Hector Berlioz News

Norm Lewis - the Tony Award nominated leading man who will soon make history as the first African-American Phantom in The Phantom of the Opera on Broadway- will play the title role in a special industry reading of Mandela: A New Musical with book, music and lyrics by Steven M. Fisher on Monday, March 31 at 3:00 PM. It will be directed by David Glenn Armstrong with Music Direction by Micah Young.

Soli Deo Gloria, Inc., the nonprofit organization that funded production of the recent DVD of John Nelson conducting J.S. Bach's St. Matthew Passion, has announced that a Blu-ray disc version will be released in the U.S. on March 25, 2014.

'I'm not a warhorse kind of singer,' mezzo Susan Graham states matter-of-factly. 'A. I'm a mezzo. B. I'm not a character mezzo. C. I'm not a contralto. The iconic opera repertoire for mezzos, Amneris (AIDA), Azucena (IL TROVATORE), even Eboli (DON CARLO)--those kinds of roles aren't my stock and trade because my voice sits high and has a different timbre.' Well, what then is her milieu? It's the likes of Handel, who composed several of the arias she has been singing this winter at the Met, as one of the stars of THE ENCHANTED ISLAND, a kind of Baroque 'jukebox opera.' But it's also Rodgers & Hammerstein's THE KING & I, which she is doing this June at the Chatelet in Paris.

The Little Orchestra Society is reaching out to fellow New Yorkers to help craft its new name. Long time fans of the Orchestra and new enthusiasts alike will have the opportunity to submit their favorite names for an institution beloved by generations of concert-goers. Today through March 9th, music lovers are invited to visit the Orchestra's website: littleorchestra.org, and recommend a new name for an Orchestra known for its audience engagement, inclusive educational mission and commitment to innovative music and multi-disciplinary performances. The Orchestra's new name will be announced later this year.

Opera Atelier's founding co-artistic directors Marshall Pynkoski and Jeannette Lajeunesse Zingg today announced the company's 2014-2015 season, featuring the Canadian premiere of a fully staged period production of Handel's Alcina. Handel's magic opera will kick off the season (Oct. 23 – Nov. 1, 2014), followed by Opera Atelier's first exploration of the Berlioz version of Gluck'sOrpheus and Eurydice (April 9-18, 2015).

Richmond, Virginia Kick off the holidays with sounds of the season! Tonight, December 7 - 8:00pm and Sunday, December 8 - 3:00pm, the Carpenter Theatre at Richmond CenterStage will be transformed into a wonderland of music and song!

The world of music is a vast place indeed, with room for what seems to be an endless mix of styles – everything from aboriginal drum melodies to esoteric computer scores. After about four decades of the musical avant-garde, in the late 1960s and early 1970s a style known as “minimalism” emerged in which the continuous repetition of simple musical elements (or one basic phrase) became the basis for a complete score. New names soon arrived on the scene, including Steve Reich, Philip Glass and John Adams, among others. Also, a single overriding idea managed to prevail, at least for a time: it seems they all sought to escape from the spectacular, ultra-modern din (some say “noise”), reaching for a kinder, gentler manner of serious music.

Richmond, Virginia Kick off the holidays with sounds of the season! On Saturday, December 7 - 8:00pm and Sunday, December 8 - 3:00pm, the Carpenter Theatre at Richmond CenterStage will be transformed into a wonderland of music and song!

The Loyola Faculty Brass Quintet will kick off a series of concerts, including a memorial recital dedicated to the late Phil Frohnmayer, by Loyola University New Orleans' leading musical ensembles as part of the Montage Fine and Performing Arts Series. All performances are free and open to the public.

Tune your strings and oil your keys! The much- loved community event Come & Play returns to Virginia Commonwealth University's Stuart C. Siegel Center as part of the Richmond Symphony's 2013-2014 concert season!

The Chicago Philharmonic continues its season with Romantic Serenade on Sunday, November 10, 2013 at 3:00 p.m. at Nichols Concert Hall in Evanston.

On November 1 and 3, 2013, the Handel and Haydn Society (H&H) welcomes conductor and former Music Director Grant Llewellyn to Symphony Hall in Llewellyn's first Boston appearance since 2008. A dynamic conductor who built a reputation as a superb interpreter of Baroque and Classical repertoire during his five years leading H&H, Llewellyn will conduct the H&H Period Orchestra in music by Mozart, Beethoven, and Haydn.

Tune your strings and oil your keys! The much- loved community event Come & Play returns to Virginia Commonwealth University's Stuart C. Siegel Center as part of the Richmond Symphony's 2013-2014 concert season!

Mezzo Soprano Kate Lindsey, a veteran of the Metropolitan Opera, and Michael Spyres, called 'one of today's finest tenors' by French Opera magazine join the Utah Symphony tonight and tomorrow, September 27 and 28 at Abravanel Hall in Hector Berlioz's dramatic interpretation of Goethe's tale of Faust and his fateful deal with the devil, The Damnation of Faust.

Mezzo Soprano Kate Lindsey, a veteran of the Metropolitan Opera, and Michael Spyres, called “one of today's finest tenors” by French Opera magazine join the Utah Symphony on September 27 and 28 at Abravanel Hall in Hector Berlioz's dramatic interpretation of Goethe's tale of Faust and his fateful deal with the devil, The Damnation of Faust.

The School of Music presents Scena Shakespearean: Scenes by the Bard, directed by A. Scott Parry, on Friday, October 4, and Saturday, October 5, at 7:30 pm in Roy Bowen Theatre, Drake Performance and Event Center, 1849 Cannon Dr.

LOS ANGELES, July 11, 2013 - Viking Cruises (www.vikingcruises.com) has signed on as the official cruise line sponsor of The Hollywood Bowl for the 2013 concert season. Viking Cruises, which is based in Woodland Hills, will be the title sponsor of six Los Angeles Philharmonic concerts beginning with the July 16 performance of Elgar's Cello Concerto. The LA Phil sponsorship builds on the company's commitment to supporting cultural programming; Viking is also a national corporate sponsor of PBS' MASTERPIECE.

Make Music New York presents the world premiere of Jed Distler's Broken Record, a piece composed for 175 battery-powered Yamaha keyboards and one Yamaha acoustic grand piano on Cornelia Street in the West Village today, June 21st. There will be two performances at 11am and 12 Noon in front of the Cornelia Street Cafe.