Lys Symonette News

WQXR has announced its 2023 roster of Artist Propulsion Lab (APL) participants. The APL is the station's innovative program designed to support classical music artists in the creation of original work and in connecting with new audiences. 

The concert features mezzo-soprano Lucia Bradford, soprano Kearstin Piper Brown, and baritone Jorell Williams, together with pianists Nathaniel LaNasa and Steven Blier, in works by Black composers that include H. Leslie Adams, Margaret Bonds, Harry Burleigh, Adolphus C. Hailstork, Robert Owens, Hale Smith, and William Grant Still..

The Kurt Weill Foundation for Music announced the winners of the 23rd annual Lotte Lenya Competition, which took place before an invitation-only audience at the Riverside Theatre in New York City on August 28.

In a special fundraising event, the Friends of Monmouth County Child Advocacy Center are offering 200 tickets to Roald Dahl's a?oeMatilda The Musicala?? for two shows on Saturday, March 21 at the Axelrod Performing Arts Center, Monmouth County's newest professional theater.

The Axelrod Performing Arts Center opens 'Roald Dahl's Matilda The Musical' on Saturday, March 7, in a brand-new production created by Broadway director-choreographer Luis Salgado. 'Matilda' will run for three weekends through March 22.

The Kurt Weill Foundation for Music awarded $71,000 in prizemoney at the finals of 2019 Lotte Lenya Competition, which took place in a packed Kilbourn Hall at the Eastman School of Music, Rochester, NY, on April 13. The $20,000 First Prize went to Daniel Berryman, 28 of Seattle, WA. Andrea Wozniak, 28 of Boston, MA, won the $15,000 Second Prize, and Trevor Martin, 30 of Fayetteville, GA, received Third Prize of $10,000.

The Kurt Weill Foundation for Music awarded a record $99,000 at the 2018 Lotte Lenya Competition, which took place at Kilbourn Hall at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY on April 14, 2018. This year's competition brought the total distributed to young singers to more than $1 million in awards, prizes, and grants in the twenty-year history of the contest.

Kim H. Kowalke, President of the Kurt Weill Foundation, has announced the finalists for the 2018 annual Lotte Lenya Competition, its twentieth anniversary year. Fifteen performers from Canada, Germany, Israel, Italy, and the United States will compete for top prizes of $20,000, $15,000, and $10,000.

The Actors Fund announced today a one night benefit concert of last year's planned off-Broadway revival of When Pigs Fly, that never actually got to play for an audience. The concert, which will reunite the cast members and creative team for one night only, is set for Monday, April 9th.

New casting information has been announced about upcoming Feinstein's/54 Below new musical concert, SESSION GIRLS! Brian Charles Rooney (The Threepenny Opera Broadway) portrays music mogul Terence Rand, and Bart Shatto (War Paint Broadway) takes on the role of cellist Rouald Finckel.

Join New York's premiere theatrical drag queen, Alexis Michelle (Season 9 of Drag Race) for an evening celebrating the Great White Way!

This summer, Brian Charles Rooney will star as Miss Blanche, in the Premiere of the solo musical, Miss Blanche Tells It All by Jason Jacobs & Matthew C. Pritchard. Directed by Gisela Cardenas, with musical direction by Robert Frost and choreography by Nicole Curcio, it will begin performances as part of this year New York Musical Festival (NYMF) beginning July 12 at Peter Jay Sharp Theatre at Playwrights Horizons (416 W 42nd St).

This summer, Brian Charles Rooney will star as Miss Blanche, in the Premiere of the solo musical, Miss Blanche Tells It All by Jason Jacobs & Matthew C. Pritchard. Directed by Gisela Cardenas, with musical direction by Robert Frost and choreography by Nicole Curcio, it will begin performances as part of this year New York Musical Festival (NYMF) beginning July 12 at Peter Jay Sharp Theatre at Playwrights Horizons (416 W 42nd St).

???????Casting has been announced for Cameron Mackintosh's spectacular new production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA for the premiere West Palm Beach engagement at the Raymond F. Kravis Center for the Performing Arts. 

Are you ready for a new and improved version of THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA? I love the original, which I first saw in California, when Robert Guillaume (star of Benson) played the role. Of course, I saw it in London's West End and on Broadway, but it's really fun to see the new version right here in Detroit. I know it's hard to believe that PHANTOM could ever be improved upon, but they've worked some magic. The chandelier is more spooky, the catacombs look more like a person actually lives there, the costumes are different, especially the stairway costume in part two - but in this version there is no grand staircase. This phantom uses a lot of pyrotechnics to accompany his magic. You will like the way they descend into the Phantom's lair; that bridge scene what shifted like a teeter totter has been replaced by really cool steps that protrude from dungeon walls. And the best part is at the very end, when the phantom vanishes; it's in a very different way, and I have no idea how he pulled it off.

General Director and CEO Deborah Sandler today announced that two Lyric Opera of Kansas City Resident Artists have won international awards.

Casting has been announced for Cameron Mackintosh's spectacular new production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA for the triumphant return Atlanta engagement at the Fox Theatre February 22 - March 5 as a Fifth Third Bank Broadway in Atlanta 2016/2017 season special.

Cameron Mackintosh and Andrew Lloyd Webber's Really Useful Group welcome Derrick Davis, Jordan Craig, Trista Moldovan and Emily Ramirez to the principal cast of the spectacular new production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera currently on national tour.

Cameron Mackintosh and Andrew Lloyd Webber's Really Useful Group announced today that Derrick Davis, Jordan Craig, Trista Moldovan and Emily Ramirez will join the principal cast of the spectacular new production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera currently on national tour.

General Director and CEO Deborah Sandler today announced the selection of the inaugural class of the Resident Artists Program. They include: soprano April Martin, mezzo-soprano Samantha Gossard, tenor Casey Candebat, baritone John Viscardi and pianist Kyle Naig. They will perform in various roles throughout the 2016-17 season on the mainstage at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts as well as at community outreach and education events. The artists were selected after a rigorous national audition of more than 100 singers. Led by Vinson Cole, UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance faculty member and one of the leading artists of his generation, Resident Artists Program signals the creation of the first-ever Resident Company for the Lyric Opera of Kansas City.