Deborah Voigt News

The holiday season is one of joy, warmth, and togetherness . . . but it can include some other emotions that choirs never seem to sing about! We're taking an honest and humorous musical look at the a?oemost wonderful time of the yeara?? with a program that combines the music of community and celebration with works about everything from the winter doldrums to the overabundance of Facebook posts on Christmas morning. Hear works by Cécile Chaminade, Joan Szymko, Eleanor Daley, Daniel Pinkham, and more! The concerts will take place at Newport Harbor Lutheran Church, 798 Dover Drive, Newport Beach on Saturday, December 7, 2019 at 7:00 p.m. and at St. Wilfrid of York Episcopal Church, 18631 Chapel Lane, Huntington Beach on Sunday, December 8, 2019 at 3:00 p.m. Please join us for a reception after each performance.

The Metropolitan Opera production of Philip Glass's Akhnaten comes to the big screen in HD at The Ridgefield Playhouse on Sunday, December 1 at 12:55pm in an extra special encore presentation featuring a live Q&A on The Playhouse stage during intermission with The Met Opera's Susan Gomez Pizzo, Solo Ladies Wardrobe Supervisor, and Louis Valantasis, Principal Men's Wardrobe Supervisor.

San Francisco's acclaimed Merola Opera Program wraps up its Summer Festival with the Merola Grand Finale, a concert at the War Memorial Opera House featuring the 29 young international artists selected from over 800 applicants in the 2019 Merola Opera Program, who will showcase a dazzling array of opera's most exciting arias and ensembles. Conducted by Maestro George Manahan, Music Director of the American Composers Orchestra and Portland Opera, and directed by 2019 Merola Apprentice Stage Director Greg Eldridge, this evening showcases the hard work and extraordinary talent of the Merola artists. The Merola Grand Finale will be performed at 7:30pm, Saturday, August 17 at the War Memorial Opera House, 301 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco. For tickets or more information, visit www.merola.org or call (415) 864-3330.

Promethean Artists has announced that acclaimed American soprano Deborah Voigt has joined the roster for General Management. Voigt is the first artist to join the company's selective roster since its founding seven months ago. Having made her name as a leading dramatic soprano, she is internationally lauded for her performances in the operas of Wagner and Strauss, as well as for her recitals and accounts of Broadway standards and popular songs. This change in management reflects what she considers a return to her roots, as she moves from an opera-centered repertoire to the music that first inspired her to choose the life of a singer.

The San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM) today announces the details of its 2019-20 season. Under the theme of 'Music and Nature,' the 2019-20 season features repertoire, collaborations, and a curricular sequence that connects to nature's presence in music from multiple stylistic periods.

American Symphony Orchestra announced the 58th season of its three-concert Vanguard series at Carnegie Hall, now expanded to include an additional performance at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall. The season also marks the return of the Orchestra's popular series to New York City's Symphony Space-which originally took place between 1998 and 2015-with a performance of Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 in conjunction with the ASO's celebration of the great composer's 250th birthday. This series combines complete concerts of well-known, major orchestral works with interactive educational demonstrations. The full 2019-20 season runs from October 31, 2019 through March 12, 2020.

San Francisco's acclaimed Merola Opera Program, one of the most prestigious and selective opera training programs in the world, commences its 62nd season with a showcase of the program's rising stars in the Schwabacher Summer Concert. A jaded courtesan longing for true love, star-crossed lovers, a comic marriage, a deal with the devil, and brothers separated at birth all take the stage as Merola's talented young artists bring some of opera's most exciting moments to life by performing scenes from La rondine, Lucia di Lammermoor, Die schweigsame Frau, Faust, and Il trovatore.

The Richard Tucker Music Foundation announced today that Lisette Oropesa has been named as the winner of the 2019 Richard Tucker Award. The soprano already headlines major productions worldwide, and after her recent house debuts in the title role of Lucia di Lammermoor at the Teatro Real Madrid and Royal Opera House, The Guardian declared: "The Cuban American soprano is sensationally good. She makes the stratospheric vocal fireworks … sound easy; indeed, her every note is part of a convincing portrayal of a complex character." Widely referred to as the "Heisman Trophy of Opera," the Tucker Award carries the foundation's most substantial cash prize of $50,000, and is conferred each year by a panel of opera industry professionals on an American singer at the threshold of a significant international career.

