Spoleto Festival USA News

Spoleto Festival USA today announced a number of season updates, including a special savings opportunity for locals this Sunday, May 11; a first-time partnership with the Children's Museum of the Lowcountry for Kids' Night Out: Spoleto Edition on Friday, May 30; and details regarding the third annual Beer Garden at Middleton Place for the Wells Fargo Festival Finale on Sunday, June 8.

Washington National Opera (WNO) presents the world premiere of An American Soldier, June 13-14, 2014 in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater. An American Soldier features music by composer Huang Ruo and a libretto by David Henry Hwang. This new work, to be performed in English, is the second hourlong opera created under the auspices of the American Opera Initiative, WNO's commissioning program for contemporary American opera. An American Soldier is directed by David Paul and a chamber orchestra is conducted by Steven Jarvi; both are alumni of WNO's Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program.

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and Artistic Director Glenn Edgerton are pleased to announce the main company's 2014-15 season performances in Chicago, to include two weeks spotlighting a diverse trio of Princess Grace Award-winning choreographers, Hubbard Street's first performances of choreography by acclaimed artist Crystal Pite, and a celebration of Resident Choreographer Alejandro Cerrudo.

Opera Colorado announced today that it will present Giacomo Puccini's Madama Butterfly(November 2014), W.A. Mozart's The Magic Flute (May 2015), Giuseppe Verdi's Aida (November 2015), and the world premiere of Lori Laitman's The Scarlet Letter (May 2016) starring Elizabeth Futral as Hester Prynne. A vital presence in Denver's cultural ecology, Opera Colorado is the Rocky Mountain region's preeminent grand opera company. The Opera's programming includes mainstage productions, artist development initiatives, and education and community engagement programming.

The production is visually stunning, blending live actors, puppets and keenly choreographed movement that breathe life into everyday inanimate objects. The puppetry involves a huge range of ground-breaking techniques and variety of creations - from the smallest mechanical creatures to the huge god-like masks and limbs that represent Oberon and Titania, King and Queen of the Fairies.

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, under the artistic direction of Glenn Edgerton, presents its Summer Series program June 5-8, 2014 featuring the 13th world premiere for the company by Resident Choreographer Alejandro Cerrudo, with costumes by Branimira Ivanova, 'Jeff' Award-winning designer of numerous Hubbard Street premieres; and lighting by Michael Korsch, designer for both of Cerrudo's acclaimed works for Hubbard Street's main company in 2012: Little mortal jump and One Thousand Pieces.

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, under the artistic direction of Glenn Edgerton, presents its Summer Series program June 5-8, 2014 featuring the 13th world premiere for the company by Resident Choreographer Alejandro Cerrudo, with costumes by Branimira Ivanova, "Jeff" Award-winning designer of numerous Hubbard Street premieres; and lighting by Michael Korsch, designer for both of Cerrudo's acclaimed works for Hubbard Street's main company in 2012: Little mortal jump and One Thousand Pieces.

Geoff Nuttall, now in his fifth year as Spoleto Festival USA's Charles E. and Andrea L. Volpe Director for Chamber Music, today announced details of the Bank of America Chamber Music series comprising 11 programs, each performed three times at the Dock Street Theatre in Charleston, South Carolina from Friday, May 23 through Sunday, June 8.

Music Director Alan Gilbert will conduct the New York Philharmonic in the New York Premiere of The Marie-Josee Kravis Composer-in-Residence Christopher Rouse's Requiem with baritone Jacques Imbrailo, the Westminster Symphonic Choir directed by Joe Miller, and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus directed by Dianne Berkun-Menaker.

Music Director Alan Gilbert will conduct the New York Philharmonic in the New York Premiere of The Marie-Josee Kravis Composer-in-Residence Christopher Rouse's Requiem with baritone Jacques Imbrailo, the Westminster Symphonic Choir directed by Joe Miller, and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus directed by Dianne Berkun-Menaker. The concert, Monday, May 5, 2014, at 7:30 p.m., will open the Spring For Music festival at Carnegie Hall, for which North American orchestras are invited to present one-night-only performances of unusual programming.

Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for theatre, announces that Crossing Borders will be the theme of the 24th annual TCG National Conference in San Diego from June 19 to 21, 2014. In addition to challenging both the practical and conceptual barriers to strengthening the theatre field's vitality, literal borders will also be crossed when attendees journey to Tijuana, Mexico to engage with local artists and culture. This multi-day, international event will draw more than 1,000 theatre professionals from around the world for artistic and intellectual exchange through meetings, speeches and performances. Lauded theatre performer and playwright Taylor Mac will be one of the featured presenters, with more speakers to be announced soon.

Following a successful run of Asi Wind's Concert of the Mind, a show of remarkable mental feats by one of the great magicians of our time, Axis Theatre Company continues to explore magic and illusion with the world premiere of Randy Sharp's Nothing on Earth.

Miller Theatre at Columbia University School of the Arts continues the 2013-14 Composer Portraits series with a multi-faceted exploration of the work of JEAN-BAPTISTE BARRIÈRE, featuring: Raphaele Kennedy, soprano, Camilla Hoitenga, flute, Margaret Lancaster, flute, Aliisa Barriere, violin, and Nathan Davis, percussion.

Once more, with feeling! This year's SDO Valentine offering, Donizetti's 1832 comic masterpiece, 'Elixir of Love,' echoed last season's midwinter love fest, the composer's 'Daughter of the Regiment.'

The Broadway Cast - led by Hannah Yelland and Tristan Sturrock - will appear in the internationally celebrated Kneehigh production of Noel Coward's Brief Encounter, which will have a 43-performance limited engagement at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts today, February 15 to March 23, 2014 (press opening February 19).

Following a successful run of Asi Wind's Concert of the Mind, a show of remarkable mental feats by one of the great magicians of our time, Axis Theatre Company continues to explore magic and illusion with the world premiere of Randy Sharp's Nothing on Earth.

Musica Sacra, the longest continuously-performing professional chorus in New York City, will present a performance in honor of Women's History Month featuring works by acclaimed composers Meredith Monk and Jocelyn Hagen at New York's Alice Tully Hall on Monday, March 31, 2014 at 7:30 p.m.

On Sunday, February 9 at 3:00pm, The Greenwich Village Orchestra, led by Metropolitan Opera conductor Pierre Vallet, will perform a concert to include excerpts form Berlioz's The Damnation of Faust, Ravel's Sheherazade with Grammy Award-wining mezzo-soprano Sasha Cook, and Brahms' Symphony No. 4. Now in its 27th season, the ensemble performs at Washington Irving Auditorium (40 Irving Place) near Union Square.

The Broadway Cast - led by Hannah Yelland and Tristan Sturrock - will appear in the internationally celebrated Kneehigh production of Noel Coward's Brief Encounter, which will have a 43-performance limited engagement at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts February 15 to March 23, 2014 (press opening February 19). Yelland and Sturrock are joined by fellow New York cast members Joe Alessi, Dorothy Atkinson, Damon Daunno, and Annette Laughlin. Musician David Brown appeared in the show in the UK and musician James Gow joins the company for The Wallis engagement.

Due to critical praise and strong ticket sales, Page 73 Productions will add a 3pm matinee performance on Saturday, February 1 to the New York premiere of George Brant's gripping new play GROUNDED, Page 73 Productions' Executive Directors Liz Jones and Asher Richelli have announced.