Yo-Yo Ma News

DETROIT, Mich.— The Sphinx Virtuosi, led by the Catalyst Quartet, considered one of the nation's most dynamic professional chamber orchestras, will embark on its 7th annual tour, launching at Miami's New World Center onTuesday, Sept. 30 at 7:30pm. Comprised of 18 of the nation's top Black and Latino classical soloists, these alumni of the internationally renowned Sphinx Competition come together each fall as cultural ambassadors to reach new audiences. This unique ensemble earned rave reviews from The New York Times during their highly acclaimed debut at Carnegie Hall in December 2004. Allan Kozinn described their performance as “first-rate in every way” and raved that “the ensemble produced a more beautiful, precise and carefully shaped sound than some fully professional orchestras that come through Carnegie Hall in the course of the year.” The Sphinx Virtuosi is an ensemble of The Sphinx Organization, a national nonprofit founded by Aaron P. Dworkin, with Yo-Yo Ma serving as Special Artistic Advisor.

Orange County, Calif.—Aug. 28, 2014—Pacific Symphony launches Music Director Carl St.Clair's landmark 25th-anniversary “season of giants” with classical music superstar, violinist Joshua Bell, plus two orchestral showpieces, a West Coast premiere and festivities fit for the grand occasion. Bell returns for his fifth performance with the Symphony (he last performed with the Symphony in May 2010) to celebrate the maestro and captivate audiences with the exciting, breakneck theme and stunning Romanticism of Alexander Glazunov's Violin Concerto. Interview Magazine may have summed up the remarkable violinist's playing best by saying, Bell “does nothing less than tell human beings why they bother to live.” The violinist's artistry is exemplified in his new music directorship of the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, his release of 40 CDs since the age of 18, multiple television appearances and countless accolades.

SAN FRANCISCO CONSERVATORY APPOINTS San Francisco Symphony violists to performance FACULTY

Music Director Alan Gilbert will launch the New York Philharmonic's 2014-15 subscription season with the U.S. Premiere of Unsuk Chin's Clarinet Concerto -- a New York Philharmonic co-commission with the Gothenburg Symphony, WDR Symphony, Philharmonia, and Barcelona Symphony orchestras -- performed by Kari Kriikku in his Philharmonic subscription debut, as well as Mahler's Symphony No. 1, tonight, September 23, 2014, at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, September 26 at 11:00 a.m.; Saturday, September 27 at 8:00 p.m.; and Tuesday, September 30 at 7:30 p.m.

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra's (CSO) fourth CSO Resound recording with Music Director Riccardo Muti, Prokofiev: Suite from Romeo and Juliet, will be released internationally on Tuesday, September 23, the same date that iTunes will begin its exclusive pre-order in the U.S. While scheduled to be released for sale via retail and download outlets in the U.S. on October 14, the CD will be available exclusively in the CSO's Symphony Store, at 220 S. Michigan Ave., at the CSO's Symphony Center home, beginning September 16.

Leonard Slatkin will return to the New York Philharmonic to conduct the New York Premiere of The Marie-Josee Kravis Composer-in-Residence Christopher Rouse's Flute Concerto, with Principal Flute Robert Langevin as soloist; Copland's El Salon Mexico; Ravel's Gaspard de la nuit (orchestrated by Marius Constant), marking the Philharmonic's first time performing the complete work; and Ravel's Bolero, Thursday, October 30, 2014, at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, October 31 at 7:30 p.m. (performed without intermission); and Saturday, November 1 at 8:00 p.m.

FirstWorks and the City of Providence announce the final line-up of artists from across the globe for the FirstWorks Urban Carnevale. The Urban Carnevale is a celebratory evening of music, spectacle, art, and food capping four days of activities celebrating FirstWorks 10th Anniversary. The free public celebration brings the world to Providence with awe-inspiring performances from Australia, Italy, Morocco, Mali, and Rhode Island tonight, September 20, 2014, starting at 5:00 PM in the Providence Rink and surrounding parks, Kennedy Plaza, downtown Providence.

