Anthony Tommasini News

The Italian Academy hosts the inaugural concert of *The Stefan Wolpe Fund featuring world premieres and works by Charles Wuorinen, Jonathan Dawe, Matthew Greenbaum and William Anderson tonight, October 30th at 8pm. Also on the program, a New York premiere for string sextet by Charles Wuorinen. Featured artists: JACK Quartet, pianist Steven Beck, Vox n Plux, violist Miranda Cuckson and cellist Jay Campbell. This concert was produced by Zaidee Parkinson and Alanna Maharajh Stone with generous support from *The Roger Shapiro Fund for New Music.

The Metropolitan Opera's 2014-15 season kicked off with the controversial John Adams's The Death of Klinghoffer, conducted by David Robertson and directed by Tom Morris.

American pianist Carolyn Enger will perform concerts on two prestigious series: The Kosciuszko Foundation, Thursday, November 6, 2014 at 7 p.m. and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Sunday, November 30, 2014 at 3:30 p.m. The Kosciuszko Foundation concert includes a tribute to American composer Ned Rorem for his 91st birthday, and the National Gallery program features music by mid-20th-century American composers.

San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM) today announced the names of the 17 young writers participating in the public and private events comprising the 2014 The Rubin Institute for Music Criticism. Taking place in San Francisco and the San Francisco Bay Area from November 5 through 10, 2014, the biennial Institute, now in its second season, is devoted to the advancement of classical music criticism and aims to be a positive force in the art of writing and talking about music, as well as a catalyst in sparking dialogue on the topic.

Lyric Opera of Kansas City continues its 57th season with Gioachino Rossini's hilarious opera, The Italian Girl in Algiers, November 8-16, 2014 at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. The production will be sung in Italian with English and Italian titles.

The Italian Academy hosts the inaugural concert of *The Stefan Wolpe Fund featuring world premieres and works by Charles Wuorinen, Jonathan Dawe, Matthew Greenbaum and William Anderson on Thursday, October 30th at 8pm. Also on the program, a New York premiere for string sextet by Charles Wuorinen. Featured artists: JACK Quartet, pianist Steven Beck, Vox n Plux, violist Miranda Cuckson and cellist Jay Campbell. This concert was produced by Zaidee Parkinson and Alanna Maharajh Stone with generous support from *The Roger Shapiro Fund for New Music.

The 2014-15 season sees one of Deborah Voigt's most personal projects come to fruition, with the HarperCollins publication of her candid, funny, and soul-baring memoir Call Me Debbie: True Confessions of a Down-to-Earth Diva. She also returns to the opera house, reprising her star turn in Francesca Zambello's Salome for her Dallas Opera debut; making her title role debut in a new staging of The Merry Widow at Michigan Opera Theater; and undertaking the roles of Elisabeth and Venus in Tannhäuser at the Hamburg State Opera – her first time singing both roles in the same production. To launch her new appointment as WQXR's inaugural Susan W. Rose Artist-in-Residence, Voigt co-hosts the opening-night broadcast of Carnegie Hall Live, joining WQXR host Jeff Spurgeon to present the Berlin Philharmonic, Sir Simon Rattle and Anne-Sophie Mutter live in concert from the New York venue. She herself headlines the season-opening concert of the Las Vegas Philharmonic and season-closing events at both the Pacific Symphony and the USM Symphony, which she joins for “An Evening with Deborah Voigt.” Meanwhile, as returning Artist-in-Residence at the Washington National Opera, the beloved soprano continues mentoring young singers in the company's Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program throughout the season.

Despite the union battles and season lockout threats, the Metropolitan Opera opened its doors as scheduled on Monday night with Mozart's “Le Nozze di Figaro” conducted by James Levine.

Angela Meade - the face of Opera News's forthcoming annual "Diva" issue - dominates the New York cultural scene this season. In concert, the American soprano makes her New York Philharmonic debutunder Alan Gilbert's direction in Verdi's Requiem (Jan 15-17), and gives two performances at Carnegie Hall, first joining the Philadelphia Orchestra for Mahler's "Resurrection" Symphony (Oct 31), and then starring in Rossini's William Tell with Italy's Teatro Regio di Torino led by Gianandrea Noseda (Dec 7), in the penultimate stop on their North American tour.

San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM) today revealed the names of the journalists participating in the second Stephen and Cynthia Rubin Institute for Music Criticism, taking place November 5-10, 2014 in its new home on the West Coast. A biennial, week-long event solely devoted to the art of classical music criticism, the Rubin Institute brings together distinguished journalists, aspiring young writers and renowned musicians for a keynote address, lectures by critics, public performances, discussion panels, and critical reviews, culminating in the awarding of both the $10,000 Rubin Prize in Music Criticism to one of the participating writers for demonstrating outstanding promise in musical criticism, and the $1,000 Everyone's A Critic Public Audience Prize for the best review by an audience member of a concert performed during the Institute.

