Anthony Davis News

Eastman Opera Theatre will be premiering its first virtual presentation, 'Our Voices: Immersive Composer Collaborations,' December 16-20.

HEARTBEAT OPERA—the radical indie opera company 'leading the charge in online opera' (Parterre) with 'groundbreaking' virtual content (Operawire) that is 'hacking the corporate contours of Zoom into a postmodern proscenium” (Washington Post)—announces BREATHING FREE, an ambitious six-part virtual series from December 4-12, dedicated to the celebration of Black artistic voices.

The Legendary Soul Man Sam Moore turns 85, and is celebrated today and this week by many of his colleagues.

While the Covid-19 pandemic has shuttered many performing arts organizations around the world, Long Beach Opera (LBO) has been industriously devising live innovative performance opportunities for both its artists and audiences. 

The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (CSO) and Cincinnati Pops have announced detailed plans for seven Live From Music Hall concerts to be digitally streamed for free this autumn in lieu of live, in-person performances.

HEARTBEAT OPERAa?"the fast-growing indie opera company whose visceral, re-imagined, re-orchestrated and stripped down stagings of classic operas have been called 'a radical endeavor' by Alex Ross in The New Yorkera?"continues to take its programming online in light of COVID-19. As artists face increasing financial hardship, Heartbeat Opera takes pride in the fact that 85% of their fall budget is going toward employing more than 50 collaborators.

Disney+ announced today that all 10 episodes of the original docu-series “Becoming” will premiere exclusively on the service on Friday, September 18. 

The San Francisco Conservatory of Music and San Francisco Symphony are partnering for a major new initiative, The Emerging Black Composers Project, which will commission ten new works over the next ten years. Developed in partnership with the SFCM President's Advisory Council on Equity and Inclusion, the project will spotlight new music from early-career Black American composers.  

New York City Opera under the direction of Michael Capasso, has announced plans to produce the world premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon's THE GARDEN OF THE FINZI-CONTINIS, a co-production with the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene (Zalmen Mlotek, Artistic Director, Dominick Balletta, Executive Director).

After celebrating its 25th Anniversary at The Soraya in 2017, DIAVOLO | Architecture in Motion returns for its fourth engagement a?" this time with This Is Me: Letters from the Front Lines. From DIAVOLO artistic director Jacques Heim, This Is Me explores how the current climate of isolation has encouraged us to look within ourselves. It is The Soraya's fourth online performance.

Los Angeles Opera (LAO) has an array of 25 a?oeLiving Room Recitalsa?? available for the enjoyment of those who visit the LAO website. Among them are personal concerts by: Morris Robinson, Rod Gilfry, Amanda Woodbury, Christopher Maltman, and Angel Blue. Having made a monumental impression on the American public with her portrayal of Bess in Gershwin's Porgy and Bess at the Met, Blue shows her charismatic personality and her love for the music of Richard Strauss in her a?oeLiving Room Recital.a??

Adapting to address the needs of a greater community of artists, The Next Festival of Emerging Artists 2020 is a four-week series of workshops, mini-courses, and collaborative projects taking place online June 9 - July 2, with most of the festival events, featuring over 20 guest artists and speakers, accessible online and open to the public.

In 2018, New York newspapers praised the short-notice Metropolitan Opera debut of baritone Alexander Birch Elliot in Bizet's The Pearlfishers. During this time of closed theaters, Elliott's a?oeLiving Room Recitala?? may be heard on Los Angeles Opera's website.

While acknowledging that the landscape for future performing arts events is currently uncertain, Long Beach Opera is forging ahead with plans for its 2021 a?oeSeason of Solidaritya?? beginning in January. Both LBO and Interim Artistic Advisor Yuval Sharon believe that collaboration and creative thinking will be the key to returning to performing arts activities, and understand that adaptability may be necessary to return to the important work of connecting individuals and communities through live, in-person artistic expression.

Composer Anthony Davis has won the Pulitzer Prize for Music for his opera, The Central Park Five.

Washington National Opera's (WNO) 2020-2021 season offers an ambitious mix of sweeping political epics and intimate stories of interpersonal relationships, centered on human pursuits of justice, power, and love. Led by General Director Timothy O'Leary and Artistic Director Francesca Zambello, WNO announces the six mainstage titles in the 2020-2021 season: Fidelio, Nixon in China, Boris Godunov, Rigoletto, Così fan tutte, and La bohème.

The works of Dai Fujikura are performed with regularity by conductors such as Gustavo Dudamel and by some of the most acclaimed orchestras and ensembles in the world.

Long Beach Opera continues its popular new series of fundraisers called a?oeUnGalasa?? on February 15th with Dream Variation at the California African American Museum in L.A. The celebration features performances of works by composers of African descent throughout history, performed by some of opera's most exciting Black artists of today, followed by pairings of upscale comfort foods and fine wines.

Bang on a Can and the Jewish Museum's 2019-2020 concert season continues on Thursday, February 27, 2020 at 7:30pm at the Jewish Museum's Scheuer Auditorium (1109 Fifth Avenue at 92nd Street). Flutist Nicole Mitchell's trio Matape, with Val Jeanty and Chad Taylor, creates ancient future soundscapes informed by the African diaspora through flute, Afro-Electronica, and percussion. This season's Bang on a Can performances celebrate the unique power of artist's voices, and Mitchell, emerging from Chicago's innovative music scene in the late 90s, continues that theme. The power of artists voices also resonates with themes in the current exhibition Rachel Feinstein: Maiden, Mother, Crone.

The Dramatists Guild Opera Committee's Librettist Initiative premieres the short film a?oeCredit the Librettist: Conversations with Today's Opera Makersa?? at Opera America's New Works Forum on Thursday, January 16 at 10am at the National Opera Center, 330 7th Avenue, 7th Floor, New York.