John Adams News

My retracing of the steps of founding father John Adams took me this time all the way back to his beginnings, with a trip to the Adams National Historical Park in Quincy, MA. Quincy was, in the 18th century, part of Braintree, the community where John Adams was born and raised, on a farm where four generations of Adamses had lived before him. Today the house where he was born and the house next door, where he and Abigail raised their family-and where they lived during the action of 1776-are preserved by the National Park Service, and on a rainy day in May I made a pilgrimag

I had forgotten how profoundly theatre can transcend. That the people doing the singing, dancing, joke making and storytelling are actual human beings, and that they're susceptible to the butterfly effect and the hundredth monkey and that they, too, are feeling the weight of the sky pressing down in these hard, heavy times.

The five-time Grammy-winning San Francisco Girls Chorus will close its2013-2014 35th season with a special concert of music by Eastern European composers and guest artists Joe Goode Performance Group and pianists Kanoko Nishi and Sarah Cahill Today, June 14, at 8 pm at Nourse Theatre in San Francisco. The program, entitled Rites and Passages and conducted by Girls Chorus Music Director Valerie Sainte-Agathe, will feature Bartok's Three Village Scenes performed as a suite with original dance interpolations created by Joe Goode and performed by members of his acclaimed Joe Goode Performance Group. The Chorus will be joined by guest pianists Kanoko Nishi and Sarah Cahill for Nishi's new two-piano arrangement of Scenes 1 and 3 from Stravinsky's Les Noces and will go a cappella for Stravinsky'sFour Russian Peasant Songs. Completing the program will be Smetana's Three Choruses for Female Voice. [Editor Note this program is a change from the program of Stravinsky, Poulenc and Faure originally announced for this date in August, 2013.] For information and tickets, visit www.sfgirlschorus.org .

Long Beach Opera Artistic and General Director Andreas Mitisek announces the company's 2015 season featuring works by contemporary North American and English composers: the US premiere of Gavin Bryars' Marilyn Forever, the Los Angeles premiere of Tobias Picker's Therese Raquin, and a new production of Philip Glass' Hydrogen Jukebox. Kicking off the season, LBO will perform the Southern California premiere of John Adams' I was looking at the ceiling and then I saw the sky.

Music Director Osmo Vänskä guides Orchestra's flagship classical series, September 2014 to June 2015, featuring a lineup of classical masterworks, star soloists and conductors

My whirlwind day trip to the City of Brotherly Love continued with stops at as many places I could get to that either figure in the story of 1776 or might evoke 18th century Philadelphia. There are still some wonderful pockets of the city that are very much like they were a couple hundred years ago, the most charming of which is Elfreth's Alley. This little cobbled lane lined with quaint houses (all still residential homes) is the oldest residential street in America and looks just as it would have had John Adams himself strolled down it in the summer of '76.

Profiles in History, the world's largest auctioneer & dealer of historical autographs, letters, documents, vintage signed photographs, manuscripts and original Hollywood memorabilia, will present Historical Document Auction 63, June 13, 2014, beginning at 11am PST. This unprecedented collection of rare and virtually unseen documents is highlighted by one of Ludwig van Beethoven's most famous correspondences—a letter written in 1806 during the chaotic creation and production of his only opera, Fidelio. The Auction Pre-sale Estimate for this extremely rare document, not publicly seen since the 1950's, is $150,000 - $250,000 and could easily exceed that figure.

The New York Philharmonic will conclude its 2013-14 subscription season with The Beethoven Piano Concertos: A Philharmonic Festival, featuring The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in- Residence Yefim Bronfman and conducted by Alan Gilbert, today, June 11-28, 2014.

54 Below has announced the latest musical scores to be featured in its acclaimed '54 Sings' concert series this summer:

I am a research fanatic; I admit it. With each role I play I become my own dramaturge, digging around to learn everything I can about the source material of the play, the period it is set in… anything that will enable me to get inside the skin of the character. Years ago, I created a series of solo shows in which I played screen siren Marlene Dietrich. I felt a huge responsibility, as I attempted to embody such an iconic and distinctive star, to see every film, listen to every recording, and read every book in my quest to be as authentic as possible in my portrayal. With 1776 and John Adams, I am dealing with American history and one of our founding fathers…Talk about responsibility!

I am a research fanatic; I admit it. With each role I play I become my own dramaturge, digging around to learn everything I can about the source material of the play, the period it is set in… anything that will enable me to get inside the skin of the character. Years ago, I created a series of solo shows in which I played screen siren Marlene Dietrich. I felt a huge responsibility, as I attempted to embody such an iconic and distinctive star, to see every film, listen to every recording, and read every book in my quest to be as authentic as possible in my portrayal. With 1776 and John Adams, I am dealing with American history and one of our founding fathers…Talk about responsibility!

Maestra Marin Alsop will lead the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) in a performance of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 and John Adams' On the Transmigration of Souls tonight, June 5 at 8 p.m., Friday, June 6 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, June 8 at 3 p.m. at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall and on Saturday, June 7 at 8 p.m. at The Music Center at Strathmore.

Max McLean, Artistic Director of Fellowship for Performing Arts, announces that C.S. Lewis' THE GREAT DIVORCE will be presented from tonight, June 5, through Sunday, June 15, at the Alliance Theatre, Woodruff Arts Center, 1280 Peachtree St. NE in Atlanta. This journey to Heaven and Hell is a provocative exploration of human nature, featuring vivid characters drawn with Lewis' trademark wit.

HISTORY has ordered its latest scripted miniseries SONS OF LIBERTY from A+E Studios and Stephen David Entertainment (The Men Who Built America, The World Wars);

Make Music New York, ComposersCollaborative Inc, Peppergreen Media & Cornelia Street Café present 'IN (Key),' an extraordinary 50th anniversary celebration of Terry Riley's minimalist masterpiece 'IN C' on Saturday, June 21st featuring eleven new works by leading composer-performers. The event will begin with a special performance of 'IN C' itself, serving as a prelude to all that is to follow.

Every actor has his or her dream roles. And so few of us get the chance to play them. One of the parts I have coveted for years is John Adams in the great American musical, 1776, and after numerous auditions for various productions, I have the chance to play the role this summer! To capture and share the process of preparing this role, which I will be performing at Cape Playhouse in July, I have created this video blog!

From Die Hard to the architecture of Richard Neutra and R.M. Schindler, from Blade Runner to the fiction of James M. Cain and Raymond Chandler, and from fires, riots, and earthquakes to the lives of so many Americans who have looked to Southern California as a panacea, Gabriel Kahane's The Ambassador (Masterworks) draws its inspiration from a multitude of sources to tell intimate, human stories against the backdrop of Los Angeles architecture and popular culture.

Max McLean, Artistic Director of Fellowship for Performing Arts, announces that C.S. Lewis' THE GREAT DIVORCE will be presented from Thursday, June 5, through Sunday, June 15, at the Alliance Theatre, Woodruff Arts Center, 1280 Peachtree St. NE in Atlanta. This journey to Heaven and Hell is a provocative exploration of human nature, featuring vivid characters drawn with Lewis' trademark wit.

Max McLean, Artistic Director of Fellowship for Performing Arts, announces that C.S. Lewis' THE GREAT DIVORCE will be presented at the Cullen Theater at Wortham Center, 501 Texas Avenue in Houston, on Friday, August 15 at 8 p.m. and Saturday, August 16 at 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. This journey to Heaven and Hell is a provocative exploration of human nature, featuring vivid characters drawn with Lewis' trademark wit.

General Director Plácido Domingo announced today that Grant Gershon has renewed his contract at LA Opera's Resident Conductor, effective through June of 2017.