Michael Brown News

Concert Artists Guild opens its 2018-19 season of concerts with WORDS AND MUSIC: A CELEBRATION OF SONGS COMMISSIONED BY CAG. The concert is on Tuesday, September 25 at 7:30pm at the Kosciuszko Foundation, 15 East 65th Street in New York.

Anyone who has had the chance to see a musical at the Stratford Festival will know just how talented each and every company member is. Both of this season's musicals boast true triple threats in their casts-and it now appears that six of them are in fact quadruple threats. In addition to the singing, dancing and acting, a group of inspired young performers may have just have added 'Social Media Influencer' to their repertoires. Six performers who share a dressing room for THE MUSIC MAN at the Festival Theatre have started a backstage revolution that has taken Instagram and the Stratford Festival by storm. Colton Curtis, Eric Abel, Devon Michael Brown, Henry Firmston, Jason Sermonia, and Gabriel Antonacci (whom I have listed last because that seems to be a trend) can be seen each week during their TWO SHOW DAY Q & A that is posted on Curtis' Instagram story (@coltonccurtis). Using the 'Questions' sticker, these imaginative actors make hilarious videos to answer a variety of questions-and they do it all from backstage during one of their shows on...you guessed it...two show days.

Concert Artists Guild's 2018-19 CAG Presents season features exciting young artists making their debuts alongside established CAG alumni musicians. This season, CAG is also excited to announce a new series, CAG Live! In Conversation, a series of career-focused panel discussions for musicians, livestreamed by The Violin Channel.

Hobson's Choice is given a late 50s makeover in this fine revival of a play the themes of which remain as relevant today as ever they were.

Harlem Stage, the legendary uptown venue that for over 35 years has promoted the creative legacy of Harlem and artists of color from around the corner and across the globe, is proud to present its Fall 2018 season of performances. The season is curated by Monique Martin, recently appointed Director of Programming for Harlem Stage and features artists who #Disrupt and take creative risk. The performances feature a range of artistic genres, offering audiences the chance to experience legendary performers, as well as rising stars.

Random Acts has announced several additional artists joining comedian Malic White at The #SafeSpace GET OUT the VOTE Show! on Sunday, August 26 aat 6pm. The fundraiser, which will be held at Mrs. Murphy and Son's Irish Bistro (3905 N. Lincoln) is Pay-What-You-Can, with proceeds benefitting Chicago Abortion Fund.

Baruch Performing Arts Center announces their 2018/2019 season, featuring premieres by composers Huang Ruo, Gregory Spears, and the late Matt Marks, and choreographer Dusan Týnek. The season includes the 27th year of the Milt Hinton Jazz Perspectives series, a 5th Anniversary celebration of the CUNY Dance Initiative, and work in progress by veteran writer-performer Penny Arcade. For more information and tickets, visit http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/bpac/. All performances take place at 55 Lexington Ave. (enter 25th Street between Lexington & 3rd Aves.)

Baruch Performing Arts Center announces their 2018/2019 season, featuring premieres by composers Huang Ruo, Gregory Spears, and the late Matt Marks, and choreographer Dusan Týnek. The season includes the 27th year of the Milt Hinton Jazz Perspectives series, a 5th Anniversary celebration of the CUNY Dance Initiative, and work in progress by veteran writer-performer Penny Arcade. For more information and tickets, visit http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/bpac/. All performances take place at 55 Lexington Ave. (enter 25th Street between Lexington & 3rd Aves.)

As part of the 2018 Next Wave Festival, BAM and Onassis Cultural Center New York will present Speaking Truth to Power, a fall series of theater productions, conversations, and film screenings that explores the concept of free speech as a form of resistance, and examines the challenges facing individuals, societies, and movements that seek to employ it. While freedom of speech is considered a cornerstone of our democratic freedoms, ancient Greeks wrestled with the extent to which the power to speak freely could degrade the very institutions designed to protect that right. The debate about the role of truth--who is able to speak it and the potential dangers posed to our society when it is either permitted or restricted--rages on.

