Matt Smith News

Orange County, Calif.—Feb. 25, 2016—Pacific Symphony, led by Principal Pops Conductor Richard Kaufman, brings one of the most legendary silent films ever made—the 1925 larger-than-life “Ben-Hur”—to full breath-taking splendor in the concert hall, when the orchestra performs the score live as the movie is shown on the giant screen. The score—newly composed for the classic Hollywood hit—was written by Stewart Copeland, former drummer for “The Police,” who performs on drums and a myriad of percussion instruments (including trash cans to create the sounds of the Roman troops), alongside the orchestra for this movie extravaganza. With its enormous cast and crew and a visual scope that is awe-inspiring to this day, “Ben-Hur” tells the tale of a Jewish prince who is betrayed and sent into slavery by a Roman friend, but lives to regain his freedom and return for revenge. Buckle your seat belt for a wild chariot race, bloody battle scenes at sea and music that enhances every minute of it—all the ingredients for a very special event.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -The Washington Ballet will hold THE BOWIE QUEEN BALL to support education and community engagement programs including THEARC and the extensive public school program DanceDC. Sponsorships are available. The annual gala enables hundreds of children at THEARC in Ward 8 and in the DanceDC program to experience significant dance training and to achieve greater academic and life skills. 

COSTA MESA, CA – Segerstrom Center for the Arts welcomes the return of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in an exclusive Southern California engagement April 6 – 10, 2016. The program includes eight works never before seen at the Center, four Southern California premieres and new productions of Ailey classics. In addition to the three full repertory programs, on April 3 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., the Center and the Company will hold their second free community event – Revelations Celebration – on the Arts Plaza, and on April 6 at 7:30 p.m., Discover Ailey, a special hour-long Ailey mini performance with all seats at just one price.

The Exhibition: This exhibition marks the first critical examination of the significant, albeit brief, work of the BMPT Group, composed of Daniel Buren, Olivier Mosset, Michel Parmentier, and Niele Toroni in 1967.

PITTSBURGH – FUSE@PSO, the popular, genre-bending early evening concert series presented by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, returns Wednesday, March 9 to Heinz Hall with “Stravinsky's Firebird: Remix | Response.”  For this concert, series Creative Director Steve Hackman has crafted a modern dramatization and remix of Stravinsky's ballet The Firebird. Weaved into the Stravinsky are 12 original songs, inspired by the myth of the Firebird and the original 1911 score, that implement modern pop/DJ/electronica production techniques and tell the story in an entirely new and contemporary way.  It is at once a live remix, concept album and classical masterpiece. Joining the Pittsburgh Symphony are rapper Jecorey “1200” Arthur, singer Malia Cievtz, drummer Gabriel Globus-Hoenich and a 15-person female choir.

For a span of thousands of years up until the beginning of the 20th century, artists held the keys to the only form of visually recording happenings staged or otherwise in our daily lives. With the birth and acceptance of photography and cinematography, things changed. Jump to the 21st century, we have the ability to record our lives and share it at the press of a button, to the point where doing it too often in the form of a 'selfie' is a psychological disorder. With her latest body of work Leah Tinari aims to bridge that gap. Taking cues from painters such as, Degas, Lautrec, The Ashcan School, Tinari cleverly combines their style of recording slices of everyday life, with an eye more towards the visual we are used to seeing through our phones. With Tinari's 'selfie' paintings she again cleverly creates a dialogue between 'selfies' and the self portrait paintings of the last few centuries that were their origin.

This underappreciated New York School painter, who died in 1958 at the age of thirty-six, trained with Hans Hofmann (both artists emigrated from Germany), and his early works channel his teacher's preoccupation with color into syncopated, all-over mosaics of solid squares. Müller began integrating figures into his compositions tentatively, as white skeletons against his usual mosaic background, then in the form of ten buck-toothed witches painted on a totem of six stacked wood panels. That work has a companion in Müller's ghoulish tableau of Faust's Walpurgisnacht, which is the anchor for the postwar exhibition “Soldier, Spectre, Shaman,” up now at MOMA. Through March 12.

