Heather Johnson News

Opera Saratoga announces its 2015 Summer Festival season, which will run from July 2 - July 26, 2015 at multiple venues throughout Saratoga Springs, New York.

The Dallas Opera's explosive second production of the 2014-2015 "Heights of Passion" Season is SALOME by Richard Strauss (whose libretto was based on Hedwig Lachmann's German translation of Oscar Wilde's play). SALOME, generally regarded as one of the masterpieces of the Late Romantic Era, opens on Thursday, October 30, 2014 at 7:30 p.m. in theMargot and Bill Winspear Opera House at the AT&T Performing Arts Center located in the Dallas Arts District.

The Dallas Opera is proud to announce the appointment of Brian Zeger as Chair of the Judges Panel for the 2015 Dallas Opera Guild Vocal Competition. This season's competition will take place on Saturday, April 18, 2015 and Sunday, April 19, 2015 in the elegant setting of the Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House at the AT&T Performing Arts Center. The event is free and open to the public.

Now anyone and everyone can join in the thrill of opening night at the opera! The Dallas Opera and the Sheila and Jody Grant Opera Discovery Program, with support from the AT&T Performing Arts Center, present an evening of FREE entertainment at Dallas's popular Klyde Warren Park, the second annual “Dallas Opera Opening Night Simulcast in the Park” featuring Mozart's class-conscious romantic comedy, The Marriage of Figaro.

It's the place to see and be seen this fall – FIRST SIGHT FASHION SHOW AND LUNCHEON! The Dallas Opera 2014-15 “Heights of Passion” Season opens with a stunning fashion show featuring styles by world-class Italian designer Roberto Cavalli, as well as, six custom-made gowns created by internationally renowned designers inspired by each of the operas presented this season. The lavish event, co-chaired by Lynn McBee and Nicholas Even, also includes a delectable gourmet luncheon. Elizabeth Kimple is the Chair of the luncheon.

Lawrence Edelson, Producing Artistic Director of American Lyric Theater, in conjunction with Christopher Page, CEO and Founder of Army Week Association, announced today a partnership between the two organizations for an upcoming concert reading of The Long Walk, a new opera with music by Jeremy Howard Beck and libretto by Stephanie Fleischmann.

Lawrence Edelson, Producing Artistic Director of American Lyric Theater, in conjunction with Christopher Page, CEO and Founder of Army Week Association, announced today a partnership between the two organizations for an upcoming concert reading of The Long Walk, a new opera with music by Jeremy Howard Beck and libretto by Stephanie Fleischmann.

The AKC/Eukanuba National Championship Best in Show honors and $50,000 in prize money went to GCH CH Claircreek Impression de Matisse, a Portuguese Water Dog known as "Matisse" owned by Milan Lint, Peggy Helming and Donna Gottdenker of New York, New York. Before an enthusiastic crowd at the Orange County Convention Center Sunday night, "Matisse" was crowned "National Champion" by Best in Show judge Mrs. Barbara Dempsey Alderman after a weekend of exciting competition.

The New York Choral Society (NYCS) returns to Carnegie Hall under the baton of Maestro David Hayes on Tuesday, December 17, 2013 to present an inspiring mix of Christmas favorites, old and new.

Music Director David Hayes has announced the New York Choral Society's (NYCS) 56th concert season. The season opens on September 22, 2013, when the New York Choral Society will make a guest appearance with the Detroit Symphony under the direction of Yongyan Hu in a performance of a new piece by Xaiogang Ye, Twilight of the Himalayas at Avery Fisher Hall. On November 17, NYCS will appear as guest performers for the 20th time at the Richard Tucker Music Foundation Gala at Avery Fisher Hall. The NYCS make its 11th appearance with Andrea Bocelli at the Barclays Center on December 11. For the holiday season the New York Choral Society will present Christmas at Carnegie Hall on December 17 with a program of classical, contemporary and traditional Christmas music featuring mezzo-soprano Heather Johnson. The season concludes on April 29 at Carnegie Hall with Gustav Holst's The Hymn of Jesus and the New York Premiere of Pulitzer prize-winning Jennifer Higdon's The Singing Rooms with Jennifer Koh, violin.

