Laquita Mitchell News

Collaborative Arts Institute of Chicago is continuing the celebration of its tenth anniversary season with winter and spring offerings that include three recitals as part of the Lieder Lounge series, and the final installment of a Polish song workshop.

The Oratorio Society of New York's 147th annual performance of Messiah had been slated to take place on Monday, December 21, 2020, at Carnegie Hall. When it became clear that this could not happen, OSNY Music Director Kent Tritle and the organization's leadership came up with a Plan B.

BroadwayHD will be expanding their partnership with the revered San Francisco Opera with the debut of Moby-Dick by composer Jake Heggie and librettist Gene Scheer on November 17th.

In light of restrictions surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, Opera  Colorado will postpone its 2020-21 Season, previously programmed as Cavalleria Rusticana in February,  Carmen in May, and The Shining in June.

BroadwayHD has announced its September lineup!

Black Opera Productions LLC, and Presenting Partner, Brookfield Place, will present Jessye Norman at 75: A Celebration LIVE on Tuesday, September 15, 2020 at 6:00 PM ET, to commemorate the legendary singer's first birthday in memoriam, presented in support of the Estate of Jessye Norman and Jessye Norman School of the Arts, and the forthcoming documentary film Black Opera. 

Black Opera Productions is presenting Black Opera Live, a weekly live broadcast featuring candid conversations and career chats with Black American opera stars of today. Join host Kenneth Overton on Instagram Live @blackoperafilm on Mondays at 7pm EDT from June 1 through August 31.

I was delighted to hear that the Oratorio Society of New York's world premiere at Carnegie Hall of SANCTUARY ROAD (Naxos 8.559884)--a work for orchestra, chorus and a quintet of soloists--had been captured on disc. Not only is the story worth bringing to a broader audience, but the magic of the work, composed by Paul Moravec with a libretto by Mark Campbell based on the writings of William Still, “a conductor for the Underground Railroad,' merits hearing over and over again.

Kent Tritle begins the new decade with his first organ recital at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in two years, Bach's St. John Passion with the Cathedral Choir, and both a new edition of Brahms's A German Requiem and the world premiere of A Nation of Others, an oratorio about Ellis Island with music by Paul Moravec and libretto by Mark Campbell, with the Oratorio Society of New York.

The 2018 world premiere performance by the Oratorio Society of New York of the Paul Moravec/Mark Campbell work Sanctuary Road is now a Naxos Records release (January 10, 2020). Based on the writings of William Still, a 'conductor' on the Underground Railroad who chronicled 'the death struggles of slaves in their efforts of freedom,' the oratorio was led at its premiere by OSNY Music Director Kent Tritle, and featured soloists Laquita Mitchell, Raehann Bryce-Davis, Joshua Blue, Malcolm J. Merriweather, and Dashon Burton.

In 1874, a one-year-old organization called the Oratorio Society of New York performed Handel's Messiah on Christmas night at Steinway Hall, then on East 14th Street. Earlier that year, New York City made its first move to grow beyond Manhattan by annexing the 'West Bronx.'

In 1874, a one-year-old organization called the Oratorio Society of New York performed Handel's Messiah on Christmas night at Steinway Hall, which was then on East 14th Street. Earlier that year, New York City made its first move to grow beyond Manhattan by annexing the 'West Bronx.'

Hailed as a?oeone of the great amateur choruses of our timea?? (New York Today) for its a?oefull-bodied sound and supplenessa?? (The New York Times), the 50-member Dessoff Choirs begins its 2019-20 season highlighting choral works by esteemed composers of the 19th and 20th centuries. Featuring full orchestra, and soloists Laquita Mitchell (soprano) and Donovan Singletary (baritone), the program is centered around the original 1893 version of Gabriel Fauré's Requiem, the composer's masterpiece. Complementing the Requiem is Ich lasse dich nicht, a motet attributed to J.S. Bach, William Schuman's evocative Prelude for Voices, and the a?oeKyriea?? from Louis Vierne's Messe solennelle.

The 2019-20 season of the Oratorio Society of New York, the city's standard for grand choral performance led by its acclaimed music director, Kent Tritle, is highlighted by two premieres that reflect its 146-year history: the U.S. premiere of a new critical edition of a Brahms masterwork that the Society performed in 1877; and the world premiere of A Nation of Others, an OSNY-commissioned oratorio for soloists, chorus, and orchestra by composer Paul Moravec and librettist Mark Campbell on the subject of immigrants' arrival at Ellis Island.

"Summertime" has just about arrived in the UK and Grange Park Opera continue their 2019 season with George and Ira Gershwin's Porgy & Bess. The audience are whisked away from West Horseley Place's idyllic setting to Charleston, South Carolina in this production directed by Jean-Pierre van der Spuy.

Hylton Performing Arts Center announced today its 2019-2020 season of mainstage performances, featuring a diverse lineup of artists and ensembles across genres, as part of Hylton Presents, Hylton Family Series, Matinee Idylls, and the American Roots Series. The Hylton Center also announced the first Hylton Center EXTRA! for the season: the husband and wife duo and banjo icons, B la Fleck and Abigail Washburn, in a special concert event featuring their unique blend of alternative bluegrass. Season subscriptions are on sale to Friends of the Hylton Center at HyltonCenter.org/preview or by phone at 703-993-7700. For the general public, subscriptions go on sale Wednesday, April 24 and single tickets on Thursday, August 1. More details are available at HyltonCenter.org.

Well, it's that time of the year again--time for a look-back on what was worth making note of during the calendar year that's about to come to an end. It's from a totally personal, subjective point of view, of course, but frankly that's the way opera-lovers always seem to like it, n'est-ce pas? The productions worth noting come from places big, small and in-between, from composers old as the hills to freshly minted or somewhere in between (likewise the performers), from traditional or boldly modern to simply stand up and sing.

Hamstrung by a libretto that sidesteps Martin Luther King's 'I Have a Dream' and 'Mountaintop' speeches, Douglas Tappin's I DREAM sustains audience enthusiasm with a powerhouse Opera Carolina cast.

The world premiere performance of SANCTUARY ROAD (subtitled “An Oratorio Based on the Writings of William Still, a Conductor for the Underground Railroad”), by composer Paul Moravec and librettist Mark Campbell, performed by the Oratorio Society of New York under Kent Tritle, burst forth from the stage of Carnegie Hall the other night, with energy, humanity and, of course, great musicality from all involved.

World premieres of an oratorio about the Underground Railroad that sets narratives of slaves running for freedom and their lives, and a work that sets poems calling for peace in Farsi, Spanish, Hebrew, Arabic, and English: Sanctuary Road, music by Paul Moravec and text by Mark Campbell based upon the writings of William Still, a conductor for the Underground Railroad; and We Are One for chorus and orchestra by Behzad Ranjbaran, both completed within the last year, will be given their first performances by the Oratorio Society of New York (OSNY) led by Music Director Kent Tritle as the culminating concert of the OSNY's 145th season on Monday, May 7, 2018, at Carnegie Hall.