Based on the 2007 film and the memoir that inspired it, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is an opera by Joby Talbot and librettist Gene Scheer that will receive its world premiere at the Dallas Opera Nov. 3-11. Lucas Meachem, Sasha Cooke, and Andriana Chuchman star in this production directed by Leonard Foglia. https://dallasopera.org/performance/diving-bell-and-the-butterfly/
Victoria Vita Polevá is a Ukrainian composer. Her new cello concerto will receive its world premiere by its commissioning orchestra, the Dallas Symphony, on Nov. 9-12. Inbal Segev will be the soloist. Two works by Strauss—Don Juan and the Suite from Der Rosenkavalier—are also on the program, as is Terricone by fellow Ukrainian Anna Korsun. […]
Juraj Valčuha, music director of the Houston Symphony, will lead his orchestra in the U.S. premiere of Pretty by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Julia Wolfe on Nov. 17-19. Two works by Ravel are included: his Piano Concerto in G, featuring Jean-Yves Thibaudet, and La valse. Bartók’s rousing Dance Suite, inspired by musical traditions from his native […]
In 2022, with funding from Chamber Music America, the Balourdet Quartet commissioned and premiered Strange Machines by Canadian-American composer Karim Al-Zand. In the 2023-24 season, they are touring the work, including their Jan. 21 stop at the San Antonio Chamber Music Society. The program also includes Mozart’s 15th Quartet and Beethoven’s Op. 59, No. 1. […]
Austin Opera presents Cruzar la Cara de la Luna (To Cross the Face of the Moon), a mariachi opera by José ‘Pepe’ Martínez on Feb. 1-4. The production, directed by Leonard Foglia, is a collaboration with the Studio of the Ópera de Bellas Artes, based in Mexico City. Mariachi specialists Trío Chapultepec will play alongside […]
In a bid to expand the available repertoire for piano, violin, and cello, the Merz Trio has sought out (and in some cases, created themselves) arrangements for their instrumentation. As a result, their Feb. 11-12 program for the Dallas Chamber Music Society includes a wide range of composers, including Hildegard of Bingen, Thelonious Monk, and […]
On Feb. 22-25, the Dallas Symphony, trumpeter Tine Thing Helseth, and violinist Karen Gomyo will perform the world premiere of Xi Wang’s Year 2020, a double concerto. Saint-Saëns’ Symphony No. 3 will feature organist Bradley Hunter Welch. The program, conducted by Fabio Luisi, will open with Flare by the young German composer Sophia Jani. https://www.dallassymphony.org/productions/saint-saens-organ-symphony/
As part of a program titled Silent Wood, Deep River, the Austin Chamber Music Center will present the world premiere of Daniel Temkin’s Rise for cello and piano on Feb. 23-24. Cellist Annie Jacobs-Perkins and pianist Michelle Schumann will also play works by Gabriela Lena Frank, Louis Ballard, Stratis Minakakis, and Gabriel Fauré. https://austinchambermusic.org/event/silent-wood-deep-river/
It is rare to hear a performance of Franz Schmidt’s 1938 religious oratorio, The Book with Seals. Dallas Symphony patrons will get that chance when Fabio Luisi conducts the work on March 1-3. Soloists will include tenor Paul Appleby, soprano Meghan Kasanders, mezzo-soprano Kelley O’Connor, and bass Hadleigh Adams. https://www.dallassymphony.org/productions/the-book-with-seven-seals/
Pieces that take their inspiration from world folk musics is the theme for the March 3 concert from the San Antonio Chamber Music Society. The Jupiter String Quartet will play Su Lian Tan’s Life in Wayang, selections from Wynton Marsalis’ Quartet No. 1, At the Octoroon Balls, and Dvořák: String Quartet No. 14 in A-flat Major, […]
Anna Clyne’s new Piano Concerto will receive its world premiere with the Dallas Symphony and soloist Jeremy Denk on March 28-30. The concert, conducted by music director Fabio Luisi, offers a powerful pairing for the Clyne: Mahler’s Symphony No. 5. https://www.dallassymphony.org/productions/mahler-symphony-no-5/
Peruvian-born Jimmy López Bellido will present the world premiere of a new work on April 26-28, courtesy of the Houston Symphony, under the baton of its conductor laureate, Andrés Orozco-Estrada. The bulk of the concert will be devoted to Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana, with the Houston Symphony Chorus, countertenor Reginald Mobley, soprano Joélle Harvey, and […]
The Dallas Symphony has commissioned a new work from Italian composer Andrea Basevi, which will receive its world premiere under the baton of Vasily Petrenko at the DSO’s season finale on May 23-26. Basevi, a tenor himself, specializes in vocal writing; his new work will feature the Dallas Symphony Children’s Chorus. Guest soloist for the […]
Richard Strauss’ Salomé is an unusual choice to present as an opera-in-concert, but the Houston Symphony Orchestra is taking on that challenge to end their season on June 7-9. With music director Juraj Valčuha at the podium, the concert will feature Jennifer Holloway in the title role, John Daszak as Herodes, and Mark S. Doss […]
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 […]
