Matt Smith News

YOUTH ORCHESTRAS:                                                     The Rhode Island Philharmonic Youth Orchestras (RIPYO) will hold auditions on August 30 and 31, or by appointment, for the Symphony Orchestra, Repertory Orchestra, String Orchestra, Intermediate String Ensemble and String Ensemble. For an audition application or more information, please visit musicschool.riphil.org or contact Youth Ensembles Manager Chelsea Anderson at 401-248-7038 or canderson@riphil.org.

The Atlantic City Ballet reveals its 34th season along with some big changes. First a new home-After a successful two season run at The Claridge the AC Ballet has formed a partnership with Caesars Entertainment to host their third season in Atlantic City. “We are just delighted to be partnering with Caesars this season” Director Phyllis Papa said. “The Circus Maximus Theater is magnificent and it has all the technical capabilities needed for our more elaborate ballets.” “The Atlantic City Ballet is one of the hidden, cultural treasures our city has to offer,” explained Caesars Entertainment President Kevin Ortzman. “Caesars is excited to forge this partnership with the Ballet and offer our guests first-class performances, at a tremendous value, throughout the Fall and Spring.”

August 3, 2016 – Richmond, Virginia The Richmond Symphony's Big Tent is moving to Chester Village Green for the 15th Annual ChesterFest. This will be the first collaboration between The Chester Community Association and the Richmond Symphony for the free, all-day event. Festivities begin at 10:00am and will feature the Richmond Symphony, arts and craft vendors, food, contests, additional live music, and family activities before the Symphony closes out the day.

In conjunction with The Meadows Museum, Dallas, Texas, and the Auckland Castle Trust, County Durham, England, The Frick Collection is co-organizing an exhibition of Jacob and His Twelve Sons, an ambitious series of thirteen life-size paintings that depict the Old Testament figures. On loan from Auckland Castle, the works by the Spanish Golden Age master Francisco de Zurbarán (1598–1664) have never travelled outside Europe. They will be on view first in Dallas from September 17, 2017, through January 7, 2018, after which they will be shown in New York at The Frick Collection from January 31 through April 22, 2018. In preparation for this unprecedented U.S. tour, these important seventeenth-century Spanish paintings will undergo an in-depth technical analysis at the Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth. The project includes art historical and technical research, an exhibition, and publication. This international collaboration will offer the most extensive study related to Zurbarán's series. For its New York showing in 2018, the exhibition will be organized by The Frick Collection's Senior Curator, Susan Grace Galassi.

New York, NY...Lisa Phillips, Toby Devan Lewis Director of the New Museum and Cofounder of IdeasCity, is pleased to announce the program and featured participants of IdeasCity Athens, which will be held in partnership with NEON, a nonprofit contemporary art organization based in Athens, Greece.

MIAMI - August 2, 2016- Florida Grand Opera (FGO) is pleased to announce the members of its 2016-17 class for its Young Artist Program. These artists, consisting of both new and returning members, were selected from more than 600 singers who auditioned for the coveted program. 

SAN FRANCISCO, CA (August 4, 2016) – Today, Kumu Hula Patrick Makuak?ne and his award-winning dance troupe, N? Lei Hulu I Ka W?kiu, announced the company's return to the Palace of Fine Arts Theatre this Fall for four performances only (October 15–23) ofThe Natives Are Restless, a thrilling new reiteration of the troupe's iconic show that originally premiered in 1996. A full-length, multimedia production with several of the original groundbreaking numbers, The Natives Are Restless will also feature 15 new choreographed pieces, as well as live music provided by music duo K?paoa. The Natives Are Restless will play four performances only at San Francisco's Palace of Fine Arts (Bay & Lyon Streets). The performance schedule is as follows: Saturday, October 15 at 8 p.m., Sunday, October 16 at 3 p.m.; Saturday, October 22 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, October 23 at 3 p.m. There is a one-hour family matinee designed especially for children and families scheduled for Sunday, October 23 at Noon. There will be an opening night champagne reception immediately following the performance on Saturday, October 15, as well as a benefit gala L?'au and silent auction on Saturday, October 22 at 5:30 p.m. Single tickets range in price from $35–$45 and are available through City Box Office at 415-392-4400 or online at cityboxoffice.com.

This Friday, August 5th, join soprano Shira Renee Thomas, mezzos Trisha Rivera and Christina Roszhart, and tenor Dylan F. Thomas for an outdoor concert of operatic favorites (with a little Broadway thrown in as well!). Rivendale Park is just off The Old Road in Newhall. From the San Fernando Valley, exit the I-5 freeway at Calgrove and turn left - the park is around the bend, not far past the traffic light. Admission is whatever you'd like to donate. So bring a blanket, folding chairs, picnic dinner, liquid refreshment, and enjoy glorious music under the starry, starry skies. The Concert begins at 8 pm.

Philadelphia, PA (August 3, 2016) – Pennsylvania Ballet has announced the extension of Artistic Director Angel Corella's contract through the 2021-2022 season. 

SAN FRANCISCO, CA (August 2, 2016) – Today, co-publishers Na Lei Hulu I Ka Wekiu  and Spark Press announced the release of “The Natives Are Restless: A San Francisco Dance Master Takes Hula into the 21st Century,” an innovative, first-of-its-kind coffee-table book exploring the rich ethnic dance tradition of Hawaiian hula. Written by Hawaii-born, San Francisco-based journalist Constance Hale, the stunning book's narrative uses Makuak?ne – a visionary in the hula world – to tell the largely untold story of hula, examining how it has roared back as an authentic art form after two centuries of overt suppression, benign neglect, and tourist cliché. In addition to its rich narrative, the book features extraordinary photography, archival material, and illustrations. The Natives Are Restless will be released on Tuesday, October 11, 2016 and will be available in bookstores, on Amazon, and through Na Lei Hulu i ka W?kiu. It is distributed nationally by Ingram and will receive a national media campaign.  

