Samuel Barber News

The Chattanooga Symphony & Opera continues its commemoration of the Civil War sesquicentennial by presenting a Barnett & Company Masterworks concert featuring American composers and capped off with Copland's Lincoln Portrait, narrated by City of Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke.

Building upon a rich tradition of distinguished conducting faculty and alumni, the Curtis Institute of Music launches a new conducting program this fall with Philadelphia Orchestra Music Director Yannick Nezet-Seguin as its first mentor conductor.

Andrew Constantine, the BSO's popular former Associate Conductor, will lead the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) in a 2013-2014 Season Preview Concert tonight, September 11 at 8 p.m. at the Music Center at Strathmore.

Richmond Ballet is set to kick off its 30th Anniversary Season with the first installment of this year's Studio Series, Studio One, October 1-6, 2013, at the Richmond Ballet Studio Theatre with a new ballet from Philip Neal, and a popular favorite, Val Caniparoli's Bow Out. After a celebrated, 23-year career at New York City Ballet, Neal returns to Richmond once again to set a new original work, Phoenix Rising. Neal's world premiere will mark the fifth time The School of Richmond Ballet alumnus and Richmond native has set a new work for the Ballet's professional company. Bow Out, an eclectic contemporary piece – choreographed by Caniparoli, who for many years acted as the choreographer-in-residence at San Francisco Ballet – also makes a return to the Ballet's Studio Theatre in the 2013. With slick styling and boundless energy, Bow Out oozes cool and charisma.

Andrew Constantine, the BSO's popular former Associate Conductor, will lead the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) in a 2013-2014 Season Preview Concert on Friday, September 6 at 8 p.m. at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall and Thursday, September 11 at 8 p.m. at the Music Center at Strathmore. The concert features repertoire from the new season, including compositions by Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Gershwin and many more. Maestro Constantine will also serve as the evening's host, providing commentary about each work.

Craig Hella Johnson and Conspirare perform To Touch the Sky and If I Were a Swan paired with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Marin Alsop performing Symphony No.4 'From Mission San Juan.'

The 3 Tenors, Bill Brooks, Edd Clark, and Stephen Tharp are back, and expanding the boundaries of the American Songbook. For one night only, the tenors are celebrating the songs of American composers from Barry Mann & Cynthia Weil to Ned Rorem, from Christine Lavin to Samuel Barber and Ernest Gold, current composers, Paul Stephan and David Cisco, and throwing in just a little dash of Charles Ives.

Conductor James Conlon received the 2012 Cohon Award from the Rabbi Samuel S. and A. Irma Cohon Memorial Foundation in a ceremony hosted by the Illinois Holocaust and EducationCenter in Skokie, IL on Tuesday, July 23. Mr. Conlon was honored with the Cohon Award in the "Creative Arts" field for his unique work in recovering the music of composers suppressed by the Nazi regime, thus contributing significantly both to Jewish history and to the world of music. The 2012 Cohon Award carries a prize of $30,000, which Mr. Conlon requested be directed to The OREL Foundation, www.orelfoundation.org, an invaluable resource on the topic of suppressed composers of the Twentieth Century for music lovers, students, musicians and scholars.

The 3 Tenors, Bill Brooks, Edd Clark, and Stephen Tharp are back, and expanding the boundaries of the American Songbook. For one night only, the tenors are celebrating the songs of American composers from Barry Mann & Cynthia Weil to Ned Rorem, from Christine Lavin to Samuel Barber and Ernest Gold, current composers, Paul Stephan and David Cisco, and throwing in just a little dash of Charles Ives.

Robert Simpson, Founder and Artistic Director of the Houston Chamber Choir announces the Choir's 18th season, Where Class Meets Cool. The 2013-2014 season includes masterpieces by Brahms, Handel, Palestrina, and Durufle, along with works by today's leading composers including a newly commissioned piece by Jocelyn Hagen, recent winner of the McKnight award.

"Three hundred miles north of everywhere," the small but bustling college town of Brunswick, Maine, attracts some of the world's most prestigious musicians to its summer festival. The Bowdoin International Music Festival, now in its forty-ninth year, is a performance and practice program where 250 carefully selected students from twenty-five countries and thirty-six states come to study with world-renowned faculty instructors and guest artists. In the course of the six-week session, these musicians perform over one hundred public concerts. With the resources at their command the results are generally astounding!

Utah Symphony | Utah Opera Vice President of Symphony Artistic Planning Toby Tolokan yesterday announced the concert lineup for the organization's Tenth Anniversary Deer Valley Music Festival, featuring Utah Symphony performances with high-profile artists such as actor and banjo player Steve Martin with the Steep Canyon Rangers and vocalist Edie Brickell, screen actor and Broadway star Mandy Patinkin, folk rock music duo Indigo Girls and jazz trumpeter Arturo Sandoval.

Metropolitan Playhouse presents the Iris String Quartet in a concert comprising Barber, Beethoven, Ravel and contemporary American composers tonight, June 25, 2013 at 8:00 PM at Metropolitan Playhouse 220 East 4th Street, between Avenues A and B, New York City.

After an extensive international search, The Little Orchestra Society is excited to announce the appointment of James Judd as its new Music Director, effective June 1st. Mr. Judd will work closely with The Little Orchestra Society's Executive Director Joanne Bernstein-Cohen and its Board to advance the Orchestra's mission of producing innovative and extraordinary classical music programming for audiences of all ages. Mr. Judd becomes only the third Music Director of The Little Orchestra Society in its 65-year history.

Metropolitan Playhouse presents the Iris String Quartet in a concert comprising Barber, Beethoven, Ravel and contemporary American composers on Tuesday, June 25, 2013 at 8:00 PM at Metropolitan Playhouse 220 East 4th Street, between Avenues A and B, New York City.

The Hartford Gay Men's Chorus will follow-up its sold-out debut concert with 'Life Is Gay, and So Are They!' - a tribute to gay poets, composers, icons, idols and anthems - at 8 p.m. tonight, May 17, and Saturday, May 18, at the Unitarian Society of Hartford, 50 Bloomfield Avenue.

Minnesota Dance Theatre will shine the spotlight in a one-of-a-kind performance creating bold, breathtaking works for the stage in Fierce/Feminine: Dance by Women Choreographers.

Minnesota Dance Theatre will shine the spotlight in a one-of-a-kind performance creating bold, breathtaking works for the stage in Fierce/Feminine: Dance by Women Choreographers.

The Hartford Gay Men's Chorus will sing-in the spring with 'Life Is Gay, and So Are They!' - a tribute to gay poets, composers, icons, idols and anthems, including such songs as 'Being Alive' by Stephen Sondheim, 'Stomp Your Foot' by Aaron Copland, 'Born This Way' by Lady Gaga, and 'A Stopwatch and Ordinance Map' by Samuel Barber.

The New York Choral Society (NYCS) announced today that award-winning stage and screen star Kathleen Turner will introduce Ralph Vaughan Williams's A Sea Symphony at Carnegie Hall on April 25 with a reading of the moving and evocative text written by the American poet Walt Whitman.