John Adams News

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) Music Director Marin Alsop leads the BSO and the University of Maryland Concert Choir in the centerpiece of the BSO's 2013-2014 season, Britten's War Requiem on Thursday, November 14, 2013 at 8 p.m. and Friday, November 15, 2013 at 8 p.m. at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall and Saturday, November 16, 2013 at 8 p.m. at the Music Center at Strathmore. The program also features soprano Tamara Wilson, tenor Nicolas Phan, bass-baritone Ryan McKinny and the Peabody Children's Chorus. These performances celebrate the 100th anniversary of the composer's birth on November 22, 1913. Please see below for complete program details.

Paines Plough celebrates its 40th year in 2014. Under the artistic leadership of James Grieve and George Perrin, the company today announces a taster of the work to come across its anniversary year - the company's most ambitious programme to date.

Renowned clarinetist Charles Neidich will appear as soloist with the String Orchestra of Brooklyn under the baton of Tito Mun?oz Saturday evening, November 9th at 8:00 p.m. at St. Ann's Church, 157 Montague St., Brooklyn, NY. The program will begin with Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6 and continue, with Mr. Neidich as clarinet soloist in the incomparable Mozart Clarinet Concert in A Major, K. 622.

On January 18, 2014, Houston Grand Opera (HGO) presents the American premiere of The Passenger (1968), a powerful Holocaust opera by exiled Polish-Jewish composer Mieczyslaw Weinberg.

The Chattanooga Symphony & Opera continues its commemoration of the Civil War sesquicentennial by presenting a Barnett & Company Masterworks concert featuring American composers and capped off with Copland's Lincoln Portrait, narrated by City of Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke.

Music Director Alan Gilbert will lead the New York Philharmonic in a celebration of the centennial of English composer, conductor, and pianist Benjamin Britten. The program will include Britten's Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings, featuring tenor Paul Appleby and Philharmonic Principal Horn Philip Myers, and Britten's Spring Symphony, with soprano Kate Royal (in her Philharmonic debut), mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke (Philharmonic subscription debut), tenor Paul Appleby, New York Choral Artists directed by Joseph Flummerfelt, and Brooklyn Youth Chorus directed by Dianne Berkun-Menaker. The concerts, which include a performance on the composer's 100th birthday, November 22, will take place Thursday, November 21, 2013, at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, November 22 at 8:00 p.m.; and Saturday, November 23 at 8:00 p.m.

The Metropolitan Opera has announced the addition of three new composers to its Met/LCT New Works Program. Matthew Aucoin, David T. Little, and Joshua Schmidt, three critically heralded young composers, have signed on to develop new operas through the program, which allows gifted composers and librettists to workshop new material for the opera and music theater stages, using the resources of the Met and Lincoln Center Theater. Nico Muhly's Two Boys, workshopped through the program, will have its North American premiere at the Met on October 21.

Miller Theatre at Columbia University School of the Arts continues the 2013-14 Composer Portraits series with electronic music innovator RAND STEIGER, featuring: PETER EVANS, trumpet; MILLER PUCKETTE and RAND STEIGER, electronics; INTERNATIONAL CONTEMPORARY ENSEMBLE; and STEVEN SCHICK, conductor.

On the occasion of composer Benjamin Britten's centennial, the Met will present its first performances of his 1960 opera A Midsummer Night's Dream in more than a decade. James Conlon leads his first Met performances of the opera, which is directed by Tim Albery in a revival of his acclaimed 1996 production.

On January 18, 2014, Houston Grand Opera (HGO) presents the American premiere of The Passenger (1968), a powerful Holocaust opera by exiled Polish-Jewish composer Mieczyslaw Weinberg. Based on a novel by Auschwitz survivor Zofia Posmysz, The Passenger was recognized as "a perfect masterpiece" by Shostakovich but was censored by the Soviet establishment and never performed in Weinberg's lifetime. It premiered at the 2010 Bregenz Festival, and its subsequent UK premiere at the English National Opera took place only thanks to award-winning British director David Pountney, whose staging inspired the Telegraph to write: "Risky though it may be to label a first production 'definitive,' it is hard to imagine it ever being done better." Now HGO brings the same production across the Atlantic, complete with mezzo-soprano Michelle Breedt, who "excelled" (New York Times) in the leading role at two European premieres. All five of The Passenger's first American performances (Jan 18-Feb 2) will be led byPatrick Summers, HGO's artistic and music director.

