Samuel Barber News

The California Symphony today announced its 2017-18 season, its thirty-first, and its fifth with Music Director Donato Cabrera. The season includes a world premiere and a West Coast premiere, first performances of Mozart's Requiem and Sibelius's Third Symphony, the first performances in more than 20 years of Beethoven's Symphony No. 6, Pastoral, and Mahler's Symphony No. 4, the first performance of a work of Mahler's since the Orchestra's 1997-98 season. The Orchestra also welcomes guest soloists Haochen Zhang in Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 2; soprano Maria Valdes in Barber's Knoxville: Summer of 1915 and in Mahler's Symphony No. 4; and Bruch's Violin Concerto No. 1 with Alexi Kenney. The Orchestra gives the world premiere of new Young American Composer-in-Residence Katherine Balch's newest work, a California Symphony commission; and performs two works by Bay Area-based composer Nathaniel Stookey: the West Coast premiere of YTTE (Yield to Total Elation), and The Composer is Dead, the popular orchestral whodunit by Stookey and author Lemony Snicket, with Broadway star Manoel Felciano as narrator. Other highlights include performances with the San Francisco Conservatory Chorus and conductor Ragnar Bohlin of Vaughan Williams' Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis and Arvo Pärt's Te Deum, as part of the Mozart Requiem concert, and a performance of Smetana's Vltava (Die Moldau).

After a lavishly praised star turn in Washington National Opera's revival of Dead Man Walking this winter, Grammy Award-winning mezzo-soprano Susan Graham turns to a U.S. tour in April of her equally successful and wide-ranging recital program, “Frauenliebe und -leben: Variations,” inspired by and centered on Schumann's iconic song cycle, with longtime recital partner Malcolm Martineau. She also joins a cast of the world's greatest opera luminaries to celebrate the Metropolitan Opera House's 50 Years at Lincoln Center in an Anniversary Gala; performs selections from Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn with the Met Orchestra and Esa-Pekka Salonen in Carnegie Hall; and sings Berlioz's La mort de Cléopâtre, a staple of her signature French repertoire, with the San Antonio Symphony.

A new season of The History of the World in 100 Performances with Adam Gopnik  begins on Monday, April 3, at the David Rubenstein Atrium, with a look at the triumphant 1966 performance by Leontyne Price in the title role in the world premiere of Antony and Cleopatra, the opera by Samuel Barber commissioned for the opening of the Metropolitan Opera's new home at Lincoln Center.

This year marks the beginning of the 80th season for the Canton Symphony Orchestra.  For our 2017-2018 season, we plan to bring concerts full of color and life to the audience.  This season brings back favorite guests of seasons past, and features some of our own musicians soloing with the orchestra.  Some concerts include favorite standards in the classical repertoire, and others expose concert-goers to new music or lesser-known masterpieces for the orchestra.  We hope to see you at our concerts, and maybe even become a subscriber to the Canton Symphony Orchestra!

Soprano Amber Wagner, a 2010 George London Award Winner, and baritone Reginald Smith, Jr., who won his George London Award in 2015, make their New York recital debuts at the final program in the George London Foundation Recital Series, and the final event in the foundation's season, on Sunday, April 2, 2017, at 4:00 pm. Alan Darling is the recital's pianist; a reception with the artists follows the concert.

American Composers Orchestra (ACO), under the leadership of Artistic Director Derek Bermel and Music Director George Manahan, continues its 40th Anniversary Season on Friday, March 24, 2017 at 7:30pm with Orchestra Underground: Past Forward at Carnegie Hall's subterranean Zankel Hall.

The Dessoff Choirs continues its 92nd season with a one-evening-only spring concert of repentance. Members of The Dessoff Chamber Choir and Ensemble bring diversity, spirit, and beautiful harmony to the emotionally charged season of Lent.

