Denyce Graves News

The Sphinx Virtuosi—a chamber orchestra comprised of eighteen of the nation’s top Black and Latinx classical soloists and alumni of the internationally renowned Sphinx Competition— returns to Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage on Friday, October 15 at 7:00 p.m. for its 17th annual gala celebration.

Zwilich's work will feature texts by Lauren K. Watel and will be performed by GRAMMY Award-winning Mezzo-Soprano Denyce Graves – one of Justice Ginsburg's favorite opera singers, who sang at her memorial - and pianist Jeffrey Biegel.

The Dallas Symphony Orchestra presents the world premiere of Remembering Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a new work by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich honoring the late Supreme Court Justice on October 7, 2021, at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center.

A new collective bargaining agreement between the Metropolitan Opera and its orchestra, the last of the Met’s three largest unions to reach an agreement, was ratified today. To commemorate the occasion, the Met has announced two free, pre-season performances of Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, “Resurrection,” to take place in Damrosch Park on 9/4 and 9/5.

Schmidt Vocal Arts has announced the first national prize in the history of the Schmidt Vocal Competition, in celebration of its 25th anniversary season. This annual event for U.S. high school students, funded by the William E. Schmidt Foundation, sees 400+ singers compete each year – this season for more than $625K in cash awards and scholarships.

The Met’s popular Summer HD Festival returns on Saturday, August 28, featuring a lineup of ten free encore presentations from the company’s popular Live in HD series, as well as a special pre-festival screening of Susan Froemke’s acclaimed documentary The Opera House.

Soprano and Arts/Health Advocate Renée Fleming has launched Healing Breath: a series of breathing exercises shared by opera singers, actors and Broadway stars for anyone trying to regain breath after illness.

Reflections is an evening of Broadway and Great American Songbook standards threading together reflections of yesterday, today, and a hopeful look toward tomorrow.

FEINSTEIN’S/54 BELOW, Broadway’s Supper Club, will present Sally Wilfert in “How Did I End Up Here?” on July 18th and 20th at 7PM.  Sally Wilfert (Assassins, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer) returns to Feinstein’s/54 Below with her brand new show, “How Did I End Up Here?”

This week (June 28- July 4) in live streaming: Emma Kingston and Josh Gad visit Backstage Live, Tovah Feldshuh in Becoming Dr. Ruth, a Jenn Colella Masterclass, and so much more!

Today's top stories: Springsteen on Broadway officially returned this weekend, marking the first show to reopen on Broadway since the shutdown began in March 2020. Read all of the reviews and firsthand accounts, learn about what's different since the show's original run, and check out photos and videos!

Amazon offers its support for diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in the music and arts community with a sponsorship of Merola Opera Program's What the Heart Desires recital featuring works by women and people of color, as well as two master classes by world renowned artists.

The Met has announced themed lineups for three weeks of its Nightly Met Opera Streams, the company's ongoing series of encore Live in HD presentations and classic telecasts streamed on its website during the Covid-19 closure. The schedule begins with a week, leading up to Father's Day on June 20, comprising a selection of operas featuring themes of fatherhood.

Today (June 4) in live streaming: a Kate & Allie reunion on Stars in the House, Alex Newell visits Backstage Live, and more!

The Metropolitan Opera announced today the premiere of Yannick: An Artist’s Journey, a new documentary by award-winning filmmaker Susan Froemke, about the inspiring path of Yannick Nézet-Séguin to becoming the Met’s Jeanette Lerman-Neubauer Music Director.

Capital Concerts continues a beloved tradition today with the NATIONAL MEMORIAL DAY CONCERT on PBS, hosted by Tony Award-winner Joe Mantegna and Emmy Award-winning actor and humanitarian Gary Sinise with all-star performances and tributes from Washington, D.C. and around the country honoring all of our American heroes. This year's celebration also features performances from Broadway veterans Sara Bareilles and Brian d'Arcy James.

The Met has announced themed lineups for two weeks of its Nightly Met Opera Streams, the company’s ongoing series of encore Live in HD presentations and classic telecasts streamed on its website during the Covid-19 closure.

Any of the wonderful mezzos who appear on the NY Festival of Song’s “How About Those Mezzos!” gala could easily be called “a girl singer” --as in “the females who used to sing with the Big Bands in the ‘40s”--as well under their usual hats as opera singers. The proof: There wasn’t an aria to be heard on the program (which will be available on demand through the end of the month), co-hosted by NYFOS chief Steven Blier and mezzo Rebecca Jo Loeb, an up and comer to watch. (Blier also supplied the piano accompaniment on a half dozen entries.) They sang everything from Edith Piaf, Reynaldo Hahn and Alberto Ginastera to Antonio Carlos Jobim and Irving Berlin, all in styles that sounded little like anything you might hear at the Met, Covent Garden or the Wiener Staatsoper. There were songs in French, English, Brazilian and Spanish, with the singers at home in everything they sang

Feinstein's/54 Below has announced additional shows for its reopening months.

The much-anticipated winners of the 2021 International Opera Awards sponsored by Mazars were announced in an online ceremony watched around the world. The Awards, considered opera's answer to the Oscars, celebrate achievements in opera around the globe over the last calendar year in a wide range of categories.