Andrew W. Mellon News

This July, Carnegie Hall brings together close to 200 of the best teen musicians from across the country for a month of exceptional music making as part of two exciting ensembles. The critically-acclaimed National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America (NYO-USA), now entering its fifth year, is comprised of 116 musicians, ages 16-19. NYO2, a new group launched in summer 2016 for younger players, ages 14-17, was created with a particular focus of attracting talented students from communities traditionally underserved or underrepresented in the classical music field. In total, the musicians of NYO-USA and NYO2 come from 40 US states, plus Puerto Rico. Both programs are free, ensuring that all promising young players can have the opportunity to take part in this unique community of musicians-learning from a world-class faculty, playing alongside talented peers, and performing with leading artists on the stages of some of the most prestigious concert halls in the world, including Carnegie Hall.

LUMBERYARD Contemporary Performing Arts will conclude its second annual LUMBERYARD in the City festival with the New York premiere ofDearest Home, a new work from 2013 MacArthur "Genius" Award-winner Kyle Abraham and his company Abraham.In.Motion, June 28 - July 2. An interactive dance work developed over multiple years, through conversations with people from a variety of age groups and subcultures, Dearest Home focuses on love, longing and loss, and explores the different ways we experience and talk about them.

Theatre for a New Audience (TFANA; Jeffrey Horowitz, Founding Artistic Director) is pleased to announce casting for British director Simon Godwin's new staging of Measure for Measure, William Shakespeare's dark comedy about justice, faith, power, sex, and family. The production, which marks Godwin's first time directing Shakespeare for an American company, runs June 17 - July 16 at Polonsky Shakespeare Center (262 Ashland Place) in the Brooklyn Cultural District.

“A prolific choreographer of skillfully constructed dances that respectfully mesh with music and striking visual design” (The New Yorker), Jessica Lang and her company return to Jacob's Pillow for the ensemble's first Ted Shawn Theatre engagement, July 5-9. In addition to a Pillow-commissioned world premiere work, the program includes Lang's Thousand Yard Stare, a dance embodying the incredible pride and honor as well as the searing loss experienced by military veterans. The program will also include the East Coast and company premiere of Lang's Lyric Pieces as well as Solo Bach, Sweet Silent Thought, and The Calling. This season, the Pillow has formed a partnership with the Tanglewood Music Center, whereby Tanglewood Fellows and alumni will be providing the music accompaniment for this engagement.

Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for theatre, announces that at the 27th TCG National Conference: Full Circle in Portland, OR, from June 8-10, the following awards will be presented.

Acclaimed Off-Broadway theater company Playwrights Horizons has opened its 2017 Online Auction.

Following successful, sold-out ballet festivals in 2013 and 2015, The Joyce Theater Foundation (Linda Shelton, Executive Director) is thrilled to once again present a two-week festival of ballet showcasing some of America's most exciting contemporary companies and choreographers with Joyce commissions on each program. The remarkable Ballet Festival, co-curated by Curatorial Associate John Selya, is designed to recognize dancers and choreographers who are creating work outside the traditional large company setting - and, in many cases, forming their own companies - will take place from July 18 - 29 at The Joyce Theater.

Adele Myers' The Dancing Room is an intimate visual wonderland of illumination, laughter and elegance. The work features collaborator and interactive media artist, John Slepian, ongoing collaborator and composer, Josh Quillen (of S? Percussion), visual and lighting director Kathy Couch, and costume designer Heidi Henderson. The Dancing Room is performed in the round by four female athletes of the heart for no more than 30 audience members.

Ensemble Connect - a program that prepares musicians for careers that combine musical excellence with teaching, community engagement, advocacy, entrepreneurship, and leadership - presents its first Audience Engagement Institute for established chamber ensembles in Carnegie Hall's Resnick Education Wing from June 8-15, 2017.

Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC) presents the 16th annual River To River Festival, Downtown New York City's completely free summer arts festival, June 14-25. The 2017 edition presents an array of performances and events exploring and celebrating diversity in all its forms-often blurring the lines between genres including dance, music, theater and the visual arts-over the course of 100+ performances and events spanning 17 projects at 31 unique sites across Lower Manhattan and Governors Island. The Festival also offers opportunities for audiences to interact with artists, socialize and experience multiple facets of artists' work and the creative process.

Public Theater Artistic Director Oskar Eustis and Executive Director Patrick Willingham announced the line-up today for The Public's Astor Anniversary Season at their landmark downtown home on Lafayette Street, celebrating 50 years of new work at 425 Lafayette.

SHOTZ! is a theatrical pressure cooker that every month pairs 6 groups of actors, writers, and directors together to create brand new 10-minute plays, and perform them the first Monday of the month at The Kraine Theater, 85 E. 4th St., NY.

Cuban Lens, a one-day film showcase at NYU's King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center, offers context and clarity about those recent Cuban changes through film. It presents emerging filmmakers whose short works capture that transformation.

Tony Award-winning director Kenny Leon and True Colors Theatre have announced Jamil Jude will be joining True Colors Theatre Company in the position of Associate Artistic Director starting in September 2017.

The Virginia Arts Festival will present the world premiere performances of the new chamber opera Kept: a ghost story at Norfolk's Attucks Theatre May 25 at 7:30 p.m. and May 28 at 3 p.m.

BAX is proud to welcome 2017-18 Artists in Residence (AIR) and Space Grant recipients. This group of artists embodies a vision, promise, and deep commitment to investigative practices in line with their and BAX's core values. Together, we are making space for bold and challenging work that asks deep questions about our ever-changing world and our place in this world.

The International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), returns to the Miller Theatre for ICE: Animal Behaviors, a free Pop-Up concert on Tuesday, June 6 at 6:00 p.m. ICE members Jacob Greenberg (piano), Nuiko Wadden (harp), Ryan Muncy (saxophone), and Dan Lippel (guitar) will perform a program that re-examines the basic animal nature of each of the featured instruments' personalities, from ferocity to tenderness, and everything in between. The chamber pieces explore how instruments camouflage each other's sound, while the natural and unnatural tendencies of harp, saxophone, and Indian harmonium are highlighted in the solo works.

Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC) presents the 16th annual River To River Festival, Downtown New York City's completely free summer arts festival, June 14-25. The 2017 edition presents an array of performances and events exploring and celebrating diversity in all its forms-often blurring the lines between genres including dance, music, theater and the visual arts-over the course of 100+ performances and events spanning 17 projects at 31 unique sites across Lower Manhattan and Governors Island. The Festival also offers opportunities for audiences to interact with artists, socialize and experience multiple facets of artists' work and the creative process.

HERE proudly presents the world premiere of The Reception, a HERE Resident Artist Production, as part of its 2016-2017 producing season.  Created by Sean Donovan and Sebastian Calderon Bentin (Donovan & Calderon) in collaboration with the company, and co-directed by Sebastian Calderon Bentin and Sean Donovan, this new dance theater work is performed by Jane Comfort, Leslie Cuyjet, Sean Donovan, Hannah Heller and Ishmael Houston Jones. The Reception will have 10 performances, June 14 - 24, at HERE (145 Sixth Avenue, just below Spring Street).

Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for theatre, announces that the 28th annual TCG National Conference will take place in St. Louis, MO from June 14 to 16, 2018.