Daron Hagen News

This fall, contemporary opera producer AMERICAN OPERA PROJECTS (AOP) will present COMPOSERS & THE VOICE: SIX SCENES 2016, a concert of opera scenes from ten artists emerging in the world of contemporary opera. Audiences will get a first look at six wildly different new works that range from imagining moments in the lives of famous people such as Sigmund Freud and Mabel Dodge Luhan or events taking place in a spaceship, an asylum, and a uterus. The composers Matthew Barnson, Carlos R. Carrillo, Nell Shaw Cohen, Marc LeMay, Cecilia Livingston, and Sky Macklay and librettists Edward Einhorn, Duncan McFarlane, Emily Roller, and Mark Sonnenblick, were chosen by AOP to spend a year creating new works in its bi-annual fellowship program Composers & the Voice (C&V).

Washington National Opera (WNO) today announced full programming details for the fifth season of the American Opera Initiative, its comprehensive commissioning program that brings contemporary American stories to the stage while fostering the talents of rising American composers and librettists. For the first time, all of the program's world premiere operas will be presented during an American Opera Initiative Festival weekend, January 13-15, 2017 in the Kennedy Center Family Theater.

After a nationwide search, Sarasota Opera is proud to announce that composer/librettist Rachel J. Peters has been commissioned to compose Sarasota Youth Opera's next world premiere. Ms. Peter's opera, Rootabaga Country, which is being written now and will have its premiere in November 2017, was selected over 12 other submissions. This will be the sixth opera commissioned by the Sarasota Youth Opera program.

After a nationwide search, Sarasota Opera is proud to announce that composer/librettist Rachel J. Peters has been commissioned to compose Sarasota Youth Opera's next world premiere. Ms. Peter's opera, Rootabaga Country, which is being written now and will have its premiere in November 2017, was selected over 12 other submissions. This will be the sixth opera commissioned by the Sarasota Youth Opera program.

In its sixth summer season, Russian Opera Workshop presents rarely performed Aleko by Rachmaninoff (June 28, 29 & 30) and Mazepa by Tchaikovsky (August 2, 3 & 4), as well as concerts of Russian Romances (June 27 & August 1).

'KANREKI SURPRISE', a concert celebrating the 60th Birthday of KSA's Artistic Director, Shakuhachi Grand Master James Nyoraku Schlefer, will be held on Saturday, September 17, 2016, 7:30 PM at the Tenri Cultural Institute.

Brooklyn Art Song Society (BASS) is proud to announce its seventh season, beginning in October of 2017.

Strong women are in the spotlight as Opera Theater of Pittsburgh announces its 2016 SummerFest season of opera, musical theater, concerts and cabarets, June 22-July 24.

In its sixth summer season, Russian Opera Workshop presents rarely performed Aleko by Rachmaninoff (June 28, 29 & 30) and Mazepa by Tchaikovsky (August 2, 3 & 4), as well as concerts of Russian Romances (June 27 & August 1).

The Arianna String Quartet with Yumi Kurosawa, koto; Yoko Reikano Kimura, shamisen; and James Nyoraku Schlefer, shakuhachi will play on Sunday, April 17, 2016, 4:00 PM at Tenri Cultural Institute, 43A West 13th Street, New York City.

BASS continues its innovative new music series In Context at the Tenri Cultural Center tonight, April 2nd, 2016.

Today, March 26 at 2:30 PM, Joy In Singing (www.joyinsinging.com) presents Letters by Women: The Edward Cone Foundation Composers' Concert at Bruno Walter Auditorium, Amsterdam Avenue at 65th Street, at the New York City Performing Arts Library.

The talkback will be moderated by Paul Sperry, Joy In Singing's Music Director. Join us to explore the timeless expression of the human heart, and lend your views to the lively talkback discussion exploring the future of the letter in an age of texts and tweets. Admission is free on a first come, first served basis.

Brooklyn Art Song Society concludes its ambitious six-concert survey of British song with a program featuring the works of Benjamin Britten.

BASS continues its innovative new music series In Context at the Tenri Cultural Center on SaturdayApril 2nd, 2016. This year's featured composer is Scott Wheeler, hailed by Fanfare as “one of the freshest American voices.” The program features Mr. Wheeler's work alongside those by colleagues and mentors (Virgil Thomson and Judith Weir) and favorite classics (Johannes Brahms and Robert Schumann). The program will include the world premiere of Ben Gunn. Soprano Elisabeth Marhsall, mezzo soprano Kate Maroney, tenor Brandon Snook, and baritone Steven Eddy join pianists Michael Brofman, Jocelyn Dueck, and Miori Sugiyama.

Brooklyn Art Song Society concludes its ambitious six-concert survey of British song with a program featuring the works of Benjamin Britten.

Washington Concert Opera is proud to continue its season of Italian masters with Gaetano Donizetti's LA FAVORITE in its original, rarely performed, French version (with English supertitles). At the height of his career and his creative genius, Donizetti wrote LA FAVORITE - one of the few operas with a mezzo-soprano in the title role. Set amidst the Moorish invasion of medieval Spain, it is filled with the passions of war, love, and sacrifice. 

  On Sunday, February 14th, 2016 BASS returns to the Brooklyn Public Library to present a program featuring songs on texts by William Shakespeare. 

Brooklyn Art Song Society continues its ambitious survey of British song with Contemporary Britannica, which features the songs of three acclaimed living English composers: Thomas Adès, Harrison Birtwistle, and Oliver Knussen.