Sasha Cooke News

San Francisco Opera General Director Matthew Shilvock today announced the Company's 98th season, which opens on September 11, 2020 with an Opening Night Celebration featuring soprano Albina Shagimuratova and tenor Pene Pati in concert with the San Francisco Opera Orchestra conducted by Music Director Designate Eun Sun Kim. Opening Night festivities include San Francisco Opera Guild's Opera Ball, BRAVO! CLUB's annual Opening Night Gala and two new events: the Opera Supper in the Veterans Building's elegant Green Room and, for the entire audience, a celebratory, post-concert toast to the season.

In the dead of winter, 92Y's February concert programs promise intimacy and warmth, along with some new sounds: world premieres by John Zorn, Natacha Diels, and Marcos Balter form the basis of cellist Jay Campbell's program with pianist Conor Hanick (February 14). Alexi Kenney's solo violin recital includes scores by Du Yun, Kaija Saariaho, Reich, Kurtág, Enescu, and others, interspersed with movements of Bach (February 7).

San Francisco Opera presents Engelbert Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel, November 15–December 7.

San Francisco Opera presents Engelbert Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel, November 15–December 7. Last seen on the War Memorial Opera House stage nearly two decades ago, the popular fairy-tale opera returns in an “enchanting” (The Times, UK) new co-production with London's Royal Opera by director and production designer Antony McDonald. Humperdinck's sweeping score will be conducted by Christopher Franklin and sung in English translation by a cast including mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke as Hansel, Heidi Stober as Gretel and Robert Brubaker as the Witch.

Music Director Andrés Orozco-Estrada, an all-star cast of vocalists, the Houston Symphony, and the Houston Symphony Chorus unite on stage for two thrilling choral masterpieces in Mendelssohn and Mahler at 8 p.m., Oct. 4 and 5, and 2:30 p.m., Oct. 6 in Jones Hall.

San Francisco Opera announces Canadian soprano Andriana Chuchman as the winner of the 2019 Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Emerging Stars Competition. Chuchman made her Company debut as Mary Hatch in Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer's It's a Wonderful Life last fall and was named a?oe2019 Emerging Star of the Yeara?? based on a popular vote conducted online at sfopera.com from July 9a?"July 31, 2019. As winner of the competition, now in its fourth year, Chuchman receives a $10,000 cash prize.

Juilliard's Ellen and James S. Marcus Institute for Vocal Arts, under the leadership of artistic director Brian Zeger, announces its 2019-20 season of opera and vocal arts performances. Highlights of the upcoming season include three mainstage operas: Mozart's Così fan tutte, conducted by alumnus Nimrod David Pfeffer and directed by faculty member David Paul, on November 13, 15, and 17, 2019, in Juilliard's Peter Jay Sharp Theater; Virgil Thomson's The Mother of Us All, in collaboration with the Metropolitan Museum of Art's MetLiveArts and the New York Philharmonic with Juilliard singers, conducted by Daniela Candillari and directed by Louisa Proske, on February 8, 11, 12, and 14, 2020, in the Charles Engelhard Court at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; and Puccini's La bohème, conducted by Keri-Lynn Wilson and directed by Stephen Wadsworth, on April 22, 24, and 26, 2020, in Juilliard's Peter Jay Sharp Theater.

Single (non-subscription) tickets for San Francisco Opera's 2019 Fall Season at the War Memorial Opera House are now available for purchase online at sfopera.com, in-person at the San Francisco Opera Box Office and by phone at (415) 864-3330. Tickets are also available for Full, Half and Design Your Own Flexible Series subscription packages, special events such as Opera Ball 2019, the San Francisco Opera Chorus in concert at the Dianne and Tad Taube Atrium Theater and The Future Is Now: Adler Fellows Concert at Herbst Theatre.

