Eric Owens News

Opera Saratoga's Artistic and General Director Lawrence Edelson announced that the company's 2018 Summer Festival will feature new productions of four operas at The Spa Little Theatre in Spa State Park, along with a wide variety of free and ticketed concert events from May 26 through July 15 at venues throughout the region.

Ten pianists have been chosen to advance to the Semifinals of Canada's Honens International Piano Competition. The pianists (aged 21 to 29) come from nine countries: Austria, Belgium, Georgia, Hong Kong, Italy, Romania, South Africa, Taiwan, and the United States. Only one pianist will be named Honens Prize Laureate and win the world's largest award of its kind—$100,000 (CAD) and an Artist Development Program valued at a half million dollars. The Semifinals and Finals of the Honens International Piano Competition take place during the 2018 Honens International Piano Competition & Festival in Calgary, August 30 to September 8, 2018.

After many months of competitions at the district, regional, and national levels, five singers have been named as the winners of the nation's most prestigious vocal competition, the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. Each winner receives a $15,000 cash prize and the exposure that comes with winning the competition that launched the careers of many of opera's biggest stars.

Following today's highly competitive semi-final competition, nine young singers will advance to the final phase of the Metropolitan Opera's 2018 National Council Auditions, America's most prestigious vocal competition. The selected finalists, chosen by a panel of experts from the classical music industry, will compete on the Met stage on Sunday, April 29 at 3 p.m. The winners will receive individual cash prizes of $15,000 and the prestigious—and potentially career-launching—title of National Council Auditions Winner. The Grand Finals Concert will be hosted by Joyce DiDonato, who will perform during the judges' deliberations. The finalists will sing two arias, with Bertrand de Billy conducting the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.

The University Musical Society (UMS), under the leadership of President Matthew VanBesien, today announces its 140th season in 2018-19 with an initial slate of 40 performances and events. One of the country's most acclaimed performing arts presenters, UMS honors its past by showcasing respected ensembles and performers with whom it has enjoyed rich relationships, and fully embraces the future as initiator, incubator, and accelerator for innovative new works and projects. This potent combination infuses the anniversary season with dynamic and diverse voices and perspectives featuring artists at the top of their game - celebrating the canon, taking risks, moving genres in new directions, disrupting stereotypes, and surprising audiences.

The Canadian Opera Company welcomes American bass-baritone Christian Van Horn to the cast of this spring's production of Anna Bolena, making his role debut as Enrico VIII. Van Horn steps in for Eric Owens who, regrettably, has withdrawn due to health issues. Moldovan bass Oleg Tsibulko will sing the part of the Emperor in The Nightingale and Other Short Fables, while Canadian bass Michael Uloth now performs the role of The Bonze.

The Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts, UC Davis announces its 17th season of performing arts, filled with the leading artists in music, dance and theater alongside a powerful group of speakers. The season begins on September 22, 2018, with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis and concludes June 2, 2019, with the Alexander String Quartet and pianist Joyce Yang debuting a new work by composer Samuel Carl Adams.

Twenty-five young opera singers who have won regional auditions around the United States will arrive at the Met this month to compete in the next phase of the country's leading vocal competition: the semi-final round of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.

Maestro LUKE FRAZIER and THE AMERICAN POPS ORCHESTRA - Washington, DC's innovative hometown orchestra - has announced the winners of their first annual vocal competition, "NextGen: Finding The Voices of Tomorrow." The First Place female winner is Nia Savoy (Howard University) and the First Place male winner is Evan LaChance (The Catholic University of America).

Opera Saratoga's Artistic and General Director Lawrence Edelson announced the complete casting and programming for the company's 2018 Summer Festival, which will feature new productions of four operas at The Spa Little Theater in Spa State Park, along with a wide variety of free and ticketed concert events from May 26th through July 15th at venues throughout the region. Single tickets, as well as subscription packages, are on sale now at www.operasaratoga.org.

Music Director Osmo Vanska and the Grammy Award-winning Minnesota Orchestra today unveiled plans for the ensemble's 2018-19 season, which includes Classical, Inside the Classics, Holiday, Live at Orchestra Hall, Chamber Music, Jazz in the Target Atrium, and Young People's and Family concerts.

