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MA's Free Guide to (Mostly) Free Streams, Dec. 7-14
We will be updating this list weekly. Please note that all times are given in U.S. Eastern Time (ET). To calculate in other time zones or counties, British Summer Time (BST) is currently five hours ahead of ET and Central European Time (CET) is currently six hours ahead. U.S. Central Daylight Time (CDT) is one hour behind ET. Mountain Time (MT) is two hours behind ET, while Pacific Time (PT) is three hours behind. Contact editor@musicalamerica.com.
Classical music coverage on Musical America is supported in part by a grant from the Rubin Institute for Music Criticism, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation. Musical America makes all editorial decisions.
Monday, December 7
8 am ET: Wigmore Hall presents Doric String Quartet. Mozart’s Prussian Quartet K575 and Britten’s String Quartet No. 3 Op. 94. Register, view here and on demand for 30 days. LIVE
11 am ET: La Scala presents A Riveder le Stelle. A gala concert of opera and ballet conducted by Riccardo Chailly and directed by Davide Livermore with a star-studded line-up. Singers include Ildar Abdrazakov, Roberto Alagna, Carlos Álvarez, Piotr Beczala, Benjamin Bernheim, Eleonora Buratto, Marianne Crebassa, Plácido Domingo, Rosa Feola, Juan Diego Flórez, Elina Garanca, Vittorio Grigolo, Jonas Kaufmann, Aleksandra Kurzak, Francesco Meli, Camilla Nylund, Kristine Opolais, Lisette Oropesa, George Petean, Marina Rebeka, Luca Salsi, Andreas Schager, Ludovic Tézier, and Sonya Yoncheva. View here and on demand.
1 pm ET: Wiener Staatsoper presents Le Pavillon d’Armide & Le Sacre du Printemps. Conductor: Michael Boder, choreography John Neumeier. With Jakob Feyferlik, Nina Poláková, Roman Lazik, Davide Dato, Maria Yakovleva, and Denys Cherevychko. Performance of March 26, 2019. Register for free and view here.
2:30 pm ET: Wigmore Hall presents Fatma Said & Joseph Middleton. The soprano performs a recital of songs by Mozart, Clara Schumann, Liszt, Richard Strauss, Sibelius, Schubert, Fauré, Debussy, Bernstein, Weill and more. Register, view here and on demand for 30 days. LIVE
7 pm ET: Kaufman Music Center presents Broadway Close Up: Stephen Schwartz. At a time when Broadway and pop music had taken separate paths, Schwartz successfully introduced a pop/rock musical sensibility to musical theater. Learn about his inspiring story and hear music spanning his career. With Sean Hartley, Nikki Renée Daniels, Gabrielle Stravelli, and followed by a live post-concert Q&A with host Sean Hartley. Tickets $15. View here.
7:30 pm ET: Met Opera Streams presents Thomas Adès’s The Tempest. Starring Audrey Luna, Isabel Leonard, Iestyn Davies, Alek Shrader, Alan Oke, William Burden, Toby Spence, and Simon Keenlyside, conducted by Thomas Adès. From November 10, 2012. View here and for 24 hours.
7:30 pm ET: Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center presents The Art of Interpretation: Grieg’s Cello Sonata. Cellist Nicholas Canellakis and pianist Michael Brown explore Chopin’s Introduction and Polonaise brillante in C for Cello and Piano, Op. 3 and Grieg’s Sonata in A minor for Cello and Piano, Op. 36. Tickets $13. Register, view here and on demand for a week.
Tuesday, December 8
12 pm ET: Academy of St. Martins in the Fields presents Festive Family Carols. An hour of readings and music for families from St. Martin’s Voices including much loved favorites: Jingle Bells, Little Donkey and We Wish you a Merry Christmas. Tickets £10. View here and on demand until December 31.
12 pm ET: Royal Northern College of Music presents Stephen Hough. The British pianist discusses his new book, his career, and his latest Beethoven recording in this live Q&A presented by the RNMC in Manchester, England where Hough is International Chair in Piano Studies. View here. LIVE
12.30 pm ET and on demand: Carols for the City: a traditional carol service in aid of charity comes from the City of London with live / recorded music sung by a cappella group VOCES8. The readers include HRH Prince Edward, The Lord Mayor of the City, the Governor of the Bank of England and TV chef Dame Mary Berry. Book tickets US$7/£5. View here.
1 pm ET: IDAGIO presents Thomas Hampson’s World of Song. Tune in with baritone Thomas Hampson and special guests every Tuesday evening for insights into some of their favorite repertoire and recordings. In this episode, Thomas chats with baritone Courtney Carey. View here.
1 pm ET: Wiener Staatsoper presents Puccini’s La Fanciulla del West. Conductor: Franz Welser-Möst, director: Marco Arturo Marelli. With Nina Stemme, Jonas Kaufmann, and Tomasz Konieczny. Performance of October 2013. Register for free and view here.
1:30 pm ET: Emusic Live presents Oslo Philharmonic & Klaus Mäkelä. The first concert from HarrisonParrott’s new digital content platform: Virtual Circle. The Oslo Philharmonic is conducted by Klaus Mäkelä in a performance of Sibelius’s Symphony No. 1 to mark the 155th anniversary since the composer’s birth. The concert will also feature Kodály’s Dances of Galánta, Rolf Gupta’s Epilogue, and Debussy’s Danse sacrée et danse profane for harp and orchestra. Tickets $10. View here.
2:30 pm ET: Wigmore Hall presents Natalie Clein & Cédric Pescia. The British cellist presents a program with French/Swiss pianist Cédric Pescia including music by Schubert, Lutyens, and Shostakovich alongside Rebecca Clarke’s Sonata, originally for viola. Register, view here and on demand for 30 days. LIVE
5 pm ET: Concert Artists Guild presents Holiday A Cappella with Calmus. A special holiday concert featuring a cappella ensemble Calmus singing a variety of festive tunes live from Leipzig. View here. LIVE
7 pm ET: Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal presents Beethoven’s Septet. Bringing together strings, woodwinds, and brass, Beethoven’s Septet was recorded by the OSM Chamber Soloists in 2018. Tickets $20. View here.
7:30 pm ET: Nightly Met Opera Streams presents John Adams’s Doctor Atomic. Starring Sasha Cooke, Thomas Glenn, Gerald Finley, Richard Paul Fink, and Eric Owens, conducted by Alan Gilbert. From November 8, 2008. View here and for 24 hours. **
7:30 pm ET: Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center presents Front Row Mainstage: Vivaldi Explosion. Archival performances of Vivaldi’s Sonata in A minor for Cello and Continuo, RV 43, Concerto in G minor for Flute, Oboe, and Bassoon, RV 103, Concerto in F for Three Violins, Strings, and Continuo, RV 511, Sonata in D minor for Two Violins and Continuo, RV 63, La Follia, and Concerto in D for Mandolin, Strings, and Continuo, RV 93. View here and on demand for a week.
8 pm ET: DACAMERA presents Hearing Color, Seeing Time: Cy Twombly and Music.
Flutist Claire Chase is filmed at The Menil Collection’s Cy Twombly Gallery, a Renzo Piano-designed building dedicated to the artist’s work. The program includes works by Felipe Lara, Marcos Balter, Suzanne Farrin, and a world premiere by Erik Ulman who developed an unusual friendship with the painter through years of correspondence. Ulman and Chase will discuss Twombly’s work with pianist and curator Sarah Rothenberg. Register and view here.
