While all non-essential businesses have closed, Birdland owner Gianni Valenti has been hard at work, preparing for the inevitable day when the legendary Manhattan hotspot will reopen for the throng of fans who call Birdland home.
Chamber music and jazz aficionados alike will want to mark their calendars for Music Mountain's 91st Season! America's longest-running chamber music festival kicks off on June 7 honoring the late Peter Serkin's legacy, with pianist Benjamin Hochman and Friends playing Bach and Mozart at the 2020 Music Mountain Opening Benefit Concert & Reception.
Monterey Jazz Festival announces the first wave of headlining artists for the 63rd Annual Monterey Jazz Festival, September 25-27, 2020, including Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny Side-Eye, George Benson, Buddy Guy, Redman-Mehldau-McBride-Blade: A MoodSwing Reunion, Miho Hazama m_unit, Christian Sands, Lila Downs, and Jamie Cullum. More artists to be announced April 1, when tickets go on sale.
The Grammy Award-winning Oregon Bach Festival (OBF) is pleased to announce the lineup for its celebratory 50th anniversary season, featuring guest appearances from some of the world's top classical musicians, and the rare opportunity for audiences to enjoy three of Bach's greatest choral-orchestral masterworks performed in sequence.
The Los Angeles Philharmonic has announced its 99th summer season at the Hollywood Bowl, showcasing a roster of world-class artists ranging from classical and pops to jazz, rock, and world music. The season features the return of legendary Bowl favorites, celebrated artists and conductors making their Bowl debuts, and the premieres of new LA Phil-commissioned works.
Critically-acclaimed Chicagoland singer, songwriter and keyboardist Denise La Grassa will perform her music with her quartet of John Kregor (guitar), Kurt Shelby (bass) and James Sims (drums), at Buddy Guy's Legends, the world's premiere blues club, to commemorate Women's History Month. La Grassa released her first live CD Rockin' in the Castle Theater in September 2019 to join her other jazz CDs, April Dreams and The Blues Ain't a Color, the soundtrack to her one woman show of the same name. Performance previews are at DeniseLaGrassa.com.
The New York Youth Symphony (NYYS) continues its 2019-2020 season with a performance by the 17-member NYYS Jazz ensemble on Monday, March 9, 2020 in two sets at 7:30pm and 9:30pm, at Dizzy's Club, Jazz at Lincoln Center, led by Director Andy Clausen. Titled Celebrating Charlie Parker @ 100, and featuring saxophonist Steve Wilson, the performances pay homage to Charlie Parker's centennial, musical legacy, and bebop innovations with selections by Parker, Wilson, Bennie Moten, Jelly Roll Morton, Duke Ellington, and more. NYYS Jazz will also give the world premiere of the NYYS First Music commission In the Shadow of Tall Giants by Devin Reilly.
The B.B. King Blues Band are thrilled to announce their new partnership with The B.B. King Estate. This joint venture now finds the two forces working together to bring the world The B.B. King Experience, the band's new working name. In addition to the upcoming world tour (dates listed below), the single 'Rock Me Baby' featuring George Benson, Tito Jackson and Claudette King will be released this summer.
Pittsburgh Opera announces its 2020-21 season, the company's 82nd. The season continues Pittsburgh Opera's tradition of performing world-class productions from old favorites to exciting new works.
UCLA's Center for the Art of Performance (CAP UCLA) presents Fly Higher: Charlie Parker At 100 on Thursday, March 26 at 8 p.m. at Royce Hall. Tickets starting at $28 are available now at cap.ucla.edu, 310-825-2101 and the Royce Hall box office.
Actress/singer Tiffany Bailey has many talents. She also happens to be a behavioral therapist for children with autism. I laud her for that. Last spring 2019 she released an album entitled Jazz with Pop and her cabaret show was very well received. In this interview she updates our readers as to the success of the CD and talks about her other projects for 2020.
