Beth Morrison News

American Composers Orchestra (ACO) announces its complete 2017-2018 season, Dreamscapes, under the leadership of Artistic Director Derek Bermel, Music Director George Manahan, and President Edward Yim, featuring ten world, U.S., and New York premieres by a diverse set of composers. ACO continues its concerts at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall (December 8, 2017 and April 6, 2018) while expanding its presence in New York to include performances at Jazz at Lincoln Center (November 7, 2017) and as part of the 2018 PROTOTYPE Festival (January 12-14, 2018). ACO continues to take its commitment to fostering new work beyond the stage in its annual Underwood New Music Readings (June 21 and 22, 2018) for emerging composers, now in its 27th year, and through EarShot, the National Orchestra Composition Discovery Network, which brings the Readings experience to orchestras across the country.

PROTOTYPE: Opera/Theatre/Now invigorates New York City January 7-20, 2018, with the sixth annual showcase of progressive opera and music-theatre, curated by co-founding directors Kristin Marting (of HERE), Beth Morrison (of Beth Morrison Projects) and Kim Whitener (of HERE), along with newly appointed co-director Jecca Barry (of Beth Morrison Projects). Since its launch in 2013, the Prototype Festival has presented a phenomenal 32 new works across five seasons, propelling the industry forward as a first-rate presenter and influencer.

AOP (American Opera Projects) and Composers & the Voice Artistic Director Steven Osgood have selected six composers and three librettists to receive fellowships for its upcoming ninth season of Composers & the Voice. The 2017-2019 season will train, and present new works from, composers Matthew Browne, Scott Ordway, Frances Pollock, Pamela Stein Lynde, Liliya Ugay, and Amber Vistein and librettists Laura Barati, Kim Davies, and Sokunthary Svay. The primary focus of Composers & the Voice is to give emerging composers and librettists experience working collaboratively with singers on writing for the voice and contemporary opera stage.

AOP (American Opera Projects) and Composers & the Voice Artistic Director Steven Osgood have selected six composers and three librettists to receive fellowships for its upcoming ninth season of Composers & the Voice. The 2017-2019 season will train, and present new works from, composers Matthew Browne, Scott Ordway, Frances Pollock, Pamela Stein Lynde, Liliya Ugay, and Amber Vistein and librettists Laura Barati, Kim Davies, and Sokunthary Svay. The primary focus of Composers & the Voice is to give emerging composers and librettists experience working collaboratively with singers on writing for the voice and contemporary opera stage.

AOP (American Opera Projects) announces the six singers who will become its Resident Ensemble for the upcoming ninth season of its Composers & the Voice training program. Comprised of one each of the basic operatic/vocal categories, the singers for the 2017-18 season will be Coloratura Soprano Tookah Sapper, Lyric Soprano Jennifer Goode Cooper, Mezzo-Soprano Blythe Gaissert, Tenor Blake Friedman, Baritone Mario Diaz-Moresco and Bass Adrian Rosas.

Opera Saratoga presents a new production of Marc Blitzstein's The Cradle Will Rock, directed and choreographed by Lawrence Edelson, and conducted by noted Maestro John Mauceri (company debut), who has been responsible for many significant operatic restorations, including Blitzstein's Regina.

The Music Critics Association of North America (MCANA) is pleased to announce that its inaugural Award for Best New Opera has been given to composer Missy Mazzoli and librettist Royce Vavrek for Breaking the Waves, which received its premiere on September 22, 2016 by Opera Philadelphia in conjunction with Beth Morrison Projects. The award was created to honor musical and theatrical excellence in a fully-staged opera that received its world premiere in North America during the preceding calendar year.

Chicago Opera Theater (COT) announces the appointment of Lidiya Yankovskaya as the company's new Music Director.

HERE presents the world premiere of The Reception, a HERE Resident Artist Production, as part of its 2016-2017 producing season. The Reception will have 10 performances, tonight, June 14, through June 24, at HERE (145 Sixth Avenue, just below Spring Street).

Opera Saratoga's Artistic and General Director Lawrence Edelson announced today complete casting for the three exciting new productions that will comprise the company's 2017 Summer Festival, which will build on the company's commitment to producing masterpieces from the operatic cannon, important American works, and works in which dance plays an integral role. In addition, a wide variety of free and ticketed concert events will be presented from May 28th through July 16th at venues throughout the region.

OPERA America, the national service organization for opera and the nation's leading champion of American opera, is pleased to announce the first-ever recipients of Innovation Grants, generously funded by the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation.

LA Opera's 2016/17 season will conclude with the West Coast premiere of Thumbprint, an opera by composer Kamala Sankaram and librettist Susan Yankowitz about Pakistani human rights activist Mukhtar Mai. 

HERE presents Dark Circus, by renowned French company STEREOPTIK, a presentation from HERE's Dream Music Puppetry Program. This innovative puppet theater work, for all ages, plays six performances May 30 - June 4 at HERE (145 Sixth Avenue, just below Spring Street).

HERE proudly presents the world premiere of The Reception, a HERE Resident Artist Production, as part of its 2016-2017 producing season.  Created by Sean Donovan and Sebastian Calderon Bentin (Donovan & Calderon) in collaboration with the company, and co-directed by Sebastian Calderon Bentin and Sean Donovan, this new dance theater work is performed by Jane Comfort, Leslie Cuyjet, Sean Donovan, Hannah Heller and Ishmael Houston Jones. The Reception will have 10 performances, June 14 - 24, at HERE (145 Sixth Avenue, just below Spring Street).

On May 25, following the "resounding success" (New York Observer) of its world premiere before an audience of thousands last summer, The Hubble Cantata comes to the Kennedy Center, where VisionIntoArt/National Sawdust (VIA/NS) and Beth Morrison Projects present its DC premiere.

Launching Miller Theatre's new Chamber Opera Commissioning Initiative  Miller Theatre at Columbia University and Nebraska's Opera Omaha announced today their plans for the New York premiere of Proving Up, a new opera from the Brooklyn-based creative team of composer Missy Mazzoli and librettist Royce Vavrek, two of the most important new talents in American music.

Last year's premiere of JFK by David T. Little and Royce Vavrek at the Fort Worth Opera caused some big-time foot-stomping in the Lone Star State. New Yorkers will have a taste of the work--which will have its next full-scale production at the Opera de Montreal next January--on April 23 at the Morgan Library & Museum in Manhattan.

Celebrating the Grammy Award-winning Brooklyn Youth Chorus' 25th anniversary, Silent Voices is a fully-staged multimedia, multi-composer work conceived, commissioned, produced, and performed by the chorus.

On May 12 & 13, the Grammy Award-winning Brooklyn Youth Chorus will premiere their new work Silent Voices at the BAM Howard Gilman Opera House. Silent Voices is a fully-staged multimedia, multi-composer work conceived, commissioned, produced, and performed by the chorus, and comes at the culmination of their year-long 25th anniversary season.

Laguna Playhouse has announced the final announced production of its 2017-2018 season of shows, written and directed by Hershey Felder, NATHAN GUNN, FLYING SOLO.