John Adams News

PITTSBURGH - Revel in two of Beethoven's most notable and majestic works during the Pittsburgh Symphony's BNY Mellon Grand Classics: BeethovenFest: The Immortal June 5-7. It features the composer's violin concerto and Symphony No. 9, with its famous "Ode to Joy." 

The five-time Grammy Award-winning San Francisco Girls Chorus will conclude its 2014-2015 season with an ambitious and ingenious program exploring the serious fun of modern and contemporary music Today, June 5, at 8 pm at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Artistic Director Lisa Bielawa has announced. Conducted by SFGC Music Director Valérie Sainte-Agathe and featuring guest composer/violinist Carla Kihlstedt, the program includes a new work by Kihlstedt and her Hold my own with the composer as soloist, John Cage's iconic Living Room Music, Meredith Monk's Panda Chant, selections from Lou Harrison's Mass for Saint Cecilia's Day, Einojuhani Rautavaara's Viatonten Valsi and John Adams' Desert Chorus—both with Kihlstedt on violin, William Schuman's Requiescat and To Thy Love, Lisa Bielawa's Opening: Forest from the opera Vireo and The Andrews Sisters' “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” and “Beat Me Daddy”. The concert's repertoire will be performed by the Girls Chorus on tour in Estonia, Finland and Sweden in June.

The tenth anniversary season of South Shore Conservatory's (SSC) Duxbury Music Festival (DMF) concert series begins with an Opening Concert, featuring repertoire programmed by Festival Director Stephen Deitz, on Sunday, July 19, 6:30 pm. The concert's outdoor venue overlooks Duxbury's Back River and Powder Point Bridge, on the tented lawn at the home of Diane and Sherm Hoyt, providing incomparable views and backdrop for the performance.

Park Avenue Armory today announced the appointment of Pierre Audi as Artistic Director. A critically acclaimed director and artistic director, Audi will continue to lead the Dutch National Opera, a role he has held since 1988 while also serving as Artistic Director of the Holland Festival in Amsterdam from 2004 until 2014. He previously was the founding Artistic Director of the pioneering Almeida Theatre in London. Audi will join Park Avenue Armory in October 2015 to begin planning its 2017 season.

Jeffrey Kahane will return to the New York Philharmonic to conduct and perform an all-Mozart program featuring Mozart's Piano Concertos Nos. 20 and 21 and Symphony No. 38, Prague, tonight, June 3, 2015, at 7:30 p.m.; Thursday, June 4 at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, June 5 at 11:00 a.m.; and Saturday, June 6 at 8:00 p.m.

1776 arrives on Blu-ray at long last!

There's always something going on in the city that never sleeps, but this summer the classical music offerings are plentiful and wonderful!

The Almeida Theatre announces full casting for Bakkhai. James Macdonald directs Anne Carson's new version of Euripides' hedonistic, visceral tragedy. Using three actors and a chorus, this new production will echo the original Ancient Greek performance model.

The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra is proud to announce FUSE@PSO, a new series of early evening concerts at Heinz Hall conducted by Steve Hackman.

PITTSBURGH – The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra is proud to announce FUSE@PSO, a new series of early evening concerts at Heinz Hall conducted by Steve Hackman.

Elevate your senses and your heart rate with a BNY Mellon Grand Classics concert that takes you from high above the quiet world to a pulse-pounding turn on the dance floor this weekend, May 29 and 31 at Heinz Hall.

The Almeida Theatre launches its new season: Almeida Greeks.

One of America's most versatile and prolific living composers, Andre Previn, joins Pacific Symphony as the honored guest and focus of the 15th American Composers Festival (ACF). Previn, who has been called one of America's least easily categorized musicians, began his remarkable career as a Hollywood "wunderkind" and a best-selling jazz pianist. Now 86, Previn has received four Academy Awards for his work in film, 10 Grammy Awards for his recordings (plus one more for his Lifetime Achievement), and he is also an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire. He's held a series of major conducting posts, including the L.A. Philharmonic and the London Symphony Orchestra, but now exclusively composes. The concert is led by Music Director Carl St.Clair, whose great admiration for the legend shaped this year's ACF to reveal the scope of Previn's prowess as a composer. 

DANIELLE BROOKS, who plays 'Taystee' on the hit TV show, Orange Is the New Black, will make her Broadway debut as 'Sofia' in the upcoming Broadway musical revival of THE COLOR PURPLE. A graduate of the Juilliard School, Ms. Brooks joins the previously announced JENNIFER HUDSON and CYNTHIA ERIVO in the critically acclaimed staging from London's Menier Chocolate Factory.

 The Britt Classical Festival, led by Music Director and Conductor Teddy Abrams, has announced a wide-ranging, adventurous series of concerts of contemporary and new music paired with core classical repertoire for its three-week 2015 season, beginning July 31. The programs include the world premiere of a folk song cycle written and performed by vocalist and songwriter Aoife O'Donovan and fiddler Jeremy Kittel alongside work by Charles Ives, George Antheil and Copland; performances of John Adams' Absolute Jest string quartet showcase with the Dover Quartet and Samuel Adams' recent work Radial Play; orchestral showpieces including Brahms' Symphony No. 2 and Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring; Teddy Abrams performing on piano and clarinet with his own Sixth Floor Trio, playing music from a variety of genres in a program alongside music by Samuel Barber and Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique; and composer Mason Bates on electronica in his popular work Mothership with the Britt Orchestra, on a program that features James Ehnes in Barber's Violin Concerto. The festival takes place in the Britt Pavilion, an intimate, beautiful outdoor 2,200-capacity amphitheater in the historic Gold Rush town of Jacksonville, Oregon, 17 miles from Ashland. This is Teddy Abrams' second season as the Britt Classical Festival's music director.

Terrace Plaza Playhouse will present 1776, opening 12 June - 25 July, 2015 and running every Friday, Saturday and Monday evening at 7:30 PM. There will be NO SHOWS on July 4 and 24.

PITTSBURGH – Revel in two of Beethoven's most notable and majestic works during the Pittsburgh Symphony's BNY Mellon Grand Classics: BeethovenFest: The Immortal June 5-7. It features the composer's violin concerto and Symphony No. 9, with its famous “Ode to Joy.” 

Tickets are already flying like loaded dice, as theater fans snatch up seats for Guys and Dolls, which will run today, May 21-June 14 at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center.

The Juilliard School will confer honorary doctorates on five remarkable artists during its 110th Commencement Ceremony today, May 22, 2015 at 11 a.m. in Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center (Broadway at 65th Street, New York City). Suzanne Farrell, Nicholas Hytner (pictured, left), Murray Perahia, Dianne Reeves, and Peter Sellars will be honored at Juilliard's May 2015 Commencement Ceremony.