Philip Glass News

'For 20 years, Diavolo has been Los Angeles' wild child, a company of daredevil dancers leaping and cavorting on pitching wheels, Goliath walls and other playground equipment from a super-size Wonderland' (Los Angeles Times).

Casting is complete for the New York City Center Encores! production of Frank Loesser's The Most Happy Fella, running for seven performances, April 2 - 6, 2014.

I went to see a program with Ariel Rivka's Book of Esther at the Ailey Citigroup as the dance centerpiece and emerged from the performance with admiration for the world premiere of Take...Taken...Taking, by Alan Obuzor, named by Dance Magazine as one of the 25 choreographers of 2013 to watch, and watch I did.

The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center at the CUNY Graduate Center has announced its SPRING 2014 season of public programs. The season includes the Center's inaugural PEN World Voices International Play Festival, featuring 9 free readings of plays from around the globe, including HAITI, JAPAN, TUNISIA, CHILE, POLAND, AUSTRALIA, SINGAPORE, AUSTRIA and INDIA. The season also features 11 free public programs throughout the spring, featuring contemporary theatre and performing artists from around the world.

As they continue a successful and varied 25th anniversary season, Music Director and Conductor Michael Morgan and the Oakland East Bay Symphony present the latest world-wandering chapter in their innovative and popular series exploring symphonic music from various world cultures with Notes from India Friday, March 28, at 8 pm at the Paramount Theatre in Oakland. The program will include the world premiere of Where Shadow Chases Light, a new work by young Indian composer Juhi Bansal in her Oakland East Bay Symphony debut, commissioned as part of the Symphony's New Visions/New Vistas Commissioning Project, supported by a grant from The James Irvine Foundation. The evening will also feature sitar soloistStephen Slawek performing Ravi Shankar's Concert No. 1 for Sitar and Orchestra, excerpts from Philip Glass and Ravi Shankar's Passages and Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 in A Major, Op. 92. A pre-concert talk by John Kendall Bailey and Juhi Bansal will take place at 7pm and concert is sponsored in part by Mueller Nicholls Builders. For information, visit www.oebs.org .

Acclaimed new-classic string quartet, ETHEL, and groundbreaking guitarist KAKI KING, today announced a multi-city national tour of their debut collaborative concert "...And Other Stories." These prolific non-conformists celebrate their disparate sound worlds in an epic strings/guitar exchange filled with brilliant instrumental flair, rich sonic adventures and flights of fantastic storytelling.

Boston Ballet Artistic Director Mikko Nissinen today announced the programming for the 2014-2015 season at the Boston Opera House. Boston Ballet's 51st season kicks off with the world premiere of Mikko Nissinen's Swan Lake, featuring glorious new sets and costumes by award winning designer Robert Perdziola. The season continues with the beloved new production of Nissinen's The Nutcracker and Val Caniparoli's romantic drama Lady of the Camellias. The spring season heats up with a burst of contemporary and neo-classical choreography from masters such as William Forsythe, Jerome Robbins, Helen Pickett, and Wayne McGregor, including the Company premieres of George Balanchine's Episodes and Hans van Manen's Black Cake. Adding to the excitement, Boston Ballet will present world premieres by Resident Choreographer Jorma Elo and Principal Dancer Jeffrey Cirio.

Skylight Music Theatre performs Hydrogen Jukebox, the eclectic and fascinating result of collaboration in the late 1980s between composer Philip Glass and beat poet Allen Ginsberg. The production runs March 14 through March 30 in the Cabot Theatre at the Broadway Theatre Center (158 N. Broadway, Milwaukee WI).

The S.E.M. Ensemble, under the direction of Petr Kotik, presents three concerts celebrating composer Christian Wolff's 80th birthday and his unique contribution to the Ostrava Days Institute and Festival. Mostly self-taught and working along such figures as John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Morton Feldman and Frederic Rzewski, Christian Wolff made an important mark on the music of our time. Since Ostrava Days' inception in 2001, Wolff has participated in all but one of the festivals, and some of his most ambitious orchestral works were composed for or performed there. Selected by Artforum as one of the Best of 2013 in Music, Ostrava Days is one of the largest international summer new-music events, combining a three-week institute with a 10-day, 17-event festival and focusing on music for large ensembles. It includes 35 resident-students from around the world, two resident orchestras, and resident composers and musicians who participate in public performances. Besides Christian Wolff, Ostrava Days 2013 included, among others, Philip Glass, Peter Ablinger, Bernhard Lang, Petr Kotik, Carola Bauckholt, Jon Gibson, Charlemagne Palestine, and Petr Cigler.

Performance Space 122, an East Village contemporary performance hub, announces the co-chairs of their Give Performance Space campaign, which coincides with the renovation of their over 30-year home at 150 1st Avenue. Give Performance Space is a capacity campaign to launch Performance Space 122's growth as an organization with the goal of better serving the artists and audiences of New York City. The co-chairs are acclaimed actor, photographer and activist Alan Cumming; producer, writer and director Stella Schnabel and PS122 Board Vice President Charles L. Kerr, partner at international law office Morrison & Foerster.

