James Conlon News

Pittance Chamber Music announces 2016/17 season with three unique concerts featuring members of the Grammy Award-winning Los Angeles Opera Orchestra: October 9, 2016, 3pm at the Eva and Marc Stern Grand Hall in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion; February 3, 2017, 8pm at Zipper Hall, The Colburn School; and March 26, 2017, 3pm, returning to the Eva and Marc Stern Grand Hall. Special guests include Domingo Colburn Stein Young Artists Summer Hassan, soprano and Theo Hoffman, baritone, and Los Angeles Opera Richard Seaver Music Director, conductor James Conlon.

Soloists from Musica Viva, the Aeolus String Quartet and Musica Viva Artistic Director and pianist Dr. Alejandro Hernandez-Valdez are featured in Colla Voce, a program of vocal chamber music, on Sunday, September 25 at 5:00 p.m. at All Souls Church, opening Musica Viva's 39th season.

General Director Plácido Domingo announced today that the company's third season of annual live simulcasts will expand to two locations this year.

LA Opera's 2016/17 season will open with Giuseppe Verdi's Macbeth, opening on September 17, 2016. General Director Placido Domingo will perform the title role for the first time in the United States. The new production will be conducted by Music Director James Conlon and staged by Tony Award-winning director Darko Tresnjak.

LA Opera's 2016/17 season will open with Giuseppe Verdi's Macbeth, opening on September 17, 2016. General Director Placido Domingo will perform the title role for the first time in the United States. The new production will be conducted by Music Director James Conlon and staged by Tony Award-winning director Darko Tresnjak.

Celebrity chamber music ensemble Escher String Quartet stays in Festival residency for the final week with three diverse concert programs. 

MINNEAPOLIS (July 29, 2016) – Minnesota Opera today announced that Head of Music Robert Ainsley has accepted the position as the new Director of the Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program and the American Opera Initiative, effective next month. For the last three years, Rob has served as the Head of Music Staff, Chorus Master and Coach at Minnesota Opera and Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. He has worked on several world premiere and American operas at both companies, including Minnesota Opera's The Dream of Valentino, The Manchurian Candidate and The Shining.

Minnesota Opera today announced that Head of Music Robert Ainsley has accepted the position as the new Director of the Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program and the American Opera Initiative, effective next month, at Washington National Opera.

21C MEDIA GROUP just released its season preview of opera, vocal and choral music for 2016-17. Scroll down for details!

Celebrity chamber music ensemble Escher String Quartet arrives for a week-long residency on Cape Cod in August, filling the final days of Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival's (CCCMF) 37th season with three diverse concert programs. The performances feature the Festival's two artistic directors as instrumental guests, both celebrating the 10th anniversary serving CCCMF. Escher Residency and Nakamatsu is presented on Monday, August 22 at 7:30 pm at the Church of the Holy Spirit, 204 Monument Road, Orleans. Escher Residency and Manasse on Wednesday, August 24, 7:30 pm is held at Chatham Congregational Church, 650 Main Street. The season comes to a brilliant close with Escher Residency and Symphonic Finale on Friday, August 26, 7:30 pm at Wellfleet Congregational Church, 200 Main Street.

Opera Saratoga's Artistic and General Director Lawrence Edelson announced today the three exciting new productions that will comprise the company's 2017 Summer Festival, which will build on the company's commitment to producing masterpieces from the operatic cannon, important American works, and works in which dance plays an integral role.

General Director and CEO Deborah Sandler today announced the selection of the inaugural class of the Resident Artists Program. They include: soprano April Martin, mezzo-soprano Samantha Gossard, tenor Casey Candebat, baritone John Viscardi and pianist Kyle Naig. They will perform in various roles throughout the 2016-17 season on the mainstage at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts as well as at community outreach and education events. The artists were selected after a rigorous national audition of more than 100 singers. Led by Vinson Cole, UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance faculty member and one of the leading artists of his generation, Resident Artists Program signals the creation of the first-ever Resident Company for the Lyric Opera of Kansas City.