Music at Kohl Mansion has announced the lineup for its 2019-2020 season of chamber concerts in Burlingame's historic Kohl Mansion, opening Sunday, October 20, 2019 at 7 pm. The series will mark its 37th year with eight concerts, along with the groundbreaking Violins of Hope residency January-March 2020. Music at Kohl Mansion welcomes the American Chamber Players, the Minetti Quartett, musicians from the Valley of the Moon Music Festival, the Ariel Quartet, cellist Amit Peled, the Fauré Quartett, and the Heath Quartet. The centerpiece of Music at Kohl Mansion's Violins of Hope San Francisco Bay Area project will be the January 19, 2020 concert featuring the world premiere of a new work written specifically for the Violins of Hope by internationally renowned composer Jake Heggie and librettist Gene Scheer, featuring celebrated mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke and violinist Daniel Hope with a string quartet of musicians from the San Francisco Opera Orchestra.

Bright Shiny Things commemorates the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising with the release of AS ONE [BSTC-0127, 1 CD], the original-cast first recording of the highly acclaimed 75-minute chamber opera for mezzo-soprano, baritone, and string quartet.

San Francisco Opera presents George Frideric Handel's Orlando in a bold production by director Harry Fehr that updates the setting to World War II London during the Blitz. English conductor Christopher Moulds makes his Company debut leading the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and a cast of five leading Handelian artists, each of whom is singing their roles for the first time. Handel's rarely performed work of love and madness will be presented June 9 27 at the War Memorial Opera House.

The Colburn School, one of the country's leading performing arts institutions, and Primephonic, a premiere streaming service dedicated to classical music, have partnered to offer dedicated playlists featuring recordings of Colburn School's esteemed alumni, faculty and students.

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.

92Y's Tisch Center for the Arts is proud to announce its 2019/20 Classical season, with more than 50 concerts from mid-October through early June. Curated by DirectorHanna Arie-Gaifman with Artistic Administrator Nicholas Russotto, it may be 92Y's most ambitious season to date, in both size and artistic scope. From solo recitals to chamber operas, the 19/20 offerings epitomize the world-class artistry and intelligent programming for which 92Y is known. Details on individual series and programs follow, along with a chronological list of concerts.

The Mason Bates-Mark Campbell opera, THE (R)EVOLUTION OF STEVE JOBS--which debuted at the Santa Fe Opera in summer 2017--walked off with this year's Best Opera Recording at the Grammys on Sunday night. Michael Christie conducted the Santa Fe Opera orchestra, and the cast. Directed by Kevin Newbury, included Sasha Cooke, Jessica E. Jones, Edward Parks, Garrett Sorenson & Wei Wu. It was produced by Elizabeth Ostrow.

Music's Biggest Night - the GRAMMYs - is here! Live from STAPLES Center, and hosted by Alicia Keys, the 61st Annual GRAMMY Awards will be broadcast on CBS at 8:00 p.m. ET/5:00 p.m. PT. 

Beginning June 5 and continuing through the 29th, San Francisco Opera presents a trio of extraordinary lyric works Georges Bizet's Carmen, George Frideric Handel's Orlando and Anton n Dvo k's Rusalka featuring powerful leading women in the title roles. Spanning three centuries and sung in French, Italian and Czech, the 2019 Summer Season repertory will occasion the Company debuts of four conductors, including two women, in productions that are new to the War Memorial Opera House stage. Some casting updates for the repertory were announced today and additional casting of supporting roles will be released at a future date.

As its programming for 2019/20 again affirms, the spirit of Wigmore Hall is exemplified by both continuity and renewal: artists who have enjoyed decades of association with the Hall and artists it has nurtured into the primes of their careers; the indispensable composers of the past and the innovators and improvisers of today; participatory projects for older people and for children; the irreplaceable immediacy of live concerts and their mediation through technology, bringing them to ever wider audiences via Wigmore Hall's own streaming service or via partners like the BBC.

San Francisco Opera General Director Matthew Shilvock today announced repertory and casting for the Company's 97th Season, opening Friday, September 6, 2019, with a gala performance of Charles Gounod's Romeo and Juliet (Rom o et Juliette) starring tenor Bryan Hymel and soprano Nadine Sierra in Op ra de Monte-Carlo Director Jean-Louis Grinda's production. In keeping with the Company's time-honored tradition, the new season will be inaugurated with San Francisco Opera Guild's elegant, signature benefit and celebration, Opera Ball 2019.