Leonard Bernstein News

The Little Orchestra Society presents Music Under the Big Top, an evening of entertainment and musical acrobatics for audiences of all ages at Damrosch Park, Lincoln Center on December 10, 2013. This first of its kind program for The Little Orchestra Society, conducted and co-hosted by new Music Director James Judd, will feature the Orchestra performing an eclectic array of classic and contemporary pieces in the ring of the Big Apple Circus joined by the talented violinist and composer Daniel Roumain. See Judd andRoumain discuss the upcoming concert on The Little Orchestra Society's YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/LittleOrchestraSoc.

The tour smash hit Broadway revival of WEST SIDE STORY is coming to Calgary! WEST SIDE STORY will open at the Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium on February 11, 2014. Tony Award-winning librettist Arthur Laurents' Broadway direction is recreated for the tour by David Saint,the Associate Director on Broadway. The original Jerome Robbins choreography is reproduced by Tony Award-nominee Joey McKneely (The Boy from Oz, The Life). Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. today, December 9, 2013, at all Ticketmaster locations, at www.ticketmaster.ca or call toll-free 1.855.985.5000. Groups of 10 or more can access discounts at 1.800.889.8457.

Executive produced by James Lapine and Frank Rich, the exclusive HBO presentation premieres today, DEC. 9 (9:00-10:30 p.m. ET/PT).

The standout young Israeli pianist Roman Rabinovich will perform as soloist with the Haifa Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Principal Guest Conductor Boguslaw Dawidow in a cross-country tour of the United States from January 22nd to March 16th, 2014.

The Music Academy of the West will honor legendary mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne, the director of the Academy's renowned Voice Program who celebrates her 80th birthday on January 16, 2014, with special programming during its 2014 Summer Festival. The centerpiece of the Horne tribute programming will be a new production of Georges Bizet's immensely popular opera Carmen, one of the iconic mezzo's signature roles. Related programming next summer will include a screening of the 1954 musical film Carmen Jones, which features Horne's dubbed singing for actress Dorothy Dandridge. Additional events will be announced in the coming months.

The Little Orchestra Society presents Music Under the Big Top, an evening of entertainment and musical acrobatics for audiences of all ages at Damrosch Park, Lincoln Center on December 10, 2013. This first of its kind program for The Little Orchestra Society, conducted and co-hosted by new Music Director James Judd, will feature the Orchestra performing an eclectic array of classic and contemporary pieces in the ring of the Big Apple Circus joined by the talented violinist and composer Daniel Roumain. See Judd andRoumain discuss the upcoming concert on The Little Orchestra Society's YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/LittleOrchestraSoc.

From February 21 to March 16, 2014, Carnegie Hall presents Vienna: City of Dreams, a three-week citywide festival featuring more than 90 events, all inviting audiences to discover the extraordinary artistic legacy of Vienna. The festival features symphonic and operatic masterpieces, chamber music, and lieder, as well as new sounds emerging from this historic cultural capital. In addition to music, Vienna: City of Dreams shines a spotlight on Vienna's visual art, film, architecture, politics, science, and history, creating an extensive look at a city that for centuries has drawn artists, dreamers, and innovators from all corners of the world to its dazzling intellectual and artistic life.

The tour smash hit Broadway revival of WEST SIDE STORY is coming to Calgary! WEST SIDE STORY will open at the Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium on February 11, 2014. Tony Award-winning librettist Arthur Laurents' Broadway direction is recreated for the tour by David Saint,the Associate Director on Broadway. The original Jerome Robbins choreography is reproduced by Tony Award-nominee Joey McKneely (The Boy from Oz, The Life). Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. on Monday, December 9, 2013.

Google Doodle pays tribute to opera singer, Maria Callas, who would have been 90 years old today.

John Corigliano, the celebrated Oscar-, Pulitzer-, and Grammy-winner and one of the most honored and often-performed American composers of the last quarter-century, who has worked with everyone from Leonard Bernstein and Yo-Yo Ma to film directors Ken Russell and Francois Girard. Plus the Music from Copland House ensemble with acclaimed soprano Amy Burton.