8:30 pm ET: Sun Valley Music Festival presents Festival @ Home: Pittsburgh. The first concert in a series that will run until June 2021 features Festival musicians performing Mozart's String Quintet No. 4 in G minor, K. 516. View here for 48 hours.
10 pm ET: Group Muse presents Jonathan Biss. Building on his decade-long immersion in the music of Beethoven, Jonathan Biss gives an online recital of three Beethoven piano sonatas, one from each of the composer’s main stylistic periods. He performs the early Pathétique, the middle-period Sonata in E minor, Op. 90, and Beethoven’s final piano sonata, Op. 111 in C minor. View here.
Wednesday, December 9
12 pm ET: Academy of St Martins in the Fields presents A Baroque Christmas Celebration. An hour’s sequence of baroque music for Christmas from St Martin’s Voices and St Martin’s Players including choruses from Handel’s Messiah from home. Tickets £10. View here and on demand until December 31.
12:30 pm ET: Philharmonie de Paris presents Mahler’s Ninth. Klaus Mäkelä conducts the Orchestre de Paris in a performance of Mahler’s final symphony. View here. LIVE
12 pm ET: Hanns Eisler Academy Berlin presents Kirill Gerstein in an online seminar with legendary jazz musician, vibraphonist Gary Burton, to discuss Improvisation in Jazz. “An explanation of motivic development in improvisation by Gary, while simultaneously playing a solo, remains one of the most vivid memories from my student days at the Berklee College of Music,” says Gerstein. Register here for the free Zoom seminar. LIVE
1 pm ET: Wiener Staatsoper presents Donizetti’s Anna Bolena. Conductor: Evelino Pidò, director: Eric Génovèse. With Anna Netrebko, Elina Garanca, Ildebrando D'Arcangelo, Francesco Meli, and Elisabeth Kulman. Performance of April 2, 2011. Register for free and view here.
2 pm ET: Royal Liverpool Philharmonic presents Vasily Petrenko conducts Ginastera, Respighi & Bizet. Concluding her time as Artist-in-Residence, Jennifer Johnston sings Respighi’s Il Tramonto (The Sunset) based on words by Shelley followed by Shchedrin’s arrangement of music from Carmen. Ginastera’s Variaciones concertantes opens the program. The concert will be preceded by a live pre-concert talk on Zoom and a post-concert Zoom Q&A with musicians and conductor in a sort of post-match analysis. Tickets £10 and view here for 30 days. LIVE
2:30 pm ET: Wigmore Hall presents Paul Lewis. The British pianist plays Haydn’s Piano Sonata in C minor HXVI:20 and Beethoven’s mighty Diabelli Variations, Op. 120. Register, view here and on demand for 30 days. LIVE **
2:30 pm Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra presents Grosvenor plays Chopin. Fanny Mendelssohn was as much a prodigy as her brother as shown by her Overture in C. New BSO Artist-in-Residence Benjamin Grosvenor performs Chopin’s E minor Concerto. Haydn’s Symphony No. 88 shines with originality and musical sleight-of-hand. Marta Gardolinska conducts. Tickets £6 and view here. LIVE
3 pm ET: London Philharmonic Orchestra presents Jurowski conducts Enescu. Vladimir Jurowski conducts Enescu’s Decet and his Chamber Symphony. Elena Kats-Chernin's Third Piano Concerto contemplates Maria Barbara Bach, the uncelebrated wife of J.S. Bach who passed and was buried all while the composer traveled to Karlsbad, unaware. The piece receives its European premiere with pianist Tamara-Anna Cislowska. View here.
5 pm ET: American Symphony Orchestra presents United We Play. Marcus Roberts and The Modern Jazz Generation join ASO for a short film featuring three world premieres of works for strings, jazz instrumentals, and piano composed by Roberts: America Has the Blues, Seeking Peace, and United We Play. The film also includes commentary by the composer and the ASO’s music director Leon Botstein. United We Play is inspired by the current turbulent times with funding raised through the Musician Support Initiative, a campaign to provide opportunities for ASO’s musicians while live performances are not possible. View here.
7 pm ET: Third Coast Percussion presents Peace Out, 2020. Program: Program: Glass (arr. TCP) Purus River, Clarice Assad (arr. TCP) The Hero, Sérgio Assad (arr. TCP) The Innocent, Joe W. Moore III’s Halo, Rodrigo Bussad Cesar’s Kodama, and Danny Elfman’s Percussion Quartet, Movement 4. View here.
7:30 pm ET: Young Concert Artists presents Aristo Sham. In the Michaels Award Concert, Aristo Sham performs music by Debussy and Brahms, as well as a world premiere by YCA Composer-in-Residence Saad Haddad. View here.
7:30 pm ET: Nightly Met Opera Streams presents Britten’s Peter Grimes. Starring Patricia Racette, Anthony Dean Griffey, and Anthony Michaels-Moore, conducted by Sir Donald Runnicles. From March 15, 2008. View here and for 24 hours.
Thursday, December 10
1 am ET: Chicago Symphony Orchestra presents CSO Sessions Episode 9: A Little Night Music with Dvorák, Mazzoli & Mozart. Dvorák’s Serenade in D Minor and Mozart’s Eine kleine Nachtmusik are coupled with Death Valley Junction by CSO Mead Composer-in-Residence Missy Mazzoli—a sonic depiction of a town on the border of California and Nevada with a population of three. Mazzoli’s music captures the energy of the woman who rehabilitated the town’s opera house during the 1960s. View here and on demand for 30 days.
7 am ET: The Hallé presents Winter Season Episode 2. The concert begins with Britten’s Russian Funeral for brass and percussion, followed by Pärt’s threnody to Britten himself. Roderick Williams sings Butterworth’s Six Songs from A Shropshire Lad, in the world premiere of his new orchestration. Strauss’s Metamorphosen completes the program. Sir Mark Elder conducts. Tickets £14. View here and on demand until March 10, 2021. LIVE
8:10 am ET: Scottish Chamber Orchestra presents Laidlaw Live. Music by women composers including Florence Price’s Clementine, Sally Beamish’s String Quartet No. 2 Opus California: Boardwalk and Golden Gate, Rebecca Clarke’s Lullaby and Grotesque, Judith Weir’s Atlantic Drift, and Errolyn Wallen’s Off the Map. View here. LIVE
12 pm ET: Academy of St Martins in the Fields presents Carols for Christmas. St Martin’s Voices and presenter Zeb Soanes offer an hour of favorite carols and readings in a celebration of the Christmas season. Tickets £10. View here and on demand until December 31.
12 pm ET: Boston Symphony Orchestra presents Music in Changing Times. Ken-David Masur conductor the BSO in Ives’s The Unanswered Question, Dvorák’s Symphony No. 9, New World, and Florence Price’s String Quartet in G. Tickets $100 to access full season. View here and on demand for 30 days.
12:30 pm ET: Philharmonie de Paris presents Debussy, Rachmaninov, Strauss & Enescu. Case Scaglione conducts the Orchestre National d'Île-de-France in Debussy’s Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune, Rachmaninov’s Variations on a Theme of Paganini (with soloist Marie-Ange Nguci), Johann Strauss’s Blue Danube, and Enescu’s Romanian Rhapsody No. 1. View here. LIVE
1 pm ET: Wiener Staatsoper presents Massenet’s Werther. Conductor: Bertrand de Billy director: Andrei Serban With Piotr Beczala, Gaëlle Arquez, Clemens Unterreiner, and Daniela Fally. Register for free and view here. LIVE
2 pm ET: Orchestre de la Suisse Romande presents Lully Revisited by Strauss. Duncan Ward conducts the OSR with tenor Jeremy Ovenden and hornist Radek Baborák in Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings alongside music by Lully and Richard Strauss’s take on Lully in Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme. View here.
