Leonard Bernstein News

The New Amsterdam Singers, led by music director Clara Longstreth, will present the final concert of its season, called Full Fathom Five: Shakespeare in Song (Composers of Many Lands in Love with the Bard) tonight, May 22, 2014, at 8:00 p.m. at Saint Ignatius of Antioch Church, 552 West End Avenue at 87th Street. The program includes four major choral cycles on Shakespeare texts for a cappella choir by 20th- century composers from England, Switzerland, Finland, and Denmark. The evocative poem/song from The Tempest, 'Full Fathom Five,' appears in three of the cycles.

The Town Hall 2014 Summer Season: Broadway Preludes will launch on Friday, June 27 at 8PM with the American premiere of a lost Cole Porter treasure, The Ambassador Revue.

BWW was on the scene to capture the excitement, including an appearance and brief performance preview from the sailors of the upcoming Broadway revival of ON THE TOWN, Tony Yazbeck, Jay Armstrong Johnson and Clyde Alves!

Fifty years since the start of his career, Peter Nero is one of the preeminent pianists and conductors in the country. The two-time Grammy Award winner will 'tickle the ivories' for Peter Nero's Broadway at the State Theatre on Saturday, June 14th.

The National Theatre announced today that lottery tickets for West Side Story will be made available for each performance June 3 through 8.

NEW DRAMATISTS,Tony Honor recipient and the nation's premiere playwright development workshop, will honor five-time Tony Award winning director/choreographer Susan Stroman with their 2014 Lifetime Achievement Award at its 65th Annual Spring Luncheon tribute. The sold out event will be held tomorrow, today, May 22 at the New York Marriott Marquis.

Penn State Centre Stage will present the regional premiere of Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey's powerful rock musical Next to Normal from June 4 - 14, 2014 in the Penn State Pavilion Theatre. Directed by Cary Libkin and starring Ariela Morgenstern, Asa Somers, Raymond Sage, Tommy Hart, Christina Kidd, and Gregory LaMontagne, Next To Normal tells the story of a mother struggling with worsening Bipolar Disorder and the dramatic effect that her illness has on her family. Previews at 7:30 p.m.: June 4 and 5; Evenings at 7:30 p.m.: June 10, 11, 12; Evenings at 8:00 p.m.: June 6, 7, 13, 14; Matinee at 2 p.m.: June 7. Evenings: $30; Preview/Matinee: $20; Opening Night Reception/Show: $60 (Includes pre-show hors d'ouevres, show, and post-show desserts) Doors open at 6:30 p.m.; show begins at 8:00 p.m. For additional show information, visit www.theatre.psu.edu. Tickets are available at Penn State Tickets Downtown, Eisenhower Box Office, Bryce Jordan Center, or by calling (814) 863-0255 or 1 (800) ARTS-TIX.

Tony Yazbeck (Gypsy, A Chorus Line), Jay Armstrong Johnson (New York Philharmonic's Sweeney Todd, Hands On A Hardbody, Hair), and Clyde Alves (Bullets Over Broadway, Nice Work If You Can Get It) will play the roles of 'Gabey,' 'Chip,' and 'Ozzie' - the sailors on 24-hour shore leave who take on the Big Apple in the critically-acclaimed Broadway revival of ON THE TOWN, directed by John Rando (Tony Award for Urinetown) and choreographed by Joshua Bergasse (Emmy Award winner for 'Smash'). Yazbeck, Johnson, and Alves will reprise their performances from last summer's acclaimed Barrington Stage production. Yazbeck first thrilled audiences with his portrayal of 'Gabey' in John Rando's presentation of ON THE TOWN at City Center Encores in 2008.

The School of Music welcomes Grammy Award-winning electric-violinist Mark Wood, who will be featured in a concert at 8 p.m. Saturday, May 31, in Weigel Hall Auditorium, 1866 College Rd. on campus. Admission at the door is $12 for adults and $6 for students, cash or check only.

