John Adams News

There are eight million stories in the Naked City-and a song to go with each of them.

Poetry, science and history meld as famed 17th century poet Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz crosses paths with a contemporary realtor and her pool contractor husband in a multi-layered dreamscape. Now commemorating its 25th anniversary, About...Productions celebrates by pairing a revival of its critically acclaimed original drama, Properties of Silence, with a 'Post-Silence' Salon Series of poetry readings, special performances, panels and discussions. Written by Theresa Chavez, Rose Portillo and Alan Pulner and directed by Chavez, Properties of Silence opens Feb. 28 at The Carrie Hamilton Theatre at The Pasadena Playhouse. Each performance will be followed by a 'Post-Silence' event in tribute to Sor Juana's legacy as the first feminist writer.

The Juilliard School will confer honorary doctorates on five remarkable artists during its 110th Commencement Ceremony on Friday, May 22, 2015 at 11 a.m. in Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center (Broadway at 65th Street, New York City). Suzanne Farrell, Nicholas Hytner, Murray Perahia, Dianne Reeves, and Peter Sellars will be honored at Juilliard's May 2015 Commencement Ceremony.

Mama Rose, Billy Elliot, Atticus Finch, Eddie Birdlace, and John Adams. Five names, each encapsulating what The Media Theatre's 2015-16 season promises--people who tried their hardest to change the world, to leave an indelible impression so that their lives and the lives touched by their presence and innovation would recognize excellence, courage, and passion.

Joshua Gersen, age 30, has been named New York Philharmonic Assistant Conductor beginning in September 2015. He will assist Music Director Alan Gilbert and all guest conductors throughout the season, and will lead educational events, including Young People's Concerts and Young People's Concerts for Schools.

Lyric Unlimited presents the world premiere of The Property, a klezmer opera by composer Wlad Marhulets and librettist Stephanie Fleischmann. It opens tonight, February 25, with five performances through Thursday, March 5. World premiere presentations of The Property are presented in partnership with the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood Feb. 25, 26, 27, with additional performances at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in suburban Skokie Mar. 4-5.

Anthony Freud, general director of Lyric Opera of Chicago, today announced Memory and Reckoning, a confluence of activities related to the Chicago premiere of Mieczysaw Weinberg's The Passenger, on stage at Lyric tonight, February 24 through March 15. This poignant and gripping 20th-century masterpiece portrays the story of the Holocaust from the perspectives of both victim and perpetrator, and was only recently rediscovered after more than 40 years of suppression.

Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (LACO), led by Music Director Jeffrey Kahane, presents Prokofiev's virtuosic Violin Concerto No. 2, featuring special guest violinist Joseph Swensen, and Mozart's resplendent Flute Concerto No. 1, highlighting LACO Principal Flute David Shostac, on Saturday, March 14, 2015, 8 pm, at Glendale's Alex Theatre, and Sunday, March 15, 2015, 7 pm, at UCLA's Royce Hall. Kahane also conducts Haydn's Symphony No. 64 in A major, 'Times Change,' and LACO Composer-in-Residence Andrew Norman's Gran Turismo for eight solo violins, which the composer describes as a 'creative joyride' named for 'an addictive car racing video game.'

The New York Choral Society and Music Director David Hayes will continue its season on April 8, 2015 at 8:00 pm at Carnegie Hall with a program titled For Those We've Loved.

Music Director Alan Gilbert will lead the New York Philharmonic in the World Premiere of John Adams's Scheherazade.2 - Dramatic symphony for violin and orchestra - a Philharmonic Co-Commission with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam; the Royal Concertgebouw; and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, David Robertson, Chief Conductor and Artistic Director - performed by Leila Josefowicz, for whom it is written and dedicated. The concerts - which also include two early 20th-century Russian works, Stravinsky's Petrushka (original 1911 version) and Lyadov's The Enchanted Lake - take place Thursday, March 26, 2015, at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, March 27 at 8:00 p.m.; and Saturday, March 28 at 8:00 p.m.

