John Adams News

In the course of his distinguished career, Gidon Kremer has established a worldwide reputation as one of the most original and compelling artists of his generation. He has appeared on virtually every major concert stage with the most celebrated orchestras of Europe and America and has collaborated with today's foremost conductors. Kremer's repertoire is unusually extensive, encompassing all of the standard classical and romantic violin works, as well as music by 20th- and 21st-century masters such as Henze, Berg and Stockhausen. He has also championed the works of living Russian and Eastern European composers and has performed many important new compositions, several of them dedicated to him. Kremer has become associated with such diverse composers as Alfred Schnittke, Arvo Pärt, Giya Kancheli, Sofia Gubaidulina, Valentin Silvestrov, Luigi Nono, Aribert Reimann, Peteris Vasks, John Adams, Victor Kissine, Michael Nyman, Philip Glass, Leonid Desyatnikov, and Astor Piazzolla, bringing their music to audiences in a way that respects tradition yet remains contemporary. It would be fair to say that no other soloist of his international stature has done as much for contemporary composers in the past 30 years. An exceptionally prolific recording artist, Kremer has made more than 120 albums, many of which brought him prestigious international awards and prizes in recognition of his exceptional interpretative powers.

On Wednesday, January 28, banjo legend Béla Fleck will join Brooklyn's own innovative chamber orchestra, The Knights, at Schimmel Center at Pace University to kick off a seven-state East Coast tour. The concert features the title track of the orchestra's brand new album, being released on January 26 on Warner Classics, The Ground Beneath Our Feet, a group composition that was written collaboratively by the members of the ensemble and is named after the Baroque ground bass that inspired it. Additional repertoire includes Rossini (overture and Se il mio nome spaer voi bramate, both from The Barber of Seville) and John Adams (Chamber Symphony).

CINCINNATI – The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (CSO) and Music Director Louis Langrée announce exciting new details surrounding the second annual groundbreaking artistic collaboration with the MusicNOW Festival and Artistic Director Bryce Dessner. On Friday, March 13, 2015 (8 p.m.), the CSO opens the festival with Varese's Tuning Up, as well as the World Premiere of Lo a new work by Pulitzer Prize winner Caroline Shaw, who will also perform the solo violin part for the new commission. The second half of that concert is highlighted by the CSO performing side by side with the Grammy-winning indie rock band, The National (of which Mr. Dessner is a part of). The 25-minute set is bookended with Christopher Rouse's The Infernal Machine and John Adams' Short Ride in a Fast Machine (which Cincinnati audiences will recognize from the CSO's wildly successful LUMENOCITY® program in August 2014).

LA Phil Creative Chair John Adams leads the LA Phil New Music Group in an evening of edgy works by some of today's most avant-garde composers - HK Gruber, John Zorn and Olga Neuwirth - at Walt Disney Concert Hall, Tuesday, January 13, at 8 pm. The concert features performances by chansonnier Pieter Embrechts and countertenor Nathan Medley in a staged production by Chromatic, a Los Angeles-based production company led by director James Darrah.

Diavolo - Architecture in Motion, returns to Houston tonight, Jan. 9, 2015, at 8 p.m., in Jones Hall, presented by Society for the Performing Arts.

Violinist Amadeus Leopold will make his Houston debut Friday, Jan. 23, 2015, at 8 p.m. in the Wortham Center's Cullen Theater, presented by Society for the Performing Arts.

Violinist Amadeus Leopold will make his Houston debut Friday, Jan. 23, 2015, at 8 p.m. in the Wortham Center's Cullen Theater, presented by Society for the Performing Arts.

The New York Philharmonic has announced the 2014-15 season's free Insights at the Atrium series. All held at the David Rubinstein Atrium and beginning at 7:30 p.m., these events combine discussion, often with live performance and video, to explore themes of the season.

Karina Canellakis, hailed as a 'masterful' violinist and recognized as one of America's most promising young conductors, makes her Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra debut showcasing her dual talents performing and leading Vivaldi's vivid Violin Concerto, 'La tempesta di mare' ('Storm') and conducting Schubert's Symphony No. 5 on Saturday, January 24, 2015, 8 pm, at Glendale's Alex Theatre, and Sunday, January 25, 2015, 7 pm, at UCLA's Royce Hall.

