Benjamin Britten News

The Dallas Opera has announced that, through the generosity of The Titus Family, a brand-new recital series has been created to showcase well-established singers in programs dedicated to preserving the fine art of “art song.” The series launch will take place tonight, January 4, 2014 in Dallas City Performance Hall (2520 Flora Street, Dallas) at 7:30 p.m.

Minnesota Opera has published its first annual report in video for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2013. To watch the video, which highlights the company's 2012-2013 season, visit mnop.co/annual-report.

Chicago Shakespeare Theater (CST) collaborates with The Chicago Chamber Musicians (CCM) for their 13th annual family concert, presenting Fairy Tales by William Bolcom on Saturday, January 18 and Sunday, January 19, 2014, 10:00 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. in Chicago Shakespeare Theater's Courtyard Theater on Navy Pier. The one-hour concert introduces families and children ages four and up to the joys of live performance as CST actors imaginatively retell classic fairy tales accompanied by music played by CCM ensemble members. Fairy Tales is directed by Scott Weinstein.

San Francisco, CA, December 20, 2013 – The five-time Grammy Award-winning San Francisco Girls Chorus--Lisa Bielawa, Artistic Director and Valérie Sainte-Agathe, Music Director and Principal Conductor—continues its 35th anniversary season with a fully staged production of Benjamin Britten's 1957 opera Noye's Fludde, based on the biblical deluge story, in one performance only, Saturday, March 29, 2014, at 8 pm at Temple Emanu-El in San Francisco. Conducted by Ms. Sainte-Agathe, the cast will feature guest artists Carey Perloff as The Voice of God, bass-baritone Joe Chappell as Noah, mezzo-soprano Silvie Jensen as Mrs. Noah and other soloist roles performed by members of the San Francisco Girls Chorus, to be announced. The production will be staged by Ariel Craft and will feature original art, costumes and set pieces created by members of San Francisco's acclaimed Creativity Explored, supported by a grant from the Creative Work Fund. The evening features the performance and includes a cocktail party and dinner to benefit the San Francisco Girls Chorus. For information and tickets, visitwww.sfgirlschorus.org .

This February, Carnegie Hall presents the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) in two performances led by esteemed conductor Bernard Haitink as part of the orchestra's annual visit to Carnegie Hall. The BSO's first program on Tuesday, February 11 at 8:00 p.m. features Mr. Haitink conducting Steven Stucky's arrangement of Purcell's Funeral Music for Queen Mary and Brahms's Symphony No. 4 in E Minor. In addition, Murray Perahia joins the orchestra for Schumann's Piano Concerto in A Minor, Op. 54.

Music Director Alan Gilbert will lead the New York Philharmonic on the ASIA / WINTER 2014 tour, February 6-19, 2014. The two-week tour - the Philharmonic's seventh international concert tour under Alan Gilbert's leadership - will feature ten concerts in three countries, with performances in Seoul, South Korea; Nagoya, Osaka, Tokyo, and Yokohama, Japan; and Taipei, Taiwan.

The centenary of British composer Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) has been observed around the world by musicians and institutions of every kind. Music Director James Conlon, whose lifelong fascination with Britten is reflected in his personal three-year performance cycle of the composer's works in America and Europe, is the inspiration for LA Opera's Britten 100/LA: A Celebration, an extensive collaboration featuring performances, conferences and exhibitions presented by a host of organizations throughout the Southland. Britten's centenary year may be drawing to an end, but Britten 100/LA events will continue into early 2014, culminating in LA Opera's February and March performances of Billy Budd.

The Brevard Music Center (BMC) will open its 2014 season on Saturday, June 21, with the Music Center debut of one of the true superstars of classical music – violinist Itzhak Perlman. A Kennedy Center Honoree and multiple Grammy winner, Perlman's 50-year career has included performances with the world's top orchestras, television and film appearances, and concerts for heads of state including Queen Elizabeth II and President Obama. Perlman will join BMC Artistic Director Keith Lockhart and the Brevard Music Center Orchestra for an evening of his most well-loved works from film, television and classical repertoire.

Chicago area and North Shore audiences -- for the third consecutive year -- will have the opportunity to experience the best of British theatre in December, when the Theatre and Interpretation Center (TIC) at Northwestern University presents the National Theatre Live (NT Live) broadcast series.

