Nico Muhly News

Following the record-breaking attendance of Festival 2013, Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival announces the 2014 Festival schedule. Jacob's Pillow is a National Historic Landmark, home to America's longest-running dance festival, and a recipient of the National Medal of Arts. Noted dance writer Jennifer Dunning has called the Pillow "the dance center of the nation, possibly the world."

Gotham Arts Exchange presents the eighth annual presentation of FOCUS 2014: DANCE GOTHAM from January 10-12, 2014 at New York University's Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, 566 LaGuardia Place (at Washington Square South), NYC.

Gotham Chamber Opera presents Marc-Antoine Charpentier's La descente d'Orphée aux enfers, a co-production with Trinity Church, from tonight, January 1- January 5, 2014 at St. Paul's Chapel, Broadway and Fulton, NYC.

Met Museum Presents and Gotham Chamber Opera presents a double bill co-produced with and staged at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, consisting of Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda by Monteverdi, and a newly commissioned work, I Have No Stories to Tell You, by Gotham Chamber Opera Composer-In-Residence Lembit Beecher, on February 26 and February 27, 2014 at 7pm at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Avenue (at 82nd Street), NYC. Tickets, including admission to the museum, are $175, and can be purchased at http://www.metmuseum.org/events/programs/concerts-and-performances/gotham-opera-1.aspx?eid=4162.

The Metropolitan Opera and Le Poisson Rouge announced details for “Russian Exoticism: From Folk Music to Prince Igor,” a concert at Le Poisson Rouge on Wednesday, January 15 at 8 p.m. Soprano Anna Netrebko will join three stars of the Met's new production of Borodin's Prince Igor for the event—bass-baritone Ildar Abdrazakov, who sings the title role, mezzo-soprano Anita Rachvelishvili, and bass Štefan Kocán. The concert will include arias from Prince Igor and folk songs from the outer reaches of the Russian borders and beyond, as well as selections by other Russian composers also influenced by “exotic” music. Musicians will include pianist Natalia Katyukova, an assistant conductor at the Met.

Judith Clurman's Essential Voices USA will be performing as part of The New York Pops holiday concerts, under the baton of Steven Reineke, at Carnegie Hall on December 19 and 20, 2013. Ms. Clurman will perform Stephen Paulus' choral work Wishes and Candles with her chorus and the orchestra, to honor her friend and colleague Stephen Paulus. It will be performed in a newly orchestrated version by Steven Mercurio. Wishes and Candles was composed in 1998. The text is by Alan and Marilyn Bergman. It is dedicated to Judith Clurman and the Lincoln Center Tree Lighting.

On Sunday, January 26 2014, Pace Presents will welcome PAUL APPLEBY, curated by Matthew A. Epstein at The Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts. Doors at 2:00pm, Show at 3:00pm.

With evergreen beauty, thrilling choruses and heavenly melodies, Pacific Symphony's 'Handel's Glorious Messiah' is as fresh and energizing to the senses as a brand new Christmas tree-the perfect way to start the holiday season! Rejoice in the uplifting 'Hallelujah' chorus and thundering timpani as English guest conductor Christopher Seaman conducts from the harpsichord, leading the orchestra and esteemed vocal soloists Caitlin Lynch, soprano; Barbara Rearick, mezzo-soprano; Daniel Shirley, tenor; and Michael Dean, bass-baritone. Pacific Chorale takes the stage, prepared by Robert Istad, assistant conductor and chorus master, and John Alexander, artistic director. Handel's glowing holiday masterpiece summons bliss within the soul, emphasizing harmony and kindness. One of several holiday concerts offered by the Symphony, 'Messiah' takes place today, Dec. 15, at 3 p.m. in the Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall in Costa Mesa.

Three sopranos will sing their first Met performances of the title role in Puccini's Madama Butterfly at the Met this season.

Emerging operatic powerhouse Paul Appleby, one of this generation's most incredible new tenors, will take the stage at the Michael Schimmel Center For the Arts on Sunday, January 26th as part of Pace's concert series VOCE AT PACE: RISING OPERA STARS. Mr. Appleby is a recent graduate of the Metropolitan Opera's Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, and has already won myriad prizes for his voice, including the the 2012 Leonore Annenberg Fellowship in the Performing and Visual Arts.

