October 2009

Oct 3 – Nov 7: JOYCE DiDONATO returns to the Metropolitan Opera in her signature role, Rosina, in the winning Bart Sher production of Rossini’s Barber of Seville. VIRGIN CLASSICS marks the occasion with the release on October 20 of an all-Rossini album she recorded in Rome this summer as a follow-up to her stunning all-Handel label debut, Furore. [Oct 3, 8, 10, 15, 24, 27, 31, Nov 4, 7: Met]

Oct 5–30: Chicago gets a daring new devil when RENE PAPE assumes the role of Méphistophélès in Gounod’s Faust at Lyric Opera of Chicago. When Pape made his debut in the role at the Met Opera, the New York Times reported: “He already owns the role. His singing is robust, incisive, and chilling.” [Oct 5, 8, 11, 14, 17, 20, 23, 30: Chicago, IL]

Oct 6: Following up a widely-acclaimed debut CD of works by Debussy, Fauré and Ravel for VIRGIN CLASSICS, the Ebène Quartet has recorded Brahms’s Piano Quintet and String Quartet No. 1 for the label, being released this month. [Virgin Classics]

Oct 8–24: ALAN GILBERT makes his first international appearances as Music Director of the New York Philharmonic on a continent-spanning tour of Asia, with performances at the Hanoi Opera House (the orchestra’s debut in Vietnam), in Japan, Korea, Singapore, and Abu Dhabi – another debut. [Oct 8-10: Japan; Oct 12-13: Korea; Oct 16-17: Vietnam; Oct 19-20: Singapore; Oct 23-24: Abu Dhabi]

Oct 13 – Jan 1: SUSAN GRAHAM returns to the Met in her treasurable portrayal of Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier, including a performance on New Year’s Day 2010. [Oct 13, 16, 19, 22, Jan 1: Met]

Oct 14: Described by the New York Times as “a tireless champion of musical rarities,” LEON BOTSTEIN launches the American Symphony OrchestrA’s 2009-10 Lincoln Center season with the latest in a series of Romantic French operas-in-concert: Vincent d’Indy’s rarely-heard Fervaal. [AFH]

Oct 15: THOMAS HAMPSON appears in a gala concert with Denyce Graves and the Dallas Opera Orchestra to celebrate the opening of the Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House at the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts. [Dallas, TX]

Oct 17: MICHAEL HERSCH’s Last Autumn for horn and cello receives its world premiere, played by Jamie Hersch, horn, and Daniel Gaisford, cello, in Philadelphia’s St. Mark’s Church. [Philadelphia, PA]

Oct 22: GIL SHAHAM gives an all-Bach solo recital at London’s esteemed Wigmore Hall, playing the unaccompanied Partitas Nos. 2 and 3 and Sonata No. 2. [London]

Oct 22 – Nov 8: The world premiere of STEVEN MACKEY’s Double Concerto for Guitar and Violin is performed by the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields at Cadogan Hall, with Anthony Marwood, violin, and the composer playing on guitar. This work, a co-commission with the Irish Chamber Orchestra, is also performed in Ireland and at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, IN. [Oct 22: London; Oct 29, 30, 31: Limerick, Ireland; Nov 8: South Bend, IN]

Oct 23–31: Verdi’s Otello opens the opera season in the DALLAS OPERA’s spectacular new home, the Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House, designed by Norman Foster. Otello stars tenor Clifton Forbis, a Dallas Opera Chorus alumnus, in the title role. The new Dallas Opera production is directed by Tim Albery, with set and costume designs by Anthony Baker, both making their company debuts. German soprano Annette Dasch makes her American debut as Desdemona, and the Dallas Opera’s music director, Graeme Jenkins, conducts. [Oct 23, 25, 28, 31: Dallas, TX]

Oct 23 – Nov 1: German-Canadian cellist JOHANNES MOSER tours North America with the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra under Ivor Bolton, visiting Costa Mesa, CA [Oct 23], Tucson, AZ [Oct 25], Seattle, WA [Oct 27], Davis, CA [Oct 28], Ithaca, NY [Oct 30], Greenvale, NY [Oct 31], and New York City [Nov 1: AFH].

