Recently in Concert Category

French Choral Music Concert by Melodia Women's Choir and Orchestra

Melodia Women's Choir and Orchestra, conducted by Cynthia Powell, celebrates the splendor of French choral music for women's voices with a rare all-female performance of Olivier Messiaen's epic work: Trois petites liturgies de la présence divine; plus works by André Caplet, Gustav Holst, Gabriel Fauré and Reza Vali. With Kyung-A Yoo, piano; Miranda Cuckson, violin; Francoise Murail, onde Martenot; and Naila Aziz, soprano.

Saturday May 16, 2009 - 8PM
Church of St. Ignatius Loyola
980 Park Avenue at East 84th Street, NYC
212-252-4134
Subway: #4, 5, 6 to 86th Street
$20 in advance, $25 at the door or 800-838-3006 (Brown Paper Tickets)

Read more about this at the Melodia website:

   www.melodiawomenschoir.org

Pacific Chorale to Present Bach's St. John Passion

Concert on April 11^th - Holy Saturday - to Feature the John Alexander Singers, Musica Angelica and Pacific Chorale at the Orange County Performing Arts Center

Pacific Chorale's 2008-2009 concert season concludes April 11^th at the Orange County Performing Arts Center's Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall at Segerstrom Center for the Arts with Johann Sebastian Bach's St. John Passion. The concert, sponsored in part by Phillip N. and Mary A. Lyons, will feature Pacific Chorale's 24-voice professional chamber choir, the John Alexander Singers, and period instrument ensemble Musica Angelica, echoing the performing forces of Bach's day. Members of the larger Pacific Chorale ensemble will take the role of the congregation in this Holy Saturday presentation. Featured soloists include tenor Aaron Sheehan as the Evangelist, and baritones Hugh Davies and Ralph Cato as Jesus and Pilate, respectively. One hour prior to the performance, Dr. Robert M. Istad, Director of Choral Studies at Cal State Fullerton and Assistant Conductor of Pacific Chorale, will provide insights into Bach's work and its performance in an onstage concert preview.

Pacific Chorale is one of America's great choirs, delighting national and international audiences with exceptional choral performances since 1968. Internationally recognized for exceptional artistic expression, stimulating Americanfocused programming, and influential education programs, Pacific Chorale is a touchstone in its field. Pacific Chorale presents a significant performance season of its own at the Orange County Performing Arts Center and is sought regularly to perform with the nation's leading symphonies. Under the inspired guidance of Artistic Director John Alexander, Pacific Chorale has infused an Old World art form with California's hallmark innovation and cultural independence.

Read more about this at the Pacific Chorale website:   www.pacificchorale.org

Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony Announce 2009-10 Season

Michael Tilson Thomas (MTT) today announced details of the San Francisco Symphony's (SFS) 2009-10 season, including the Orchestra's Centennial Initiatives – a multi-year expansion of its commissioning activities, an ambitious composer and artist residency project, and special programs, concerts and events designed to draw new audiences to orchestral music in Davies Symphony Hall and beyond, as the Orchestra prepares to mark its 100^th season in 2011-12.

Highlights include:

