Andrew W. Mellon News

Peak Performances will present the All Terrain String Festival: Bolcom 4x4, a three-day festival in which four of the world's foremost string quartets will perform the work of prolific Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer William Bolcom, along with music by a wide variety of other composers, from Mozart to Dizzy Gillespie.

Peak Performances will present the world premiere of Quixote, from composer-librettist Amy Beth Kirsten and director-designer Mark DeChiazza, March 23-26.

The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra announces the 2017-2018 season programming for its BNY Mellon Grand Classics and PNC Pops series. The upcoming season of the BNY Mellon Grand Classics marks its 10th season under the musical leadership of Music Director Manfred Honeck and the orchestra's 122nd year since its founding.

Children's Theatre Company (CTC) will bring its production of Seedfolks to the prestigious ASSITEJ International World Conference in Cape Town, South Africa. Prior to this international touring stop, CTC will bring Seedfolks to Seattle Children's Theatre in the Unites States.

Fort Worth Opera (FWOpera), in partnership with Telemundo, celebrates the first year of its bold new initiative, Noches de Ópera (Nights of Opera), with Fiesta Fort Worth, a family-friendly party in Sundance Square Plaza featuring a simulcast of the smash-hit mariachi opera Cruzar la Cara de la Luna for thousands of spectators.

 Today, Madeleine Oldham, director of The Ground Floor: Berkeley Rep's Center for the Creation and Development of New Work, announced the 18 projects accepted into its sixth annual Summer Residency Lab. The projects were chosen from almost 600 submitted applications, the most the program has ever received.

 The Harris Theater for Music and Dance is pleased to announce its fourteenth season of Harris Theater Presents performances exploring companies and stories of epic magnitude. Experience the 400-year-old cycle of Monteverdi's last surviving operas sung by the Monteverdi Choir and led by Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Mark Morris Dance Group's staged production of Layla and Majnun; the love story that has been told for centuries, and America's premier ballet company, American Ballet Theatre. Full performance details are outlined below.

WaterTower Theatre Artistic Director Joanie Schultz today announced the appointment of David Lozano to direct Native Gardens by Karen Zacarias.  Mr. Lozano, Executive Artistic Director of Dallas' Cara Mia Theatre Co., will be making his directorial debut at WTT with Native Gardens. 

The Museum of Contemporary Art Denver (MCA Denver) has been awarded a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The $400,000 grant will establish Animating Museums, a two-year leadership program for art museum professionals nationally, who will come to Denver to advance their professional development through a series of creativity workshops. The grant allows MCA Denver to redouble its efforts, greatly expanding its innovation platform while investing in the future of art museums and their ability to adapt to changes in contemporary society.

New York Live Arts 2017 Live Ideas Gala, co-chaired by Sarah Arison, Slobodan Randjelovic, and Jon Stryker and with award-winning actors Kathleen Turner and Delroy Lindo as masters of ceremony, pays tribute to Live Arts' annual Live Ideas Festival. The Gala will take place at the Highline Ballroom, located at 431 W 16th Street, New York City on Monday, April 3 with a cocktail reception at 6:30pmfollowed by the dinner and program at 7:15pm.

Last night, Co-Artistic Director of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Wu Han, announced the seventh season of the society's residency at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance from the stage. The 2017-2018 CMS season promises a revolving multi-generational and international roster of the world's finest chamber musicians which enables CMS to continue to present chamber music of every instrumentation, style, and historical period.

The Baryshnikov Arts Center (BAC) and Jazz Foundation of America will co-present Stanley Jordan on Today, March 9, 2017 at 8pm at BAC's Jerome Robbins Theater. Among the most gifted guitarists of his generation, Jordan is master of the two-handed tapping technique, using the neck of the guitar like a keyboard rather than strumming or picking. Applying this astonishing technique, or "touch style" in another setting, Jordan also performs on both guitar and piano at the same time, playing chords and melodies with his hands on separate instruments and uniquely melding the two sounds into one. More than a technical phenomenon, Jordan conveys an astounding depth of musical expression through a multi-faceted solo repertoire, ranging from bold reinventions of classical masterpieces to improvisational contemporary works. At BAC, Jordan will be joined for several songs by his daughter, New York City-based singer/songwriter Julia Jordan.

