Joshua Bell News

As our remarkable '16-'17 season draws to an end, the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall is elated to announce its upcoming 2017-2018 Broadway, Dance and Classical series!

The Orchestra of St. Luke's (OSL) will honor its Principal Conductor, Pablo Heras-Casado, and the Chairman of The Bay & Paul Foundations, David Bury, at its annual Gift of Music Gala on Wednesday, April 12, 2017 at The Plaza Hotel. The event will feature a special performance by 2016 Grammy Award-winning mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard with Pablo Heras-Casado and the Orchestra of St. Luke's, and will be hosted by mezzo-soprano and OSL board member Susan Graham.

Each summer, the country's most gifted young musicians are chosen by Carnegie Hall's Weill Music Institute to form the National Youth Orchestra of the United States (NYO-USA) of America. This year, seven Philadelphia Youth Orchestra (PYO) students have been selected to participate in the prestigious 2017 NYO-USA. The PYO students who have been chosen from PA are: Fiyi Adebekun, violin, of Lansdale, Allyson Cohen, violin, of Narberth, Isabella Egawa, violin, of Bala Cynwyd, Johnny May, violin, of Penn Valley and Joy Zhao, cello, of Chalfont. The student from DE is Conor McAvinue, violin, of Wilmington, and the student from NJ is Daniel Kim, clarinet, of Skillman.

The production will be conducted by MasterVoices' Artistic Director Ted Sperling and will feature previously announced stars Kelli O'Hara, Bill Irwin, Lauren Worsham, Christopher Fitzgerald - with Jonathan Freeman, Chris Sullivan, and Jeffrey Schecter just joining the lineup - alongside 130 singers of MasterVoices, with Orchestra of St. Luke's.

After paying tribute to artistic inspirations during Fall 2016's DEMO, Damian Woetzel continues to unite artists from across fields around a common theme in performance on April 3, 2017 at 8:00 p.m. in the Eisenhower Theater. This installment of the multi-genre series brings together acclaimed artists for a special one-night performance to celebrate the combination of song and dance.

James Levine, Christoph Eschenbach, Gustavo Dudamel, Susanna Malkki, Kent Nagano, a "virtual" Esa-Pekka Salonen, and three conductors making Chicago Symphony Orchestra debuts take the podium. 

???????Edinburgh International Festival today unveiled its 2017 programme which marks the event's 70th anniversary. This year's International Festival runs from Friday 4 to Monday 28 August, welcoming 2,020 artists from 40 nations to perform in Scotland's capital city.

The Fox Cities Performing Arts Center has unveiled the 2017-18 Season featuring a lineup of 10 titles as part of the Boldt Arts Alive! Series, four titles in the Spotlight Series and eight Broadway titles in the Kimberly-Clark Broadway Across America - Fox Cities Series.

The Temple University Symphony Orchestra and Jazz Band, under the baton of its recently appointed 

The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra presents famous duets and solos of Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong, including "Love is Here to Stay," "Just One of Those Things" and highlights from Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, April 21-23 in Red Bank, Newark and New Brunswick. Vocalist Marva Hicks and trumpeter Byron Stripling bring Armstrong and Fitzgerald's legendary partnership to life; Lee Musiker conducts.

The Harris Center proudly presents a singular figure renowned in both classical Indian and world music. Sitar player and composer Anoushka Shankar has garnered five Grammy Award-nominations and the title 'Asian Hero' by Time magazine. She studied sitar under her father and guru, the late Ravi Shankar, making her professional classical debut at the age of 13. With 11 recordings to her credit (including Traces of You, which features Anoushka's half-sister Norah Jones, and Home, from which her Folsom program will be culled), 'her exquisite sitar playing...lives up to the virtuosity that made her the youngest woman ever nominated for a World Music Grammy' (Harper's Bazaar).

???????Music Director Rossen Milanov and the CSO welcome world-class American violinist and Grammy winner Gil Shaham as he channels the warmth and humor of Prokofiev's Concerto No. 2 in G Minor for Violin and Orchestra.

Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas (MTT) and the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) today announced plans for the 2017-18 season, comprising more than 200 concerts in eleven months presented at Davies Symphony Hall. The Orchestra's 106th season is highlighted by musical touchstones that are trademarks of MTT's artistic vision for the Orchestra.

Acclaimed singer Jackie Evancho makes her Cafe Carlyle debut, April 11-22. Jackie will be the youngest artist to ever perform at Cafe Carlyle.

The World Science Festival is pleased to announce that its tenth annual flagship Festival will fill performing arts centers, museums, lecture halls, laboratories, parks, waterways and other locations across New York City's five boroughs, May 30 - June 4, 2017.

As part of the Women's History Month Celebration, OPERA EXPOSURES, the not-for-profit opera company founded by Edna Greenwich in 2004, will present The Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield Story, a Memorial Concert in honor of America's premier female vocalist in opera and contemporary music in the 19th century, on Sunday, March 12, 2017, at 3:00 PM at St. Mark's Church in the Bowery, 131 East 10th Street at Second Avenue.

Audiences across the United States have the chance to experience the full power and passion of Vasily Petrenko's acclaimed artistry over the next four months. The Russian conductor's schedule of guest engagements, which extends from Georgia to California, Pennsylvania to New York City, includes reappearances with major orchestras and significant North American debuts. His US concert itinerary also spans a striking repertoire range, embracing everything from works by Mendelssohn, Glinka and Lalo to Corigliano, Respighi and Shostakovich. The diversity of his programmes reflects many of the interests Petrenko has pursued with distinction in concert and on record as Chief Conductor of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra.

Considered to be one of the finest symphony orchestras in Eastern Europe, the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine (NSOU) was entrusted with the premier performances of works by Prokofiev and Shostakovich, and joined by soloists like Artur Rubinstein, Yehudi Menuhin, Isaac Stern, and many more.

The Columbus Symphony presents Chris Botti at the Ohio Theatre (39 E. State St.) today, February 25, at 8pm.

The Carlyle, A Rosewood Hotel has announced the Cafe Carlyle's spring 2017 season, which features the venue debuts of actor/singer John O'Hurley, classical crossover star Jackie Evancho, and singer-songwriter Lisa Loeb; as well as the return of audience favorite John Pizzarelli.