Eva Stern

Opera San José will launch its 40th anniversary season with an all-new production of Charles Gounod's Romeo and Juliet, directed by OSJ General Director/CEO Shawna Lucey, in her first production since taking the helm of the company. Romeo and Juliet follows on the heels of Lucey's critically acclaimed La Traviata for San Francisco Opera, which is scheduled to be remounted at Los Angeles Opera this fall.

Fort Worth Opera (FWO) announced today the news that the FWO-TCU Lesley Artist Program, in collaboration with the TCU Opera Studio, has expanded from four to eight artists for the 2018-2019 season. These talented young singers have been selected through a highly competitive nationwide audition process and will perform in the company's productions of Hansel and Gretel and composer Michael Ching's Three Pigs Remix. This season's artists are sopranos Anne Wright and Janani Sridrar, mezzo-sopranos Bridget Cappel and Heather Weirich, tenors Jonathan VanKuren and Myles Garver, and baritones Sam Parkinson and Erik Larson. This prestigious discovery and training program is led by Fort Worth Opera's Coordinator of Educational Outreach, Sheran Goodspeed Keyton, and David Gately, Director of the TCU Opera Studio.

Schimmel Center with the Knickerbocker Chamber Orchestra presents the world premiere of The Struggle to Forgive: Confronting Gun Violence in America on Friday, May 4, 2018 at 7:30 p.m. Led by Music Director and Conductor Gary S. Fagin, the new cantata-which has a libretto by Fagin and features soprano Mikaela Bennett, mezzo-soprano Sarah Heltzel, and baritone Jorell Williams-gives voice to those whose lives have been impacted by gun violence in the United States, including victims and their families.

LA Opera and SongFest have announced a new partnership to launch The Eva & Marc Stern SongFest-LA Opera Fellowship Program. Now in its 23rd season, SongFest is a training program and festival for singers and pianists that focuses on song and recital repertory, held at The Colburn School. SongFest and Colburn are thrilled to join forces with LA Opera and with Placido Domingo, the company's Eli and Edythe Broad General Director, in fostering community among young singers, established artists and audiences by sharing resources and collaborating on new creative projects while invigorating the increasingly vibrant arts scene in Los Angeles.

The Music Center today announced approval by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors of the performing arts center's plan to transform The Music Center Plaza into a highly accessible, welcoming outdoor urban venue in the heart of the Los Angeles Civic Center. With a new plaza, The Music Center will provide a place where Angelenos will not only gather prior to and after performances on its campus, but also come together to share new experiences in a completely refreshed venue with more programming, activities and events, and multiple foodservice options at varying price points.

Musica Viva NY presents legendary pianist, teacher, and composer Seymour Bernstein in a special benefit concert, Reintroducing Seymour, on Sunday, January 21 at 2:00 p.m at All Souls Church on the Upper East Side (Lexington Avenue at 80th Street).

Uzo Aduba, Garth Brooks and Kristin Chenoweth will join a host of opera stars featured at the Pl cido Domingo 50th Anniversary Concert. LA Opera's gala event will take place on November 17, 2017, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion 50 years to the day since Mr. Domingo made his Los Angeles debut on the very same stage.

Ars Lyrica Houston presents the second Artful Women season concert, Italian Sirens in Zilkha Hall at the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts on Sunday, November 12, 2017 at 6:00pm.

Known for staging 'the ultimate in intimate productions' (The New York Times), On Site Opera (OSO) presents a trio of exciting new site-specific opera productions in 2017, beginning May 11-13 with Mozart's rarely-performed early opera The Secret Gardener (La finta giardiniera) at the West Side Community Garden.

In a move sure to delight children and families, The Music Center, L.A.'s performing arts destination, announced it will bring a favorite holiday tradition back to Los Angeles with a co-commission of an all-new production of George Balanchine's The Nutcracker by Miami City Ballet. 

Opera Exposures  (http://www.operaexposures.org), the not-for-profit opera company founded by Edna Greenwich in 2004, will present  a special recital celebrating  Elizabeth Taylor Browning, the first African American opera singer to gain recognition in Europe and the United States in the mid to late 19th century, on Sunday, September 18, at 3:00 PM at the Jewish Community Center of Staten Island, 1466 Manor Road.  Tickets, available at the door, are $25. Children under ten will be admitted free of charge.

Four up-and-coming opera singers will showcase their talents as The Metropolitan Opera Rising Stars Concert Series comes to  Mayo Performing Arts Center on Saturday, April 2, 2016 at 8 PM. Tickets are $29 - $59.

When Renée Fleming returns to LA Opera this spring to headline the Company's first performances of A Streetcar Named Desire, General Director Plácido Domingo promises that it will be an experience to savor.

The Board of Trustees of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA) announced today that in less than ten months, it has met and exceeded its goal of raising the museum's endowment to an historic high of over $100,000,000, thereby securing independence as the only public museum in Los Angeles dedicated solely to collecting and exhibiting contemporary art. Building on this overwhelming expression of support and commitment to the future of the museum, fundraising continues with the next goal to raise the endowment to $150,000,000.

SongFest is a festival for singers and collaborative pianists, which covers all aspects of the art of song: musical interpretation, literary interpretation, and effective public presentation. Master classes are taught to singers and pianists by distinguished artists of international stature. Each master class focuses thematically on specific vocal repertoire, presenting and studying it in new and challenging contexts.

Jane Fonda talks with Michael Ritchie about her life, career and her work in '33 Variations.' The Artistic Director's Circle members work in close connection with Michael Ritchie to provide support, through high level gifts in the six-figure range, to specific areas of his strategic artistic vision for Center Theatre Group. Members of the ADC gather periodically with Ritchie in private settings or for special events at CTG's theatres; they have traveled to New York for a workshop presentation of Kander and Ebb's 'Curtains' and as far afield as London and Edinburgh for theatre and the Fringe festival.