No Strings - 1962 - Broadway Articles Page 3

The name Stephen Sondheim is one that conjures excitement in many a theatre enthusiast. His most popular works, such as INTO THE WOODS and SWEENEY TODD, thrive on scathing social commentary and twisting melodies that only the more experienced musicians can follow. However, as this reviewer has come to realize, Sondheim lets his funny bone shine in his lesser known musicals. Theatre Harrisburg brings one of these unfairly forgotten shows to life with their current production of A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM, and reminds the audience that musicals can be more than drama and heartbreak. In fact, as the opening number 'Comedy Tonight' suggests, FORUM is a far cry from tragedy.

Leonard Bernstein was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts. He took piano lessons as a boy and attended the Garrison and Boston Latin Schools. At Harvard University, he studied with Walter Piston, Edward Burlingame-Hill, and A. Tillman Merritt, among others. Before graduating in 1939, he made an unofficial conducting debut with his own incidental music to 'The Birds,' and directed and performed in Marc Blitzstein's 'The Cradle Will Rock.' Then at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, he studied piano with Isabella Vengerova, conducting with Fritz Reiner, and orchestration with Randall Thompson. 

Mint Audio Records is proud to announce the release on July 25, 2017 of a new 2-CD 48-track set, Judy Garland: Soundtracks.

The American Symphony Orchestra today announced the 56th season of its Vanguard series, running from October 11, 2017 through March 1, 2018. Music director Leon Botstein will conduct all concerts in the series, which this year includes a performance at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall in addition to three concerts at Carnegie Hall.

GOOD MORNING, THEATERATI! It's Monday, May 8, and it looks to be a beautiful spring day in Nashville (so live life dramatically), prompting us to ask the musical question: Do reviews matter anymore?

For the final Canton Youth Symphonies concert, the orchestras have a program full of challenging works in store for the audience.  Each group promises to wow concert-goers with a skillful demonstration of how far they have grown musically through the season.  On April 30, 2017, Dr. Rachel Waddell leads her Youth Orchestras through their season finale concert starting at 5pm at the Umstattd Performing Arts Hall, 2323 17th St. NW, Canton OH, 44708.

Have you ever been told "You'll know that piece when you hear it"?  Or have you heard a popular piece of classical music repertoire and wondered what the exact name was?  The Canton Youth Symphonies hope to help you out with this for their winter concert full of "Popular Classics!"

The 2017 San Francisco International Arts Festival will feature a brilliant 11 day program co-presented with, and held exclusively at, the Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture.

fCelebrated violinist and conductor Pinchas Zukerman opens the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra's three-concert 2017 Winter Festival with a program of works by Tchaikovsky and Mendelssohn, January 13-15 in Newark, Red Bank and New Brunswick. Zukerman-the festival's Artistic Director-both leads the Orchestra and solos in Tchaikovsky's Serenade Melancolique and "Melodie" from Souvenir d'un Lieu Cher. The program also features Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings and Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 4, "Italian."

fCelebrated violinist and conductor Pinchas Zukerman opens the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra's three-concert 2017 Winter Festival with a program of works by Tchaikovsky and Mendelssohn, January 13-15 in Newark, Red Bank and New Brunswick. Zukerman-the festival's Artistic Director-both leads the Orchestra and solos in Tchaikovsky's Serenade Melancolique and "Melodie" from Souvenir d'un Lieu Cher. The program also features Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings and Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 4, "Italian."

"In the United States, it is rare for professional orchestras and ballet companies to have the chance to perform with each other. For a youth orchestra to get to do so is almost unheard of."  These are the words of Rachel Waddell, Associate Conductor of the Canton Symphony Orchestra and Music Director of the Canton Youth Symphonies as she prepares her youth ensembles for their first concert of the 2016-17 season on November 20 at 4:00pm at Umstattd Performing Arts Hall.  The Canton Youth Symphony and Canton Youth Symphony Advanced Orchestra will welcome members of Ballet Le Reve of Canal Fulton to perform with them.

Tennessee Shakespeare Company, the Mid-South's professional, classical theatre, in partnership with Memphis' Hutchison School, will perform Christopher Sergel's revised stage adaptation of Harper Lee's daring American classic, To Kill a Mockingbird from September 20 through October 2.

