Yo-Yo Ma News

The Jewish Community Center of San Francisco (JCCSF) takes pride in announcing the 2014-15 Arts and Ideas Season; an exciting line-up of today's acclaimed writers, food experts, renowned scientists and thinkers, as well as fascinating entertainers. Theatrical and musical highlights in the first half of the season include The Magnetic Fields' Stephin Merritt, rock icon Amanda Palmer and actor Richard Chamberlain.

Music Director Alan Gilbert will conduct the New York Philharmonic in Barto?k's Piano Concerto No. 3, with Yefim Bronfman as soloist, and Bruckner's Symphony No. 8 (Ed. Nowak, 1890), Thursday, October 23, 2014, at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, October 24 at 8:00 p.m.; Saturday, October 25 at 8:00 p.m.; and Tuesday, October 28 at 7:30 p.m.

On October 2, 4 and 5, global violin sensation Sarah Chang joins the Houston Symphony for a performance of Barber's intensely lyrical Violin Concerto. The Korean-American violinist has been touted by The New York Times as “technically brilliant, lively and characterful' and has been captivating audiences since her New York Philharmonic debut at age eight.

Internationally renowned artists Steve Aoki and Pink Martini have joined the Honorary Committee for the 13 th Annual Daniel Pearl World Music Days, a global network of performances organized by the Daniel Pearl Foundation.

The next edition of their three-time Emmy-nominated HBO Family Documentary Special will be Joshua Bell: A YoungArts MasterClass. Filmed in New York City and London, the program features internationally acclaimed, Grammy Award-winning violinist Joshua Bell as he mentors, travels, and performs alongside nine talented young string musicians.

Music Director Alan Gilbert will lead the New York Philharmonic in a one-night-only all- Mozart program featuring the Piano Concertos Nos. 17 and 24, with Lang Lang as soloist, and Overture to The Magic Flute, Tuesday, October 21, 2014, at 7:30 p.m.

The Chattanooga Symphony & Opera and Local 80 of the American Federation of Musicians have agreed to a two-year contract covering the 2014/15 and 2015/16 seasons with no cuts in the size or scope of the orchestra and with an increase in musician wages. The agreement maintains the number of rehearsals and performances and the number of musicians as in previous years. Musicians will receive approximately 2% in wage increases over the two-year agreement. It is the first contract to cover more than one year since 2008.

54 BELOW, Broadway's Supper Club, will present two-time Tony Award winner Patti LuPone in 'Far Away Places - Part Two' November 3 -15. In an evening conceived and directed by Tony Award winner Scott Wittman, LuPone returns with Part Two of the show which she premiered to critical acclaim when 54 Below opened in June 2012. In this continuation of the show (which will include a few encores from the landmark Part One) she further explores her wanderlust, performing songs by an eclectic group of songwriters including Irving Caesar, Billy Joel, David Yazbek, Johnny Mercer and Kris Kristofferson.

Roulette presents Interpretations featuring selections from John King's Free Palestine, with A Secret Quartet (Cornelius Dufallo, Jennifer Choi, violins; Lev Zhurbin, viola; Yves Dharamraj, cello). Using materials derived from the Arabic systems of pitch and rhythm, maqam'at and iqa'at, each particular composition uses indeterminacy and improvisation to organize sound and time, thereby providing energetic and visceral motifs encompassing the full range of expression possible from a string quartet.

This season, celebrated mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato curates a multi-part Carnegie Hall Perspectives series that showcases her vocal creativity and multifaceted talents, ranging from programs that include familiar and forgotten repertoire from the Baroque and bel canto eras to works by Jake Heggie written expressly for her. Her series kicks off on Sunday, October 26 at 2:00 p.m. as she sings the title role in a concert performance of Handel's Alcina alongside Harry Bicket and The English Concert.

New York City Center's 11th annual Fall for Dance Festival will feature free performances in Central Park and 24 acclaimed dance companies and artists from around the world, in six unique programs in September and October 2014. In keeping with the Festival's commitment to make dance accessible to everyone, the Festival will kick off with two FREE evenings of dance at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park, in association with The Public Theater, today and tomorrow, September 12 and 13 (rain date, September 14) and will continue at City Center from October 8 - October 19 with all tickets at $15. The Festival's many free pre-show events will include dance lessons and panels by choreographers, artists and dance educators. Tickets will go on sale Sunday, September 14 at 11 a.m.

