Aretha Franklin News

The Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) announced its 2018/19 season to a packed house in Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre earlier this evening. The Orchestra's fourth-annual, free Season Preview Concert once again featured the entire orchestra onstage performing selected excerpts, with emcees Music Director Ward Stare and Principal Pops Conductor Jeff Tyzik.

Committed, presented by The New York Theater's Winterfest, will premiere at The Hudson Guild Theater (441 West 26th Street) on Tuesday, February 6th at 6.15pm, with additional performances on Saturday, February 10th at 8.30pm and Sunday, February 11th at 1.00pm.  Written by award winning director, Tricia Brouk (Romance and Cigarettes, "Sublets," This Dinner is Full), Committed features 11 original songs by lyricist/composer, Andrew David Sotomayor, (The Curvy Widow, Newsies).

Experience a celebration of diverse dance when New England's talented dance schools and companies come together for an evening of performances designed to delight audiences of all ages. The Worcester County Dance Festival comes to The Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts, Saturday, April 28 at 8 p.m. Tickets are on sale now.

Choreographer, playwright, and dancer Jinah Parker's momentous and timely work SHE will run March 31 - May 19 at the Gym at Judson in Manhattan. This moving work of dance-theater-"a Choreoplay"-opens up all-too-necessary conversations about sexual trauma, systemic racism, women's healing and ownership of their bodies, and the undoing of rape culture.

ETHEL, a postmodern, indie-classical quartet, pays special homage to the brilliant, gorgeous, and masterful women who are making their musical mark on the 21st century. Sometimes fierce, sometimes seductive, always full of creativity, composers like Mary Ellen Childs, Anna Clyne, Missy Mazzoli, and Pulitzer Prize-winner Julia Wolfe are warriors and champions of music today. Repertoire by these women-including the first performances of Wolfe's bluegrass-inspired Blue Dress for String Quartet-is performed with music named by the composers as their personal sources of inspiration.

WICKED! alumni Shoshana Bean will be celebrating her latest musical project release Spectrum with a one-night concert at The Ace Theatre in Downtown Los Angeles. We had the wonderful opportunity to chat with the powerhouse songstress before prepping for her L.A. engagement.

How do we talk about race in America? How do the protest songs of our times reflect the evolution of this conversation?

Clive Davis told the audience at his pre-Grammy party that Jennifer Hudson will be playing Aretha Franklin in the upcoming film biopic about the Queen of Soul. According to Deadline, Franklin hand-picked Hudson to portray her.

Sony Corporation ('Sony') and Blue Note Media Group ('Blue Note' / 'BNMG') - the sponsorship affiliate of Blue Note Entertainment Group, the organization that owns, operates, licenses, and/or programs 10 music venues worldwide including the iconic Blue Note Jazz Club - today announced a landmark strategic sponsorship agreement. As part of the sponsorship, Sony will collaborate with Blue Note to open 'Sony Hall,' a new music venue in Manhattan, sponsor the annual Blue Note Jazz Festival each June in New York City, as well as other plans to be announced. Located in the heart of New York's Theatre District (235 W. 46th St at the Paramount Hotel, in the space previously known as Diamond Horseshoe), Sony Hall is scheduled to open in Spring 2018.

SYDNEY BROWN is a Pop singer/songwriter from San Francisco, CA, and together with Bay Area legend NARADA MICHAEL WALDEN wrote and recorded the single LOVE IS STRONGER THAN SMOKE AND FIRE as a benefit for the victims of the 2017 California fires.

Legends in Concert kicks off its record-breaking 35th season with an incomparable cast of music legends. The longest-running show in Las Vegas will bring audiences to their feet with performances paying tribute to Elvis Presley, Aretha Franklin, Sting and Michael Jackson at Flamingo Las Vegas February 3 through May 17.

Chris Isaacson Presents has announced a full slate of winter entertainment at three venues: Catalina Bar & Grill in Hollywood, Martinis Above Fourth in San Diego, and The Purple Room in Palm Springs. The lineup begins with vocal powerhouse Crissy Collins and continues with Will & Anthony Nunziata; Alisan Porter (winner of NBC's The Voice); Emmy Award-winner Leslie Jordan in his new show Exposed; and American Idol's Anthony Fedorov with Australian singer/songwriter Shelley Segal.

The dynamic duo AnthonyKen LLC (Anthony Wayne and Kendrell Bowman, Producers) are making a name for themselves in the Broadway community and showing that they are a force to be reckoned with.

The Seven Angels Theatre puts on an amazing retrospective of 1960s music by women, with a highly talented cast that can sing and dance, accompanied by a rocking band.

On the occasion of what would have been her 75th birthday, A NIGHT WITH JANIS JOPLIN opened a two-night engagement at the Boch Center Shubert Theatre, sharing with Boston the spirit of Janis and the blues vocalists who inspired her. Newton native Kelly McIntyre evokes Joplin with her body language, a rapid verbal patter, and a powerhouse voice that can go from zero to sixty. The show is at its best when focusing on the musical numbers, a generous offering from the singer's canon of hits.

On Saturday, February 24, Shoshana Bean will perform her album release show Spectrum - at Ace Theater Downtown Los Angeles. Spectrum, Bean's fourth studio album which will be released on February 9, is a fresh new take on the classic tradition of big band with arrangements by Grammy award-nominated arranger Alan Ferber. This concert will feature Bean along with an 18 piece big band performing a carefully-selected collection of standards, classics and modern favorites, while still including a few Bean-penned gems. Bean made her Broadway debut in the original cast of Hairspray before taking over for Idina Menzel as Elphaba in Wicked and has performed all over the world with artists such as Ariana Grande, Brian McKnight, Postmodern Jukebox (PMJ), David Foster and Michael Jackson.

Segerstrom Center's annual Off Center Festival returns January 19 February 3, 201 8 for another thrillin g walk on the wild side of new theater, music and avant - garde performance art.

Suzanne O. Davis re-creates the sound and vibe of a 1970s Carole King concert when Tapestry: The Carole King Songbook comes to Mayo Performing Arts Center today, January 19, 2018 at 8 pm.

Beverly Hills-based label Under The Moon Records is proud to announce its signing of neo-soul artist Liyah Bey. A Los Angeles-based artist known for blending her love of classic R&B with modern pop aesthetics to create powerful settings for her extraordinary vocal chops, the label said they are focused on accelerating Liyah's already promising career.

Edwin Hawkins, the four-time Grammy Award-winning leader of The Edwin Hawkins Singers' 1969 million-seller, Oh Happy Day, died January 15th at his home in the Bay area, after a bout with pancreatic cancer. He was 74 years old.