On a U.S. duo recital tour this September, Stephen Costello and Ailyn Pérez -- the husband-and-wife team dubbed “Pérello” by the BBC and “the Jay-Z and Beyoncé” of opera by Vanity Fair -- sing romantic favorites from their hit album release, Love Duets.

New York Festival of Song announces 2014-15 season. Four Great Series Return Classic: NYFOS MAINSTAGE at Merkin Concert Hall (4 concerts) Future: NYFOS NEXT at Opera America's National Opera Center (3 concerts) Cabaret: NYFOS AFTER HOURS at Henry's Restaurant (3 concerts) Mentoring: NYFOS EMERGING ARTISTS at North Fork, Juilliard, Caramoor (3 concerts)

On a U.S. duo recital tour this September, Stephen Costello and Ailyn Pérez -- the husband-and-wife team dubbed “Pérello” by the BBC and “the Jay-Z and Beyoncé” of opera by Vanity Fair -- sing romantic favorites from their hit album release, Love Duets.

Deborah Voigt showcases her enviable range in a trio of major summer festival engagements this month.

This summer, Nicholas Phan returns to his roots, joining the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood to sing the title role in Bernstein's Candide, the work that first inspired him to pursue a career in opera (Aug 16). In his third consecutive residency at the Oregon Bach Festival (June 26–July 10), the tenor takes part in performances of Vespers by Monteverdi and Rachmaninoff; Mozart's Requiem, led by Festival Director Emeritus Helmuth Rilling; an evening of Strauss Lieder; and after proving himself “the standout among the vocal soloists” (New York Times) in Bach's St. Matthew Passion at Carnegie Hall last month, a reconstruction of the Baroque master's St. Mark Passion. Phan also makes his Seattle Chamber Music Festival debut with Vaughan Williams and Brahms (July 18 & 21), and returns to New York's Bard Music Festival, now celebrating its 25th anniversary season, to sing Schubert in recital and with members of the American Symphony Orchestra (Aug 8 & 10).

Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) announces the 2014 Play Reading Series on Monday, June 9, Monday, June 16, and Monday, June 23 at 7pm at the Engelman Recital Hall, Baruch Performing Arts Center, 55 Lexington Ave, NYC. Tickets are free and may be reserved by emailing TRUStaff1@gmail.com or phoning the TRU message line at 212-714-7628. For more information visit http://truonline.org/TRUVoices2.htm.

This summer, Nicholas Phan returns to his roots, joining the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood to sing the title role in Bernstein's Candide, the work that first inspired him to pursue a career in opera (Aug 16). In his third consecutive residency at the Oregon Bach Festival (June 26–July 10), the tenor takes part in performances of Vespers by Monteverdi and Rachmaninoff; Mozart's Requiem, led by Festival Director Emeritus Helmuth Rilling; an evening of Strauss Lieder; and after proving himself “the standout among the vocal soloists” (New York Times) in Bach's St. Matthew Passion at Carnegie Hall last month, a reconstruction of the Baroque master's St. Mark Passion. Phan also makes his Seattle Chamber Music Festival debut with Vaughan Williams and Brahms (July 18 & 21), and returns to New York's Bard Music Festival, now celebrating its 25th anniversary season, to sing Schubert in recital and with members of the American Symphony Orchestra (Aug 8 & 10).

Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) announces the 2014 Play Reading Series on Monday, June 9, Monday, June 16, and Monday, June 23 at 7pm at the Engelman Recital Hall, Baruch Performing Arts Center, 55 Lexington Avenue, NYC. Tickets are free and may be reserved by emailing TRUStaff1@gmail.com or phoning the TRU message line at 212-714-7628. For more information visit http://truonline.org/TRUPlays.htm.

Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) announces the 2014 Play Reading Series on Monday, June 9, Monday, June 16, and Monday, June 23 at 7pm at the Engelman Recital Hall, Baruch Performing Arts Center, 55 Lexington Avenue, NYC. Tickets are free and may be reserved by emailing TRUStaff1@gmail.com or phoning the TRU message line at 212-714-7628. For more information visit http://truonline.org/TRUPlays.htm.

The Pasadena Symphony celebrates the best of the best Russian music with international piano star Shai Wosner guest conductor Jahja Ling. The 86thseason concert finale explodes with Tchaikovsky's dazzling Piano Concerto No. 1 and Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony tonight, May 10, 2014 at Ambassador Auditorium with matinee and evening performances at 2:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.