Opera Theatre of St. Louis presents its New Works Collective, a trio of new short operas: Black Coffee, by Concert Black and Alicia Revé Like, deals with building a life after a move. Family Style, by Meilina Tsui and Melisa Tien, deals with sacrifices made by immigrant parents. Tim Amukele and Jarrod Lee’s Kandake takes […]
Daniela Candillari makes her conducting debut with the Kansas City Symphony on Feb. 7-9, leading the orchestra in Ellen Reid’s Floodplain and the Shostakovich 10th Symphony. Karen Gomyo will solo in Prokofiev’s First Violin Concerto. https://tickets.kcsymphony.org/22169
Toledo Symphony will play the U.S. premiere of Steward Goodyear’s Life, Life, Life, a tribute to his mother, on Feb. 7-8. Goodyear will also be the piano soloist for Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. Alain Trudel also conducts Beethoven’s Coriolan Overture and Liszt’s Les Préludes. https://www.artstoledo.com/masterworks-24-25
The Des Moines Symphony welcomes the debut of conductor Mei-Ann Chen on Feb. 8-9 in a wide-ranging program. The concert opens with Florence Price’s Dance of the Canebrakes, a lively work inspired by African American folk music. Anne Marie McDermott performs Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1. Rachmaninoff’s dramatic Symphonic Dances close the evening. https://www.dmsymphony.org/concerts-events/chen-conducts-rachmaninoff/
It’s rare that an orchestra concert includes multiple works that are new to the ensemble. But that is the case in the Minnesota Orchestra’s Feb. 14-15 program, when Paolo Bortolameolli will conduct Miguel Farías’ evocative Retratos Australes, Gabriela Ortiz’s blazing Violin Concerto (with Susie Park), and Silvestre Revueltas’ La noche de los mayas. https://www.minnesotaorchestra.org/tickets/calendar/classical/susie-park-plays-ortiz/
PALETTE, a new work by Anna Clyne, will receive its world premiere by the St. Louis Symphony under conductor Stéphane Denève. Nikolai Lugansky will solo in Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2, and the program closes with Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet Overture-Fantasy (appropriate for the Feb. 14 concert). https://shop.slso.org/8095
Cellist Abel Selaocoe will be the special guest artist with the St. Paul Chamber Orchstra’s Feb. 14-16 program, which Selaocoe will also conduct. Pieces include Stravinsky’s Dumbarton Oaks and two works by Selaocoe, both featuring percussionist Bernhard Schimpelsberger. https://content.thespco.org/events/four-spirits-with-abel-selaocoe/
What a way to celebrate Valentine's Day! Milwaukee’s Florentine Opera will perform Handel’s Acis & Galatea Feb. 14-16. Francesco Milioto conducts members of the Milwaukee Symphony in this production directed by E. Loren Meeker. https://www.florentineopera.org/season-events/acis-galatea-24-25
The world premiere of a new work by Hannah Ishizaki will be played by the Pittsburgh Symphony Feb. 21-23. In this program conducted by Manfred Honeck, Emanuel Ax will be the soloist for Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 25, and the evening concludes with Korngold’s Symphony in F-Sharp Major. https://www.pittsburghsymphony.org/production/92957/emanuel-ax-plays-mozart-plus-world-premiere
With music by Chandler Carter and a libretto by Diana Solomon-Glover, This Little Light of Mine is inspired by the life of Fannie Lou Hamer, a former Mississippi sharecropper’s daughter who rose to national prominence at the 1964 Democratic National Convention. Kentucky Opera will present this work Feb. 21-23. https://kyopera.org/this-little-light/
On Feb. 23, Turtle Island String Quartet will appear as a guest of St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, which does not perform on the program. The evening features a chamber-concert verson of Fire Shut Up in My Bones, by Terence Blanchard, with vocalists Nicholas Newton and Adrienne Danrich. https://content.thespco.org/events/fire-shut-up-in-my-bones-with-the-turtle-island-quartet/
On Feb. 24 at Chamber Music Pittsburgh, Grammy-nominated vocalist Nicholas Phan and early music ensemble Les Délices weave together Baroque masterpieces with the world premiere of a new work by Vietnamese-American composer Viet Cuong. The program also includes works by Michel Pignolet de Montéclair, Marin Marais, and François Couperin. https://www.chambermusicpittsburgh.org/lesdelices-nicholasphan/
Na’Zir McFadden conducts the world premiere of a new work by (and featuring) DSO trumpeter Kris Johnson. The Feb. 28-March 1 program, called Classical Roots, also features two pieces by Jessie Montgomery: Snapshots and Rounds, the latter featuring pianist Awadagin Pratt. https://www.dso.org/events-and-tickets/events/24-25-winter/classical-roots
Italian conductor Valentina Peleggi makes her debut with the Indianapolis Symphony Feb. 28-March 1. Joyce Yang will be the soloist in Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3. Anna Clyne's Masquerade opens the program, which closes with Rimsky-Korsakov’s exotic Scheherazade. https://www.indianapolissymphony.org/event/scheherazade/
