Ned Rorem News

The John F. Kennedy Center announces the full lineup for DIRECT CURRENT, its two-week celebration of contemporary culture, which returns for a second season this spring (March 24-April 7).

The Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival's spring series is turning five. BCMF Spring 2019, three 5:00 pm concerts - Saturdays in March and May, a Sunday in April - is marking this first milestone on the heels of the 35th anniversary this past summer of BCMF, the longest-running classical music festival on Long Island.

The critically-acclaimed Palisades Virtuosi flute, clarinet and piano trio will present PV & Friends, a concert on Sunday, December 2 @ 2:00 pm at The Unitarian Society of Ridgewood, 113 Cottage Place in Ridgewood, New Jersey.

In celebration of the 30th anniversary of Ravinia's Steans Music Institute (RSMI) last summer, Ravinia launched a competition for composers who could fuse the worlds of jazz and classical music. Due to its success, Ravinia, with the support of DownBeat magazine, is now calling for submissions to the second annual "Bridges" international jazz and classical fusion composition competition, overseen by legendary pianist Billy Childs and double-bassist Rufus Reid, who co-direct the RSMI Jazz Program. Up to three winners will receive the David Baker Prize, named in recognition of the first RSMI Jazz director. The prize includes $2,500 in cash plus the world-premiere performance of the winning piece during Ravinia's 2019 season.

The Philadelphia Youth Orchestra (PYO) has opened another year of opportunity for talented young composers to participate in the Third Annual Young Composers Competition for the 2018-2019 season. PYO is calling on gifted composers, between the ages of 18 to 24, to submit an original orchestral piece. The winner will receive the honor of having the composition performed by the highly esteemed Philadelphia Youth Orchestra and recorded for a possible future broadcast on WRTI.

Copland House's 2018-19 mainstage season will offer celebrations aplenty! Ranging widely across more than a century of American music, the popular series is Copland House's 10th at Westchester County's majestic Merestead estate in Mount Kisco, NY. Hailed by The New York Times for "all the richness of its offerings, first-rate fare, and reputation for quality," the series has become a destination for an enthusiastic and growing audience of musical adventurers seeking discoveries of the new, old, and unexpected.

Encompass New Opera Theatre will present the World Premiere of Anna Christie with music by Edward Thomas, set to a libretto by Joseph Masteroff, with 12 performances beginning on Thursday, October 4, 2018 at 8pm and running through Sunday, October 21, 2018, at the Baruch Performing Arts Center (at 55 Lexington Avenue, entrance on 25th Street, between Lexington and Third Avenues) in Manhattan.

A concert celebrating the 95th birthday of Pulitzer Prize-winning and Grammy Award-winning composer Ned Rorem (b. Oct. 23, 1923). The concert features the world premiere of the clarinet, violin and piano version of 'Pas de Trois' and a performance of 'Four Colors', composed for clarinetist Thomas Piercy, a long-time champion of Rorem's music. The concert also features three pieces composed for Thomas Piercy as Rorem birthday celebration music by former students of Rorem: Daron Hagen, Jennifer Higdon, and Troy Peters. Joining Piercy in the concert are violinist Eiko Kano and composer/pianist Chen Yihan.

DIRECT CURRENT, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts's two-week celebration of contemporary culture, returns for a second season. Training its focus on new works, interdisciplinary creations in which artistic worlds collide, and creative responses to topical concerns, the 2019 spring immersion showcases some of the most provocative, original, and pioneering voices in the arts today. DIRECT CURRENT takes place on March 25-April 7 at the Kennedy Center and beyond, extending throughout the District of Columbia through collaborations with a number of alternative venues, to expand the growing audience for contemporary culture in the nation's capital.

Encompass New Opera Theatre will present the world premiere of Anna Christie with music by Edward Thomas set to a libretto by Joseph Masteroff, beginning on Thursday, October 4, 2018 at 8pm, running through Sunday, October 21, 2018, at the Baruch Performing Arts Center (at 55 Lexington Avenue, entrance on 25th Street, between Lexington and Third Avenues). 

Copland House's 2018-19 mainstage season will offer celebrations aplenty! Ranging widely across more than a century of American music, the popular series is Copland House's 10th at Westchester County's majestic Merestead estate in Mount Kisco, NY. Hailed by The New York Times for "all the richness of its offerings, first-rate fare, and reputation for quality," the series has become a destination for an enthusiastic and growing audience of musical adventurers seeking discoveries of the new, old, and unexpected.

Boston Court Pasadena presents another daring season of music events to Southern California - 14 Uncommon Performances -- this fall starting September 7 with a program of all new work in Poets, Prophets and Philosophers - with The Lyris Quartet and soprano Hila Plitmann.

A concert celebrating the 95th birthday of Pulitzer Prize-winning and Grammy Award-winning composer Ned Rorem (b. Oct. 23, 1923). The concert features the world premiere of the clarinet, violin and piano version of 'Pas de Trois' and a performance of 'Four Colors', composed for clarinetist Thomas Piercy, a long-time champion of Rorem's music. The concert also features three pieces composed for Thomas Piercy as Rorem birthday celebration music by former students of Rorem: Daron Hagen, Jennifer Higdon, and Troy Peters. Joining Piercy in the concert are violinist Eiko Kano and composer/pianist Chen Yihan.

Renowned music conservatory Manhattan School of Music (MSM) is celebrating its Centennial during the 2018-19 season with performances and events that draw inspiration from its rich 100-year history of music-making and education.

Brooklyn Art Song Society (BASS) is proud to announce its 2018-2019 season beginning in October of 2018. BASS's ninth season features all the innovative programming and world-class performers audiences have come to expect, plus some new surprises. By the numbers, season nine includes 250 songs by nearly 20 composers over 10 concerts, performed by 40 of today's top interpreters of song.

Composer Thea Musgrave is celebrating these days. It's not just that she's marking her 90th birthday on May 27 with a concert in New York, but that the concert is showcasing a gaggle of world premieres, US premieres and NY premieres (along with more familiar works), which highlight her rich musical vocabulary and keen sense of drama.

This summer, the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, called 'the crown jewel of chamber music festivals on Long Island – arguably anywhere on the East Coast” by Newsday last year, celebrates its 35th anniversary. A pre-festival ramp-up of five free pop-up concerts around the Hamptons sets the stage, Alan Alda returns to launch the season, hosting a musical portrait of Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn, and the festival features the world premieres of BCMF-commissioned works by Kenji Bunch and Paul Moravec.

The Chi Phil Chamber Players join spectacular virtuoso Jory Vinikour on May 5 2018 in a harpsichord extravaganza with musical selections from traditional Bach to Chicagoan composer William Ferris to Indiana University Jacobs School of Music professor Juan Orrego Salas. Headlining the program is a rare performance and Chicago premiere of 20th century Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Ned Rorem's Concertino da Camera. This piece, which was written in 1946 in the early stages of Rorem's prolific career, was thought long-lost until it resurfaced and was heard publicly at the University of Minnesota for the first time in 1993. Vinikour, known for his "spectacular displays of virtuosity and subtle dramatic expression" (Bachtrack, 2011), brings Rorem's work to life as deftly as he performs works by well-known masters.

Bloomingdale School of Music (BSM) continues its focus on faculty performances with pianist Judith Olson and guest artist Rolf Schulte on violin in a concert entitled, The Lyrical Brahms on today, April 27th at 7:00 pm. This free concert will be held at the school's home site located at 323 West 108th Street in Manhattan. Seating is limited.