The Music Critics Association of North America (MCANA) is pleased to announce that its second annual award for Best New Opera has been given to composer David Hertzberg for The Wake World, which received its premiere on September 18, 2017, commissioned by Opera Philadelphia in a co-presentation with The Barnes Foundation. The award was created to honor musical and theatrical excellence in a fully staged opera that received its world premiere in North America during the preceding calendar year. The inaugural award went to Breaking the Waves, composed by Missy Mazzoli with libretto by Royce Vavrek.
Opera Saratoga's Artistic and General Director Lawrence Edelson announced the complete casting and programming for the company's 2018 Summer Festival, which will feature new productions of four operas at The Spa Little Theater in Spa State Park, along with a wide variety of free and ticketed concert events from May 26th through July 15th at venues throughout the region. Single tickets, as well as subscription packages, are on sale now at www.operasaratoga.org.
Pacific Symphony, led by Music Director Carl St.Clair, makes its Carnegie Hall debut in the concluding program of the venue's season-long celebration of the music of Philip Glass. The program explores the influence of Ravi Shankar and Indian aesthetics on Mr. Glass and features the New York premiere of his The Passion of Ramakrishna, a Pacific Symphony co-commission for chorus, soloists, and orchestra that was given its world premiere by Pacific Symphony in 2006. The Pacific Chorale, which sang in the world premiere, will join Pacific Symphony for the performance at Carnegie Hall. The program also includes "Meetings Along the Edge" from Glass/Shankar collaboration Passages and Shankar's Third Sitar Concerto, featuring the composer's daughter Anoushka Shankar as soloist. Philip Glass is Carnegie Hall's 2017-2018 Richard and Barbara Debs Composer's Chair.
LA Opera and SongFest have announced a new partnership to launch The Eva & Marc Stern SongFest-LA Opera Fellowship Program. Now in its 23rd season, SongFest is a training program and festival for singers and pianists that focuses on song and recital repertory, held at The Colburn School. SongFest and Colburn are thrilled to join forces with LA Opera and with Placido Domingo, the company's Eli and Edythe Broad General Director, in fostering community among young singers, established artists and audiences by sharing resources and collaborating on new creative projects while invigorating the increasingly vibrant arts scene in Los Angeles.
The Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, America's longest running festival of new orchestral music, celebrates its 56th season and the second season of its esteemed Music Director and Conductor, Cristian M?celaru, July 29 - August 12, 2018. This year's festival takes audiences around the globe with a series of new works by composers from the US, UK, Canada, Macedonia, Romania, China, Korea, and Sweden.
Ahead of the opening of priority booking for Friends of the Festival on Saturday, 24 March, details of the full programme for the 67th Wexford Festival Opera are announced. Continuing its tradition of presenting the 'best operas rarely seen', this year's Festival includes a verismo double-bill, a European premiere and a classic Wexford offering involving kidnapping, murder, arson and a posh New York dinner party that doesn't quite go to plan! All this plus three daytime ShortWorks operas, concerts, recitals, theatre and talks. 62 public events over the autumn 17-day period.
The Verdi Chorus celebrates its 35th anniversary with its Spring 2018 concert The Force of Destiny for two performances only at the First United Methodist Church in Santa Monica on April 28 and 29 led by Founding Artistic Director Anne Marie Ketchum. As the only choral group in Southern California that focuses primarily on the dramatic and diverse music for opera chorus, their program will feature selections from three Verdi operas - La forza del destino, Nabucco, including the famed chorus "Va, pensiero," the opening party scene of La traviata, and conclude with beloved melodies from Strauss' Die Fledermaus.
On the heels of a triumphant album release, Bay-Area pianist Jeffrey LaDeur celebrates the centennial year of Claude Debussy (1862-1918) with his Carnegie Hall Debut in Weill Recital Hall. On Sunday March 25th, LaDeur builds narratives across centuries of French music in a performance of Debussy's Etudes (1915) with additional works of Couperin and Chopin that influenced Debussy's final masterpiece for piano.
