Rufus Wainwright News

Toronto – Soprano Karine Bocher from Quebec City took home first prize and the Audience Choice Award at the Canadian Opera Company's third annual Ensemble Studio Competition on November 26, 2013, at the

Out of a pool of 155 young, aspiring opera singers from across the country, the Canadian Opera Company has selected nine to compete in the third annual COC Ensemble Studio Competition today, November 26, 2013 at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts.

Paris celebrates Robert Wilson. In November, he will be directing famed dancer and actor Mikhail Baryshnikov and world-renowned actor Willem Dafoe in The Old Woman, an adaptation of the work by Russian author Daniil Kharms, at Theatre de la Ville and Christopher Knowles in The Sundance Kid is Beautiful at The Louvre. Mr. Wilson will be the Louvre's artist in residence from mid-November 2013 to mid-February 2014 with exhibitions of Living Rooms and his voom portraits of Lady Gaga. In December, his Peter Pan with the Berliner Ensemble will be at Theatre de la Ville, and in January, his iconic opera with Philip Glass, Einstein on the Beach, will return to Paris at the Theatre du Chatelet. In February, his Madama Butterfly will be at the Paris Opera Bastille. Honored in France as Commandeur de la Legion d'Honneur, he is a member of the Arts Arena Advisory Council and will receive an Honorary Doctorate from the Sorbonne University in November.

Now in its 16th season, Lincoln Center's acclaimed series American Songbook will continue to expand its scope celebrating the best in American singing and songwriting. New this year, the opening night concert will befree, in the David Rubenstein Atrium, on Wednesday, January 22, 2014. 'Live From Lincoln Center,' the Emmy Award-winning program broadcast nationally on PBS stations, will shoot four of the first week's American Songbook concerts in The Allen Room: by James Naughton, Lawrence Brownlee, Jason Isbell, and Patina Miller. These performances will be broadcast nationally beginning in Spring 2014. In addition, American Songbook concerts taking place in the Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse at Lincoln Center will be live-streamed via http://watch.lincolncenter.org.

Out of a pool of 155 young, aspiring opera singers from across the country, the Canadian Opera Company has selected nine to compete in the third annual COC Ensemble Studio Competition on November 26, 2013 at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts. The Ensemble Studio Competition is the feature event at the COC's first annual fundraising gala, Centre Stage, an evening dedicated to the discovery and celebration of the next generation of opera stars.

Elvis Costello embarks on SOLO East Coast U.S. Tour with Philadelphia Stop at Merriam Theater tonight, November 10 at 8 p.m. Costello's performance includes new work from Wise Up Ghost (released September 17, Blue Note Records), the collaborative album of Costello and The Roots, produced by longtime Roots associate Steven Mandel along with Costello and ?uestlove.

They get their wish at 7:30 pm on Tuesday, December 3, when Pink Martini, with singer China Forbes, will present a holiday show that deftly mixes American standards including "White Christmas" and "We Three Kings" with holiday songs from such countries as Italy, Israel and the Ukraine.

TeenTix, an arts access and engagement program for teenagers, is pleased to announce the addition of its forty-ninth and fiftieth partner organizations, Edmonds Center for the Arts and University of Washington Undergraduate Theatre Society (UW UTS).

Now in its 16th season, Lincoln Center's acclaimed series American Songbook will continue to expand its scope celebrating the best in American singing and songwriting. New this year, the opening night concert will befree, in the David Rubenstein Atrium, on Wednesday, January 22, 2014. 'Live From Lincoln Center,' the Emmy Award-winning program broadcast nationally on PBS stations, will shoot four of the first week's American Songbook concerts in The Allen Room: by James Naughton, Lawrence Brownlee, Jason Isbell, and Patina Miller. These performances will be broadcast nationally beginning in Spring 2014. In addition, American Songbook concerts taking place in the Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse at Lincoln Center will be live-streamed via http://watch.lincolncenter.org.

Baby Jane Dexter's new show, More Rules of the Road,debuts at Metropolitan Room for six performances only beginning Friday, November 22 and running on Fridays, a Saturday and one Thursday through December 27

Under the artistic direction of Philip Glass, In the Spirit features an extraordinary array of acclaimed musicians to celebrate the great spiritual and cultural traditions stretching from Tibet and China to Africa, the Middle East, and the West.

Following a successful engagement at Joe's Pub in New York City, Joey Arias and Kristian Hoffman bring their acclaimed show Lightning Strikes to Feinstein's at the Nikko for one performance only - tonight, October 24 at 8 p.m.

Under the artistic direction of Philip Glass, In the Spirit features an extraordinary array of acclaimed musicians to celebrate the great spiritual and cultural traditions stretching from Tibet and China to Africa, the Middle East, and the West.

Hotel Nikko San Francisco and Michael Feinstein are excited to welcome home San Francisco's own, legendary, award-winning, extraordinary performer Connie Champagne to Feinstein's at the Nikko for one performance only - Wednesday, December 18 at 8 p.m.

To honor Verdi's 200th birthday, LA Opera will present a new production of the crowning glory of the composer's magnificent career, his comic masterpiece Falstaff. LA Opera Music Director James Conlon, praised internationally for his mastery of Verdi, conducts this unabashed celebration of Merrie Olde England's lusty days and bawdy nights, starring Italian baritone Roberto Frontali. When Shakespeare's portly knight of Windsor hatches a plot to improve his love life by courting two different married women, he launches a flood of comic chaos and romantic misadventure.

The Metropolitan Opera has announced the addition of three new composers to its Met/LCT New Works Program. Matthew Aucoin, David T. Little, and Joshua Schmidt, three critically heralded young composers, have signed on to develop new operas through the program, which allows gifted composers and librettists to workshop new material for the opera and music theater stages, using the resources of the Met and Lincoln Center Theater. Nico Muhly's Two Boys, workshopped through the program, will have its North American premiere at the Met on October 21.

Judy Collins' unique artistry has captivated audiences for over fifty years and landed her a spot in the Grammy Hall of Fame. Stephen Holden of The New York Times has praised her for evoking "the kind of ethereal, far-sighted reflection that is her special artistic territory." Cafe Carlyle welcomes back the legendary singer-songwriter for a two-week solo engagement, October 15 - October 26.

With Music Director Peter Oundjian's tenth season in full swing, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra presents 24 concerts in October and November. The October performances range from Benjamin Britten's brilliant Violin Concerto performed by James Ehnes; to a special appearance by Rufus Wainwright, whom Elton John called the 'the greatest songwriter on the planet'; to a new performance experience featuring mesmerizing acrobats in Cirque de la Symphonie; to acclaimed Canadian pianist Janina Fialkowska performing the Piano Concerto by esteemed Polish composer, Witold Lutos?awski.