Maestro LUKE FRAZIER and THE AMERICAN POPS ORCHESTRA - Washington, DC's innovative hometown orchestra - will conclude their star-studded third season with Let's Misbehave: Cole Porter After Dark at the Orchestra's new home, Arena Stage at The Mead Center for American Theater (1101 Sixth Street SW) on Saturday, May 19 at 8:00 PM. Let's Misbehave will feature guest stars Betty Who (the pop star making her orchestra debut), Liz Callaway (Tony Award nominee, voice of Disney's Princess Jasmine and Anastasia), Ali Ewoldt ((Phantom of the Opera on Broadway), Helen Hayes Awards Winner), Vishal Vaidya (Groundhog Day on Broadway), and Mo Rocca ('CBS Sunday Morning,' NPR's 'Wait Wait…Don't Tell Me!'). Conductor Luke Frazier will lead a 20-piece orchestra in an evening directed by Kelly Crandall d'Amboise. Tickets are on sale now at www.TheAmericanPops.org.

Opera's reigning queen of bel canto, Canadian-American soprano Sondra Radvanovsky, returns to the Canadian Opera Company this spring to close its 2017/2018 season with Donizetti's Tudor drama, Anna Bolena. Last performed at the COC in 1984, the opera captures the tumultuous final days of Henry VIII's second wife, Anne Boleyn, as she fights for her honour and her life. Anna Bolenaruns for nine performances on April 28, May 3, 5, 8, 11, 16, 20, 24, 26, 2018.

Giuseppe Verdi's epic opera is being staged for the first time in two decades at WNO and features a sterling cast in a grand production.

Accelerating his arrival as Music Director by two seasons, Yannick Nezet-Seguin will take up the post in time for the start of the Metropolitan Opera's 2018-19 season, it was announced today.

The Metropolitan Opera National Council, Eastern Region host committee will hold its regional finals auditions Sunday, March 4th at Merkin Concert Hall (129 West 67th Street) beginning at 3 pm. For this first time, the auditions will be presented as a ticketed concert open to the public.

A season filled with unforgettable music, thrilling singers from around the world, and stirring new productions goes on sale via subscription Wednesday, February 7 at 10am.  Seven new and new-to-Chicago productions, including four Lyric premieres, will engage and entertain audiences from October 2018 through June 2019. 

Soprano Heidi Melton is the 2009 George London-Kirsten Flagstad Award winner who in February sings the role of Sieglinde in the New York Philharmonic's concert performance of Act I of Wagner's Die Walküre led by Jaap van Zweden, and tenor Kyle van Schoonhoven is the winner of the Nicolai Gedda Memorial Award at the 2017 George London competition as well as a 2017 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions winner. These two young rising stars join pianist Craig Rutenberg to perform a joint recital, the final event of the George London Foundation's 2017-18 season, on Sunday, March 4, 2018, at 4:00 pm, at the Morgan Library and Museum's Gilder Lehrman Hall.

Eric Owens and I discuss stand-up comedy, Star Wars, and how Europeans boo an opera production without booing the performers. And, on occasion, we discuss his reasons for being in Houston: To perform the lead role in Houston Grand Opera's THE BARBER OF SEVILLE as well as guest judge for the company's Eleanor McCollum Competition for Young Singers.

Maestro LUKE FRAZIER and THE AMERICAN POPS ORCHESTRA - Washington, DC's innovative hometown orchestra - has teamed up with Washington, DC chapter of The National Society of Arts and Letters for their first annual vocal competition, "NextGen: Finding The Voices of Tomorrow."  The final round audition will take place on Friday, March 23 at 8:00 PM in Washington, DC at Arena Stage in The Kreeger Theater. Judges for competition will include Baayork Lee (Tony winning Broadway Legend), Jim Caruso (Birdland Jazz Club), Kelly d'Amboise (Signature Theater and APO Resident Director), and Robert Pullen (Emmy-nominated Producer and owner of Nouveau Productions). Tickets - which are $20 for adults and $10 for students - will be on sale Friday, February 2. Please visit www.TheAmericanPops.org.