5 pm ET: National Sawdust presents New Works Concert I. National Sawdust has awarded 20 composers the resources to create a new work for streamed performance. The first of two concerts is hosted by the composers themselves who give an overview of the music, their process, technical elements within the work, and what it means for them to be an artist at this time. The National Sawdust Ensemble performs music by Michele Cheng, James Diaz, Baldwin Giang, Clifton Joey Guidry III, Julie Herndon, Mario Layne Fabrizio, Finola Merivale, Kelley Sheehan, Bethany Younge, and Manjing Zhang. View here.
6:30 pm ET: Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center presents Composers in Focus: Tania León. Composer and pianist Tania León talks with oboist James Austin Smith about motivation, influences, inspiration and her work A La Par for Piano and Percussion (1986), discussing how the 12-minute work came to be and how it looks to her three-plus decades later. Ian David Rosenbaum, percussion, and Orion Weiss, piano, perform the piece. Register and view here and on demand for a week.
7 pm ET: The Cleveland Orchestra presents In Focus Episode 4: Inventions: Bach to Haydn. Nicholas McGegan leads a program filled with musical invention and seasonal abundance. Works by Corelli and Handel offer reflections on the Christmas season, while Bach’s Third Brandenburg Concerto showcases this master’s ingenuity with string orchestra. The program concludes with a string symphony by Mendelssohn. View here via TCO’s streaming platform Adella.
7 pm ET: Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning presents Ritual for the Losses. Led by singer, dancer, and multi-instrumentalist Jen Shyu, this improvised set is a ritual honoring those whom we have lost, not only from the current pandemic, but especially those in our Black and Brown communities worldwide who have been killed, many without mourning or acknowledgement. Shyu is joined by Immanuel Wilkins (saxophone) and Cory Smythe (piano). View here.
7:30 pm ET: Detroit Symphony Orchestra presents Starburst & Strauss. Principal Oboe Alexander Kinmonth is the soloist for Richard Strauss’s Oboe Concerto, one of his final works. Before that, Jessie Montgomery’s Starburst is a sonic exploration of the rapidly changing colors of new stars forming in the sky. Tickets $12. View here.
7:30 pm ET: Live With Carnegie Hall presents Michael Feinstein in Irving Berlin: America’s Schubert. Stay-at-home orders in Los Angeles have prevented Feinstein performing his planned concert of classic crooner songs. Instead, revisit his Live with Carnegie Hall episode from last June about the genius of Irving Berlin. In addition to archival clips from past performances—including a duet by Laura Osnes and Santino Fontana—Feinstein is joined by Cheyenne Jackson, Kelli O’Hara, and Tony Yazbeck for “Always,” “What’ll I Do,” and “Cheek to Cheek.” View here and on demand.
7:30 pm ET: Nightly Met Opera Streams presents Thomas Adès’s The Exterminating Angel. Starring Audrey Luna, Amanda Echalaz, Sally Matthews, Sophie Bevan, Alice Coote, Christine Rice, Iestyn Davies, Joseph Kaiser, Frédéric Antoun, David Portillo, David Adam Moore, Rod Gilfry, Kevin Burdette, Christian Van Horn, and John Tomlinson. conducted by Thomas Adès. From November 18, 2017. View here and for 24 hours. **
8 pm ET: Heartbeat Opera presents Breathing Free: Black Queer Revolution. A song cycle, brought to life in music videos, mingling excerpts from Fidelio with Negro Spirituals and songs by Black composers and lyricists (also featuring the voices of more than 100 incarcerated singers and 70 volunteers from six prison choirs). Episode 4: Beethoven's Leonore dressed as a man; Heartbeat's Leah seduces a woman. In the flesh, black queer artists and activists redefine gender norms, and inspire old and new generations with their revolutionary lives. Tickets $35. View here.
8 pm ET: The Philadelphia Orchestra presents Bronfman Plays Beethoven. Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts Missy Mazzoli’s Ecstatic Science, Beethoven’s Coriolan Overture, and Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with pianist Yefim Bronfman. Tickets $15. View here and on demand for three days. LIVE
9 pm ET: Grand Teton Music Festival presents GTMF On Location: Chicago. The second in a series of five digital chamber music concerts, recorded, and produced remotely in the home cities of Festival Orchestra musicians across the country. Recorded at Alice Millar Chapel, Northwestern University, Chicago-based GTMF musicians Barbara Butler, trumpet, Tage Larsen, trumpet, Gail Williams, horn, Michael Mulcahy, trombone, and Eugene Pokorny, tuba perform Harbison’s Two Chorale Preludes for Advent, Bach’s Die Kunst der Fuga, BWV 1080, plus a Fantasy on The Twelve Days of Christmas and traditional carols. View here and on demand.
10 pm ET: Cal Performances at U.C. Berkeley present Dover Quartet. The Dover Quartet play one of Haydn’s most ambitious quartets, Ligeti’s First String Quartet, composed while he was still living in communist Hungary, and Dvorák's poetic penultimate quartet. Tickets from $15. View here and on demand for 30 days.
Friday, December 11
1 pm ET: Wiener Staatsoper presents Cilèa’s Adriana Lecouvreur. Conductor: Evelino Pidò, director: David McVicar. With Angela Gheorghiu, Massimo Giordano, Elena Zhidkova, and Roberto Frontali. Performance of February 22, 2014. Register for free and view here.
2 pm ET: Opera Streaming presents Massenet’s Werther. A co-production between Opera Lombardia and Modena, Reggio Emilia, Ferrara and Pisa theaters. The title role is sung by Francesco Demuro with Veronica Simeoni as Charlotte. Francesco Pasqualetti conducts Stefano Vizioli new production. View here. LIVE
2 pm ET: English Chamber Orchestra presents Handel’s Messiah. Messiah includes many popular numbers, including For Unto Us a Child is Born, And the Glory of the Lord, and the Hallelujah Chorus. ECO is joined by VOCES8 in an 80-minute version without an interval and with a socially distanced audience. With soloists Carolyn Sampson, Iestyn Davies, Andrew Staples, and Matthew Brook. Tickets 12.50. View here. **
2 pm ET: Concertgebouworkest presents Iván Fischer & Miah Persson. Fischer conducts Berlioz’s song cycle Les nuits d’été with Persson as soloist, which is flanked by Mozart’s Menuet in C, K.409 and his Symphony No. 34 in C, K.338. The stream starts with an interview in which the orchestra’s solo double bass player Dominic Seldis speaks with his colleague, violinist Marc Daniel van Biemen. View here.
2 pm ET: LA Opera presents The Five Moons of Lorca. The first in a series of newly commissioned videos with music by Gabriela Lena Frank. Featuring an original text by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Nilo Cruz, the piece was filmed at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, marking LA Opera's first return to that stage since March. Featuring choreography and performance by dancer Irene Rodríguez, it takes inspiration from the assassination of poet Federico García Lorca at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War conveying the beauty of Lorca’s life as well as its tragic end, while serving as a commentary for the dangers of political and cultural intolerance. Register and view here until December 25.
