John Williams News

Join your North Carolina Symphony in celebrating our nation's 235th birthday with a concert of classical favorites and patriotic tunes capped by some of the area's biggest fireworks displays.

Wolf Trap Features Cutting Edge Eclectic Folk and Bluegrass with k.d. lang and The Siss Boom Bang, The Belle Brigade, Béla Fleck and the Original Flecktones, The Carolina Chocolate Drops, and Abigail Washburn & The Village; Plus Three Consecutive Performances from the National Symphony Orchestra

The New York Philharmonic will screen the multi-Academy Award-winning film West Side Story, with Leonard Bernstein's complete score performed live by the Orchestra, led by Academy Award-nominated film composer/conductor David Newman in his Philharmonic debut, Wednesday and Thursday, September 7 and 8, 2011, at 7:30 p.m. A new sound technology, developed by Paris-based Audionamix and utilized by Chace Audio by Deluxe, has isolated the dialogue and the vocal tracks, allowing the Orchestra to accompany the film in real time.

Student musicians from the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra (ASYO) will perform a side-by-side concert with members of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra on Thursday, June 30, 2011, at 2:00 p.m. in Atlanta Symphony Hall at the Woodruff Arts Center.

The North Carolina Symphony invites music lovers of all ages to put their best boot forward for a swashbuckling fun time at the Rex Healthcare Summerfest Series.

Join your North Carolina Symphony in celebrating our nation's 235th birthday with a concert of classical favorites and patriotic tunes capped by some of the area's biggest fireworks displays.

The Boston Symphony Orchestra has announced a new conductor lineup for five of the BSO's 21 concerts to take place during the 2011 Tanglewood season.

The Detroit Symphony Orchestra will embark on an unprecedented series of Metro area concerts to complement performances at Orchestra Hall in 2011-12.