Oct 27: The CURTIS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA performs Richard Strauss’s Don Juan, Ranjbaran’s Violin Concerto, and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade, with conductor JoAnn Falletta and violinist Elissa Lee Koljonen. [Philadelphia, PA]

November 2009

Nov (date tba): EMI CLASSICS and its sister label VIRGIN CLASSICS offer a cornucopia of new releases just in time for holiday-season shopping. November release highlights include: a DVD performance of Handel’s Messiah, commemorating the 250th anniversary of the death of the composer and the 800th anniversary of the University of Cambridge, recorded this past Easter and marking the first live cinema broadcast of a choral concert from King’s College, Cambridge; Chopin’s Complete Waltzes from Gilmore Award-winning pianist Ingrid Fliter; violinist Sarah Chang performing concertos by Bruch and Brahms; and the remarkable young French pianist David Fray playing Schubert’s Impromptus Op. 90 and Moments Musicaux. [EMI/Virgin Classics]

Nov 5–10: THOMAS HAMPSON’s first concerts as the New York Philharmonic’s Artist-in-Residence are in Zemlinsky’s Lyric Symphony, conducted by Vladimir Jurowski. [Nov 5, 6, 7, 10: AFH]

Nov 13 – March 29: Pictures Reframed unites two strikingly original artists – Norwegian pianist LEIF OVE ANDSNES and Berlin-based South African visual artist Robin Rhode, known for his creative “moving” drawings and performance-based videos – in a collaborative interpretation of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, Schumann's Kinderszenen, and new music by Thomas Larcher. Drawings and video art by Rhode, inspired by the music, will be projected onto a specially-designed set that surrounds Andsnes at the piano on stage. Andsnes and Rhode give world premiere performances at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall [Nov 13 and 14], and immediately tour the music-and-art piece, sponsored by Norway’s StatoilHydro, in North America and Europe [Calgary, Alberta; Chapel Hill, NC; Washington DC; and Houston, TX; Brussels, Moscow, Stockholm, Hamburg, Munich, London, Naples, Berlin, Paris, Copenhagen, Stavanger, Oslo, and Cologne]. The tour ends in Abu Dhabi. EMI CLASSICS will release both a DVD and a CD on November 3 (digital release might come earlier in the fall).

Nov 15: Pianist PIERRE-LAURENT AIMARD performs a solo piano recital at the newly renovated Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center. The program includes music by Mozart, Benjamin, Stockhausen, and Beethoven. [ATH]

Nov 15: In the second concert of their Lincoln Center season, LEON BOTSTEIN conducts the AMERICAN SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA in “The Remains of Romanticism,” a program including three US premieres: Robert Fuchs’s Serenade No. 1, Siegmund von Hausegger’s symphonic poem Wieland der Schmied, and Hermann Goetz’s Concerto for Violin and Orchestra. Ludwig Thuille and Richard Strauss are also on the program. [AFH]

Nov 19: THOMAS HAMPSON and SUSAN GRAHAM co-host the 2009 Opera News Awards for the third year in a row during a gala evening presented by the METROPOLITAN OPERA GUILD. This is the fifth annual presentation of the Opera News Awards; each of the co-hosts already has one in a trophy case at home. [Gotham Hall]

Nov 19–22: Venezuelan-American pianist – and master improviser – GABRIELA MONTERO makes her debut with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra playing Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21. [Nov 19, 20, 21, 22: Seattle, WA]

Nov 19–22: GIL SHAHAM was handed the prestigious Avery Fisher Prize last season by his friend Gustavo Dudamel during a PBS Live From Lincoln Center telecast. With the Los Angeles Philharmonic conducted by Dudamel, Shaham plays Berg’s hauntingly beautiful Violin Concerto – one of several violin concertos composed in the 1930s that Shaham has programmed for this and coming seasons. [Nov 19, 21, 22: Los Angeles, CA]

Nov 29 – Dec 19: JOYCE DiDONATO continues her juggernaut tour of American opera houses singing her one-of-a-kind Rosina alongside Juan Diego Flórez in Rossini’s Barber of Seville. This marks her debut at Los Angeles Opera. [Nov 29, Dec 2, 6, 9, 13, 16, 19: Los Angeles, CA]