• Orchestra's 98^th Season Features Expanded Commissioning Activities and Ambitious Composer and Artist Residency Project as Part of SFS' Multi-Year Centennial Initiatives;
• New Project San Francisco Artist and Composer Residencies Feature Cellist Yo-Yo Ma and Composer George Benjamin;
• Season Includes Six SFS Commissions by Peter Lieberson, Osvaldo Golijov, John Adams, Rufus Wainwright, Victor Kissine, and Thomas Larcher;
• Orchestra to Perform Three World Premieres, One U.S. Premiere and 20 SFS Premieres;
• Pianist Emanuel Ax Performs Three World Premieres with Yo-Yo Ma and Dawn Upshaw;
• Michael Tilson Thomas' Fifteenth Anniversary Season Opens September 9 in a Gala Concert with Lang Lang and Concludes with Berlioz's Large Scale Choral Masterpiece Roméo et Juliette;
• MTT Leads the Orchestra in a Three-Week Mahler Festival with Concerts Recorded and Filmed for SFS Media and Keeping Score;
• Keeping Score - Broadcasts Slated for Fall 2009 on PBS, with Episodes on Berlioz, Shostakovich and Ives;
• SFS Media to Release Orchestra's Recording of Mahler's Symphony No. 8, Symphony of a Thousand;
• SFS and Musicians Ratify New Four-Year Contract Extending Beyond 2011-12 Centennial Season; ;
• New Media Agreement Expands Orchestra's Ability to Reach New Audiences in Innovative Ways;
• National Tour Includes Performances of Mahler's Symphony No. 2, Resurrection at Carnegie Hall;
• Distinguished Roster of Artists and Conductors Includes the SFS Debuts of Vasily Petrenko, Rufus Wainwright, Christine Schäfer, and David Fray, and the Return of Itzhak Perlman, Lang Lang, Marc-André Hamelin, Yefim Bronfman, Yuja Wang, Christian Tetzlaff, Susan Graham, and Thomas Hampson;
• Great Performers Series and Special Concerts Feature Visits by the Los Angeles Philharmonic with Gustavo Dudamel, Berlin Philharmonic with Sir Simon Rattle, Gewandhaus Orchestra of Leipzig with Riccardo Chailly, and the Mariinsky Orchestra with Valery Gergiev.

Read more about this at the San Francisco Symphony website:

   www.sfsymphony.org

Chicago Philharmonic to Celebrate Mendelssohn's 200^th Birthday with Special Concert

Chicago, IL - Join the world-renowned Chicago Philharmonic for an enchanting evening celebrating the 200^th birthday of German composer Felix Mendelssohn. Titled "Mendelssohn's 200^th Birthday," the concert begins at 7 p.m. on Sunday, March 15 at Pick-Staiger Hall on the campus of Northwestern University. This is the third concert in the Chicago Philharmonic's 2008-2009 season.

The concert begins with the powerful music of Bohemian Czech composer Bohuslav Martinu, the Quartet for Clarinet, Horn, Cello and Side Drum (1924), H. 139. Following that will be Franz Schubert's popular favorite the Trout Quintet in A Major, D. 677. This graceful and lively piece will be performed with a violin, viola, cello double bass and piano. The centerpiece of the evening will be Felix Mendelssohn's Octet for Strings in E-flat major. This was a piece Mendelssohn composed at the very young age of 16 and it is one that truly demonstrates his brilliance. It will be presented by a carefully chosen ensemble comprised of four violins, two violas and two cellos.

"We are thrilled to be able to offer such an exciting evening honoring Mendelssohn's 200^th birthday. He was a remarkable composer and the Octet is a real testament to his giftedness. We hope that people will take time out of their busy schedules to experience the magic of this performance," said artistic director James Berkenstock.

Read more about this at the Chicago Philharmonic website:

   http://www.chicagophilharmonic.org/

One World Symphony

Sung Jin Hong, Artistic Director and Conductor

Under the baton of Artistic Director Sung Jin Hong, One World Symphony and its feature artists will perform Sergei Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3 and Piotr Ilyitch Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin (highlights). All the details are on the attached jpeg press release as well as on our website. One World Symphony's Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3 will also celebrate the 100^th anniversary of its world premiere (1909).

Russian Romantics
Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 3 (1909)
Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin (highlights)

Two Performances at Two Different Locations

Friday, March 13, 2009 at 8:00p.m.
St. Ann and the Holy Trinity
157 Montague Street
Brooklyn Heights, New York

Sunday, March 15, 2009 at 4:00 p.m.
Ansche Chesed Synagogue
251 West 100th Street at West End Avenue
Manhattan, New York

$40 General Admission
$30 Seniors & Students

For more details and artists' biographies, please visit One World Symphony at:

   http://www.oneworldsymphony.org/

Mendelssohn: Lost Treasures and the Wagner Suppression

Felix Mendelssohn, one of the most popular composers of the Romantic era, is recognized as one of classical music's most prolific and gifted composers. Yet of his more than 770 compositions, over 270 are still unpublished, owing primarily to a campaign of suppression by composer Richard Wagner and his sympathizers in the post-revolution Germany of the 1850s and later during Hitler's rise to power.