Los Angeles Philharmonic presents Anthony Newman, John Adams, Kremer & Trifonov in Recital, and more January-March 2015 at the Walt Disney Concert Hall.

For New York opera-goers, what was the event of the year? Undoubtedly, John Adams's THE DEATH OF KLINGHOFFER, not only for the kerfuffle caused by the [unfounded] claims of anti-Semitism but for the opera's exciting debut at the Met. (The Met's contentious labor negotiations nearly edged it out, though.) As we head into the spring season, here's a look back at some of the performances that put a song in my heart, not in any particular order.

Renee Fleming will add a new role to her extensive repertory when she sings her first-ever performances of Hanna Glawari, the title role in Lehar's The Merry Widow, at the Met this season. Four-time Tony Award winner Susan Stroman makes her Met debut as director and choreographer of a new production of the comic operetta, in which a wealthy widow's countrymen launch a romantic plot to keep her -- and her tax dollars -- within their borders.

Renée Fleming will add a new role to her extensive repertory when she sings her first-ever performances of Hanna Glawari, the title role in Lehár's The Merry Widow, at the Met this season. Four-time Tony Award winner Susan Stroman makes her Met debut as director and choreographer of a new production of the comic operetta, in which a wealthy widow's countrymen launch a romantic plot to keep her -- and her tax dollars -- within their borders.

If you've been a regular reader of this particular reviewer's musings, you know that every year there are long stretches of time where I just haven't been able to critique all the shows I've seen that deserve commentary. So I end up playing what they call in sports, 'Catch-up ball,' and post a mash up of belated reviews from past shows. It's kind of like a critic's version of the song 'Six Months Out of Every Year,' from Damn Yankees. Give or take a month or two, that's usually the time period during which I store unpublished reviews in my fevered brain and then unload them all in one seemingly endless column-like this one is going to be. If my cabaret-show reviewing days will be over (as chronicled here), I might as well go out with a bang-and relieve my procrastination guilt during holiday season. Now I can scratch one New Year's resolution off the list.

The sixth season of CONTACT!, the New York Philharmonic's new-music series, continues Monday, February 9, 2015, at 7:30 p.m. at SubCulture.

As part of the tenth edition of the COIL festival, Performance Space 122 and Parkside Lounge present the New York premiere of The Blind Date Project by Australia's Ride On Theatre. Unpredictable, dark and funny, The Blind Date Project is an event to which everyone can relate - a blind date between two people who have never met and who are desperately in need of connection.

Minnesota Opera Music Director Michael Christie leads the world premiere performances of The Manchurian Candidate, March 7-15, 2015 in the Music Theater at Ordway.

Continuing a tradition inaugurated in 2006, the Met will offer a holiday presentation this December and January: an English-language performance of an opera, with special weekday matinees and discount pricing designed to make the Met affordable for families with children. This year's production, Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel, opens tonight, December 18.

Paper Mill Playhouse has announced casting for its winter comedy, Christopher Durang's Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike. This touching and wickedly hysterical Tony Award-winning best play features Broadway, television and film veterans: Philippe Bowgen (Spike), Gina Daniels (Cassandra), Carolyn McCormick (Masha), Mark Nelson (Vanya), Michele Pawk (Sonia) and Jamie Ann Romero (Nina). Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike will be directed by Don Stephenson. Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike will run eight times a week at the Millburn, New Jersey, theater from January 21 through February 15, 2015. The official press opening night is Sunday, January 25, at 7:00pm. Paper Mill Playhouse's 2014-2015 Season is sponsored by Investors Bank.

Renée Fleming will add a new role to her extensive repertory when she sings her first-ever performances of Hanna Glawari, the title role in Lehár's The Merry Widow, at the Met this season. Four-time Tony Award winner Susan Stroman makes her Met debut as director and choreographer of a new production of the comic operetta, in which a wealthy widow's countrymen launch a romantic plot to keep her -- and her tax dollars -- within their borders.