James Levine News

In collaboration with Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall & Museum, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra offers a free performance in honor of American service men and woman. "In Honor of Service - An Americana Concert" is Friday, June 30 at 7 p.m. at Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall in Oakland.

Broadway star Betsy Wolfe will join the cast of Waitress tonight, June 13 in the lead role of expert pie-maker Jenna Hunterson. Wolfe will be joined by Joe Tippett, who also steps into the role of Earl.

Opera Saratoga's Artistic and General Director Lawrence Edelson announced today complete casting for the three exciting new productions that will comprise the company's 2017 Summer Festival, which will build on the company's commitment to producing masterpieces from the operatic cannon, important American works, and works in which dance plays an integral role. In addition, a wide variety of free and ticketed concert events will be presented from May 28th through July 16th at venues throughout the region.

Opera Saratoga's Artistic and General Director Lawrence Edelson announced today complete casting for the three exciting new productions that will comprise the company's 2017 Summer Festival, which will build on the company's commitment to producing masterpieces from the operatic cannon, important American works, and works in which dance plays an integral role. In addition, a wide variety of free and ticketed concert events will be presented from May 28th through July 16th at venues throughout the region.

The summer brings encore presentations of some of the most popular Met Operas back to the big screen at The Ridgefield Playhouse as part of Craig's Fine Jewelry Live in HD and Classical Series.  On Friday, June 23 at 6pm, it's the production the New York Times hails as "the sleeper hit of the Metropolitan Opera season with a dream cast -  The Met Opera ENCORE in HD: Les Pecheurs de Perles. 

The Cleveland Orchestra has announced that renowned choral director Robert Porco will step down from his position as the Orchestra's Director of Choruses with the conclusion of the 2017-18 season.  At that time, he will be the longest-serving Director of Choruses and Director of the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus in the ensemble's history, he began his tenure with the 1998-99 season.

Music Director Manfred Honeck leads the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, guest vocalists and the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh in Gustav Mahler's groundbreaking Symphony No. 2, "Resurrection," as part of the BNY Mellon Grand Classics at Heinz Hall on June 2-4.

Bass Gunther Groissbock will join the roster of artists appearing at the Met's 50th Anniversary at Lincoln Center Gala on May 7. Rolando Villazon and Ferruccio Furlanetto have both withdrawn from the gala due to illness.

Orchestra of St. Luke's today announced the appointment of renowned French Canadian conductor Bernard Labadie as its next Principal Conductor, beginning a four-year term in the 2018-19 season.

Governor Scott Walker and Secretary of State Douglas La Follette have issued a state-wide proclamation in honor of the Maestro's 35-year tenure with the Florentine Opera, the nations 6th oldest opera company.

Orchestra of St. Luke's today announced the appointment of renowned French Canadian conductor Bernard Labadie as its next Principal Conductor, beginning a four-year term in the 2018-19 season. Widely recognized as one of the world's leading conductors of Baroque, Classical, and Early-Romantic repertoire, Labadie will make his debut with the Orchestra at Caramoor on July 2, 2017 and then appear with the Orchestra at Carnegie Hall on December 7, 2017. As Principal Conductor, Labadie will lead Orchestra of St. Luke's in its annual subscription series presented by Carnegie Hall, and at Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts. He succeeds Pablo Heras-Casado, who takes the role of Conductor Laureate starting in the 2017-18 season, a new position St. Luke's created for him.

MasterVoices (formerly The Collegiate Chorale) announces the establishment of The Roger Rees Fund for Musical Theater, honoring the late stage, film and television actor Roger Rees and celebrating the company's long, warm and fruitful artistic collaboration with him.  

American pianist Jeffrey Siegel has been a soloist with the world's great orchestras and has collaborated with many of the pre-eminent conductors of our time. In presenting these "concerts with lively commentary" Mr. Siegel offers comments on the work, the composer, even the times in which the work was composed and then gives a virtuosic performance of a piano masterpiece.

In the third of Alan Gilbert's final four subscription weeks as New York Philharmonic Music Director, he will lead an enhanced concert production of Wagner's Das Rheingold. Soloists include bass-baritone Eric Owens as Wotan, mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton as Fricka (in her New York Philharmonic debut), baritone Christopher Purves as Alberich (debut), tenor Russell Thomas as Loge, mezzo-soprano Kelley O'Connor as Erda, bass Morris Robinson as Fasolt (debut), bass Stephen Milling as Fafner (debut), soprano Rachel Willis-Sorensen as Freia (debut), tenor Brian Jagde as Froh (debut), bass-baritone Christian Van Horn as Donner (debut), tenor Peter Bronder as Mime (debut), soprano Jennifer Zetlan as Woglinde, mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano as Wellgunde, and mezzo-soprano Tamara Mumford as Flosshilde. The enhanced concert production will be directed by Louisa Muller with costume design - featuring character-based treatment of modern concert attire - by David C. Woolard. The performances will take place Thursday, June 1, 2017, at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, June 3 at 8:00 p.m.; and Tuesday, June 6 at 7:30 p.m.

Soprano Nadine Sierra - who at 28 years old is already establishing herself as a fixture at many of the world's leading opera houses, including those of Paris, Milan, Berlin, and New York - was named today by the Richard Tucker Music Foundation as the winner of the 2017 Richard Tucker Award.

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.

On May 12 & 13, the Grammy Award-winning Brooklyn Youth Chorus will premiere their new work Silent Voices at the BAM Howard Gilman Opera House. Silent Voices is a fully-staged multimedia, multi-composer work conceived, commissioned, produced, and performed by the chorus, and comes at the culmination of their year-long 25th anniversary season.

Music Director Alan Gilbert begins his final weeks by leading the New York Philharmonic in Schoenberg's A Survivor from Warsaw and Beethoven's Symphony No. 9. The program juxtaposes the tragedy and optimism of human experience through Schoenberg's depiction of the horror of the Holocaust and the message of hope, brotherhood, and joy in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Schoenberg's A Survivor from Warsaw will feature Gabriel Ebert as narrator (in his Philharmonic debut) and the men of the Westminster Symphonic Choir, directed by Joe Miller. Beethoven's Ninth Symphony will feature soprano Camilla Tilling, mezzo-soprano Daniela Mack (debut), tenor Joseph Kaiser (debut), bass-baritone Eric Owens, and the Westminster Symphonic Choir, directed by Joe Miller. The performances will take place Wednesday, May 3, 2017, at 7:30 p.m.; Thursday, May 4 at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, May 5 at 8:00 p.m.; Saturday, May 6 at 8:00 p.m.; and Tuesday, May 9 at 7:30 p.m. The program will be presented without intermission.

On Monday April 3rd, at 12:30 PM, the New York classical music series "PREformances with Allison Charney" will present Metropolitan Opera stars' tenor Todd Wilander and countertenor Jeffrey Mandelbaum in a scintillating concert of arias and duets from masterworks by Bellini, Donizetti and Verdi.  The program will also feature contemporary classical compositions for voice, cello and piano by Michael Ching and Moshe Knoll, performed by musicians of the ARK Trio, soprano Allison Charney, cellist Kajsa William-Olsson and pianist Reiko Uchida. Also featured will be PREformances collaborative pianist Craig Ketter. The concert takes place at the JCC Manhattan, home to the intimate 150 seat Goldman-Sonnenfeldt Auditorium and the Lambert Center for Arts + Ideas.