August
2009

Aug 2, 17: JOYCE
DiDONATO makes her Salzburg Festival debut on August 2 with a
“Furore” concert of Handel arias conducted by Paul McCreesh. Soon afterwards, on Aug 17, ANNA NETREBKO makes her own Festival recital debut in a performance with acclaimed pianist Daniel Barenboim. [Aug 2, 17: Salzburg]

Aug 21: EIGHTH BLACKBIRD plays the world premiere of Grazioso!, a new work by Mark-Anthony Turnage, at the Santa Fe
Chamber Music Festival. [Santa Fe, NM]

Aug 22, 25: JOYCE DiDONATO gives her Edinburgh Festival debut
singing Haydn’s tour-de-force Scena di Berenice with the Orchestra of the Age of Englightenment led by Sir Roger
Norrington. They repeat the performance three nights later at the BBC Proms.
[Aug 22: Edinburgh; Aug 25: London]

Aug 25: The enterprising Paris-based NAIVE label augments its
landmark Vivaldi Edition with two new releases: Rinaldo Alessandrini and
Concerto Italiano perform the Gloria in two versions (the
famous one and an all-but-unknown one: RV 589 and 588, respectively); and Jordi
Savall’s recording of the opera Farnace is reissued. [naïve]

Aug 27, 29: NIKOLAJ
ZNAIDER plays Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto with the Vienna Philharmonic led by
Gustavo Dudamel at the Salzburg Festival. [Aug 27, 29: Salzburg]

September 2009

Sep (date tbc): Vanguard
Classics releases a recording of MICHAEL HERSCH’s Sonatas Nos. 1 & 2 for
Unaccompanied Cello. The CD is
the first in a series surveying Hersch’s complete solo and chamber music for
strings, to be released over the next three years. [Vanguard
Classics]  

Sep 15: The METROPOLITAN OPERA GUILD continues its remarkable
series of public interviews with “Met Legends: James Levine.” [ATH]

Sep 16–17: Cellist JOHANNES MOSER makes his debut with the Royal
Concertgebouw Orchestra, playing Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 1. Mariss
Jansons conducts. [Sep 16, 17: Amsterdam]

Sep 16–20: Grammy Award-winning mezzo-soprano SUSAN GRAHAM
returns to the San Francisco Symphony to sing Mahler’s Rückert-Lieder with Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas on the
podium. [Sep 16, 17, 19, 20: San Francisco, CA]

Sep 16–22: On September 16, ALAN GILBERT begins his tenure as
Music Director of the New York Philharmonic (the first native New Yorker to
hold the post), conducting its opening-night gala. On the
program are the world premiere of Expo, a New York Philharmonic commission by Composer-in-Residence
Magnus Lindberg; Messiaen’s rarely performed song cycle Poèmes
pour Mi, sung by soprano Renée
Fleming; and Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique. For  the three
concerts of his first full week Gilbert leads the orchestra in the Symphony No.
3 of his predecessor, Gustav Mahler. [Sep 16 (gala); Sep 17, 18, 22 (Mahler):
AFH]

Sep 23–26: Baritone THOMAS HAMPSON sings both the Songs of a
Wayfarer and the Early Songs of Gustav Mahler with the San Francisco Symphony led
by Michael Tilson Thomas. [Sep 23, 24, 25, 26: San Francisco, CA]

Sep 26 – Oct 13: Superstar soprano DEBORAH VOIGT sings the title role
in Puccini’s Tosca with Lyric
Opera of Chicago – opening the second city’s opera season. [Sep 26, 30, Oct 3,
7, 10, 13: Chicago, IL]

Sep 29: Along with
his wife, violinist Adele Anthony, GIL SHAHAM releases a new CD of music
by Spanish violinist and composer Pablo de Sarasate, titled Sarasate:
Virtuoso Violin Works, on Canary Classics,
the label Gil founded in 2004.  Gil and Adele will celebrate
the release by performing an all-Sarasate program at the popular downtown music
club (Le) Poisson Rouge in New York City
the evening of the CD’s release.
[Poisson Rouge]

Sep 30 – Feb 19: It’s
a banner year for the great American baritone THOMAS HAMPSON, who was recently
named Special Advisor to the Library of
Congress. As well as his season-long celebration of the 250th anniversary of
the first American song, which includes a recital tour and the launch
of a “Song of America” web site, Hampson is the first Artist-in-Residence with
the New York Philharmonic. He opens his season with two “Song of
America” recitals in California [Sep 30: San Francisco, CA; Oct 3: Los Angeles,
CA], continuing the tour in Portland, OR [Oct 6], Boulder, CO [Oct 11],
Santa Barbara, CA [Oct 9], Richmond, VA [Oct 21], and Princeton, NJ [Nov 17].
In February, Hampson finishes the tour in Atlanta, GA [Feb 19].

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 23: Cellist Sonia
Wieder-Atherton, a NAIVE
CLASSIQUE recording artist, will lead her chamber ensemble Niguna (whose
name is Hebrew for ‘improvisation’, and which
comprises a string quintet, woodwinds and harp) in a concert
at New York City’s popular music club (Le) Poisson Rouge.  The program
will feature music from Chants d’Est,
Wieder-Atherton’s solo debut album for naïve.
[Poisson Rouge]

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]

January
2010

Jan [date tba] Violinist
NIKOLAJ ZNAIDER releases a new CD of works by Edward Elgar on Sony
Masterworks. The disc marks the
centennial of Elgar’s Violin Concerto,
which Znaider performs with the Dresden Staatskapelle under Sir Colin
Davis; he also
plays Elgar’s Violin Sonata with Palestinian pianist Saleem
Abboud Ashkar. 

Jan 7–23: NIKOLAJ ZNAIDER’s international tour performing the
Elgar Violin Concerto (see above
and 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 92^ndannual 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]