5 pm ET: National Sawdust presents New Works Concert II. National Sawdust has awarded 20 composers the resources to create a new work for streamed performance. The second of two concerts is hosted by the composers themselves who give an overview of the music, their process, technical elements within the work, and what it means for them to be an artist at this time. JACK Quartet perform music by Eddie Codrington, Jessie Cox, Yaz Lancaster, Ted Moore, Daniel Sabzghabaei, Golnaz Shariatzadeh, Nina Shekhar, Rajna Swaminathan, Tanyaradzwa Tawengwa, and Nicholas Tran. View here.
7 pm ET: Philadelphia International Music Camp & Festival presents Virtual Viola Master Class. As part of a series featuring principal players of The Philadelphia Orchestra, Assistant Principal Violist Kerri Ryan will present a live 60-minute master class followed by a 30-minute Q & A Session in which audience members can interact directly. Reserve tickets here.
7:30 pm ET: University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music presents Classical Virtuosity. The CCM Philharmonia student orchestra opens this new digital performance series with Debussy/Ravel’s Danse, Respighi’s Trittico Botticelliano, Perry’s Short Piece for Orchestra and Mozart’s Symphony No. 29. Future episodes feature the CCM Ballet Ensemble, the CCM Chamber Choir, and a collaborative concert with the Ariel Quartet and members of the CSO/CCM Diversity Fellowship program. View here and on demand.
7:30 pm ET: Nightly Met Opera Streams presents The Gershwins Porgy & Bess. Starring Angel Blue, Golda Schultz, Latonia Moore, Denyce Graves, Frederick Ballentine, Eric Owens, Alfred Walker, and Donovan Singletary, conducted by David Robertson. From February 1, 2020. View here and for 24 hours. **
7:30 pm ET: Detroit Symphony Orchestra presents Jader conducts Beethoven. DSO Music Director Jader Bignamini returns for Beethoven’s Third Symphony, Eroica, a work that would come to define orchestral music for the next century. Tickets $12 and view here.
7:30 pm ET: Cantus presents Lessons and Carols for our Time Part I. Recorded on November 6, 2020, following a period of intensive quarantine and isolation guided by medical professionals. Cantus offers a contemporary take on a British Christmas tradition elevated by the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge. Weaving together poetry and song, the program draws upon classic carols like “Silent Night” and “A La Nanita Nana;” modern works by Abbie Betinis and Saunder Choi, and the Cantus favorite Franz Biebl’s “Ave Maria.” Tickets are pay what you can. View here, for three days with part two on December 18.
8 pm ET: Opera Philadelphia presents Love in the Park. Singers from Opera Philadelphia Chorus under the direction of Chorus Master Elizabeth Braden and accompanied by pianist Grant Loehnig perform arias and choruses alongside musical theater selections. Filmed on September 30, 2020 at a masked and socially distanced concert in Dilworth Park. Tickets from $15. View here and on demand.
8 pm ET: Heartbeat Opera presents Breathing Free: To Decolonize Opera. Episode 5: Bass-baritone Davóne Tines moderates a panel discussion that explores the contradiction in the history of European opera between the ideals that the art form has been intended to embody—whether those of the Renaissance or Enlightenment—and the art form’s disregard for European colonial atrocities at odds with those ideals. The discussion asks: How did opera participate by looking away? And what would decolonizing opera look like? Tickets $35. View here.
8 pm ET: DACAMERA presents Visions of a Century: Tyshawn Sorey’s Perle Noire. In Perle Noire, subtitled “Josephine Baker: a Personal Portrait,” Tyshawn Sorey has arranged songs associated with Baker for Julia Bullock and ICE ensemble. As conceived by Peter Sellars, the result is “a ritual of morning,” according to The New York Times with Bullock “one of the singular artists of her generation.” Register and view here. **
8 pm ET: Boston Early Music Festival presents The Tallis Scholars. A BEMF tradition for 31 consecutive seasons, director Peter Phillips leads music for the Christmas season written to invoke and honor the Virgin Mary, with selections by Palestrina, Lassus, Whyte, Pärt, Guerrero, and Praetorius. The performance will be from London's historic Church of St. Anne & St. Agnes. View here until December 25.
8 pm ET: Library of Congress presents Beethoven's Hammerklavier: Two Visions. Pianist Adam Golka and the Verona Quartet present an intensive focus on Beethoven’s Hammerklavier Sonata: two visions of the work in back-to-back performances, with David Plylar’s transcription for string quartet followed by the composer’s original version for piano. Register and view here.
Saturday, December 12
12 pm ET: Berliner Philharmoniker Digital Concert Hall presents Andris Nelsons & Baiba Skride. Nelsons conducts the BPO in Stravinsky’s Concerto in D for Violin and Orchestra with soloist Baiba Skride and Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 in D. Tickets EUR 9.90. View here. LIVE
12 pm ET: Northern Opera Group present Pauline Viardot’s Cinderella. The Leeds-based company’s film adaptation of Viardot’s short comic opera stars Claire Wild in the title role. The production was filmed at locations around Leeds, including the picturesque Calverley Old Hall, which dates to medieval times. Directed by Sophie Gilpin and conducted by Chris Pelly, Cinderella blends on-location filming with a digital chorus of community singers, recorded at home. View here.
12 pm ET: NPR Music presents AMPLIFY with Lara Downes & Davóne Tines. Downes talks with bass-baritone Davóne Tines, whose work not only encompasses a diverse repertoire, but also explores the social issues of today. He is the fifth guest to appear in this bi-weekly series, which features intimate and deeply personal video conversations with visionary Black musicians who are shaping the present and future of the art form. View here.
12 pm ET: Lang Lang International Music Foundation presents Reaching Dreams Through Music. A virtual concert with special guests including Lang Lang and his wife, pianist Gina Alice, Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter, Sam Smith, director, Ron Howard, musician Jon Batiste, ballet dancer Misty Copeland, Diana Krall, Wyclef Jean, Renée Fleming, and The Young People’s Chorus of NYC. The artists will tell stories of the way music shaped their childhood and lives, performing songs that have influenced them and shaped their careers. The concert also highlights the impact of music in the lives of children around the world, while advocating for equitable access to music education. View here.
1 pm ET: The Metropolitan Opera presents Bryn Terfel. The baritone performs live from the historic Brecon Cathedral in his native Wales joined by soprano Natalya Romaniw and tenor Trystan Llyr Griffiths, as well as harpist Hannah Stone, pianist Jeff Howard, and the Welsh traditional folk group Calan. In addition to traditional holiday favorites such as “Silent Night,” “O Holy Night,” and “O Come All Ye Faithful,” the program will include variations on “O Tannenbaum” for harp, Lerner and Loewe’s “Little Prince,” and “O du, mein holder Abendstern” from Wagner’s Tannhäuser. Shot with multiple cameras, the concert will be linked by satellite to New York City and hosted by soprano Christine Goerke. Pay-per-view tickets are $20 and available here. The concert can be viewed for 12 days. LIVE
1 pm ET: IDAGIO Global Concert Hall presents Emanuel Ax & Yo-Yo Ma I. The first of three special events with pianist Emanuel Ax and cellist Yo-Yo Ma who have made music together for more than 40 years. Their friendship is rooted in a deep love of music, but also a shared affection for jokes (good and bad) and keen perspectives on life’s joys and challenges. Part I: Beginnings: Beethoven’s Early Period & the Origins of a Friendship. Music & Conversation. Tickets $13. View here.