After his death in 1847 at age 38, Felix Mendelssohn's reputation was vilified by composer Richard Wagner through his writings, specifically his book Judaism in Music, in which Wagner wrote that since Mendelssohn had the blood of a Jew, he was incapable of writing great music. As a result, publication of hundreds of Mendelssohn's works was suppressed as anti-Semitic feelings increased. Later, when Hitler came to power, Mendelssohn's scores were banned by the Nazis and were scattered around the globe. In a campaign to recover these lost works and to further restore Mendelssohn's reputation, Mr. Somary has rediscovered hundreds of unknown compositions of all genres, which Mendelssohn wrote from his teen years to the period just before his death.

Now on Wednesday, January 28, at 7:00 p.m. as the music world prepares to celebrate the 200^th anniversary of Mendelssohn's birth, the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust in association with The Mendelssohn Project will present a program of 13 world premieres of recital, vocal, and chamber works by Mendelssohn. Mendelssohn: Lost Treasures and the Wagner Suppression will take place in Edmond J. Safra Hall of the Museum and will feature pianists Orion Weiss and Anna Polonsky, the Shanghai Quartet, bass Kevin Deas, and mezzo-soprano Abigail Nims. Stephen Vann is artistic producer, and Stephen Somary, founder and artistic director of The Mendelssohn Project, is artistic director of this concert.

WQXR's Elliott Forrest, Peabody award-winning broadcaster and producer, will moderate a post-concert discussion with Stephen Somary and some of the evening's artists about this "new" music from Felix Mendelssohn and the preparations undertaken to ready the Mendelssohn manuscripts for performance, followed by questions from the audience.

Wednesday, January 28, 7 PM
Museum of Jewish Heritage
36 Battery Place
Battery Park City
New York, NY 10280
General Museum Info call 1.646.437.4200
Ticket Info call 1.646.437.4202

Read more about this at the Museum of Jewish Heritage website:

   http://www.mjhnyc.org/safrahall/visit_safra_21.htm#mendelssohn

JONATHAN BISS PERFORMS MOZART PIANO CONCERTO NO. 22 WITH
ORPHEUS CHAMBER ORCHESTRA AT CARNEGIE HALL SATURDAY, DECEMBER 6

On Saturday, December 6, pianist Jonathan Biss joins the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra in an 8 p.m. performance of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 22, K 482, in Isaac Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall. Other works on the program are Haydn's Overture to L'infedeltà delusa, Ives's The Unanswered Question, and Elliott Carter's Symphony No. 1.

Tickets from $29 - $98 are available at the Carnegie Hall box office, by calling CarnegieCharge at 212-247-7800, or online at www.carnegiehall.org. All ticket-holders are invited to attend a pre-concert lecture at 6:45 p.m. in the Kaplan Space at Carnegie Hall given by Dr. Carl Leafstedt, associate professor of music history at Trinity University in Texas.

Earlier this year Mr. Biss and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra recorded Mozart Piano Concertos 21 and 22 live for an EMI Classics CD that was released on October 14. In his liner notes for the recording, Mr. Biss describes his feelings about Mozart's piano concertos: "So much of the greatest music acts as an escape … from reality; Mozart simply is reality … every affect and every effect." Of Mozart's piano concertos, he writes, "Mozart's music is generally filled with miracles but the frequency and variety of the miracles are perhaps at their greatest in the piano concerti, and the two on this disc are almost absurdly rich in inspired and diverse material."

Tickets from $29 - $98. Read more about this at the Carnegie Hall website:

   www.carnegiehall.org

Online Pre-sale for Seattle Opera's Eagerly Anticipated 2009 Ring des Nibelungen Begins November 12

Phone and In-Person Sales begin November 15

Tickets for Seattle Opera's 2009 Ring cycles will go on sale to the general public in an online pre-sale beginning at 10:00 a.m. PST on November 12, and by phone and in person beginning Saturday, November 15 at 10:00 a.m. PST. Cycle tickets range from $302 to $1,508 for the four-opera package, and are already on sale to Seattle Opera subscribers and donors of $100 or more to the Ring fund. Tickets for this highly anticipated event are likely to sell quickly – for the 2005 cycle, tickets were sold out several months in advance, drawing operagoers from 49 states and 19 countries. Seattle Opera will present three full cycles of Wagner's four-opera saga from August 9, 2009, through August 30, 2009.