The Boston Pops really know how to open a new season at Symphony Hall! There's a wonderful cocktail party before the concert with delicious hors d'oeuvre and drinks. Then the actual concert hall is awash with attractive pastel lighting and projections of butterflies all about the auditorium. It's definitely springtime in Boston and once Maestro Keith Lockhart steps up to the podium, the music begins as America's most beloved orchestra plays and delights the sell-out crowd. Starting with Boyer's delightful "Silver Fanfare" and continuing with works by Herold, Rimsky-Korsakov and Gershwin, the audience relished every moment of the concert and joined in during the SOUND OF MUSIC sing-along that closed the first part of the program. The second half was devoted mostly to Broadway's Linda Eder, who wowed the crowd with her Judy Garland tribute and impressed everyone with her powerful and supple vocalizing. It was a remarkable evening. In a phone conversation two days prior to the event, Lockhart sounded slightly fatigued. He'd just returned to Boston from Abu Dhabi from where he conducted the BBC Concert Orchestra, for which he's been appointed Chief Conductor. It was a concert that featured Broadway's Marin Mazzie and Jason Danieley who performed songs from KISS ME KATE, FOLLIES, SOUTH PACIFIC and other Broadway classics, while the orchestra excited the place with what is frequently referred to as "The Symphonic Dances" from WEST SIDE STORY. It was a well-received performance but such travels keep Lockhart on-the-go. "It's hard to hit a moving target," he quipped. Looking ahead to the 2011 Pops season, Lockhart becomes extremely excited despite his jet lag: "I think it's a very strong season this year. It's a lot of the things that we normally do but there's a wonderful, wide variety of genres and they cross every American musical boundary that you can think of. We go from bluegrass to R&B to Broadway to Gospel. Everything seems to fall in there and we'll have many great artists performing with us. We'll also have a lot of the Boston Pops Orchestra featured in the concerts this year to show them off a bit." Speaking of Linda Eder, the maestro's admiration for her becomes very evident. "She's been with us a good deal over the years. She'll be doing a tribute to Judy Garland, who was one of the great voices of our time and age. Quite frankly, she was one of the great voices of all time." Eder is also an audience favorite because the Opening Night crowd cheered her first appearance on the stage and was enthusiastic in their applause after every one of her numbers. One person in the crowd was heard to say,"This woman must have six foot lungs!" Allowing for hyperbole, that was an apt description of Eder's vocal skills. "We're also emphasizing the fact that the Pops is and always has been an interactive experience where everybody gets to make music," continued the conductor. "We'll be having sing-alongs in many of our concerts throughout the season. We're kind of getting everyone actively involved in performing with the Pops." It seems to be effective because at the SOUND OF MUSIC segment on Opening Night, several people showed up dressed as their favorite characters. There were girls in dirndl skirts, boys in lederhosen, several nuns (of varying religious orders), a Captain Von Trapp in a smoking jacket, and a would-be Maria--who toted a guitar case with her. The sing-along prompted a great response from the crowd, many of whom were still singing snippets from the Rodgers and Hammerstein score during intermission. One of the most novel segments of the May 11th concert was the video montage of "Over The Rainbow" that was shown above the orchestra as Lockhart led a sweeping rendition of the Harold Arlen tune. Months prior to the event, a message went out over Facebook and other social networking sites for people of various talents--and equally varying musical skills-- to submit videos of themselves singing this beloved tune. "There are certain songs that have crossed all boundaries and everyone knows. We asked Pops fans to give us their best few bars of 'Over the Rainbow' and the video is a pastiche of these different renditions and takes on a classic tune." As edited by Supan Deb, the end result was remarkable; featuring people from various places across the nation singing their own versions of the song-there was even a girl dressed as Dorothy sitting in what appeared to be a wheat field warbling to good advantage. Broadway favorite Michael Feinstein will be performing with the Boston Pops this season. "The interesting thing about Michael is that I just saw him last month. We did a concert in London together. He and I are spending a lot of time together this year" chuckles Lockhart. "He's doing a Sinatra Tribute with us and as you know, Frank Sinatra is the master of the American Songbook." Michael Feinstein performs with the Pops on May 31st and June 1st. The Boston Pops will be welcoming the New York Pops' Steven Reineke as guest conductor. "Steve has been here before," Lockhart remarks. "It's no more crossing the line with the New York Pops than when Erich Kunzel from the Cincinnati Pops would join us. Each guest conductor brings his own repertoire and an interesting take on things." Reineke's concerts with the Boston Pops will take place on June 16th and 17th and will feature guest soloist Julia Murney who will sing "Back to Before" from RAGTIME, "Don't Rain on My Parade" from FUNNY GIRL and "Defying Gravity" from WICKED among other selections. This season also features what is billed as a "Family Concert" "It's a shorter, more compact sort of concert. We're trying to plan it as a concert that will appeal to adults but will also be an interesting first-experience to bring the kids to We'll be joined by the jazz trumpet player Brian Stripling who is, in himself, a walking educational concert because he has spent much of his career performing and talking about the music of some really big pioneering Black jazz musicians including Louie Armstrong , who he does an amazing tribute to," explains the conductor. "I think that's something great to expose the kids coming in to. We're also joined by the Varsity Girls who have a large fan base on Nickelodeon. Additionally, we're featuring a young artist who won the Boston Symphony's Concerto Competitions and it's always great for youngsters to see kids accomplishing a high level of artistry themselves. It'll be a very special sort of event." This Family Concert was scheduled for Saturday, May 14th. The month of August will be taken up on the Pops schedule with their first-ever Minor League Baseball Tour. The famed orchestra will visit ten Minor League Ballparks, a tour stretching from Birmingham, Alabama, to Buffalo, New York, August 16-30. Iconic singer-songwriter Kenny Loggins will join Lockhart and the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra for a program that features music inspired by three of this country's favorite pastimes--baseball, movies, and rock 'n' roll. "I think it's a great way to get families interested in the Boston Pops," said the maestro. "Hopefully we'll be getting whole families who wouldn't normally be coming to see us if we performed at their local concert hall. However, the combination of baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and the Boston Pops might appeal to them." The program will be a tribute to America's Favorite Past Times and includes music from Hollywood, the music of the Boston Pops, rock and roll and the music of baseball. Sounds like a winning combination regardless of the box scores. Of course, the Pops will be playing their famous Fourth of July Fireworks Spectacular at Boston's Esplanade on July 3rd and 4th, portions of which will be telecast on the CBS Television Network. There will also be Boston Pops appearances at the Tanglewood Music Festival in Lenox, MA this summer. This outdoor venue will host "America's Favorite Orchestra" in their incredibly popular Movie Night, where John Williams is on the podium. Lockhart will lead the orchestra there when Broadway's Jason Danieley and Kelli O'Hara are in the spotlight singing some memorable music written by Cole Porter on July 17th. Whether the Boston Pops is enjoyed at a ball park, an outdoor venue like Tanglewood or in the elegance of Boston's Symphony Hall, audiences are guaranteed a memorable time. Under the skilled and sensitive baton of Keith Lockhart, the orchestra is in prime form. However, it seems that musicians aren't the only ones who respond so favorably to Maestro Lockhart. The Opening Night crowd at Symphony Hall was just as enthusiastic about the conductor as they were about the music he was so admirably conducting. Nothing could be more felicitous. To purchase tickets to Boston Pops concerts or to get further information about the orchestra, go to www.bso.org To visit Keith Lockhart's website, go to www.keithlockhart.com

