Richard Tucker News

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and Artistic Advisor at Large Renee Fleming today announce the schedule of performances for the 2018-2019 Renee Fleming VOICES series, marking its third season celebrating the power of the voice across a wide range of genres.

The Richard Tucker Music Foundation announced today that Christian Van Horn – “one of those treasurable singers in whose presence one can entirely relax, assured that everything he does will be delivered with solid interpretive insight and unfailingly attractive tone” (Opera News) – has been named as the winner of the 2018 Richard Tucker Award.

The Dallas Opera is proud to present an afternoon of magnificent orchestral works and one of the most gifted pianists in classical music today.  American pianist Andrew von Oeyen and The Dallas Opera Orchestra will perform a genuinely exciting twentieth-century masterworks: Sergei Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor.

Des Moines Metro Opera (DMMO) announces an exciting concert and reception featuring internationally acclaimed countertenor John Holiday on Sunday, April 8 at 7:00pm. Featuring an eclectic mix of opera, jazz and gospel selections, the concert will be held in the sanctuary at Plymouth Church in Des Moines. Scott Arens, DMMO's director of marketing and public relations, will be joining Mr. Holiday at the piano for the performance.

The New York Choral Society (NYCHORAL) will hold its annual Spring Gala at New York's Metropolitan Club (1 E 60th St, New York, NY 10022) on Thursday evening, April 5, 2018, starting at 6:00 pm. The organization will honor renowned opera singer and recitalist Stephanie Blythe with the NYCHORAL Music Excellence Award for her contributions to the musical profession, as well as Sylvia R. Hoisington who is celebrating her 50th season with the chorus. Produced in partnership with the Richard Tucker Music Foundation, the evening's showcase performance will feature soprano Amanda Majeski and tenor Ben Bliss, both of whom will be participating in the Metropolitan Opera's production of Cosi fan tutte from March 15 to April 9, 2018. Members of the NYCHORAL Chamber Ensemble will also perform. The evening will feature a silent auction of unique items and experiences. The program is as follows:

The New York Choral Society (NYCHORAL) will hold its annual Spring Gala at New York's Metropolitan Club (1 E 60th St, New York, NY 10022) on Thursday evening, April 5, 2018, starting at 6:00 pm.

National Chorale, New York's premier professional choral company under the Artistic Direction of Everett McCorvey, continues its 2017-2018 Season at Lincoln Center with the New York Premiere of Angela Rice's Thy Will Be Done on Friday, March 16, 2018 at 8pm at the David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, 10 Lincoln Center Plaza, NYC. Tickets are $30-100 and are available at www.nationalchorale.com or by calling (212) 333-5333.

Houston Grand Opera (HGO) has chosen the finalists for the 30th annual Eleanor McCollum Competition for Young Singers Concert of Arias, to be presented in the Stude Concert Hall at Rice University on February 1 at 7 p.m. A limited number of general admission tickets for the performance are available here. For the second time, the program will also be streamed live on Facebook, as well as on YouTube. The livestream will be hosted this year by award-winning soprano Tamara Wilson. Viewers will be invited to cast their votes for an Online Viewers' Choice Award.

In celebration of the GRAMMY Awards coming to New York for the first time in 15 years and to honor Leonard Bernstein's 100th anniversary, the Recording Academy in association with CAMI Music, announced today the complete lineup for the GRAMMY Salute To Classical Music . This special event is to be held at Carnegie Hall's Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage on the afternoon of January 26th, 2018 at 2:30PM. Hosted by world-famous pianist Lang Lang, the concert celebrates the life and legacy of composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein and will feature artists across a spectrum of genres. The lineup includes GRAMMY Award winning soprano Isabel Leonard, GRAMMY nominated R&B singer Ledisi, classically-trained string trio Time for Three, Los Angeles-based R&B artist Kiana Led and acclaimed Spanish guitarist Pablo S inz Villegas. (Ren e Fleming, who was previously announced, will no longer be performing due to scheduling conflicts.) For more information, please visit carnegiehall.org, CarnegieCharge 212-247-7800 or the Box Office at 57th and 7th Avenue.

Houston Grand Opera (HGO) will present its 2018-19 season in its creative home at Houston's Wortham Theater Center after a year of displacement due to damage to the building from Hurricane Harvey. The 64th season will open October 19, 2018, with HGO's first performances in 20 years of Wagner's romantic ghost story The Flying Dutchman, in a new production featuring baritoneAndrzej Dobber as the Dutchman and the role debut of award-winning American soprano and HGO Studio alumna Rachel Willis-S rensen as Senta. To close the season, the new Kasper Holten production of Mozart's Don Giovanni featuring the HGO debut of baritone Philippe Sly in the title role and the role debut of soprano Ailyn P rez as Donna Anna will be presented in repertory with The Phoenix, a world premiere about the colorful life of Lorenzo da Ponte, Mozart's librettist for the masterful Don Giovanni, The Marriage of Figaro, and Cos fan tutte. The new work, written by composer Tarik O'Regan and librettist John Caird, will star renowned baritone Thomas Hampson as Lorenzo da Ponte in a belated HGO debut and bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni as Da Ponte's son, Lorenzo. HGO will also present a revival of Daniel Cat n's ethereal Florencia en el Amazonas with internationally acclaimed soprano and HGO Studio alumna Ana Mar a Mart nez in the title role; the first HGO presentation of Bizet's The Pearl Fishers with the stellar tenor and baritone pairing of Lawrence Brownlee and Mariusz Kwiecien in the title roles along with soprano Andrea Carroll; and the return of HGO's 2012 production of Puccini's perennial classic La boh me, featuring the role debut of soprano and HGO Studio alumna Nicole Heaston as Mim .