Pittsburgh Opera is proud and privileged to present the world premiere of Daniel Sonenberg's opera, The Summer King, the story of baseball legend Josh Gibson. This very first world premiere in Pittsburgh Opera's distinguished 78 year history hits close to home as Josh went from the sandlots of Pittsburgh's North Side to the pinnacle of greatness in the Negro Leagues, before ultimately being enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY. Featuring Alfred Walker in the title role, Denyce Graves, Sean Pannikar, Kenneth Kellogg, Norman Shankle, Jacqueline Echols and many more, led by Maestro Antony Walker and directed by Sam Helfrich. Sonenberg collaborated on the libretto with Daniel Nester and Mark Campbell provided additional lyrics. The Summer King runs Saturday, April 29th (8pm), Tuesday, May 2nd (7pm), Friday, May 5th (7:30pm) and Sunday, May 7th (3pm) at the Benedum Center for the Performing Arts.

Striving to address a long-standing career imbalance in the opera world, The Dallas Opera is delighted to announce that applications are now being accepted for a unique residential program designed to provide training and career support for distinctively talented women conductors: The Linda and Mitch Hart Institute for Women Conductors at The Dallas Opera (IWC). This year's program represents the third residency of a twenty-year commitment made by the company.

Victory Gardens Theater, under the leadership of Artistic Director Chay Yew and Managing Director Erica Daniels, announces the lineup for its 2017-2018 Season. Victory Gardens' 43rd Season will include the groundbreaking, Tony Award-winning musical Fun Home with music by Jeanine Tesori and book and lyrics by Lisa Kron; the Chicago premieres of Fade, a co-production with Teatro Vista, by Tanya Saracho, and Mies Julie, a contemporary reworking of August Strindberg's classic Miss Julie by Yael Farber, as well as the world premieres of Breach: a manifesto on race in america through the eyes of a black girl recovering from self-hate by Antoinette Nwandu and Doing It by Boo Killebrew.

American Opera Projects (AOP) announces the return of its popularComposers & the Voice program for its 2017-19 seasons. Created and led by Composers & the Voice Artistic Director Steven Osgood, eight composers and librettists will be selected for two-year fellowships to learn the fundamentals of writing for the voice and opera stage. Workshop sessions with professional opera singers, mentors, and instructors are held at AOP's home base in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. Applications and complete information will be available beginning March 15 atwww.aopopera.org/composers_voice. The deadline for applications is April 28 with fellowships announced by July 1.

The Joyce Theater Foundation, Inc. (Linda Shelton, Executive Director) is thrilled to welcome back to its stage Australia's hottest ticket in contemporary dance, Sydney Dance Company, in a mixed bill program featuring three New York premieres showcasing the company's strong, athletic contemporary style from March 7 - 12.

Playwrights Horizons is now accepting entries today, Monday, March 6, for the LIVEforFIVE online lottery for $5 tickets to their world premiere production of The Profane, a new play by Zayd Dohrn (Outside People, Reborning).

MIT has announced cellist Maya Beiser as the inaugural Mellon Distinguished Visiting Artist, a new artist residency endowed by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation that has supported MIT's Center for Art, Science & Technology (CAST) since its inception in 2012.

OPERA America, the national service organization for opera and the nation's leading champion for American opera, is pleased to announce it has awarded grants to 10 opera companies through The Opera Fund: Audience Development grant program, which promotes deep learning experiences about new or infrequently produced American operas and music-theater works. Each grant supports audience development activities associated with a specific work being produced by a Professional Company Member of OPERA America.