Peter Maxwell Davies News

As part of its unique annual Hands-on-Opera education and youth performance program, Opera Parallele (OP) will present the world premiere of Xochitl and the Flowers, by OP composer-in-residence Christopher Pratorius. Based on the children's book of the same name by Jorge Argueta and with a libretto by Opera Parallele's Roma Olvera, three free performances will be presented November 17 and 19 at the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts in San Francisco.

To bring fresh new meaning to a play is a virtue, to do it to a musical score is sacrilege.  But why? Why shouldn't musicians be as creative as actors?  As part of PLAY, the 2016 Arts & Humanities Festival at King's College London, Helios Collective present a reimagined reading of Purcell's Dido & Aeneas as Dido & ….

As part of its unique annual Hands-on-Opera education and youth performance program, Opera Parallele (OP) will present the world premiere of Xochitl and the Flowers, by OP composer-in-residence Christopher Pratorius. Based on the children's book of the same name by Jorge Argueta and with a libretto by Opera Parallele's Roma Olvera, three free performances will be presented November 17 and 19 at the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts in San Francisco. The fully staged and costumed production will be developed during an innovative eight-week residency with third grade students of the Alvarado Elementary School Spanish Immersion Program in San Francisco, assisted by the Opera Parallele creative team and professional singers. Performances will be given Thursday, November 17, at 6 pm and Saturday, November 19, at 11 am and 1 pm at the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts, 2868 Mission Street in San Francisco. Admission is free, but past Hands-on-Opera performances have filled up quickly, so audience members are encouraged to arrive early. For more information, visitwww.operaparallele.org .

On the heels of releasing his latest album Portraits & Tributes, award-winning composer/conductor/teacher Scott Wheeler celebrates two new major works to be performed in fall 2016: Naga, his fourth opera, set to a libretto by Cerise Jacobs, premiering September 10-17 in Boston; and Songs To Fill The Void, a three-song cycle set to poetry by Robert Barefield, premiering October 2 in New York City at Weill Recital Hall. In addition, the New Juilliard Ensemble conducted by Joel Sachs will present his chamber symphony City of Shadows on October 1.

On the heels of releasing his latest album Portraits & Tributes, award-winning composer/conductor/teacher Scott Wheeler celebrates two new major works to be performed in fall 2016: Naga, his fourth opera, set to a libretto by Cerise Jacobs, premiering September 10-17 in Boston; and Songs To Fill The Void, a three-song cycle set to poetry by Robert Barefield, premiering October 2 in New York City at Weill Recital Hall. In addition, the New Juilliard Ensemble conducted by Joel Sachs will present his chamber symphony City of Shadows on October 1.

The London Symphony Orchestra and Sir Simon Rattle perform the world premiere of The Hogboon, a children's opera by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, on 26 June at The Barbican Centre in London. It is the second in a series of LSO commissioned mixed-ability operas, conducted by Sir Simon Rattle, and featuring musicians from the local community and the Guildhall School, performing with the LSO.

The London Symphony Orchestra and Sir Simon Rattle perform the world premiere of The Hogboon, a children's opera by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, on 26 June at The Barbican Centre in London. It is the second in a series of LSO commissioned mixed-ability operas, conducted by Sir Simon Rattle, and featuring musicians from the local community and the Guildhall School, performing with the LSO.

Following its sold-out co-production with SFJAZZ of Terence Blanchard's Champion, Opera Parallèle will conclude  its 2015-2016 season with an innovative new production of the late Peter Maxwell Davies' brooding three-singer, six-character tour-de-force The Lighthouse, based on the true story of mysterious disappearances off the Hebrides islands in 1900. Conducted by Opera Parallèle founder and Artistic Director Nicole Paiement and with a production headed by Creative Director Brian Staufenbiel, The Lighthouse will be given three performances: Today, April 29, at 8 pm; Saturday, April 30, at 8 pm; and Sunday, May 1, at 4 pm, at Z Space theater, 450 Florida Street in San Francisco.  Tickets are priced from $45-$90 and may be purchased atwww.operaparallele.org.