Carnegie Hall presents a rare performance of Karlheinz Stockhausen's powerful and influential 1968 modern vocal work Stimmung by the ensemble Theatre of Voices in Zankel Hall tonight, February 21 at 7:30 p.m. Theatre of Voices-comprised of singers Else Torp, Louise Skovbaech, Randi Pontoppidan, Wolodymyr Smishkewych, Chris Watson, and Jakob Bloch Jespersen-perform Stockhausen's seminal work for six amplified voices, the first major Western piece of music to utilize overtone singing, in which the note being sung is manipulated by the singer to produce more than one pitch at once. The technique is commonly found in Eastern singing styles, such as Mongolian and Tuvan throat singing.

February 19, 2015 - Richmond, Virginia Music Director Steven Smith and Executive Director David Fisk announced the 2015-16 season of the Richmond Symphony (RSO). The season features new series, a change of location, world-renowned guest artists and concerts designed to appeal to diverse audiences throughout the Richmond region. The season will again be led by the artistic team of Steven Smith, Lewis T. Booker Music Director Chair, Keitaro Harada, Associate Conductor and Dr. Erin R. Freeman, Director of the Richmond Symphony Chorus and James Erb Choral Chair.

New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) presents an afternoon with six-time Tony Award and two Grammys winner Audra McDonald Sunday, April 19, 2015 at 3PM in Prudential Hall.

The Sonic Boom Festival returns for its 28th year of contemporary classical music (new music). This truly unique musical experience will run for only 5 days, from March 25-29th, in two acoustically beautiful venues on Seymour Street in downtown Vancouver - the Orpheum Annex and Pyatt Hall.

Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra Music Director Jeffrey Kahane serves as musical 'tour guide' for LACO's annual 'Discover' program, which this season features a special one-night-only exploration of Mozart's incomparable and deeply moving Requiem in D minor with special guests Alison King, soprano; Emily Fons, alto; Nicholas Phan, tenor; Aubrey Allicock, bass; and the Los Angeles Master Chorale, tonight, February 19, 2015, 8 pm, at Pasadena's Ambassador Auditorium.

According to Deadline, Gillian Alexy (ROYAL PAINS, THE AMERICANS) has signed on for the female lead in WGN America's upcoming series OUTSIDERS, created by playwright Peter Mattei.

The 110-member Los Angeles Master Chorale continues its vital role of expanding the choral music repertoire when Artistic Director Grant Gershon conducts two highly anticipated world premieres based on the theme of ascension by Swan Family Composer in Residence Shawn Kirchner and distinguished Korean-American composer Nackkum Paik on Sunday, March 8, 2015, 7 pm, at Walt Disney Concert Hall.

Heartbeat Opera is a new company intent upon re-imagining opera in intimate spaces for a new generation. Employing a minimalism that allows the emotional integrity of the music to shine through, the company's work focuses on the body of the singer and the visceral power of the music.

The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra has announced that Music Director Edo de Waart will become its conductor laureate in September 2017. De Waart has led the orchestra since the 2009.10 season and has raised the artistic profile of the MSO to the highest levels. Highlights of his remarkable tenure include a critically acclaimed appearance at Carnegie Hall as part of the Spring for Music Festival; a fully-staged production of Mozart's Don Giovanni with a renowned international cast; a celebrated Rachmaninoff cycle; a festival featuring the works of composer John Adams; and numerous recording releases on the MSO's digital label. In the conductor laureate role, Edo de Waart will continue to appear annually with the MSO from the 2017.18 season onward.

Heartbeat Opera is a new company intent upon re-imagining opera in intimate spaces for a new generation. Employing a minimalism that allows the emotional integrity of the music to shine through, the company's work focuses on the body of the singer and the visceral power of the music. Co-Artistic Directors Louisa Proske andEthan Heard, who trained together in the Directing program at the Yale School of Drama, are committed to nurturing the actor in every singer they work with. The company creates productions of classics and new pieces that are daring and visceral—productions that manifest the emotional grandeur and theatrical power of opera with minimal means. Heartbeat's one-act festival presentation of György Kurtág's Kafka-Fragments, directed by Heard, and the New York premiere of Jacques Offenbach's Daphnis & Chloé, in a new English translation directed by Proske, marks this young company's debut. Heartbeat Opera's resident music ensemble Cantata Profana, described by The New York Times as “a stylish early music ensemble,” will provide musical accompaniment.