HBO Films presents in association with SAF Films West MUHAMMAD ALI'S GREATEST FIGHT, starring Academy Award(R) winner Christopher Plummer ('Beginners'), Academy Award(R) nominee Frank Langella ('Frost/Nixon') and Benjamin Walker ('Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter'); directed by Academy Award(R) nominee Stephen Frears ('The Queen') from a script by Shawn Slovo ('A World Apart'); and executive produced by Emmy(R) winner Frank Doelger (HBO's 'Game of Thrones' and 'The Gathering Storm'), Emmy(R) winner Tracey Scoffield (HBO's 'The Gathering Storm'), Jonathan Cameron and Stephen Frears.

In Mahler's mighty 'Resurrection' symphony, he dramatically addresses life-and-death issues as only he could-'one is battered to the ground and then raised on angels' wings to the highest heights.' CSO Music Director Jean-Marie Zeitouni opens the 2013-14 season by leading the Columbus Symphony Chorus, featured guest vocalists Dominique Labelle (soprano) and Sasha Cooke (mezzo-soprano), and the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, including an off-stage brass ensemble echoing the last judgement from another world. This will also be the official debut of Jean-Sebastien Roy as the CSO's new concertmaster.

The Stockton Symphony presents a concert in their Music Beyond Borders series tonight, October 4, featuring the innovative and eclectic electric violinist Tracy Silverman. Silverman will be giving a solo performance along with commentary about his innovative instrument and his playing style, foreshadowing his return to play with the Stockton Symphony in February 2014. Delta College cohosts the virtuoso on their Stockton campus in the Tillie Lewis Theatre at 7:30 PM.

Tracy Silverman, who will be giving a solo performance along with commentary about his innovative instrument and his playing style Friday evening, will be giving a workshop for string students at Pacific's Conservatory of Music. The workshop, open to the public for viewing, will be held at Pacific's Recital Hall and begins at 2:00 p.m. The students will bring their musical instruments to work with Silverman and receive feedback. He will be explaining his unique violin and bowing style.

Nonesuch Records returns to Powell Hall in early October to record the St. Louis Symphony's October 5-6 performances of John Adams' new Saxophone Concerto. The work was co-commissioned by the St. Louis Symphony and will feature soloist Timothy McAllister. The composer will be in attendance for the performances.

American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) is pleased to offer an open captioned performance ofTony Award-winning director Frank Galati's triumphant new staging of the musical 1776 tonight, October 3 at 8 p.m., at A.C.T.'s Geary Theater (415 Geary Street, San Francisco). Special seats have been reserved for hearing-impaired audience members who would like an optimal view of the digital screen. These tickets (located in the Orchestra section) are $40 per person and available by visiting at act-sf.org/1776 (select the 'caption' tab) or by calling A.C.T. at 415.749.2228.

The Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, led by Music Director Jeffrey Kahane, presents the highly anticipated U.S. premiere of the orchestral version of Bruce Adolphe's Do You Dream in Color?, a powerful work set to a poem about living without sight written by rising mezzo-soprano Laurie Rubin. Born blind, Rubin, a 1997 Music Center Spotlight Awards winner, joins LACO for the premiere, marking her LACO debut, on Saturday, October 19, 8 pm, at Pasadena's Ambassador Auditorium, and Sunday, October 20, 7 pm, at UCLA's Royce Hall.

Bernard Labadie will return to the New York Philharmonic to conduct Mozart's Requiem; J.S. Bach's Cantata No. 51, Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen!; and Handel's 'Let the Bright Seraphim' from Samson. The program's soloists will include soprano Miah Persson, mezzo- soprano Stephanie Blythe, tenor Frédéric Antoun in his Philharmonic debut, bass Andrew Foster- Williams, Philharmonic Principal Trumpet Philip Smith, and the New York Choral Artists directed by Joseph Flummerfelt. The concerts will take place Thursday, November 7, 2013, at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, November 8 at 8:00 p.m.; and Saturday, November 9 at 8:00 p.m.

Anchor Bay Films presents Leland Orser's writing and directorial debut, MORNING, on DVD today, October 1, 2013.