As One co-librettist and transgender filmmaker Kimberly Reed has created a video for the Op Ed page of The New York Times showing a day in her life – specifically April 7, when As One opened at Utah State University. In the video, Reed shows glimpses of the various ways she has attempted “to dispel misunderstanding and increase empathy” by introducing the quotidian stories of transgender individuals – through documentaries, news interviews, spoken word performances, and most recently through her work on As One.
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Songs from an Unmade Bed celebrates its 10th Anniversary
To celebrate the 10th anniversary of this unique musical there will be a special one-night-only performance at Subculture on May 26. Featuring the original star, Michael Winther and Kimberly Grigsby on the piano, Peter Sachon on cello and Shane Shanahan on percussion. It promises to be a special night and will sell out quickly, so we recommend buying tickets in advance (click here.)
You can read more about the piece here.
Vancouver Biennale brings together Vivian Fung and Vancouver Symphony Orchestra
The Vancouver Biennale brings together JUNO® Award-‐winning Canadian composer Vivian Fung and the GRAMMY® and JUNO® Award-‐winning Vancouver Symphony Orchestra for the world premiere performance of a commissioned work inspired by the Vancouver Biennale exhibition. The performance will be part of the VSO’s 2015-‐2016 season opening concert, and will launch live music as part of the Biennale program, further fulfilling on its vision to celebrate the full spectrum of Contemporary arts in one integrated exhibition.
“Apropos of the Biennale itself and our curatorial theme Open Borders Crossroads Vancouver, Vivian is known for crossing traditional boundaries and exploring a diversity of cultures in her music”, says President and Artistic Director Barrie Mowatt. “She has created an exhilarating sound portrait of our exhibition, brilliantly interpreting several of our public artworks into music”.
Five distinct artworks by renowned Contemporary artists from China, Brazil, India and Australia featured in the current Biennale exhibition, including “F Grass” by Ai Weiwei and “Giants” by OSGEMEOS, are the inspiration for the multi-‐movement work. The result is a wonderfully textured musical celebration of the Vancouver Biennale by one of Canada’s “must hear” Contemporary composers.
The Biennale is equally excited to be partnering for the first time with the VSO under the leadership of Maestro Bramwell Tovey. The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra performs the world premiere as part of its GOLDCORP Masterworks Gold series opening concert on Saturday September 26th. Tickets are available online through the VSO at www.vancouversymphony.ca, or by calling VSO Customer Service at 604-‐876-‐3434.
September will mark the beginning of the Vancouver Biennale incorporating live music performance into its exhibition. The CineFest LIVE program will feature a series of inspiring documentary films about music and the staring musicians will perform live in concert after each screening. Stay tuned for program announcements and online ticket sales.
Grey’s Opera Frankenstein at La Monnaie
The Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie (Brussels), 2015/16 season will premiere a new opera by Mark Grey on Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s Frankenstein.
The powerhouse cast and artistic team includes: Scott Hendricks, Sasha Cooke, Malena Ernman, Christopher Gillett, Andrew Schroeder, Robert Hayward, Hendrickje van Kerckhove
Àlex Ollé and La Fura dels Baus creative team. Conductors Leo Hussain and Bassem Samir Akiki
Life and death in the light of technological progress
‘Accursed creator! Why did you form a monster so hideous that even you turned from me in disgust?’ Unlike the film that was later made of it, Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein told the sad story of a creature born out of a scientific experiment who strives for good, yet does evil and is consequently disowned by his creator. As a philosophical reflection on the human condition, on the technology that gives humanity power over life and death, and as a warning to a society that threatens to cast out the individual, the American composer Mark Grey returns to this original story for his first full-length opera, 200 years after Mary Shelley wrote it. Thanks to the extremely opulent visual idiom of Àlex Ollé and the inspiring conducting of Leo Hussain and Bassem Akiki, this world premiere promises to be a treat for both the eye and the ear.
Paterson/Campbell The Whole Truth premieres at UrbanArias
The Whole Truth is a short comic opera with music by Robert Paterson and a libretto by Mark Campbell (Bastianello & Lucrezia), based on a short story by author Stephen McCauley. A married women attempts to delude herself into thinking she can carry on two affairs at the same time. The first with a fellow dentist and the new affair with a young carpenter who has come to work on her and her husband’s home.
