Joshua Higgason News

Maestro Thierry Fischer leads the Utah Symphony and the Utah Symphony Chorus during the 'Ode to Joy' concert this weekend, December 4-5 at 7:30 PM at Abravanel Hall. Utah Symphony will also perform the world premiere of American composer Nico Muhly's commission, 'Control (Five Landscapes for Orchestra),' and live record the performances for later commercial release in Spring 2016.

Maestro Thierry Fischer leads the Utah Symphony and the Utah Symphony Chorus during the "Ode to Joy" concert on December 4-5 at 7:30 PM at Abravanel Hall. Utah Symphony will also perform the world premiere of American composer Nico Muhly's commission, "Control (Five Landscapes for Orchestra)," and live record the performances for later commercial release in Spring 2016.

On October 23 & 24, Persona, a new opera from composer Keeril Makan and adaptor / librettist / director Jay Scheib, will make its world premiere at National Sawdust. Commissioned by Beth Morrison Projects and National Sawdust, and adapted by Scheib from Ingmar Bergman's film of the same name, Persona is a provocative, highly cerebral, and artistically complex depiction of human frailty, cruelty and identity. These world premiere performances—which represent the first opera staged at National Sawdust—feature music direction by Evan Ziporyn and music by the ensemble Either/Or.

On October 23 & 24, Persona, a new opera from composer Keeril Makan and adaptor / librettist / director Jay Scheib, will make its world premiere at National Sawdust. Commissioned by Beth Morrison Projects and National Sawdust, and adapted by Scheib from Ingmar Bergman's film of the same name, Persona is a provocative, highly cerebral, and artistically complex depiction of human frailty, cruelty and identity. These world premiere performances-which represent the first opera staged at National Sawdust-feature music direction by Evan Ziporyn and music by the ensemble Either/Or.

On October 23 & 24, Persona, a new opera from composer Keeril Makan and adaptor / librettist / director Jay Scheib, will make its world premiere at National Sawdust. Commissioned by Beth Morrison Projects and National Sawdust, and adapted by Scheib from Ingmar Bergman's film of the same name, Persona is a provocative, highly cerebral, and artistically complex depiction of human frailty, cruelty and identity. These world premiere performances—which represent the first opera staged at National Sawdust—feature music direction by Evan Ziporyn and music by the ensemble Either/Or.

Music Director Thierry Fischer and President & CEO Melia Tourangeau today announced the Utah Symphony's 2015-16 classical season programs and events celebrating the Orchestra's 75th anniversary.

Awards were presented to more than 25 outstanding actors, directors, designers and ensembles tonight by The Boston Theater Critics Association (BTCA), at the 33nd Annual Elliot Norton Awards ceremony, held at Boston's Citi Performing Arts Center Shubert Theatre. Scroll down for the full list!

More than 25 nominations of outstanding actors, directors, designers and ensembles were nominated by The Boston Theater Critics Association (BTCA), with winners to be revealed at the 33nd Annual Elliot Norton Awards tonight, May 11, 2015 at 7 PM, at Boston's Citi Performing Arts Center Shubert Theatre.

More than 25 nominations of outstanding actors, directors, designers and ensembles were announced today by The Boston Theater Critics Association (BTCA), with winners to be revealed at the 33nd Annual Elliot Norton Awards on Monday, May 11, 2015 at 7 PM, at Boston's Citi Performing Arts Center Shubert Theatre.

Among this year's nominees for Outstanding Musical Production is the American Repertory Theater's FINDING NEVERLAND, now in previews at Broadway's Lunt-Fontanne Theatre. The production's Laura Michelle Kelly also received a nod in the category of Outstanding Musical Performance by an Actress.

Utah Symphony Music Director Thierry Fischer and the Utah Symphony will record live performances of three world premiere commissions from American composers during the 2015 calendar year for release at a later date, starting with Augusta Read Thomas' world premiere of "EOS (Goddess of the Dawn), A Ballet for Orchestra" on February 20 and 21 in Abravanel Hall.

Music Director Thierry Fischer and President & CEO Melia Tourangeau today announced the Utah Symphony's 2015-16 classical season programs and events celebrating the Orchestra's 75th anniversary.

The Utah Symphony is pleased to announce it has commissioned preeminent contemporary American composer Nico Muhly to write a piece of music for the Utah Symphony to be inspired by Southern Utah's national parks and landscapes. The commission will be performed during the 2015-16 season, coinciding with the 75th anniversary celebrations of the orchestra.

Through clever use of multimedia, playwright/performer Moe Angelos' Sontag: Reborn offers glimpses at both the precocious enthusiasm of youth and the wry remembrances of one looking back upon those same years.  ('Childhood: a terrible waste of time.')  Both come in the form of novelist, essayist, literary critic and inspiration for at least one Broadway showtune, Susan Sontag.

New York Theatre Workshop (NYTW) Artistic Director James C. Nicola and Managing Director William Russo have announced that Sontag: Reborn, based on the books by Susan Sontag and edited by David Rieff, adapted and performed by Moe Angelos, directed by Marianne Weems, and produced in collaboration with The Builders Association, will begin performances Tuesday, May 28 at NYTW, 79 East 4 Street, between Bowery and Second Avenue. Opening night is set for Thursday, June 6 at 7pm. Sontag: Reborn is scheduled to run through Sunday, June 30.

She is a beast to an exceptional degree. She is a Don Juan among women. She is insatiable, unnatural and altogether fairly appalling. (Hotel Manager as Judge POWDER HER FACE, Act II, Scene 6: 1955)

New York City Opera opens its spring 2013 season with a new production of Powder Her Face (1995), composed by Thomas Ades (b.1971) to a libretto by Philip Hensher (b. 1965).

New York City Opera opens its spring 2013 season with a new production of Powder Her Face (1995), composed by Thomas Adès (b.1971) to a libretto by Philip Hensher (b. 1965).

New York City Opera opens its spring 2013 season with a new production of Powder Her Face (1995), composed by Thomas Ades (b.1971) to a libretto by Philip Hensher (b. 1965). The world premiere of the opera, inspired by a sex scandal that rocked Britain in the early 60s, not only caused controversy, with its on-stage depiction of fellatio, but also propelled Ades to international recognition. Reviewing the premiere, The Sunday Times critic Paul Driver called Powder Her Face "one of the most striking new operas I have seen in years," and added, "From the tango of the overture to the tango of the close, one is on the edge of one's seat trying to catch as much as possible of the prolific, fast-altering, vividly etched and instrumentally outrageous detail of a score which is boiling with life."