Samuel Ramey News

The stars align on August 2nd at the Ocean Grove Great Auditorium for an evening of spectacular music making as noted American conductor Jason C. Tramm leads the 65-member MidAtlantic Opera Orchestra, Metropolitan Opera tenor Ronald Naldi, and renown musician soloists, organist Gordon Turk and violinist Byung Kook Kwak in a concert which promises to be nothing less than stellar. 'Grand Orchestra Finale' concludes the acclaimed Ocean Grove classical concert series 'Summer Stars' which runs throughout July and early August with its traditional orchestral show stopper.

The 64th Ocean Grove Choir Festival, the largest sacred music choral event on the East Coast, will take place Sunday July 8th, 7PM at the historic 6,500 seat Great Auditorium under the baton of noted American conductor Jason Tramm. Tramm, who has been at the helm of this spectacular annual festival for over a decade, serves as conductor and steward of Ocean Grove's signature sacred music festival which has historically featured many of the finest choral and oratorio societies from New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania - and as far ranging as Virginia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Illinois, Louisiana - together with renowned soloists, musicians, composers and guest conductors.

The George London Foundation for Singers has been honoring, supporting, and presenting the finest young opera singers in the U.S. and Canada since 1971. The foundation and the George London Awards (the prize of the foundation's annual competition) are named for the legendary Canadian-American bass-baritone, one of the greatest opera singers of 20th century, who devoted much of his time and energy in his later years to the support and nurturing of young opera singers.

See stars from New York City Opera's Pride Series productions (Brokeback Mountain and Angels in America) and other City Opera cast members, this concert includes music from West Side Story, La traviata, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Rigoletto, La boheme, and a special guest appearance from Stonewall librettist, Pulitzer Prize-winner Mark Campbell, as well as Eric Marcus, chair of the Stonewall at 50 Consortium. Featured singers include Michael Chioldi, Glenn Seven Allen, Brandie Sutton, Sarah Heltzel, Victor Starsky, Ken Overton, Lianne Gennaco, Michael Weyandt, and more!

Noted American conductor Jason Tramm and the Long Island Concert Orchestra will launch the 59th Season of the Morgan Park Summer Music Festival on Sunday July 1st in Glen Cove, New York. The concert program entitled Americana will feature a dynamic and dazzling selection of great American music performed by the Long Island Concert Orchestra (LICO). Accompanying the orchestra will be internationally renowned soloists soprano Indira Mahajan and baritone Jorell Williams.

Last night during the regularly scheduled meeting, The Board of The Solti Foundation U.S. acknowledged the dedication and hard work of Artistic and Awards Committee Chair Elizabeth Buccheri by naming the Foundation's Opera Residency Programin her honor.The program, an expansion of the organization's work to help award recipients further develop their talent and careers, is the brainchild of Ms. Buccheri. Introduced in the 2014-15 season, the program places former Foundation award recipients with a distinguished U.S. opera house for one-on-one mentoring and coaching of an opera during the company's professional season. Conductors cannot apply to the program but are instead selected by the Artistic and Awards Committee.

The George London Foundation for Singers has been honoring, supporting, and presenting the finest young opera singers in the U.S. and Canada since 1971. The foundation and the George London Awards (the prize of the foundation's annual competition) are named for the legendary Canadian-American bass-baritone, one of the greatest opera singers of 20th century, who devoted much of his time and energy in his later years to the support and nurturing of young opera singers.

The first of four extraordinary hour-long performances produced by New York City Opera in Bryant Park this summer, watch passions flare in this adaptation of Carmen, one of the world's most beloved operas. The innkeeper Lillas Pastia narrates the tempestuous story of the irresistible seductress Carmen and her hapless lover Don José in this hour-long presentation of highlights from Carmen, Bizet's beloved opera, from New York City Opera. Offered to the New York public free-of-charge, this presentation is a perfect introduction to opera for newcomers of any age.

The first of four extraordinary hour-long performances produced by New York City Opera in Bryant Park this summer, watch passions flare in this adaptation of Carmen, one of the world's most beloved operas. The innkeeper Lillas Pastia narrates the tempestuous story of the irresistible seductress Carmen and her hapless lover Don Jose in this hour-long presentation of highlights from Carmen, Bizet's beloved opera, from New York City Opera. Offered to the New York public free-of-charge, this presentation is a perfect introduction to opera for newcomers of any age.

