Mark Grey News

The California Symphony celebrates its 30th season in 2016-17 and its fourth season with Music Director Donato Cabrera, with a year of special programming that highlights the music by a Young American Composer-in-Residence program alumnus on each of its six concerts at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek. Throughout its 30-year history, the Orchestra has made American repertoire its special focus, nurturing and commissioning work from emerging American composers as well as performing the most revered core classical repertoire.

The American Composers Forum (ACF) Board of Directors has voted to present its 2016 “Champion of New Music” award to four outstanding recipients: Pianist and Contemporary Chamber Ensemble founding member Gilbert Kalish; Opera Parallèle's artistic director, conductor, and founder Nicole Paiement; new music writer, blogger and New Yorker magazine columnist Alex Ross; and conductor, pianist, composer and pedagogue Robert Spano at public ceremonies this year. The “Champion of New Music” award was established by ACF in 2005 as a national mark of recognition to honor individuals or ensembles that have made a significant contribution to the work and livelihoods of contemporary composers. ACF President and CEO John Nuechterlein will present the awards at three events in the coming months:

The Dallas Opera is proud to present the final production of the company's ambitious 2015-2016 Season, composer Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II's SHOW BOAT.  This groundbreaking 1927 masterpiece marks TDO's first ever presentation of a Great American Musical, providing a showcase for a host of stars from both the opera world and Broadway, as well as the company's first major artistic collaboration with Dallas Black Dance Theatre in the Winspear Opera House.

BERKELEY, CA (March 22, 2016) – Music Director Joana Carneiro and Berkeley Symphonyclose their 2015-16 season Thursday, May 5 at 8 pm at Zellerbach Hall with the West Coast premiere of Mark Grey's Frankenstein Symphony, which the Orchestra co-commissioned with Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Violinist Simone Porter makes her first appearance in the Bay Area, performing Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto with the Orchestra.

The San Francisco Symphony returns to Carnegie Hall with Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas for two concerts on Wednesday, April 13 at 8:00 p.m. and Thursday, April 14 at 8:00 p.m. in Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage. For the first performance, Mr. Tilson Thomas - widely considered the world's premier interpreter of the works of Aaron Copland - conducts music by the American master, including his Orchestral Variations and Inscape. The dynamic pianist Inon Barnatan joins the orchestra for a performance of Copland's Piano Concerto. The program concludes with Schumann's Symphony No. 2 in C Major, Op. 61. This season, Mr. Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony are performing and recording the complete Schumann symphonies for future release on SFS Media.

Music Director Joana Carneiro, Berkeley Symphony and composer and pianist Conrad Tao perform Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5, 'Emperor,' together tonight, February 4 at 8 pm at Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley. Carneiro also leads the Orchestra in Lutos?awski's Concerto for Orchestra, an orchestral showpiece.

Music Director Joana Carneiro, Berkeley Symphony and composer and pianist Conrad Tao perform Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5, “Emperor,” together onThursday, February 4 at 8 pm at Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley. Carneiro also leads the Orchestra in Lutos?awski's Concerto for Orchestra, an orchestral showpiece.

Music Director Joana Carneiro and Berkeley Symphony perform the U.S. premiere of Russian composer Sofia Gubaidulina's Fachwerk tonight, December 3 at 8 pm at Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley, with world-renowned Norwegian bayan pioneer Geir Draugsvoll in his Bay Area debut.

Music Director Joana Carneiro and Berkeley Symphony perform the U.S. premiere of Russian composer Sofia Gubaidulina's Fachwerk on Thursday, December 3 at 8 pm at Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley, with world-renowned Norwegian bayan pioneer Geir Draugsvoll in his Bay Area debut. Fachwerk was written for bayan (classical accordion), percussion, and strings. The evening opens with two brass works by Italian Renaissance composer Giovanni Gabrieli – Canzon septimi et octavi toni andSonata pian e forte – and concludes with Mussorgsky's much-loved Pictures at an Exhibition.

BERKELEY, CA (UPDATED September 1, 2015) – Music Director Joana Carneiro and Berkeley Symphony have announced programming for the 2015-2016 season, including the West Coast premiere of Laterna Magica by Kaija Saariaho, who will be a visiting music professor at UC Berkeley this fall; the West Coast premiere of Mark Grey's new Frankenstein Symphony, co-commissioned with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra; and the U.S. premiere of Fachwerk by Russian composer Sofia Gubaidulina, featuring the Bay Area debut of Geir Draugsvoll, a pioneer of the bayan, or classical accordion, for whom the work was written. The Orchestra also welcomes soprano Simone Osborne, and violinist Simone Porter, both making their Bay Area debuts, in addition to a first-time Berkeley Symphony appearance by pianist Conrad Tao.

