James Conlon News

Award winning pianist Jon Nakamatsu will join the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra (ASO) to perform Sergei Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No. 3 on Friday, May 2 and Saturday, May 3, 2014 at 8:00 pm at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts. Music Director José-Luis Novo will also lead the orchestra in performances of Jesús Guridi's Diez Melodías Vascas (Ten Basque Melodies) and Maurice Ravel's La Valse.

Each of Wolfgang Amade Mozart's vast number of compositions is considered a musical gem. Join Music Director Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra as they celebrate Mozart's extensive catalog of masterpieces during the BNY Mellon Grand Classics Mozart Festival, a two-week exploration of the five pillars of Mozart's music - symphony, concerto, chamber music, opera and sacred music.

The Collegiate Chorale announces the New York premiere of battle hymns on May 15, 2014 at 7:30pm at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, Pier 86, 12th Ave. & 46th Street in New York, NY.

The Colony Theatre is thrilled to present Ian Buchanan and Mariette Hartley starring in THE LION IN WINTER, written by James Goldman and directed by Stephanie Vlahos. THE LION IN WINTER will preview on Wednesday, April 16; Thursday, April 17; and Friday, April 18 at 8:00pm and will open on Saturday, April 19 at 8:00pm and continue through Sunday, May 18 at The Colony Theatre, 555 N. Third Street (at Cypress) adjacent to the Burbank Town Center Mall.

Celebrating its 35th anniversary, the Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival will present a concert open to the public for the first time in New York this evening, April 8, 2014 at 7:45 p.m. at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music, Cary Hall, 450 West 37th Street, between Ninth and Tenth Avenues.

One-hour long Rush Hour concerts are a great way to experience live music in an informal and relaxed smaller setting. Rush Hour concerts are perfect for those new to the orchestra experience, as well as for the most die-hard listeners.

James Conlon, Music Director of the Cincinnati May Festival since 1979, conducts the May Festival Chorus and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra on Friday, May 9 at 7:30 p.m. at Carnegie Hall's Stern Auditorium during the fourth and final installment of the Spring For Music festival. The centerpiece of the Carnegie Hall program is the New York premiere of The Ordering of Moses, a work by Robert Nathaniel Dett that received its world premiere at the 1937 May Festival, performed by a chorus of 350 with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra led by Eugene Goosens. Mr. Conlon will open the program with John Adams' Harmonium.

The New York Philharmonic will return to Bravo! Vail in Colorado for the Orchestra's 12th- annual summer residency there, performing six concerts July 18-25, 2014. Music Director Alan Gilbert will conduct three programs, July 18-20, featuring works by composers for whom he has advocated during his tenure, ranging from Nielsen to The Marie-Jose?e Kravis Composer-in- Residence Christopher Rouse. The other Philharmonic concerts will be conducted by Bramwell Tovey (July 23 and 25) and Ted Sperling (July 24), and will feature works by Copland, Gershwin, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, and Loesser, among others.

Celebrating its 35th anniversary, the Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival will present a concert open to the public for the first time in New York on Tuesday evening, April 8, 2014 at 7:45 p.m. at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music, Cary Hall, 450 West 37th Street, between Ninth and Tenth Avenues. A special orchestra-the Cape Cod Gala Orchestra, conducted by Liam Burke-has been assembled for this occasion. Noted WQXR radio announcer Jeff Spurgeon will host the evening and Nancy B. Barry, First President of the Festival, as well as Honorary Artistic Chair Charles Hamlen, V.P. of Orchestra of St. Luke's and Co-Founder of IMG Artists, will be on hand for the event.

A darkly romantic tale of family honor, betrayal and madness, Gaetano Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor returns to LA Opera for the first time in a decade, conducted by Music Director James Conlon and directed by Elkhanah Pulitzer in her LA Opera debut.

(Los Angeles) December 19, 2013 - General Director Placido Domingo announced updated details for LA Opera's first production of Lucia di Lammermoor since 2003. Conducted by Music Director James Conlon and directed by Elkhana Pulitzer in her LA Opera debut, the new production stars Albina Shagimuratova in the title role as the dagger-wielding Scottish lass and Saimir Pirgu as her secret lover, Edgardo. Lucia di Lammermoor will open today, March 15, 2014, and run for a total of six performances through April 6 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.