Italo Montemezzi's L'AMORE DEI TRE RE, which played four performances at City Opera's Rose Theate this weekend, was greeted as a masterpiece when it premiered at La Scala in 1913 proved popular for years at the Met. Today, I'm not sure that even Anna Netrebko and Jonas Kaufmann as the lovers could keep it afloat.

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 Beethoven Symphony #9 on Friday, April 13, 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.

New York City Opera presents a new production of Italo Montemezzi's masterpiece L'amore dei tre re (The Love of the Three Kings) directed by Michael Capasso with Pacien Mazzagatti leading the New York City Opera Orchestra. The production marks the first time Montemezzi's opera will be heard in New York City in nearly a decade. Four performances of L'amore dei tre re will be presented at the Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center on April 12 and 13 at 7:30 p.m., April 14 at 2:00 p.m., and April 15 a 4:00 p.m.

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 Beethoven Symphony #9 on Friday, April 13, 2018 at 8pm at the David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, 10 Lincoln Center Plaza, NYC.

Academy Award-nominee, Angela Bassett will join Kathleen Battle as a guest narrator in Battle's program Underground Railroad: A Spiritual Journey accompanied by pianist Joel Martin and the LA-based choir, The Albert McNeil Jubilee Singers at the Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts (The Soraya) on Thursday, March 29 at 8:00pm.

American soprano Kathleen Battle's luminous voice has been called by The Washington Post "...without qualification, one of the very few most beautiful in the world."  Yet beyond the glory of her singing, in a career filled with countless accolades, honors and major milestones, what has perhaps distinguished her most is her almost magical ability to create an unwavering emotional bond between herself, her music and her audience.  On Thursday, March 29 at 8pm, that special bond will be on full display when Ms. Battle makes her debut at The Soraya with Kathleen Battle: Underground Railroad-A Spiritual Journey accompanied by pianist Joel Martin and the LA-based choir, The Albert McNeil Jubilee Singers.

New York City Opera continues its 2017-18 Chamber Opera Series with a unique double bill of Donizetti's Il Pigmalione and Rameau's Pigmalion, the first time these one-act gems will be presented on the same program. The production also marks the New York premiere of Donizetti's first opera. This double bill will be directed and choreographed by Richard Stafford, with Gil Rose conducting the New York City Opera Orchestra and Chorus. Two performances of Il Pigmalione/Pigmalion will be presented at the Gerald W. Lynch Theater on Saturday, March 24 at 3:00 p.m. and Sunday, March 25 at 4:00 p.m.

Leonora Carrington (1917-2011), the Posthumously Celebrated Artist, Writer and Feminist, and Alejandro Jodorowsky, the Surrealist, Chilean Filmmaker, Inspire This Production Developed on Double Edge's Farm in Rural Western Massachusetts

Soprano Heidi Melton is the 2009 George London-Kirsten Flagstad Award winner who in February sings the role of Sieglinde in the New York Philharmonic's concert performance of Act I of Wagner's Die Walküre led by Jaap van Zweden, and tenor Kyle van Schoonhoven is the winner of the Nicolai Gedda Memorial Award at the 2017 George London competition as well as a 2017 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions winner. These two young rising stars join pianist Craig Rutenberg to perform a joint recital, the final event of the George London Foundation's 2017-18 season, on Sunday, March 4, 2018, at 4:00 pm, at the Morgan Library and Museum's Gilder Lehrman Hall.

The Dallas Opera is proud to announce its spectacular 2018-2019 Season, "Swept Away," consisting of five captivating mainstage productions, including a passionate Puccini pairing during the month of March, designed to melt the last blast of winter, followed by the company's first-ever Falstaff.

Following the success of its fall productions of Puccini's beloved La Fanciulla del West and the New York premiere of Tobias Picker's Dolores Claiborne, New York City Opera continues the 2017/2018 season in January 2018 with the New York premiere of Jos 'Pepe' Mart nez and Leonard Foglia's Cruzar la Cara de la Luna, the world's first mariachi opera.