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 the New York Premiere of Angela Rice's Thy Will Be Done on Friday, March 16, 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.
Mikaela Bennett with NYFOS; photo by Karli Cadel On February 27 at 8:00 p.m., New York Festival of Song and Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Music Center present a new program devised by Steven Blier, entitled, simply, PROTEST. A cast of young, diverse and brilliant singers that includes Mikaela Bennett who just wowed the world in Michael Gordon's opera Acquanetta at the Protoype Festival performs songs by a panorama of composers, from Marc Blitzstein and Joni Mitchell to Randy Newman and Mohammed Fairouz. (View the complete program below.)
Members of the Pit Stop Players, a fourteen-member instrumental ensemble composed of veteran Broadway pit musicians, will join with their significant others to make beautiful music together for Valentine's Day, with Date Night. featuring group members and their spouses performing together.
Chicago's Grant Park Music Festival Artistic Director and Principal Conductor Carlos Kalmar today announced a rich array of programming for the Festival's 2018 season, including a large-scale world premiere commission for orchestra and chorus by the Latvian composer, ?riks E envalds. Kalmar will lead the Grant Park Orchestra, along with Chorus Director Christopher Bell and the Grant Park Chorus, in a ten-week season, taking place from June 13 August 18 at Millennium Park's Jay Pritzker Pavilion and other venues throughout the city.
Pacific Symphony today announced the details of its first-ever tour to China and first international tour since the Symphony toured European capitals in 2006. The five-city tour launches May 9, 2018 with a concert at the Shanghai Poly Grand Theatre, followed by performances in Hefei (capital of Anhui province), Wuxi (Jiangsu province), Chongqing (a major city in southwest China) and Beijing. The final concert takes place at the National Centre for the Performing Arts, colloquially known as The Giant Egg due to its distinctive dome-shaped, titanium and glass architecture. The Symphony's tour will include works by Leonard Bernstein in celebration of his centennial, as well as Ravel's Daphnis and Chloe, Suite No. 2; Pictures at an Exhibition by Mussorgsky (arranged by Ravel); and Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 3, featuring soloist Pinchas Zukerman. The visit to China follows another important tour this season to New York City for the Orchestra's Carnegie Hall debut on April 21, 2018.
The New York Choral Society (NYCHORAL), under the baton of music director David Hayes, will appear at Carnegie Hall's Stern Auditorium (881 7th Ave, New York, NY 10019) with Where Even the Sea Sings, Sunday afternoon, February 11, 2018, at 3 pm. This program juxtaposes three composers of very different backgrounds and styles, inspired by a shared commonality in theme: the grandeur of the 'sea.'
Artistic Director David Agler has confirmed the repertoire for the main evening operas for the 67th Wexford Festival Opera in 2018. This is a change to the line-up which was previously printed on bookmarks made available in the National Opera House during the 2017 Festival.
Pasadena Symphony's annual Holiday Candlelight concert returns to All Saints Church today, December 16, 2017. Having sold out for the past six years, the symphony will offer two performances to meet community demand at 4:00pm & 7:00pm.
Time for Three brings their infectious energy, virtuosity, and showmanship to Pepperdine University's Smothers Theatre at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, January 31 at the Lisa Smith Wengler Center for the Arts.
Musica Viva NY presents legendary pianist, teacher, and composer Seymour Bernstein in a special benefit concert, Reintroducing Seymour, on Sunday, January 21 at 2:00 p.m at All Souls Church on the Upper East Side (Lexington Avenue at 80th Street).
New York Festival of Song continues its 30th anniversary season today, December 2, 2017 from 1:00 p.m.-9:00 p.m., when NYFOS co-founder Michael Barrett hosts a monumental eight-hour concert to celebrate Leonard Bernstein as part of the worldwide 'Bernstein at 100' festivities.
New York Festival of Song continues its 30th anniversary season on Saturday, December 2, 2017 from 1:00 p.m.-9:00 p.m., when NYFOS co-founder Michael Barrett hosts a monumental eight-hour concert to celebrate Leonard Bernstein as part of the worldwide 'Bernstein at 100' festivities.
