Grant Murphy News

The Metropolitan Museum of Art presents the Chiara String Quartet in an encore performance on Thursday, May 11, 2017 at 7pm in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium (1000 Fifth Ave) following their lauded 2015-2016 season MetLiveArts residency. The concert will include the New York premiere of Rome Prize-winner Pierre Jalbert's Canticle String Quartet No. 6 and Brahms' Clarinet Quintet with clarinetist Todd Palmer.

In our time, IDOMENEO is the earliest of Mozart's operas regularly done, its full title being IDOMENEO, RE DI CRETA OSSIA ILIA E IDAMANTE--or IDOMENEO, KING OF CRETE, OR ILIA AND IDAMANTE. “Ilia” of the extended title is the daughter of Priam, the king of Troy. (“Idamante” is Idomeneo's son.) At the Met starting this week, Ilia is being sung by the skyrocketing young American soprano, Nadine Sierra.

Soprano Heidi Grant Murphy, who sang major roles with the Metropolitan Opera for almost 25 years, returns to theChamber Music Society of Detroit series for a recital with pianist Kevin Murphy Sunday, November 13, 2016 at 3:00 PM.  The concert takes place at Oakland University's Varner Recital Hall, located on the Oakland University campus at 2200 N. Squirrel Road in Rochester.  The program includes songs and arias by Schumann, Debussy, Strauss, Puccini, Copland and Obradors.  Tickets are priced at $30 for adults and $15 for students, and may be purchased by phone at248-855-6070 or online at www.CMSDetroit.org.

Casting has been announced for Salisbury Playhouse's family pantomime, Aladdin, which runs from Saturday 3 December to Saturday 7 January. Director Ryan McBryde and writer Andrew Pollard return following their hit Cinderella last year.

Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (LACO) explores innate vs. learned creativity tied to masterworks by Mozart and Mendelssohn, whose extraordinary talent was evident in their earliest compositions, during the second program of Westside Connections, a chamber music series with a twist, today, April 7, 2016, 7:30 pm, at the Moss Theater in Santa Monica.

Katy Lipson for Aria Entertainment and Guy James present FOREVER PLAID, directed and staged by Grant Murphy, at St. James Studio, London from 5 - 24 April 2016. Press Performance: Friday, 8 April at 8pm. The full cast for three-week run of Forever Plaid at St. James Theatre Studio will feature Jon Lee alongside Keith Jack, Matthew Quinn and Luke Striffler. Meet the cast below!

Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (LACO) explores innate vs. learned creativity tied to masterworks by Mozart and Mendelssohn, whose extraordinary talent was evident in their earliest compositions, during the second program of Westside Connections, a chamber music series with a twist, on Thursday, April 7, 2016, 7:30 pm, at the Moss Theater in Santa Monica.

Katy Lipson for Aria Entertainment and Guy James present FOREVER PLAID, directed and staged by Grant Murphy, at St. James Studio, London from 5 - 24 April 2016. Press Performance: Friday, 8 April at 8pm. The full cast for three-week run of Forever Plaid at St. James Theatre Studio will feature Jon Lee alongside Keith Jack, Matthew Quinn and Luke Striffler.

Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (LACO) explores how the brain works when a musician improvises as well as the impact of auditory loss on music by Beethoven and Smetana composed when they could no longer hear during the first program of Westside Connections, a chamber music series with a twist, on Thursday, March 17, 2016, 7:30 pm, at the Moss Theater in Santa Monica. 

Katy Lipson for Aria Entertainment and Guy James will present FOREVER PLAID, directed and staged by Grant Murphy. Lighting design by Ben Rogers at St. James Studio, London from 5 - 24 April 2016. Press Performance:  Friday, 8 April at 8pm.

Bananaman the Musical will mark the live action debut of the Man-of-Peel. A hero who has 'the muscles of 20 men and the brain of 20 mussels'. Bananaman is a unique member of the superhero ranks. Our handsome hero may have a jaw line you can see from space and sport the snazziest of tight lycra outfits, but he's not the sharpest tool in the box. In fact, he doesn't even know where the box is.

Final names are announced today for Seasons of Larson, a one-off concert celebrating the life and music of legendary Broadway composer Jonathan Larson. The concert will take place on Monday 25 January 2016 at the Lyric Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue.

The opportunity to showcase some of Jonathan Larson's best work and also some lesser known brilliant pieces is an absolute honour. His work changed the dynamics of new writing for a whole generation; challenging composers, playwrights, creatives and actors to find new and exciting ways to tell brilliant stories.

The Metropolitan Opera's annual Summer HD Festival, which presents free outdoor screenings of operas on Lincoln Center Plaza each summer, will return with 10 screenings of performances featuring the company's leading artists in a varied selection of operas by Bartók, Bizet, Gounod, Mozart, Offenbach, Puccini, Tchaikovsky, and Verdi, running on consecutive nights from August 29 through September 7.

The Cleveland Orchestra today announced that Franklin Cohen, Principal Clarinet since 1976, will retire from the ensemble in the summer of 2015. After 39 seasons, Mr. Cohen will have had the longest tenure of any solo clarinetist in the orchestra's history. The title of Principal Clarinet Emeritus will be bestowed on Mr. Cohen next summer upon retiring. He will be the first Cleveland Orchestra musician officially recognized with this honor.

The special one-night-only concert You'll Never Walk Alone took place on Sunday 2 March at the Queen's Theatre in aid of the Philippines Typhoon Appeal, with all proceeds going directly to the Disasters Emergency Committee. Scroll down for photos from the show!

Aria Entertainment and Knockhardy Productions present Rags The Musical in Concert by Joseph Stein, Charles Strouse and Stephen Schwartz for one night only on Monday 28th April, 7.30pm, at the Lyric Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue. All proceeds from this performance will go to Centrepoint - the UK's leading charity for homeless young people.

Blake and Juliet Stevenson also to appear at charity concert in aid of the Philippines Typhoon Appeal along with Joanna Riding, Michael Xavier and Danielle Hope.

Award-winning TV personality, fashion guru, author and all round National Treasure Gok Wan will host the special one-night-only concert You'll Never Walk Alone at the Queen's Theatre on Sunday 2 March 2014 at 7.30pm in aid of the Philippines Typhoon Appeal, it was announced today. Tickets are now on sale from £32.50, with all proceeds going directly to the Disasters Emergency Committee.

On Monday, November 11, the Metropolitan Opera Guild's 79th Annual Luncheon presents "Welcome Home, Jimmy!" to salute music directorJames Levine on his triumphant return to the Met podium. A perennial highlight of the opera season, the luncheon will bring together a host of artists who have collaborated with the preeminent conductor over the course of his long and celebrated Met tenure, as well as opera fans and an array of New York's society, business, and civic leaders. "Welcome Home, Jimmy!" will feature musical tributes by Dolora Zajick, "a mezzo in a class by herself" (New York Times); Thomas Hampson, "America's foremost baritone" (International Herald Tribune); and Grammy Award-winning bass-baritone Eric Owens, all accompanied by the Met's Director of Music Administration, Craig Rutenberg. Proceeds from the event will benefit the Guild's education programs in New York City and throughout the country.