Leonard Bernstein News

Kansas City Repertory Theatre Artistic Director Eric Rosen announced today the casting for HAIR: Retrospection, under his direction.

World-renowned singer and artist Frederica von Stade will take the stage on March 20 to perform with Longy's Sistema Side by Side Orchestra at the 2015 Sistema Side by Side Celebration, under the baton of the orchestra's newly appointed Music Director Jorge Soto. The program will feature orchestral masterpieces Brahms Hungarian Dance No 5 and Dvorák's Symphony No. 9 in e minor, as well as classic and playful tunes such as Rodgers and Hammerstein's Do Re Mi from The Sound of Music.

Pianist Richard Goode has won the admiration of discriminating classical music aficionados worldwide

Lyric Unlimited presents the world premiere of The Property, a klezmer opera by composer Wlad Marhulets and librettist Stephanie Fleischmann. It opens tonight, February 25, with five performances through Thursday, March 5. World premiere presentations of The Property are presented in partnership with the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood Feb. 25, 26, 27, with additional performances at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in suburban Skokie Mar. 4-5.

It's no ordinary cast! Dozens of competitors bid for roles in a professionally produced stage production of the Tony Award-winning musical WONDERFUL TOWN at Bailiwick Chicago's annual CHICAGO CASTING AUCTION. Now, they're ready to take the stage for five performances only, tonight, February 25 - 28, 2015 at Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont Ave. in Chicago. With book by Joseph A. Fields and Jerome Chodorov, lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green and music by Leonard Bernstein, WONDERFUL TOWN is directed by Bailiwick Chicago Company Member Varris Holmes* with music direction by Kyle Pollio and choreography by Company Member Jon Martinez*.

Following the company's annual picture game, inspiring audiences to guess the upcoming season, Paper Mill has followed it up with a second image, this time explaining the first!

The Music Academy of the West has announced four bold new initiatives to welcome audiences to its annual summer classical music festival. Anchoring the effort are $10 Community Access tickets, which will be available for all Festival events. Additionally, young people ages 7 to 17 will be admitted free to all events, performances and masterclasses will be streamed live on the internet, and the Music Academy will host a free open house, including rehearsals, performances, and masterclasses, on June 24.

Baltimore, Md. (February 23, 2015) — The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) and Music Director Marin Alsop present the Family Concert Series program “Mr. Smith's Composition” on Saturday, March 21, 2015 at 11 a.m. at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. The concert will also include selections from Beethoven's Symphony No. 5. Music Director Marin Alsop, protégé of the famous Leonard Bernstein's Young People's Concerts, will share fascinating, age-appropriate insight into Beethoven's creative process for developing that well-known masterpiece. The program also takes the audience into the mind of the composer and narrator Gregory Smith. Prior to the concert, patrons are invited to the Inspiration Zone: beginning at 9:45 a.m., the Meyerhoff lobby will be abuzz with fun pre-concert activities such as face-painting and chamber music performances by members of the Baltimore Symphony Youth Orchestras. Please see below for complete program details.

Come celebrate the one and only Broadway legend CHITA RIVERA in a unique solo concert event, coming to The Alden in McLean for one night only tonight, Feb. 24 at 7:30 p.m.

Anthony Freud, general director of Lyric Opera of Chicago, today announced Memory and Reckoning, a confluence of activities related to the Chicago premiere of Mieczysaw Weinberg's The Passenger, on stage at Lyric tonight, February 24 through March 15. This poignant and gripping 20th-century masterpiece portrays the story of the Holocaust from the perspectives of both victim and perpetrator, and was only recently rediscovered after more than 40 years of suppression.

The Brown Paper Box Co. announces the Chicago storefront premiere of [title of show], with music and lyrics by Jeff Bowen and book by Hunter Bell. The show will run from July 17 through August 16, 2015 at Rivendell Theatre in Chicago's Edgewater neighborhood (5779 N. Ridge Ave.). Press performances are Sunday, July 19 at 2 P.M. and Monday, July 20 at 7:30 P.M. Audition information and more will be posted at www.brownpaperbox.org.

Lawrence Edelson, Artistic and General Director of Opera Saratoga, announced today that the company has received two important new grants to help support the world premiere of The Long Walk, a new opera by composer Jeremy Howard Beck and librettist Stephanie Fleischmann, based on the critically acclaimed memoir of war and homecoming by Brian Castner.

New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) presents a one time only all star-tribute to saxophonist Charlie 'Bird' Parker with jazz pianist Bill Charlap, alto saxophonists Phil Woods, Charles McPher, and Jesse Davis Saturday, April 11, 2015 at 7:30 PM in the Victoria Theater. Get your tickets now at NJPAC.org or 888.GO.NJPAC (888.466.5722)

PITTSBURGH – It's going to get hot in Heinz Hall during the BNY Mellon Grand Classics: Stravinsky's Firebird on March 6-8.

The fourth release of material in the New York Philharmonic Leon Levy Digital Archives - the multi-year initiative to digitize the Orchestra's extensive archives, funded by the Leon Levy Foundation - has been completed, with all existing Philharmonic printed programs, from the first concert in 1842 to the present, now available online, and current printed programs being added every concert week.

PITTSBURGH – Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra's BeethovenFest triumphantly returns this weekend, February 20 & 22 with its second weekend, “BeethovenFest: The Hero.” Part of the BNY Mellon Grand Classics, Music Director Manfred Honeck leads the orchestra and guest pianist Lars Vogt in a diverse program of works by the great composer.

Colorado Ballet presents Ballet MasterWorks, a collection of three works by the masters of music and dance tonight, February 20-March 1, 2015 at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House, with live music performed by the Colorado Ballet Orchestra.

Acclaimed contemporary opera company Opera Parallèle will open its 2015 season with the premiere of a new production of Jake Heggie's landmark work Dead Man Walking-marking the 15th anniversary of one of the most widely performed operas of the 21st century-in three performances this weekend, February 20 and 21, 2015 at 8 pm and February 22, 2015 at 2 pm at YBCA Theater in San Francisco.

Spinning Tree Theatre in Kansas City announced their 2015-2016 season schedule, which includes two plays and two musicals. The season will premiere Spinning Trees first dance musical. Venues and dates for the 2015-2016 season are to be announced later. The production company is currently searching for a permanent home, after four years of renting venues in the Kansas City area.

Under the baton of guest conductor Hugh Wolff and with guest pianist Andre Watts, the Utah Symphony will perform Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5. Commonly called "Emperor," this composition is bookended with two works by the great American composer Aaron Copland, "Fanfare for the Common Man" and Symphony No. 3 on March 6 and 7 at 8 p. m. in Abravanel Hall.