Orange County, Calif.—June 1, 2016—Cynthia Ellis designed “The Inextinguishable Project” as an opportunity for concert listeners to discover some of the masterful music written in spite of the conflict and oppression of World War II. Ellis, Pacific Symphony's flute and piccolo player, and a resident of Brea, won one of four “Musician Innovation Grants” awarded by the Symphony's board of directors in the 2015-16 season for her project's creativity and potential for creating deeper interest in classical music. Her concert explores the music of two composers who overcame political and geographical circumstances to bring their music into the world. Theo Smit Sibinga walked out of prison camp carrying a suitcase in one hand and the broken remains of his cello in the other. Bohuslav Martinu, blacklisted by the Nazis, fled Paris, sleeping on train platforms while trying to get to America. Both survived to write beautiful music—music that has become “inextinguishable.”

The 2016 May Festival, which celebrates and concludes Music Director James Conlon's 37-year tenure, ends Friday and Saturday, May 27-28 with grand scale performances at Music Hall. These will be the final performances at Music Hall prior to its closing for renovation. On Friday, May 27 at 8 p.m., Mr. Conlon leads Dvo?ak's deeply personal cantata, Stabat Mater, a work was written during a time of deep grief for the composer following the death of his children. This rarely-performed work is full of symbolism, following a journey of mourning to hope of Paradise. At the invitation of James Levine, Mr. Conlon made his May Festival debut in 1978 conducting Stabat Mater (the following year he began his storied tenure as Music Director). Joining the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and May Festival Chorus will be soloists Julianna DiGiacomo (soprano), Elizabeth DeShong (mezzo-soprano), Anthony Dean Griffey (tenor) and Kristinn Sigmundsson (baritone).

The Cincinnati May Festival is proud to announce the release of a new recording on Bridge Records. Under the leadership of Music Director James Conlon, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and May Festival Chorus (Robert Porco, director) recorded R. Nathaniel Dett's oratorio, The Ordering of Moses, live at Carnegie Hall in May 2014 during the beloved invitational Spring for Music Festival.

The Hawai'i Symphony Orchestra (HSO) concludes its 2015-2016 season with a glorious weekend of Russian masterworks on Saturday, June 11 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, June 12 at 4 p.m. Titled "From Russia With Love," the season finale begins with Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture and is followed by Tchaikovsky's final composition, the Piano Concerto No. 3 in E-flat major featuring pianist Olga Kern - Gold Medal winner of the 2001 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. Led by Maestro Victor Yampolsky, "From Russia With Love" also features Kern in Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 1 in D-flat major, the work that sealed Prokofiev's reputation as a composer. The concert program concludes with Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances op. 45, a symphonic work that celebrates a lush orchestral palette. We challenge concertgoers not to be moved by this performance. Tickets start at $34 and are on sale now.

Pianist Shai Wosner's eclectic new recording pairs concertos and solo pieces by Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) and György Ligeti (1923-2006), exploring their quirky humor and other connections across centuries. Performing with conductor Nicholas Collon and the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Mr. Wosner plays Haydn's Piano Concerto No. 4 in G, Haydn's Piano Concerto No. 11 in D, and Ligeti's Piano Concerto, one of the most challenging piano works of the late 20th century.  The concertos are interspersed with solo works including Haydn's Capriccio (Fantasia) in C, Haydn's Capriccio in G, “Acht Sauschnider mussen sein” (It takes eight to castrate a boar), and Ligeti's rarely heard Capriccios Nos. 1 and 2. The recording will be available from iTunes, Amazon.com and other music retailers on Friday, May 20 in the U.K. and Friday, June 3 in the U.S.

The New York Choral Society will present Handel's biblical oratorio Israel in Egypt under the baton of Music Director David Hayes, today evening, May 10th, 2016, 8pm at Carnegie Hall's Stern Auditorium. Composed entirely from selected passages from the Bible's Old Testament, Israel in Egypt relates the harshness of the Israelites' captivity in Egypt and their subsequent triumphant escape from the Pharaoh's oppressive regime. Israel in Egypt is atypical in Handel's choral output, as it contains little solo material and is dominated by large-scale virtuosic choruses that exhibit Handel's mastery as a musical storyteller.

General Director Plácido Domingo announced today that he has selected six singers to join LA Opera's Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist Program in the 2016/17 season. The artists were chosen from 650 applicants, 300 live auditions and, ultimately, 28 final candidates. The finalists auditioned in April for a panel led by Mr. Domingo that included Music Director James Conlon, President and CEO Christopher Koelsch and Senior Director of Artistic Planning Joshua Winograde, who directs the program, along with Nino Sanikidze, head coach for the program. 

General Director Plácido Domingo announced today that he has selected six singers to join LA Opera's Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist Program in the 2016/17 season.