Following the record-breaking attendance of Festival 2013, Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival announces the full 2014 Festival free and ticketed event schedule. Jacob's Pillow is a National Historic Landmark, home to America's longest-running dance festival, and a recipient of the National Medal of Arts. Noted dance writer Jennifer Dunning has called the Pillow "the dance center of the nation, possibly the world."

Beginning today, May 20, West Side Story will be available for an exclusive early download from iTunes.com/SFSymphony where it is now available for pre-order.

The 2013-14 season of the New York Philharmonic's Insights Series will continue tonight, May 20, 2014, at 7:30 p.m. with 'The Pinnacle of Cycles: Pianist Yefim Bronfman Speaks on Beethoven's Piano Concertos,' when The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence Yefim Bronfman discusses Beethoven's piano concertos, which he will perform during The Beethoven Piano Concertos: A Philharmonic Festival, June 11-28, 2014. Leonard Bernstein Scholar-in-Residence Carol J. Oja will moderate.

The Heights Players ('Yentl,' 'Doubt'), a not-for-profit theater company based in Brooklyn, closes its 58th season with the seminal theatrical piece WEST SIDE STORY, which features book by Arthur Laurents, music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and original direction and choreography by Jerome Robbins. Thomas N. Tyler ('A Chorus Line,' 'Finian's Rainbow') directs this production, which runs until Sunday, May 25, at 26 Willow Place, Brooklyn, N.Y.

The Richmond Symphony closes their 2013-14 season with The Damnation of Faust, Berlioz's vivid and bold Masterpiece which asks the question, "Are we willing to sell our souls to get what we believe we desire?"

For its 2014 Countryside series, Apollo's Fire proudly premieres "GLORY ON THE MOUNTAIN: An Appalachian Journey." Created and directed by Jeannette Sorrell and starring singers Amanda Powell and Ross Hauck, the program will be performed in 8 concerts in rustic venues in Hunting Valley, Chardon, Bay Village and Bath, during June 12-22.

The Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP), the nation's premier orchestra dedicated exclusively to commissioning, performing, and recording new orchestral music, partners with The Fine Family, The Irving Fine Society, and Brandeis University and its Department of Music to pay tribute to three central figures of the mid-century Boston musical landscape - Irving Fine, Harold Shapero and Arthur Berger. Celebrating Irving Fine's (1914-1962) centennial, BMOP spotlights this trio of lifelong friends and composers who advanced a unique vision for American music that incorporated the neoclassicism of Stravinsky, the clean elegance of Copland, and the edginess of serialism, all with a highly personal stamp. Click here to view program details.

The Houston Chamber Choir presents three performances in and around the Houston area of Love Me Do! Love Songs of the '60s, - the 1860s & 1960s, that is! The Houston Chamber Choir's 18th season comes to a classic close with Brahms's popular Liebeslieder Waltzes and The Beatles's chart-toppers in brilliant settings by famed arranger Yumiko Matsuoka. Leonard Bernstein quipped, 'Three bars of 'A day in the life' still sustain me, rejuvenate me and inflame my senses and sensibilities.'

Conductor Judith Clurman, with singers from Judith Clurman's Essential Voices USA, will lead a public rehearsal of A Theodore Roosevelt Round by Thomas Cabaniss on Monday, May 19, 2014 at 7 PM, at the Apple Store, 1980 Broadway, corner of West 67th Street & Broadway, New York City.

The American Symphony Orchestra, led by Leon Botstein, presents Forged From Fire, the final concert of its 2013-14 Vanguard Series at Carnegie Hall, at 8pm, on May 30. On the eve of the 100th anniversary of World War I, the ASO offers a fascinating look at the patriotic music that defined the imperial ambitions of Germany, the war-inspired music that expressed a new consciousness in Poland and the United States, as well as the aspiring nationalism among the Jews of Europe and North America.

Today we continue the 2014 edition of our annual BroadwayWorld feature series spotlighting the very best Tony Awards-related moments of all time with a special spotlight on a particularly guffaw-inducing musical moment from last year's Tony Awards highlighted by four of Broadway's best.