Yo-Yo Ma News

The Houston Symphony has announced the addition of a blockbuster all-Beethoven program to the Bank of American Summer Series at Jones Hall lineup. Tickets are now on sale to the general public at houstonsymphony.org.

A more revealing, soul-searching expression of the life of Astor Piazzolla-the father of Nuevo Tango-is at the heart of a revamped production of "That's Not Tango - Astor Piazzolla, A Life In Music," returning for an extended run at New York's SubCulture on June 8, 9 & 10th and for multiple performances in July. The director is Stephen Wadsworth, named one of the most influential stage directors of the 21st century by American Theatre.

Sydney International Piano Competition of Australia is pleased to announce the 2012 competition winner, Avan Yu, will perform two exclusive recitals in Sydney and Melbourne this June and July.

As a major highlight of its summer-long celebration, June 15-September 2, of the centennial of Leonard Bernstein's birth, Tanglewood, the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) in Lenox, MA, has programmed several fully staged and semi-staged productions of Leonard Bernstein's work written for the stage, featuring several Tony Award-winning Broadway performers, choreographers, and directors.

The New York Philharmonic announces Foreign Bodies, a one-night-only multidisciplinary event conducted and hosted by Esa-Pekka Salonen, concluding his tenure as The Marie-Jos e Kravis Composer-in-Residence. The concert, Friday, June 8, 2018, at 8:00 p.m., will feature Esa-Pekka Salonen's Foreign Bodies, accompanied by the World Premiere of a live video installation by Tal Rosner; Dan el Bjarnason's Violin Concerto, with Pekka Kuusisto in his New York Philharmonic debut; and Obsidian Tear, a dance work choreographed by Wayne McGregor performed by members of the Boston Ballet (Philharmonic debut) and set to Mr. Salonen's Nyx and Lachen verlernt. Foreign Bodies will be casual and multi-sensory; drinks and conversation will flow as attendees mingle with the performers, who will give additional impromptu performances throughout the event.

For the seventh consecutive year, singers from around the world will gather online to compete in the Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition (aka the 'SASSY' Awards) -- a 21st century version of the amateur night at the Apollo Theater that helped launch the career of a gifted teenager from Newark, Sarah 'Sassy' Vaughan, more than 75 years ago.

Award-winning vocalists, music ensembles from around the world and a special screening of an Academy Award-winning Pixar film are just some of the highlights offered in the 2018-2019 BRAVO! Professional Performing Arts series at BYU.*

American Classical Orchestra (ACO) today announces its programming for the 2018-19 season, the orchestra's 34th year of presenting historically accurate, engaging, and educational concerts led by Artistic Director and Founder Thomas Crawford. ACO performs four concerts presented in Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center and two salon concerts in a private venue. ACO is joined this season by an illustrious group of acclaimed period-performance soloists including violinists Krista Bennion Feeney and Aisslinn Nosky, pianist Christian De Luca, and flutist Sandra Miller.

On Friday, June 22, 2018, American classical guitar duo, Duo Noire (Thomas Flippin and Christopher Mallett), releases Night Triptych, an album of world premiere recordings of newly commissioned works by six highly accomplished and diverse women composers from around the world, on New Focus Recordings. Produced with GRAMMY-winning guitarist William Coulter, the album features Clarice Assad'sHocus Pocus, Courtney Bryan's Soli Deo Gloria, Golfam Khayam's Night Triptych, Mary Kouyoumdjian's Byblos, Gity Razaz's Four Haikus, and Gabriella Smith's Loop the Fractal Hold of Rain, all composed for Duo Noire. The album is the culmination of a project Duo Noire, the first two African-American guitar graduates of the Yale School of Music, launched in 2015 to make classical music more gender inclusive, and was supported with a grant from the Diller-Quaile School of Music.

The League of American Orchestras' 73rd National Conference in Chicago, June 13-15, 2018, will offer a particular focus on the voices of musicians-many Chicago-based-both in performance and as session speakers.

The Center for Ballet and the Arts at New York University (CBA), the first international institute devoted to the creation and academic study of ballet, today announced the 27 artists and scholars who will serve as CBA Fellows in the 2018-19 academic year. The group - which represents The Center's largest and most far-reaching cohort yet - features distinguished individuals in a range of disciplines, including scholar Cecile Feza Bushidi, lighting designer Brandon Stirling Baker, choreographer Chase Brock, choreographer, filmmaker, and dancer Pontus Lidberg, and scholar Janice Ross, among others.

