Jesse Blumberg News

On November 11, 2018, at 22 concerts around the world, 100 works by Polish composers will be performed to mark the 100th anniversary of Polish independence. “100 for 100: Musical Decades of Freedom,” presented in partnership with the Polish Cultural Institute New York, and PWM Edition, features the season-opening concert of the Oratorio Society of New York, at Carnegie Hall that Sunday at 2:00 pm.

The Greenwich Village Orchestra (GVO) announces its 2018-2019 season concerts, led by Music Director Barbara Yahr. Now in its 32nd season, the GVO is committed to making music at the highest possible level and enriching the lives of both players and audience through emotionally charged, exhilarating performances. All concerts of the 2018-2019 season will take place at All Saints Church (230 East 60th Street, NYC) unless otherwise noted.

The Greenwich Village Orchestra (GVO) announces its 2018-2019 season concerts, led by Music Director Barbara Yahr. Now in its 32nd season, the GVO is committed to making music at the highest possible level and enriching the lives of both players and audience through emotionally charged, exhilarating performances. All concerts of the 2018-2019 season will take place at All Saints Church, 230 East 60th Street, Manhattan, unless otherwise noted.

For its 2018-19 season, the 200-voice Oratorio Society of New York, led by Music Director Kent Tritle, is expanding its annual Carnegie Hall season to four concerts.

For its 2018-19 season, the 200-voice Oratorio Society of New York, led by Music Director Kent Tritle, is expanding its annual Carnegie Hall season to four concerts.

The new classical series Only at Merkin with Terrance McKnight, featuring, among others, the world-renowned pianists Andre Watts and Ursula Oppens; the world premiere of a piano quintet by acclaimed new music composer Laura Kaminsky; and presentations by Academy and Grammy Awards winner Kristen Anderson-Lopez (Frozen); Emmy, Tony, Grammy and Academy Awards winner Bobby Lopez (Frozen); Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winners Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey (Next to Normal); and 10-time Tony winner Maury Yeston (Titanic, Nine) are among the numerous highlights of the Kaufman Music Center's diverse 2018-19 season at Merkin Hall.

Kent Tritle is Director of Cathedral Music and Organist at New York's Cathedral of St. John the Divine, the largest cathedral in the world; Music Director of the Oratorio Society of New York, the acclaimed 200-voice volunteer chorus; and Music Director of Musica Sacra, New York's longest continuously performing professional chorus. The 2018-19 season of “New York's choral conducting superstar” (Time Out New York) is marked by the expansion of the Oratorio Society's Carnegie Hall season from three to four concerts, which will include Kullervo, the rarely-performed symphonic poem by Sibelius, Szymanowski's Stabat Mater, and Verdi's Requiem.

Five Boroughs Music Festival (5BMF) announces programming for its 2018-2019 season, continuing its mission of bringing affordable, world-class performances of traditional and contemporary chamber music to all five boroughs of New York City. The upcoming slate of concerts marks the organization's most collaborative season to date, including partnerships with GEMAS (Gotham Early Music / Americas Society), ClassicalCafe, Brooklyn Art Song Society, New York Festival of Song, and the LGBT Center ("The Center").

This Week: TENET and Metropolis Ensemble Perform New Works by Caroline Shaw and Timo Andres Inspired by Versailles at The Met

On Sunday, April 29, 2018 at 2:30pm, the Greenwich Village Orchestra (GVO) returns to the beautiful 19th-century Church of the Incarnation (209 Madison Ave.) for its final concert of the season, Requiem Aeternam. The GVO joins forces with St. George's Choral Society, under artistic director and conductor Matthew Lewis, for Verdi's epic Requiem. Requiem's soloists will feature soprano Rebecca Farley, mezzo-soprano Raehann Bryce-Davis, tenor Jonathan Tetelman, and bass Christian Zaremba. 

The early music virtuosi of TENET return to Five Boroughs Music Festival (5BMF) this season with The Sounds of Time, an exploration of 12th and 13th century songs by the French trouveres. The program is presented in Queens on Friday, May 11, 2018 at 7:00 p.m. at King Manor Museum and on Saturday, May 12, 2018 at 7:30 p.m. at Christ Church Riverdale in the Bronx. Led by guest music director and baroque violin virtuoso Robert Mealy, the program showcases the great lyric tradition of the troubadours, who adapted the musical forms invented by their Provencal counterparts and infused them with a lighter vein that produced a memorably tuneful body of music.

