Nicole Paiement News

 San Francisco Opera's Department of Diversity, Equity and Community (DEC) continues its online, weekly, interactive lecture series, Opera Aficionado, throughout the month of August with a focus on social themes in opera.

Women's Opera Network will air a new webinar From Reset to Reinvention: Moving Opera Forward After COVID-19, Thursday, April 30, 4:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m. EDT.

Houston Grand Opera has announced its 2020a?"21 season, featuring a repertoire of beloved classics, company premieres, and a much-anticipated world premiere. The 66th season opens with audience favorite Carmen. American mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard makes her HGO and role debut as Carmen in the revival of Rob Ashford's acclaimed 2014 production of Bizet's classic. She is joined by tenor Andrea Caré as Don José, bass-baritone Christian Pursell as Escamillo, and Anita Hartig as Micaela, all making their HGO debuts. The production will be conducted by HGO Principal Guest Conductor Eun Sun Kim.

Dead Man Walking, the powerful opera by composer Jake Heggie and librettist-playwright Terrence McNally, will have its long-awaited Lyric premiere this month. There will be six performances Nov. 2-22 at the Lyric Opera House, 20 N. Wacker Dr., Chicago. Tickets start at $39 and are available at lyricopera.org/dmw or by calling 312-827-5600.

The San Francisco Conservatory of Music officially opens its 2019-20 season with its annual Kick-off Weekend, Friday, September 27a?"Sunday, September 29, featuring eight free concerts performed by SFCM and Pre-College students, faculty, and renowned guest artists, highlighting the Conservatory's season-long theme, a?oeMusic and Nature.a?? 

With a lush low range and glowing top range, the Milwaukee native is equally adept in Handel and Mozart as she is in contemporary works

The San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM) today announces the details of its 2019-20 season. Under the theme of 'Music and Nature,' the 2019-20 season features repertoire, collaborations, and a curricular sequence that connects to nature's presence in music from multiple stylistic periods.

If I Were You, by distinguished American composer Jake Heggie and noted librettist Gene Scheer, will be the first-ever commissioned work in the Merola Opera Program's 62-year history.

San Francisco's acclaimed Merola Opera Program, one of the most prestigious and selective opera training programs in the world, launches its 62nd season offering audiences a look at the opera stars of tomorrow. The 2019 Merola Summer Festival announces this year's 29 Merola artists, selected from more than 800 international applicants from as far away as Brazil, South Korea, New Zealand, and Colombia, as well as across the U.S. Along with the announced world premiere of If I Were You (August 1-6) by Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer, the singers will perform in the Schwabacher Summer Concert (July 11 & 13) and Merola Grand Finale (August 17). The 2019 Merola Summer Festival includes performances in San Francisco at various locations. Individual event tickets and information available at www.merola.org or 415-864-3330.

A season filled with unforgettable music, riveting stories, thrilling singers from around the world, and stirring productions goes on sale by subscription Friday, January 25, at 10am. Six new and new-to-Chicago productions including three Lyric premieres and three performances of the Ring cycle will engage and entertain audiences from late September 2019 through June 2020.

One hundred years after the armistice of The Great War, it is still crucial to honor the memory of all who fought to create a better world for the future. Washington National Opera's production of Silent Night, which opened on Saturday night at the Kennedy Center, is a glorious celebration of the brave soldiers who have risked their lives for their countries. The production is weakened by some questionable staging choices but serves as a suitable showcase for opera's rising stars.

Washington National Opera celebrates the centennial of the WWI Armistice with Kevin Puts's Pulitzer Prize-winning opera Silent Night, November 10-25, in the Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater. Tickets start at $35. Based on the true story of a wartime ceasefire, an event depicted by the 2005 film Joyeux Noel, Silent Night features a cast comprised entirely of WNO family-current members and alumni from the Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program and WNO Chorus-with libretto in multiple languages that capture a powerful vision of humanity and hope. With gratitude for their sacrifice and service, Washington National Opera presents Silent Night in honor of all Veterans and members of the U.S. Armed Forces. In addition to hosting a Military Appreciation Day on Sunday, November 25, additional discounts to see the production will be offered for active-duty service members for select performances.

