Well, it's that time of the year again--time for a look-back on what was worth making note of during the calendar year that's about to come to an end. It's from a totally personal, subjective point of view, of course, but frankly that's the way opera-lovers always seem to like it, n'est-ce pas? The productions worth noting come from places big, small and in-between, from composers old as the hills to freshly minted or somewhere in between (likewise the performers), from traditional or boldly modern to simply stand up and sing.
String Quartet New York, Fordham University's (Fordham) annual series featuring contemporary works by New York City composers, will take place Friday, November 16 at Fordham's Lowenstein Building. The concert is curated by Lawrence Kramer (Kramer), Distinguished Professor of English and Music at Fordham. Kramer has long provided artistic oversight to several compelling concert series that extend and challenge traditional classical forms, founding the Voices Up! vocal concert series at Fordham nearly 10 years ago.
The Oratorio Society of New York has the distinction of having performed Handel's Messiah every Christmas season since 1874, and at Carnegie Hall every year the hall has been open since 1891 - qualifying the OSNY's annual rendition of the holiday classic as a New York tradition of the highest order.
Hailed as “one of the great amateur choruses of our time (New York Today) for its “full-bodied sound and suppleness (The New York Times),” The Dessoff Choirs today announced its annual holiday concert series. Now in its 94th year, The Dessoff Choirs continues to wow audiences with its seasonal repertoire performed in some of New York City's most beautiful churches. This season's offerings include a sing-in of Handel's Messiah, contemporary arrangement of carols, and a rare performance of the nine-movement Christmas cantata The Ballad of the Brown King with music by African-American composer Margaret Bonds and text by writer Langston Hughes. (Program details are below.)
Hailed as "one of the great amateur choruses of our time (New York Today) for its "full-bodied sound and suppleness (The New York Times)," The Dessoff Choirs today announced its annual holiday concert series. Now in its 94th year, The Dessoff Choirs continues to wow audiences with its seasonal repertoire performed in some of New York City's most beautiful churches. This season's offerings include a sing-in of Handel's Messiah, contemporary arrangement of carols, and a rare performance of the nine-movement Christmas cantata The Ballad of the Brown King with music by African-American composer Margaret Bonds and text by writer Langston Hughes. (Program details are below.)
Kyo-Shin-An Arts continues its 10th anniversary season with a concert titled Crimson Leaves on Sunday, October 28, 2018 at 4pm at Tenri Cultural Institute (43A West 13th Street, NYC), which features the Boston-based, inspiring young piano trio Neave Piano Trio and KSA Artistic Director,Shakuhachi Grand Master James Nyoraku Schlefer in music for piano trio and shakuhachi. This intimate performance of chamber music blurs the lines of world culture, encompassing fiery rhythms of Iran, the sensuous passion of Argentina, the sudden drama of Hong Kong, and the austere calm of Japan. Violin, cello, piano and shakuhachi come together in music by Amir Eslami (Seasons for shakuhachi and piano trio), Astor Piazzolla (The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires for piano trio), Adrian Hon Chung Lam (Separated... at the Human Labyrinth of Asakusa Temple for shakuhachi and piano trio) and the famous traditional Shika no Tone (Cry of the Distant Deer) for two shakuhachi, with special guest Brian Tairaku Ritchi (bassist in The Violent Femmes).
The Dessoff Choirs begins its 94th season with Requiem for Whitman: a one night only concert inspired by the American poet and journalist Walt Whitman (1819-1892). As part of a season-long celebration of Whitman's bicentennial, Dessoff's 60 singers will perform exquisite choral settings of Whitman's poetry by Bach, Schuman, Pizzetti, as well as the world premiere of a newly commissioned Whitman-inspired work by contemporary composer Douglas Geers.
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.
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.
KYO-SHIN-AN ARTS is a contemporary music organization celebrating its 10th Anniversary Season. From groundbreaking to mainstream, over the last decade KSA has built and promoted a wide body of new classical repertoire combining Japanese and Western instruments. Commissions to date total 27 composers for 45 new works. 2018-19 continues KSA's annual five-concert series at the Tenri Cultural Institute in Manhattan and marks the launch of its next decade with a distinctive, two-year 'Septet Commissioning Project.'
