J. S. Bach News

The Bach Festival Society celebrates the 200th anniversary year of Mendelssohn's birth with presentations of his choral masterwork Elijah on Saturday, October 24 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, October 25 at 3:00 p.m.

Seattle Theatre Group (STG) announces the return of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago (HSDC) to The Paramount Theatre on Friday, October 23, 2009 at 8:00 p.m. HSDC, under the leadership of newly appointed artistic director Glenn Edgerton, celebrates over 30 years as one of the most renowned dance institutions in the world, performing annually for more than 100,000 people. s

Miller Theatre at Columbia University kicks off the third year of its acclaimed LUNCHTIME CONCERTS

Continuing its tradition of nurturing and presenting the world's greatest musicians, the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music offers four new IU Opera and Ballet Theater productions during its 2009-10 season, in addition to a host of performances by orchestral, choral and wind ensembles, jazz combos and bands, chamber music groups, percussion ensembles, soloists and many others.

RIOULT will present the world premiere of a new work by Artistic Director Pascal Rioult as well Mr. Rioult's: The Great Mass (2009) and two acclaimed repertory pieces during its 2009 New York season, running January 19 - 24, 2010 at The Joyce Theater, 175 Eighth Avenue at 19th Street. The season will include a Gala Fundraiser to be held at the Altman Building in Chelsea on Wednesday, January 20 and a post-performance discussion on Thursday, January 21.

Award-winning classical guitarist Peter Fletcher will perform at St. Matthias Episcopal Church (1 Dundee Street in Asheville, NC), on July 26th at 3PM. The program will feature selections from Fletcher's 2008 CD release on Tower Hill Records, Music of the Baroque.

The Lab is 'arguably one of the best-kept cultural secrets in the Berkshire County summer repertoire' (Berkshire Eagle)

The Lab is 'arguably one of the best-kept cultural secrets in the Berkshire County summer repertoire' (Berkshire Eagle)

Indiana University's 2009 Summer Music Festival will include a diverse series of piano recitals highlighted by a July 3 performance by international soloist and chamber musician Jonathan Biss, who was raised in Bloomington and studied with IU Jacobs School of Music professors Karen Taylor and Evelyne Brancart.

Miller Theatre announces their 2009-2010-21st Season Opening Night: THE BLUE RIDER IN PERFORMANCE, In conjunction with the KANDINSKY retrospective at The Guggenheim

Award-winning classical guitarist Peter Fletcher will perform at St. Matthias Episcopal Church (1 Dundee Street in Asheville, NC), on July 26th at 3PM. The program will feature selections from Fletcher's 2008 CD release on Tower Hill Records, Music of the Baroque.

Indiana University's 2009 Summer Music Festival will include a diverse series of piano recitals highlighted by a July 3 performance by international soloist and chamber musician Jonathan Biss, who was raised in Bloomington and studied with IU Jacobs School of Music professors Karen Taylor and Evelyne Brancart.

Thomas W. Morris, artistic director of the Ojai Music Festival and Ojai's 2009 music director eighth blackbird have announced the final programming for the 2009 Ojai Music Festival, which takes place from Thursday, June 11 to Sunday, June 14, 2009. This season, the four-day Festival, which for six decades has become well known for its fearlessness in championing pioneering musical ideas and personalities, pushes the envelope again with programming that reflects the qualities that have made eighth blackbird a growing musical phenomenon-genre-defying variety in wildly collaborative and visually dramatic presentations.

New York Philharmonic Principal Clarinet Stanley Drucker, who will retire from the Orchestra at the end of the 2008?09 season concluding a 60-year tenure, will give his final concerto appearances in performances of Copland?s Clarinet Concerto, conducted by Lorin Maazel, Tuesday, June 4, at 7:30 p.m., Saturday, June 6, at 8:00 p.m., and Tuesday, June 9, 2009, at 7:30 p.m. Mr. Drucker, who joined the New York Philharmonic at age 19 in 1948, and whose tenure encompasses one-third of the history of the 167-year-old orchestra, will have performed as soloist with the Orchestra some 200 times (both at home and abroad), and will have played in more than 10,200 concerts under nine New York Philharmonic conductors at the conclusion of his tenure.

Lorin Maazel?s final weeks as Music Director of the New York Philharmonic will culminate with wide-ranging repertoire that includes a new work, and large-scale masterpieces that represent Mr. Maazel?s myriad interests, influences, and personal passions while also showcasing the artistry of the New York Philharmonic. Highlights include a World Premiere?New York Philharmonic Co-Commission; works by Bach and Copland that feature soloists from the Orchestra; Britten?s War Requiem; Mahler?s rarely performed Symphony No. 8, Symphony of a Thousand; and performances of two of Mr. Maazel?s own works ? Monaco Fanfares and Farewells.

Award-winning classical guitarist Peter Fletcher will perform at the Bower Center for the Arts, on June 20th at 8PM. The concert program will be identical to his acclaimed March 27th recital at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall.

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.

The World Premiere of Aaron Jay Kernis?s a Voice, a Messenger, featuring New York Philharmonic Principal Trumpet Philip Smith as soloist, and previously announced for June 4, 6, and 9, 2009, has been postponed until the 2009?10 season to allow the composer and the soloist more time to collaborate on the work. The piece, a Philharmonic co-commission with the Big Ten Band Association, will be replaced by Haydn?s Trumpet Concerto, to be performed by Mr. Smith. Lorin Maazel will conduct these concerts, which are part of his final weeks as New York Philharmonic Music Director.

In June 2009, The New York Philharmonic This Week ? a two-hour, national, weekly radio program of concerts by the New York Philharmonic ? begins with a concert from the Philharmonic?s sixth annual residency in Vail, Colorado, as part of the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival. In this program, from the July 18, 2008 performance, Music Director Designate Alan Gilbert leads the Orchestra in Tchaikovsky?s Piano Concerto No. 1, with Lang Lang as soloist; Beethoven?s Symphony No. 4; and Sibelius?s Finlandia. The following week, after conducting J.S. Bach?s Brandenburg Concerto No. 4, Music Director Lorin Maazel leads the World Premiere of Aaron Jay Kernis?s a Voice, a Messenger (a Co-Commission with the New York Philharmonic and the Big Ten Band Association); Copland?s Clarinet Concerto, with Principal Clarinet Stanley Drucker as soloist; and Ravel?s Boléro. The third June broadcast, conducted by Lorin Maazel, will be Britten?s powerful War Requiem. Lionel Bringuier conducts the chamber orchestra (in his Philharmonic debut), and soprano Nancy Gustafson, tenor Vale Rideout (Philharmonic debut), and baritone Ian Greenlaw will be the soloists with the New York Choral Artists, the Dessoff Symphonic Choir, and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus. In the final June broadcast, Lorin Maazel conducts two of his own compositions, Monaco Fanfares and Farewells, concluding with Sibelius?s Symphony No. 2.

New York Philharmonic Principal Clarinet Stanley Drucker, who will retire from the Orchestra at the end of the 2008?09 season concluding a 60-year tenure, will give his final concerto appearances in performances of Copland?s Clarinet Concerto, conducted by Lorin Maazel, Tuesday, June 4, at 7:30 p.m., Saturday, June 6, at 8:00 p.m., and Tuesday, June 9, 2009, at 7:30 p.m. Mr. Drucker, who joined the New York Philharmonic at age 19 in 1948, and whose tenure encompasses one-third of the history of the 167-year-old orchestra, will have performed as soloist with the Orchestra some 200 times (both at home and abroad), and will have played in more than 10,200 concerts under nine New York Philharmonic conductors at the conclusion of his tenure.