Mark Campbell News

With Grammy-nominated American composer Mason Bates dipping his toe into full-length operatic waters for the first time--and star librettist Mark Campbell doing it for the umpteenth--the Guggenheim Museum's “Works & Process” series gave an extended peak into the development of their new opera, THE (R)EVOLUTION OF STEVE JOBS, which premieres on July 22 at the Santa Fe Opera (SFO). Looking back at that evening in April, I recall how the extended musical excerpts gave the audience a good idea of the brilliance of Bates's score and the general excitement in store.

21C Media Group has announced highlights from its 2017-18 selection of opera, vocal and choral music, featuring concerts, special events, broadcasts and recordings. Scroll down for details!

???????As the summer ends and the fall 2017 concert season comes into view, Kent Tritle will be found playing an organ recital at Himmerod Abbey, a Cistercian monastery in Grosslittgen, Germany. From there, it is off and running - the 2017-18 season for "New York's foremost choral conductor" (The New Yorker) is highlighted by the world premieres of two works with the Oratorio Society of New York, Sanctuary Road, an oratorio about the Underground Railroad by Paul Moravec, libretto by Mark Campbell, commissioned by the OSNY, and Behzad Ranjbaran's We Are One; concerts with the Cathedral Choir of St. John the Divine including a program celebrating the immigrant history of New York in collaboration with early/world music group Rose of the Compass that includes the world premiere of a commissioned work by Robert Sirota, and a program of Kodaly, Stravinsky, and Part's Miserere; programs of repertoire ranging from Gregorian chant to Morton Lauridsen with Musica Sacra; and Bach's St. John Passion with ensembles and soloists from the Manhattan School of Music.

AOP (American Opera Projects) announces the six singers who will become its Resident Ensemble for the upcoming ninth season of its Composers & the Voice training program. Comprised of one each of the basic operatic/vocal categories, the singers for the 2017-18 season will be Coloratura Soprano Tookah Sapper, Lyric Soprano Jennifer Goode Cooper, Mezzo-Soprano Blythe Gaissert, Tenor Blake Friedman, Baritone Mario Diaz-Moresco and Bass Adrian Rosas.

The Minnesota Orchestra today announced that conductor Sarah Hicks will lead the Minnesota Orchestra's "Live at Orchestra Hall" concert series through the 2020-21 season, and that Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Kevin Puts will continue as director of the Orchestra's Composer Institute through the 2019-20 season.

Ars Nova, in association with Ma-Yi Theater and Woodshed Collective, presents the world premiere of KPOP, a high-octane immersive event that gives you a backstage pass to a K-pop music factory.

This September, Opera Philadelphia launches O17, the inaugural edition of its game-changing new annual season-opening festival. A twelve-day immersion that promises to "blanket the city with opera" (Washington Post), the festival kicks off new partnerships with two key local cultural institutions. Each will host one of the festival's seven operatic happenings, both of them new operas developed - like 2016's award-winning sensation Breaking the Waves - under the auspices of the company's celebrated Composer in Residence program. 

The quest for power, the greed for success and frenzy of people coming together trying to find quick wealth

September marks the launch of O17, the inaugural edition of Opera Philadelphia's game-changing new annual season-opening festival, and We Shall Not Be Moved (Sep 16-24) is one of three world premieres with which the company looks forward to baptizing the festival by fire.

The Glimmerglass Festival has released the details of its 2018 schedule. For a second year, the Festival's programming will explore themes of home and country.

Who needs an excuse to leave NYC in the blistering days of summer? It's especially true if you head north to some of the bucolic opera and vocal venues within driving distance.

September marks the launch of O17, the inaugural edition of Opera Philadelphia's game-changing new annual season-opening festival, and We Shall Not Be Moved (Sep 16-24) is one of three world premieres with which the company looks forward to baptizing the festival by fire.

In an effort to broaden opportunities for women playwrights, Project Y Theatre Company has commissioned nine female playwrights in two separate productions, Great Again, an evening of plays by Crystal Skillman and Chiori Miyagawa, and The Hrosthvitha Project, 7 adaptations of the 10th century female-written play 'Dulcitius' written by playwrights Caridad Svich, Pia Wilson, Julienne Hairston, Michole Biancosino, Lia Romeo, Stacie Lents, and Erin Mallon.

In celebration of LGBTQ Pride Month, American Opera Projects (AOP) will make available to the public the video of their 2014 World Premiere production of the opera As One from June 23-30, 2017 on the AOP website.

In celebration of LGBTQ Pride Month, American Opera Projects (AOP) will make available to the public the video of their 2014 World Premiere production of the opera As One from June 23-30, 2017 on the AOP website.

Chicago Opera Theater (COT) announces the appointment of Lidiya Yankovskaya as the company's new Music Director.

As director of the company's apprentice program since 2005, David Holloway is a veritable fount of knowledge

Kevin Newbury is a theatre, opera and film director who has staged over sixty original productions for numerous opera companies, festivals, and symphonies. Especially committed to developing new material, he has directed more than two-dozen world premieres of operas and plays. His staging of Mason Bates and Mark Campbell's The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs will have its world premiere at Santa Fe Opera on July 22, 2017.

Fifteen compelling minutes of a new work doesn't always turn into an opera for all seasons, but a first-look at ELIZABETH CREE—Kevin Puts' and Mark Campbell's latest collaboration--came across with startling originality. Based on Peter Ackrolyd's Victorian-era tale set in London's dangerous Limehouse district, the handful of arias were presented at the Crypt Sessions concert series in northern Manhattan, prior to its world premiere at Opera Philadelphia.

The Lion King is a grand celebration of the magic of theatre and, yes, the circle of life.