Terence Blanchard News

The Dallas Symphony Orchestra (DSO) is pleased to announce programming for the 2019 Nancy A. Nasher and David J. Haemisegger Family SOLUNA International Music & Arts Festival. Opening on April 4 and running through April 28, 2019, the festival will take place at venues in the Dallas Arts District and throughout the city. Tickets for SOLUNA events go on sale on January 18, 2019, at mydso.com/soluna.

BAFTA has announced the nominations for the EE British Academy Film Awards in 2019.

BMI® (Broadcast Music, Inc.®) is proud to announce it's programming at this year's Sundance Film Festival featuring the 21st edition of the Composer and Director Roundtable “Music & Film: The Creative Process,” on Sunday, Jan. 27, 2019 at the Kimball Arts Center, followed by the 17th annual BMI Snowball on Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2019 at The Shop. Both the Composer and Director Roundtable and Snowball showcase exemplify BMI's focus on nurturing and sustaining relationships with emerging and established artist. 

80 years ago on January 6, 1939, a German immigrant and passionate Jazz fan named Alfred Lion produced his first recording session in New York City with two Boogie Woogie pianists, founding what would become the most-respected and longest-running Jazz label in the world. Blue Note Records has gone on to represent The Finest In Jazz, tracing the entire history of the music from Hot Jazz, Boogie Woogie, and Swing, through Bebop, Hard Bop, Post-Bop, Soul Jazz, Avant-Garde, and Fusion, and-after being relaunched by Bruce Lundvall in 1984-has remained the leading label dedicated to documenting today's vibrant and creatively thriving Jazz scene under the leadership of current President Don Was, who took the helm in 2012.

DOC LA - Los Angeles Documentary Film Festival, presented by the Parajanov-Vartanov Institute, opened this week submissions for its 2019 edition. After five successful editions, the film festival, which rapidly has positioned itself as one of the most coveted by documentary filmmakers in the USA and abroad, has launched its call for entries.

Park City Institute opens its 21st season on the Main Stage at the George S. and Dolores Dore Eccles Center, with GRAMMY Award-nominated female A Cappella vocal ensemble, Sweet Honey in the Rock.

Cincinnati Opera and the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) are pleased to announce that The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded a new grant of $550,000 to renew funding for Opera Fusion: New Works and support two new initiatives to promote diverse voices in the arts.

Irish Arts Center (IAC), the multidisciplinary center dedicated to bringing people of all backgrounds together through the excellence and dynamism of Irish arts and culture, this year creates a thrilling intersection of musical traditions from Ireland and the Gulf of Mexico for its annual Winter Solstice Celebration (December 14 at Symphony Space). The beloved holiday gathering is hosted by NEA award winner and "one of the most important Irish musicians to emerge from the folk revival of the 1970s" (Time Out) Mick Moloney (banjo, mandolin, vocals) and acclaimed fiddler Athena Tergis.

In 2019, San Francisco's acclaimed Merola Opera Program will present the first opera commissioned in the Program's history, the world premiere of If I Were You, by distinguished American composer Jake Heggie and noted librettist Gene Scheer. This ground-breaking work will be presented August 1 - 6, 2019, at San Francisco's Herbst Theatre. Today it was announced the opera will be conducted by Nicole Paiement and directed by Keturah Stickann. Information is available at www.merola.org. Tickets will go on sale in Spring 2019.

Monterey Jazz Festival is proud to announce that drummer and composer Allison Miller and bassist, composer and producer Derrick Hodge have been selected as the 2019 Monterey Jazz Festival Artists-in-Residence and will work year-round with young musicians in performances and clinics at the 2019 Next Generation Jazz Festival, Summer Jazz Camp Intensive, with the Next Generation Jazz Orchestra and at the 62nd Monterey Jazz Festival, September 20-22, 2019.

