Ravinia Festival News

The Neighborhood Classics concert series at public schools in New York continues with a performance by the Cypress String Quartet.

Northlight Theatre, under the direction of Artistic Director BJ Jones and Executive Director Timothy J. Evans, presents [title of show] with music and lyric by Jeff Bowen and the book by Hunter Bell, directed by Peter Amster. The production runs May 4 - June 10, 2012 at Northlight Theatre, 9501 Skokie Blvd. The press opening is on Friday, May 11, 2012. Tickets for [title of show],$25-60, are available by phone at 847.673.6300, or online at northlight.org. Young Adult tickets (25 and under) are $10 (one per person with valid ID).

On Sunday, May 20 and Monday, May 21, 2012 at 8pm American Opera Projects (AOP) will present COMPOSERS & THE VOICE: FIRST GLIMPSE 2012, the first public presentation of compositions developed during this season's Composers & the Voice program. Audiences will hear songs written by five emerging composers - Sidney Marquez Boquiren, Mikael Karlsson, Robert Paterson, Rachel Peters, and Ronnie Reshef - and one composer/librettist team, Zach Redler and Sara Cooper, who were chosen by AOP to spend a year creating new works focusing on the operatic voice. The performances will be held at South Oxford Space in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, the home of AOP. Tickets are $15 general admission, $10 for students/seniors and are available at www.operaprojects.org.

Mat Kearney continues his nonstop touring in support of his latest album Young Love with a new tour supporting pop-rock kings Train, kicking off July 26th in Charlotte, NC.

The internationally acclaimed Chinese pianist Lang Lang has chosen the Civic Opera House, home to Lyric Opera of Chicago, for his only Chicago-area concert in 2012.

The Tony Award-winning Signature Theatre will honor esteemed stage actress Patti LuPone with the company's third Stephen Sondheim Award. The award, established in 2009 in honor of America's most influential contemporary musical theater writer and composer, will be presented at a black-tie Gala Benefit on April 16, 2012 at the Embassy of Italy in Washington, DC. Signature Theatre Artistic Director Eric Schaeffer said, 'I am thrilled that Patti LuPone will be this year's recipient of the Stephen Sondheim Award. With her wonderful performances in Gypsy, Sweeney Todd, Company, Passion, and more - she has had an amazing connection to Steve's words and music. It's wonderful to add her name to the distinguished honorees Angela Lansbury and Bernadette Peters. We look forward to saluting Patti and her extraordinary talents in April.'

The Richard Tucker Music Foundation today announced that lyric soprano Ailyn Pérez is the winner of the 2012 Richard Tucker Award.

The Daily Mail UK reports that Julian Ovenden will star in a musical version of the film Finding Neverland, which starred Johhny Depp and Kate Winslet and followed the the story of J.M. Barrie's inspiration for his famous children's book, Peter Pan.

Bailiwick Chicago's Executive Director, Brian LaDuca, announced today that Lili-Anne Brown has been named their new Artistic Director.

Ravinia Festival today announces newly added artists to the festival's 2012 season line-up including debuts by Andy Grammer on June 29; Macy Gray on July 22; Demi Lovato on Aug. 4; Mat Kearney on Aug. 11 and 12; Anita Baker on Aug. 25; and Steve Earle on Aug. 26. Returning favorites include Huey Lewis and The News and Joe Cocker on Aug. 10; Lyle Lovett and His Large Band on Aug. 24; John Hiatt & Combo on Aug. 26; and Daryl Hall & John Oates on Sept. 1. Tickets are available now with a Ravinia donation; see Ravinia.org for more details. Public ticket online sales begin on April 26.

With a career spanning over two decades and accolades as "one of the greatest contemporary solo voices of our time," Linda Eder brings her one-woman show to The Cabaret.

Symphony Space's Gertrude Stein's Paris, a month-long, multi-disciplinary festival devoted to the vibrant cultural milieu of Gertrude Stein's Paris, continues on Friday, April 27 with two fully staged productions devoted to the inspiration Stein's work had on vocal and operatic repertoire. Encompass New Opera Theatre will present two one-act operas based on texts by Stein, Virgil Thomson's Capital Capitals and Ned Rorem's Three Sisters Who Are Not Sisters.

Symphony Space's Gertrude Stein's Paris, a month-long, multi-disciplinary festival devoted to the vibrant cultural milieu of Gertrude Stein's Paris, continues on Friday, April 27 with two fully staged productions devoted to the inspiration Stein's work had on vocal and operatic repertoire. Encompass New Opera Theatre will present two one-act operas based on texts by Stein, Virgil Thomson's Capital Capitals and Ned Rorem's Three Sisters Who Are Not Sisters. Directed by Nancy Rhodes, this salute to Stein's work through American opera is a fresh examination of the influence Stein has had throughout the arts.

Patti LuPone won her second Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical, as well Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards, for her performance as Rose in the most recent Broadway production of Gypsy, and created the title role in Evita on Broadway with her now legendary performance, for which she won her first Tony and Drama Desk Awards. On July 4th and 5th she will make her Provincetown debut at The Art House, with Sirius/Radio star Seth Rudetsky at the piano, for 3 shows only. The Art House is thrilled to welcome this Broadway legend to Provincetown this summer, when she opens the Broadway at the Art House series which will feature 10 different artists including Betty Buckley, Charles Busch, Ana Gasteyer, and Marilyn Maye among others, from July 4 - September 23. For tickets please visit www.ptownarthouse.com or call 508-487-9222.

Court Theatre Artistic Director Charles Newell and Executive Director Stephen J. Albert present Tony Kushner's Tony Award-winning Angels in America, Part One: Millennium Approaches and Part Two: Perestroika, directed by Artistic Director Charles Newell. Angels in America will run March 30 - June 3, 2012 at Court Theatre, 5535 S. Ellis Avenue. Press Opening is Saturday, April 14, 2012; Part One: Millennium Approaches at 3PM and Part Two: Perestroika at 8PM.

The Neighborhood Classics concert series at public schools in New York continues with a performance by the Cypress String Quartet.

The Pasadena Playhouse (Sheldon Epps, Artistic Director and Charles Dillingham, interim Executive Director), in association with Stephen Eich announced that Hershey Felder will return to The Pasadena Playhouse with the World Premiere of the Eighty-Eight Entertainment and Samantha F. Voxakis production of LINCOLN - AN AMERICAN STORY for Actor and Symphony Orchestra.

Crosby, Stills & Nash (CSN) announced an extensive U.S. summer tour today, beginning in early June and continuing through the end of September. The CSN U.S. Summer Tour stops in Providence at the Providence Performing Arts Center (PPAC) on Friday, June 15, 2012 at 8P.

The Metropolitan Opera today announced the winners of the 2012 National Council Auditions. They are: Janai Brugger, soprano from Darien, IL; Anthony Clark Evans, baritone from Owensboro, KY; Matthew Grills, tenor from Newtown, CT; Margaret Mezzacappa, mezzo-soprano from Euclid, OH; and Andrey Nemzer, countertenor from Moscow, Russia. The winners were selected from nine finalists who performed arias with the MET Orchestra, conducted by Andrew Davis. Each winner receives a cash prize of $15,000, as well as invaluable career exposure: the audience for the auditions includes influential opera executives, artist managers, and music critics, and some of the biggest stars in opera received their first major recognition as National Council Winners. The Grand Finals Concert was hosted by renowned bass-baritone Eric Owens, a 1996 National Council Auditions winner. During the judges' deliberations, he gave a special performance of "Ella giammai m'amo," King Philip's aria from Verdi's Don Carlo.