Marilyn Horne News

Jason Graae brings his Graaetest (not a typo!) Hits – The Sequel to the El Portal October 21, 2022, accompanied by musical director Gerald Sternbach. I got a chance to catch up with Jerry after years of path-crossing at benefits and concerts.

Charlottesville Opera has announced plans to present two shows in the 2023 season that have never been produced in the company's 45-year history: Frank Loesser's Guys and Dolls and Giacomo Puccini's Tosca.

Immediately following the September 25 opening performance of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, bass Ferruccio Furlanetto, who performed the role of Prince Gremin in the opera, was presented with the San Francisco Opera Medal.

The two-CD length album seeks to highlight diverse LGBTQIA+ voices and perspectives, through revelatory performances of important songs by some of today’s leading composers, including the world premiere recording of Ben Moore’s Love Remained in a new version for tenor, and the commissioned title work, No Choice but Love.

Winners have been announced for 2022 Music Academy / London Symphony Orchestra Keston MAX program, Solo Piano, Duo, and Song Competitions, and the Fast Pitch Awards.

Christopher Cano will join Washington National Opera (WNO) as the Director of the Cafritz Young Artists (CYA) and American Opera Initiative (AOI) in September ahead of the WNO's 2022–2023 season. Cano will work closely with General Director Timothy O'Leary and Artistic Director Francesca Zambello to lead the two nationally recognized programs dedicated to advancing opera by training and giving voice to the next generation of singers, pianists/coaches, composers, and librettists.

The Music Academy of the West celebrates its milestone 75th anniversary season with eight weeks of live events at its picturesque Miraflores campus and throughout scenic Santa Barbara, California this summer (June 15–Aug 6).

The Music Academy has revealed its ambitious plans for the 75th Anniversary Summer Festival. This milestone year has been propelled by three sold-out concerts by the London Symphony Orchestra in March and three Competition Winners recitals in April.

Guest conductor Peter Oundjian will replace Nathalie Stutzmann to lead the Stravinsky & Brahms program at the April 28 and 30 concerts. Unfortunately, Stutzmann is unable to make the performances due to illness. The Stravinsky & Brahms program features two vast works, Brahms' exceptional German Requiem and Funeral Song, Stravinsky's recently rediscovered elegy for Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.

The A.J. Fletcher Opera Institute at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts will celebrate its 20th anniversary with a special gala concert featuring Fletcher alumni, current Fellows, the UNCSA Cantata Singers, and the UNCSA Symphony Orchestra in a program of selections from operatic favorites including “Don Giovanni,” “La cenerentola,” “L'elisir d'amore” and “Eugene Onegin.”

Award-winning actor/director Frank Ferrante re-creates his acclaimed New York and London stage portrayal celebrating America's greatest comedian - Groucho Marx.  You will feel as though Groucho is back, as Ferrante sings, dances and performs classic routines on the North Coast Rep stage, May 2nd & 3rd, 2022 at 7:30pm.

The Metropolitan Opera will present an audacious new production of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, which moves the bel canto masterpiece from 18th-century Scotland to a present-day town in the American Rust Belt, with nine performances April 23–May 21, 2022.

Herbie Hancock – celebrated jazz and crossover artist, 14-time Grammy-winner, and advocate for using culture and the arts to advance peace – will receive the George Peabody Medal for Outstanding Contributions to Music in America and address graduates during the Peabody Conservatory's 2022 Graduation ceremony on Wednesday, May 25.

The Washington National Opera has gathered a company of first rate singers for a portmanteau of four, one-act operas called Written in Stone. Unfortunately, their fine skills and exceptional voices cannot make silk purses out of scores, libretti, and orchestrations that evade aesthetics, emphasize negatives, and ignore the connection implicit in musical theatre between the notes and the text. This world première requires an orchestra to seem to be playing a piece of music that is not the same piece of music as the singers are singing. The last time this many groups of unfriendly instruments had a gig in a first run house was probably PDQ Bach's last show in Carnegie Hall. Gesamtkunstwerk this isn't, and it lasts for two and a half hours.

The Music Academy of the West looks boldly to the future in this milestone year. Programming has expanded year-round for community, fellows, and alumni. Classically trained musicians are provided opportunities to unleash their creativity and connect with audiences onstage and offstage.

Nadine Sierra’s childhood intuition – that she was born to sing opera – has proved correct in every way and is reflected in the title of her second solo album, Made for Opera, out today on Deutsche Grammophon. The dramatic presence, searing passion and technical brilliance for which the American lyric soprano regularly scores rave reviews are captured in this new album, which trains the spotlight on three of the most demanding roles in the repertoire.

Next month, FEINSTEIN’S/54 BELOW, Broadway’s Supper Club & Private Event Destination, presents some of the brightest stars from Broadway, cabaret, jazz, and beyond.

Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute today announced that six rising MCs have been selected to participate in a free master class led by legendary hip-hop artist Black Thought from April 4-7, 2022 as part of the Hall’s ongoing series of workshops and master classes for young professional musicians.

Following their sell-out recent debut performances of Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker with the Eglevsky Ballet at the Tilles Center for the Performing Arts on Long Island, the Manhattan-based Park Avenue Chamber Symphony will make its first appearance at the Adelphi Performing Arts Center on March 6th at 3pm, with a program entitled “Ravishing Romantics”.

Mr. Kim was excited to make his North American debut at San Diego Opera and was impressed with the Company's safety protocols enacted to ensure the safety of the artists, staff, and audience, but needs to withdraw for personal reasons. The Company hopes to welcome him in the future. Mr. Brancy recently performed the role of Guglielmo in San Francisco Opera's production of Cosí fan tutte.