Nov 30 – Dec 8: The Grammy-winning vocal ensemble CHANTICLEER gives its annual Christmas concerts at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and adds Chicago to its itinerary. For the past four years the enormously popular “Christmas with Chanticleer” tour has included an appearance on NBC’s Today show. [Nov 30, Dec 1, 3: Met Museum; Dec 7, 8: Chicago, IL]

December 2009

Dec 3 – Jan 2: ANNA NETREBKO, the “reigning new diva of the early 21st century,” appears at the Metropolitan Opera as the doomed Antonia in a new production of Offenbach’s Contes d’Hoffman by Tony Award-winner Bartlett Sher (South Pacific). [Dec 3, 7, 11, 16, 19, 23, 26, 30, Jan 2: Met]

Dec 3 – May 31: NIKOLAJ ZNAIDER embarks on an international tour with some of the world’s most celebrated orchestras, performing the Elgar Violin Concerto on a Guarneri “del Gesù” that Fritz Kreisler owned at the time HE played the work’s first performance a century ago (Nov 10, 1910). The tour starts in Sweden with the Gothenburg Symphony before continuing in the US (see Jan 7) and returning to Europe. [Dec 3, 4: Gothenburg (Gothenburg Symphony); April 2: Paris (Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France); May 6, 7: Amsterdam and 8: Eindhoven (Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra); May 14, 15, 16: Madrid (National Orchestra of Madrid); May 28: St. Petersburg (White Nights Festival); May 28, 29, 30, 31: Vienna (Vienna Philharmonic)]

Dec 8: EIGHTH BLACKBIRD presents two substantial new programs in its Harris Theater series in Chicago this season. Performing from memory, the ensemble moves, speaks, sings, and plays in shows that blur the boundaries between music and theater. In this, the first show, Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire has everything: feverish intensity, gallows humor, and touching pathos. Director Mark DeChiazza uses movement and gesture to connect to the human core of this remarkable work. Dancer Elyssa Dole and legendary soprano Lucy Shelton join eighth blackbird. [Chicago, IL]

Dec 14: CLASSICAL ACTION presents Emanuel Ax in a recital at a private Manhattan loft to benefit the organization’s ongoing fight against AIDS. [private residence]

Dec 17: MARC-ANDRE DALBAVIE’s new work for large chamber ensemble is performed by members of the New York Philharmonic in “Contact – the New Music Series,” led by New York Philharmonic Composer-in-Residence, Magnus Lindberg, a long-time friend and colleague of the composer. [Symphony Space]

Dec 31: THOMAS HAMPSON celebrates an all-American New Year’s Eve with the New York Philharmonic, singing works by Copland and Gershwin and a few selections from Broadway musicals. ALAN GILBERT is on the podium. The performance is to be broadcast on PBS’s Live >From Lincoln Center. [AFH]

Dec 31 – Feb 13: EMI CLASSICS’ recording artist Angela Gheorghiu, one of the greatest sopranos on the stage today, stars at the Met as Carmen, a role she has recorded to great acclaim for her label. [Dec 31, Jan 5, 8, 12, 16, 21, 27, 30, Feb 1, 5, 9, 13: Met]

January 2010

Jan 7–23: NIKOLAJ ZNAIDER’s international tour performing the Elgar Violin Concerto (see Dec 3) reaches the US for performances with the National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Leonard Slatkin, the Boston Symphony under Sir Colin Davis, and the Milwaukee Symphony led by Edo de Waart. [Jan 7, 8, 9: Washington, DC; Jan 14, 15, 16, 19: Boston, MA; Jan 22, 23: Milwaukee, WI]

Jan 12: The powerhouse pianist YEFIM BRONFMAN plays Rachmaninov and Prokofiev with his hometown orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, conducted by its Music Director, ALAN GILBERT. [AFH]

Jan 14 – Feb 4: THOMAS HAMPSON joins the New York Philharmonic, led by ALAN GILBERT, in John Adams’s Wound-Dresser, based on Walt Whitman’s devastating poem. They take the program, which also includes Haydn and Berg, on Gilbert’s first European tour as the NYP’s music director, to Spain, Germany, France, and the UK’s Barbican Hall. [Jan 14, 15, 16: AFH; Jan 22: Barcelona; Jan 24: Madrid; Jan 28: Cologne; Jan 30: Dortmund; Feb 2: Paris; Feb 4: London]

