John Adams News

Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music announced today that Maestra Marin Alsop will step down from her role as Music Director and Conductor in August 2016, following her 25th anniversary season. The Cabrillo Festival's 54th season runs August 5-13, 2016 in Santa Cruz, CA.

PITTSBURGH - The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra kicks off the 2015-2016 PNC Pops season with "Sinatra and Beyond with Tony DeSare, a tribute to Ol' Blue Eyes in celebration of the iconic singer's 100th birthday, on October 2-4 at Heinz Hall.

Irish playwright and actress Laoisa Sexton's new play THE PIGEON IN THE TAJ MAHAL has been selected by the Irish Repertory Theatre for inclusion into it's esteemed Fall 2015 New Works Reading Series and will run on Friday, October 2 , 2015 at 3 pm at the DR2 Theatre, 103 East 15th Street in Union Square. The reading will be free of cost and open to the public but reservations are requested and strongly advised. Call 212-727-2737 to RSVP.

BUFFALO, NY - The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra begins its 2015-16 season on Sept. 16. The season celebrates the 75th anniversary of Kleinhans Music Hall, with masterworks like Beethoven's Eroica Symphony and Elgar's Enigma Variations, guest artists including Jason Alexander andCeltic Woman, and innovative programming such as a three-day festival exploring Aaron Copland's artistic development and concerts blending rock and symphonic music.

The Metropolitan Opera will open its 131st season on Monday, September 21 with a new production of Verdi's Otello. Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts his first Met opening night, a staging by Tony Award winner Bartlett Sher of the late Verdi masterpiece based on Shakespeare's tragic drama of jealousy and deceit. Aleksandrs Antonenko, who has starred as the doomed Otello around the world to acclaim, makes his Met role debut opposite rising Bulgarian soprano Sonya Yoncheva in her first-ever performances of Otello's innocent wife Desdemona. Željko Lu?i? adds a new role to his company repertory as the evil Iago, as do Dimitri Pittas as Iago's pawn Cassio and Günther Groissböck as the Venetian ambassador Lodovico. Sher's staging will feature scenic design by acclaimed designer Es Devlin in her Met debut; costume design by six-time Tony Award winner Catherine Zuber; lighting design by two-time Tony winner Donald Holder; and video design by Luke Halls in his Met debut.

Miller Theatre at Columbia University School of the Arts celebrates distinguished American composer John Luther Adams with the William Schuman Award Concerts in a three-night series of New York premieres, each composed in honor of one of Adams' greatest influences.

ACME, the American Contemporary Music Ensemble opens its 2015-2016 season with a concert presented by Five Boroughs Music Festival at 7pm tonight, September 11, 2015 at National Opera Center's Scorca Recital Hall.

The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra's second weekend of the BNY Mellon Grand Classics brings a perennial program favorite, "Bach, Beethoven and Brahms," on September 25-27 at Heinz Hall.

Young Artists Symphony Orchestra (YASO), Los Angeles's newest orchestra led by Artistic Director Alexander Treger, a noted conductor, music educator and former Concertmaster of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, launches its inaugural season with a free celebratory concert featuring Mahler's seminal Symphony No. 2 in C minor, "Resurrection," hailed as "one of the musical touchstones of our time" (The New York Times), on Sunday, October 11, 2015, 7 pm, at UCLA's Royce Hall, the orchestra's home venue.  Featured guest artists include Amanda Achen, soprano, Nike St. Clair, mezzo-soprano, and the Angeles Chorale, under the direction of Artistic Director John Sutton.  The recently established pre-professional training orchestra champions, mentors and inspires the next generation of outstanding young musicians for careers in classical music.  

Four legendary women -- Production Designer Carmen Dillon, Production and Costume Designer Patricia Norris, Art Director and Set Designer Dorothea Holt Redmond and Illustrator Dianne Wager -- will be inducted into the Art Directors Guild (ADG) Hall of Fame at the Guild's 20th Annual Excellence in Production Design Awards, it was announced today by ADG Council Chairwoman Marcia Hinds and Awards Executive Producer James Pearse Connelly. The ceremony will be held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on January 31, 2016.

Pianist Maurizio Pollini will return to the New York Philharmonic for the first time since 1994 to join Music Director Alan Gilbert and the Orchestra for a one-night-only performance of Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1, Friday, October 16, 2015, at 8:00 p.m. The program also includes Berlioz's Le Corsaire Overture and Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet, Overture-Fantasy.

BroadwayWorld has just learned that Arthur Miller's THE CRUCIBLE will return to Broadway at the Walter Kerr Theatre (219 West 48th Street) this spring. Bill Camp (as Reverend John Hale), Jim Norton (as Giles Corey), Tavi Gevinson (as Mary Warren), and Jason Butler Harner (as Reverend Samuel Parris) are among those who will join previously announced stars Ben Whishaw (as John Proctor), Sophie Okonedo (as Elizabeth Proctor), Saoirse Ronan (as Abigail Williams), and Ciaran Hinds (as Deputy-Governor Danforth).

Three works for soloists and orchestra by composer and conductor Lucas Richman are featured in a recent release, “IN TRUTH: Lucas Richman,” from Albany Records. The recording went on sale September 1.

Broadway's 40 theatres aren't the only places to catch performances from your favorite stars! Well after Broadway orchestras begin their overtures, ensemble members take their dance breaks, and performers belt out their eleven o'clock numbers, the party continues at various cabaret venues throughout New York City. Below, BroadwayWorld brings you some cabaret highlights for this week as picked by our theatre editors, including: Darius de Haas: 'Something to Live For: Celebrating Strayhorn & More;' Linda Lavin: Starting Over; Carter Calvert at 54 Below; Nicholas Guest: Finding Nick; and Madeline Kahn Tribute.

Pittsburgh Symphony Music Director Manfred Honeck opens the 2015-2016 BNY Mellon Grand Classics season with the return of phenomenal Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov on September 18 & 20 at Heinz Hall.

The Center for the Arts is pleased to announce its 2016 Season - a 'Season of Celebration' as the company celebrates its 20th Anniversary. The season is comprised of eight Main Stage shows and three Gallery shows.

1776's original John Adams doesn't mind if the Founding Father he played is presented differently in HAMILTON.

Eric Owens will begin his tenure as The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence by curating, hosting, and performing in In Their Footsteps: Great African American Singers and Their Legacy, conducted by Thomas Wilkins in his Philharmonic debut.

BERKELEY, CA (UPDATED September 1, 2015) – Music Director Joana Carneiro and Berkeley Symphony have announced programming for the 2015-2016 season, including the West Coast premiere of Laterna Magica by Kaija Saariaho, who will be a visiting music professor at UC Berkeley this fall; the West Coast premiere of Mark Grey's new Frankenstein Symphony, co-commissioned with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra; and the U.S. premiere of Fachwerk by Russian composer Sofia Gubaidulina, featuring the Bay Area debut of Geir Draugsvoll, a pioneer of the bayan, or classical accordion, for whom the work was written. The Orchestra also welcomes soprano Simone Osborne, and violinist Simone Porter, both making their Bay Area debuts, in addition to a first-time Berkeley Symphony appearance by pianist Conrad Tao.

PITTSBURGH – The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra's Board of Trustees has unanimously elected Devin McGranahan as Chair of the Board, succeeding Richard P. Simmons.  McGranahan's appointment will become effective September 21, 2015, at the Pittsburgh Symphony's Annual Meeting.  The Board also honored Simmons, naming him Board Chair Emeritus.