1 pm ET: Wiener Staatsoper presents Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake. Conductor: Alexander Ingram, choreographie: Rudolf Nureyev. With Olga Esina, Vladimir Shishov, and Eno Peci. Performance of March 16, 2014. Register for free and view here.
2 pm ET: VOCES8 Live from London presents The Tallis Scholars. A Christmas program focused on the Madonna and Child, the inspiration for Tallis's most gilded of mass settings. Sheppard takes up the theme in his Gaude, Gaude, Gaude, a tour-de-force of exotic polyphony. Britten's Hymn to the Virgin and Pärt's Bogoroditse devo (Rejoice, mother of God) reflect the theme of praise before Spanish master Victoria paints Mary’s words in his double-choir Magnificat. Tickets £12.50 and view here.
2 pm ET: Peoples’ Symphony Concerts presents Gil Shaham. The violinist plays Bach’s Sonata for Solo Violin No. 1 in G minor BWV 1001, Scott Wheeler’s Isolation Rag, Max Raimi’s Violin Etude: Anger Management, Reena Ismail’s When the violin, and Bach’s Partita for Solo Violin No. 3 in E BWV 1006. Tickets $50 for five concerts. View here.
3 pm ET: Heartbeat Opera presents Breathing Free: To Love Radically. A song cycle, brought to life in music videos, mingling excerpts from Fidelio with Negro Spirituals and songs by Black composers and lyricists (also featuring the voices of more than 100 incarcerated singers and 70 volunteers from six prison choirs). Episode 6: In Fidelio, love overcomes injustice. What sustains today’s activists in the struggle to defund, disarm, and dismantle all systems of oppression, and show up for communities of color? Tickets $35. View here.
4 pm ET: IDAGIO Global Concert Hall presents Emanuel Ax & Yo-Yo Ma II. The second of three special events with pianist Emanuel Ax and cellist Yo-Yo Ma who have made music together for more than 40 years. Their friendship is rooted in a deep love of music, but also a shared affection for jokes (good and bad) and keen perspectives on life’s joys and challenges. Part II: Amid Tears and Sorrow: Finding Hope in Beethoven’s Middle Period. Tickets $13. View here.
5 pm ET: Caramoor presents TENET Vocal Artists. Based around the Anglican tradition of Lessons and Carols, TENET’s vocal soloists join with lutenist Hank Heijink to perform traditional carols alongside works by Warlock, Howells, Parry, and Vaughan Williams. Soprano and Artistic Director Jolle Greenleaf is joined by Molly Quinn, Virginia Warnken Kelsey, Donald Meineke, and Jonathan Woody, a featured composer and arranger for several of the program’s selections. Tickets $10. View here.
7 pm ET: IDAGIO Global Concert Hall presents Emanuel Ax & Yo-Yo Ma III. The third of three special events with pianist Emanuel Ax and cellist Yo-Yo Ma who have made music together for more than 40 years. Their friendship is rooted in a deep love of music, but also a shared affection for jokes (good and bad) and keen perspectives on life’s joys and challenges. Part III: Looking Back: Beethoven’s Late Period and 40 Years of Friendship. Tickets $13. View here.
7 pm ET: Les Violons du Roy present Baroque Christmas Musique. Bernard Labadie conducts Les Violons du Roy in a festive concert of Charpentier’s Noëls pour les instruments, H.531 et 534, Torrelli’s Concerto a quattro in forma di Pastorale per il Santissimo Natale, Op. 8 No. 6, Handel’s Pifa excerpt from Messiah, HWV56 J.C. PEZ and Concerto Pastorale in F, and Corelli’s Concerto grosso Fatto per la notte di natale, Op. 6 No. 8. View here.
7:30 pm ET: Nightly Met Opera Streams presents Weill’s The Rise & Fall of the City of Mahagonny. Starring Teresa Stratas, Astrid Varnay, Richard Cassilly, and Cornell MacNeil, conducted by James Levine. From November 27, 1979. View here and for 24 hours. **
7:30 pm ET: IDAGIO Global Concert Hall presents NWS Cornerstones: The Bach Project. James Ehnes joins forces with New World Symphony Violin Fellows to share Bach's masterpieces for solo violin. During the pandemic, Ehnes leaned into Bach’s sonatas and partitas. Through guided explorations in master classes and individual coachings, Ehnes has shared his reflections with NWS Fellows and together here they bring these masterful works to life. Tickets $20. View here.
7:30 pm ET: Bard College presents Finding What is Lost. The Neave Trio pairs contemporary works by Eric Nathan and Dale Trumbore with Glinka’s Trio pathetique. In a search for lost love, he composed this trio right after the end of a relationship. Nathan’s Missing Words V is the fifth piece in a series of works inspired by Ben Schott’s book, Schottenfreude. Trumbore’s Another Chance is a musical exploration of the creative process: putting down an idea; obsessing over it; revising it; second-guessing and re-writing it. View here.
7:30 pm ET: Interlochen Arts Academy presents The Nutcracker. A production featuring 34 young dancers from 22 U.S. states. Interlochen Arts Academy Director of Dance Joseph Morrissey has choreographed and staged the new production with Interlochen’s health protocols in mind, creating a new version that captures the essence of the classic ballet’s music, dancing, and theatricality. View here.
8 pm ET: Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra presents Live From Music Hall: Holiday Pops. John Morris Russell and the Pops bring holiday cheer and favorite sounds of the season in the 2020 finale of the Live From Music Hall digital concert series. View here.
8 pm ET: A Far Cry presents Amazonita. In Milagros (Miracles), Gabriela Lena Frank imagines a visit to her mother’s grave in her native Peru. Composed and recorded in 1972, Jacqueline Nova’s Creation of the Earth modifies recordings of creation chants of the U’wa peoples of Northeastern Colombia. The program also includes Brazilian guitarist Paulinho Nogueira’s Bachianinhas Nos. 1 and 2, inspired by Bach and Villa-Lobos, and Brazilian-American composer Clarice Assad's Obrigado, which loosely follows the arc of a traditional Umbanda religious ceremony. Tickets from $8. View here.
9 pm ET: Houston Symphony presents Very Merry POPS. A little holiday cheer as Michael Krajewski leads carols and fun-filled favorites including “Feliz Navidad,” “O Holy Night,” “We Wish You a Merry Christmas,” and “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” Tickets $20. View here. LIVE
Sunday, December 13
10 am ET: London Symphony Orchestra presents A Singalong Christmas. The LSO’s annual Christmas spectacular led by LSO Choral Director Simon Halsey. Sing along to festive favorites and gospel classics. including “Sleigh Ride,” “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing,” “The First Nowell,” and yuletide discoveries from around the world. View here and on demand for 90 days.
1 pm ET: OperaVision presents Massenet’s Werther. With some of the most romantic music ever written, Massenet’s Werther adapts Goethe's epistolary novel into one of the finest accomplishments in French opera. This production, recorded November 5, 2020, stars the winners of the 71st AsLiCo Singing Competition, whose youthful passion rivals Werther's own. View here and on demand for six months. LIVE
1 pm ET: Wiener Staatsoper presents Puccini’s Tosca. Conductor: Bertrand de Billy, director: Margarethe Wallmann. With Anna Netrebko, Yusif Eyvazov, Wolfgang Koch, and Evgeny Solodovnikov. Register for free and view here. LIVE
2 pm ET: VOCES8 Live from London presents Take 6 & London Adventist Chorale. The London Adventist Chorale, known for its delivery of a cappella sacred music of the African American tradition, joins Take 6 for New Beginnings, reflecting on 2020 and including music by African American composer Rosephanye Powell, by artistic director Ken Burton, and by the late Moses Hogan. Tickets £12.50 and view here.
