George Manahan News

The Glimmerglass Festival, Central New York's opera and musical theater company, has announced its 2014 season.

From May 28 to June 7, 2014, the New York Philharmonic will present the inaugural NY PHIL BIENNIAL, a kaleidoscopic exploration of today's music by a wide range of contemporary and modern composers that will showcase an array of curatorial voices through concerts presented with partners in venues both on and off the Lincoln Center campus.

The Solti Foundation U.S. today recognized the talent of five distinguished young American conductors. James Feddeck, Assistant Conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra and Music Director of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra, is the recipient of the 2013 $25,000 Sir Georg Solti Conducting Award. Vladimir Kulenovic, Ankush Kumar Bahl, Roger Kalia, and Christopher James Lees were all named as recipients of Solti U.S. Career Assistance Awards.

Magnetic, Terence Blanchard's stunning new album is set for release May 28 on Blue Note Records. The album features ten original songs written by Blanchard or a member of his quintet: saxophonist Brice Winston, pianist Fabian Almazon, bassist Joshua Crumbly, and drummer Kendrick Scott. Magnetic also showcases special guest appearances from bass legend Ron Carter, as well as label-mates saxophonist Ravi Coltrane and guitarist Lionel Loueke.

American Composers Orchestra (ACO) announced last night at its Spring Benefit at Tribeca Rooftop that composer and clarinetist Derek Bermel will be the orchestra's new Artistic Director, commencing with the 2013-14 season. Bermel has been ACO's Creative Advisor since 2009, and succeeds composer Robert Beaser who has been ACO's Artistic Director since 2000 and was ACO's Artistic Advisor from 1993. Bermel joins Music Director George Manahan, who has just renewed his contract with ACO for an unprecedented five years, in leading the ensemble in its mission to be a catalyst for the creation of new orchestral music.

New York Live Arts is set to present several Re: Awakenings performances as part of the inaugural Live Ideas festival. New York Live Arts' newest program initiative, Live Ideas is an annual humanities festival that will explore a different theme each year over several days. The inaugural festival, The Worlds of Oliver Sacks, will take place from today, April 17 through 21, 2013 and is comprised of more than 20 events, including performances, films and discussions that showcase works of art and spark conversations that engage the prevalent themes in the acclaimed neurologist's works.

New York Live Arts is set to present several Re: Awakenings performances as part of the inaugural Live Ideas festival. New York Live Arts' newest program initiative, Live Ideas is an annual humanities festival that will explore a different theme each year over several days. The inaugural festival, The Worlds of Oliver Sacks, will take place from April 17 through 21, 2013 and is comprised of more than 20 events, including performances, films and discussions that showcase works of art and spark conversations that engage the prevalent themes in the acclaimed neurologist's works.

The Apollo Theater and Manhattan School of Music previously announced that actor Roger Guenveur Smith and singer-songwriter and musician Meshell Ndegeocello have been added to the cast of Ask Your Mama, a multimedia symphonic work based on Langston Hughes' epic poem.

The Apollo Theater and Manhattan School of Music announced today that actor Roger Guenveur Smith and singer-songwriter and musician Meshell Ndegeocello have been added to the cast of Ask Your Mama, a multimedia symphonic work based on Langston Hughes' epic poem.

American Composers Orchestra's (ACO) 22nd Annual Underwood New Music Readings will take place on Monday, April 8 and Tuesday, April 9, 2013 at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music (450 W. 37th St., NYC). The Readings include two public events - a working rehearsal on Monday at 10am, and a run-through on Tuesday at 7:30pm. Both events are free and open to the public, giving audiences a chance to look behind the scenes at the process involved in bringing brand new, stylistically diverse orchestral music to life.

American Composers Orchestra (ACO) continues its season-long initiative, coLABoratory: Playing It UNsafe, the first and only professional research and development lab to support the creation of cutting-edge new American orchestral music through no-holds-barred experimentation, encouraging composers to do anything but 'play it safe.' Audiences will have the opportunity to see and hear the composers' works-in-progress at free lab workshops today, March 5, 2013 at 10am at Flushing Town Hall (137-35 Northern Blvd., Flushing, NY), and Today, April 2, 2013 at 2pm at The DiMenna Center (450 W. 37th St., NYC). coLABoratory culminates on Friday, April 5, 2013 at 7:30pm with a concert featuring all of the new works at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall, conducted by ACO Music Director George Manahan.

