Aaron Copland News

The Minnesota Orchestra announces plans today for Sommerfest 2017, unveiling a celebratory summer festival in which the Orchestra salutes two of its artistic leaders: Doc Severinsen on his 90th birthday, and Sommerfest Artistic Director Andrew Litton, who has announced that this summer will mark his final season as the head of the festival. Running from July 3 to August 5, Minnesota Orchestra's summer season includes two tribute concerts to Pops Conductor Laureate Severinsen; performances by Litton and his friends André Watts, William Wolfram and New York City Ballet dancers; and culminates with the opera Litton has long wanted to conduct in Minnesota, Strauss' Salome. The summer season also involves the annual Symphony for the Cities concerts, two previously announced regular season programs and the return of the Minnesota Orchestra Fantasy Camp.

The Kitchen will present The Blow: Brand New Abyss from March 30-April 1. The Blow is Melissa Dyne and Khaela Maricich. A shape-shifting entity, The Blow has taken various forms over time and manifests in an array of media, employing popular music as a vehicle for broader explorations. Operating between contexts and genres, the duo works with sound recording, performance, installation, writing and physical media, aiming to address and expand the limitations encountered within each framework. The Blow have spent the past three years developing a new body of songs and a new method for producing them: Brand New Abyss marks the completion of an extended compositional odyssey.

The New York Pops brands itself as "a different kind of orchestra," and the proof is in the programming. The orchestra, the largest independent orchestra in the United States, will begin the second half of their season on Friday, March 10, 2017, with a LIFE IS A CABARET: KANDER & EBB, celebrating the music of the legendary duo, and continuing a season (and organization mission) dedicated to featuring a wide variety of performers, composers, and genres.

One of the most legendary musical organizations in the nation, The Apollo Chorus, will conclude its 145th season of masterful musical composition with its highly anticipated Spring Concert: American Masters, featuring the work of musical composer and multiple Emmy Award winner, Jeff Beal. The season finale performances will be Friday, May 5 at 7:30 p.m. at Fourth Presbyterian Church, 126 E Chestnut St., Chicago, and Sunday, May 7 at 3 p.m. at Alice Millar Chapel, 1870 Sheridan Rd., Evanston.

This year marks the beginning of the 80th season for the Canton Symphony Orchestra.  For our 2017-2018 season, we plan to bring concerts full of color and life to the audience.  This season brings back favorite guests of seasons past, and features some of our own musicians soloing with the orchestra.  Some concerts include favorite standards in the classical repertoire, and others expose concert-goers to new music or lesser-known masterpieces for the orchestra.  We hope to see you at our concerts, and maybe even become a subscriber to the Canton Symphony Orchestra!

American Composers Orchestra (ACO), under the leadership of Artistic Director Derek Bermel and Music Director George Manahan, continues its 40th Anniversary Season on Friday, March 24, 2017 at 7:30pm with Orchestra Underground: Past Forward at Carnegie Hall's subterranean Zankel Hall.

Birdland Jazz Club has announced its lineup for March 13-March 19, including Kurt Rosenwinkel and Caipi CD Release Celebration, "Songwriter Circle" featuring Paul Scott Goodman, Neil Berg, Gabe Violett, Rita Harvey, Selda Said & Derek Gregor, Eric Comstock, and more. Scroll down for details!

Esteemed musician Ann Hobson Pilot will receive the League of American Orchestras' highest honor, the Gold Baton, at the League's 72nd National Conference in Detroit,June 6-8, 2017.

The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (CSO) announced today an agreement with current Music Director Louis Langree that extends the conductor's contract through the 2021-2022 season

On April 4, 2017, Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony, along with Broadway star Audra McDonald, celebrate the Bay Area's spirit of inclusion and diversity with a special concert in Davies Symphony Hall recognizing and supporting the Bay Area LGBTQ community.

Birdland will kick-off their great week of programming March 6-12 with the following acts

Birdland Jazz Club has announced its lineup for March 6-March 12, featuring Gary Burton and Mokoto Ozone Duets, Karen Mason, Eric Comstock, and more. Scroll down for details!

The U.S. National Tour of ANNIE, now in its third smash year, will return to the State Theatre in Easton today, February 24.   Directed by original lyricist and director Martin Charnin for the 19th time, this production of ANNIE is a brand new incarnation of the iconic Tony Award-winning original.

This weekend, Grammy-nominated violinist Andres Cardenes returns to Houston for ROCO's annual conductorless concert, PEOPLE ARE PEOPLE. The program features a world premiere violin concerto from composer Ricardo Lorenz, written specifically for Cardenes, and works from Luigi Rodolfo Boccherini, Aaron Copland and Felix Mendelssohn.

On March 22, The Kitchen welcomes back composer, performer and visual artist Arnold Dreyblatt in a shared evening with Brooklyn-based sound artist MV Carbon. For this special concert, Dreyblatt brings along his Excited String Bass (a double bass prepared with unwound music wire) to perform three of his signature works: "Nodal Excitation" (1979), "Calculations" (2005, 2016) and "Spin Ensemble" (2011). Carbon opens the evening by performing "The Quarky Leptonic" (2017), using amplified objects, oscillations, cello, magnetic tape, projection and pattern repetition/variation to experiment with the perception of space and time, as well as the biological response to vibrational frequency and light.

Birdland Jazz Club has announced its schedule for February 27-March 5, including John Pizzarelli Trio, Michael Mott & Friends, Charlto & the John di Martino Trio, and more. Scroll down for details!

On March 17 & 18, The Kitchen presents Tristan Perich: Five Works, two evenings of compositions by the composer/visual artist, including a number of premieres, performed by DUO X88, ACME, DITHER, So Percussion, JACK Quartet and Mariel Roberts. Inspired by the aesthetic simplicity of math, physics and code, Perich's compositions have been described by The Wire magazine as 'an austere meeting of electronic and organic.' 1-Bit Music, his 2004 release, was the first album ever released as a microchip, programmed to synthesize his electronic composition live.

Musiqa, two-time winner of the Chamber Music America/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming, presents American Trios!, the third in its series of major concert series.

Birdland will kick-off their exciting month of programming with the following acts:

Have you ever been told "You'll know that piece when you hear it"?  Or have you heard a popular piece of classical music repertoire and wondered what the exact name was?  The Canton Youth Symphonies hope to help you out with this for their winter concert full of "Popular Classics!"