Yo-Yo Ma News

Independent Shakespeare Co. (ISC), announced today that EDUARDO A. BRANIFF has been unanimously elected as the new chairman of the board of INDEPENDENT SHAKESPEARE CO. Eduardo has over 15 years experience in creating brands and brand experiences for corporate and cultural enterprises. As CEO and Creative Director of Imagination, he stewarded brands such as Ford, Claire's, SAP, Patron and Coca-Cola. More recently, as Partner of IDEAB he's focused on coaching leaders of creative enterprises in defining more effective growth strategies, leading more engaged teams and creating more compelling company cultures. In addition to serving on the board of Independent Shakespeare Co., he's a board director of Silkroad, Yo-Yo Ma's music and culture foundation. He is a graduate of Yale University.

Itzhak Perlman, the reigning virtuoso of the violin, performs in conjunction with pianist Rohan de Silva at Mayo Performing Arts Center on Saturday, May 7, 2016 at 8 pm. Tickets are $79 - $129.

The California Symphony celebrates its 30th season in 2016-17 and its fourth season with Music Director Donato Cabrera, with a year of special programming that highlights the music by a Young American Composer-in-Residence program alumnus on each of its six concerts at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek. Throughout its 30-year history, the Orchestra has made American repertoire its special focus, nurturing and commissioning work from emerging American composers as well as performing the most revered core classical repertoire.

On September 1, 2017, Leonard Slatkin will become Directeur Musical Honoraire of the Orchestre national de Lyon (ONL). The recruitment process for a new music director has been launched.

The 2016 New York Philharmonic Concerts in the Parks, Presented by Didi and Oscar Schafer, will return for the 51st season with five free outdoor concerts, conducted by Music Director Alan Gilbert, on the Great Lawn in Central Park, Manhattan (June 15 and 16); Prospect Park, Brooklyn (June 17); Cunningham Park, Queens (June 20); and Van Cortlandt Park, Bronx (June 21).

The Richard Tucker Music Foundation is thrilled to announce that soprano Tamara Wilson – whose “voice of steely beauty and great power” (Houston Chronicle) has already won international accolades – has been named as winner of the 2016 Richard Tucker Award. Dubbed the “Heisman Trophy of Opera,” the Tucker Award carries the foundation's most substantial cash prize of $50,000, and is conferred each year by a panel of opera industry professionals on an American singer at the threshold of a major international career. Featuring such luminaries as Renée Fleming, Stephanie Blythe,Lawrence Brownlee, David Daniels, Christine Goerke and Joyce DiDonato, the list of past winners reads like a who's who of American opera.

Music Institute of Chicago, now in its 86th year, hosts its annual gala Wednesday, May 25 at the Four Seasons Hotel Chicago, 120 East Delaware Place. The oldest community music school in Illinois and one of the three largest community music schools in the nation, the Music Institute is planning a celebratory evening highlighted by the presentation of the Dushkin Award to acclaimed violinist Joshua Bell.

This month, the Granada Theatre is excited to partner with the Downtown Organization and proudly display its beautiful flags as part of the State Street Flag Program. From April 6 to April 13, locals and visitors alike can stroll State and look up to see the Granada's dramatic gold and black flags, marked with that iconic red Granada "G", fluttering in the Santa Barbara sunshine.

The Sheen Center for Thought & Culture, located at 18 Bleecker Street, presents a new musical series filled with diverse and dynamic programming. The new series, entitled, 2 - The Art of the Duo, will feature two or more artists traversing the duo form in all its permutations (music, theater, dance, poetry, storytelling and more).

Park City Institute presents its 13th summer season of St. Regis Big Stars, Bright Nights concerts at Deer Valley Resort. The 10 concerts range from country stars Emmylou Harris and Trace Adkins and banjo virtuosos Bela Fleck and Abigail Washburn to trumpeter Chris Botti and chart-topper Mike Posner… All concerts are slated to be held rain or shine at Deer Valley Resort's Snow Park Outdoor Amphitheater.

San Diego, CA -- Pacific Arts Movement, best known as the presenter of the San Diego Asian Film Festival, is proud to announce the full lineup for its 6th Annual Spring Showcase, an eight­ day presentation of 14 film programs from 10 countries, April 28th through May 5th at the Mission Valley UltraStar Cinemas at Hazard Center.

Two Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition winners have been awarded Avery Fisher career grants, a cash prize given to young artists on the verge of major careers. This year grants of $25,000 are presented to violinists Alexi Kenney, Tessa Lark, and Sean Lee, cellist Jay Campbell, and pianist George Li.

The University of Washington announced today that the UW World Series, one of Seattle's leading performing arts presenters, will begin the 2016-17 Season under a new name and identity: Meany Center for the Performing Arts. The change reflects an expanded, more dynamic role as a world-class center for performance, public engagement, learning and creative research in the arts.

Hailed as "an extremely gifted," renowned Israeli violinist Netanel Draiblate will appear at the Museum of Jewish Heritage, on Wednesday, April 6 at 7pm. The

Award- winning young mezzo already has become recognized for her multi-varied sound

The American Symphony Orchestra and music director Leon Botstein return to Carnegie Hall for the ensemble's 55th season of concerts, the Vanguard Series, on October 19, 2016, and continue through May 12, 2017. Four programs of wide-ranging and distinct repertoire will explore notable topics, including an opera and an oratorio, in addition to orchestral works. 

Portland Ovations presents Wu Man and the Shanghai Quartet in a program titled 'A Night in Ancient and New China' at Hannaford Hall at USM Portland for an evening concert on Thursday, March 31st at 7:30pm.

Music Director Riccardo Muti returns to Chicago in April for three weeks of concerts and activities April 7-26 during the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's 125th anniversary season.  Muti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) explore music by Berlioz, Tchaikovsky and Verdi inspired by the works of William Shakespeare in three programs featuring internationally acclaimed soloists as part of the CSO's celebration of Shakespeare in music during a year that marks the 400th anniversary of the Bard's death.

Damian Woetzel continues his DEMO series uniting artists around a common theme, April 22-23, 2016 at 7:00 p.m. in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater. This installment of the multi-genre series features Memphis jookin' dance pioneer Lil Buck, along with fellow jooker Ron "Prime Tyme" Myles, and musicians Sandeep Das (tabla), Johnny Gandelsman (violin), Cristina Pato (gaita), Wu Tong (sheng), David Teie (cello), and singer, song-writer, and multi-instrumentalist Kate Davis. This adventurous cast of musicians and dancers will explore, through their performances, the worlds they came from, collaboratively reinventing their own instruments and art forms around the theme of Place.