer, will perform some of his best-known works with the Orchestra, continuing the Academy's long history of presenting popular music.

In celebration of Lorin Maazel's tenure as Music Director, the New York Philharmonic is releasing a set of new digital recordings - The Complete Mahler Symphonies, Live - recorded at Philharmonic concerts at Avery Fisher Hall, led by Mr. Maazel, over the course of his seven years with the Orchestra. The release coincides with Mr. Maazel's performances of Mahler's Symphony No. 8, Symphony of a Thousand, June 24-27, 2009, in his final concerts as Music Director of the Philharmonic.

Gary W. Parr was elected Chairman of the Board of Directors of The Philharmonic-Symphony Society of New York, Inc., today at a meeting of the organization's Board of Directors. He will hold the title of Chairman Designate through the summer and assume the Chairmanship on September 24, 2009, succeeding Paul B. Guenther, who has held the post since September 1996. As Chairman, Mr. Parr will serve as the Society's chief volunteer officer.

At a press conference in Tokyo today, New York Philharmonic Music Director Designate Alan Gilbert and President and Executive Director Zarin Mehta announced the details of Asian Horizons: Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic, October 8?24, 2009. This will be the Orchestra?s inaugural international concert tour under the leadership of Alan Gilbert, who will begin his tenure as Music Director in September 2009. Asian Horizons will consist of eleven concerts, spanning five Asian countries, with performances in Tokyo, Japan (a destination of special significance in light of Mr. Gilbert?s Japanese heritage); Seoul, Korea; Singapore; and the Philharmonic?s debut performances in Hanoi, Vietnam, and Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Pianist Emanuel Ax and violinists Frank Peter Zimmermann and Ye-Eun Choi (Philharmonic debut) are the featured soloists on the tour. Asian Horizons marks the fourth New York Philharmonic concert tour under the aegis of Credit Suisse, the Orchestra?s Global Sponsor, and the second in Asia.

Spoleto Festival USA announced today its complete 2009 program that will see 120 performing arts performances take place in Charleston during the 17-day season, May 22 - June 7. Tickets for the 2009 Spoleto Festival USA are on sale now.

Alan Gilbert, who will become Music Director of the New York Philharmonic in September 2009, returns to New York to lead two weeks of programs with the Orchestra. The first series of concerts ? Thursday, April 30, 2009, at 7:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday, May 1 and 2, and 8:00 p.m., and Tuesday, May 5, at 7:30 p.m. will comprise Dvorák?s The Golden Spinning Wheel; Saint-Saëns?s Violin Concerto No. 3, with Joshua Bell as soloist; and Martin's Symphony No. 4.

Alan Gilbert, who will become Music Director of the New York Philharmonic in September 2009, returns to New York to lead two weeks of programs with the Orchestra. The first series of concerts ? Thursday, April 30, 2009, at 7:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday, May 1 and 2, and 8:00 p.m., and Tuesday, May 5, at 7:30 p.m. will comprise Dvorák?s The Golden Spinning Wheel; Saint-Saëns?s Violin Concerto No. 3, with Joshua Bell as soloist; and Martin's Symphony No. 4.

For 35 years, Pulitzer Prize winning THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY has nurtured hundreds of playwrights through its EMERGING PLAYWRIGHTS PROGRAM. In June, 2006, we launched NEW CITY , NEW BLOOD, a play reading series designed to serve our audiences and writers even better. Curated by Michael Scott-Price, TNC Literary Manager, NEW CITY , NEW BLOOD will provide a hearing for worthy plays in earlier stages of Development. Audiences will get the opportunity to provide feedback, and artists will gain valuable insight from audience response. Be sure to check www.theaterforthenewcity.net for details about upcoming readings. Please join us!

For 35 years, Pulitzer Prize winning THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY has nurtured hundreds of playwrights through its EMERGING PLAYWRIGHTS PROGRAM. In June, 2006, we launched NEW CITY , NEW BLOOD, a play reading series designed to serve our audiences and writers even better. Curated by Michael Scott-Price, TNC Literary Manager, NEW CITY , NEW BLOOD will provide a hearing for worthy plays in earlier stages of Development. Audiences will get the opportunity to provide feedback, and artists will gain valuable insight from audience response. Be sure to check www.theaterforthenewcity.net for details about upcoming readings. Please join us!

The Philharmonic begins the Winter U.S. Tour 2009 with performances in Atlanta and West Palm Beach led by Lorin Maazel, who is making his final tour with the Orchestra as Music Director. The trip, which will take the musicians to 10 cities in the U.S. and Puerto Rico and will include 13 concerts, marks the first American tour under the aegis of Credit Suisse, the Global Sponsor of the New York Philharmonic.

Lorin Maazel will make his valedictory tour as Music Director of the New York Philharmonic featuring 13 concerts in 9 cities in the United States and Puerto Rico, February 21-March 9, 2009.

Kaufman Center and New York Festival of Song (NYFOS, www.nyfos.org), will present Voices of the Jewish Diaspora on Tuesday and Thursday, February 10 and 12, at 8 PM at Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Center. It is the third subscription program this season for the New York Festival of Song, whose 2008 CD Spanish Love Songs, featuring Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Joseph Kaiser, Steven Blier and Michael Barrett (Bridge Records) was named one of the 'Best Of the Year' by Opera News. The program features songs in many languages celebrating the culturally diverse Jewish communities that flourished as the tribes of Israel spread out across the globe: Sephardic melodies arranged by Roberto Sierra; Second Avenue specialties by Irving Berlin and Abraham Ellstein; art songs by Ravel and Mahler; plus music by Gershwin, Bernstein, and Harold Rome.

Kaufman Center and New York Festival of Song (NYFOS, www.nyfos.org), will present Voices of the Jewish Diaspora on Tuesday and Thursday, February 10 and 12, at 8 PM at Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Center. It is the third subscription program this season for the New York Festival of Song, whose 2008 CD Spanish Love Songs, featuring Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Joseph Kaiser, Steven Blier and Michael Barrett (Bridge Records) was named one of the 'Best Of the Year' by Opera News. The program features songs in many languages celebrating the culturally diverse Jewish communities that flourished as the tribes of Israel spread out across the globe: Sephardic melodies arranged by Roberto Sierra; Second Avenue specialties by Irving Berlin and Abraham Ellstein; art songs by Ravel and Mahler; plus music by Gershwin, Bernstein, and Harold Rome.

Lorin Maazel will make his valedictory tour as Music Director of the New York Philharmonic featuring 13 concerts in 9 cities in the United States and Puerto Rico, February 21-March 9, 2009.

Multiple award-winning Scottish actor Mike Maran will make his American stage debut in his one-man show Did You Used To Be R.D. Laing, about sixties icon and radical psychiatrist R.D. Laing whose controversial theories had an explosive effect on the myths of mental illness. The play, which won the Edinburgh Fringe Award in 2002, was written by Maran and is set to a jazz score by pianist David Milligan.