Michael Tilson Thomas News

The accomplished young pianist Mackenzie Melemed, winner of The Stecher and Horowitz Foundation's 2012 New York International Piano Competition (NYIPC) will be heard in recital on Sunday afternoon, December 15th at 3:00 p.m. at Temple Emanu-El, 1 East 65th St., New York, NY.

In the New York Philharmonic's concerts this week celebrating the centennial of English composer, conductor, and pianist Benjamin Britten, conducted by Music Director Alan Gilbert, tenors Dominic Armstrong, Anthony Dean Griffey, and Michael Slattery will replace Paul Appleby, who has withdrawn due to illness. On November 21-22, 2013, Michael Slattery will make his Philharmonic debut in Britten's Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings, and tenor Dominic Armstrong will make his Philharmonic debut in Britten's Spring Symphony. The concert on November 23 will feature tenor Anthony Dean Griffey in both works, and he will sing the Serenade on November 26 on a program that also includes Mozart's Symphonies Nos. 39 and 41, Jupiter.

San Francisco Symphony Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas returns to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) stage to lead the CSO in a program of music by Stravinsky and Mahler. These performances will take place on tonight, November 21 and Saturday, November 23, both at 8 p.m.; Friday November 22 at 1:30 p.m.; and Sunday, November 24 at 3 p.m.

Music Director Alan Gilbert will lead the New York Philharmonic in a celebration of the centennial of English composer, conductor, and pianist Benjamin Britten. The program will include Britten's Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings, featuring tenor Paul Appleby and Philharmonic Principal Horn Philip Myers, and Britten's Spring Symphony, with soprano Kate Royal (in her Philharmonic debut), mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke (Philharmonic subscription debut), tenor Paul Appleby, New York Choral Artists directed by Joseph Flummerfelt, and Brooklyn Youth Chorus directed by Dianne Berkun-Menaker. The concerts, which include a performance on the composer's 100th birthday, November 22, will take place tonight, November 21, 2013, at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, November 22 at 8:00 p.m.; and Saturday, November 23 at 8:00 p.m.

Two months before the world premiere of Charles Wuorinen's much-anticipated opera Brokeback Mountain at Teatro Real in Madrid (January 28-February 11), the Morgan Library & Museum celebrates one of America's greatest contemporary composers with a 75th birthday tribute concert: CHARLES WUORINEN: Virtuoso Works for Solo Piano & String Quartet, tonight, November 20, 2013 at 7:30pm.

American composer Gordon Getty celebrates his 80th birthday on December 20, 2013. Mr. Getty's music has been widely performed in North America and Europe in such prestigious venues as Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, London's Royal Festival Hall, Vienna's Brahmssaal, and Moscow's Tchaikovsky Hall and Bolshoi Theatre, as well as at the Aspen, Spoleto, and Bad Kissingen Festivals.

English conductor Jane Glover will make her Met debut on December 16 leading the company's holiday presentation, an abridged, English-language production of Mozart's The Magic Flute, directed by Julie Taymor. The 100-minute version of Taymor's popular staging of the opera will star Alek Shrader as the brave prince Tamino; Heidi Stober as Pamina, the princess he must rescue; Eric Owens as the mysterious Sarastro; Shenyang as the Speaker; and Nathan Gunn as the hapless bird-catcher Papageno. Albina Shagimuratova and Kathryn Lewek will alternate in the role of Pamina's vindictive mother, the Queen of the Night. The Magic Flute launched the recent Met tradition of presenting a family-oriented production each holiday season, with sharply discounted tickets and two special weekday matinee performances. Scroll down for a sneak peek at the production!

For its 2014 season, the Oregon Bach Festival has just announced the appointment of organist Paul Jacobs to lead a newly-created Organ Institute. It is arguably the first major festival to add a component devoted exclusively to the study and performance of the organ, which figured so prominently in the compositions and performance life of J. S. Bach.

Utah Opera presents a unique, cabaret-style theater experience featuring some of opera's best known arias in Kathleen Cahill's, irreverent Fatal Song onstage at Rose Wagner Theatre.

Ensemble 212 presents Sonorous Strings: Orchestra Concert, the second show of its 2013-14 season tonight, November 13th at 8pm. Representative of a true kaleidoscope of styles, the evening will feature music of the Baroque and Romantic eras as well as that of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Utah Opera presents a unique, cabaret-style theater experience featuring some of opera's best known arias in Kathleen Cahill's, irreverent Fatal Song onstage at Rose Wagner Theatre.

Top-of-the-charts Romanticism meets a contemporary fusion of symphony, electronic music and improvisation in a tour-de-force concert that will open Oakland East Bay Symphony's 25th anniversary season tonight, November 8, at 8 pm at the Paramount Theatre. Music Director Michael Morgan has programmed the kind of musical range, interest and innovation for the opening that dynamically demonstrates the orchestra's long-established reputation for audience-captivating and imaginative music.

The Collegiate Chorale presents its first concert of the season, Mefistofele, by Arrigo Boito tonight, November 6, 2013 at 8pm at Carnegie Hall, 881 7th Avenue, NYC. The Collegiate Chorale will hold its Annual Fall Gala immediately following the concert.

CHICAGO — San Francisco Symphony Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas returns to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) stage to lead the CSO in a program of music by Stravinsky and Mahler. These performances will take place on Thursday, November 21 and Saturday, November 23, both at 8 p.m.; Friday November 22 at 1:30 p.m.; and Sunday, November 24 at 3 p.m.

The five-time Grammy-winning San Francisco Girls Chorus will open its 2013-2014 35th anniversary season tonight, November 3, 2013, at 7 pm at Marines' Memorial Theatre in San Francisco with a concert of music both French and French-inspired, conducted by new Music Director and Principal Conductor Valerie Sainte-Agathe.

The Elios Charitable Foundation announced today the program and honorees for the highly anticipated 9th Hellenic Charity Ball, to be held tonight, November 2, 2013 at Westin St. Francis on Union Square (335 Powell Street, San Francisco).

In the first pops concert of the season, Utah Symphony will welcome back to Utah Brian Stokes Mitchell, a much-loved vocalist who performed with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir during their annual Christmas Concert in 2008.

The Collegiate Chorale announces its first concert of the season, Mefistofele, by Arrigo Boito on November 6, 2013 at 8pm at Carnegie Hall, 881 7th Avenue, NYC. Tickets are available at www.carnegiehall.org or by calling CarnegieCharge at 212-247-7800. Single tickets for this concert start at $15. The Collegiate Chorale will hold its Annual Fall Gala immediately following the concert.

Singular Sensations continues its autumn run at the Charing Cross Theatre as the multi-talented Janie Dee joins Edward Seckerson on Remembrance Sunday, Sunday 10th November at 3pm to talk about her glittering career.

Tonight, October 29 at 7:30 p.m., soprano Jessica Rivera and mezzo-soprano Kelley O'Connor are joined by pianist Robert Spano on a program featuring three New York premieres, two of which are Carnegie Hall co-commissions.