Hector Berlioz News

Collaborative Arts Institute of Chicago is continuing the celebration of its tenth anniversary season with winter and spring offerings that include three recitals as part of the Lieder Lounge series, and the final installment of a Polish song workshop.

For the first time since March 2020, the internationally acclaimed Opera Ballet Vlaanderen Symphony Orchestra and the Opera Ballet Vlaanderen Chorus will once again perform together for a festive concert. They will offer an evening dedicated to liberation and to chasing away the darkness.

Puppet master Basil Twist – one of the world’s leading puppeteers, directors and designers – will unveil his newest production starting January 19, 2021 when Opera Comique in Paris presents TITON ET L’AURORE, under the musical direction of the renowned conductor William Christie. 

SYMPHONIE FANTASTIQUE – Basil Twist's now-legendary underwater puppet production set in a 1,000-gallon fish tank   – will be released as a film on VIDEO ON DEMAND December 18, it has been announced by Mr. Twist, who makes his full-length film directorial debut.  Created for the theater by Mr. Twist in 1998, SYMPHONIE FANTASTIQUE is set to the celebrated classic score of Hector Berlioz's 19th century composition. 

To maintain a connection to the Sarasota and Manatee community during a period of social distancing, Sarasota Orchestra launched today Books of Note, a collection of fiction and nonfiction books curated by Artistic Advisor Jeffrey Kahane and Sarasota Orchestra musicians. Books of Note will be supplemented by engaging virtual events.

Los Angeles Opera has a new a?oeLiving Room Recitala?? with mezzo-sopranno Taylor Raven sings with three different pianists, Jeremy Frank, Nino Sanikidze, and Brendon Shapiro. She sings two songs from Hector Berlioza??s Les Nuits da??Étè, four songs from Xavier Montsalvatgea??s Cinco Canciones Negras, and other delightful pieces.

The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra has announced its 2020-21 lineup!

This weekend, a special Easter treat to mark the 50th anniversary of the National Youth Orchestra of Ireland. As part of Saturday's Weekend Drive , Evelyn Grant presents Part One of The NYOI concert, recorded live last January, conducted by Gearóid Grant at the National Concert Hall, Dublin.

The Princeton Symphony Orchestra (PSO) led by Edward T. Cone Music Director Rossen Milanov has announced its 2020-2021 Season.

Early Music Vancouver (EMV) proudly hosts its 50th Anniversary Gala, featuring the music of Beethoven, Mozart, & Haydn, on April 5, 2020 at 3pm at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts. The concert marks the 250th anniversary of Beethoven's birth, the 50th anniversary of EMV, and the 30th anniversary of the Pacific Baroque Orchestra (PBO). Acclaimed Music Director Alexander Weimann will lead the PBO in dazzling performances of Beethoven's Symphony No. 1 and Mozart's Symphony No. 40 in G Minor. The PBO will then be joined by the Vancouver Chamber Choir, the Vancouver Cantata Singers, and the Vancouver Bach Choir for a magnificent finale featuring the Gloria from Haydn's Creation Mass.

On Thursday, March 12, 2020 at 8:00pm, the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra performs a concert led by conductor Benjamin Zander at Boston Symphony Hall. The program features two storytelling works - Stravinsky's ballet Petrushka and Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique. Both tell fantastic stories with the most lavish orchestration.

Now in its 37th year, the Schwabacher Recital Series returns on Wednesday, January 29, with performances at San Francisco's Dianne and Tad Taube Atrium Theater that feature emerging artists from around the globe.

Acclaimed pianist Alain Lefèvre returns to join Carl St.Clair and Pacific Symphony for three nights of performances headlined by Ravel's Piano Concerto in G Major. Also featured is the French composer's work a?oeLe Tombeau de Couperin,a?? an homage in the Baroque style dedicated to the memory of friends who had died fighting in World War I. Immediately afterwards, follow Pacific Symphony into the mind of Hector Berlioz and his opium-driven musical hallucination a?oeSymphonie Fantastique,a?? ending the night with a musical explosion of unrequited love, passion and desire.