Below is the upcoming schedule at Birdland Jazz Club and Birdland Theater February 3 through February 16:
a??a??a??a??a??a??a??Opera Philadelphia scored a hit at O19, a?oeits increasingly essential September festivala?? (New Yorker), with the world premiere of Denis & Katya. A timely and immersive multimedia chamber opera by composer Philip Venables and librettist-director Ted Huffman, the new work was recognized with the 2019 FEDORA-GENERALI Prize for Opera and by inclusion in the New York Times's a?oeBest Classical Music of 2019.a?? Commissioned and produced in collaboration with Music Theatre Wales and Opéra Orchestre National Montpellier, now Denis & Katya makes its European debut with a tour of Wales (Feb 27a?"March 27) and dates at London's Southbank Centre (March 13 & 14), underscoring Opera Philadelphia's role as a?oea hotbed of operatic innovationa?? (New York Times) that represents a?oeone of North America's premier generators of valid new operasa?? (Opera News).
Birdland Jazz Club and Birdland Theater are pleased to present the schedule for the month of February! At Birdland Jazz Club, catch the iconic Lionel Hampton Big Band Featuring Jason Marsalis, current GRAMMY nominee Catherine Russell, the Birdland debut of AGUAS Trio with Omar Sosa, Yilian Cañizares and Gustavo Ovalles, and iconic vocalist Jane Monheit. Internationally recognized trumpeter Rachel Therrien, the Seth Weaver Big Band, and The Voice contestant Melinda Rose Rodriguez will also be performing upstairs.
Traveling the world as an international opera star, Angela Brown noticed something about audiences. 'I would see very few people who looked like me,' says Brown. On the surface, it looked like a racial divide, but when Brown performed at schools and universities across the country, she learned that exposure and access also played key roles in the gap. This compelled her to create her show Opera...from a Sistah's Point of View that dispels the myths surrounding the sometimes-intimidating art form called opera. By demonstrating the ethnic, geographic, and socio-economic diversity portrayed in opera characters, she helps people from all walks of life and races find themselves in and enjoy opera. She blows up the preconceived expectations of opera by mixing show-stopping arias, poignant art songs, and moving spirituals with tongue-in-cheek commentary. The show breaks down barriers for audiences that wouldn't necessarily include opera as a part of their entertainment options.
The Purchase College Conservatory of Music has announced its spring 2020 season, which will include classical, Jazz, and chorus concerts, and a full opera production. All performances will feature the professional-caliber students selected from the highly competitive conservatory.
As the days get longer and Spring hits Seattle in the first quarter of 2020, The Opera Center bustles with free and low-cost activities for all ages. The mainstage operas attract big crowds Eugene Onegin (1/11 a?' 1/25) and Charlie Parker's Yardbird (2/22 a?' 3/7) at Marion Oliver McCaw Hall. But, adjacent to McCaw Hall, is Seattle's newest education, artistic and civic space known as The Opera Center. This state-of-the-art facility opened to the public on December 15, 2018 and is accessible to everyone.
The Kimmel Center Cultural Campus, along with Resident Company support from The Philly POPS and the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, celebrates Black History Month in February 2020 with an array of FREE and ticketed programming honoring African American artistic expression and culture.
t Recordings has announced the release of The Savoy 10-Inch LP Collection, which spotlights Charlie Parker's groundbreaking bebop sessions for the legendary jazz label, spanning 1944 to 1948. The deluxe, four-LP box set-also available digitally-features newly restored and remastered audio, faithfully reproduced artwork from the original 10-inch albums, plus a booklet containing vintage photos, rare ephemera and new liner notes from GRAMMY® Award-winning journalist and author Neil Tesser. These historic recordings, reissued as the world celebrates the 100th anniversary of Parker's birth, feature such jazz greats as Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, John Lewis, Bud Powell and Max Roach. Set for a February 28th release date, The Savoy 10-Inch LP Collection is available for pre-order today (1/8), while the instant grat single, 'Ko-Ko,' can now be streamed or downloaded on all major digital outlets. 'Ko-Ko' was one of Bird's early masterpieces and his first recording as a leader. In 2003, 'Ko-Ko' was added to the National Recording Registry, categorized as a recording that is, 'Culturally, historically or aesthetically important, and/or inform or reflect life in the United States.'
UCLA's Center for the Art of Performance (CAP UCLA) presents Gregory Porter on Friday, February 7 at 8 p.m. at Royce Hall. Tickets starting at $28 are available now at cap.ucla.edu, 310-825-2101 and the Royce Hall box office.
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