Opera Atelier's founding co-artistic directors Marshall Pynkoski and Jeannette Lajeunesse Zingg today announced that the company will tour to Chicago as part of the Harris Theater for Music and Dance's 2018-19 season. Opera Atelier's French Baroque double bill of Charpentier's Acteon paired with Rameau's Pygmalion will embark on an international tour to the Harris Theater (Nov. 15-17, 2018) and the Palace of Versailles (Nov. 30-Dec. 2, 2018), following its run at Toronto's Elgin Theatre (Oct. 25-Nov. 3, 2018). Opera Atelier's longtime partners Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra will join the company on tour.

Five Boroughs Music Festival (5BMF) presents South-Bronx music education non-profit UpBeat NYC and the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) on Saturday, March 31, 2018 at 8:00 p.m., part of the Pregones Theater's "March is Music" week. Under the auspices of the EntICE educational initiative, instrumentalists from ICE collaborate with youth musicians from UpBeat NYC's free, community programs for a concert of exciting new classical works. The first half of the program includes Georges Aperghis' Rasch for viola and soprano saxophone; Clara Ionnatta's Limun for violin, viola, and two page turners; Zach Sheets' from the Silhouette Quarry for violin and bassoon; and Pauline Oliveros' Thirteen Changes. The second half of the evening features the centerpiece of the program, the New York premiere of Nicole Mitchell's Inescapable Spiral (2016), performed by ICE and UpBeat NYC side-by-side. UpBeat NYC students will also present the premiere of a graphic score and older students will lead the ensemble in an improvised conducted soundpainting.

Opera Atelier's founding co-artistic directors Marshall Pynkoski and Jeannette Lajeunesse Zingg today announced the company's 2018-2019 season. The season opens with a French Baroque double bill of Charpentier's Act on paired with Rameau's Pygmalion (Oct. 25 Nov. 3, 2018), which will embark on an international tour to the Palace of Versailles and a soon-to-be-announced prestigious US venue. The season continues in spring 2019 with Mozart's Idomeneo(Apr. 4 13, 2019), starring Canadian soprano Measha Brueggergosman in her Dora Award-winning performance as Elettra.

On Friday, February 9, 2018 at 7:30 p.m., Five Boroughs Music Festival (5BMF) presents the acclaimed all-female vocal group, Lorelei Ensemble in concert at Manhattan's Church of St. Luke in the Fields.

Nothing says Christmas in New York like a performance of Handel's great sacred oratorio MESSIAH--okay, for some it's the windows at one of the big department stores--with some outings decidedly religious, like this week's pair of wonderful performances at Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue. Featuring the Saint Thomas Choir of Men and Boys, with the New York Baroque Incorporated ensemble and some terrific soloists under conductor Daniel Hyde (Saint Thomas's organist and music director), it was a grand start to the season.

New York Festival of Song continues its 30th anniversary season today, December 2, 2017 from 1:00 p.m.-9:00 p.m., when NYFOS co-founder Michael Barrett hosts a monumental eight-hour concert to celebrate Leonard Bernstein as part of the worldwide 'Bernstein at 100' festivities.

New York Festival of Song continues its 30th anniversary season on Saturday, December 2, 2017 from 1:00 p.m.-9:00 p.m., when NYFOS co-founder Michael Barrett hosts a monumental eight-hour concert to celebrate Leonard Bernstein as part of the worldwide 'Bernstein at 100' festivities.

On Today, November 16, 2017 at 7:30pm, preceded by a 7:00pm Composer/Poet chat, Five Boroughs Music Festival (5BMF) presents the Brooklyn premiere and grand finale performance of the Five Borough Songbook, Volume II with expanded casting at National Sawdust. The project, which premiered in Manhattan and Queens earlier this year in honor of 5BMF's 10th anniversary season, features 20 new commissions inspired by New York City places, people and poetry from twenty composers, and includes solo songs, duets and ensemble works scored for various combinations of voice, piano and cello. The Five Borough Songbook, Volume II received its Staten Island premiere on September 16 at Trinity Lutheran Church and its Bronx premiere on September 17 at the Riverdale-Yonkers Society for Ethical Culture.

On Saturday, December 2, 2017 at 7:30pm, The Greenwich Village Orchestra (GVO) performs Resistance, a thrilling concert of grand orchestral repertoire including Rachmaninoff's Vocalise featuring GVO concertmaster Andrew Pak, Michael Daugherty's Raise the Roof with principal timpanist Gerard Gordon in the athletic solo role, and Shostakovich's defiant Symphony No. 10 at Good Shepherd-Faith Presbyterian Church (152 West 66th St.). The concert is part of GVO's 2017-2018 season On the Town, a celebration of its home borough of Manhattan led by Music Director Barbara Yahr.