Carnegie Hall today announced that pianist Natalia Katyukova has graciously agreed to step in for Malcolm Martineau, playing a full-length song recital with sopranos Joelle Harvey, Emalie Savoy, tenor Paul Appleby, and baritone John Brancy, as part of its Discovery Day: Benjamin Britten event on Saturday, December 14 at 1:00 p.m. in Weill Recital Hall. Mr. Martineau has been forced to cancel his appearance due to an ear infection which prevents him from traveling.

Los AngeLes Children's Chorus, acclaimed for its pure, agile, Bel Canto sound that has made it one of the most in-demand children's choirs in the county, spotlights the music of Benjamin Britten and the English choral tradition and also performs a compelling array of music from around the globe at its popular annual Winter Concert tonight, December 7, 7 PM, and Sunday, December 8, 2013, 7:30 PM, at Pasadena Presbyterian Church.

The New York Philharmonic Young People's Concerts (YPCs) continue with a focus on Mozart's Symphony No. 41, Jupiter, led by Philharmonic Assistant Conductor Case Scaglione, today, December 7, 2013, at 2:00 p.m. This is the second program in this season's series, Points of Entry, in which each concert explores facets of music and the orchestra itself through an influential score. The concert will also feature selections from Mozart's Symphonies Nos. 1 and 33 and his Missa Brevis in F; Pachelbel's Canon; and Arvo Part's Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten.

Conductor James Conlon, Music Director of LA Opera, will lead a series of Britten performances across the Southland as part of the Britten 100/LA celebration, in commemoration of the 2013 Benjamin Britten centenary.

Carnegie Hall Presents it's calendar of events for December of 2013, including the Philadelphia Orchestra and The New York Pops.

Hampstead Downstairs/The Peter Wolff Trust Present FAULT LINES by Ali Taylor. Directed by Lisa Spirling and designed by Polly Sullivan, the production is set to run today, 5 December 2013 - 4 January 2014. Natalie Dew, Samuel James, Alex Lawther and Nichola McAuliffe play the staff of a small relief charity in Taylor's sharp new comedy, which gives the expression 'having a disastrous Christmas' a whole new meaning.

On Saturday, December 14th, 2013 at 8PM, GRAMMY Award-winning guitarist Sharon Isbin returns to the 92nd St. Y for a solo recital. The concert celebrates her 35th anniversary of her New York Debut (at Alice Tully Hall in 1979), the 25th anniversary of The Juilliard School guitar department (which Sharon Isbin created in 1989, the first in the institution's 100-year history), and honors the 100th birthday on this date of her mentor Rosalyn Tureck, as well as the centenary of Benjamin Britten.

Music Box Theatre expands its Stage-to-Screen programming this winter, importing even more captured live stage performances from the UK than ever before. Additional programming includes a new collaboration with the UK's Royal Shakespeare Company kicking off December 7 and 18 with Richard II, starring Doctor Who's David Tennant, beamed from the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon.

As part of the Britten 100 Celebrations Birmingham Royal Ballet will perform The Prince of Pagodas in 2014. Ahead of a London Coliseum season from Wednesday 26 until Saturday 29 March the ballet, choreographed by Birmingham Royal Ballet's award-winning director David Bintley, will be performed at The Lowry Salford Quays (30 Jan - 1 Feb), Birmingham Hippodrome (25 Feb - 1 March) and Plymouth's Theatre Royal (19 - 22 March).

The December broadcasts of The New York Philharmonic This Week - the weekly radio series of concerts and recordings by the New York Philharmonic, hosted by Alec Baldwin - begin with Bernard Labadie returning to the Philharmonic to conduct Mozart's Requiem; J.S. Bach's Cantata No. 51, Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen!; and Handel's 'Let the Bright Seraphim' from Samson. The program's soloists will include soprano Miah Persson, mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe, tenor Fre?de?ric Antoun, bass Andrew Foster-Williams, and Associate Principal Trumpet Matthew Muckey, joined by the New York Choral Artists directed by Joseph Flummerfelt. The following week Music Director Alan Gilbert conducts the New York Premiere of The Marie- Jose?e Kravis Composer-in-Residence Christopher Rouse's Oboe Concerto featuring Principal Oboe Liang Wang, and Richard Strauss's Also sprach Zarathustra and Don Juan, both featuring Concertmaster Glenn Dicterow in the concertmaster solos.