American Composers Orchestra (ACO) continues its season-long initiative, coLABoratory: Playing It UNsafe, the first and only professional research and development lab to support the creation of cutting-edge new American orchestral music through no-holds-barred experimentation, encouraging composers to do anything but 'play it safe.' Audiences will have the opportunity to see and hear the composers' works-in-progress at free lab workshops on Tuesday, March 5, 2013 at 10am at Flushing Town Hall (137-35 Northern Blvd., Flushing, NY), and Tuesday, April 2, 2013 at 2pm at The DiMenna Center (450 W. 37th St., NYC). coLABoratory culminates on Friday, April 5, 2013 at 7:30pm with a concert featuring all of the new works at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall, conducted by ACO Music Director George Manahan.

American Composers Orchestra (ACO) performs its second concert of the 2012-13 concert season, Orchestra Underground: Time Travels, on Friday, January 18, 2013 at 7:30pm at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall. The concert, led by ACO Music Director George Manahan, features music that explores the concept of time - its mutability, importance, and role as an organizing principle. Lukas Foss' 1960 masterwork, Time Cycle, is the centerpiece for the program, with soprano Jennifer Zetlanas the soloist. The evening also includes the world premiere of composer and sopranoKate Soper's now is forever: I. Orpheus and Eurydice for Voice and Orchestra featuring the composer as soloist, the world premiere of Kyle Blaha's Triptych, and the US premiere of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Zhou Long's Bell Drum Towers.

American Composers Orchestra (ACO) announces the 2012-2013 installment of coLABoratory: Playing It UNsafe, the first and only professional research and development lab to support the creation of cutting-edge new American orchestral music through no-holds-barred experimentation, encouraging composers to do anything but "play it safe." The composers participating in coLABoratory this season are Du Yun, Troy Herion, Raymond J. Lustig, Judith Sainte Croix, and Dan Visconti, selected from a national search for their willingness to experiment and stretch their own musical sensibilities, and their ability to test the limits of the orchestra. coLABoratory grew out of ACO's ongoing mission to commission and perform new music that expands the range of possibilities for - and challenges conventional notions about - orchestral music.

Orchestra of St. Luke's (OSL) announces the release of the seventh album on its record label St. Luke's Collection: a live recording of Schoenberg and Riehn's masterful chamber arrangement of Gustav Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde. The work was performed to great acclaim in September 2011 by St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble with conductor George Manahan, mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano and tenor Paul Groves at Baryshnikov Arts Center (BAC).

Orchestra of St. Luke's (OSL) has just announced the release of the seventh album on its record label St. Luke's Collection: a live recording of Schoenberg and Riehn's masterful chamber arrangement of Gustav Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde. The work was performed to great acclaim in September 2011 by St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble with conductor George Manahan, mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano and tenor Paul Groves at Baryshnikov Arts Center (BAC).

American Composers Orchestra's (ACO) 21st Annual Underwood New Music Readings take place from tonight, Friday, June 1 to Saturday, June 2, 2012 at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music (450 W. 37th St., NYC). The Readings include two public events - a working rehearsal on Friday at 10am, and a run-through on Saturday at 7:30pm. Both events are free and open to the public, giving audiences a chance to look behind the scenes at the process involved in bringing brand new, stylistically diverse orchestral music to life.

American Composers Orchestra's (ACO) 2012-13 concert season is a banner year for the orchestra, marked by unprecedented opportunities for composers through three initiatives that illustrate ACO's role as a catalyst for the creation of new orchestral music: CoLABoratory: Playing It UNsafe, ACO's groundbreaking composition and performance laboratory; the 22nd annual Underwood New Music Readings, one of the country's most sought-after programs for emerging composers (DiMenna Center, May 30-31, 2013); and the nationwide expansion of the Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute Readings in partnership with The Center for Jazz Studies at Columbia University and The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music (DiMenna Center, June 1-2, 2013).

American Composers Orchestra's (ACO) 21st Annual Underwood New Music Readings will take place from Friday, June 1 to Saturday, June 2, 2012 at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music (450 W. 37th St., NYC).

American Composers Orchestra (ACO) presents Orchestra Underground: American Accounts on Thursday, March 22, 2012 at 7:30pm at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall. The concert, led by ACO Music Director & Conductor George Manahan, explores uniquely American stories - both in musical content and in the background of the composers - and features works by Aaron Copland, Milton Babbitt, Gabriel Kahane, and Michael Daugherty. (The premiere of Ian Williams' new piece, previously announced as being part of this concert, has been postponed.)