2.15 pm ET: Czech Philharmonic presents Live in Your Living Room. Petr Altrichter conducts the CPO with Jan Mrácek, violin, and Ivan Vokác, cello, in Brahms’s Double Concerto in A minor and Dvorák’s Suite in A, Op. 98. View here.
3 pm ET: 92nd St Y presents Jeremy Denk. The pianist performs a program that includes two of the greatest masterpieces ever written for the piano: Mozart’s C Minor sonata and Beethoven’s final sonata, also in C Minor. Between these two works is a musical exploration of ragtime, African drumming, protest song, and war. Tickets $15. View here.
3 pm ET: Philadelphia Chamber Music Society presents Marcantonio Barone. The pianist’s recital features the world premiere of George Crumb’s Metamorphoses (Book II), a work written specifically for him that offers a broad palette of coloristic effects along with Crumb’s unmistakable musical gestures, and an inherent sense of drama coupled with a magical, suspenseful atmosphere. Bartók’s Suite, Op. 14 and Mozart’s Sonata in D Major, K. 311 complete the program. View here. LIVE
3 pm ET: Live From The Barbican presents The Cosmos with Professor Brian Cox.
What does it mean to live small, finite lives in an infinite Universe? Cox draws on spectacular imagery and discoveries from 21st-century cosmology to begin to provide some answers, while Dalia Stasevska conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra in works by Ives, Mahler, and Sibelius, composers who grappled with these same questions through their music. Tickets £12.50 and view here. LIVE
3 pm ET: Trinity Church Wall Street presents Best Messiah in New York. A complete concert performance captured live last year in high definition. The oratorio’s movements will be interspersed with personal video messages from ten Trinity artists, and there will be a live comment thread for audience members to chat with conductor Julian Wachner, the musicians, and other viewers around the world. View here.
4 pm ET: Our Concerts Live presents The Ariel Quartet: Hanukkah Baking Special. The Ariel Quartet celebrates Hanukkah with an afternoon of music and holiday baking. The Quartet will perform Schulhoff’s String Quartet No. 1, Beethoven’s Quartet in G, Op. 18, No. 2, and Steve Cohen’s A Klezmer Nutcracker live from the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. They’ll also share family recipes for making Viennese Apple Strudel and Chocolate Babka, and there will even be a bake-off matching up Lebkuchen and Hanukkah doughnuts. View here.
5 pm ET: Boulder Philharmonic presents Happy Holidays from the Phil. Ring in the holidays with the brass and percussion sections of the Boulder Phil. From “Deck the Halls” to music for Hanukkah, Gabrieli to “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” a colorful program to get you in the holiday spirit. Tickets are pay what you can. View here.
5 pm ET: San Francisco Conservatory of Music presents Sarah Cahill. The pianist performs from Sol Joseph Recital Hall, in a concert that features the world premiere of Up for two pianos by Riley Nicholson, performed with Regina Myers; George Lewis’s Endless Shout; Aida Shirazi’s Albumblatt; Reena Esmail’s Rang de Basant; and Regina Harris Baiocchi’s Piano Poems. View here. LIVE
5 pm ET: Santa Fe Opera presents Songs of the Season. Filmed at the Santa Fe Opera and on-location at historic churches across Northern New Mexico. Tenor Joshua Dennis, mezzo-soprano Briana Elyse Hunter, the Young Voices of the Santa Fe Opera, and Robert Tweten on piano perform musical selections by Puccini, Morten Lauridsen, Stephen Paulus, Irving Berlin, and more. View here and for 24 hours.
5 pm ET: Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center presents Front Row Mainstage: The Brandenburg Concertos. Continuing a CMS tradition, this newly curated HD concert features archival recordings of Bach’s Six Brandenburg Concertos. View here and on demand until December 31.
7 pm ET: Desert Chorale presents Home for the Holidays. In lieu of its traditional winter season, the Santa Fe Desert Chorale presents a special filmed event featuring a quartet of (masked) Desert Chorale artists based in New York City, artists from across the nation offering duet and solo performances from their homes, organ interludes, and program commentary from Artistic Director Joshua Habermann, culminating in the artists who were scheduled to be with us this December singing “Silent Night.” Tickets from $5. View here until December 25.
7:30 pm ET: Close Encounters with Music presents A Night at the Opera. Tracking how the melodrama of the operatic stage finds its way into the intimate world of chamber music. Paganini, Liszt, Vladimir Horowitz and even Beethoven borrowed from Wagner, Bizet, Mozart and Rossini to create equally captivating progeny. Metropolitan opera soprano Danielle Talamantes, baritone Kerry Wilkerson, violinist Peter Zazofsky, pianist Max Levinson, and cellist Yehuda Hanani share the adventure. A link to stream the event will be available seven days before the premiere here.
7:30 pm ET: Met Opera Streams presents John Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles. Starring Teresa Stratas, Håkan Hagegård, Gino Quilico, Graham Clark, Marilyn Horne, and Renée Fleming, conducted by James Levine. From January 10, 1992. View here and for 24 hours. **
7:30 pm ET: Bard College Conservatory’s US-China Music Institute presents Beethoven Made In China. Pipa virtuosos Wu Man plays Beethoven on her traditional Chinese instrument in this special evening of musical interpretations of Beethoven with Chinese accents. Additional featured artists include composer/conductor Tan Dun, bass-baritone Shenyang, the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, The Orchestra Now, and musicians of the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. View here.
Marilyn Horne as Samira the Turkish Entertainer in John Corigliano's The Ghost of Versailles
Monday, December 14
8 am ET: Wigmore Hall presents Jack Liebeck & Katya Apekisheva. Program: Schumann’s Violin Sonata No. 1 in A minor Op. 105, Mozart’s Violin Sonata in A, K526, Fritz Kreisler’s Caprice viennois Op. 2 and Syncopation, de Falla’s Danse Espagnole. Register, view here and on demand for 30 days. LIVE
12:30 pm ET: Philharmonie de Paris presents La Voix Intérieure. Stéphane Degout sings Lieder by Schubert, Brahms, Liszt, Schumann, and Weber. In the second part, Raphaël Pichon and his ensemble Pygmalion perform Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony. View here. LIVE
1 pm ET: Wiener Staatsoper presents Henze’s Das Verratene Meer. Conductor: Simone Young, director: Jossi Wieler, Sergio Morabito. With Vera-Lotte Boecker, and Bo Skovhus. Register for free and view here. LIVE
2:30 pm ET: Wigmore Hall presents Iestyn Davies. The British countertenor performs alongside regular partners Arcangelo (conducted by Jonathan Cohen), lutenist Thomas Dunford, and Jonathan Manson on viola da gamba. Register, view here and on demand for 30 days. LIVE **
7:30 pm ET: Met Opera Streams presents Saint-Saëns’s Samson et Dalila. Starring Elina Garanca, Roberto Alagna, Laurent Naouri, Elchin Azizov, and Dmitry Belosselskiy, conducted by Sir Mark Elder. From October 20, 2018. View here and for 24 hours.