Seattle Opera has long been heralded as "America's Bayreuth" for its productions of the major works in the Wagner canon, especially the Ring cycle's four operas: Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Siegfried, and Götterdämmerung. In August the company will remount its stunning 2005 production, with the award-winning team of director Stephen Wadsworth, set designer Thomas Lynch, costumes by Martin Pakledinaz, and lighting design from Peter Kaczorowski. Maestro Robert Spano, the distinguished music director of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra who conducted the 2005 Ring also returns in 2009.

Read more about this at the Seattle Opera website:

   www.seattleopera.org

Julius Rudel to be Honored with Distinguished Achievement Award
by Opera Index at its Annual Winter Gala Sunday, January 11, 2009

On Sunday, January 11, 2009, Opera Index will present its 2009 Distinguished Achievement Award to Julius Rudel at its annual Winter Gala to be held in the Grand Salon at the Jumeirah Essex House, the luxury hotel on Central Park South. Opera Index is a non-profit organization that since 1984 has boosted the careers of more than 250 young singers through its annual vocal competitions. Each year it also recognizes the opera legends of our time with its Distinguished Achievement Award.

The Opera Index Winter Gala is the highlight of the organization's year of activities. Under the artistic direction of celebrated opera soprano Elaine Malbin and hosted by New York City Opera dramaturg Cori Ellison, the Winter Gala is a black tie affair where attendees, including many opera and theater stars, will celebrate the extraordinary career of Julius Rudel and have the opportunity to hear Opera Index's major competition winners – the opera stars of tomorrow – accompanied by James Besser. The Distinguished Achievement Award will be presented to Mr. Rudel by his son, Anthony Rudel, writer, broadcaster, and classical music expert, whose new book Hello Everybody! The Dawn of American Radio has just been published by Harcourt.

Tickets for the Opera Index Winter Gala range from $300 to $1000 and will be available beginning mid-November by contacting Opera Index Executive Director Robert F. Crosby at oirfc@aol.com or 212-721-9828. Read more about this at the Opera Index website:

   www.operaindexinc.org

The San Francisco Symphony and Michael Tilson Thomas
Release Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde On SFS Media

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, August 11, 2008 – On September 9 the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) and Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas (MTT) will release a live recording of Gustav Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde, the tenth installment of their Grammy Award-winning Mahler recording project, on the orchestra's own SFS Media label. This CD features baritone Thomas Hampson and tenor Stuart Skelton and was recorded in September 2007 in Davies Symphony Hall. The recording utilizes Sony's Super Audio 5.1 digital surround sound technology and has audio options for both traditional CD listeners and those with SACD players. SFS Media releases are distributed in the U.S. by Harmonia Mundi USA and in Canada by SRI and are available from shopsfsymphony.org and from Amazon, ArkivMusic & CD Universe among other retailers:

Since the project began in 2001, the San Francisco Symphony has recorded eight of the nine Mahler symphonies, Kindertotenlieder and the Adagio from the unfinished Tenth Symphony. Because of the commercial and artistic success of the Mahler recording project, the SFS has expanded it to include recordings of all Mahler's works for voices, chorus and orchestra, including a remastering of their earlier recording of Das klagende Lied. In 2007 Thomas Hampson and the SFS also recorded songs from Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn for the series. Additional works still to be recorded include Mahler's Rückert Lieder, Songs Of A Wayfarer and the balance of the songs from Des Knaben Wunderhorn. A recording of Mahler's Symphony No. 8, Symphony of a Thousand, is scheduled in Davies Symphony Hall this November 19-22. Soloists include sopranos Erin Wall, Elza van den Heever, and Laura Claycomb, mezzo-soprano Katarina Karneus, tenor Anthony Dean Griffey, and bass-baritone James Morris. The performance includes the San Francisco Symphony Chorus under the direction of Ragnar Bohlin, the San Francisco Girls Chorus and the Pacific Boychoir. Other soloists will be announced at a later date. The Symphony of a Thousand is slated for release in the fall of 2009 and will be paired with Mahler's Adagio from his unfinished Symphony No. 10, recorded by the SFS in Davies Symphony Hall in 2006.

Read more about this at the San Francisco Symphony website.