News and Press Releases

All news items and press notices

The Metropolitan Opera (2020–)2021 season update

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The Met in 2021

The Metropolitan Opera Cancels Its 2020–21 Season Due to the Ongoing Pandemic
while also Announcing Its Lineup for 2021–22 (for more information click here)

  • A full slate of performances is announced for 2021–22, including three contemporary Met premieres—the most since 1928—starting with the Opening Night presentation of Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, on September 27, 2021.
  • In addition to Fire Shut Up in My Bones, the 2021–22 season will feature five more new productions: the Met premieres of Matthew Aucoin’s Eurydice, Brett Dean’s Hamlet, and the original five-act French version of Verdi’s Don Carlos, and new stagings of Verdi’s Rigoletto and Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor.
  • Maestro Nézet-Séguin will conduct Fire Shut Up in My Bones, Eurydice, Don Carlos, and revivals of Le Nozze di Figaro and Tosca.
  • The Met’s Live in HD series of cinema transmissions will return with ten presentations, including all six new productions.

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Members of the public needed for Lost in Song and join a study to evaluate mood and general well-being

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Call for participants for a study into the effects of virtual choral singing on mood and well-being

Brought to you by Limina Immersive, NHS Arden & GEM and Ex Cathedra, Lost in Song is a web-based application that has been specifically developed to lift spirits and provide an opportunity to experience the joys of choral singing from the comfort and safety of your own home. With songs arranged and performed by award-winning Birmingham-based choir Ex Cathedra, Lost in Song allows you to sing along with a choir, while enjoying 360 degree footage of natural landscapes from around the UK.

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The Royal Scottish National Orchestra is back with ten brand-new concerts as part of its first ever Digital Season

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The Royal Scottish National Orchestra presents first Digital Season 

  • RSNO launches ten concert digital season led by Music Director Thomas Søndergård
  • Season celebrates 250th anniversary of the birth of Beethoven
  • Season presents a diverse programme of pieces rarely heard by audiences in Scotland
  • Midori is Artist in Residence and performs World Premiere of Glanert Violin Concerto No2
  • Season is accessible and affordable

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The Barbican announces Live from the Barbican for global digital and live audiences

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The Barbican today announced the line-up for its new autumn concert series Live from the Barbican. For the first time, a series of Barbican concerts will be accessible online for a global digital audience through a livestream and, also, for a reduced, socially distanced live audience in the Barbican Hall.

The newly programmed series runs from 4 October – 13 December 2020 and features an eclectic mix of artists across different genres, all reflecting the wide spectrum of the Barbican’s distinct music offer:

  • Celebrated bass-baritone Sir Bryn Terfel in Concert with Barbican Associate Ensemble Britten Sinfonia (Sun 4 Oct 2020)
  • Multi-instrumentalist Erland Cooper and his ensemble (Sat 10 Oct 2020)
  • Revered chamber pop group The Divine Comedy (Wed 14 Oct 2020)
  • Singer-songwriter Emmy the Great performing material from her upcoming album April / 月音 (Sat 17 Oct 2020)
  • The seven brothers and sisters of the The Kanneh-Mason Family in concert (Thu 22 Oct 2020)
  • Northumbrian songsmith Richard Dawson with a special solo set (Sun 25 Oct 2020)
  • Award-winning tenor saxophonist and composer Nubya Garcia performing material from her new album SOURCE (Thu 29 Oct 2020)
  • Sir Antonio Pappano at the piano in concert with friends and collaborators tenor Ian Bostridge, mezzo-soprano Dame Sarah Connolly and the Carducci Quartet (Sun 1 Nov 2020)
  • Barbican Associate Orchestra BBC Symphony Orchestra, Chief Conductor Sakari Oramo and soprano Anu Komsi give the world premiere of the chamber orchestra version of Magnus Lindberg’s Accused (Fri 6 Nov 2020)
  • Cassie Kinoshi/SEED Ensemble mark the 80th birthday of spiritual jazz icon Pharoah Sanders (Sat 14 Nov 2020)
  • Saxophonist, clarinettist, composer and band leader Shabaka Hutchings performs Copland’s Clarinet Concerto with Britten Sinfonia (Wed 18 Nov 2020)
  • Physicist Professor Brian Cox joins the BBC SO and Principal Guest Conductor Dalia Stasevska to explore the questions raised by music and the Cosmos (Sun 13 Dec 2020)

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The Czech Philharmonic will welcome capacity audiences for their forthcoming 125th season

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CZECH PHILHARMONIC – 125th SEASON LAUNCH – 23 & 24 SEPTEMBER 2020

The Czech Philharmonic’s 125th season launches to capacity audiences on 23 September 2020. Conducted by Semyon Bychkov at the start of his third year as the Orchestra’s Chief Conductor and Music Director, the concert will open with Shostakovich’s First Piano Concerto with pianist Daniil Trifonov and trumpeter Selina Ott, and close with Mahler’s Symphony No.5. Earlier in the month on 4 and 5 September, Bychkov and the Czech Philharmonic will open the 2020 Dvořák Prague International Music Festival with an all Dvořák programme featuring the Cello Concerto performed by the Czech Philharmonic’s Cello Principal Václav Petr and the New World Symphony.

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