Matt Smith News

SAN FRANCISCO, April 18 – The San Francisco Symphony announces its annual Summer with the Symphony series, which runs July 4-29 at Davies Symphony Hall and at other outdoor locations throughout the Bay Area. Led by Director of Summer Concerts Edwin Outwater, Summer with the Symphony features a festive lineup of concerts and events for all ages, beginning with the SFS's annual Fourth of July concert and fireworks spectacular at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View. On July 7, Outwater leads the SFS in The Music of John Williams—From Star Wars to Harry Potter!, which will include Williams's iconic music from such films as Star Wars, Harry Potter, Jurassic Park, Indiana Jones, Jaws, and others. 

In partnership with the Ann Arbor, Dexter, Chelsea and Ypsilanti District libraries, the Ann Arbor Symphony presents KinderConcerts. These 30 minute concerts are designed especially for children ages 2 to 5 years old and provide a fun, music-filled introduction to classical music for even the tiniest tykes. The children will have the opportunity to dance and move along during the concert, all while being told a story with musical accompaniment. A2SO principal Oboist, Timothy Michling is joined by child movement expert Gari Stein and pianist Kathryn Goodson for a guided introduction to the instruments of the orchestra. Through a fun and interactive learning environment, children will be encouraged to use creativity and develop music skills.

Orange County, Calif.—April 19, 2016—The world's most popular trumpeter— Chris Botti—returns to Pacific Symphony for a concert overflowing with his astute mastery, as he effortlessly crosses the boundaries of jazz, classical, rock and pop. With polished charm and mesmerizing trumpeting skills, the talented musician/composer takes well-known pop ballads and transforms them into a soulful mix of grace, warmth and beautiful tones. Returning by popular demand for an all-new show, Botti makes his fourth Pacific Symphony appearance for a night of heart-melting, expressive music, backed by the lush sounds of the orchestra. Officially the best-selling instrumental artist in America, Botti performs worldwide, has received multiple Gold, Platinum and Grammy Awards and sold more than four million copies of his albums, including his latest Grammy-winning “Impressions.”

April 19, 2016 – Richmond, Virginia Join the Richmond Symphony and Music Director Steven Smith on Sunday, May 8 at 3pm for the final concert of the 2015-16 Metro Collection Series, Mendelssohn: Scottish Symphony. The performance features pieces by Fauré, Ravel and Mendelssohn and will be held in the Blackwell Auditorium on the campus of Randolph-Macon College.

CANTON, OHIO (April 19, 2016) –Members of the Canton Youth Symphonies (CYS) recently auditioned for a Masterclass with violinist Lindsay Deutsch.  The Masterclass will be held Saturday April 30 at the Zimmermann Symphony in Canton as part of a weekend-long residency with Ms. Deutsch.  The residency with Ms. Deutsch is included in the Classics Alive Foundation Youth Symphony of the Year award that Canton Youth Symphonies received in the fall of 2015.

HOUSTON (April 19, 2016) – Semifinalists for the 41st annual Houston Symphony Ima Hogg Competition were announced Tuesday by the Houston Symphony and the Houston Symphony League. Contestants will battle for the top prize and the opportunity to perform on the stage of Jones Hall with the Houston Symphony in an orchestra-run multi-instrument competition. This year's semifinalists represent some of the nation's most cosmopolitan cities – including Houston – and bear exceptional accomplishments.

Lexington, KY—University Press of Kentucky author Brian R. McEnany has been chosen to receive the Eugene Feit Award for Civil War History for For Brotherhood and Duty: The Civil War History of the West Point Class of 1862. The award is given by the New York Military Affairs Symposium (NYMAS) to authors writing on Civil War history. The organization is devoted to increasing public knowledge, awareness, and understanding of the interrelationship of war, society, and culture through the presentation and dissemination of diverse scholarly viewpoints. The NYMAS Civil War Book Award was instituted in 2002, and it became the Feit Award in 2010.

This April, the Brooklyn Museum launches the Android version of its ASK Brooklyn Museum app, which enables visitors to interact in real time with Museum experts. The app sets a new standard in museum visitor engagement by leveraging technology to encourage dialogue between visitors and the Museum's Audience Engagement staff, a dedicated team of experienced art historians, researchers, and educators. The app is funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies through its Bloomberg Connects program, a global initiative that helps cultural institutions innovate and engage audiences through digital platforms. 

