Peter Sellars News

The Juilliard School today announced that choreographer Alonzo King, actress Rita Moreno, and composer Kaija Saariaho will receive honorary doctorates during the school's 114th commencement ceremony

The June 2019 So-fi festival announces that it will be presenting works at The Clemente's Los Kabayitos and Flamboyan Theaters (107 Suffolk St. between Rivington & Delancey) and Westbeth (463 West Street between Bethune and West 12th St) June 6th-23rd 2019.

The International Contemporary Ensemble, 'America's foremost new-music group' (Alex Ross), performs Tyshawn Sorey'sPerle Noire: Meditations for Josephine featuring star soprano Julia Bullock on Friday, May 3, 2019 at 10pm at Oberon, the American Repertory Theater's club venue. Perle Noire: Meditations for Josephine honors the brilliance, daring, courage, and tragedies of Josephine Baker in a production conceived by Peter Sellars with original music by Tyshawn Sorey and texts by Claudia Rankine, both MacArthur Fellows.

High Tides is the second album by  Constance Hauman. Her critically acclaimed recording, Falling Into Now, made The Guardian's list of the 10 Best Albums of 2015. High Tides features eight new songs written by Hauman and two covers, Everlong by Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters and Les Chemins de l'Amour by French composer, Francis Poulenc. High Tides was produced by Constance Hauman and Ross Pederson - who was also the recording and mix engineer and performs throughout the album on drums, bass and midi.

American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) at Harvard University announces April and May 2019 programming at OBERON, its club theater space for cutting-edge performance and a thriving incubator for local and emerging artists. Upcoming events include A.R.T. Breakout, Live @ OBERON, and Afterglow @ OBERON series, A.R.T. presentations, and independently produced events.

The University of Washington's Meany Center for the Performing Arts, under the leadership of Executive and Artistic Director Michelle Witt, announces its 2019/20 Season with a lineup of 23 adventurous and visionary artists from around the globe. One of the nation's leading university presenters, Meany Center brings artists of exceptional artistry and diverse perspectives to Seattle, providing extraordinary performances and unique learning experiences to both community and campus. The 2019/20 Season explores the theme of empathy in the arts and celebrates the 250th anniversary of the birth of Ludwig van Beethoven, an artist whose life and work resonates with the season's theme. The new season will also feature work by two Creative Research Fellows participating in the UW's Creative Fellowships Initiative, choreographer Brian Brooks and performance artist Daniel Alexander Jones.

Thousands of movie lovers have seen the acclaimed films Us, How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, and Captain Marvel in recent weeks. In May the Los Angeles Master Chorale gives fans the chance to hear them, performing music by composers Michael Abels, John Powell, and Pinar Toprak in a concert celebrating film scores and opera ensemble writing called Great Opera & Film Choruses at Walt Disney Concert Hall. There will be two performances; Saturday, May 4 at 2 PM and Sunday, May 5 at 7 PM with many of the Los Angeles-based film composers expected to be in attendance.

New York City Opera has announced that Blythe Gaissert & Michael Kelly and Briana Elyse Hunter & Jorell Williams will comprise the rotating casts of its upcoming production of AS ONE.

Vocalist Julia Bullock will be the host of opera programming on the new ALL ARTS broadcast channel and streaming platform. Bullock has been hailed by Vanity Fair as “one of opera's fastest-rising stars,” and according to The New York Times, she “has anchored some of the most innovative performances of recent years.”

Contemporary vocal ensemble Theatre of Voices, along with Artistic Director Paul Hillier, return to Zankel Hall on Wednesday, March 20 at 7:30 p.m. for the world premiere of the complete cycle of David Lang's the writings. Also on the program is the New York premiere of Songs from the Soil, with music by Arvo Pärt and a visual poem by award-winning Danish filmmaker Phie Ambo. On this program, Theatre of Voices is joined by Yale Voxtet.

On February 21, the Praemium Erasmianum Foundation announced that John Adams is the winner of the 2019 Erasmus Prize, which is awarded annually to a person or institution that has made an exceptional contribution to the field of humanities, social sciences or the arts. The theme of this year's Erasmus Prize is “Composing for today.”

