Ravinia Festival News

Laughing Dog Media has announced Broadway star and vocal powerhouse JAMES BARBOUR'S Special Guest Artists at his Sixth Annual Holiday Concert. STEPHEN WALLEM will join Mr. Barbour on stage Saturday, December 7. MARY TESTA will join Mr. Barbour on stage Thursday, December 12.

The McAninch Arts Center (MAC), located at 425 Fawell Blvd. on the campus of College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn, is pleased to announce its 2014 Grand Opening Season's Performance Series. The series is part of the MAC's 2014 Grand Opening season, marking the opening of the venue after a 14-month, $35 million renovation. The MAC's 2014 Grand Opening Season's Performance Series officially opens on Feb. 8 with a performance by Grammy Award-winner 'Keb Mo'. Additional programming for the MAC, including the MAC's new Patio Stage summer season and the MAC's 2014-15 season, the first complete season in the newly renovated venue, will be announced in spring 2014.

English conductor Jane Glover will make her Met debut on December 16 leading the company's holiday presentation, an abridged, English-language production of Mozart's The Magic Flute, directed by Julie Taymor. The 100-minute version of Taymor's popular staging of the opera will star Alek Shrader as the brave prince Tamino; Heidi Stober as Pamina, the princess he must rescue; Eric Owens as the mysterious Sarastro; Shenyang as the Speaker; and Nathan Gunn as the hapless bird-catcher Papageno. Albina Shagimuratova and Kathryn Lewek will alternate in the role of Pamina's vindictive mother, the Queen of the Night. The Magic Flute launched the recent Met tradition of presenting a family-oriented production each holiday season, with sharply discounted tickets and two special weekday matinee performances. Scroll down for a sneak peek at the production!

Writers Theatre has announced the On To A New Stage Campaign, a $31 million fundraising campaign that will establish the nationally-recognized company's new home - a theatre center designed by Chicago's internationally renowned Studio Gang Architects, led by principal Jeanne Gang.

Dmitri Hvorostovsky sings his first Met performances of the title role in Verdi's Rigoletto beginning today, November 11, in the first revival of Michael Mayer's hit production, set in the decadent world of 1960s Las Vegas.

Boston Baroque and its Founder/Music Director, Martin Pearlman, have chosen to acknowledge a monumental moment in their history with a monument of music: Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, popularly known as the 'Choral' Symphony, which concludes with the uplifting Ode to Joy.

Bernard Labadie will return to the New York Philharmonic to conduct Mozart's Requiem; J.S. Bach's Cantata No. 51, Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen!; and Handel's 'Let the Bright Seraphim' from Samson. The program's soloists will include soprano Miah Persson, mezzo- soprano Stephanie Blythe, tenor Frederic Antoun in his Philharmonic debut, bass Andrew Foster- Williams, Philharmonic Principal Trumpet Philip Smith, and the New York Choral Artists directed by Joseph Flummerfelt. The concerts will take place tonight, November 7, 2013, at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, November 8 at 8:00 p.m.; and Saturday, November 9 at 8:00 p.m.

The Chicago Humanities Festival (CHF) announced casting today for two theatrical productions in November: White Rabbit, Red Rabbit, the Iranian absurdist play about isolation co-presented with the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA), running today, Nov. 3-9, 2013, and Birds Do It, Bees Do It..., the annual cabaret performance Nov. 5, 2013, created by Rob Lindley and Doug Peck.

Natya Dance Theatre, Chicago's critically-acclaimed and longest running Dance Company rooted in the Indian dance-theater technique of Bharata Natyam, returns to the Harris Theater with the World Premiere of The Seventh Love, an exploration of love in eastern teachings based on the life of the god Krishna. The Seventh Love is conceived by Natya Associate Artistic Director Krithika Rajagopalan in collaboration with David Kersnar, a founding member of Chicago's Tony Award-winning Lookingglass Theatre, and is written and directed by Kersnar and choreographed by Natya Founder and Artistic Director Hema Rajagopalan. Natya presents The Seventh Love in one performance only at the Harris Theater, 205 E. Randolph Street, tonight, November 2 at 7:30 pm.

The 2013 Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition culminated last night, Wednesday evening, October 23, 2013 with the announcement of three winners of the annual international CAG Competition: the Donald Sinta Quartet, an American saxophone foursome; American violinist Alexi Kenney; and Korean pianist Ko-Eun Lee. All three join the CAG artist roster and receive two-year management contracts.

Dmitri Hvorostovsky will sing his first Met performances of the title role in Verdi's Rigolettobeginning November 11, in the first revival of Michael Mayer's hit production, set in the decadent world of 1960s Las Vegas. Matthew Polenzani makes his company role debut as the womanizing Duke, and two rising singers make Met debuts as the innocent Gilda: Russian soprano Irina Lungu and Bulgarian soprano Sonya Yoncheva. Spanish conductor Pablo Heras-Casado makes his Met debut leading the revival. The December 7 matinee performance will be broadcast live over the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network to inaugurate the 83rd season of the popular Saturday broadcast series.

The Juilliard String Quartet concert tonight, October 26th will offer up a few 'firsts' for concert-goers to Chamber Music Monterey Bay's (CMMB) 47th season opener. The season marks the inaugural one for the Quartet's new violist Roger Tapping who replaces longtime violist Samuel Rhodes. Rhodes performed his farewell concert with the Quartet at July's Ravinia Festival in Illinois. Another 'first' will be the West Coast premiere of Jesse Jones' commissioned work for the Juilliard: String Quartet No. 3, 'Whereof man cannot speak...' Rounding out the program will be Haydn and Beethoven.

Denver, Colo. (Oct. 24, 2013) - Central City Opera's (CCO) General/Artistic Director, Pelham (Pat) G. Pearce, is pleased to announce that Michael Ehrman has been named as director and administrator of the company's nationally recognizedBonfils-Stanton Foundation Artists Training Program.

CHICAGO—The Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association (CSOA) released its fiscal year 2013 results at its Annual Meeting today at Symphony Center. The 2012/13 season marked the CSOA's third consecutive year of record-breaking fundraising, with ticket sales at an all-time high, according to Jay Henderson, chairman, and Deborah F. Rutter, president of the CSOA, who also presented the artistic and financial highlights of the season.

Laura Benanti - the Tony Award-winning actress and singer, also known for her TV roles on 'Go On,' 'The Playboy Club' and 'Law & Order: SVU' - will follow the recent release of her debut album, In Constant Search of the Right Kind of Attention with a slate of projects through the next year.

Boston Baroque has announced its New Directions Series for 2013 - 2014 Season, featuring two chamber concerts at Longy School of Music today, October 19, 2013 and Saturday, March 29, 2014: TIME CURVES and MONOLOGUES.

CABRILLO MUSIC THEATRE welcomes Davis Gaines (Southern California's Longest-running PHANTOM) and Victoria Strong in the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza premiere of Cole Porter's most raucous, sexy, and best loved musical ever, KISS ME, KATE! Cabrillo Music Theatre's 20th Anniversary Season kicks off with the popular favorite tonight, October 18th, 2013, playing until Sunday, October 27th, at the 1,800-seat Kavli Theatre at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, located at 2100 Thousand Oaks Boulevard in Thousand Oaks.