Trombonist Jörgen van Rijen will play the North American premiere of Samy Moussa’s new concerto, Yericho, with the Toronto Symphony. The April 3-6 program, conducted by Gustavo Gimeno, will also feature cellist Joseph Johnson in Richard Strauss’ tone poem Don Quixote. https://www.tso.ca/concerts-and-events/events/r-strausss-don-quixote/
Russian composer Alexander Scriabin had a condition called synesthesia, which allowed him to see colors as he heard musical pitches. On April 4-6, 2024, music director Andris Nelsons will lead the Boston Symphony in an exploration of Scriabin’s colorful perspective. With help from pianist Yefim Bronfman, the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, and two lighting designers, the […]
In 2022 Michelle Cann won the Sphinx Medal of Excellence. The brilliant pianist will make her Indianapolis Symphony debut on April 4, playing Tchaikovsky’s First Concerto. ISO assistant conductor Su-Han Yang conducts Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 3. https://www.indianapolissymphony.org/event/tchaikovsky-1st-piano-concerto/
On April 4-6, two artists will make their debuts with the National Symphony: conductor Bernard Labadie and bass-baritone Michael Sumuel. Soprano Joèlle Harvey and the Washington Chorus for Fauré’s Requiem. The program opens with Symphony No. 4 by Henri-Joseph Rigel, written in 1774, and Mozart’s Symphony No. 31, Paris, composed four years later. https://www.kennedy-center.org/nso/home/2023-2024/labadie-faure/
In 2022, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and pianist Anne-Marie McDermott premiered Chris Rogerson’s Samaa’. SPCO and McDermott will reconvene April 5-7 to give the world premiere of Rogerson’s new expansion of that work. McDermott will also join members of the orchestra for chamber works by Chausson and Poulenc. https://content.thespco.org/events/anne-marie-mcdermott-plays-chausson-poulenc-and-rogerson/
Throughout the 2023-34 season, the San Francisco Symphony will present its SoundBox series, curated by four musicians on each of four weekends. The small Soundbox space is designed to allow for multi-sensory, interactive experiences. Expect the unexpected. Get ready to see musical experiments in action. The details of the SoundBox programs remain under wraps, but […]
What would you do for love if it meant turning against all that you know? Based on the film by Lars von Triers, composer Missy Mizzoli and librettist Royce Vavrek have created a modern masterpiece in their opera Breaking the Waves. This production stars Kiera Duffy and Benjamin Taylor. (April 6-14) https://detroitopera.org/season-schedule/breaking-the-waves/
There are two world premieres and a U.K. premiere in the April 7 program by the London Symphony Orchestra, appropriately titled Music of Tomorrow. François-Xavier Roth conducts works by Christian Drew, Unsuk Chin, Donghoon Shin, and Stef Conner, on a concert that concludes with Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra. The new cello concert by Shin will […]
The 16th and 21st centuries will be represented equally in the Tallis Scholars’ April 8 appearance at Carnegie Hall. Sacred vocal music by William Byrd, Robert White, and Robert Parsons is paired against works by Nico Muhly and Eric Whitacre, plus the New York premiere of David Lang’s sun-centered, a Carnegie co-commission. https://www.carnegiehall.org/calendar/2024/04/08/the-tallis-scholars-0730pm
On April 11, the Sonic Spectrum series at Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center presents the New York premiere of a new work for violin, piano, and cello by David Ludwig. The imaginative program also includes recent works by Felipe Lara, Kurt Schwertsik, Johannes Maria Staud, and Viet Cuong. https://www.chambermusicsociety.org/our-concerts/at-lincoln-center/events/sonic-spectrum-iii/
On April 11-13, the Minnesota Orchestra presents the U.S. premiere of Rise Up, O Sun! by Jamaican composer Eleanor Alberga. Concertmaster Erin Keefe is soloist for the Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1, and Thomas Søndergård leads the Minnesota Chorale in Brahms’ Schicksalslied. https://www.minnesotaorchestra.org/tickets/calendar/classical/sondergard-keefe-and-brahms/
The 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Music went to rapper Kendrick Lamar’s album Damn. On April 12, as part of their Fusion series, the Baltimore Symphony will perform Igor DAMN Stravinsky, a program integrating Lamar’s songs with movements from another masterwork, Stravinsky’s Petrouchka. Steve Hackman conducts. https://my.bsomusic.org/overview/18524