The New York Philharmonic will present its 11th season of Summertime Classics, July 2-6, 2014, featuring five themed concerts with Bramwell Tovey, who has been the host and conductor of the series since its founding in 2004. On the first program, July 2-3, 2014, titled "Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky, and Friends," the New York Philharmonic will perform Shostakovich's Festive Overture; Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 1, with pianist Joyce Yang as soloist; Musorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain; Rachmaninoff's arrangement of his own Vocalise; and Tchaikovsky's Waltz of the Flowers from The Nutcracker, and Marche slave. The second program, July 4-6, 2014, titled "Star-Spangled Celebration," will feature the New York Philharmonic and United States Marine Drum & Bugle Corps - "The Commandant's Own," which is celebrating its 80th-anniversary year - in a program that includes Copland's Clarinet Concerto, with Associate Principal Clarinet Mark Nuccio as soloist, and Fanfare for the Common Man; Gershwin's "Strike Up the Band" from Strike Up the Band; Sousa marches; and more. In these performances Major Brian Dix, director and commanding officer of "The Commandant's Own," will share conducting duties with Bramwell Tovey.

Ravinia's 2014 season, dubbed 'Summer of Love/Season of Stars,' was announced today by Ravinia President and CEO Welz Kauffman. Brimming with talent and romance, the festival's 2014 schedule brings some the biggest names in the world of music as well as repertoire that explores the theme of great love in its various manifestations. No fewer than three musical incarnations of the most famous love story of all time, Romeo and Juliet, will be featured, with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra performing Tchaikovsky's Overture-Fantasy (July 27), a suite from Prokofiev's ballet setting of the story (July 16) and the score of West Side Story as the classic film is shown (July 17-18). In other examples of love, soprano Deborah Voigt describes it as 'Something Wonderful' on a Broadway evening (July 13), the legendary Broadway team of Lerner and Loewe will be celebrated (July 20), and Chanticleer even jabs at the battle of the sexes in an evening titled 'She Said/He Said' (July 6). In fact, love lurks, longs and lingers across genres in most of the more than 130 events that Ravinia will present in 2014, its 110th year and its 78th as the summer residence of the CSO.

The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra welcomes back revered conductor, and former CSO Creative Director, Rafael Fru?hbeck de Burgos for his second engagement of the 2013- 14 season. Tonight, February 28 and March 1 at historic Music Hall, Maestro Fru?hbeck de Burgos will conduct one of the most epic works in orchestral and choral repertoire-Verdi's Requiem. The piece pulls together massive forces of orchestra, chorus and soloists for an impassioned and dramatic blockbuster of human emotion. Perhaps best known for the famous 'Dies irae' movement, prevalent in pop culture in movies, advertisements and television, Verdi's masterpiece depicts a journey from terror and darkness to joy and light.

Courtney Lewis, age 29, has been named New York Philharmonic Assistant Conductor beginning in September 2014. Current Assistant Conductor Case Scaglione, age 31, will be promoted to Associate Conductor, also to begin in September 2014. They will assist Music Director Alan Gilbert and all guest conductors throughout the season, and will lead educational events, including School Day Concerts and Young People's Concerts. Joshua Weilerstein, who has been Assistant Conductor along with Mr. Scaglione since September 2011, will conclude his tenure as Assistant Conductor at the end of the 2013-14 season.

Conductor James Conlon, Music Director of LA Opera, concludes his three-year commemoration of the centenary of composer Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) and brings the Britten 100/LA celebration to a close in Los Angeles with LA Opera's production of Billy Budd, which opens today, February 22 and continues through March 16, 2014.

59E59 Theaters welcomes the Little Opera Theatre of NY in its return with Rossini's comic opera OPPORTUNITY MAKES THE THIEF (L'OCCASIONE FA IL LADRO OSSIA IL CAMBIO DELLA VALIGIA), directed by Philip Shneidman and conducted by James Bagwell.

Perhaps the most controversial opera of the 20th century makes its Southern California debut when Long Beach Opera (LBO) stages John Adams' The Death of Klinghoffer on March 16 and March 22 at the Terrace Theater in downtown Long Beach. This powerful and unsettling work chronicles the 1985 hijacking of the Mediterranean cruise ship Achille Lauro by Palestinian terrorists and the murder of disabled Jewish-American passenger, Leon Klinghoffer. LBO's production is a partner presentation of the Los Angeles Philharmonic's 'Minimalist Jukebox' Festival.