Vancouver, BC - The Chan Centre for the Performing Arts at the University of British Columbia (UBC) presents environmental activist Severn Cullis-Suzuki and celebrated Inuit throat singer Tanya Tagaq on October 16 & 17, 2014 at 7:30pm, as part of the Beyond Words series at the Telus Studio Theatre. This original collaboration masterfully combines words and music -- Tagaq will be joined on stage by acclaimed violinist, Jesse Zubot - to address a pressing range of political, ecological, and cultural issues.

The Columbus Symphony today announced the selection of Rossen Milanov as the next Columbus Symphony Music Director. The 49-year-old Bulgarian native has been contracted to lead the CSO for four years beginning with the 2015-16 season. Until then, Milanov will be recognized as Music Director Designee, and will lead two CSO programs in the 2014-15 season-Organ Symphony (January 30 & 31) and Bolero & Percussion (March 20 & 21).

Violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter--widely recognized as a champion of new music as well as for her commitment to artistic excellence, dedication to the growth of classical music, and for her support of young artists--presents a six-concert Carnegie Hall Perspectives series throughout the 2014-2015 season, demonstrating all of her core artistic interests. Ms. Mutter champions 20th- and 21st-century violin repertoire throughout her series, including contemporary works written for her by Sebastian Currier, Norbert Moret, and Andre Previn.

On Saturday, September 27, at 8 p.m., the Boston Symphony Orchestra will shine a welcoming spotlight on Andris Nelsons as he makes his highly anticipated debut as BSO Music Director leading a gala program filled with works and guest artists that have inspired his musical life. When Mr. Nelsons takes on the title of BSO Music Director on September 27, at age 35, he will be the youngest conductor to hold that title with the orchestra in over 100 years. The fifteenth music director since the Boston Symphony Orchestra's founding in 1881, Mr. Nelsons is also the first Latvian-born conductor to assume the post.

FirstWorks and the City of Providence announce the final line-up of artists from across the globe for the FirstWorks Urban Carnevale. The Urban Carnevale is a celebratory evening of music, spectacle, art, and food capping four days of activities celebrating FirstWorks 10th Anniversary. The free public celebration brings the world to Providence with awe-inspiring performances from Australia, Italy, Morocco, Mali, and Rhode Island on Saturday, September 20, 2014, starting at 5:00 PM in the Providence Rink and surrounding parks, Kennedy Plaza, downtown Providence.

Entertaining, educating and illuminating. Park City Institute (formerly known as Park City Performing Arts Foundation) presents a dynamic season of eclectic, electrifying, awe-inspiring and internationally acclaimed dancers, musicians, family entertainers, speakers, actors and performance troupes.

Jay Henderson, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association (CSOA), announced today the appointment of Jeff Alexander to the position of President of the CSOA, effectiveJanuary 12, 2015.

Orange County, Calif.—Aug. 28, 2014—Pacific Symphony launches Music Director Carl St.Clair's landmark 25th-anniversary “season of giants” with classical music superstar, violinist Joshua Bell, plus two orchestral showpieces, a West Coast premiere and festivities fit for the grand occasion. Bell returns for his fifth performance with the Symphony (he last performed with the Symphony in May 2010) to celebrate the maestro and captivate audiences with the exciting, breakneck theme and stunning Romanticism of Alexander Glazunov's Violin Concerto. Interview Magazine may have summed up the remarkable violinist's playing best by saying, Bell “does nothing less than tell human beings why they bother to live.” The violinist's artistry is exemplified in his new music directorship of the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, his release of 40 CDs since the age of 18, multiple television appearances and countless accolades.

One of the planet's premier percussionists, Cyro Baptista, leads a quartet of some of the most exciting musicians from the New York world music scene, in a unique, colorful performance at Pepperdine University's Smothers Theatre at 7 p.m. on Sunday October 5.