Following its sold-out co-production with SFJAZZ of Terence Blanchard's Champion, Opera Parallèle will conclude  its 2015-2016 season with an innovative new production of the late Peter Maxwell Davies' brooding three-singer, six-character tour-de-force The Lighthouse, based on the true story of mysterious disappearances off the Hebrides islands in 1900. Conducted by Opera Parallèle founder and Artistic Director Nicole Paiement and with a production headed by Creative Director Brian Staufenbiel, The Lighthouse will be given three performances: Friday, April 29, at 8 pm; Saturday, April 30, at 8 pm; and Sunday, May 1, at 4 pm, at Z Space theater, 450 Florida Street in San Francisco.  Tickets are priced from $45-$90 and may be purchased atwww.operaparallele.org.

As part of its 2015-2016 Producing Season, HERE proudly presents Science Fair, a HERE Resident Artist production conceived and performed by Hai-Ting Chinn. This new opera-theater work, a live science show with lessons & lectures in song, Science Fair features Music Direction by Erika Switzer (piano), and Music by Matthew Schickele, Renee Favand-See, Stefan Weisman and Conrad Cummings. Lisa Rothe directs. This world premiere will have 8 performances only, April 13 - 24, at HERE (145 Sixth Avenue, just below Spring Street). Developed through the HERE Artist Residency Program (HARP), Science Fair marks the culmination of a residency for Hai-Ting Chinn with HARP.

Working to address a long-standing career issue in the opera world, The Dallas Opera is delighted to announce that applications are now being accepted for a unique residential program designed to provide training and career support for distinctively talented women conductors: The Linda and Mitch Hart Institute for Women Conductors at The Dallas Opera. 

Having just accepted the 2016 Musical America Ensemble of the Year award, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP) continues its 20th anniversary season with a one-night-only concert celebrating Bach's Brandenburg Concertos. BMOP will perform the 'New Brandenburgs,' six works commissioned as companion pieces to Bach's six original Brandenburg Concertos as a result of a four-year project by the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. The program includes the Boston premieres of Brandenburg Gate (inspired by Brandenburg No. 2) by Paul Moravec, Muse (inspired by Brandenburg No. 3) by Christopher Theofanidis, Little Moonhead (inspired by Brandenburg No. 4) by Melinda Wagner, Sea Orpheus (inspired by Brandenburg No. 5) by Peter Maxwell Davies, and Concerto with Echoes (inspired by Brandenburg No. 6) by Aaron Jay Kernis, as well as a performance of A Brandenburg Autumn (inspired by Brandenburg No. 1) by Stephen Hartke.

Boston, MA — Having just accepted the 2016 Musical America Ensemble of the Year award, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP) continues its 20th anniversary season with a one-night-only concert celebrating Bach's Brandenburg Concertos. BMOP will perform the “New Brandenburgs,” six works commissioned as companion pieces to Bach's six original Brandenburg Concertos as a result of a four-year project by the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. The program includes the Boston premieres of Brandenburg Gate (inspired by Brandenburg No. 2) by Paul Moravec, Muse (inspired by Brandenburg No. 3) by Christopher Theofanidis, Little Moonhead (inspired by Brandenburg No. 4) by Melinda Wagner, Sea Orpheus (inspired by Brandenburg No. 5) by Peter Maxwell Davies, and Concerto with Echoes (inspired by Brandenburg No. 6) by Aaron Jay Kernis, as well as a performance of A Brandenburg Autumn (inspired by Brandenburg No. 1) by Stephen Hartke.

St. Ann's Warehouse will continue the inaugural season in its new waterfront theater with the American Premiere of Irish composer Donnacha Dennehy and writer-director Enda Walsh's thrilling new opera The Last Hotel, in a Landmark Productions / Wide Open Opera production. Singers Claudia Boyle, Robin Adams and Katherine Manley, actor Mikel Murfi, and an ensemble of New York's finest contemporary players, conducted alternately by André de Ridder and Alan Pierson, will deliver this “searingly powerful new chamber work” (The Guardian). Presented by St. Ann's Warehouse and co-presented withPROTOTYPE: Opera/Theatre/Now andIrish Arts Center, The Last Hotel comes to New York after tremendously acclaimed engagements at the Edinburgh International Festival, the Dublin Theatre Festival and the Royal Opera House in London.

