July 26-Aug. 19: Full details Headlining this summer’s 37th installment of the Sun Valley Music Festival is the Aug. 7 world premiere of Jessie Montgomery's Five Freedom Songs, based on traditional African American spirituals, to be sung by soprano Julia Bullock.
Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin brings the Philadelphia Orchestra to the Saratoga Performing Arts Center for a four-day residency. And on opening night, he'll be at the piano also, performing Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 12. It's a flamboyant calling card that the young Mozart wrote shortly after arriving in Vienna. Also highlighting the evening is the […]
Few figures have exerted greater influence on the classical music of the 20th and 21st centuries than conductor and composer Nadia Boulanger, one of the greatest pedagogues in music history. Just consider some of the famous American composers who studied with her: Elliott Carter, Aaron Copland, Philip Glass, Douglas Moore, Quincy Jones and Thea Musgrave. […]
Chicago's free-on-the-grass outdoor Grant Park Symphony concerts have audiences that come no matter what, open to the eclectic mix that conductor Carlos Kalmar chooses. This season is rich in premieres, in part becomes some were held over from last year's Covid impaired schedule. The June 19 features a Chicago composer deserving of national recognition – […]
As part of the California Festival, 13 members of the San Francisco Symphony will present a chamber concert on Nov. 5. Except for Brahms’ String Quartet No. 2, all the works will be from the past decade: Reena Esmail’s Saans, Samuel Adams’ Sundial, and a work called Self Portrait by SFS violinist Sarn Oliver, who […]
As part of the Sonic Spectrum series at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, five instrumentalists will offer 21st-century works on Nov. 9, including world premieres by Todd Cochran and Libby Larsen. The program also features pieces by Reena Esmail and Saad Haddad and the New York premiere of Wang Jie’s Blame the Obituary, […]
New York’s Prototype Festival presents the world premiere of Terce: A Practical Breviary, Jan. 10-20. The opera, with music and libretto by Heather Christian, was inspired by the writings of three female mystics, including Hildegard von Bingen, is billed as “a radical rethinking of a monastic 9:00 AM mass that reimagines the face of the […]
Adoration is a new opera by Mary Kouyoumdjian based on the film by Atom Egoyan, examining terrorism, mass hysteria, and personal loss from the perspective of an orphaned teen. The world premiere will take place on Jan. 11-21 at the Sheen Center for Thought & Culture as part of the Prototype Festival. https://prototypefestival.org/shows/adoration/
Irish composer Charles Villiers Stanford died in 1924, and the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland is marking that centenary by performing some of his works throughout their season. The first Stanford 100 concert takes place Feb. 2 and features his Clarinet Concerto with soloist Carol McGonnell. Mihhail Gerts will also conduct Brahms’ Fourth Symphony. https://bit.ly/45tBrQR
The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Winter Festival 2024 celebrates string quartets. Among the most exciting of the scheduled programs is the chance on March 10 to hear the Escher String Quartet play all six of Bartók’s works for that configuration. This glorious marathon is expected to last over three hours. https://www.chambermusicsociety.org/our-concerts/at-lincoln-center/events/escher-string-quartet/
2024 is the centenary of the birth of composer Luigi Nono, and the Elbphilarmonie has put together a festival running March 13-15. First up is Quatuor Diotima playing Nona’s Fragmente – Stille along with Beethoven’s Op. 132. On the second night, SWR Experimentalstudio presents Nona’s Quando stanno morendo for women’s voices, flute, cello, and live […]
As part of its Bach Fest, the Milwaukee Symphony welcomes two renowned Baroque artists: Mahan Esfahani will play the Harpsichord Concerto in A major, and Rachell Ellen Wong will play the Violin Concerto in A minor. Ken-David Masur conducts this March 23-24 program that also includes the Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 and the Magnificat, featuring […]
Composer Layale Chaker and librettist Lisa Schlesinger will see the world premiere of their opera Ruinous Gods May 24-June 1 at Spoleto USA. With stage direction by Omar Abi Azar and Maya Zbib and conducted by Kamna Gupta, the opera, loosely based on the Greek myth of Demeter and Persephone, explores the psychological toll experienced […]
In a May 31 program, the Spoleto Festival USA Chorus blends the atmospheric music of Arvo Pärt’s The Deer’s Cry and The Woman with the Alabaster Box with two early-music masterpieces: Josquin des Prez’s Missa Pange Lingua and Heinrich Schütz’s St. Matthew Passion. Conducted by Joe Miller. https://spoletousa.org/events/chorus/
Spoleto USA will present the world premiere of Reena Esmail’s String Quartet. The June 5-6 chamber program also includes Darius Milhaud’s Suite for Clarinet, Violin, and Piano, and the Schumann Piano Quartet. https://spoletousa.org/events/bank-of-america-chamber-music/
Under the curatorship of music director Mitsuko Uchida, the 2024 Ojai Music Festival will give special focus to three composers: Kaija Saariaho, Helmut Lachenmann, and Sofia Gubaidulina. All three are represented in the June 7 “Ojai Dawns” series program (at 8 am) with Jay Campbell on cello, Sae Hashimoto on percussion, and Ljubinka Kulisic on […]
At the Austin Chamber Music Festival on June 9, the American String Quartet will mark its 50th birthday. The first half of the program is Beethoven's Op. 18, No. 1, followed by Shostakovich's Quartet No. 13. Then pianist Anton Nel, a longtime collaborator with the quartet, will join the ensemble in Schumann's Piano Quintet in […]
For the final festival program of 2024, Ojai music director Misuko Uchida will lead the Mahler Chamber Orchestra in Haydn’s Symphony No. 46 and Jörg Widmann’s Chorale Quartet. To complete the June 9 concert, Uchida will solo in Mozart’s Piano Concerto in G, K. 453. https://ojaifestival.my.salesforce-sites.com/ticket/#/events/a0SU1000000Z1XVMA0
Pianist Jonathan Biss returns to Ravinia with works classic and new. He opens the program with two Franz Schubert's Impromptus, following with For Anthony Braxton, a new work that former MacArthur Fellow Tyshawn Sorey wrote to honor his mentor. Schubert's Piano Sonata in B-Flat Major bookends the performance on June 20. https://ravinia.org/Online/Article/062024-JonathanBiss
The Grant Park Festival Orchestra, under the baton of guest conductor Ludovic Morlot, will present the world premiere of Water Nymphs by the eclectic Brazilian-American composer Clarice Assad. Two tried-and-true orchestral works follow on this June 26 program: Strauss’ Suite from Der Rosenkavalier and Haydn’s Symphony No. 104, London. https://www.grantparkmusicfestival.com/music/2024-season-1/haydn-london-symphony