In 2019, San Francisco's acclaimed Merola Opera Program will present the first opera commissioned in the Program's history, the world premiere of If I Were You, by distinguished American composer Jake Heggie and noted librettist Gene Scheer. This ground-breaking work will be presented August 1 - 6, 2019, at San Francisco's Herbst Theatre. Today it was announced the opera will be conducted by Nicole Paiement and directed by Keturah Stickann. Information is available at www.merola.org. Tickets will go on sale in Spring 2019.

Washington National Opera celebrates the centennial of the WWI Armistice with Kevin Puts's and Mark Campbell's Pulitzer Prize-winning opera Silent Night, November 10-25, in the Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater. Tickets start at $35. Based on the true story of a wartime ceasefire, an event depicted by the 2005 film Joyeux Noel,Silent Night features music by Kevin Puts and libretto by Mark Campbell and stars a cast comprised entirely of WNO family-current members and alumni from the Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program and WNO Chorus-with libretto in multiple languages that capture a powerful vision of humanity and hope. With gratitude for their sacrifice and service, Washington National Opera presents Silent Night in honor of all Veterans and members of the U.S. Armed Forces. In addition to hosting a Military Appreciation Day on Sunday, November 25, additional discounts to see the production will be offered for active-duty service members for select performances.

Washington National Opera celebrates the centennial of the WWI Armistice with Kevin Puts's Pulitzer Prize-winning opera Silent Night, November 10-25, in the Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater. Tickets start at $35. Based on the true story of a wartime ceasefire, an event depicted by the 2005 film Joyeux Noel, Silent Night features a cast comprised entirely of WNO family-current members and alumni from the Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program and WNO Chorus-with libretto in multiple languages that capture a powerful vision of humanity and hope. With gratitude for their sacrifice and service, Washington National Opera presents Silent Night in honor of all Veterans and members of the U.S. Armed Forces. In addition to hosting a Military Appreciation Day on Sunday, November 25, additional discounts to see the production will be offered for active-duty service members for select performances.

Kevin Puts's Silent Night, winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize in Music with libretto by Mark Campbell, will be performed throughout the 2018–19 concert season by multiple ensembles in commemoration of the centennial of the signing of the armistice of WWI.

The Dallas Opera is proud to announce the names of the twelve distinguished professionals (six conductors, two administrators, and four observers) selected to participate in the fourth annual residency of the Linda and Mitch Hart Institute for Women Conductors at The Dallas Opera taking place Oct. 28 - Nov. 10, 2018 in Dallas, Texas:

Today, twenty-one arts leaders and activists announce the launch of Turn The Spotlight, a foundation created to pair top-tier mentors with exceptional women, people of color, and other equity-seeking groups in the arts. Beth Stewart, a New York City-based arts entrepreneur and classical music publicist, will lead the foundation, which is supported by an Advisory Board of arts world luminaries, including soprano Julia Bullock, journalists Anne Midgette and Celeste Headlee, conductors Lidiya Yankovskaya and Nicole Paiement, stage director Francesca Zambello, classical music publicist Mary Lou Falcone, arts advocates Monica Yunus and Camille Zamora, and women's rights advocate Amanda Mejia.

None of the three pieces that I saw at the Glimmerglass Festival near Cooperstown, NY, last weekend was exactly what it seemed to be: Is CUNNING LITTLE VIXEN a fairy story or a cautionary tale? Is WEST SIDE STORY simply in a class of its own? Does SILENT NIGHT find that war is hell—or that hell is simply other people? Let's begin with SILENT NIGHT.

The San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM) today announces the details of its 2018-19 season, the 101st year of the institution's existence. After celebrating the Conservatory's centennial last season, SFCM looks to the future in its curricular model combining performance, history, and the humanities in thematically linked programming. This season's theme, 'Sound and Image,' brings the fine arts together with classes, concerts, and other events that examine the relationship between music, visual art, and the moving image.