Directors Steven Scott Mazzola and Timothy Nelson have created a deeply moving, broadly staged version of a piece that was originally designed for the concert hall. In moving the singers throughout the vast, acoustical gem that is the Foundry United Methodist Church, you are surrounded (literally) by actions that are as contemporary as you can possibly imaginea?'and imagine you will.

This concert is a co-presentation with Merkin Hall at Kaufman Music Center From NYFOS artistic director/co-founder/pianist/host Steven Blier: 'Lyrics by Shakespeare has a double significance for me: it was the first concert we ever did at NYFOS in 1988, and it also marked our debut at Mostly Mozart last summer (with the present cast, in a magical evening). Naomi O'Connell and Matt Boehler are eloquent singing actors, and they formed a deep bond with Kathleen Chalfant, a gentle giant of the American theater. The enduring power of Shakespeare's poetry has taken us all to the heights—singers, pianist, actress, as well as our international roster of composers. We knew we had to get the team back together to share it with our Merkin Hall audience, and are reconvening with great joy (and a few new songs too).'

Carnegie Hall continues its summertime tradition, shining a spotlight on extraordinary teen musicians from across the country with concerts by the Hall's three acclaimed national youth ensembles-the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America, NYO2, and NYO Jazz. Each ensemble, collaborating with some of the world's leading artists, takes to the famed stage over the course of one week, performing in Stern AuditoriumPerelman Stage from July 27-August 3.

Ten Imago Artists present film, dance, theatre and visual arts; for two evenings only.

This July, Carnegie Hall will bring together more than 200 of the finest teen musicians from across the country to perform as part of its three acclaimed national youth ensembles: the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America (NYO-USA), NYO2, and NYO Jazz. All three ensembles will take part in an intensive training residency at Purchase College, SUNY before performing at Carnegie Hall and embarking on tours across the country and around the world, serving as America's dynamic musical ambassadors. In total, 222 musicians will take part in this year's program, representing 39 US states plus Puerto Rico.

Jahja Ling was the San Diego Symphony Orchestra's conductor and music director for 13 years. During that time he was responsible for hiring the 70 new musicians who participated in a huge leap upward in the orchestra's precision and sound. Now the SDSO's Conductor Laureate, he has returned to appreciative warm applause in each of the two seasons since he retired as permanent conductor. For his second appearance this year he chose an all-French program: the Overture to Benvenuto Cellini by Hector Berlioz, Francis Poulenc's Concerto for Organ, Timpani and Strings, and the third symphony of Camille Saint-Saens, his 'Organ Symphony.' The guest organist was the talented Chelsea Chen.

MCO's Berlioz Series 2018 at the Ope ra Royal, Versailles Each summer since 2015, the Orchestre R volutionnaire et Romantique (ORR) and John Eliot Gardiner have featured the music of Hector Berlioz in their annual appearances at London's famed BBC Proms festival. This year marks both the orchestra's 30th anniversary and the 150th anniversary of the French composer's death. To honor these twin milestones, Gardiner and the ORR return to the Royal Albert Hall to conclude their five-year commitment to Berlioz's music with a staged account of his first opera, Benvenuto Cellini, on September 2. Anchored by the Monteverdi Choir, with Michael Spyres in the title role, the Proms performance announced just today crowns the ensembles' high-profile European tour of the opera this summer. Also taking in the annual Festival Berlioz in the composer's birthplace, La C te-Saint-Andr (Aug 29), the Berliner Festspiele (Aug 31), and the Palace of Versailles (Sep 8), the tour represents the work's first modern performances on period instruments and provides a fitting sequel to the ensembles' transatlantic Berlioz Series 2018 tour, which after the London Proms performance prompted the Financial Times to marvel: Berlioz has no idea what he missed.