Alisa Weilerstein News

San Diego Symphony Announces Rafael Payare's First Season As Music Director 2019-2020 season celebrates Beethoven at 250 with 12 works across eight months

Bay Area connections abound in Connections, the California Symphony's 33rd season and its seventh under the baton of Music Director Donato Cabrera in a newly expanded season which Cabrera says is a step up artistically compared with previous seasons.

The month of February at the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (TSO) marks the returns of singer & conductor Barbara Hannigan, superstar cellist Alisa Weilerstein, and the National Arts Centre Orchestra. Moreover, Interim Artistic Director Sir Andrew Davis celebrates his birthday on the TSO podium, and some principal players from the Orchestra Jonathan Crow, Joseph Johnson, and Kelly Zimba take centre stage performing Brahms and Debussy.

Rafael Payare's initial concert as Music Director Designate of the San Diego Symphony Orchestra featured four familiar and easily appreciated pieces, including Mozart's Overture to Don Giovanni and the topically related Don Juan by Richard Strauss. In a different program two nights later Payare repeated only Strauss's tone poem. Its optimism recalled the mood of the earlier concert while its darkness signaled the predominant mood of the revised program. San Diego's new conductor-to-be managed to excite sellout audiences both nights.

The California Symphony kicks off 2019 with two performances of A TANGO WITH MOZART at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek on Saturday, Jan. 19 at 8pm and Sunday, Jan. 20 at 4pm. Music Director Donato Cabrera leads a free, 30-minute pre-concert talk for ticketholders, starting an hour before each show.

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts announced today the 2019 class of Emerging Artists, recognizing diverse and exceptional talents. Each recipient was nominated by one of Lincoln Center's eleven resident organizations, acknowledging their extraordinary talent and promising career. The 2019 winners are: singer and actress Mikaela Bennett (The Juilliard School); dancer Savannah Durham (School of American Ballet); composer and sound artist Ashley Fure (Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and the New York Philharmonic); actor Nadine Malouf (Lincoln Center Theater); bassist Endea Owens (Jazz at Lincoln Center); soprano Gabriella Reyes (The Metropolitan Opera); musician Adam Tendler (The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts); dancer Sebastian Villarini-Velez (New York City Ballet); filmmaker Eduardo Williams (Film Society of Lincoln Center); and violinist Angelo Xiang Yu (The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center). Each of the awardees will receive $7,500 to be used for career advancement.

The Symphony has an exciting line-up to kick-off the New Year-starting with its annual January festival entitled, "Hearing the Future." Returning for its fourth year, the month-long festival explores the concept of "creation" and the artistic expression that springs from youthful composers and artists. The festival is curated by composer-conductor and 2018 MacArthur Fellow and Genius Award recipient Matthew Aucoin, a passionate futurist at the age of 28. His ideas on music, theater, poetry, and the world stage reflect his youthful perspective with fervor and an infectious enthusiasm as to what is possible. 

The ASPECT Foundation for Music & Arts continues its third New York City season of illuminating performances today, November 1, 2018 at 7:30pm with Beethoven: Intimate Letters at the Italian Academy at Columbia University. The program features the virtuosic Ariel String Quartet in Beethoven's String Quartet, Op. 18 No. 6 and String Quartet, Op. 131, one of the composers first alongside one of his last.

The ASPECT Foundation for Music & Arts continues its third New York City season of illuminating performances on Thursday, November 1, 2018 at 7:30pm with Beethoven: Intimate Letters at the Italian Academy at Columbia University. The program features the virtuosic Ariel String Quartet in Beethoven's String Quartet, Op. 18 No. 6 and String Quartet, Op. 131, one of the composers first alongside one of his last.

Renowned cellist Alisa Weilerstein, recipient of a 2011 MacArthur "Genius" Fellowship, brings her technical precision and impassioned musicianship to the extraordinary task of performing all six Bach unaccompanied solo Cello Suites in a single evening on Friday, November 9, 2018, at 7:30 pm, in the Bram Goldsmith Theater at The Wallis. This season marks only the third in which she has ventured to perform all six in one evening, after years of playing the pieces individually. Weilersteinhas justly earned international acclaim for emotionally resonant performances of both traditional and contemporary music and has been lauded as "too big a talent to be pigeonholed" (New York Magazine). Bach's Cello Suites are widely considered to be among the composer's greatest works. The music, which "maps humanity in all its triumphs, joys and sorrows" (National Public Radio), was written around 1720 and largely unknown until famed cellist Pablo Casals became the first person to record all six suites, elevating their status so that they are now among the most popular and widely performed cello works ever written.

