Henry Purcell News

This Labor Day weekend, Kidz Theater will present the world premiere of Perfect!, A New Musical for young audiences from the songwriting team of Willa Bassen and Nick Robertson (Dido the Queen, Hall Pass), directed by Kidz Theater Founder and Artistic Director, Kristen Caesar, music directed by Michael Liepper, with generous support from The Speranza Foundation.

One of the nation's leading organizations for the advancement of early music, the San Francisco Early Music Society (SFEMS) has announced the program for its 2017-18 Concert Season featuring some of the most exciting early music practitioners here and abroad in seven wide-ranging programs. The season runs from October 20 through May 6, with each program presented in Palo Alto, Berkeley and San Francisco.

Ehrenkranz Artistic Director Jane Moss today announced Lincoln Center's 2017 White Light Festival, which runs from October 18 through November 15. With more than 35 events presented in 13 venues throughout the city, including U.S. and New York premieres and nine commissions, the eighth annual international festival will explore transcendence, interior illumination, and faith in the human spirit, as exhibited through artistic expression across continents and centuries. The multidisciplinary festival takes its name from a quotation by Estonian composer Arvo Part: "Icouldcomparemymusic to white light, which contains all colors. Only a prism can divide the colors and make them appear; this prism could be the spirit of the listener."

Richard Alston's newest creation comes to Sadler's Wells as part of a triple bill. Chacony is inspired by the richness and nobility of Henry Purcell's Chaconne, and Britten's tribute to it. 

New York Youth Symphony (NYYS), composed of orchestra, chamber, jazz, conducting, and composition programs, heads into the 2017/18 season with a new strategic plan to strengthen the organization's position as the premier, independent music education organization for ensemble training in the New York metropolitan area.

FUSE@PSO, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra's category shattering early evening concert series, returns to Heinz Hall on Wednesday, June 14 with string trio Time for Three in "Mash-Up Mix-Down."

Unison Media's acclaimed concert series continues its second season on May 31, with a special preview of Opera Philadelphia's hotly-anticipated new opera Elizabeth Cree, from the Pulitzer Prize-winning team of Puts and Campbell

The MCCC Chorus will present its spring concert on Tuesday, May 2 at 7:30 p.m., with the MCCC Jazz Band performing on Wednesday, May 3 at 7:30 p.m. Both performances will take place in Kelsey Theatre on Mercer's West Windsor campus, 1200 Old Trenton Road.

Artistic Director Antoine Plante and Mercury present Mozart's Requiem, on Saturday, May 13 at 8 p.m. at the Wortham Center's Cullen Theater for the 2016-2017 season finale. A must-see for any music lover, Mozart's final composition is a profoundly moving work, brimming with drama, hopefulness and redemption. Audiences will experience this unforgettable masterpiece on period instruments. Joining Mercury are vocalists Yulia Van Doren (soprano), Sarah Mesko (alto), Aaron Sheehan (tenor) and Stephen Hegedus (bass), along with select members of the Houston Symphony Chorus under the direction of Betsy Cook Weber. The evening also includes Henry Purcell's Funeral Music for Queen Mary. Major support for this concert comes from Haynes & Boone, LLP; The Albert & Ethel Herzstein Charitable Foundation; Houston Arts Alliance; Houston First; and the Houston Endowment, Inc. To purchase tickets or for more information visit www.mercuryhouston.org or call 713.533.0080.

The short, one-act opera, Mavra, highlights Igor Stravinsky's early flirtations with neoclassicism, a period which saw the composer produce other popular works such as Pulcinella and Symphony of Psalms. As Mavra looks to the past in both music and narrative, Henry Purcell's Dido and Aeneas  does the same. A Russian iconoclast reflects on his heritage and an English master takes on Greco-Roman mythology.

Following a successful World premiere in the US and a Spring tour, one of the UK's leading contemporary dance companies returns to Sadler's Wells to present two London premieres; Chacony and Tangent.

MasterVoices (formerly The Collegiate Chorale), closes its 75th anniversary season with Victor Herbert's Babes in Toyland on April 27, 2017 at 7pm at Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall (57th Street and 7th Avenue, New York, NY 10019). The production will be conducted and directed by MasterVoices' Artistic Director Ted Sperling and will feature Kelli O'Hara (Contrary Mary), Bill Irwin (Master Toymaker), Christopher Fitzgerald (Alan), Lauren Worsham (Jane), Jay Armstrong Johnson (Tom Tom), Jonathan Freeman (Uncle Barnaby), Chris Sullivan (Gonzorgo), Jeffrey Schecter (Roderigo), Michael Kostroff (Chief Inspector Marmaduke), and Blair Brown (The Narrator), with the 130 singers of MasterVoices and Orchestra of St. Luke's. Musical Staging by Andrew Palermo, Costume Consulting by Tracy Christensen, and Concert Adaptation by Joe Keenan and Ted Sperling.

Momentum Dance Company will celebrate its 35th Anniversary this year with a weekend of performances on April 22 – 23, 2017. The company's Founder & Artistic Director, Delma Iles, will showcase a total of five works to commemorate the company's prestigious accomplishment.

The production will be conducted by MasterVoices' Artistic Director Ted Sperling and will feature previously announced stars Kelli O'Hara, Bill Irwin, Lauren Worsham, Christopher Fitzgerald - with Jonathan Freeman, Chris Sullivan, and Jeffrey Schecter just joining the lineup - alongside 130 singers of MasterVoices, with Orchestra of St. Luke's.

Chicago Opera Theater (COT) presents 'The Perfect American,' a Chicago premiere opera by American composer Philip Glass. Based on American novelist Peter Stephan Jungk's 2001 novel, 'Der Konig von Amerika,' Glass' opera imagines the last three months of Walt Disney's life.

Latitude Festival has announced the line up for their twelfth edition, which takes  place on Thursday 13th - Sunday 16th July 2017 in the stunning grounds of Henham Park, Suffolk.

Chicago Opera Theater (COT) presents "The Invention of Morel," a world premiere of the co-commissioned opera composed by Stewart Copeland, co-founder and drummer of The Police. Based on Argentinian author Adolfo Bioy Casares' 1940 novel "La invencion de Morel," Copeland's new adaptation examines the triumph of time-bending love over convention in a story of adoration and desire. "The Invention of Morel" features London-based actor, director and writer Jonathan Moore as Stage Director/Librettist together with COT's Artistic Director Andreas Mitisek as Conductor. The press performance will be February 18 at 7:30 p.m. Subsequent performances will be February 24 at 7:30 p.m.and February 26 at 3 p.m.

St. John's Feast of Music 2017 presents three glorious concerts on beautiful summer evenings in the delightful surroundings of St John's Church, Halifax Street, Adelaide. Tickets are $40 per person per concert; wine and bruchetta, served in the garden, are complimentary. 

Over the last few years, Peak Performances has become a New York / New Jersey home for the work of Richard Alston Dance Company (RADC), one of Britain's foremost contemporary dance companies.

Marin Baroque Chamber Choir, Soloists, period instrument Orchestra, Music Director Daniel Canosa, and Stage Director Marla Volovna join forces to enthrall with a magical performance. Joyous music by Henry Purcell, including Come, Ye Sons of Art, Ode for St. Cecilia's Day, and the Orchestral Suite from The Fairy Queen will be on the program along with the delights of poetry, costumes, wine, and delicacies to savor. Queen Mary will be present as the royal guest of honor and commentator.