Mark Murphy has announced his decision to leave REDCAT (Roy and Edna Disney CalArts Theater), the California Institute of the Arts' contemporary performing arts and exhibition space located in The Walt Disney Concert Hall, at the end of the 2018/2019 season, in order to focus his attention on initiating new creative programs and productions in a variety of US and international cities. Murphy has led REDCAT for more than seventeen years, starting as its founding Executive Director in 2001, before overseeing the grand opening of the facility in 2003. Edgar Miramontes, Associate Director at REDCAT, will assume additional duties of interim leadership until a permanent appointment is made.

The Los Angeles Master Chorale - the country's preeminent professional choir and choir-in-residence at Walt Disney Concert Hall - will reveal a new collaboration with acclaimed artist and filmmaker Doug Aitken at GALA 2019 on Saturday, March 23. The Gala will be held at the Marciano Art Foundation at 4357 Wilshire Boulevard from 5:30PM - 10PM, providing guests with a rare opportunity to enjoy exclusive evening access to the contemporary art gallery's collection and exhibitions in addition to a special preview performance of the commission from Doug Aitken performed by the Master Chorale conducted by Grant Gershon, Kiki & David Gindler Artistic Director.

Mark Murphy has announced his decision to leave REDCAT (Roy and Edna Disney CalArts Theater), the California Institute of the Arts' contemporary performing arts and exhibition space located in The Walt Disney Concert Hall, at the end of the 2018/2019 season, in order to focus his attention on initiating new creative programs and productions in a variety of US and international cities. Murphy has led REDCAT for more than seventeen years, starting as its founding Executive Director in 2001, before overseeing the grand opening of the facility in 2003. Edgar Miramontes, Associate Director at REDCAT, will assume additional duties of interim leadership until a permanent appointment is made.

Bard College announces the appointment of world-renowned composer, conductor, and artist Tan Dun as Dean of the Bard College Conservatory of Music. As dean, Tan Dun will guide the Conservatory in fulfilling its mission of teaching young musicians both new music and music history, while deepening an understanding of its connection to history, art and culture, and society. He will also help to build the synergy between Eastern and Western studies at the Conservatory, including its recently founded US-China Music Institute.

The International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) announces their spring 2019 season concerts. Engagements this spring include performances of Tyshawn Sorey's Perle Noire: Meditations For Josephine featuring rising soprano Julia Bullock at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Miller Theatre Composer Portraits of Wang Lu and Tyshawn Sorey, three performances at the 2019 Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, and Silent Voices: Lovestate with the Brooklyn Youth Chorus at The New Victory Theater in NYC. The Ensemble also continues its partnerships with the New York Public Library and Nokia Bell Labs Experiments in Art and Technology throughout the spring.

With a formidable cast of three, and a brilliant ensemble of voices and instrumental musicians, Kaija Saariaho's ONLY THE SOUND REMAINS swept through town last weekend, created with director Peter Sellars. Once again, she left us in awe of how she can fill an impossibly large theatre with what seems on paper to be the tiniest of works.

San Francisco Opera Guild will honor Bay Area philanthropists John A. and Cynthia Fry Gunn at the sixth annual An Evening on the Stage on Wednesday, November 28. The gala dinner on the stage of the War Memorial Opera House is co-chaired by Kim Dempster and Linle J. Froeb. The set of composer Jake Heggie and librettist Gene Scheer's holiday opera It's a Wonderful Life provides the magical backdrop for this year's event, when the Opera Guild's 2018 Crescendo Award will be presented to John Gunn, Chairman of San Francisco Opera's Board of Directors, and arts patron Cynthia Fry Gunn. Passionately committed to the art form and actively involved in the leadership of the Company, the Gunn's magnanimous support has set an extraordinary standard in the community.

Works & Process, the performing arts series at the Guggenheim, presents Sergei Prokofiev's charming children's classic Peter & the Wolf.Isaac Mizrahi narrates and directs as Brad Lubman (Dec 1-2) and Oliver Hagen (Dec 7-9) conduct Ensemble Signal and a cast wearing costumes by Mizrahi performs choreography by John Heginbotham, bringing the 30-minute story to life for the young and young at heart.

American violinist Jennifer Koh showcases chamber works and a violin concerto by the visionary and much-honored contemporary Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho on her new album Saariaho X Koh from Cedille Records.