Jan 21 – Feb 3: YEFIM BRONFMAN joins ALAN GILBERT on a European tour with the New York Philharmonic, starting off in Catalonia’s capital and ending in London’s Barbican Hall. [Jan 21: Barcelona; Jan 23: Madrid; Jan 26: Zurich; Jan 27: Frankfurt; Jan 29: Cologne; Feb 1: Paris; Feb 3: London]

Jan 21 – Feb 7: PIERRE-LAURENT AIMARD joins frequent collaborator Pierre Boulez for a series of concerts with two of America’s most prestigious orchestras. Aimard and fellow pianist Tamara Stefanovich are the guest soloists for three performances of Bartók’s Concerto for Two Pianos and Percussion with the Chicago Symphony under Boulez; they all repeat the program a week later at Carnegie Hall. On Jan 24, Aimard and Chicago Symphony members take part in a tribute to “Boulez @ 85” in Chicago. On Feb 4, Aimard and Boulez meet up again – this time with the Cleveland Orchestra – to play Ravel’s Piano Concerto. [Jan 21–24: Chicago, IL; Feb 1: CH; Feb 4, 6, 7: Cleveland, OH]

Jan 28–31: PIERRE-LAURENT AIMARD traverses both Ravel’s Concerto for Left Hand and Elliott Carter’s Dialogues with the Boston Symphony, conducted by James Levine, in concerts at Symphony Hall and Carnegie Hall. [Jan 28, 29, 30: Boston, MA; Jan 31: CH]

Jan 29: LEON BOTSTEIN conducts the AMERICAN SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA in “An American Biography: The Music of Henry Cowell,” featuring six works by the unique west-coast master, including his Symphonies Nos. 2 and 11 and the New York premiere of Atlantis. [AFH]

February 2010

Feb 3: The METROPOLITAN OPERA GUILD presents the debut of a new series of public interviews with important figures from the world of opera. “Met Mastersingers: Renée Fleming” is the first in the series. [Town Hall]

Feb 6–12: STEVEN STUCKY is the featured composer at the Winnipeg Symphony’s 92nd annual New Music Festival (repertoire tba). WSO’s music director Alexander Mickelthwate conducts. Also at the festival, on Feb 11, Grammy-winning new music ensemble EIGHTH BLACKBIRD performs Steve Reich’s Double Sextet, evanescence by Canadian composer Gordon Fitzell, Catch by Thomas Adès, and Meanwhile by Stephen Hartke. [Feb 6–12: Winnipeg, Canada]

Feb 10 – April 9: NIKOLAJ ZNAIDER performs with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and conductor Riccardo Chailly on Feb 27 at Carnegie Hall, playing Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto. This concert is part of a US and European tour opening in Leipzig and continuing to California and Newark, with later stops in Warsaw, Moscow, and St. Petersburg. [Feb 10: Leipzig; Feb 18: Palm Desert, CA; Feb 19: Costa Mesa, CA; Feb 26: Newark; Feb 27: CH; April 5: Warsaw; April 7: Moscow; April 9: St. Petersburg]

Feb 11–14: YEFIM BRONFMAN plays Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas. After the orchestral concerts, he is joined by members of the orchestra for an evening of chamber music (Feb 14), including MARC-ANDRE DALBAVIE’s Piano Trio and quintets by Beethoven and Brahms. [Feb 11, 12, 13, 14: Chicago, IL]

Feb 20 – March 17: After a wild success at the Met last season as Berlioz’s Marguerite, SUSAN GRAHAM heads west for more of his Damnation of Faust at Lyric Opera of Chicago. [Feb 20, 24, March 2, 5, 8, 13, 17: Chicago, IL]

Feb 20 – March 20: ANNA NETREBKO stars as Mimì in the Met’s beloved Zeffirelli production of Puccini’s La bohème. [Feb 20, 24, 27, March 2, 6, 10, 13, 17, 20: Met]

