Michael Stern News

For its 2014 season, the Oregon Bach Festival has just announced the appointment of organist Paul Jacobs to lead a newly-created Organ Institute. It is arguably the first major festival to add a component devoted exclusively to the study and performance of the organ, which figured so prominently in the compositions and performance life of J. S. Bach.

On Sunday, December 8 at 3:00pm, renowned violinist Philippe Quint's Quint Quintet will perform 'A Night of Tango' at Molloy College's Madison Theatre (1000 Hempstead Ave.) The Quint Quintet was founded by the four-time Grammy Award Nominated violinist in 2009. The ensemble is dedicated to exploring the music of Astor Piazzolla and Argentine Tango. The quintet will include bandoneonist JP Jofre, double bassist Pedro Giraudo, electric guitarist Claudio Ragazzi, and pianist Octavio Brunetti. Russian tango dancers, Michael Nadtochi and Zoya Altmark will also appear.

Ashton Kutcher (No Strings Attached, 'Two and a Half Men') gives the performance of a lifetime in Jobs, a riveting story of a true American visionary, a man who let nothing stand in the way of greatness. Jobs will be available on Digital HD starting today, November 12, 2013, two weeks before it's available on store shelves. Fans can own the movie on Blu-ray and DVD as well as rent it On Demand starting November 26, 2013, from Universal Studios Home Entertainment.

Two works by masters of chamber music instrumentation-Mozart and Schubert-surround the latest contemporary piece by Israeli composer Avner Dorman for the first concert of Pacific Symphony's 2013-14 Cafe Ludwig series, 'Mozart, Schubert and More.' Piano sensation and host Orli Shaham returns for the sixth season to lead principal Symphony musicians including Concertmaster Raymond Kobler on violin, Timothy Landauer on cello, Jessica Pearlman on oboe, Benjamin Lulich on clarinet, Rose Corrigan on bassoon and Keith Popejoy on horn. The program takes place in the charming Samueli Theater, where coffee, tea and desserts are enjoyed along with the intimate array of chamber works on Sunday, Nov. 24 at 3 p.m.

Orange County, Calif.—Nov. 8, 2013—Two works by masters of chamber music instrumentation—Mozart and Schubert—surround the latest contemporary piece by Israeli composer Avner Dorman for the first concert of Pacific Symphony's 2013-14 Café Ludwig series, “Mozart, Schubert and More.” Piano sensation and host Orli Shaham returns for the sixth season to lead principal Symphony musicians including Concertmaster Raymond Kobler on violin, Timothy Landauer on cello, Jessica Pearlman on oboe, Benjamin Lulich on clarinet, Rose Corrigan on bassoon and Keith Popejoy on horn. The program takes place in the charming Samueli Theater, where coffee, tea and desserts are enjoyed along with the intimate array of chamber works on Sunday, Nov. 24 at 3 p.m. Tickets are $60 and $75. Three-concert chamber music subscriptions are available for $156 or $198. For more information or to purchase tickets, call (714) 755-5799 or visit www.PacificSymphony.org.

Whether reserving at a world-famous restaurant, shopping at an open-air market, or being wowed by street food specialties, our culinary experiences on the road are an integral part of travel. Food is discovery, but as Lonely Planet's new literary anthology, A Fork in the Road: Tales of Food, Pleasure & Discovery on the Road, demonstrates, it's also an emotional and transformative journey.

Music Director Robert Spano and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra have announced the appointment of three new full-time musicians. Christopher Todd Skitch, Second Flute, and Stuart Stephenson, Principal Trumpet, joined the Orchestra at the beginning of the 2013-14 season. Violinist Anastasia Agapova will join the Orchestra in November 2013.