The team behind Salt Lake Comic Con revealed today that singer, actor, director and screenwriter Nick Carter will be attending Salt Lake Comic Con FanXperience 2016.

Welcome Home, Captain Fox!, Anthony Weigh's new version of Jean Anouilh's hit 1937 comedy Le Voyageur Sans Bagage, will begin previews at The Donmar Warehouse from Thursday 18 February . The production is directed by Blanche McIntyre, and a cast that includes Michelle Asante, Barnaby Kay, Rory Keenan, Katherine Kingsley, Trevor Laird, Sian Thomas, Danny Webb, Fenella Woolgar and Daniel York.

Hello, YOUNGER-ians! Hope you've had a great week, and are ready dive into our weekly YOUNGER recap. This week is chock-full of action, offering some rocky twists and turns for two of our three main couples, a(nother) potential book deal for Millennial, and guest spots from not one, but two (yes, two!!) of Broadway's best!! Intrigued? Well, after that short description, why wouldn't you be? (Lolz). Onward with the recap! 

Wizard World, Inc. (OTCBB: WIZD) today announced that Smith will join Tenth Doctor David Tennant at their first public event together at Wizard World St. Louis

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Washington School of Ballet will hold auditions for TWB@THEARC Summer Dance Programs at its Southeast DC campus. Programs are open to students of various skill levels, ages 4-18. Summer programs are offered  June 27-July 23 and include day and evening classes. 

February 23, 2016 – Richmond, Virginia The annual tradition continues when the Richmond Symphony Youth Orchestra (RSYO) shares the stage with the Richmond Symphony musicians on Sunday, February 28 at 4:00pm. Together they will play side by side, creating a 120 member orchestra! Hear selections from Sibelius, Dvo?ák, and Tchaikovsky in a concert featuring RSYO cellist, Jason Hwang. Hwang is the winner of the 2015 Richmond Symphony Orchestra League Concerto Competition. The performance will be held at the Carpenter Theatre Dominion Arts Center and led by Richmond Symphony Music Director Steven Smith.

EVENT                       2016 Winter Dance WHEN                        Thursday, March 3 ·       Dinner begins at 7 pm ·       Dancing from 8:30 pm to midnight

CANTON, OHIO (February 25, 2016) – After a season that included two World Premieres and one Ohio Premiere, the Canton Symphony Orchestra (CSO) is ready to get back to the basics with its 2016-17 MasterWorks Season.  “The 2016-17 season contains many of the composers that classical music enthusiasts love,” notes Michelle Mullaly, President and CEO of the orchestra. “The guest artists we've engaged will keep the music fresh,” she adds.

Boston, MA (For Release 2.23.16) — Known as the nation's foremost label launched by an orchestra and devoted exclusively to new music, BMOP/sound today announced the release of David Stock: Concertos (Released 2.23.16). Celebrating its recent 2016 Musical America Ensemble of the Year award, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP) under conductor Gil Rose maintains its trademark skill and insight in interpreting and performing the music of today's most innovative composers.

Miro Magloire announces the February 26 & 27 performances of his New Chamber Ballet, an evening of Magloire works set to music by Ravel, Debussy, Schoenberg, and contemporary composers Friedrich Cerha and Beat Furrer.   The season will see the premiere of the complete Gravity and an excerpt from a new work to music by Ravel.  Joining the company for the February performances is Shoshana Rosenfield, former member of New York City Ballet.

Salt Lake Comic Con (http://saltlakecomiccon.com/) announced today that English actress Kate Beckinsale is the latest in a long line of exciting celebrity guests attending FanX 2016.

CHICAGO-February 22, 2015-Visceral Dance Chicago will continue its third season offerings with a Spring engagement at the Harris Theater in Millennium Park, the second mainstage Chicago performance of the company's third season. SPRINGTHREE, as the program is titled, will include world premieres by Artistic Director Nick Pupillo and Marguerite Donlon, as well as exciting works gleaned in the company's past seasons.

Vancouver, BC ~ Demand is high for Vancouver Opera's upcoming production of Giacomo Puccini's beautiful story of honour, love, heartbreak and sacrifice: Madama Butterfly.