Feb 22–24: EIGHTH BLACKBIRD takes up another college residency (it has five this season) at the CURTIS INSTITUTE OF MUSIC. On Feb 24, Curtis students join the ensemble to perform the Pulitzer Prize-winning Double Sextet, composed for eighth blackbird by Steve Reich. [Feb 22–24: Philadelphia, PA]

Feb 24: LEON BOTSTEIN conducts the AMERICAN SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA in “After the Thaw,” a concert surveying the musical landscape of the Soviet Union after Stalin’s death. Featured are the US premiere of Boris Tchaikovsky’s Music for Orchestra (1987), his Cello Concerto, and his Symphony No. 5, as well as Alexander Loshkin’s Symphony No. 4. [AFH]

Feb 25–27: GIL SHAHAM plays Barber’s Violin Concerto (another great one written in the 1930s) with the New York Philharmonic under David Robertson; the Saturday matinee concert includes Beethoven’s Septet. [Feb 25, 26, 27: AFH]

Feb 26: Pianist JEREMY DENK joins violinist Joshua Bell for a recital at Walt Disney Concert Hall. [Los Angeles, CA]

Feb 26–28: GABRIELA MONTERO makes her debut with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra playing Grieg’s Piano Concerto, as well as her trademark improvisations. [Feb 26, 27, 28: Detroit, MI]

Feb 27: Gary Louie, saxophone, and Daniel Gaisford, cello, play the world premiere of MICHAEL HERSCH’s Last Autumn for alto saxophone and cello (commissioned by the Washington Performing Arts Society and Gary Louie), on a program of Michael Hersch’s music. [Merkin Concert Hall]

Feb 28 – March 26: CURTIS ON TOUR takes the extraordinary artistry of the CURTIS INSTITUTE OF MUSIC to audiences nationwide, with leading musicians of tomorrow performing alongside faculty members Ida Kavafian and Peter Wiley (‘74). The program marks the centenary of celebrated Curtis alumnus Samuel Barber (‘34), and also features miniatures commissioned for the tour from two Curtis composition students. [Feb 28: Detroit, MI; Mar 6: Davis, CA; Mar 13: Kennett Square, PA; Mar 20: Rockport, ME; Mar 21: Orono, ME; Mar 26: Highland Park, IL]

Feb 28 – March 27: Mezzo-soprano JOYCE DiDONATO returns to the role of Cherubino in Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro at Chicago’s Lyric Opera. [Feb 28, March 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 20, 22, 24, 27: Chicago, IL]

March 2010

March 3 – April 10: Slide, EIGHTH BLACKBIRD’s newest performance-piece, was first presented at the Ojai Music Festival in June. Sliding on that triumph, the sextet performs the piece in three of its 2009-10 season residency cities. The first is in Richmond, VA, at the University of Richmond; the second in Chicago, the ensemble’s hometown, where Slide forms the second of two concerts at the Harris Theater. The provocative music-theater work was conceived by experienced collaborators STEVEN MACKEY (composer/guitarist) and Rinde Eckert (author/director/actor), who perform alongside eighth blackbird. Impossible to categorize, the multi-media, multi-form Slide is about the seduction and manipulation of the American psyche, and, withal, a poignant tale of human frailty. The University of Maryland, where eighth blackbird has another residency, witnesses Slide last, but twice! [March 3: Richmond, VA; March 24: Chicago, IL; April 9, 10: College Park, MD]

March 7–9: CURTIS INSTITUTE’s Contemporary Music Ensemble marks the 100th anniversary of one of the school’s most celebrated alumni, Samuel Barber (‘34). The centennial program will be given in West Chester, PA, Barber’s birthplace, before its Philadelphia performance two days later. [March 7: West Chester, PA; March 9: Philadelphia, PA]

March 11: Pianist JEREMY DENK plays Stravinsky’s Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments with the London Symphony Orchestra and conductor John Adams at London’s Barbican Hall. [London]

March 12–14: The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra performs the world premiere of STEVEN STUCKY’s new Concerto for Chamber Orchestra. [March 12, 13, 14: St. Paul, MN]

March 17–21: The CURTIS OPERA THEATRE performs Barber’s Antony and Cleopatra, presented by the Kimmel Center and the Opera Company of Philadelphia. [March 17, 19, 21: Philadelphia, PA]