“The Whole Truth is like Opera Espresso: short, concentrated, and energizing.”–DC Metro Theater Arts
Performances are at Atlas Performing Arts Center (in the heart of DC’s vibrant and eclectic H Street neighborhood) and produced by UrbanArias.
Starring Amedee Royer, Kate Jackman, Andrew McLaughlin and Jeffrey Gates
Accompanied by R. Timothy McReynolds (piano)
Directed by Courtney Kalbacker
Toronto Symphony Premiere’s Fung Violin Concerto No. 2
The world premiere of Violin Concerto No. 2, commissioned by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra for concertmaster Jonathan Crow, will be featured at TSO’s New Creations Festival.
“A Mind of Winter” Program:
Dai Fujikura: Tocar y Luchar (Canadian Premiere)
George Benjamin: A Mind of Winter (Canadian Premiere)
Vivian Fung: Violin Concerto 2 (World Premiere/TSO Commission)
Dutilleux: Métaboles
Performers:
Peter Oundjian, conductor and host
George Benjamin, conductor
Barbara Hannigan, soprano
Jonathan Crow, violin
Fung’s first Violin Concerto will be played by the Milwaukee Symphony on May 14-17 with soloist Kristin Lee.
Lyric Opera of Kansas City Silent Night
The Lyric Opera of Kansas City is the seventh company to produce the Pulitzer Prize winning opera Silent Night, with 4 performances on Feb. 21 through March 1.
Read the Kansas City Star’s piece about the opera
The next company to produce Silent Night will be Opera de Montreal in May of 2015.
125 Commissions for Carnegie Hall’s 125th Anniversary
Carnegie Hall celebrates its 125th anniversary by honoring the present and looking to the future with the launch of an unprecedented commissioning project. Between the 2015 and 2020 seasons, at least 125 new works will be commissioned from leading composers—both established and emerging—and premiered at Carnegie Hall. New solo, chamber, and orchestral music, including BHM composer Kevin Puts, who will write a new work for the Baltimore Symphony.
Kennedy Center names Mason Bates as their First Composer in Residence
One of today’s most innovative and in-demand composers, Mason Bates will join the Kennedy Center in the 2015-2016 Season as its first Composer-In-Residence. During his three-year residency, Bates will compose music across artistic genres and curate a new music series. He will also advance initiatives that use technology to educate audiences and will encourage the inclusion of local artists and DJs in performances at the Kennedy Center. The new music concerts will present the works of living composers using Bates’s signature re-imagining of the classical music experience. His innovative ideas have been extremely effective at bringing large and enthusiastic audiences to new music concerts throughout the United States and abroad.
Mason’s compositions use an expanded electro-acoustic palette to bring to life unusual and imaginative narrative forms, a uniquely 21st century approach to musical storytelling. He was recently named the second-most performed living composer, and the widespread embrace of his music has done much to change the sound of the orchestra. When he received the Heinz medal in the Humanities in 2012, Teresa Heinz said of Mason’s work:
“Mason Bates illustrates what can happen when a truly talented artist dares to stretch and even reinvent the boundaries of an art form. By merging symphonic orchestration with electronic sound and tackling broad creative themes, he is breathing new life into orchestral music and translating it for a new generation.”
Under the new vision of President Deborah F. Rutter, the Kennedy Center is re-imagining ways of presenting the arts in the 21st century through immersive audience engagement and inter-disciplinary programming. The artist’s creative vision will be at the center of the dialogue between the Kennedy Center and its patrons, allowing audiences to experience the vibrancy of the creative process more directly. By presenting new art to new audiences in new ways, Mason Bates will initiate a new era of creative programming at the Kennedy Center that will advance the Center’s ambition of discovering and nurturing the next generation of artistic expression.
Planned Kennedy Center commissions over the course of Bates’s residency include works for the National Symphony Orchestra, Washington National Opera, the Fortas Chamber Music Concerts, and performances of his contemporary dance programming. He will also be featured as a performer at many Kennedy Center performances across genres.
Read the Washington Post announcement here.
Colina REQUINAUTS CD