Composer Steven Stucky - winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 2005 and nominated for a Grammy Award last season - has been called 'a master of orchestral writing' (Dallas Morning News) and 'a fascinating voice in American composition' (Pittsburg Post-Gazette). His 2013-14 season kicks off today with the premiere of The Stars and the Roses in its chamber version at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia; the San Jose Mercury Newshas said that the 'song cycle - based on the lyric and touchingly optimistic wartime poems of Czeslaw Milosz - seems to paint with light.' From October 25-27 the Kansas City Symphony under Michael Stern performs the piece that earned Stucky his Pulitzer: the Second Concerto for Orchestra, which the Los Angeles Times called 'a colorful, delight-bringing score.' On November 10, the Washington Choral Society opens its season with the East Coast premiere of Stucky's Take Him, Earth, the first of several performances this year of a work composed to mark the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy's assassination. The New Year brings performances of Stucky's take on Purcell's Funeral Music for Queen Mary by the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Bernard Haitink in Boston (Feb 6-8) and at Carnegie Hall (Feb 11); the re-orchestration by Stucky makes Purcell's 17th century masterpiece seem 'as if viewed through rippled glass,' according to the New York Times. Stucky will cap his season with the world premiere of his opera The Classical Style - written to a libretto by Jeremy Denk - at the Ojai Music Festival in California (June 14).

Baltimore-based composer Jonathan Leshnoff's newest commissioned work, Monica Songs, featuring soprano Jessica Rivera and pianist Robert Spano, will receive its world premiere performance on Sunday, October 13, 2013 at U.C. Berkeley. The performance launches the five-city tour of this work, which also includes performances on Oct. 17 at Bailey Hall, Atlanta, Oct. 20 at Smothers Theatre, Malibu, Calif., Oct. 26 at Memorial Hall, Cincinnati and culminates in a performance on Oct. 29 at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, New York. Please see below for complete tour details.

Clarinetist Alexander Fiterstein has recorded an all-Weber album with conductor Martin West and the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra for his debut solo album on the Bridge label, to be released today, October 1, 2013. The album features Weber's two clarinet concertos and his Concertino in E-flat major, and was recorded at Skywalker Sound on George Lukas' Skywalker Ranch outside of San Francisco in March 2011. The album (BRIDGE 9416) is available for purchase from BRIDGE RECORDS, INC. and at Amazon and iTunes.

Ashton Kutcher (No Strings Attached, 'Two and a Half Men') gives the performance of a lifetime in Jobs, a riveting story of a true American visionary, a man who let nothing stand in the way of greatness.

The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts campus is waking to the sweet sounds of a robust Fall harvest of programming with a dynamic line-up of arts offering something for everyone.

On Thursday, November 7, at 8:00 p.m. in Zankel Hall, critically acclaimed 25-year-old cellist Narek Hakhnazaryan performs in recital with pianist Noreen Cassidy-Polera. Mr. Hakhnazaryan, who won the XIV International Tchaikovsky Competition in 2011, and Ms. Cassidy-Polera perform Ligeti's technically demanding Cello Sonata, as well as Humoresque, Op. 5, composed by the cellist's late mentor Mstislav Rostropovich, and Mikhail Bronner's 1995 work The Jew: Life and Death, which reflects upon the tragedy of Jewish history. Also on the program are such traditional works as Rachmaninoff's Cello Sonata in G Minor, Op. 19, and Schumann's Adagio and Allegro, Op. 70.

The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts campus is waking to the sweet sounds of a robust Fall harvest of programming with a dynamic line-up of arts offering something for everyone.

Clarinetist Alexander Fiterstein has recorded an all-Weber album with conductor Martin West and the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra for his debut solo album on the Bridge label, to be released onTuesday, October 1, 2013.

jOBS, the biopic starring Ashton Kutcher as computer wiz Steve Jobs and Josh Gad as Steve Wozniak hits theaters today, August 16th.

On last night's THE COLBERT REPORT on Comedy Central, 'Jobs' star Ashton Kutcher talked about Steve Jobs' innovative mind, brutal honesty and personal history. Check out the appearance below!

The final trailer for Open Road Film's JOBS has been released. The biopic stars Ashton Kutcher as computer wiz Steve Jobs and Josh Gad as Steve Wozniak. The film hit theaters on August 16th. Get a first look below!

Below, check out a new behind-the-scenes JOBS featurette with interviews with the biopic's stars Ashton Kutcher (as the computer wiz Steve Jobs) and Josh Gad (as Steve Wozniak)!