To mark his 10th anniversary as music director of the Boston Symphony, Andris Nelsons will lead the orchestra in all nine of Beethoven’s symphonies. The cycle starts Jan. 9-11 in a program that includes Symphonies Nos. 1-3, works in which the early influence of Haydn and Mozart is still clearly heard. https://www.bso.org/events/beethoven-symphonies-1-2-3?performance=2025-01-09-19:30
As part of its 2024-25 Mahler cycle, the Philadelphia Orchestra will play the Ninth Symphony on Jan. 9-11, with Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducting. The program will open with Jake Heggie’s setting of Margaret Atwood’s Songs for Murdered Sisters, a collection of poems inspired by the violent death of the sister of baritone Joshua Hopkins, who will […]
The New Jersey Symphony will perform the imaginative chamber work Of Rats and Men by Korean composer Donghoon Shin. This Jan. 9-12 program continues with Jean-Yves Thibaudet playing Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G and Kevin John Edusei conducting Sibelius’ Symphony No. 2. https://www.njsymphony.org/events/detail/jean-yves-thibaudet-plays-ravel
The world premiere of Eat the Document, by John Glover and Kelley Rourke, will be performed at New York’s Prototype Festival on Jan. 9-12. The plot, based on Dana Spiotta’s novel, explores the connection between the Vietnam era and the 1990s—in language, technology, music, and activism. Kristin Marting directs. https://prototypefestival.org/shows/eat-the-document/
The world premiere Eat the Document, by John Glover and Kelley Rourke, will be performed at New York’s Prototype Festival on Jan. 9-12. The plot, based on Dana Spiotta’s novel, explores the connection between the Vietnam era and the 1990s—in language, technology, music, and activism. Kristin Marting directs. https://prototypefestival.org/shows/eat-the-document/
As part of its Focus on Mexico series, the National Symphony will perform the D.C. premiere of Gabriela Ortiz’s Téenek – Invenciones de Territorio. Mexican conductor Carlos Miguel Prieto takes the podium for this Jan. 16-18 program, and Mexican pianist Jorge Federico Osorio plays Beethoven’s Third Concerto. The Rachmaninoff Symphonic Dances complete the program. https://www.kennedy-center.org/nso/home/2024-2025/prieto-osorio/
William Grant Still wrote his Symphony No. 2, Song of a New Race, for the Philadelphia Orchestra to premiere in 1937, conducted by Leopold Stokowski. On Jan. 16-18, that same orchestra will play it again, this time under the direction of Yannick Nézet-Séguin, who will also conduct Margaret Bonds’ The Montgomery Variations and Tchaikovsky’s Piano […]
Washington National Opera will present its American Opera Initiative showcase on Jan. 18, featuring the world premiere of three one-act operas. This year’s creative artists include librettist Clare Fuyuko Bierman, composer Kyle Brenn, librettist Lex Brown, composer JL Marlor, librettist Christine Evans, and composer Omar Najmi. https://www.kennedy-center.org/wno/home/2024-2025/american-oera-initiative/
To celebrate the Lunar New Year—the Year of the Snake, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra will play the world premiere of a new work by Vietnamese-American composer Viet Cuong. Music director Jonathon Heyward conducts this Jan. 22 program, the third such Lunar New Year program given by the orchestra, making it an anticipated annual tradition. https://my.bsomusic.org/19151/19157
Bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green makes his Carnegie Hall debut on Jan. 22 in a recital accompanied by pianist Adam Nielsen. The program includes Lieder by Wolf, Mahler, Schubert, and Wagner, as well as Howard Swanson’s setting of the Langston Hughes poem “The Negro Speaks of Rivers.” https://www.carnegiehall.org/calendar/2025/01/22/ryan-speedo-green-bassbaritone-adam-nielsen-piano-0730pm
At this season’s second Sonic Spectrum concert by Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, two works will be given their New York premieres: a new work for mezzo-soprano (Jamie Barton), viola, and piano by Joel Thompson and Perry Boldstein’s Birding by Ear, featuring baritone Roandall Scarlata. Also on the Jan. 23 program are two pieces […]
Roomful of Teeth and Tambuco Percussion Ensemble will give the world premiere of a new work by Gabriela Ortiz at Carnegie Hall on Jan. 25. Ortiz’ Liquid Borders is also on the program, along with works by Leopoldo Novoa, Jorge Camiruaga, and Lavista. https://www.carnegiehall.org/calendar/2025/01/25/roomful-of-teeth-tambuco-percussion-ensemble-0730pm
The National Symphony continues the initiative begun in the 2023–2024 season of producing an opera in concert led by Gianandrea Noseda. The Jan. 30-Feb. 1 offering is Samuel Barber’s Vanessa, with a cast including Sondra Radvanovsky (NSO debut), mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges, tenor Matthew Polenzani, mezzo-soprano Susan Graham, and baritone Thomas Hampson. https://www.kennedy-center.org/nso/home/2024-2025/noseda-barber/
On Feb. 1-2, the Baltimore Symphony will celebrate Maurice Ravel’s 150th birthday in a program conducted by Robert Treviño. The Ravel selections include Alborada del gracioso, Rapsodie espagnole, Pavane pour une infante défunte and La Valse, which the composer described as a “choreographic poem for orchestra.” Karen Gomyo will be the soloist for Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto […]
