Eric Owens News

A starry selection of musical and theatrical notables will take to the stage of the Kennedy Center Concert Hall this November for the AMERICAN VOICES concert, conducted by Steven Reineke and featuring the National Symphony Orchestra.

The Collegiate Chorale will make its sixth appearance at the 20th Anniversary of the Verbier Festival from July 19-25, 2013, in concerts with Charles Dutoit, Christian Zacharias, and Valery Gergiev. The Collegiate Chorale cherishes a rich collaboration with the Verbier Festival since its first appearance at the festival under James Levine in 2005. The Chorale is thrilled to perform at the festival on its 20th anniversary and to celebrate a shared mission for artistic excellence and inter-generational exchange through music.

Ndiphilela Ukucula: I Live to Sing airs on Nelson Mandela's 95th birthday, Thursday, July 18 at 9 p.m. on THIRTEEN

Ndiphilela Ukucula: I Live to Sing airs on Nelson Mandela's 95th birthday,Thursday, July 18 at 9 p.m. on THIRTEEN; Sunday, July 21 at 11 p.m. on WLIW21; andThursday, July 25 at 9 p.m. on NJTV.

Manchester International Festival begins today, 4 July at venues around the city.

Manchester International Festival begins this Thursday 4 July at venues around the city.

Star tenor Jonas Kaufmann sings the title role in a new production of Wagner's final masterpiece Parsifal, staged by acclaimed French Canadian director Francois Girard in his Met debut, on Great Performances at the Met Sunday, July 28

Star tenor Jonas Kaufmann sings the title role in a new production of Wagner's final masterpiece Parsifal, staged by acclaimed French Canadian director François Girard in his Met debut, on Great Performances at the Met Sunday, July 28 at 12 noon on PBS (check local listings). (In New York, THIRTEEN will air the opera in two parts: Friday, August 16 at 9 p.m. and Friday, August 23 at 9 p.m.)

The New York Philharmonic will present A Dancer's Dream: Two Works by Stravinsky, a multidisciplinary, theatrical reimagining of the ballets The Fairy's Kiss and Petrushka, created by Giants Are Small. Sara Mearns, New York City Ballet principal dancer, will star in the production, which will be conducted by Music Director Alan Gilbert, directed and designed by Doug Fitch, choreographed by Karole Armitage, and produced by Edouard Getaz - tonight, June 27, 2013, at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, June 28 at 8:00 p.m.; and Saturday, June 29 at 8:00 p.m.

The Canadian Opera Company has closed another successful opera season by recording an average attendance of 90% for 2012/2013. A total of 114,133 patrons attended the 61 performances of the company's seven mainstage productions this season in the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts: Verdi's Il Trovatore, Johann Strauss II's Die Fledermaus, Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, Mozart's La clemenza di Tito, Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, Richard Strauss's Salome and Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmélites.

The New York Philharmonic presents A DANCER'S DREAM: Two Works by Stravinsky, June 27, 2013 at 7:30pm. Check out the videos below!

The seventh release from the Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic 2012-13 Season digital recording series is now available for download from iTunes and other major online music providers.

The Metropolitan Opera and SummerStage continue their long-time collaboration to present some of The Met's finest young singers in showcase recitals taking place across New York City.

The National YoungArts Foundation (YoungArts), a non-profit that recognizes and supports the nation's most talented young artists in the visual, literary, and performing arts, has announced that its 2014 application will be available online at http://www.youngarts.org/apply from May 31, 2013 through October 18, 2013. This year, students with an interest in architecture and design are also encouraged to apply for the inaugural YoungArts Design Arts program.

The regular season just ended for the Metropolitan Opera--all that's left is a series of HD rebroadcasts on Lincoln Center Plaza and a couple of low profile concerts in New York City parks--and it's time for a look back at what kind of season it was. With seven new productions and 21 other operas in rep during a season that ran from the end of September to mid-May, the Met was nothing if not far-reaching in its repertoire. And that's the way it should be. But how did its ambitions work out?

The Modell Performing Arts Center at The Lyric's Artistic Director James Harp has announced the third annual opera season at the new Modell Lyric. Two grand operas will be featured-Puccini's Tosca and Verdi's Nabucco-and Toujours L'Amour, the third in our gala concert series celebrating French grand opera.

Katarina Dalayman is one of a handful of top Wagnerian sopranos in the world, but for the first act of the Met's GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG, the climax of the Met's second 'Ring' cycle of the season, she didn't seem very heroic. Neither, for that matter, did tenor Jay Hunter Morris, who caused quite a stir when he jumped into GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG's premiere season a year ago. Who knows what was wrong? In any case, they recovered vocally for Act 2 and excitingly sailed through the rest of the mammoth, exhausting work.

The Collegiate Chorale presents Song of Norway by Robert Wright and George Forrest tonight, April 30, 2013 at 6:30pm at Carnegie Hall, 881 7th Avenue, NYC.

The first of three complete Ring Cycles concluded on Tuesday night at the Metropolitan Opera as our hero, Siegfried, his true love, Brunnhilde, as well as the entirety of Valhalla went up in a burst of video projected and staged lit flames behind the massive 45-ton set of 24 rotating planks come to be known by some as Robert Lepage's Ring machine. Luckily for everyone involved- audience, performers and technicians alike, this cycle ran quite smoothly in comparison to previous seasons. One mishap happened in Das Rheingold as we descended into Nibelheim and the last five or six planks got stuck in the air and one black clad arm was seen pulling each back into place. Barring this one blip in an otherwise 19 hour breathtaking production is rather impressive given the scale and scope of this production which includes hydraulics, harnesses, flying, dying, fighting, love making, and a host of technical demands all enhancing the complex masterpiece which is Richard Wagner's music and libretto.

Participants will consider multiple views of the future of orchestras at the League of American Orchestras' 68th National Conference, June 18-20, 2013 in St. Louis. The Conference, under the theme Imagining 2023, will include a keynote and breakout sessions with futurist thinkers and industry leaders, live participatory performances and traditional concerts, and a master class with conductor David Robertson, music director of the St. Louis Symphony, which is co-hosting the Conference. Nearly 1000 professionals and volunteers from across the orchestra field are expected to attend the three-day event. The closing general session will be video streamed live.