Although Laura Kaminsky’s opera As One premiered in 2014, its libretto by Mark Campbell and Kimberly Reed exploring gender identity has never been more relevant. Kentucky Opera will present the work April 12-19. https://kyopera.org/as-one/
To mark the 100th birthday of its founder, Neville Marriner, the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields will present three programs in three locations under the guest directorship of Joshua Bell and Jaime Martin. The April 15 concert will include a world premiere by British composer Errollyn Wallen along with some classics that Marriner […]
Project 19 is an initiative launched by the New York Philharmonic in 2020 to commission works by female composers. The latest creation in that series is Olga Neuwirth’s Keyframes for a Hippogriff — Musical Calligrams, which will receive its U.S. premiere on April 18-20. Neuwirth’s work uses texts by Ariosto, Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, Friedrich […]
On April 18-21, Opera Carolina will perform Saint-Saëns’s Samson and Delilah, a biblical drama of seduction and betrayal. The cast includes Alyson Cambridge, Kyle Van Schoonhoven, and Donovan Singletary. https://operacarolina.org/2023-2024/
Soprano Melody Moore and baritone Lucas Meachem will be the guest soloists on April 18 and 20 when the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra performs a rarely heard work. Alexander von Zemlinsky’s Lyric Symphony sets German translations of texts by Bengali poet and philosopher Rabindranath Tragore. James Conlon conducts this concert, which opens with Beethoven’s Symphony No. […]
Resilience is the title of the April 19-21 program by the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra. Trevor Weston’s Aqua, a commission made via the Emerging Black Composers Project, will receive its world premiere. Works by Caroline Shaw, Stravinsky, and Schumann are also on tap. https://www.thesfco.org/main-stage-202324
Xian Zhang is the first of three women conductors making their podium debuts with the Boston Symphony in the 2024-25 season. The Oct. 17-19 program includes Landscape Impression by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Chen Yi, Schumann’s Piano Concerto—featuring Jonathan Biss—and Mozart’s elegant Symphony No. 39. https://www.bso.org/events/chen-schumann-mozart?performance=2024-10-17-19:30
San Jose Opera will produce its first-ever Spanish-language opera, Florencia en al Amazones by Mexican composer Daniel Catan. Directed by Crystal Manich and conducted by Joseph Marcheso, the opera is based on Gabriel García Márquez’s novel Love in the Time of Cholera. Performances run April 20-May 5. https://www.operasj.org/
The Irish National Opera and the Irish Baroque Orchestra have teamed up over the past few seasons to present the operas of Vivaldi. This time, it’s L’Olimpiade, April 20-June 1. Mezzo-soprano Gemma Ní Bhriain stars, with Peter Whelan conducting a production staged by Daisy Evans. https://www.irishnationalopera.ie/whats-on/current-upcoming-productions/lolimpiade
The Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra has commissioned a new work from L.A.-based composer Derrick Skye. The premiere of To Be a Horizon, described as multicultural exploration designed to deconstruct cultural divides, will take place April 20-21, with guests Tereza Stanislav on violin and Yura Lee on viola. Conductor Jaime Martín will also lead Mozart’s Sinfonia […]
Combining two short works into one new production directed by Tamara Trunova, the Bavarian State Opera will present Respighi’s Lucrezia and Carl Orff’s Der Mond (“The Moon”) April 24-May 4. Ustina Dubitsky conducts; the cast includes Natalie Lewis, Louise Foor, and Liam Bonthrone. https://www.staatsoper.de/en/productions/lucrezia-mond-opst-prod-24/2024-04-24-1930-14183
Leading the Bamberg Symphony, conductor Jakub Hrůša will make his Carnegie Hall debut on April 24. In an evening of Romantic powerhouse works, the Brahms Third Symphony and Schumann’s Piano Concerto are bookended by Wagner. Hélène Grimaud will play the Schumann. https://www.carnegiehall.org/calendar/2024/04/24/bamberg-symphony-0800pm