When Stephen Sondheim was asked was asked about whether his great musical drama SWEENEY TODD was a musical or an opera, he once responded, “When it's done in a theatre, it's a musical. When it's done in an opera house, it's an opera.” Well, then, what about HAMILTON, the musical sensation of our time? Is it possible that it's (gasp!) an opera waiting to emerge?
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 celebrated Newman & Oltman Guitar Duo will perform at the 18th New York Guitar Seminar at Mannes on Wednesday, June 27 at 7pm at the Americas Society, 680 Park Avenue, New York. The Duo will be joined by Brazilian guitarist João Luiz in a concert celebrating Music from the Americas. In addition to works by Brazilian composers Piazzolla, Machado, Jobim, Simas, Clarice Assad, Villa-Lobos and Bellinati, the program will also feature works by US native Paul Moravec and Argentinean Astor Piazzolla. The concert is produced in partnership with the Americas Society, and part of the New York Guitar Seminar at Mannes that takes place from June 26 to July 1. Tickets are $20.00, $10.00 for students and can be purchased at the door, directly from the Americas Society or atwww.mannesguitar.com.
The world premiere performance of SANCTUARY ROAD (subtitled “An Oratorio Based on the Writings of William Still, a Conductor for the Underground Railroad”), by composer Paul Moravec and librettist Mark Campbell, performed by the Oratorio Society of New York under Kent Tritle, burst forth from the stage of Carnegie Hall the other night, with energy, humanity and, of course, great musicality from all involved.
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.
World premieres of an oratorio about the Underground Railroad that sets narratives of slaves running for freedom and their lives, and a work that sets poems calling for peace in Farsi, Spanish, Hebrew, Arabic, and English: Sanctuary Road, music by Paul Moravec and text by Mark Campbell based upon the writings of William Still, a conductor for the Underground Railroad; and We Are One for chorus and orchestra by Behzad Ranjbaran, both completed within the last year, will be given their first performances by the Oratorio Society of New York (OSNY) led by Music Director Kent Tritle as the culminating concert of the OSNY's 145th season on Monday, May 7, 2018, at Carnegie Hall.
American Lyric Theater concludes the 10th Anniversary of its nationally acclaimed Composer Librettist Development Program this season with InsightALT: Opera in Eden, a one-night-only concert featuring three new one-act operas written by ALT Resident Artists, hosted by composer/librettist Mark Adamo and producing artistic director Lawrence Edelson.
The acclaimed Newman & Oltman Guitar Duo will appear at the 26th annual Long Island Guitar Festival on April 14 at 8:00PM. The program, 40th Anniversary Retrospective includes works by Manuel de Falla, Francesco Canova da Milano, Joaquin Rodrigo, Gioacchino Rossini, Paul Moravec, Isaac Albeniz, J. S. Bach and Philipp Nicolai. The concert will take place at Hillwood Cinema at Hillwood Commons, Long Island University Post, Brookville, NY. The duo will present a Master Class on Sunday, April 15 at the Fine Arts Center, LIU Post. Concert tickets are $25.00 General; Seniors/students/members of guitar societies (with ID) $20.00 & $10.00.
The upcoming April 26 concert by American Modern Ensemble represents two firsts: it is the ensemble's first concert at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall (or any of the Carnegie halls) in its 13-year history, and it is the first program devoted completely to the vocal works of composer and AME founder Robert Paterson (and the second all-Paterson program). About the program, which features six works for voice and piano, including three world premieres, Paterson says, "The texts are wildly diverse, and include poems constructed from reCAPTCHA texts (those texts you type online to prove that you're human), songs about the life of baseball catcher Mike Piazza, online dating, and settings of poems by W. H. Auden, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Richard Wilbur, William Carlos Williams, Sara Teasdale, David Cote (my collaborator on the opera Three Way), and others."
