Yo-Yo Ma News

Chris Botti returns to the Peace Center on Saturday, July 20, at 8 p.m.

Hrishikesh Hirway, creator, producer and host of Song Exploder, the acclaimed podcast where musicians take apart their songs and tell the story of how they were made, reveals today Thao Nguyen of the band Thao & The Get Down Stay Down will guest host the podcast for the 2019 year. Starting January 9, 2019 Nguyen will begin hosting the podcast that remains one of the most popular podcasts in the world. Stepping down from his role as host, which he has held since the podcast debuted on January 1, 2014, Hirway will assume an Executive Producer role, with AssociateProducer Christian Koons moving into the Producer role.

The University Musical Society (UMS) is pleased to announce a residency with cellist Yo-Yo Ma that will take place February 27-28, 2019 in Ann Arbor and Flint. The residency includes Ma's talk on 'Culture, Understanding, and Survival' as well as a 'Day of Action' in Flint, MI. The residency is made possible with support from the University of Michigan's Ann Arbor and Flint campuses.

Music Director Rossen Milanov and the Columbus Symphony begin 2019 with a performance of Shostakovich's iconic Leningrad Symphony inspired by Nazi Germany's siege of the city during World War II. One of the composer's most power compositions, this work conveys tragedy, oppression, resistance, and ultimately, victory. The performance will be accompanied by excerpts of the 1997 documentary about Soviet composer Dmitri Shostakovich titled The War Symphonies: Shostakovich Against Stalin.

Ukulele superstar Jake Shimabukuro, one of the most exceptional and innovative ukulele players in the history of the instrument, brings his virtuosic playing to Pepperdine University's Smothers Theatre in Malibu today, December 1 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, December 2 at 2 p.m.

Last night, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater's 60th Anniversary holiday season at New York City Center kicked off with a star-studded Opening Night Gala Benefit performance and party led by Artistic Director Robert Battle, with iconic film stars Angela Bassett and Cicely Tyson as honorary chairs. Prudential Financial received the Ailey Legacy Honor for their generous support and commitment to Ailey, especially its education and community programs. The award was presented by Battle and Christopher Taylor, an alumnus of the inaugural AileyCamp Newark (2011) and a current scholarship student at The Ailey School, and accepted by Lata Reddy, Senior Vice President of Diversity, Inclusion and Impact at Prudential Financial.

Black Violin will continue their successful Classical Boom Tour. The band will return to the road after spending the summer working on their upcoming album due out in 2019. The tour is a continuation of their well-received winter run which included back-to-back sold out performances at The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C..

The Classical Boom Tour takes center stage as Black Violin returns to the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall on Today, November 27 at 7:30 PM. Wil Baptiste (viola) and Kev Marcus (violin) combine their classical training and hip-hop influences to create a distinctive multi-genre sound. NPR praised the duo and their recent album, saying "their music will keep classical music alive for the next generation."

Live from Here with Chris Thile confirms the guest lineup for its Town Hall residency in New York, throughout December as well as their January 2019 performance in Durham, NC and Chicago, IL. The shows feature special guests Cat Power, St. Vincent, Maggie Rogers,Death Cab for Cutie, Jason Isbell, Tank and the Bangas, Jon Batiste, Vulfpeck and more.

On Today, November 17, 2018 at 8:00pm at Alice Tully Hall, American Classical Orchestra (ACO) presents Imperial Haydn with guest soloist Aisslinn Nosky (violin) and ACO principals Marc Schachman (oboe), Andrew Schwartz (bassoon), and Myron Lutzke (cello). Along with Haydn's 'L'Imperiale' (No. 53), the program also features his Sinfonia Concertante in B-flat major and a rare performance of Kalliwoda's Symphony No. 5 in B minor.

Grammy Award-winning super group Silkroad Ensemble will perform in Sydney for the first time on Saturday March 9, 2019 at the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall.

FirstWorks Artistic Icons Series Brings World Class Performances by Black Violin and Complexions Contemporary Ballet to Providence in April 2019

Multi-hyphenate artist and national arts leader Marc Bamuthi Joseph will join the leadership team of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, effective January 1, 2019. The dynamic cultural curator will assume a newly created role of Vice President and Artistic Director of Social Impact, charged with weaving together and advancing the Center's many and varied local and national community engagement initiatives.

Hip-hop classical artists Black Violin will present their popular show at the Washington Pavilion on April 18, 2019 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets go on sale to the public Friday, November 16 at 10 a.m.

Los Angeles Children's Chorus (LACC), one of the world's leading children's choirs, celebrates the holidays with its annual Winter Concert, entitled "Winter Wonderland: Sounds of the Season," which marks the first stand-alone program led by the Chorus' new Artistic Director, Fernando Malvar-Ruiz, on two consecutive Sundays, December 9 and 16, 2018, at 7:30 pm, at Pasadena Presbyterian Church. Some 250 choristers are featured in the multi-media vocal program, which is geared for people of all ages and includes an array of favorite carols, seasonal songs from Venezuela and winter-themed works by Bach, Kodaly, Elgar, Verdi, Saint-Saens and others.

London is to host the first arts festival in the UK dedicated to British-Chinese performance and culture in 2019. The festival, which runs from 19 January to 2 February 2019, is produced by Chinese Arts Now (CAN), the new Arts Council funded body working with Chinese artists, both British born and from the Chinese diaspora. CAN Festival will showcase a diverse range of art forms (music, drama, live art, dance, films, digital arts) with over 60 events across London. The festival presents high-quality contemporary and innovative Chinese arts and aims to raise the representation of Chinese artists in the UK.

A star-studded performance of Maestro Long Yu, the Hangzhou Philharmonic, Yo-Yo Ma, and the Silkroad Ensemble drew the 21st Beijing Music Festival to a dramatic close on 26 October. This season explored a diverse offering of repertoire focused on traditions, while pushing and exploring new boundaries in music.

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, New York City Center's Principal Dance Company, returns to the theater's stage from November 28 - December 30, 2018 for a milestone season. During the Company's Ailey Ascending 60th Anniversary celebration, Artistic Director Robert Battle leads Ailey's 32 extraordinary dancers during this five-week holiday engagement that will elevate a legacy of excellence in artistry with premieres by some of today's most revered and prolific choreographers, including world premieres by Rennie Harris and Ronald K. Brown; a company premiere by Wayne McGregor; a new production of by Robert Battle; the return of a recent premiere by Jessica Lang, and special performances of rarely seen works by Alvin Ailey himself.

Pipa virtuoso Wu Man takes the stage at Carnegie Hall to give the U.S. premieres of two concertos scored for traditional Chinese instruments, performing with the Taipei Chinese Orchestra (TCO) on Today, November 6 at 8:00 p.m. 

On Friday, December 14 at 7:00 p.m., the Carnegie Hall Notables-a membership and ticket program for music enthusiasts in their 20s and 30s-presents Jamie Barton in an exclusive concert in Zankel Hall for Notables members only. The concert features the award-winning mezzo-soprano alongside pianist Kathleen Kelly performing Lee Hoiby's Bon Appetit!-a 20-minute operatic scene for mezzo-soprano and piano based on an actual Julia Child cooking show-with additional selections to be announced from the stage.