KANSAS CITY, MO (April 15, 2016) — The 58th season of Kansas City Ballet closes with a mixed–repertory program of four bold and electrifying works in one performance: Viktor Plotnikov's WORLD PREMIERE, Vesna, featuring the music of Antonín Dvorák, Yuri Possokhov's Diving into the Lilacs including music by Boris Tchaikovsky, Helen Pickett's Petal with music of Thomas Newman and Philip Glass and closing the program with Adam Hougland's Rite of Spring with the brilliant masterpiece score by Igor Stravinsky. The production will be accompanied by Kansas City Symphony conducted by Kansas City Ballet Music Director Ramona Pansegrau and runs May 6 through 15 at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts.

UNION, N.J. –– Ars Vitalis: The New Jersey New Music Forum at Kean University will bring Grammy Award-winning composer Carlos Franzetti to the Gene & Shelley Enlow Recital Hall on Thursday, April 21, at 7:30 p.m. The concert will showcase the Cranford, NJ, resident's wide-ranging talent and will include an eclectic mix of chamber music, jazz and Latin crossover repertoire.

Lexington, KY—The University Press of Kentucky is pleased to announce that Leila Salisbury has been named press director, becoming only the fourth in the press's sixty-seven year history. Salisbury is the current director of the University Press of Mississippi, a position she has held since 2008. She will take over leadership of UPK on August 1.

WHO: Pacific Symphony Santiago Strings, now in its 25th season! Made up of instrumentalists in grades 6-9 and led by Music Director Irene Kroesen under the artistic advisement of Music Director Carl St.Clair.  WHAT: Newly returned from a tour to Florida and energized by a season of artistic achievement, Santiago Strings delivers an electrifying musical culmination of its silver jubilee! From Copland's toe-tapping “Hoe-Down” to the jazzy rhythms of “Cook it Hot or Get Out of the Kitchen,” there's something for everyone to dance to in this brilliant display of young talent and robust dance styles. This concert reflects on Santiago Strings' 25 years of musical excellence and celebrates the future with a world premiere commission by Pacific Symphony Composer-in- Residence Narong Prangcharoen. Also, Dvo?ák's “Slavonic Dance” in E Minor, Bartok's “Dances of Transylvania” and more!

CHICAGO – Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and Artistic Director Glenn Edgerton are excited to announce the main company's 2016–17 season performances in Chicago. Tickets to four engagements at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance in Millennium Park, located at 205 East Randolph Street in Chicago, are available immediately as a Season 39 subscription; single tickets will go on sale in late summer 2016.

Philadelphia, PA (April 12, 2016) – Pennsylvania Ballet and Artistic Director Angel Corella will take audiences on a classical yet modern journey with works by three choreographers in A Program of Firsts. George Balanchine's Serenade, Liam Scarlett's Asphodel Meadows, and a much anticipated World Premiere from Pennsylvania Ballet's Choreographer in Residence Matthew Neenan, May 12-15 at The Academy of Music, sponsored by Bank of America. 

ALBUQUERQUE—Bookworks is pleased to offer fans of literary fiction, serious nonfiction, and kids and teen reads many quality events to choose from in May.

RUBY RUMIE has been invited to the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center in Como to their Arts Resident Fellow Program this summer for their Human Behavior thematic month.

A brilliant new interpretation of Tchaikovsky's final symphony, a work of great originality and power, in superb audiophile sound!

BALTIMORE COUNTY, Md. (April 13, 2016) – The CCBC Dance Company at the Community College of Baltimore County, performs its Spring Dance Concert, April 21 at 11:15 a.m. and April 22 and 23 at 8 p.m. in the College Community Center Theatre at CCBC Essex, 7201 Rossville Boulevard.  Tickets, which are $8 general admission and $5 for seniors, students and CCBC faculty, staff and alumni, are available from the CCBC Box Office at 443-840-ARTS (2787). For CCBC students with current IDs admission is free. 

In this emotionally honest and personal exploration of conflict, the Reverend Nathan C. Walker introduces a creative and compassionate way to develop empathetic responses. He explores the concept of the moral imagination-a way we can project ourselves in a conflict and understand all perspectives, aware that understanding need not imply agreement.

Lexington, KY—University Press of Kentucky author John van Willigen has been recognized by the the Southern Anthropological Society for Kentucky's Cookbook Heritage: Two Hundred Years of Southern Cuisine and Culture. The book was awarded an Honorable Mention for the James Mooney Award for its contribution to anthropological scholarship on the South and Southerners. The Mooney Award was created to recognize and encourage distinguished anthropological scholarship on the South and Southerners. Presented annually, the award includes a $500 cash prize and certificate of recognition to be presented to the winning author at an awards ceremony. In addition, an Honorable Mention Award includes a certificate of recognition. It was created in honor of James Mooney, the prominent American ethnographer who lived with the Cherokee people during the late nineteenth century.