Symphony Space's The Music of Now Series comes to a close for 2014 with a pair of stimulating and imaginative concerts. Changing Night pairs jazz/hip-hop trio Mighty Third Rail with the classical ensemble PUBLIQuartet in a presentation inspired by the Garden of Eden story, Thursday, March 20 (7:30 pm). Guitar, Guitar, Guitar brings together eight leading guitarists - two soloists, a duo, and a quartet - to play music by Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Ingram Marshall, and guitarist David Leisner, Thursday, March 27 (7:30 pm).

Take eight one-act plays, add 13 versatile student actors, and you have the recipe for a great evening of fun and laughter when CCBC Catonsville Academic Theatre performs playwright David Ives' collection of short, comic plays produced as 'All in the Timing.' The plays will be presented at 8 p.m. March 14 and 15, 3 p.m. March 16, 10 a.m. March 17 and 1 p.m. March 18 in the Center for the Arts at CCBC Catonsville, 800 S. Rolling Road. Tickets are $8 general admission and $5 for seniors, students, faculty, staff and alumni. For tickets and information, call the CCBC Box Office at 443-840-ARTS (2787).

The critical response to Houston's American premiere production of The Passenger was overwhelming. Classical Voice America proclaimed the opera “a masterpiece,” and the Chicago Tribune found it an “engrossing, thought-provoking experience” that “deserves [a place] in the regular repertory.” Houston's production impressed the Houston Chronicle as one “that unites commanding performances and vivid, fast-paced staging,” while the Wall Street Journalcommended the way “conductor Patrick Summers shaped the evening with enormous care.” As for the performers, “top to bottom, the cast is excellent,” asserted the Dallas Morning News. Melody Moore “gave Marta's anguish lyricism and strength” (Wall Street Journal), “Michelle Breedt's instrument seemed ideally suited to the role of Liese” (Classical Voice America), and “Kelly Kaduce was mesmerizing” as Katya (Wall Street Journal). The Toronto Star concluded:

DAWN LANDES will celebrate her BLUEBIRD CD release at Joe's Pub tonight, February 26 at 9:30PM.

Jacaranda's next concert, on March 8 at 8:00 p.m., will be held at UCLA's Schoenberg Hall, which is waiving admission to honor Jacaranda's 10th anniversary. Jacaranda's inaugural season featured an adventurous young string quartet known as Denali, which played with the series until 2010. Denali was succeeded by Lyris as quartet in residence. This free 'Continental Harmony' concert will be entirely devoted to the Lyris Quartet, playing 20th-century American string quartet repertoire spanning 80 years. For the occasion, Lyris will open with their debut performance of the String Quartet No. 2 by Charles Ives (1911-13), followed by a Jacaranda signature work from 1973, String Quartet No. 4, 'Amazing Grace,' by Ben Johnston. String Quartet No. 5 by Philip Glass (1991), a Lyris specialty, will be followed with String Quartet No. 3 by Erich Wolfgang Korngold.

To celebrate the release of Bryce Dessner's new album Ensemble LPR will perform at Le Poisson Rouge on March 7, with Andre de Ridder conducting.

MATA Festival turns sixteen with its largest and most ambitious installment yet: seven days of musical discovery, Monday, April 14 to Monday, April 21. Curated by Outgoing Artistic Director Yotam Haber, MATA Festival 2014 includes works by 34 composers from seventeen countries, all under 40 when they applied. They were chosen from more than 650 applicants, representing 64 countries.

This week at Joe's Pub at The Public, February 24-March 5, will feature: Fly: A Musical Tribute to Damon Intrabartolo, The Return of Radiant Baby, Stephanie McKay, Bridget Everett, Dom La Nena & Piers Faccini, Dawn Landes, Greg Laswell, Henry Wagons, The Hot Sardines, Ramya Ramana, The Greg Proops Chat Show, Schoolhouse Rock, Murray Hill Oscars Party, Kelly Joe Phelps, Shirve Alive, Queen of the Beatniks, Gia Mora & Einstein's Girl, Juan Perro and the Employee of the Month Show. Details belo

For DIRECTOR'S CHOICE, the fourth program of Pacific Northwest Ballet's 2013-2014 season, Artistic Director Peter Boal selects from his roster of acquisitions and increases them by one: The captivating mixed-bill program will feature a much-anticipated world premiere by Alejandro Cerrudo, resident choreographer of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. The program also reprises audience favorites TAKE FIVE…More or Less, Broadway-darling Susan Stroman's sunny slice of jazz-infused Dave Brubeck fun; and Susan Marshall's distinctive aerial duet, Kiss. Rounding out the lineup is Molissa Fenley's State of Darkness, a tour-de-force solo performance set to Stravinsky's riot-inducing The Rite of Spring. DIRECTOR'S CHOICE runs for seven performances only, March 14 through 23 at Seattle Center's Marion Oliver McCaw Hall. Tickets start at just $28 and may be purchased by calling the PNB Box Office at 206.441.2424, online at PNB.org, or in person at the PNB Box Office, 301 Mercer Street.

Theme: Moliere's 'Misanthrope.' Variations: 'The School for Lies.'