Tennessee Shakespeare Company, the Mid-South's professional, classical theatre, in partnership with Memphis' Hutchison School, will perform Christopher Sergel's revised stage adaptation of Harper Lee's daring American classic, To Kill a Mockingbird from September 20 through October 2.

Stage Door Records are pleased to announce the debut CD release of the 1962 film soundtrack to STATE FAIR on September 2nd 2016. The release continues Stage Door's COLLECTOR'S SERIES, a line of limited edition CD products that celebrate Broadway / Hollywood musicals and vocalists of the 1950s and 60s.

The Burnt Part Boys has been a special musical for me for some years, so it's a real privilege to be bringing the show to Park Theatre. It's a wonderful contemporary score, filled with truly melodic numbers and infused with the instantly catchy rhythms of country, folk and bluegrass music from the Southern states - where the piece is set.

BroadwayWorld has learned that Robert Lone, Broadway dancer, actor, and singer, passed away peacefully on April 28th earlier this year.

The 1965 musical version of Arthur Laurents' THE TIME OF THE CUCKOO is the only Rodgers and Sondheim musical.

February 23, 2016 – Richmond, Virginia The annual tradition continues when the Richmond Symphony Youth Orchestra (RSYO) shares the stage with the Richmond Symphony musicians on Sunday, February 28 at 4:00pm. Together they will play side by side, creating a 120 member orchestra! Hear selections from Sibelius, Dvo?ák, and Tchaikovsky in a concert featuring RSYO cellist, Jason Hwang. Hwang is the winner of the 2015 Richmond Symphony Orchestra League Concerto Competition. The performance will be held at the Carpenter Theatre Dominion Arts Center and led by Richmond Symphony Music Director Steven Smith.

CANTON, OHIO (February 4, 2016) – The Canton Youth Symphonies, under the direction of Canton Symphony Orchestra Associate Conductor Rachel L. Waddell, will be very busy in the second half of their season.  The Canton Youth Symphonies consist of three groups – The Canton Youth Strings, Canton Youth Symphony (CYS), and Canton Youth Symphony Advanced Orchestra (CYSAO).

Boston, MA — Two of Boston's leading musical ensembles—the Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP) and Odyssey Opera—unite onstage for a special concert honoring the great Pulitzer­winning composer Gunther Schuller (1925-­ 2015). Between them, these two organizations have a repertoire spanning a wide array of genres, and this program will offer the distinctive sound of Schuller's fusion of jazz vernacular with the symphonic and operatic world. Gil Rose will lead BMOP in two enjoyable narratives for all ages, Schuller's Journey Into Jazz and The Fisherman and His Wife, joined by Gunther's sons Ed Schuller (bass) and George Schuller (drums) as special guest artists, and Odyssey Opera, featuring Met Opera regular, mezzo-­soprano Sondra Kelly. Rounding out the program will be Schuller's sinfonietta work Games.

The Smith Center for the Performing Arts welcomes world-renowned performers, family programming and returning favorites as part of the 2016 winter/spring season.

