James Darrah News

Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (LACO) continues its all-digital 2020-21 season, LACO: Close Quarters, with “Bach's Brandenburg 5” featuring Music Director Jaime Martín on flute, Assistant Concertmaster Tereza Stanislav on violin and Conductor Laureate Jeffrey Kahane on fortepiano.

Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (LACO), continues its all-digital 2020-21 season, entitled LACO: Close Quarters, with Copland’s masterpiece Appalachian Spring conducted by Music Director Jaime Martín with LACO Conductor Laureate Jeffrey Kahane on piano in their first joint appearance.

The “digitally native” programs, created specifically for streaming, are each between 30 and 40 minutes in length and are filmed at The Colburn School's Olive Rehearsal Hall. In addition, Darrah has established a creative hub for developing artistic media content with L.A.-based artists and filmmakers at a first-of-its-kind LACO digital studio at Wilhardt & Naud, a film studio and multidisciplinary arts campus located in Chinatown in downtown Los Angeles.

The Music Academy of the West has  announced that Beth Morrison Projects (BMP) will be in residence in Santa Barbara next year.

The Santa Fe Opera’s General Director Robert K. Meya announced today the company’s exciting return to the stage in 2021 with the repertory, principal singers, conductors, directors and designers scheduled for its 64th Season.

Music Academy of the West has announced that Beth Morrison Projects (BMP) will be in residence in Santa Barbara next year.

For DESERT IN, a new series commissioned for the soon-to-launch streaming service operabox.tv, two established TV writer/producer/directors will lead a team of early-career playwrights to bring crisp storytelling and a TV-informed approach to opera for the first time.

Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, led by Music Director Jaime Martín, announces its 2020-21 Season, entitled LACO Close Quarters, featuring a robust slate of 16 original digital programs with sweeping repertoire and compelling visual elements directed by groundbreaking director/designer/artist James Darrah, who has been named 2020-21 Creative Director of Digital Content.

LA Opera announced today that it is postponing four productions that were scheduled for later this year to the fall of 2021 due to concerns for artist and patron safety regarding COVID-19.

Based in the Rocky Mountain resort city of Sun Valley, Idaho, the Sun Valley Music Festival kicks off its 36th annual Summer Season virtually-offering one-time-only webcasts from July 27 to August 19.

Festival Music Director Alasdair Neale and Executive Director Derek Dean today announced the schedule of online events for the recently announced, virtual reimagining of the 36th annual Sun Valley Music Festival Summer Season.

On May 29, 2020, Opera Philadelphia presented the digital premiere of Royce Vavrek and Missy Mazzoli's Breaking the Waves, a story based on the 1996 international film of the same name directed by Lars von Trier. Winner of the Music Critics Association of North America 2017 award for Best New Opera, the story took place in the 1970s at a seaside settlement in the Scottish Highlands.

Opera Philadelphia's adaptation of Lars von Trier's searing, Oscar-nominated 1996 film Breaking the Waves made its world premiere in September 2016. It has since earned the Music Critics Association of North America (MCANA)'s inaugural Best New Opera Award, an International Opera Award nomination for Best World Premiere.

While acknowledging that the landscape for future performing arts events is currently uncertain, Long Beach Opera is forging ahead with plans for its 2021 a?oeSeason of Solidaritya?? beginning in January. Both LBO and Interim Artistic Advisor Yuval Sharon believe that collaboration and creative thinking will be the key to returning to performing arts activities, and understand that adaptability may be necessary to return to the important work of connecting individuals and communities through live, in-person artistic expression.

Week 4 of Opera Philadelphia's Digital Festival O features the broadcast premiere of the 2018 chamber opera Sky on Swings, premiering on Friday, May 22, at 8:00 p.m. on YouTube and operaphila.org. Following Friday's digital opening night, the 2018 production will stream on-demand through Monday, August 31.

If you are still unable to get to the barber, Opera Philadelphia can at least bring a Barber to you! Week 3 of the company's Digital Festival O features a broadcast of Rossini's comic masterpiece The Barber of Seville, premiering on Friday, May 15, at 8:00 p.m. on YouTube and operaphila.org. Following Friday's digital opening night, the 2014 production will stream on-demand through Monday, June 29.

General Director Robert K. Meya today announced the cancellation of the Santa Fe Opera's 2020 Season scheduled to open on July 3 and run through August 29. The cancellation is a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent closure of nonessential businesses, constraints on public gatherings and restriction of both domestic and international travel. These precautions, taken to protect public health and safety, have impacted the opera's ability to fully prepare and safely gather for its 64th Festival Season. 

Over the last five years, Opera Philadelphia has presented an impressive group of new operas it has commissioned, along with some classics from the standard rep. Starting tomorrow, we'll get a look at some of the best of them, with the company's Digital Festival running through May 29, available on YouTube and the company's website.

Over the past five years, Opera Philadelphia has presented no fewer than nine world premieres, scoring multiple awards and winning international audience and critical recognition. Now that the 2019-20 season has been cut short by the need for social distancing, the company is extending its season online with Digital Festival O.

UCLA's Center for the Art of Performance (CAP UCLA) will present Jennifer Koh & Davóne Tines' Everything That Rises Must Converge on Friday, Apr 17, 2020 at 8 p.m. at Royce Hall. Tickets starting at $28 are available now at cap.ucla.edu, 310-825-2101 and the Royce Hall box office.