The year 2024 marks the 150th anniversary of Arnold Schoenberg’s birth. The Orchestre symphonique de Montréal will celebrate that landmark with Rafael Payare conducting two Schoenberg works: Verklärte Nacht and the symphonic poem Pelleas und Melisande. The April 24-25 concert also features Maria João Pires as the soloist in Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4. https://www.osm.ca/en/concerts/maria-joao-pires-returns-to-the-osm/
The chance to hear the Pittsburgh Symphony, under Manfred Honeck, play Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony on the 200th anniversary of the work’s first performance is reason enough to head to Heinz Hall. But on the April 25-28 program, audiences will also be treated to a world premiere, a new work by Canadian composer Samy Moussa, whose […]
From April 25-June 14, Deutsch Oper Berlin will mount a new production of Strauss’ Intermezzo, directed by Tobias Kratzer; it is his second of three new Strauss productions planned with DOB. Maria Bengtsson and Thomas Johannes Mayer star, with Donald Runnicles on the podium. https://deutscheoperberlin.de/en_EN/calendar/intermezzo.17512231
At age 91, Sofia Gubaidulina is still an active composer. The Boston Symphony Orchestra will present the American premiere of her Prologue for Orchestra on April 25-27, 2024. With Andris Nelsons conducting, the program also features Thomas Rolfs as soloist in the Trumpet Concerto of another living composer, Detlev Glanert. Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 4 completes […]
A new work by Joel Thompson takes its place amid an interesting collection of American and Mexican pieces on the Atlanta Symphony’s April 25-26 program. Lina Gonzalez-Granados conducts Gabriela Ortiz’s Kauyumari, Gabriela Lena Frank’s Walkabout: Concerto for Orchestra, and Arturo Márquez’s Danzón No. 2. Pianist Cédric Tiberghien will be the soloist in Gershwin’s Rhapsody in […]
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 Passion of Mary Cardwell Dawson will be performed by Pittsburgh Opera April 27-May 5, marking the first time it’s been done in the main character’s native city. This play by Sandra Seaton tells the story of visionary impresaria Dawson, who founded the National Negro Opera Company. The score includes excerpts from Carmen and new […]
Delayed by the pandemic, Vladimir Jurowski’s planned Ring cycle at last reaches its conclusion as he conducts a semi-staged production of Wagner’s Götterdämmerung with the London Philharmonic on April 27. The cast includes Burkhard Fritz as Siegfried and Svetlana Sozdateleva as Brünnhilde. https://lpo.org.uk/event/gotterdammerung/
Enargeia is a work for voice and orchestra, a compilation of songs by Hildegard von Bingen, Hildur Guðnadóttir, Missy Mazzoli, and Sarah Kirkland Snider as arranged by Jarkko Riihimäki. The piece will receive its North American premiere by the Toronto Symphony May 1-2, with mezzo-soprano Emily D’Angelo. Under the baton of Gustavo Gimeno, the program […]
Composer Jake Heggie’s new work for string quartet will receive its New York premiere May 2 at the hands of the Miró Quartet as part of the Sonic Spectrum series at Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Hornist David Byrd-Marrow will also be on hand to join the Miró for quintets by Dai Fujikura and […]
Composer Bryce Dessner will be in the spotlight for two weekends at the Cincinnati Symphony, the second featuring the U.S. premiere of his new piano concerto, with Alice Sara Ott as soloist. Dessner’s short work, Mari, opens the May 3-4 program, which concludes with Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony under the baton of Louis Langrée. https://www.cincinnatisymphony.org/tickets-and-events/buy-tickets/cso/2324-cso-season/beethoven-symphony-no.-7--dessner-premieres/
Jean-Joseph Mouret (1682-1738) broke with operatic tradition with his ballet-opera Les Fêtes de Thalie, daring to include contemporary characters in the story rather than only historical or mythological ones. Opera Lafayette will present the modern premiere of this opera on May 4 in Washington, D.C., and on May 5 in New York. With music direction […]
On May 5 at Carnegie Hall, Simon Rattle will conduct the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in the U.S. premiere of a new work by Thomas Adès. The program also includes the Prelude and “Liebestod” from Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde as well as Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony, Pastoral. https://www.carnegiehall.org/calendar/2024/05/03/bavarian-radio-symphony-orchestra-0800pm