Whatever else you think of Richard Strauss, you can't accuse him of picking easy subjects. While Die Frau Ohne Schattenremains one of the most elusive of opera plots, Elektra among the most bloodthirsty and Salome among the most disturbing, it is the rarely-heard one-act Feuersnot that proved a step too far to Strauss's own audiences. But then what did he expect? The plot revolves around lust and sex – and the fact that it has always been regarded as possibly semi-autobiographical no doubt didn't help his cause. Yet the opera is fascinating enough that the world premiere was conducted by Gustav Mahler.

With our apologies to Lea Michele, there truly is only ONE Barbra Streisand and on PBS tonight the legendary star 'sings them all' from FUNNY GIRL to GYPSY as only she can. For musical theatre fans of all ages, and lovers of great music, it's a can't miss television event.

Whitney Morse and Britni Tozzi lead the cast of PFP's The Children's Hour, directed by Derek Bertelsen* and running January 9 - February 9, 2014 at Collaboraction.

The Crown Center has released their calendar events from December 2013 to December 2014.

Champions of American music for more than a decade, Opus Two violin-piano duo presents a multi-media program of the inimitable works of George Gershwin (1898-1937), one of Americas most popular and iconic composers. Violinist William Terwilliger and pianist Andrew Cooperstock will explore Gershwin's many musical styles, from the jazz influenced An American in Paris to the quintessential folk opera Porgy and Bess. They will also perform I Got Rhythm, Embraceable You, and But Not for Me…. in colorful and virtuosic transcriptions by legendary violinist Jascha Heifetz along with brand-new Opus Two commissions by esteemed Broadway music director Eric Stern. Projected images by African-American period photographer Richard Samuel Roberts and entertaining video clips of Judy Garland and Gene Kelly will round out the program. The concert will be held at the Bruno Walter Auditorium onSaturday, December 28 at 2:30pm.

In recognition of her outstanding lifetime contribution to American culture, Martina Arroyo will be one of five recipients of this year's Kennedy Center Honors on Sunday, December 8 at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC. Seated with President and Mrs. Obama, as well as with her fellow Honorees (actress Shirley MacLaine and musicians Herbie Hancock, Billy Joel, and Carlos Santana), the pre-eminent American soprano will be saluted with performances and tributes during the star-studded gala celebration that will be broadcast nationwide as a two-hour prime time special on CBS-TV (Dec 29 at 9pm, EST). The honor is a fitting one, for Arroyo has devoted herself to opera over the course of a decades-long career. Since retiring from the stage, where her voice was heralded by the New York Times as "among the most glorious in the world," the Harlem-born soprano has continued to serve the art form through the Martina Arroyo Foundation, the non-profit cultural organization she established ten years ago to provide new generations of talented young singers with the tools to pursue careers in opera and prepare them for the stage.

The tour of the smash hit Broadway revival of WEST SIDE STORY is coming to St. Louis. WEST SIDE STORY will open at the Fabulous Fox Theatre on Friday, January 3. Tony Award-winning librettist Arthur Laurents' Broadway direction is recreated for the tour by David Saint, the Associate Director on Broadway. The original Jerome Robbins choreography is reproduced by Tony Award-nominee Joey McKneely (The Boy from Oz, The Life).

In the New York Philharmonic's concerts this week celebrating the centennial of English composer, conductor, and pianist Benjamin Britten, conducted by Music Director Alan Gilbert, tenors Dominic Armstrong, Anthony Dean Griffey, and Michael Slattery will replace Paul Appleby, who has withdrawn due to illness. On November 21-22, 2013, Michael Slattery will make his Philharmonic debut in Britten's Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings, and tenor Dominic Armstrong will make his Philharmonic debut in Britten's Spring Symphony. The concert on November 23 will feature tenor Anthony Dean Griffey in both works, and he will sing the Serenade on November 26 on a program that also includes Mozart's Symphonies Nos. 39 and 41, Jupiter.

Following on from Sunday in the Park with George, Little Shop of Horrors, La Cage aux Folles, A Little Night Music, Sweet Charity, Pippinand Merrily We Roll Along, the Menier Chocolate Factory is delighted to announce that its Christmas musical will be Candide with music by Leonard Bernstein, book adapted from Voltaire by Hugh Wheeler, lyrics by Richard Wilbur and additional lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, John Latouche, Lillian Hellman, Dorothy Park and Leonard Bernstein.