Boston, MA — Two of Boston's leading musical ensembles—the Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP) and Odyssey Opera—unite onstage for a special concert honoring the great Pulitzer­winning composer Gunther Schuller (1925-­ 2015). Between them, these two organizations have a repertoire spanning a wide array of genres, and this program will offer the distinctive sound of Schuller's fusion of jazz vernacular with the symphonic and operatic world. Gil Rose will lead BMOP in two enjoyable narratives for all ages, Schuller's Journey Into Jazz and The Fisherman and His Wife, joined by Gunther's sons Ed Schuller (bass) and George Schuller (drums) as special guest artists, and Odyssey Opera, featuring Met Opera regular, mezzo-­soprano Sondra Kelly. Rounding out the program will be Schuller's sinfonietta work Games. Continuing its 20th anniversary season, BMOP is thrilled and humbled to be presenting works by Schuller, the orchestra's longtime collaborator and friend. “There was no more prodigious and passionate master of the musical 20th century in America than Gunther Schuller,” says Gil Rose, Artistic Director, Founder, and Conductor of BMOP and Odyssey Opera. “He was American music making at its best.” Ranking among the most eclectic of his generation or any other, Schuller combined jazz and classical music in new ways. In the 1950s, Schuller's revolutionary, hybrid style became know as “Third Stream,” and entered the classical music mainstream. Schuller served as President of the New England Conservatory, where he established a successful degree-­granting jazz program, from 1967-­1977. He made his home in Newton, MA, and passed away on June 21, 2015 in Boston at the age of 89. Opening the program is Schuller's Games (2013)—written at age 90—for wind quintet and strings, offering a lighthearted, rapid-­??fire amalgam of ideas, rhythms, and tongue-­in-­cheek quotations that is a classic display of the composer's trademark nimbleness and wit. The organic fusion of contemporary classical music and modern jazz that characterizes the Third Stream is front and center in Journey Into Jazz (1962), a strong aesthetic statement about the porous nature of musical boundaries and the shared fundamentals of good musicianship. In the manner of Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf, Journey Into Jazz features a narration by famed jazz critic and author Nat Hentoff that tells the story of a young classically-­trained trumpeter who evolves into a jazz improviser and, ultimately, an artist with his own, individual sound. BMOP is thrilled to welcome Gunther's sons Ed Schuller (bass) and George Schuller (drums) as guest artists for this special tribute performance. Audiences can listen to BMOP perform Journey Into Jazz on BMOP/sound's eponymous recording of 2008. Of that disc, Gramophone wrote “Under Gil Rose's caring direction, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project and stellar instrumental soloists give performances that are not likely to be surpassed for some time.” Also on the program is another work of Schuller's that centers on narrative, the one-­act opera The Fisherman and His Wife (1970), which received its first performance by the Boston Opera Company under the direction of Sarah Caldwell. With a libretto by John Updike, the work is derived from the German fairy tale popularized by the Brothers Grimm and is appealing for all ages. A simple fisherman (performed here by tenor Steven Goldstein) is convinced by his wife (performed here by mezzo-­soprano Sondra Kelly) to ask for more and more favors from a great fish he has captured and thrown back into the sea. When the wife asks to play God, she and her husband are reduced to their original poor state, having learned some lessons along the way. About BMOP The Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP) is the premier orchestra in the United States dedicated exclusively to commissioning, performing, and recording music of the twentieth and twenty-­first centuries. A unique institution of crucial artistic importance to today's musical world, BMOP exists to disseminate exceptional orchestral music of the present and recent past via performances and recordings of the highest caliber. Founded by Artistic Director Gil Rose in 1996, BMOP has championed composers whose careers span nine decades. Each season, Rose brings BMOP's award-­??winning orchestra, renowned soloists, and influential composers to the stage of New England Conservatory's historic Jordan Hall in a series that offers orchestral programming of unmatched diversity. The musicians of BMOP are consistently lauded for the energy, imagination, and passion with which they infuse the music of the present era. For more information, please visit BMOP.org. About Odyssey Opera Founded in 2013 by Artistic Director/Conductor Gil Rose, Odyssey Opera presents adventurous and eclectic works that affirm opera as a powerful expression of the human experience. Its world-­??class artists perform the operatic repertoire from its historic beginnings throughlesser-­??known masterpieces to contemporary new works and commissions in a variety of formats and venues. Odyssey Opera sets standards of high musical and theatrical excellence and innovative programming to advance the operatic genre beyond the familiar and into undiscovered territory. Odyssey Opera takes its audience on a journey to places they've never been before. For more information, please visit odysseyopera.org.

An all-new THEATER TALK looks at a major cast change for a hit Broadway musical plus a new illustrated history of Black performers and shows on Broadway.  This week's episode boasts a cast of famous names that includes actors Taye Diggs and Rebecca Naomi Jones - the new leads in Hedwig and the Angry Inch on Broadway - in addition to producer Stewart Lane, author of the new book Black Broadway, accompanied by director Kenny Leon and performer Melba Moore, all with rich Broadway histories.

The Boston Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Andris Nelsons have entered into a new partnership to create Classical Live, a unique initiative that offers a new paradigm for the distribution of live recordings of classical music available only on Google Play Music. Classical Live will offer participating orchestras—the BSO, Cleveland Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, and Amsterdam's Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra—an opportunity to release up to four live concert recordings each season for download exclusively on Google Play Music with the first recordings to be made available at music.google.com or classical-live.com beginning on June 15.  

April 30, 2015 – Richmond, Virginia Concerts presented by the Richmond Symphony Youth Orchestra Program (YOP) highlight some of the region's top young musicians. Students from grades 2 to 12 make up four ensembles, ranging from beginner to advanced. These FREE educational concerts are great for music-lovers of all ages.