Benjamin Britten News

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 on Saturday, December 7, 7 PM, and Sunday, December 8, 2013, 7:30 PM, at Pasadena Presbyterian Church. The repertoire includes Benjamin Britten's Ceremony of Carols, Friday Afternoons and selections from his extensive collection of folksong settings, as well as a selection of English carols and cathedral anthems from Sir David Willc*cks, John Rutter and others.

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, Saturday, 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.

The University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music's (CCM) celebration of Benjamin Britten at 100 continues with the Cincinnati premiere of the composer's penultimate opera Owen Wingrave, running Nov. 21-24 in Patricia Corbett Theater. CCM welcomes guest artist and alumnus Johannes Muller-Stosch to the podium for this Mainstage Series production, which features stage direction by CCM Professor of Voice Kenneth Shaw. The opera will be sung in English with supertitles.

GLYNDEBOURNE'S 45th annual tour will make a triumphant return to Canterbury in one month's time. Glyndebourne Tour, which visited The Marlowe Theatre for the first time last year, offers three operas crafted to the highest possible production standards and showcases some of the most exciting new operatic talent in the UK. It is a culmination of 550 hours' rehearsal time and features a cast of 23 soloists, 37 choristers, 119 musicians and 20 children.

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 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.

Spellbinding premieres by Jiri Kylian and Crystal Pite join Kylian's sensual Petite Mort and raucous Sechs Tänze (Six Dances) in KYLIAN + PITE, Pacific Northwest Ballet's fascinating foursome of contemporary works.

SCU•PRESENTS will feature the Faculty, Staff and Students at Santa Clara University in the Fall 2013 Music Season, which includes FOLKSONGS, RITUALS AND RITES OF PASSAGE, featuring SCU faculty member, Teresa McCollough on the piano with special guest artist, Michael Boyd. SCU•PRESENTS is also proud to announce three new Music Directors and Conductors joining the Department of Music; John Kennedy, Music Director & Conductor, of the Santa Clara University Orchestra, Dr. Douglas Harris, Director of Bands, Santa Clara University Wind Symphony and Jazz Band and Scot Hanna-Weir, Music Director and Conductor, Santa Clara University Concert Choir and Chamber Singers.

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.

The busybodies of proper English village life are brilliantly skewered in Benjamin Britten's devastatingly satirical Albert Herring, onstage at Vancouver Opera for four performances only. Fast-paced, effervescent and musically clever, this sparkling 1950s-style company premiere is a scrumptious treat for Vancouver audiences.

The Loyola Faculty Brass Quintet will kick off a series of concerts, including a memorial recital dedicated to the late Phil Frohnmayer, by Loyola University New Orleans' leading musical ensembles as part of the Montage Fine and Performing Arts Series. All performances are free and open to the public.

The Utah Symphony commemorates the legacy of an American icon, by performing music that was written about John F. Kennedy and captures the spirit of his presidency on the 50th anniversary of his assassination in 1963.

Toronto, 5 November 2013…On Sunday, November 24, 2013, VOICEBOX: Opera in Concert presents the Canadian Premiere of Benjamin Britten's GLORIANA. The work premiered in London at Covent Garden in 1953 and was written in celebration of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, a monarch now in the 50th year of her reign. “We are very excited about this performance” said General Director Guillermo Silva-Marin. “It is rare that we have the opportunity to present the Canadian premiere of a major work by a legendary composer from our own era to our public. I'm sure Toronto's opera lovers will be curious and thrilled by this magnificent work.”

Throughout its 2013-2014 season, Carnegie Hall pays tribute to composer Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) in celebration of the 100th anniversary of his birth.

The Dallas Opera is thrilled and honored to announce 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 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 on Saturday, January 4, 2014 in Dallas City Performance Hall (2520 Flora Street, Dallas) at 7:30 p.m.

Guest conductor Charles Dutoit leads the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) in Benjamin Britten's War Requiem, the English composer's impassioned denunciation of war on Thursday, November 14; Friday, November 15; and Saturday, November 16, all at 8 p.m.

Sarasota Opera has announced its 2013 - 2014 Fall and Winter programming which will mark the company's 55th consecutive season of performing grand opera on the Florida gulf coast. Highlights will include the return of some of Sarasota Opera's most acclaimed productions, the Sarasota Opera premiere of Verdi's Jerusalem as part of the ongoing Verdi Cycle, and the debut of new concerts to the Sarasota Opera Concert Series.

Music at Trinity Wall Street represents a high-water mark of the holiday season in New York City. There is no more venerable New World tradition of Handel's Messiah than that of the historic downtown parish, where performances date back to 1770.

The grandeur of Italian opera Live in HD from the Met will feature Puccini's Tosca starring Patricia Racette and Sondra Radvanovsky on Saturday, November 9, at 12:55 p.m. at The Ridgefield Playhouse. Benjamin Britten stars in Alan Bennett's play The Habit of Art on Wednesday, November 20, at 6:30 p.m. Live in HD from London's National Theatre. For tickets ($25 adults, $20 seniors/members, $15 students, $18 each for all 10 in the series), call the box office at (203) 438-5795, or order online at ridgefieldplayhouse.org.

With Music Director Peter Oundjian's tenth season in full swing, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra kicks off November on Halloween with Carl Orff's incredibly popular Carmina Burana! The month continues with pianist Emanuel Ax performing Brahms's Piano Concerto No. 2 and the return of Sir Andrew Davis conducting a programme of Beethoven and Richard Strauss.