7:30 pm ET: SalonEra presents Medieval Christmas. Members of Blue Heron (Scott Metcalfe, director) and Trobàr (featuring Elena Mullins and Allison Monroe) bring a mix of mysticism and merriment illuminating Medieval music for Advent and Christmas while Kevin Allen previews his new work for Blue Heron, Puer Natus. Suggested donation $10, register and view here.
Artists and Organizations Offering Free Content
Academy of Ancient Music
The most listened-to period instrument ensemble, directed by Richard Egarr, has made a number of streams available on its website. Guest artists include Louise Alder, soprano, Nicola Benedetti, violin, Mary Bevan, soprano, David Blackadder, trumpet, Iestyn Davies, countertenor, Tim Mead, countertenor, Christopher Purvis, bass, and Tenebrae, directed by Nigel Short. Explore here.
American Opera Project
First Glimpse is a video album of 20 songs created during the first year of AOP’s 2019-21 fellowship program, Composers & the Voice. Originally intended as a live concert, the videos will be released every Friday beginning October 23 and for the following six weeks. The composers are Alaina Ferris, Matt Frey, Michael Lanci, Mary Prescott, Jessica Rudman and Tony Solitro, with librettists Amanda Hollander and Jonathan Douglass Turner. Videos will be free for one week following their release, after which they will be available to rent or purchase, individually or as a full set through AOP's Website. Explore here.
American Symphony Orchestra
American Symphony Orchestra releases weekly recordings from its archives with content alternating between live video recordings of SummerScape operas and audio recordings from previous ASO concerts. Ethel Smyth’s The Wreckers, Richard Strauss’s Die Liebe aus Danae, and Korngold’s Das Wunder der Heliane, all conducted by Leon Botstein, are all highly recommended and available now.
Apollo’s Fire: Music for the Soul
The Cleveland-based baroque orchestra founded by Artistic Director Jeannette Sorrell is offering a series of video streams entitled “Music for the Soul.” New episodes are posted here.
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
BSO Sessions continues to bring the stories of BSO musicians, conductors, and collaborators to life through a documentary-style narrative. In addition to the first three episodes currently available upcoming episodes celebrate a responsible return of winds and brass to the stage, as well as the series debut of Music Director Marin Alsop and Principal Pops Conductor Jack Everly. Assistant Conductor Jonathan Rush interviews film composer Michael Abels and Artistic Partner Wordsmith joins in a special holiday episode with a new rendition of “’Twas the Night Before Christmas.” Explore here.
Bard SummerScape & Fisher Center
Archival works highlight Bard’s wealth and breadth of programming, including performances from its SummerScape Opera and BMF archives. Recent include Bard SummerScape’s 2011 production of Strauss’s rarely performed Die Liebe der Danae and last year’s Daniel Fish directed staging of Michael Gordon’s Acquanetta. More details here.
Carnegie Hall
More than 200 teen musicians hailing from 41 states across the US came together in July 2020 as an online virtual community to form three musical ensembles: the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America (NYO-USA), NYO2, and NYO Jazz. All three ensembles recorded exuberant virtual performance videos during the residency, directed by Emmy Award-winner Habib Azar. The first four videos—Valerie Coleman’s Umoja by the musicians of NYO-USA; a unique adaptation of Grieg’s Morning Mood by NYO2; and Thad Jones’s Cherry Juice and Wycliffe Gordon’s We’re Still Here by NYO Jazz—are now available for viewing. Explore here.
The Cleveland Orchestra
Concert videos filmed at restaurants, shops, Cleveland Clinic, and iconic locations throughout Greater Cleveland will be released weekly on social media starting November 23. Cleveland Orchestra assistant concertmaster Jessica Lee and her colleagues created these videos to share the power of music with healthcare workers, patients, and the community affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. This series of 7-10 videos will be released weekly as part of the Music Medicine Initiative: The Power of Music for Health and Well-Being, a community collaboration between The Cleveland Orchestra and Cleveland Clinic’s Art + Design Institute. Explore here.
Cliburn Kids
The Cliburn launches its expanded, robust online music education program for elementary-school students. Created as a resource for school districts, teachers, and parents, the initiative includes 27 lesson plans to date, each with a seven- to ten-minute video, and corresponding individual and class activities that meet objectives of the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS). New episodes and lesson plans are released every Tuesday of the 2020–2021 school year for a total of more than 50 by May 2021. Explore here.
Detroit Symphony Orchestra
The Detroit Symphony Orchestra has made its webcast archive available for free. The collection features 200+ works going back three years, and highlights include Leonard Slatkin conducting John Luther Adams’s climate change-inspired Become Ocean from 2019, several world premieres, and a host of bite-sized encores. Explore here.
Deutsche Grammophon Yellow Lounge
The German classical music giant is streaming Yellow Lounge broadcasts from its archives. Recent additions include clarinetist Andreas Ottensamer, pianists Alice Sara Ott and Chihiro Yamanaka, and cellist Mischa Maisky. Performances are broadcast in rotation, one video at a time, adding a new performance every few days. DG communicates the start of each new performance by newsletter at the start of each week. To keep updated sign up here.
Finnish National Opera
Finnish National Opera presents Stage24, a series of streamed archived performances on its website, which are then available for the next six months. Recent content includes a staged version of Sibelius’s Kullervo, Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress, Caspar Holten’s staging of Wagner’s Der Fliegende Holländer with Camilla Nylund, and Christoff Loy’s Tosca. An excellent company and some interesting and original work worth investigating. Explore here.
Handel and Haydn Society
Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society has created the H+H Listening Room where you can hear and watch H+H performances including Mozart’s Requiem, Handel’s Messiah, and Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas filmed at New York’s Met Museum. There are also more than a dozen videos of musicians performing from their homes, a special video of principal flutist Emi Ferguson teaching people how to make their own baroque flute, and a new podcast called “Tuning In”. In the first episode Principal Cellist Guy Fishman interviews Artistic Director Harry Christophers about Bach's St. Matthew Passion. Explore here.
Kennedy Center
The Kennedy Center is offering a free, live digital performance initiative, Couch Concerts, to help inspire, uplift, heal, and bring the performing arts into homes across the country and around the world during these difficult times. Couch Concerts stream direct from artists’ homes on the Kennedy Center website. Audiences can discover a wide range of other at-home programming through the Kennedy Center at Home webpage.
La Scala/RAI
Italy’s RAI presents five productions from La Scala Milan including the world premiere of Kurtág’s Fin de Partie, Daniel Barenboim conducting Götterdämmerung, Lisette Oropesa in Verdi’s I Masnadieri, Montedervi’s Orfeo conducted by Rinaldo Alessandrini, and Les Vêpres Siciliennes conducted by Daniele Gatti. A wide range of concerts are also available. Explore and register here.
Latin American Cultural Week
The 15th Annual Latin American Cultural Week will hold virtual events from December 5 through 12 showcasing 50 music, theater and dance presentations from Spain, the U.S. (including Shall We Tango NYC), Argentina (22 events), Colombia, Uruguay, and Venezuela. Spain’s Binelli-Ferman Duo (bandoneonist Daniel Binelli and pianist Polly Ferman) recorded a new video using multimedia images as a response to the current climate in the arts caused by Covid-19. Venezuelan group Etnoe3 Transmigration recorded their program under difficult current conditions. Spain’s Coralia Artis is donating their revenue from ticket sales to a Children’s Hospital in New York City and Argentina’s Maryta de Humahuaca is giving her proceeds to a village, helping them bring water to their lives. All events will be ticketed and available here.