The Richard Tucker Music Foundation announced today that Lisette Oropesa has been named as the winner of the 2019 Richard Tucker Award. The soprano already headlines major productions worldwide, and after her recent house debuts in the title role of Lucia di Lammermoor at the Teatro Real Madrid and Royal Opera House, The Guardiandeclared: “The Cuban American soprano is sensationally good. She makes the stratospheric vocal fireworks … sound easy; indeed, her every note is part of a convincing portrayal of a complex character.” Widely referred to as the “Heisman Trophy of Opera,” the Tucker Award carries the foundation's most substantial cash prize of $50,000, and is conferred each year by a panel of opera industry professionals on an American singer at the threshold of a significant international career. Past winners include such luminaries as Stephanie Blythe, Lawrence Brownlee, Joyce DiDonato, Renée Fleming, Christine Goerke, Matthew Polenzani, and Deborah Voigt. Oropesa will be inducted into this who's who of American opera at the foundation's annual gala, a perennial highlight of the opera season, on Sunday, October 27, at Carnegie Hall.

After a months-long series of auditions involving more than 1,000 singers at the district, regional, and national levels, a panel of expert judges named five singers as the winners of the 65th annual Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. Each winner receives a $15,000 cash prize.

Following yesterday's highly competitive semifinal competition, nine singers will advance to the final phase of the 65th annual Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, America's largest vocal competition. The winners will receive individual cash prizes of $15,000, while the remaining finalists will receive prizes of $7,500.

Twenty-one young opera singers who have won regional auditions around the United States will compete in the semifinal round of the country's leading vocal competition, the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, on Sunday, March 24. The closed semifinal competition, held on the Met stage before a panel of judges, will determine the select group of finalists who will advance to the final round of the competition-the Grand Finals, which is open to the public and will be held on the Met stage on Sunday, March 31.

The San Francisco-based Kronos Quartet/Kronos Performing Arts Association(KPAA) is pleased to present Kronos Festival 2019, Kronos' fifth annual, three-day music festival, at SFJAZZ Center on May 30-June 1. Kronos Festival 2019 will highlight the voices of singers, storytellers, and activists over three evening concerts, a Saturday morning family concert and Kronos Labs, free public events that are new this year. Kronos has long collaborated with vocal artists, including in its recent Grammy Award­-winning album Landfall (Nonesuch Records) with Laurie Anderson and its new album Placeless (Kirkelig Kulturverksted) with Iranian singers Mahsa and Marjan Vahdat.

American Symphony Orchestra concludes its 2018-19 season on a high note by offering an exceedingly rare performance of Bohuslav Martin 's opera Julietta at Carnegie Hall on Friday, March 22.

San Francisco's acclaimed Merola Opera Program, one of the most prestigious and selective opera training programs in the world, launches its 62nd season offering audiences a look at the opera stars of tomorrow. The 2019 Merola Summer Festival announces this year's 29 Merola artists, selected from more than 800 international applicants from as far away as Brazil, South Korea, New Zealand, and Colombia, as well as across the U.S. Along with the announced world premiere of If I Were You (August 1-6) by Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer, the singers will perform in the Schwabacher Summer Concert (July 11 & 13) and Merola Grand Finale (August 17). The 2019 Merola Summer Festival includes performances in San Francisco at various locations. Individual event tickets and information available at www.merola.org or 415-864-3330.

Director/Chorographer Robert Longbottom and Musical Director/Conductor Kevin Stites have been announced for the Hollywood Bowl's upcoming production of Into the Woods

One of the most anticipated music events in the world, the XVI International Tchaikovsky Competition will take place from June 17 – 29, 2019 in Moscow and Saint Petersburg, Russia with support from the Government of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, with additional support from the Carmel Cultural Endowment for the Arts.

Well-Strung, the critically acclaimed singing string quartet, will make their Parker Playhouse debut in Fort Lauderdale with A Well-Strung Valentine for one night only, on Thursday, February 14 at 8:00 PM. From The Beatles to Bach, Puccini to Fleetwood Mac, Well-Strung will have you falling in love all over again with the greatest hits of the last 300 years. The internationally acclaimed singing string-quartet's celebration of love and music will make this Valentine's Day truly unforgettable. Cupid, draw back your bow, your violin bow! For tickets and information, visit www.parkerplayhouse.com or call (954) 462-0222.

The Metropolitan Opera will present Richard Wagner's four-part masterwork Der Ring des Nibelungen in performances March 9-May 11, 2019.  This season's performances are the first time the Met has presented the inventive Robert Lepage staging in six seasons and are the only complete Ring cycles to be presented in North America in 2019. Marshaling the vast forces on stage and in the pit is the incoming music director of the Vienna State Opera, Philippe Jordan, who has conducted acclaimed Ring cycles in Paris and Zurich.

Tovah Feldshuh six-time Tony and Emmy nominated star of "The Walking Dead," "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend," and now CBS' "Salvation" returns to Feinstein's/54 Below in a thrilling show featuring highlights from the new Broadway-bound musical Queen of Mean, based on the New York Times best-seller biography by Ransdell Pierson.