New York State Council on the Arts News

The November through January 1 programming schedule at the Museum of Jewish Heritage - A Living Memorial to the Holocaust has been announced. Highlights are:

American Lyric Theater (ALT) and Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Music Center, in partnership with MasterVoices (formerly The Collegiate Chorale), presents The Halloween Tree on October 30, 2016 at 3pm in the Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Music Center, 129 W 67th Street, New York City.  Based on Ray Bradbury's classic novel that explores the origins of Halloween, composer Theo Popov and librettist Tony Asaro take us on an epic journey as a group of children search for their friend Pipkin, who has mysteriously disappeared on Halloween night. Conductor: Adam Turner. Featuring Mark S. Doss as Moundshroud; with Emma Grimsley, Shirin Eskandani, Spencer Viator, Brian Wallin, Michael Kelly, and Jarrett Porter with members of MasterVoices.  

Maechi Aharanwa, Tre Davis and Renika Williams will star in Harrison David Rivers' play 'Sweet,' the first theatrical production of the 48th season of Dr. Barbara Ann Teer's National Black Theatre's (NBT).

Five Stars - No, it's not a car service nor a hotel.  It's the number of leading role singers at Regina Opera's “Gotta Sing” Concert. This 2-hour concert features popular opera arias and spirited ensembles performed by Regina Opera leading role singers: Zhanna Alkhazova and Sabrina Palladino - sopranos; Lara Tillotson - mezzo-soprano; Benjamin Sloman - tenor; and Andrew Cummings - baritone.   Accompanying the singers will be Richard Paratley - flutist, and Maxine Feldman - pianist.  The concert features selections from 'Don Giovanni,  'Manon Lescaut', 'Carmen', 'Cavalleria Rusticana', and other operas. 

The Kitchen will present M. Lamar: The Demon Rising, on November 5. M. Lamar's new composition - for male soprano, piano, and projections - is in part inspired by the grand jury testimony of Darren Wilson (the white police officer who murdered unarmed black teenager Michael Brown and is quoted as saying "he looked up at me and had the most intense, aggressive face... it looks like a demon"). The Demon Rising embraces and incarnates white fantasies of blackness as oversized, superhuman, a supernatural menace.

Carnegie Hall today announced that the performance by Ensemble Connect conducted by Sir Simon Rattle on Sunday, October 16 at 3:00 p.m. EST in Zankel Hall, will be webcast free of charge to a worldwide audience, thanks to a continued partnership with medici.tv. The concert program consists of Schubert's Winterreise - A Composed Interpretation for Tenor and Small Orchestra by Hans Zender with tenor Mark Padmore. Following the live webcast, free replay of this concert will be available to online audiences on medici.tv for another 90 days, playable worldwide on all internet-enabled devices, including smart phones, tablets, Chromecast, computers, and smart TVs.

Musical Chairs Chamber Ensemble, Inc. (MCCE) is proud to announce its 13th Season, Revolution #13, launching today, October 15th with Stravinsky's L'Histoire du soldat (The Soldier's Tale) at the Staten Island Museum.

Continuing its success of presenting programs that celebrate the popular genres in Latin music, including Boogaloo and Mambo, the Hostos Center presents a nostalgic look back at the Charanga era, based on lively Cuban dances, with 'Charanga-Fest' featuring three of the top Charanga bands in New York, and special guest artists on Saturday, November 5, at 7:30 PM in the Center's Main Theater.

Gender/Power Composition IV is an in-process collaborative project led by video artist Maya Ciarrocchi and performance artist Kris Grey in which performers and co-creators Keke Brown, Shawn Escarciga, Ray Ferreira, Massima Lei, Elena Rose Light, Marissa Pereland Pamela Sneed share personal feminist, trans and queer narratives within a framework that blurs authorship.

The Film Society of Lincoln Center announces My First Film Fest, which aims to bring the excitement and vibrancy of the festival experience to young movie lovers, November 3-8.

The New York Musical Festival (NYMF), previously known as The New York Musical Theater Festival, will honor Tony and Grammy Award winning composer and lyricist Duncan Sheik, Casting Director Tara Rubin, and former NYMF Board Member and Treasurer Frank Troutman at its 2016 Gala hosted by Mo Rocca on Sunday, November 13 at the Edison Ballroom in Midtown Manhattan (240 W 47th St, New York, NY 10036).

The Barrow Group, in association with The Pond Theatre Company, will present the first show of the 2016/17 season, ABIGAIL'S PARTY, written by Oscar nominee Mike Leigh (Secrets and Lies).

Sahba Motallebi, born in Iran, is recognized internationally as a virtuoso of the tar and setar, lute-like stringed instruments central to one of the world's great musical traditions. In this concert, she performs a repertoire of traditional Persian music and original pieces accompanied by Naghmeh Farahmand on tonbak (goblet drum) and daf (frame drum).

Musical Chairs Chamber Ensemble, Inc. (MCCE) is proud to announce its 13th Season, Revolution #13, launching on Saturday, October 15th with Stravinsky's L'Histoire du soldat (The Soldier's Tale) at the Staten Island Museum.

New York, New York: National Alliance for Musical Theatre (Betsy King Militello, Executive Director) is thrilled to announce the first round of casting for the 28th Annual FESTIVAL OF NEW MUSICALS, which takes place on Thursday, October 27 and Friday, October 28, 2016 at New World Stages (340 West 50th Street, between 8th and 9th Avenues). The Festival will kick off on Wednesday, October 26 with its celebrated concert, The 46th Minute, which features songs from Festival shows you will not get to hear in the 45-minute presentation.

Itzhak Perlman will return to the New York Philharmonic to conduct and perform Beethoven's Romances Nos. 1 and 2 for Violin and Orchestra, and to conduct Brahms's Symphony No. 4 and Academic Festival Overture, Tuesday, November 15, 2016, at 7:30 p.m.

Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) has announced complete casting for RANCHO VIEJO, the world premiere of a new play by Dan LeFranc (The Big Meal at Playwrights, Sixty Miles to Silver Lake, In the Labyrinth) and directed by three-time Obie Award winner Daniel Aukin (Placebo, This at Playwrights; Fool For Love; Bad Jews; 4000 Miles; [sic]).  Commissioned by Playwrights Horizons, RANCHO VIEJO will be the third production of the theater company's 2016/2017 Season.   

Parthenia, New York's premiere viol consort, will be in concert on Today, October 6, 2016 at 8:00 PMperforming King James and His Bible: Royal and Devotional Music from the Stuart and Tudor Courts at The Church of Saint Luke in the Fields, 487 Hudson Street in Manhattan.

For 10 days from Thursday, September 15 through Saturday, September 24, the 2016 First Niagara Rochester Fringe Festival drew more than an estimated* 67,000 visitors (compared to 63,000 in 2015) to downtown Rochester to celebrate artistic expression in all of its forms.

The Joyce Theater Foundation in association with New York Live Arts present MacArthur Genius Award and National Medal of Arts recipient Bill T. Jones and his company performing parts one and two of Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company's new dance theatre work, Analogy Trilogy.