The Jewish Community Center of San Francisco (JCCSF) takes pride in announcing the 2014-15 Arts and Ideas Season; an exciting line-up of today's acclaimed writers, food experts, renowned scientists and thinkers, as well as fascinating entertainers. Theatrical and musical highlights in the first half of the season include The Magnetic Fields' Stephin Merritt, rock icon Amanda Palmer and actor Richard Chamberlain.

Music Director Alan Gilbert will conduct the New York Philharmonic in Barto?k's Piano Concerto No. 3, with Yefim Bronfman as soloist, and Bruckner's Symphony No. 8 (Ed. Nowak, 1890), Thursday, October 23, 2014, at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, October 24 at 8:00 p.m.; Saturday, October 25 at 8:00 p.m.; and Tuesday, October 28 at 7:30 p.m.

On October 2, 4 and 5, global violin sensation Sarah Chang joins the Houston Symphony for a performance of Barber's intensely lyrical Violin Concerto. The Korean-American violinist has been touted by The New York Times as “technically brilliant, lively and characterful' and has been captivating audiences since her New York Philharmonic debut at age eight.

Internationally renowned artists Steve Aoki and Pink Martini have joined the Honorary Committee for the 13 th Annual Daniel Pearl World Music Days, a global network of performances organized by the Daniel Pearl Foundation.

The next edition of their three-time Emmy-nominated HBO Family Documentary Special will be Joshua Bell: A YoungArts MasterClass. Filmed in New York City and London, the program features internationally acclaimed, Grammy Award-winning violinist Joshua Bell as he mentors, travels, and performs alongside nine talented young string musicians.

Music Director Alan Gilbert will lead the New York Philharmonic in a one-night-only all- Mozart program featuring the Piano Concertos Nos. 17 and 24, with Lang Lang as soloist, and Overture to The Magic Flute, Tuesday, October 21, 2014, at 7:30 p.m.

The Chattanooga Symphony & Opera and Local 80 of the American Federation of Musicians have agreed to a two-year contract covering the 2014/15 and 2015/16 seasons with no cuts in the size or scope of the orchestra and with an increase in musician wages. The agreement maintains the number of rehearsals and performances and the number of musicians as in previous years. Musicians will receive approximately 2% in wage increases over the two-year agreement. It is the first contract to cover more than one year since 2008.

54 BELOW, Broadway's Supper Club, will present two-time Tony Award winner Patti LuPone in 'Far Away Places - Part Two' November 3 -15. In an evening conceived and directed by Tony Award winner Scott Wittman, LuPone returns with Part Two of the show which she premiered to critical acclaim when 54 Below opened in June 2012. In this continuation of the show (which will include a few encores from the landmark Part One) she further explores her wanderlust, performing songs by an eclectic group of songwriters including Irving Caesar, Billy Joel, David Yazbek, Johnny Mercer and Kris Kristofferson.

Roulette presents Interpretations featuring selections from John King's Free Palestine, with A Secret Quartet (Cornelius Dufallo, Jennifer Choi, violins; Lev Zhurbin, viola; Yves Dharamraj, cello). Using materials derived from the Arabic systems of pitch and rhythm, maqam'at and iqa'at, each particular composition uses indeterminacy and improvisation to organize sound and time, thereby providing energetic and visceral motifs encompassing the full range of expression possible from a string quartet.

This season, celebrated mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato curates a multi-part Carnegie Hall Perspectives series that showcases her vocal creativity and multifaceted talents, ranging from programs that include familiar and forgotten repertoire from the Baroque and bel canto eras to works by Jake Heggie written expressly for her. Her series kicks off on Sunday, October 26 at 2:00 p.m. as she sings the title role in a concert performance of Handel's Alcina alongside Harry Bicket and The English Concert.

New York City Center's 11th annual Fall for Dance Festival will feature free performances in Central Park and 24 acclaimed dance companies and artists from around the world, in six unique programs in September and October 2014. In keeping with the Festival's commitment to make dance accessible to everyone, the Festival will kick off with two FREE evenings of dance at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park, in association with The Public Theater, today and tomorrow, September 12 and 13 (rain date, September 14) and will continue at City Center from October 8 - October 19 with all tickets at $15. The Festival's many free pre-show events will include dance lessons and panels by choreographers, artists and dance educators. Tickets will go on sale Sunday, September 14 at 11 a.m.