Michael Barrett News

Thirty years ago, Steven Blier and Michael Barrett embarked on a mission to redefine the song recital, mixing elements of theater, scholarship, fun, and great voices.

Juilliard's Ellen and James S. Marcus Institute for Vocal Arts, under the leadership of Artistic Director Brian Zeger, announces its 2017-18 season of opera and vocal arts performances.

Imagine this. You're a brilliant scientist, a biophysicist studying the causes of dementia. And one day, mid-Power Point, you can't recall what you're supposed to say when the next slide comes up. Eventually you learn that the disease you're studying is now the disease you have.

New York Youth Symphony (NYYS), composed of orchestra, chamber, jazz, conducting, and composition programs, heads into the 2017/18 season with a new strategic plan to strengthen the organization's position as the premier, independent music education organization for ensemble training in the New York metropolitan area.

The Leonard Bernstein Office today announced "Leonard Bernstein at 100," a two-year global celebration of the life and career of the 20th century cultural giant, featuring more than 1,000 events on six continents. A kickoff at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on Friday, September 22, 2017 will officially launch the celebrations which continue worldwide through the end of August 2019.

NYFOS Next at New York Festival of Song-concludes its season Wednesday, May 10 at 7:00 p.m. at National Sawdust with a theatrical evening from Lauren Worsham, Kyle Jarrow, and Sky-Pony.

The California Symphony today announced its 2017-18 season, its thirty-first, and its fifth with Music Director Donato Cabrera. The season includes a world premiere and a West Coast premiere, first performances of Mozart's Requiem and Sibelius's Third Symphony, the first performances in more than 20 years of Beethoven's Symphony No. 6, Pastoral, and Mahler's Symphony No. 4, the first performance of a work of Mahler's since the Orchestra's 1997-98 season. The Orchestra also welcomes guest soloists Haochen Zhang in Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 2; soprano Maria Valdes in Barber's Knoxville: Summer of 1915 and in Mahler's Symphony No. 4; and Bruch's Violin Concerto No. 1 with Alexi Kenney. The Orchestra gives the world premiere of new Young American Composer-in-Residence Katherine Balch's newest work, a California Symphony commission; and performs two works by Bay Area-based composer Nathaniel Stookey: the West Coast premiere of YTTE (Yield to Total Elation), and The Composer is Dead, the popular orchestral whodunit by Stookey and author Lemony Snicket, with Broadway star Manoel Felciano as narrator. Other highlights include performances with the San Francisco Conservatory Chorus and conductor Ragnar Bohlin of Vaughan Williams' Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis and Arvo Pärt's Te Deum, as part of the Mozart Requiem concert, and a performance of Smetana's Vltava (Die Moldau).

On Wednesday, April 19 at 7:00 p.m. at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, New York Festival of Song presents Honoring Stephen Sondheim, an evening to benefit NYFOS's 29th Season. The Gala is co-chaired by Jamie Bernstein and Hal Prince, and Guest of Honor Stephen Sondheim will be in attendance.

New York Festival of Song rounds out its 2016-17 Mainstage season alongside its ninth annual residency at the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts with a program entitled FOUR ISLANDS on Tuesday, March 14, 2017 at 8:00 p.m. at Merkin Concert Hall.

New York Festival of Song continues its NYFOS Mainstage series at Merkin Concert Hall today, January 24, 2017 at 8:00 p.m. with a sumptuous recital entitled Pyotr the Great: The Songs of Tchaikovsky and His Circle.

The 33rd season of the New York Philharmonic Ensembles series, chamber concerts showcasing Musicians from the Orchestra performing classical masterpieces and modern compositions in an intimate setting, will continue on Sunday, February 26, 2017, at 3:00 p.m. at Merkin Concert Hall.

The New York Philharmonic will present Beloved Friend - Tchaikovsky and His World: A Philharmonic Festival, January 24-February 11, 2017, featuring Russian-born Semyon Bychkov conducting works by Tchaikovsky as well as composers he was influenced by and whom he influenced, with piano soloists Yefim Bronfman and Kirill Gerstein.

New York Festival of Song continues its NYFOS Mainstage series at Merkin Concert Hall on Tuesday, January 24, 2017 at 8:00 p.m. with a sumptuous recital entitled Pyotr the Great: The Songs of Tchaikovsky and His Circle.

NYFOS Next-the "invaluable contemporary-music series" from the 'indefatigable art-song devotees' (The New Yorker) at New York Festival of Song-continues Today, December 8 at 7:00 p.m. at National Sawdust with a showcase of new music and poetry explored by CHRISTOPHER CERRONE & FRIENDS. 

NYFOS Next-the "invaluable contemporary-music series" from the 'indefatigable art-song devotees' (The New Yorker) at New York Festival of Song-continues Thursday, December 8 at 7:00 p.m. at National Sawdust with a showcase of new music and poetry explored by CHRISTOPHER CERRONE & FRIENDS. 

A new season of NYFOS Next opens Today, November 2 at 7:00 p.m. at National Sawdust with GABRIELA LENA FRANK. Frank curates and hosts an hour-long evening of her vocal works and those of her friends and colleagues Avner Dorman and Derek Bermel.

New York Festival of Song opens its 2016-17 Mainstage season at Merkin Concert Hall with two evenings devoted to the Rodgers family-Richard, Mary, and Adam Guettel (with rare unpublished songs by both Guettel and his mother Mary).

42nd Street Moon will launch its 24th season with the West Coast premiere of the newly revised 1965 musical Baker Street. This mysterious and enchanting trip to the world of Sherlock Holmes plays November 5-20 at the Eureka Theatre in San Francisco with previews November 2-4. Baker Street also marks the inaugural production under the new leadership of Executive Directors Daren A.C. Carollo and Daniel Thomas, following the retirement of Founding Artistic Director Gregory MacKellan. Tickets range from $28 to $75 and can be purchased through the Box Office at (415) 255-8205 or online atwww.42ndstmoon.org.

A new season of NYFOS Next opens Wednesday, November 2 at 7:00 p.m. at National Sawdust with GABRIELA LENA FRANK. Frank curates and hosts an hour-long evening of her vocal works and those of her friends and colleagues Avner Dorman and Derek Bermel.

New York Festival of Song opens its 2016-17 Mainstage season at Merkin Concert Hall with two evenings devoted to the Rodgers family-Richard, Mary, and Adam Guettel (with rare unpublished songs by both Guettel and his mother Mary). Entitled Rodgers, Rodgers & Guettel: A Century of American Musical Theater, the performances take place Tuesday, November 1, 2016 at 8:00 p.m. and Thursday, November 3, 2016 at 8:00 p.m.