Houston Grand Opera (HGO) has chosen the semifinalists for the 30th annual Eleanor McCollum Competition for Young Singers Concert of Arias, to be presented in the Stude Concert Hall at Rice University on February 1, at 7 p.m. A limited number of general admission tickets for the performance are available here. For the second time, the program will also be streamed live on Facebook, as well as on YouTube. The livestream will be hosted this year by award-winning soprano Tamara Wilson. Viewers will be invited to cast their votes for an Online Viewers' Choice Award.

Houston Grand Opera (HGO) has chosen the semifinalists for the 30th annual Eleanor McCollum Competition for Young Singers Concert of Arias, to be presented in the Stude Concert Hall at Rice University on February 1, at 7 p.m. A limited number of general admission tickets for the performance are available here. For the second time, the program will also be streamed live on Facebook, as well as on YouTube. The livestream will be hosted this year by award-winning soprano Tamara Wilson. Viewers will be invited to cast their votes for an Online Viewers' Choice Award.

Canadian-American soprano Erin Wall has withdrawn from Faust at Lyric Opera of Chicago to undergo chemotherapy, Anthony Freud, Lyric's general director, president & CEO, announced today. Freud added that her doctors expect a full recovery within a few months, according to her manager. Everyone at Lyric wishes Erin all the best and looks forward to welcoming her back in future seasons. An alumna of Lyric's Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center program (2001-04) with a major international career, Wall has portrayed Marguerite/Faust, Donna Anna/Don Giovanni, Pamina/The Magic Flute, Fiordiligi/Cos fan tutte, Helena/A Midsummer Night's Dream, Konstanze/Die Entf hrung auf dem Serail, and Antonia/Les Contes d'Hoffmann at Lyric.

A sizzling blend of domestic comedy and romance, symphonic music and opera, thrilling virtuosity and extraordinary artistry, will melt the icy grip of winter this February as The Dallas Opera presents a once-in-a-lifetime pairing: Erich Wolfgang Korngold's rarely performed 1916 opera, The Ring of Polykrates, preceded by the composer's famous Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35 that premiered nearly three decades later in 1945.

Jamie Barton, mezzo-soprano and Kathleen Kelly, piano comes to The Kentucky Center Bomhard Theater on Sunday, January 28, 2018 at 3 p.m. Tickets are $25. Kentucky Center Members call the member hotline at (502) 566-5144. Standard tickets are available at www.kentuckycenter.org/presents, by phone (502) 584-7777, (800) 775-7777, and in-person at The Kentucky Center box office and drive-thru. Please call (502) 566-5111 for information about the range of accessibility options we offer to enhance your performance experience.

The New York Choral Society (NYCHORAL), under the baton of music director David Hayes, will appear at Carnegie Hall's Stern Auditorium (881 7th Ave, New York, NY 10019) with Where Even the Sea Sings, Sunday afternoon, February 11, 2018, at 3 pm. This program juxtaposes three composers of very different backgrounds and styles, inspired by a shared commonality in theme: the grandeur of the 'sea.'

Houston Grand Opera ( HGO ) presents Richard Strauss's chilling one - act drama, Elektra, January 19 February 2, the first HGO performances in 25 years. The Sir David McVicar production stars internationally acclaimed soprano Christine Goerke, who owns the title role as one of the most fearless and formidable dramatic sopranos of the day ( New York Times ).

Music Director Designate Jaap van Zweden will conduct the New York Philharmonic in a program pairing the New York Premiere of Pulitzer Prize winner John Luther Adams's Dark Waves with Act I of Wagner's Die Walk re (in concert), with soprano Heidi Melton as Sieglinde, tenor Simon O'Neill as Siegmund (in his New York Philharmonic debut), and bass John Relyea as Hunding.

It's just about time to wish you all a happy 2018--but I'm not quite ready to put 2017 to rest. Though it won't go into the annals as one of the best years ever, there were quite enough performances and performers that made this year a winner for me, operatically speaking at least, in my corner of the world.

It was great that the 2017 Richard Tucker Gala was heard live on WQXR.org and on WQXR radio on Sunday, but those of us who were in Carnegie Hall had it much better. This year's winner, soprano Nadine Sierra, sounded wonderful (and looked ravishing, by the way) as she whipped through Verdi's 'Caro nome' (RIGOLETTO) and 'Ah, forse lui Sempre libera'), with secure high notes and thoughtful drama, and Bernstein-Sondheim's 'Tonight' (WEST SIDE STORY), paired with tenor Vittorio Grigolo. She's a charming, extremely gifted performer.