Jazz at Princeton University presents guest artist and Blue Note Records trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire in the world premiere of Slightly Left of Sorrow's Song, commissioned by Jazz at Princeton University to commemorate the 150th anniversary of W.E.B. DuBois' birth. Akinmusire will perform the 8-movement suite with the school's Small Group I under the leadership of saxophonist and program director Rudresh Mahanthappa.

Segerstrom Center for the Arts presents the Kenny Barron Quintet for two performances on November 3, 2018 at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. Named a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master, the Los Angeles Times calls Barron "one of the top jazz pianists in the world" and Jazz Weekly calls him "The most lyrical piano player of our time." For his return to the Center's Jazz Series, Barron brings his quintet, which includes Mike Rodriguez, trumpet; Dayna Stephens, tenor saxophone; Kiyoshi Kitagawa, bass; and Jonathan Blake, drums.

The Metropolitan Opera presents the North American premiere of Marnie, an original Met commission by composer Nico Muhly and librettist Nicholas Wright, on October 19, 2018, with performances continuing until November 10. Based on Winston Graham's haunting novel, which also inspired the classic Alfred Hitchcock film, Marnie is conducted by Robert Spano in his Met debut and directed by Michael Mayer, who created the staging for the opera's world premiere at English National Opera in 2017. The November 10 matinee will be transmitted live to movie theaters throughout the world as part of the Met's Live in HD series.

Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts,  which brings audiences world-class theater, dance and music performed by many of the most sought-after artists,presents Chris Walden Big Band with a program that pays tribute to the "Rat Pack" era on Saturday, October 27, 2018, 7:30 pm,in the Bram Goldsmith Theater at The Wallis. Walden, a seven-time Grammy-nominated composer/arranger/conductor, has scored more than 40 feature and TV films and written more than 1,500 orchestral and big band arrangements for artists ranging from Aretha Franklin, Paul McCartney and Barbra Streisand to Diana Krall and Rihanna, among many others.

Due to popular demand, second performances have been added for Private Peaceful, Songs of Freedom, and Teatro Linea de Sombra's Amarillo. Tickets and subscriptions for Essential Series performances are available at texasperformingarts.org.

Carnegie Hall's commitment to the music of tomorrow continues with the fourth year of its five-year project during which at least 125 new works will be commissioned from today's leading composers. Through the 125 Commissions Project, Carnegie Hall expands upon its history as the preeminent venue where music history is made.

The Opera de Montreal opened its 39th season on September 15th, 2018 with Giuseppe Verdi's opera Rigoletto at the Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier in Place des Arts. This 19th-century classic is steered by well-known director Michael Cavanagh as well as Italian conductor Carlo Montanaro, who leads the Orchestre Metropolitain and the Opera de Montreal Chorus. Rigoletto is performed by a mainly Canadian cast including Montreal's very own mezzo-soprano Carolyn Sproule.

AlternaJazz (Sparks & Shadows) today announced the upcoming release of a new album from singer-songwriter and multi-faceted artist Raya Yarbrough, 'North of Sunset, West of Vine.' The twelve song record will be available on CD through Amazon, and from all major digital retailers Friday, Oct. 5, 2018.

Sphinx Virtuosi Kicks off National US Tour on September 30   Sphinx Virtuosi, one of the country's most dynamic chamber orchestras comprised primarily of alumni of the internationally renowned Sphinx Competition, returns to Carnegie Hall on Thursday, October 11 at 6:00 p.m. in Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage. Under the auspices of The Sphinx Organization-a Detroit-based national organization dedicated to transforming lives through the power of diversity in the arts-the self-conducted ensemble makes a timely statement in a program entitled Music Without Borders that highlights music from communities around the globe. The evening also marks the Carnegie Hall debut, and first-ever public appearance by EXIGENCE, Sphinx's first vocal ensemble highlighting excellence and diversity through choral music. Led by founding member Eugene Rogers, the ensemble creates a platform for soloists and composers of color while inspiring and challenging audiences around the country and world. For this performance, EXIGENCE will be joined by pianist and Sphinx Medal of Excellence recipient Damien Sneed.