Today, December 14, at 7:30 p.m. in Zankel Hall, celebrated conductor David Robertson, music director of the St. Louis Symphony, leads Ensemble ACJW in a performance of Luciano Berio's Folk Songs featuring guest soprano Dawn Upshaw, who last performed the piece at Carnegie Hall in March 2004. ACJW's inventive program also includes Steve Reich's City Life, the composer's homage to his hometown of New York City, and Bartok's Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta.

Miller Theatre at Columbia University School of the Arts presents an intriguing solo recital by renowned Brooklyn-based pianist SIMONE DINNERSTEIN. Dinnerstein's first major performance following the release of her new CD features the Bach Inventions as well as the NY premiere of a work by Nico Muhly. Thursday, January 23, 2014, 8:00 p.m. Miller Theatre (2960 Broadway at 116th Street) Tickets: $35-45 • Students with valid ID: $21-27

Carnegie Hall has announced its April 2014 calendar. Scroll down for details!

Judith Clurman conducts The Composer Speaks: Reason To Be Thankful at the DiMenna Space for Classical Music, 450. 37th St (between 9th and 10th Avenues), New York City, at 8:00 PM tonight, December 10, 2013.

Today, December 7 marks the cultural high point of Rhode Island's holiday season, when the RHODE ISLAND PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA joins forces with THE PROVIDENCE SINGERS, CHRISTINE NOEL, artistic director, in their seventh annual performance of George Frideric Handel's MESSIAH. Soloists include soprano MARTHA GUTH, mezzo-soprano ABIGAIL FISCHER, tenor CHRISTOPHER HUTCHINSON, and bass-baritone MATTHEW BURNS . The Philharmonic's Resident Conductor FRANCISCO NOYAconducts. The perennial favorite holiday concert features a family-friendly start time of 7:00pm today December 7 at The Vets in Providence. WPRO News Talk 630 is the media sponsor. Tickets (starting at $15) are available at www.riphil.org/tickets and the RIPO box office at 401.248.7000.

Centenary celebrations marking the 100th birthday of the late Brooklyn-born tenor Richard Tucker continue on December 14, when New York City's Park East Synagogue, in association with the Richard Tucker Music Foundation, presents a tribute to the cantor-turned-opera star as its ninth-annual benefit concert for the Park East Day School. The program for the special event showcases the American cantorial tradition and commemorates Tucker's devotional art as a cantor. The 8 p.m. concert at the synagogue (163 E. 67th St.) will feature Park East Chief Cantor Yitzchak Meir Helfgot, one of the world's most renowned exponents of the cantorial art, as well as operatic tenor Neil Shicoff, a New York native and veteran of the Metropolitan Opera; also on the program is the Park East Synagogue Choir under music director Russel Ger. Tickets start at $50 with proceeds supporting education activities at the Day School. For more information, contact Park East Synagogue at 212-737-6900 or info@parkeastsynagogue.org.

On Tuesday, January 28 at 8:00 p.m. in Stern Auditorium / Perelman Hall, pianist Emanuel Ax launches a three-concert retrospective focusing on the music of Brahms played alongside new works, all co-commissioned by Carnegie Hall. On the first program, mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter sings the New York premiere of Nico Muhly's So Many Things. Also on the program is Brahms's beloved song cycle, Zigeunerlieder, as well as selected lieder, and solo piano pieces by the composer.

Carnegie Hall has announced its January 2014 calendar updates. Details below!

On Broadway, when a revival loses two out of three of its stars, the production might very well be put off until another season or, at worst, the producers might pack it in. In the opera world, companies don't have that luxury, particularly at a showplace like the Metropolitan Opera. Thus, we received Richard Strauss's DER ROSENKAVALIER, which made its season debut at the Met on Friday night, offering replacements in the two key roles of Sophie and Octavian, with variable results.