An unusually diverse group of 12 highly-gifted composers has been selected to receive the 2018 Copland House Residency Awards. Ranging in age from 31 to 57, these four women and eight men from eight states come from widely-varied personal and artistic backgrounds, and have pursued divergent creative paths from concert music to jazz, acoustic to electronic, minutely-detailed to free and improvisatory, socially-engaged to abstract. They include a 2018 Pulitzer Prize Finalist, recipients of the Charles Ives Living award and Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Career Grant, and two much-acclaimed concert and jazz pianists.

When unarmed black teenager Michael Brown was killed by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, and left lying in the street for hours, it marked a breaking point for the residents of the St. Louis area and beyond. Uniting people from the community and across the nation, a movement—propelled by young activists and Ferguson community members—was born. Told by the local residents and activists on the frontlines fighting for justice, equality and an end to police brutality,Whose Streets? is an unflinching look at the Ferguson uprising and the movement that followed.

Calgary Opera's General Director and CEO, Keith Cerny, Ph.D., is delighted to announce distinguished Canadian tenor and broadcaster Ben Heppner, O.C., LL.D., as Honorary Chair of Calgary Opera's new Legacy Society.

CBS News Correspondents Michelle Miller and Dana Jacobson will join Anthony Mason as permanent Co-Hosts on CBS THIS MORNING: SATURDAY, it was announced today by David Rhodes, President of CBS News.

Tippet Rise Art Center, located against the backdrop of Montana's Beartooth Mountains, has announced the dates and highlights for its third concert season, July 6 through September 8, 2018.

Produced by American Documentary, Inc., POV is public television's premier showcase for nonfiction films. Since 1988, POV has been the home for the world's boldest contemporary filmmakers, celebrating intriguing personal stories that spark conversation and inspire action. Always an innovator, POV discovers fresh new voices and creates interactive experiences that shine a light on social issues and elevate the art of storytelling. With our documentary broadcasts, original online programming and dynamic community engagement campaigns, we are committed to supporting films that capture the imagination and present diverse perspectives.

As part of its Summer Theater Festival for Families, Rivertown Theaters will close out its 2017-2018 season with a lavish production of one of Disney's timeless Broadway musicals that continues to be a favorite with multi-generations July 12 - 22.

Alberta Bair Theater has added four additional shows since the season preview for its stakeholders on May 24:  for fans of 60's rock: Felix Cavaliere & Gene Cornish's RASCALS with special guest Carmine Appice on drums on Friday, September 7 at 7:30; for fans of 80's rock and Broadway musicals: ROCK OF AGES on Monday, November 19 at 7:30;  for a fun ladies night out during the holidays: 'Twas a Girls Night Before Christmas on Friday, December 14 at 7:30;  and for family entertainment at its best the multi Tony awarded THE SOUND OF MUSIC on Monday, April 8 and Tuesday, April 9, both at 7:30.

Harlem Stage and Theater of War Productions today announced an unprecedented five-week FREE run of performances of Theater of War Productions' original project, Antigone in Ferguson. Opening on September 13 and kicking off Harlem Stage's 2018/2019 programming season, Antigone in Ferguson was conceived in the wake of Michael Brown's death in 2014, through a collaboration between Theater of War Productions and community members from Ferguson, MO. Translated and directed by Bryan Doerries and composed by Phil Woodmore, the project fuses a dramatic reading by leading actors of excerpts from Sophocles' Greek tragedy with live choral music performed by a choir of activists, police officers, youth, and concerned citizens from Ferguson and New York City. The performance is the catalyst for panel and audience-driven discussions on race and social justice, the core component of the event. This multifaceted production will offer a glimpse not only into the effects of the tragedy in Brown's local community, but also the trauma of police violence and racial injustice in communities of color in New York and across the nation.

The 2018 winners of the New York International Piano Competition (TheNYIPC), under the auspices of the Stecher & Horowitz Foundation, were announced at an Awards Ceremony at Manhattan School of Music on Friday evening (June 22). Prizes and awards totaling $50,000 were presented.  Robert Sherman served as Master of Ceremonies.  The week-long event began on June 18.