March 18 – April 3: DANIEL HOPE gives multiple performances at the Savannah Music Festival, where he has been Associate Artistic Director since 2004. Highlights of the festival include performances by GABRIELA MONTERO on March 24 and 25. [March 18 – April 3: Savannah, GA]

March 20–21: DANIEL HOPE debuts with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, joining conductor/pianist Jeffrey Kahane to perform Schulhoff’s Double Concerto for Violin and Piano (arranged by Hope from the original for flute and piano) and the original 1844 version of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto, which Hope recorded for his solo debut album with Deutsche Grammophon. [March 20, 21: Los Angeles, CA]

March 25: A new work by STEVEN MACKEY receives its world premiere at Zankel Hall, performed by So Percussion, which commissioned the new piece jointly with Carnegie Hall. [ZH]

March 25–28: “Beethoven Then and Now: The Complete Symphonies” at Lincoln Center will be a first: in four consecutive concerts, acclaimed Hungarian conductor IVAN FISCHER conducts all nine Beethoven symphonies, divided between the period-instrument-playing Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (Nos. 1, 2, 3, 5, & 8) and his own superb Budapest Festival Orchestra (Nos. 4, 6, 7, & 9). This unusual approach gives listeners an unprecedented opportunity to hear Beethoven two ways: on instruments of his time and on instruments of today. [March 25, 26, 27, 28: AFH]

Mar 26–29: CHANTICLEER will invite as many as a dozen choirs of young people from the San Francisco Bay Area and elsewhere in the nation to take part in a three-day version of the Chanticleer Youth Choral Festival for high school choruses. It all begins with a private performance by Chanticleer for the participants [March 26] and culminates in a performance by the massed, combined choruses in Davies Symphony Hall [March 29]. [San Francisco, CA]

March 29: ANNA NETREBKO makes a rare recital appearance with Daniel Barenboim at Berlin State Opera. [Berlin]

March 29 – April 24: THOMAS HAMPSON returns to the Metropolitan Opera, repeating his star-turn as Germont in Verdi’s La traviata, opposite Angela Gheorghiu. [March 29, April 3, 7, 10, 13, 17, 21, 24: Met]

April 2010

April 5 – May 21: ANNA NETREBKO portrays four roles within six weeks at the Vienna State Opera: Mimì in La bohème, Micaela in Carmen, Elivra in I puritani, and the title role in Manon. [April 5, 8, 11 (La bohème); April 19, 22, 25 (I puritani); May 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 (Carmen); May 18, 21 (Manon): Vienna]

April 9: With “Robert Schumann: Scenes from Goethe’s Faust,” LEON BOTSTEIN and the AMERICAN SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA complete their performances of the great trilogy of Schumann oratorios (Manfred and Das Paradies und die Peri were presented in previous seasons). [AFH]

April 9: MICHAEL HERSCH’s A Forest of Attics : Music after texts of Bruno Schulz, a Network for New Music commission, receives its world premiere at the Philadelphia Ethical Society. [Philadelphia, PA]

April 10: For the second time this season, CHANTICLEER performs at New York’s Metropolitan Museum (program tba). [Met Museum]

April 11: THOMAS HAMPSON gives a recital co-presented by the New York Philharmonic and Lincoln Center’s “Art of the Song”. [ATH]

April 12: Grammy Award-winning pianist YEFIM BRONFMAN plays Beethoven, Schumann, Tchaikovsky, and a Magnus Lindberg world premiere at Carnegie Hall. [CH]

April 15–17: Violinist/conductor NIKOLAJ ZNAIDER puts down his violin to lead the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra in performances of Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony and Mahler’s Songs of a Wayfarer with Swedish baritone Peter Mattei. [April 15: Uppsala; Apr 16, 17: Stockholm]

April 20: The METROPOLITAN OPERA GUILD hosts its 75th Annual Luncheon, this year honoring beloved American mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade. [Waldorf=Astoria]

April 22–24: PIERRE-LAURENT AIMARD plays Schoenberg’s Piano Concerto with the Berlin Philharmonic, conducted by Jirí Belohlávek. [April 22, 23, 24: Berlin]