Starting tonight, Tuesday May 28th at 7pm EST, operamusicbroadcast.com will present a live webcast of InsightALT, a week-long festival that offers an intimate, inside look into American Lyric Theater's process of creating new operas at all stages of their development.

Starting May 28th at 7PM EST, operamusicbroadcast.com will present a live webcast ofInsightALT, a new festival that offers an intimate, inside look into American Lyric Theater's process of creating new creating new operas at all stages of their development.

A champion of contemporary opera, internationally acclaimed soprano and stage director Catherine Malfitano has sung in the world premieres of Carlisle Floyd's Bilby's Doll, Conrad Susa's Transformations, Thomas Pasatieri's Washington Square and The Seagull and William Bolcom's A View from the Bridge, McTeague, A Wedding, and Medusa.

American Lyric Theater (ALT) today announced complete casting forInsightALT, the company's upcoming festival dedicated to providing an intimate, up-close look at its process of creating new operas.

American Lyric Theater (ALT) today announced details of InsightALT, the company's first festival dedicated to providing an intimate, up-close look at its process of creating new operas. Taking place between May 28 and June 3, 2013 at the Goldman-Sonnenfeldt Family Auditorium of the The JCC in Manhattan, a state-of-the-art theater on Manhattan's Upper West Side, the festival kicks-off with a special public master class by world-renown soprano Catherine Malfitano. At the center of the festival are concert readings of three new operas in different stages of their development at ALT: The Turing Project by composer Justine F. Chen and librettist David Simpatico; The Long Walk by composer Jeremy Howard Beck and librettist Stephanie Fleischmann (based on the book 'The Long Walk: A Story of War and the Life that Follows' by Brian Castner); and La Reina by composer Jorge Sosa and librettist Laura Sosa Pedroza. All three operas will feature leading singers and rising-stars from the country's preeminent opera houses. Themes behind these works will be explored in two symposia led by ALT and Glyndebourne dramaturg Cori Ellison, one of the leading creative figures in the opera world today.

Canadian activewear apparel label, MPG Sport, has launched its 2013 Spring 'My Performance, My Lifestyle' Collection that continues to convey the brand's original philosophy of always pushing the envelope in melding fashion forward designs with technical, performance-enhancing fabrications and detailing. Each season presents an opportunity for the MPG designers to find ever more creative methods of uniting the seemingly opposite worlds of sport and fashion in perfect harmony with the result being a complete line of garments that transcend the gym or yoga studio to be worn dressed up in casual environs, especially important to individuals unwilling to sacrifice style for comfort.

The New York Choral Society (NYCS) returns to Carnegie Hall under the baton of David Hayes, making his debut as Music Director tonight, December 18th at 8pm for a presentation of two choral works.

On World AIDS Day, December 1, 2012, Sing for Hope marked the twentieth anniversary of the classical music world's first organized response to the AIDS crisis with the celebratory concert 'AIDS Quilt Songbook @ TWENTY.' The evening featured impassioned performances by many of the country's leading classical vocalists, including Amy Burton, Adrienne Danrich, Heather Johnson, Suzanne Mentzer, Sidney Outlaw, Randall Scarlata, Michael Slattery, Monica Yunus, Camille Zamora, and two of the baritones of the 1992 premiere, Kurt Ollmann and William Sharp. Scroll below for photos from the concert!

Sing for Hope will present AIDS QUILT SONGBOOK @ TWENTY at the Great Hall at Cooper Union today, December 1st, 2012, in observance of World AIDS Day and to mark the 20th anniversary of the first AIDS Quilt Songbook performance, which took place on June 4th 1992 at Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center.