The San Diego Symphony's annual January Festival returns in its fourth year entitled, Hearing the Future. Throughout the festival, which runs January 9 - 27, 2019, the organization explores and celebrates the power of music and art to give voice to the evolution and revolutions in the world at large. The festival, curated by composer-conductor Matthew Aucoin (b.1990), will shine a spotlight on the music being made today - from composers and performers who are still in high school, to a 90-year-old jazz master. The festival will also explore the way music from the past - from Haydn, Beethoven and Berlioz to the creators of African-American spirituals - engaged with the most urgent issues of their time.

Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, a dynamic hub for the lively arts and vital community resource, presents a dozen classical, jazz and contemporary music programs featuring some of the era's most compelling musical artists during the 2018/2019 season. World premieres, programs with thought-provoking social commentary and timeless iconic works are among the offerings.

 Carnegie Hall's 2018-2019 season is fast approaching, and we are looking forward to exciting new projects and outstanding concerts! Highlights below include Carnegie Hall's Opening Night Gala with the San Francisco Symphony led by Michael Tilson Thomas as he embarks on his season-long Perspectives series; the launch of pianist Yuja Wang's Perspectives series; concerts curated and performed by Chris Thile, holder of the Richard and Barbara Debs Composer's Chair; the debut of Decoda, featuring alumni of Ensemble Connect; concerts celebrating the 50th anniversary of the New York String Orchestra and the 90th birthday of pianist Leon Fleisher; and, coming in spring 2019: a citywide festival-Migrations: The Making of America.

2018-19 California Symphony season opener BEETHOVEN & BERNSTEIN features a return visit for internationally renowned pianist Charlie Albright, playing Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3, and a celebration of beloved works by American icon Leonard Bernstein, including Symphonic Dances from West Side Story. Three Latin-American Dances for Orchestra by California native Gabriela Lena Franks rounds out a high-energy start to Donato Cabrera's sixth season as Music Director with the California Symphony.   Fast Facts:

As of today, individual tickets for the Toronto Symphony Orchestra's 2018/19 performance season are available for purchase online at TSO.CA, by phone (416.593.1285), and in person at the TSO Patron Services Centre or the Roy Thomson Hall Box Office.

On behalf of the California Symphony board of directors, President Bill Armstrong announces Music Director Donato Cabrera and Executive Director Aubrey Bergauer have both agreed to separate contract extensions, effective August 1.

Single tickets are on sale now for the 2018-19 Harris Theater Presents season, a roster that includes music and dance artists of the highest caliber dedicated to preserving artistic lineage, reimagining classical works, and embarking on innovative, multi-disciplinary collaborations.

The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts announced today the 2018/2019 season, delivering ten months of groundbreaking produced and presented works in dance, music and theater from locally, nationally and internationally renowned artists and companies. The season begins September 21, 2018, marking the third year of programming under the leadership of Artistic Director Paul Crewes and Managing Director Rachel Fine and the sixth for the institution. Michael Nemeroff, Chairman of the Board of The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, begins the second year of his term.

The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts announced today the 2018/2019 season, delivering ten months of groundbreaking produced and presented works in dance, music and theater from locally, nationally and internationally renowned artists and companies. The season begins September 21, 2018, marking the third year of programming under the leadership of Artistic Director Paul Crewes and Managing Director Rachel Fine and the sixth for the institution. Michael Nemeroff, Chairman of the Board of The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, begins the second year of his term. 

The Shanghai Orchestra Academy and Residency Partnership continues this summer with activities on two continents. The New York Philharmonic travels to Shanghai for its fourth annual residency, July 1-7, 2018, with concerts conducted by Music Director Designate Jaap van Zweden and Bramwell Tovey. This follows students from the Shanghai Orchestra Academy traveling to New York City for a week-long immersion in the life of an orchestral musician, June 9-16, 2018, as part of the New York Philharmonic Global Academy Fellowship Program. Starr International Foundation is the Presenting Sponsor of the Shanghai Orchestra Academy and Residency Partnership.