Audrey, that flesh-eating plant that has made Little Shop of Horrors both a film and stage hit, sets down roots in Crossville beginning May 19, continuing through August 6, at Cumberland County Playhouse. Directed by John Fionte, with music direction by Ron Murphy and choreography by Leila Marshall, Little Shop stars the wife-and-husband team of Lindy and Greg Pendzick as the woman who lends her name to that monstrous plant and her dweeby suitor, Seymour, the budding horticulturalist whose experiments result in some unexpected flower shop carnage.

Hardly a heavyweight, fascinatingly exotic drama as was the case with Odalys Nanin's Garbo's Cuban Lover, the one-act Lavendar Love, now on stage @ the Macha Theatre, still has enough Hollywood nostalgia, sensuality and camp going for it to call it enjoyable.

Michael Feinstein, the five-time Grammy-nominated interpreter of the Great American Songbook, joins the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra for a program celebrating the music of "Ol' Blue Eyes," Frank Sinatra.

Michael Feinstein, the five-time Grammy-nominated interpreter of the Great American Songbook, joins the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra for a program celebrating the music of 'Ol' Blue Eyes,' Frank Sinatra. The June 11 concert at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) closes the NJSO's 2011-12 POPS series in grand style.

The Boston Pops is inviting singers and music fans from around the country to submit video renditions of "Over the Rainbow" for possible inclusion in a video collage to be shown at Boston Pops performances throughout the 2011 Boston Pops season, May 11-June 26.

The Orion Ensemble's 2010-11 season concludes in May with a program featuring Mahler, Dvorák, Bolcom and Williams, as well as special guest artists. Performances take place May 1 at Fox Valley Presbyterian Church in Geneva, May 8 at Music Institute of Chicago's Nichols Concert Hall in Evanston and May 18 at Roosevelt University's Ganz Hall in Chicago.

The Capitol Center for the Arts is pleased to announce an exciting lineup of performances for our sixteenth season. On Saturday, October 15, legendary comedian Bill Cosby makes his first appearance on the Chubb Theatre stage.

Abbey Pub Announces its upcoming performance schedule. Purchase advance tickets on line at www.abbeypub.com

The JCC Thurnauer School of Music, named a Major Arts Institution by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, is pleased to announce the students selected to perform in the inaugural Beverly and Lewis Lauring Guitar Master Class, featuring internationally-acclaimed artist Benjamin Verdery, Tuesday, May 17 from 4 to 7 p.m.

The Sheldon presents 'German Perspectives,' featuring Roger Kaza, horn, on Wednesday, April 27, 2011 at 8 p.m. in the perfect acoustics of the Sheldon Concert Hall. Kaza will be joined by Patti Wolf on piano and Carolyn Banham on oboe for a program including Ernst Bloch's Prayer from Jewish Life, Carl Czerny's Fantasy No. 1 on Themes of Franz Schubert for Horn and Piano, Paul Hindemith's Sonata for Horn and Piano, and Carl Reinecke's Trio for Horn, Oboe and Piano. The concert is presented in conjunction with a major exhibition of works in the Sheldon Art Galleries by German-born painter Max Lazarus, who settled for a number of years in St. Louis.

This summer, San Jose Rep will bring back the laughs with its 2011 Summer Series featuring two hysterical shows -- Reduced Shakespeare Company's® 'The Complete World of Sports (abridged)' and 'One-Man Star Wars™' written and performed by Charles Ross.