Jean Honoré Fragonard (French, 1732–1806)—one of the most forward-looking and inventive artists of the 18th century—was equally skilled in painting, drawing, and etching. Yet, unlike many old masters for whom drawing was a preparatory tool, Fragonard explored the potential of chalk, ink, and wash to create sheets that were works of art in their own right. As displays of virtuosity and an imaginative spirit, his drawings were highly prized from his own day to the present, and New York has long been a center for collecting these works.

CANTON, OH (August 2, 2016) - The Canton Youth Symphonies have added additional audition dates for the 2016-17 season.  Auditions will be held Sunday August 28 from 2-7pm, Monday August 29 from 4:30-7pm and Tuesday August 30 from 4:30-7pm at the Zimmermann Symphony Center at 2331 17th St NW, Canton, OH 44708. To schedule an audition, call Lisa Boyer, Director of Education and Community Engagement at (330) 452-3434 ext. 604.

Miami, Florida – April 28, 2016 – The Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami (ICA Miami) presents a major survey of renowned German artist Thomas Bayrle, opening on November 29, 2016, during Art Basel Miami Beach. Marking the first American museum presentation dedicated to the artist, the exhibition traces Bayrle's exploration of the profoundly complex impact of technology on humans and their environments over the course of his nearly 50-year career and across a range of media including painting, sculpture, video, collage, and installation.  A centerpiece of the survey will be a newly commissioned site-specific installation created for ICA Miami's Atrium Gallery. Organized by Deputy Director and Chief Curator Alex Gartenfeld and Assistant Curator Stephanie Seidel, and on view through March 26, 2017, the exhibition marks ICA Miami's final presentation in the landmark Moore Building, as it looks forward to the opening of its new permanent home in the Miami Design District in late 2017.

Lexington, KY—The University Press of Kentucky is pleased to welcome Leila Salisbury as its new press director, becoming only the fourth in the press's sixty-eight year history. Salisbury comes to UPK from the University Press of Mississippi, where she has served as director since 2008.

WALNUT CREEK, CA (August 1, 2016) – California Symphony and Music Director Donato Cabrera are now accepting composer applications for the orchestra's respected, intensely competitive Young American Composer-in-Residence program, for the period from August 1, 2017 through July 31, 2020. The Young American Composer-In-Residence program, launched in 1991, gives outstanding, emerging, young American composers a unique opportunity to write orchestral music while working with a professional orchestra and conductor, over a three-year period. 

NEW YORK, NY (For Release 8.2.16) — On the heels of releasing his latest album Portraits & Tributes, award-winning composer/conductor/teacher Scott Wheeler celebrates two new major works to be performed in fall 2016: Naga, his fourth opera, set to a libretto by Cerise Jacobs, premiering September 10-17 in Boston; and Songs To Fill The Void, a three-song cycle set to poetry by Robert Barefield, premiering October 2 in New York City at Weill Recital Hall. In addition, the New Juilliard Ensemble conducted by Joel Sachs will present his chamber symphony City of Shadows on October 1.

(Cold Spring, NY – August 2, 2016) Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival has commissioned New York-based photographer Ashley Garrett to create a photographic portrait of each cast member for its upcoming production of Thornton Wilder's Our Town. The photographs will also be exhibited as a collection titled “This Is the Way We Were,” and will be on exhibition at Cold Spring's Gallery 66 from August 5 - August 28, 2016.

   Orange County, Calif.—Aug. 1, 2016—Labor Day weekend has never sounded so good! It's time to celebrate and commemorate nearly three decades of Pacific Symphony concerts at Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre during the very last concert before the venue's scheduled closure. Replete with booming cannons, dazzling fireworks and extraordinary music, “Tchaikovsky Spectacular” ensures this remarkable era in the Symphony's history ends with a triumphant finale. The program is a Tchaikovsky hit parade featuring excerpts from the perennially popular ballets “Swan Lake” and “The Nutcracker,” and two beloved concertos—the Violin Concerto in D Major and Piano Concerto No. 1. Music Director Carl St.Clair takes the audience down memory lane and leads the orchestra and two virtuosic soloists, pianist Natasha Paremski and violinist Paul Huang, as well as the Huntington Beach Concert Band. The curtain falls on this chapter of the Symphony's story to the traditional sounds of the electrifying “1812” Overture.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK (July 25, 2016)—Conducted by Semyon Bychkov in May 2016, the 13th annual Vienna Philharmonic Summer Night Concert Schönbrunn will be released on CD, DVD, Blu-Ray, and digital platforms by Sony Classical on August 12 and broadcast on PBS's Great Performances on Friday, September 30 at 9 p.m. (check local listings.). The Summer Night Concerts are presented free each year in the gardens of Vienna's Imperial Schönbrunn Palace, and Mr. Bychkov—conducting the event for the first time—led the Vienna Philharmonic in front of its largest Summer Night Concert audience ever (102,000 spectators). The performance reached an additional 585,000 people through TV and radio, having been broadcast by 83 stations on five continents.

MINNEAPOLIS (July 29, 2016) – Minnesota Opera today announced that Head of Music Robert Ainsley has accepted the position as the new Director of the Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program and the American Opera Initiative, effective next month. For the last three years, Rob has served as the Head of Music Staff, Chorus Master and Coach at Minnesota Opera and Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. He has worked on several world premiere and American operas at both companies, including Minnesota Opera's The Dream of Valentino, The Manchurian Candidate and The Shining.