Michael Tilson Thomas News

The WALLCAST Concert Experience, a yearlong independent study about the New World Symphony's WALLCAST concerts, is now available to the public. The study reveals that audiences for the format are far more diverse than audiences for traditional classical music concerts. This diversity is reflected across multiple indicators-primarily the age, ethnicity, and socioeconomic backgrounds of attendees.

Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival, one of the world's major music festivals and a beloved summer New York tradition, opens its milestone 50th anniversary season with a series of events, including concerts featuring some of the world's greatest artists.

Lincoln Center and Ehrenkranz Artistic Director Jane Moss announced today the 50th Mostly Mozart Festival, one of the world's major music festivals and a beloved summer New York tradition, with events taking place across Lincoln Center July 22-August 27, 2016.

The fourth and penultimate week of the 50th anniversary season of Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival presents nine performances featuring the best of Mozart's operatic and choral repertoire as well as a highly-anticipated New York premiere.

The San Francisco Symphony (SFS) and Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas (MTT) celebrate the 80th birthday of Steve Reich with a diverse week of concerts highlighting the seminal composer's works September 7-11, 2016 at Davies Symphony Hall.

Lincoln Center announces an artist update for the 50th season's opening program on July 25 and 26. Due to pregnancy, mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke has withdrawn from these performances and will be replaced by Daniela Mack, who makes her New York and Mostly Mozart Festival debuts.

Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival, one of the world's major music festivals and a beloved summer New York tradition, celebrates its milestone 50th anniversary season with eight performances and a variety of superb musicians, including artist debuts, late-night recitals, premieres, and the return of favorite artists during the festival's second week.

Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival, one of the world's major music festivals and a beloved summer New York tradition, opens its milestone 50th anniversary season with a series of events, including concerts featuring some of the world's greatest artists.

Ehrenkranz Artistic Director Jane Moss today announced the schedule for Lincoln Center's seventh White Light Festival, running from October 16 through November 16, 2016. The international multidisciplinary festival, which takes its name from a quotation by the Estonian composer Arvo Part, is an annual exploration of the power of art to illuminate our interior and communal lives. 'I could compare my music to white light which contains all colors. Only a prism can divide the colors and make them appear; this prism could be the spirit of the listener.' - Arvo Part

?San Francisco Opera today announced that it has amended the list of international singers performing at the David Gockley Gala Concert on Thursday, June 16 to now include Sasha Cooke in lieu of Susan Graham, who has withdrawn due to illness. Cooke will sing in the Act III trio “Hab' mir's gelobt” from Der Rosenkavalier and Didon's aria “Ah! Je vais mourir…adieu, fière cité” from Les Troyens.

(UPDATED June 8, 2016) — On July 29-30, members of the Britt Orchestra and Music Director Teddy Abrams will celebrate the unique majesty of Oregon's Crater Lake with six performances at the national park of a world premiere by New York-based composer Michael Gordon, commissioned by Britt Music & Arts Festival and inspired by Crater Lake. Abrams will lead approximately 40 Britt Orchestra musicians in the performances, with the dramatic panorama of the lake as the setting. Joining the Britt Orchestra musicians are 15 members of Steiger Butte Drum, a drum troupe composed of members of the local Klamath Tribes; 30 brass and percussion musicians from Southern Oregon University; and a 50-member chorus. The performances are free, and are being presented as part of the centennial celebration of the U.S. National Park Service. 

SAN FRANCISCO (May 25) – The San Francisco Symphony announces new updates to its annual Summer with the Symphony series, which runs July 4–29at 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.

The New York Philharmonic will present two programs of film music in May 2016: a complete screening of Charlie Chaplin's CITY LIGHTS, May 19, 2016 - with the Orchestra performing Chaplin's score live, conducted by Timothy Brock, who restored the score for live performance - and Disney's FANTASIA, May 20-21, 2016 - in which selections from Fantasia and Fantasia 2000 will be screened as the Orchestra performs the music live, led by Assistant Conductor Joshua Gersen, in honor of Fantasia's 75th anniversary.

The New York Philharmonic will present two programs of film music in May 2016: a complete screening of Charlie Chaplin's CITY LIGHTS, May 19, 2016 - with the Orchestra performing Chaplin's score live, conducted by Timothy Brock, who restored the score for live performance - and Disney's FANTASIA, May 20-21, 2016 - in which selections from Fantasia and Fantasia 2000 will be screened as the Orchestra performs the music live, led by Assistant Conductor Joshua Gersen, in honor of Fantasia's 75th anniversary.

21st century Renaissance man Mason Bates continues his series of high-powered classical/electronica hybrid music events

Blair McMillen and Pam Goldberg are thrilled to present the sixth season of the Rite of Summer Music Festival, taking place Summer 2016 on Governors Island, New York City. Rite of Summer will present free outdoor concerts Memorial Day weekend through late August.

The Cincinnati World Piano Competition (CWPC) Board of Directors and Artistic Director Awadagin Pratt announced details today for the 60th Anniversary Concert at 7:30 PM on Saturday, July 30 at Corbett Auditorium, located at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM).

The New York Choral Society will present Handel's biblical oratorio Israel in Egypt under the baton of Music Director David Hayes, today evening, May 10th, 2016, 8pm at Carnegie Hall's Stern Auditorium. Composed entirely from selected passages from the Bible's Old Testament, Israel in Egypt relates the harshness of the Israelites' captivity in Egypt and their subsequent triumphant escape from the Pharaoh's oppressive regime. Israel in Egypt is atypical in Handel's choral output, as it contains little solo material and is dominated by large-scale virtuosic choruses that exhibit Handel's mastery as a musical storyteller.

The San Francisco Symphony (SFS), led by guest conductor Pablo Heras-Casado, will be the first major symphony orchestra to use Facebook's live video streaming feature 'Facebook Live' to webcast a world premiere to audiences around the globe, for free.

Earth Day has come and gone in 2016, but symphonic orchestra audiences in New York have lots to remember from this year's celebration, with performances of Mahler's DAS LIED VON DER ERDE (SONG OF THE EARTH). In less than a week, we had two different versions of the piece, with differing pluses and minuses: First, the San Francisco Symphony, under its music director, Michael Tilson Thomas performed the work at Carnegie Hall, then Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic had the home court advantage at Lincoln Center's Geffen Hall.