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 […]
A pipa is a traditional Chinese instrument similar to a lute, and Wu Man is a widely acclaimed pipa master. She joins the Philadelphia Orchestra on Jan. 11 and 13, 2024, for the world premiere of Du Yun’s Pipa Concerto. Guest conductor Anna Sułkowska-Migoń will also lead the orchestra in Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 as well […]
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/
The current holder of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra’s Sandbox Composer Residency, Brazilian-American composer and singer Clarice Assad is writing a new work that will receive its world premiere with SPCO on Jan. 12-13. The program also includes movements from autobiographical pieces by Smetana and Janáček. https://content.thespco.org/events/assad-janacek-and-smetana/
Angélica Negrón is a Puerto Rican composer and performer who works with experimental instruments. During the world premiere of some new songs by Negrón, at the Kaufmann Music Center on Jan. 18, she will use “playable sculptures” co-created by botanical artist Sophie Parker. https://www.kaufmanmusiccenter.org/mch/event/angelica-negron-sophie-parker/
On Jan. 19, the Washington National Opera’s American Opera Initiative will perform the world premieres of three 20-minute operas by paired teams of young composers and librettists and performed by young artists in this mentorship program’s 11th year. A chamber orchestra made up of musicians from the WNO Orchestra will accompany. https://www.kennedy-center.org/wno/home/2023-2024/aoi-20-minute-operas/
Two works by Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de St-Georges, will be on the Jan. 19-20 program by the Indianapolis Symphony. In an arrangement by Derek Bermel, clarinetist Anthony McGill will play the Chevalier’s Violin Concerto, and soprano Sonya Headlam will sing an aria from L’amant anonyme. With Jeannette Sorrell conducting, the program also includes several works […]
The inspiring story of Helen Keller’s life will be told in the world premiere of Touch at Opera Birmingham on Jan. 19-21. Carla Lucero is the composer as well as co-librettist along with Marianna Mott Newirth. https://www.operabirmingham.org/touch
As a special production on Jan. 20, Piedmont Opera will offer a program called Girls of Yellow Diamonds. This song recital, hosted and largely composed by Alice Chung and Helen Huang, celebrates Asian-American women. https://www.piedmontopera.org/calendar
A new work by Rob Kapilow, called We Came to America, will receive its world premiere with the New Jersey Symphony, featuring the JCC Young People’s Chorus at Thurnauer, Young People’s Chorus of New York City, and Ember Choral Arts. Music director Xian Zhang will also conduct William Grant Still’s Darker America and two pieces […]
Victoria Bond has written a new work called Anne Frank’s Tree, which will receive its world premiere on Jan. 20. The Indianapolis Chamber Music program called Silenced Voices will also include some music banned by the Nazis by Korngold and Franz Schreker. Julian Rhee is the soloist for the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto. https://www.icomusic.org/concerts/silenced-voices/
During the 20th century, jazz and classical music were blended into some exceptional creations. Several of those will be on display from the St. Louis Symphony and conductor Leonard Slatkin on Jan. 21. The program opens with Paul Turok’s tribute to a pioneer of jazz/classical crossover, A Joplin Overture. Then jazz piano master Aaron Diehl […]
On Jan. 21, Gürzenich-Orchester Köln, music director François-Xavier Roth and stage director Calixto Bieito will present a semi-staged concert production of Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s 1965 opera Die Soldaten at the Elbphilharmonie. This rarely heard work is a largely autobiographical account of Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz, upon whose 1776 play it was based. https://www.elbphilharmonie.de/en/whats-on/zimmermann-die-soldaten/20233
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. […]
Since 1968, the London Sinfonietta has championed new music, often offering commissions. In a program called Decades on Jan. 24, the ensemble celebrates some of the pieces they’ve helped bring to fruition, including works by Oliver Knussen, Tansy Davies, Hannah Kendall, Tōru Takemitsu, and Thomas Adès. Geoffrey Paterson conducts. https://londonsinfonietta.org.uk/whats-on/decades
Even the best-known composers have hidden gems. A case in point is Antonin Dvořák’s Requiem, written in 1890 and rarely performed today. The American Symphony Orchestra and music director Leon Botstein hope to remedy that with a performance of this rich, expressive work on Jan. 25 at Carnegie Hall. https://americansymphony.org/concerts/dvorak-requiem/
The 92nd St. Y presents the New York premiere of The Garden of Good and Evil on Jan. 25, a musical compilation by the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, music director Richard Egarr, and countertenor/dramaturg Reginald Mobley. The work is an exploration of the Biblical creation story, pairing Handel arias with modern movements for Baroque forces by Errollyn […]
Fans of Shostakovich’s operas will have the rare chance to hear a concert version of Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk played by the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall on Jan. 30. Led by BSO music director Andris Nelsons, the cast includes Kristine Opolais as Katerina and Pavel Černoch as Sergey, along with the Tanglewood Festival […]
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 […]
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
Enchanted Woods: Shakespeare & Song, Feb. 2-11 at Portland Opera, is an evening of story and song inspired by 20th-century adaptations of Shakespeare’s enduring works. It will feature poetry and music by a variety of composers and literary figures, collected in homage to the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s First Folio. https://www.portlandopera.org/
Finnish composer Lotta Wennäkoski’s Om fotspår och ljus (Of Footprints and Light – Helsinki Variations) will receive its U.K. premiere with the London Symphony on Feb. 4. Another Finn is on the program: Jean Sibelius, whose Symphony No. 2 will be conducted by Thomas Søndergård. Leif Ove Andsnes is the soloist for Beethoven’s Fifth Piano […]
The Bavarian State Opera is creating a new production of Tchaikovsky’s Pique Dame, directed by Benedict Andrews and conducted by Aziz Shokhakimov. Brandon Jovanovich stars as Hermann. The production runs Feb. 4-20. https://www.staatsoper.de/en/productions/pique-dame/2024-02-04-1800-14096