???????Rostropovich, Piatigorsky, the great Casals himself. These are the names invoked by critics in attempting to describe the artistry of cellist Garfield Moore, appearing in an afternoon recital with pianist Hiroko Sakurazawa on Sunday April 2 at 2:00pm at the Bridge Street Theatre in Catskill.

Today, Wexford Festival Opera announced the programme and principal casting details for the forthcoming 2017 festival. Now in its 66th year, this internationally renowned festival will run over an extended 18-day period, from Thursday, 19 October to Sunday, 5 November.

Grammy Award winning violinist James Ehnes joins the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra for their Masterworks concert, "A Symphony of Colors," at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts on Friday, March 24 and Saturday, March 25, 2017 at 8pm.  Music Director Jose-Luis Novo will conduct the orchestra and Mr. Ehnes in Samuel Barber's Violin Concerto.  The concert will also feature Ludwig van Beethoven's Fidelio Overture, Richard Wagner's Prelude and Lovedeath from Tristan and Isolde, and Igor Stravinsky's Firebird Suite.

Quintet of the Americas woodwind ensemble will present Music and Mimosas - A Concert Celebrating Nature today, February 11 @ 1:00 PM at Bartow-Pell Mansion Museum, 895 Shore Road in Pelham Bay Park, Bronx, NY.

In the early 1950s, when she was a student at the Juilliard School, beloved soprano Leontyne Price, who turns 90 on February 10, lived and worked at International House, the Riverside Drive residential community founded by the Rockefeller and Dodge families in1924 dedicated to preparing the next generation of globally-minded leaders.

American Composers Orchestra (ACO), under the leadership of Artistic Director Derek Bermel and Music Director George Manahan, continues its 40th Anniversary Season on Friday, March 24, 2017 at 7:30pm with Orchestra Underground: Past Forward at Carnegie Hall's subterranean Zankel Hall. Now in its 13th year, Orchestra Underground continues as ACO's subversive and entrepreneurial redefinition of the orchestra as an elastic ensemble. Led by Manahan, Past Forward illustrates the role the past plays in the present, from composers' own personal explorations of their roots, to broader investigations of the universal role of memory and recollection.

Wexford Festival Opera has once again been nominated in the highly coveted Best Festival category in the upcoming International Opera Awards.  This is the third time Wexford has been nominated in this category since the awards were established in 2012. 

North Carolina Opera's Artistic & Music Director Timothy Myers is stepping down from his post at the end of September.

Deeply Rooted Dance Theater (DRDT) continues its 20th anniversary season with its debut at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie, presenting 'Deeply Rooted Dance Theater: Aspects of Love,' a one-night-only performance February 4, 2017 celebrating Valentine's Day.

Spotlight On Productions is proud to bring back to Don't Tell Mama the Encore Performance of WHAT'S NEXT?  ProducerFrank Calo comments. "Our first run was such a resounding success we felt the need to schedule the encore performance around the Valentine Holiday.  This is definitely a show to bring a date to!"  Teresa Fischer Explores the places and events we revisit or imagine when figuring out what's next. Teresa brings life to the work of a wide ranges of composers including; Jerome Kern, Andrew Lippa, Nancy Griffith, Holly Williams, Mary Chapin Carpenter, and Jimmy Webb.

Quintet of the Americas woodwind ensemble will present Music and Mimosas - A Concert Celebrating Nature on Saturday, February 11 @ 1:00 PM at Bartow-Pell Mansion Museum, 895 Shore Road in Pelham Bay Park, Bronx, NY.

In the early 1950s, when she was a student at the Juilliard School, beloved soprano Leontyne Price, who turns 90 on February 10, lived and worked at International House, the Riverside Drive residential community founded by the Rockefeller and Dodge families in1924 dedicated to preparing the next generation of globally-minded leaders.

Fresh from a triumphant turn as Didon in Chicago Lyric's production of Berlioz's Les Troyens, Grammy Award-winning mezzo-soprano Susan Graham takes the concert stage this winter, performing selections from Canteloube's Chants d'Auvergne with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Yannick Nezet-Seguin.