Having just accepted the 2016 Musical America Ensemble of the Year award, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP) continues its 20th anniversary season with a one-night-only concert celebrating Bach's Brandenburg Concertos. BMOP will perform the "New Brandenburgs," six works commissioned as companion pieces to Bach's six original Brandenburg Concertos as a result of a four-year project by the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. The program includes the Boston premieres of Brandenburg Gate (inspired by Brandenburg No. 2) by Paul Moravec, Muse (inspired by Brandenburg No. 3) by Christopher Theofanidis, Little Moonhead (inspired by Brandenburg No. 4) by Melinda Wagner, Sea Orpheus (inspired by Brandenburg No. 5) by Peter Maxwell Davies, and Concerto with Echoes (inspired by Brandenburg No. 6) by Aaron Jay Kernis, as well as a performance of A Brandenburg Autumn (inspired by Brandenburg No. 1) by Stephen Hartke.

San Francisco, CA, December 18, 2015 – San Francisco's Opera Parallèle (OP) has announced its first main stage opera commission, the creation of a new opera by American composer Laura Kaminsky inspired by the life of Georgia O'Keeffe at the time she left New York to embark on her iconic and influential experiences in New Mexico. The company has been awarded a prestigious Repertoire Development Grant from Opera America in the amount of $35,000 to support the work's initial stages of creation and workshopping, and is set for an April 2019 premiere. The opera will feature a libretto by Mark Campbell and Kimberly Reed. The production team will be led by Opera Parallèle Creative Director Brian Staufenbiel, will be conducted by OP Artistic Director and founder Nicole Paiement and will feature a cast of ten, details will be announced. The production is being undertaken by Opera Parallèle in consortium with American Opera Projects and Cornish College of the Arts, and all three co-commissioners will present performances and other activities to be announced. For more information about Opera Parallèle, visit www.operaparallele.org 

Boston, MA — Having just accepted the 2016 Musical America Ensemble of the Year award, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP) continues its 20th anniversary season with a one-night-only concert celebrating Bach's Brandenburg Concertos. BMOP will perform the “New Brandenburgs,” six works commissioned as companion pieces to Bach's six original Brandenburg Concertos as a result of a four-year project by the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. The program includes the Boston premieres of Brandenburg Gate (inspired by Brandenburg No. 2) by Paul Moravec, Muse (inspired by Brandenburg No. 3) by Christopher Theofanidis, Little Moonhead (inspired by Brandenburg No. 4) by Melinda Wagner, Sea Orpheus (inspired by Brandenburg No. 5) by Peter Maxwell Davies, and Concerto with Echoes (inspired by Brandenburg No. 6) by Aaron Jay Kernis, as well as a performance of A Brandenburg Autumn (inspired by Brandenburg No. 1) by Stephen Hartke.

St. Ann's Warehouse will continue the inaugural season in its new waterfront theater with the American Premiere of Irish composer Donnacha Dennehy and writer-director Enda Walsh's thrilling new opera The Last Hotel, in a Landmark Productions / Wide Open Opera production. Singers Claudia Boyle, Robin Adams and Katherine Manley, actor Mikel Murfi, and an ensemble of New York's finest contemporary players, conducted alternately by André de Ridder and Alan Pierson, will deliver this “searingly powerful new chamber work” (The Guardian). Presented by St. Ann's Warehouse and co-presented withPROTOTYPE: Opera/Theatre/Now andIrish Arts Center, The Last Hotel comes to New York after tremendously acclaimed engagements at the Edinburgh International Festival, the Dublin Theatre Festival and the Royal Opera House in London.

This new program, The Institute for Women Conductors at The Dallas Opera, will be inaugurated today, November 28, 2015 and run through December 6, 2015, with generous support from the Richard and Enika Schulze Foundation.

San Francisco -- As part of its unique annual Hands-on-Opera education and youth performance program, Opera Parallèle (OP) will present the world premiere of Amazing Grace, by OP composer-in-residence Christopher Pratorius. Based on the children's book of the same name by Mary Hoffman and with a libretto by Opera Parallèle's Brian Staufenbiel and Roma Olvera, three free performances will be presented this weekend, November 12 & 14, at the African American Art & Culture Complex in San Francisco.