John Adams News

HE JEWISH SPIRIT, a new cd on Sono Luminus (DSL-92182), was released today, October 28, 2014, with Essential Voices USA, conducted by Judith Clurman with soloists Ron Raines, Bruce Ruben and Michael Slattery.

2Y announces casting for Lyrics & Lyricists 2015, the 45th season of the acclaimed American Songbook series. Cady Huffman, Liz Callaway, Kate Baldwin, Peter Cincotti and Jason Danieley are among the performers interpreting the works of Stephen Sondheim; Irving Berlin; Sheldon Harnick; and such songwriters as Cole Porter, Duke Ellington and Leonard Bernstein, who so eloquently illuminated New York City's essence in song. Mitzi Gaynor makes a special guest appearance for the show on Hollywood's Leading Ladies - only the fourth time the legendary entertainer has performed in New York City.

Only someone who arrived convinced of the opera's bias could have found the Met's premiere of the John Adams-Alice Goodman THE DEATH OF KLINGHOFFER to be anti-Semitic. On the other hand, that doesn't mean that it's even-handed.

The Metropolitan Opera's 2014-15 season kicked off with the controversial John Adams's The Death of Klinghoffer, conducted by David Robertson and directed by Tom Morris.

Today, SHOWTIME announced that Oscar nominee and Emmy(R) and Golden Globe winner Paul Giamatti (Cinderella Man) and Emmy and Golden Globe winner Damian Lewis (Homeland) have been cast in the lead roles of the complex, contemporary drama pilot BILLIONS. Written and executive produced by Brian Koppelman and David Levien and Andrew Ross Sorkin, BILLIONS is a fictional drama that takes a forensic look at the world of high finance by tracking the approaching collision between two titanic figures - the hard charging, whip-smart U.S. Attorney Chuck Rhodes (Giamatti), and the brilliant, ambitious hedge fund king, Bobby 'Axe' Axelrod (Lewis). Acclaimed director Neil Burger (The Illusionist, Divergent, Limitless) has signed on to direct the drama pilot, which will be filmed in New York in early 2015.

New additions to the live music lineup include The Black Keys and Jessie J. They will join previously announced performers Eminem, Dave Grohl, Metallica, Rihanna, Bruce Springsteen, Carrie Underwood and Zac Brown Band on stage on the National Mall.

Miller Theatre at Columbia University School of the Arts continues the 2014-15 Composer Portraits series with CHAYA CZERNOWIN featuring the International Contemporary Ensemble, Kai Wessel, countertenor, Noa Frenkel, contralto, and Steven Schick, conductor. Tonight, October 23, 2014, 8:00 p.m. at the Miller Theatre at Columbia University (2960 Broadway at 116th Street). Tickets are $20-$30 and Students with valid ID: $12-$18.

Music Director Alan Gilbert will conduct the New York Philharmonic in Barto?k's Piano Concerto No. 3, with Yefim Bronfman as soloist, and Bruckner's Symphony No. 8 (Ed. Nowak, 1890), tonight, October 23, 2014, at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, October 24 at 8:00 p.m.; Saturday, October 25 at 8:00 p.m.; and Tuesday, October 28 at 7:30 p.m.

Metropolitan Opera's General Manager, Peter Gelb, wrote in the NY Post: 'Monday night's premiere of “The Death of Klinghoffer” was not one of the easiest nights in the history of The Metropolitan Opera, but it was one of the most important.'

The Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (LACO), an ardent champion of new music, presents the highly anticipated Los Angeles premiere of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Aaron Jay Kernis' gripping and virtuosic Viola Concerto written for and featuring Paul Neubauer, considered one of the greatest violists of his generation, in two performances led by Music Director Jeffrey Kahane on Saturday, November 15, 2014, 8 pm, at Glendale's Alex Theatre, and Sunday, November 16, 2014, 7pm, at UCLA's Royce Hall. Kernis' three-movement work, filled with 'passages of intense lyricism (that) approach a kind of ecstasy' (Star Tribune), is a co-commission by LACO, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, which premiered it in April, the Chautauqua Symphony and the Idyllwild Arts Academy. Kahane, showcasing LACO's remarkable artistic versatility, also leads Beethoven's luminous Piano Concerto No. 3 from the piano and opens the program with Rameau's Overture to Zais and dances from Les Boreades and Dardanus.