April 23 – May 14: Renowned Wagnerian DEBORAH VOIGT is Senta in the Met’s Fliegende Holländer, her house role debut in one of her most spell-binding roles, opposite Juha Uusitalo as the Dutchman. [April 23, 26, 30, May 3, 6, 10, 14: Met]

April 24: The CURTIS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA performs Barber’s Symphony No. 1, Mussorgsky’s Songs and Dances of Death, Ligeti’s Atmosphères, and Richard Strauss’s Also sprach Zarathustra, with Giancarlo Guerrero, conductor, and John Relyea, bass-baritone (‘96). [Philadelphia, PA]

April 28: EIGHTH BLACKBIRD performs a new staging of Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire, choreograped and directed by Mark DeChiazza, at LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art). DeChiazza uses movement and gesture to connect to the human core of this remarkable work. [Los Angeles, CA]

April 30 – May 16: The DALLAS OPERA presents the world premiere of Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer’s Moby-Dick, the first new work to be performed in the company’s new home, the Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House. In his Dallas Opera debut, Ben Heppner stars as Captain Ahab, with Stephen Costello as Ishmael, Morgan Smith as Starbuck, and Jonathan Lemalu as Queequeg. The production is directed by Leonard Foglia and conducted by Patrick Summers. [April 30, May 2, 5, 8, 13, 16: Dallas, TX]

May 2010

May 1: Making its Minneapolis debut, the crowd-pleasing sextet EIGHTH BLACKBIRD performs at the Walker Art Center. The program is “The Only Moving Thing,” which features Steve Reich’s Pulitzer-winning Double Sextet, to be performed live with players from the new music ensemble Zeitgeist. [Minneapolis, MN]

May 7, 8: EIGHTH BLACKBIRD performs two concerts in New York City: it returns to both the Look and Listen Festival, where the group performs the world premiere of a new piece by Carlos Sánchez Gutiérrez, and to the People’s Symphony. [May 7: venue tbc; May 8: Washington Irving High School]

May 9: LEON BOTSTEIN conducts the AMERICAN SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA in the sixth and final concert of its Lincoln Center season. “Apollo and Dionysus,” a study in contrasts between the rational and the emotional, features music by England’s Arthur Bliss, Italy’s Luigi Dallapiccola, Germany’s Hans Werner Henze, and France’s Albert Roussel. [AFH]

May 10: Pianist JEREMY DENK joins Ensemble ACJW and conductor John Adams for Stravinsky’s Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall. [ZH]

May 27–29: ALAN GILBERT and the New York Philharmonic perform Hungarian composer György Ligeti’s darkly comic (and only) opera, Le grand macabre, which has never before been performed in New York, despite being one of the most frequently performed contemporary operas. [May 27, 28, 29: AFH]

June 2010

June 3–4: PIERRE-LAURENT AIMARD performs with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. On the program are Ravel’s Le tombeau de Couperin, Benjamin’s Duet for Piano and Orchestra, and Messiaen’s Un vitrail et des oiseaux. The conductor is David Robertson. [June 3, 4: Amsterdam]

June 3–5: SUSAN GRAHAM joins the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Sir Andrew Davis, to sing Chausson’s Poème de l’amour et de la mer. [June 3, 4, 5: AFH]

June 3–6: EIGHTH BLACKBIRD gives the world premiere of a new concerto for sextet and orchestra by Jennifer Higdon, with the Atlanta Symphony. [June 3, 5, 6: Atlanta, GA]

June 9 – July 2: DEBORAH VOIGT closes out a Puccini-rich season, giving her first performances as Minnie in La fanciulla del West at San Francisco Opera, under Nicola Luisotti. The performances celebrate the centennial of Puccini’s “wild west” opera, which was given its highly-publicized world premiere in New York City in December 1910. [June 9, 12, 15, 18, 24, 27, 29, July 2: San Francisco, CA]

June 26–27: PIERRE-LAURENT AIMARD inaugurates his second season as Artistic Director of the Aldeburgh Music Festival. [Aldeburgh, UK]


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All concerts are in New York City, except where otherwise specified.

AFH = Avery Fisher Hall

ATH = Alice Tully Hall

CH = Carnegie Hall

Met = Metropolitan Opera

Met Museum = Metropolitan Museum of Art

ZH = Zankel Hall, Carnegie Hall