Pianist Misha Dichter will appear in chamber music program with violinist Mark Peskanov and cellist Julian Schwarz as part of the Bargemusic Masterworks Series, Saturday evening, May 26, 2018 at 6 pm and Sunday afternoon, May 27, 2018 at 4 pm, featuring the New York premieres and world premiere of Gerard Schwarz's Three Duos for violin and cello. The program will also include Schubert's Piano Trio in B-Flat Major, D. 898 (Op. 99).

Distinguished pianist Misha Dichter will appear in recital alongside pianist Cipa Dichter, as part of Bargemusic's Masterworks Series, Sunday afternoon, May 13, 2018 at 4 pm. The pair will perform Schubert's Fantasy in F minor for four-hands Op. 103, D. 940; Mr. Dichter will also perform with Schubert's Piano Sonata in A Major, D. 959.

THIRTEEN's Great Performances and Pacific Symphony, led by music director Carl St.Clair, pay tribute to America's history with a performance of composer Peter Boyer's “Ellis Island: The Dream of America,” a Grammy-nominated contemporary classical work celebrating the historic American immigrant experience. Great Performances – Ellis Island: The Dream of America with Pacific Symphony premieres nationwide Friday, June 29 at 9 p.m. on PBS (check local listings) in honor of Immigrant Heritage Month. It will be available to stream the following day via pbs.org/gperf and PBS apps.

Continuing the momentum created with the current season launch of its Music Knows No Borders series, Executive Director Thor Steingraber unveils the Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts' 2018-19 Season, which features four world premieres, two American premieres, several of the world's greatest orchestras, innovative jazz programs, two tributes to Hollywood legends, Broadway classics plus artists from 18 different nations who will appear on stage at The Soraya next season.  New Subscription Series tickets will go on sale May 1, 2018.

Boston University Tanglewood Institute (BUTI)-one of North America's premiere summer training programs for young musicians-announces its 2018 programs and events today. The 2018 BUTI summer season, which will take place at Tanglewood and on the BUTI campus in Lenox, MA, June 17-August 11, features concert and recital programming throughout the Berkshires; workshops led by distinguished performers and teachers from Boston University College of Fine Arts and the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO); Visiting Artists conductor Teddy Abrams (BUTI '03) and bassist Joseph Conyers (BUTI '98); Artist-in-Residence Nico Muhly (BUTI '96, '97); and rich programs of learning and performance for students ages 10-20. Led by Executive Director Hilary Field Respass, BUTI is the only program of its kind associated with one of the world's great symphony orchestras, the Boston Symphony Orchestra. BUTI's 2018 Summer Concert Series is generously sponsored by M&T Bank.

Black Violin will continue their successful Classical Boom Tour through May 2018, making a stop at Overture Center's Capitol Theater on Thursday, May 3 at 7:30 p.m. This tour is a follow up to the successful 2016-2017 UNITY tour, which saw 28 sold-out public performances. On April 4, 2018, Black Violin performed with theNational Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center.

The music of Composer/Lyricist John Bucchino (Broadway's A CATERED AFFAIR and Off-Broadway's IT'S ONLY LIFE and LAVENDER GIRL (part of Hal Prince's 3hree) will be front and center in a very special Master Class presented by California Desert Chorale on Saturday, April 1 from 1-4:30 pm on the College Of The Desert campus in Palm Desert. The Master Class is open to the public and is free of charge. Among John Bucchino's honors are two Drama Desk nominations, The Johnny Mercer Songwriter Award, The ASCAP Foundation Richard Rodgers New Horizons Award, The Jonathan Larson Award, The Kleban Award, The Los Angeles Ovation Award (for the revue IT'S ONLY LIFE), The DVD Premiere Award (for the song 'Better Than I'), and the first annual Fred Ebb Award.

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts announces Arts Across America, a campaign that leverages the resources of the nation's cultural center to recognize thriving arts communities across the country. Through community outreach and one-day events, Arts Across America will spotlight everyday cities and towns that are using the arts to promote connection, a strong creative economy, and cultural citizenship.

Manfred Honeck, Music Director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, returns to the New York Philharmonic on May 3, 2018 for the first time since February 2017. He will conduct four concerts in a program that includes works by Tchaikovsky and Sibelius as well as Dvo?ak's Rusalka Fantasy, an orchestral suite arranged by Honeck. This month, Honeck continues to celebrate his 10th season as Music Director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra with performances in Pittsburgh including Verdi's Requiem and Brahms' Symphony No. 4.