Ravinia Festival News

The Laguna Playhouse Executive and Artistic Directors, Karen Wood and Ann E. Wareham will present their second special bonus offering of their 2013 season, the world premiere production of a new musical play, ROCKSTAR, featuring the music of Franz Liszt and others, written and performed by Hershey Felder and directed by Trevor Hay.

James Conlon, Music Director of LA Opera, the Ravinia Festival, and the Cincinnati May Festival, has cancelled two August engagements to undergo surgery to remove an inflamed portion of his colon as a result of diverticulitis. The surgery will take place in New York, and Mr. Conlon's prognosis is for a full recovery following three to four weeks recuperation after surgery.

The Joffrey Ballet, led by Artistic Director Ashley Wheater and Executive Director Greg Cameron, is pleased to announce that local philanthropist, Marcus Lemonis, Chairman and CEO of Camping World and Good Sam and star of CNBC's The Profit, has made a substantial leadership gift to support and enhance the ongoing work of the Joffrey's Bridge Program, a dance education residency in Chicago Public Schools. In recognition of this gift, the program will now be known as The Joffrey Ballet Lemonis Bridge Program.

Kicking off its 26th Season, Lookingglass Theatre Company presents the World Premiere of Marguerite Duras' The North China Lover, adapted and directed by Ensemble Member Heidi Stillman. The North China Lover runs September 25 - October 4, 2013 at Lookingglass Theatre Company, located inside Chicago's historic Water Tower Water Works, 821 N. Michigan Ave. at Pearson. The Press Opening is Saturday, October 5, 2013 at 7:30 p.m.

Tonight, 4 August, the Hugo Concert Series will present the award-winning Grammy nominated pianist Petronel Malan in a highly anticipated recital that will include works by Haydn, Schumann, Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky and Liszt.

The Juilliard String Quartet concert on October 26th will offer up a few 'firsts' for concert-goers to Chamber Music Monterey Bay's (CMMB) 47th season opener. The season marks the inaugural one for the Quartet's new violist Roger Tapping who replaces longtime violist Samuel Rhodes. Rhodes performed his farewell concert with the Quartet at July's Ravinia Festival in Illinois. Another 'first' will be the West Coast premiere of Jesse Jones' commissioned work for the Juilliard: String Quartet No. 3, 'Whereof man cannot speak...' Rounding out the program will be Haydn and Beethoven.

The modern sensibility that is the hallmark of every performance and recording by Boston Baroque, North America's first permanent Baroque orchestra, is now reflected in the ensemble's new website, launched Wednesday, July 17, 2013.

Music Director Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) announce the appointment of Miles Maner as the CSO's new contrabassoon/bassoon, effective July 29, 2013. Maner joins the CSO having served as associate principal bassoon/contrabassoon of the Kansas City Symphony since 2010. He also serves as principal bassoon at the Breckenridge Music Festival in Colorado, a post he has held since 2010.

Julia Goodwin is the 2013 winner of the Great American Songbook Vocal Academy and Competition. The 15-year-old is from Baldwinsville, New York. During the finals concert on July 26, she sang two American standards: 'Dream A Little Dream of Me,' and 'Feeling Good.'

Conductor James Conlon received the 2012 Cohon Award from the Rabbi Samuel S. and A. Irma Cohon Memorial Foundation in a ceremony hosted by the Illinois Holocaust and EducationCenter in Skokie, IL on Tuesday, July 23. Mr. Conlon was honored with the Cohon Award in the "Creative Arts" field for his unique work in recovering the music of composers suppressed by the Nazi regime, thus contributing significantly both to Jewish history and to the world of music. The 2012 Cohon Award carries a prize of $30,000, which Mr. Conlon requested be directed to The OREL Foundation, www.orelfoundation.org, an invaluable resource on the topic of suppressed composers of the Twentieth Century for music lovers, students, musicians and scholars.

The latest in unauthorized gossip and buzz from the heart of Chicago's showtune video bars, and musical theater news from Chicago to Broadway. Two shows called 'Whistle,' plus 'Superman,' 'Hedwig,' 'Seussical,' 'All Shook Up,' '9 To 5' and 'Teen Beach Movie,' a trip to England and the latest in summer concerts!

The Knights resume their annual two-concert summer collaboration with Central Park's Naumburg Orchestral Concerts, now in their fifth consecutive season, with a program led by co-founder and artistic director Eric Jacobsen on July 30, featuring the world premiere of the innovative orchestra's own group composition Chaconne, and a collaboration with tenor Nicholas Phan. Recently hailed as a "major new Britten interpreter" by the New York Times, Phan joins The Knights and hornist Michael P. Atkinson to honor the Britten centennial with a rendition of the English composer's Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings, which they will then reprise at Chicago's Ravinia Festival on September 3. This second collaboration is part of an extended Chicago-based Britten residency for Phan, beginning with the starring role in a Britten church parable, performed with soloists from the Chicago Symphony (Aug 17), then as Artistic Director of Collaborative Arts Institute of Chicago's Britten-centenary themed 2013 Collaborative Works Festival(Sept 11-15), and culminating in a solo Britten recital with The University of Chicago Presents (Oct 18).

Summer in Chicago wraps up in August with the final weeks of the Grant Park Music Festival, led by Artistic Director and Principal Conductor Carlos Kalmar and the Grammy Award-nominated Grant Park Orchestra, along with Chorus Director Christopher Bell and the Grant Park Chorus in the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Chicago's Millennium Park. In August, the Festival's dynamic programming features the Grant Park Chorus, saxophone virtuoso James Carter, pianist and YouTube sensation Valentina Lisitsa,a collaboration with the Lyric Opera's Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center and two performances honoring the hundredth anniversary of Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring.

The Annapolis Symphony Orchestra (ASO) is pleased to announce its 2013-2014 concert season. Under the continued artistic leadership of Music Director José-Luis Novo, the season will feature the Lexus Classic Series, a combination of five classical concerts, as well as a Holiday Pops concert sponsored by PNC Wealth Management, a Family concert and a free summer Pops in the Park concert presented by Lexus. All concerts are performed at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts in Annapolis, MD with the exception of the Pops in the Park concert which is held at Quiet Waters Park amphitheater, also in Annapolis.

Sony Classical will release Leon Fleisher: The Complete Album Collection a 23-CD deluxe box set spanning the legendary pianist's fifty-five years recordingfor the Columbia/Epic and Sony Classical labels from 1954-2009, yielding some of classicalmusic's definitive recordings. The release comes exactly one week before Fleisher's 85th birthday today, July 23, 2013, and is supported by a full schedule of appearances as pianist, conductor, and mentor, in the coming year.

On Sunday 4 August, the Hugo Concert Series will present the award-winning Grammy nominated pianist Petronel Malan in a highly anticipated recital that will include works by Haydn, Schumann, Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky and Liszt.