Music Director Alan Gilbert will conduct the New York Philharmonic in the World Premiere- Philharmonic Commission of Marc Neikrug's Canta-Concerto, featuring mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke; Brahms's Piano Concerto No. 2, with Emanuel Ax as soloist; and Brahms's Tragic Overture. The performances take place Thursday, October 1, 2015, at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, October 3, at 8:00 p.m. Alan Gilbert and the Philharmonic will also perform Brahms's Piano Concerto No. 2, with Emanuel Ax as soloist, on a program that includes Beethoven's Symphony No. 7, on September 30, 2015, at 7:30 p.m., as well as at Long Island University's Tilles Center for the Performing Arts in Brookville, New York, on October 2, 2015, at 8:00 p.m.

Lyric Opera of Chicago's stunning new production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel opened on April 12 and continues through May 3 at the Civic Opera House, 20 N. Wacker Dr., Chicago. Let's see what the critics had to say...

Lyric Opera of Chicago's stunning new production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel continues through May 3 at the Civic Opera House, 20 N. Wacker Dr., Chicago. Tickets start at $29, and are available at lyricopera.org/carousel or at 312-827-5600. BroadwayWorld brings you an backstage look at the production below!

WALNUT CREEK, CA (April 21, 2015) – The California Symphony, entering its third season with Music Director Donato Cabrera, is expanding its regional profile in Northern California, performing concerts in three new venues beginning in June. The orchestra, based in Walnut Creek, will perform three concerts in summer 2015 and eight concerts during its 2015-16 season, including at its home at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek as well as at Oakland's Kaiser Center Rooftop Garden, the Napa Valley Performing Arts Center's Lincoln Theater in Yountville, and at the Concord Pavilion in Concord. The orchestra is focused on American repertoire, nurturing new American composers as part of its Young American Composer in Residence program, and bringing music to people in new and unconventional settings as well as performing the most revered core classical repertoire. In May 2016, the orchestra and guitarist Jason Vieaux perform the world premiere of the new concerto commission by Dan Visconti, current Young American Composer in Residence, in concert in Walnut Creek and Yountville. Other season highlights include an American Roots program with pianist Charlie Albright performing Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, a showcase of two California Symphony principal musicians in a little-heard R. Strauss double concerto, a rooftop outdoor performance with Postmodern Jukebox, performances of Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 and Brahms' Symphony No. 2, the orchestra's first performance accompanying the live classic film The Wizard of Oz, and holiday music with Pacific Boychoir. Season subscription ticket packages go on sale today, Tuesday, April 21, at 10 am.

The Chicago Tribune just unveiled an intimate video of Laura Osnes and Steven Pasquale -- current stars of Lyric Opera of Chicago's CAROUSEL -- performing 'If I Loved You'. Click below to watch the duet!

Children's voices raised in glorious song may just be the ultimate Mother's Day gift. The Los Angeles Children's Chorus (LACC), considered one of the world's preeminent children's choirs, presents the world premiere of Peter Knell's The Vowel Owl (Roger) set to John Hollander's poem, and the Los Angeles premiere of composer/sound engineer Mark Grey's The Plentiful Peach, based on a beloved Persian children's story with libretto by Niloufar Talebi, at its annual Spring Concert on Sunday, May 3, and Mother's Day, Sunday, May 10, 7 pm, at Pasadena Presbyterian Church. Both works were commissioned by LACC, which is noted for its key role in championing new works for treble choir. The program also features a vibrant mix of mostly American songs both contemporary and traditional, including Stephen Sametz's I Cannot Dance, O Lord; David Lang's i want to live; Kelley Lange's Llamame Cuando Puedas; Randall Thompson's antiphonal a capella work Pueri Hebraeorum; and the Korean folksong Nodle Kangbyon.

Could CAROUSEL be the next Rodgers and Hammerstein revival to grace the Broadway stage? The cast of the Lyric Opera of Chicago's production hope so.

When one of the world's major opera houses announced its plans to present the best-known works of Broadway's Rodgers and Hammerstein over a five-season span, no one had reason to believe that the Lyric Opera of Chicago would present a 'Carousel' starring a slew of Broadway, television, opera and ballet stars alongside the cream of Chicago's theatrical and vocal talent (60 actors, singers and dancers in all), supported by an orchestra of 37 players, and all overseen by the same director and musical director who would bring 'The Sound of Music' and 'Peter Pan' to live television, Carrie Underwood, Christopher Walken and all.

Lyric Opera of Chicago's stunning new production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel begins tonight, April 10, and continues through May 3 at the Civic Opera House, 20 N. Wacker Dr., Chicago. Tickets start at $29, and are available at lyricopera.org/carousel or at 312-827-5600. The official press opening for Carousel is tomorrow, Saturday, April 11 at 7pm. BroadwayWorld brings you highlights of the stunning new production below!