The Los Angeles Master Chorale (LAMC), led by Artistic Director Grant Gershon, presents an all-a cappella program of soaring Renaissance choral gems that promises to resonate in the sparkling acoustics of Disney Hall on Sunday, November 16, 2014, 7 pm. The Chorale, which is particularly adept at performing this musical style with crisp, clear intonation, performs William Byrd's Sing Joyfully, Josquin des Prez's Ave nobilissima creatura, John Taverner's Western Wind Mass, Thomas Tallis's If Ye Love Me and Orlando di Lasso's O Crux Splendidior, among other 16th and 17th century works.

American tenor Jay Hunter Morris will replace Anthony Dean Griffey in Houston Grand Opera's world premiere production of A Christmas Carol, it was announced today by HGO Artistic and Music Director Patrick Summers. Mr. Griffey has withdrawn for health reasons. The 90-minute opera, commissioned by HGO from composer Iain Bell and librettist Simon Callow, is written for a single singer performing the role of The Narrator. A Christmas Carol runs from December 5 through 21, 2014, at the Wortham Theater Center, and is suitable for ages 12 and up.

In advance of the opening of 'The Death of Klinghoffer' at the Metropolitan Opera tomorrow night, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) released a statement by Lisa and Ilsa Klinghoffer, the daughters of Leon Klinghoffer, which will be featured in the playbill.?

American tenor Jay Hunter Morris will replace Anthony Dean Griffey in Houston Grand Opera's world premiere production of A Christmas Carol, it was announced today by HGO Artistic and Music Director Patrick Summers. Mr. Griffey has withdrawn for health reasons. The 90-minute opera, commissioned by HGO from composer Iain Bell and librettist Simon Callow, is written for a single singer performing the role of The Narrator. A Christmas Carol runs from December 5 through 21, 2014, at the Wortham Theater Center, and is suitable for ages 12 and up.

Music Director Alan Gilbert will lead the New York Philharmonic in a one-night-only all- Mozart program featuring the Piano Concertos Nos. 17 and 24, with Lang Lang as soloist, and Overture to The Magic Flute, tonight, October 21, 2014, at 7:30 p.m.

Seattle Opera will feature Mark Walters in the title role of Don Giovanni on October 19 at 7:30 P.M.in Italian with English subtitles at McCaw Hall.

From The Patriot to John Adams, from the iconic portrait of Washington Crossing the Delaware by Emmanuel Gottlieb Leutze to the musical 1776, the birth of our nation has been portrayed countless times in countless ways in the arts. But never quite like this.

The Los Angeles Philharmonic Association has announced two conductors who will participate in the 2014/15 Dudamel Fellowship Program - Christian Kluxen and Gemma New. Music Director Gustavo Dudamel, together with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, created the Dudamel Fellowship Program in 2009 to provide a unique opportunity for promising young conductors from around the world to develop their craft and enrich their musical experience through personal mentorship and participation in the LA Phil's orchestral, education and community programs.

?The Met will expand its visual arts initiatives with a new series of short films, Gallery Met Shorts, in which celebrated visual artists use animation, video, and film to create original artworks set to music from operas in the Met's current season.

The Met: Live in HD, the Metropolitan Opera's award-winning series of live transmissions to more than 2,000 movie theaters in 65 countries around the world, will feature ten operas in the 2014-15 season, including all six new productions in the Met season. All ten performances, transmitted live from the Met stage, will feature the world's finest singers, conductors, and theatrical artists.