Les Arts Florissants
Les Arts Florissants’s annual Festival in Thiré, France included a series of 10- to 15-minute “Meditation” concerts recorded earlier this summer. Now available to enjoy online, the Meditations include performances by students of Juilliard’s Historical Performance program in the spirit of their annual participation in the Festival. View here.
Lincoln Center Lincoln Center Passport to the Arts
A variety of virtual classes, performances, and bonus content designed for children, teens and adults with disabilities and their families. Offerings include programs with Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Metropolitan Opera Guild, New York City Ballet, the New York Philharmonic, and The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. Families can attend dance, music or drama classes, watch exclusive performances, check out behind-the-scenes content, and even meet performers—all from their homes. Families will receive pre-visit materials, including social narratives, photos, and links before each program. All programs take place via Zoom. Register here.
Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra
LACO AT HOME offers streaming and on demand performances, including a full showing of the orchestra’s critically acclaimed West Coast premiere of Dark with Excessive Bright for double bass and strings by LACO Artist-in-Residence Missy Mazzoli. View streaming here and on demand here.
Los Angeles Master Chorale
Videos recorded as part of the “Offstage with the Los Angeles Master Chorale” series from April 24 to June 19 included interviews conducted by Artistic Director Grant Gershon and Associate Conductor Jenny Wong with notable performers—including special guests Reena Esmail, Morten Lauridsen, Anna Schubert, Peter Sellars, Derrick Spiva—as well as Master Chorale singers. Available on demand here.
Metropolitan Opera Live In Schools
The Metropolitan Opera’s HD Live in Schools program has launched a new series for the 2020–21 school year, creating cross-disciplinary educational opportunities across the country. For the 2020–21 school year, students and teachers will receive free subscriptions to the Met Opera on Demand service, with a catalogue of more than 700 Live in HD presentations, classic telecasts, and radio broadcasts. Ten operas have been selected for the HD Live in Schools program, and will be presented in five educational units, with two thematically paired operas per unit. The series opens with Beethoven’s Fidelio and Donizetti’s La Fille du Régiment (September 28–October 16), both of which explore the intersection of music and politics. The Met will continue to offer teachers HD Live in Schools Educator Guides and access to Google Classroom materials that can be adapted for virtual learning lesson plans. In addition, the Met’s National Educators Conference will be hosted on a virtual platform this year and take place on five Saturdays throughout the 2020–21 school year. Two conferences, scheduled for October 10, 2020, and October 17, 2020, will also feature live conversations with Met artists. More information here.
Mnnesota Orchestra
Minnesota Orchestra at Home shares video, audio, and educational materials through the categories of Watch, Listen and Learn, including videos from the orchestra’s archives and newly created “mini-concerts” directly from the homes of Orchestra musicians. Explore and view here.
National Sawdust Digital Discovery Festival, Volume One
With more than 65 events, featuring over 100 artists premiering in a four-month span, National Sawdust Digital Discovery Festival: Volume One was a bright spot in NYC's post-COVID live music world. Featuring post-COVID performances from Robert Wilson, Julian Lage, Tyondai Braxton, Emel Mathlouthi, Matthew Whitaker, Dan Tepfer, Ashley Bathgate, Emily Wells, Brooklyn Rider, Joel Ross, Conrad Tao, Andrew Yee, and Lucy Dhegrae, and recently recorded Masterclasses with Tania León, Ted Hearne, Vijay Iyer, Jamie Barton, Lawrence Brownlee, Trimpin, and Lara St. John. Archival performances include David Byrne, Lara Downes and Rhiannon Giddens, and Ryuichi Sakamoto. Explore here.
New World Symphony
The New World Symphony presents a web-based series called NWS Archive+. Michael Tilson Thomas moderates discussions with NWS Fellows, alumni, guest artists, and visiting faculty about archived recordings. Performances will be available here. NWS Fellows also play live, informal chamber music concerts from their homes in Miami Beach and broadcast via Facebook Live. In addition, the NWS online archive contains master classes, tutorials and town halls, which can be found here. Finally, for the past 10 years, the Fellows have performed one-hour concerts for local school children. These concerts and preparatory material will be available free to students and parents. NWS Educational concerts can be found here.
Opera Australia
OA | TV: Opera Australia on Demand is the Sydney-based company’s new digital space. Alongside the world’s largest collection of Dame Joan Sutherland on video, OA will offer exclusive content from the OA back catalogue, productions from Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour, and a new series of chat show-style interviews conducted by AD Lyddon Terracini. The first posted full show is Sutherland in The Merry Widow, and the fileted aria’s in the section labelled “The Best of Dame Joan Sutherland” are even better. View here.
Opéra National de Paris
The Palais Garnier and Bastille Opera have made their digital stage, “The 3e Scène,” free. The platform is a pure place of artistic adventure and exploration, giving free rein to photographers, filmmakers, writers, illustrators, visual artists, composers, and choreographers to create original works. Visit here. Some of Opéra National de Paris’s productions are accessible on the company’s Facebook Page. In addition, Octave, the Paris Opera’s online magazine, is posting articles, videos, and interviews here.
Opera North
One of Britain’s most respected smaller opera companies, Opera North has put its acclaimed semi-staged concerts of Wagner’s epic Ring Cycle online. “Beg, borrow, or be like Wotan and steal a ticket for this show,” said the UK’s Times of Das Rheingold. “You’d be lucky to hear as good at Bayreuth,” said The Telegraph of Die Walküre. Richard Farnes proves a seriously impressive Wagner conductor. Watch here.
OperaVision
OperaVision offers livestreams of operas available for free and online for six months. Previous offerings include Barrie Kosky’s visually spectacular Moses und Aron, David McVicar’s superb Die Entführung aus dem Serail from Glyndebourne, and Deborah Warner’s thoughtful Death in Venice for English National Opera. View upcoming and past content here.
NEW: Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra: Beethoven at Home
RPO bring Beethoven to living rooms in December playing all nine symphonies. The musicians will perform the first eight symphonies in small chamber ensembles varying from a string sextet to a 15-strong brass ensemble. The Grand Finale takes place on New Year’s Eve: Beethoven’s Ninth, played by the full orchestra with chorus and soloists. View here.
Orli Shaham Bach Yard Playdates
Pianist Orli Shaham brings her acclaimed interactive concert series for kids to the internet. Bach Yard Playdates introduces musical concepts, instruments, and the experience of concert-going to a global audience of children and their families. A number of 10-minute episodes are already available for on-demand streaming. Programs and performances range from Bach’s Two-Part Invention to Steve Reich’s Clapping Music. Explore here.
The Sixteen
The Sixteen and founder Harry Christophers launched Quarantine with The Sixteen, a regular schedule of digital content. The Sixteen Virtual Choir’s performance of Sheppard’s Libera nos involved each part being recorded at each singer’s home. Other features include: Choral Chihuahua, a podcast by The Sixteen and I Fagiolini; Stay at Home Choir performing Sir James MacMillan’s O Radiant Dawn; Archive performances, including MacMillan’s Stabat Mater performed in the Sistine Chapel and Bach’s St Matthew Passion with Streetwise Opera; Recipes for isolation; Video diaries providing insight into daily lives during lockdown; Weekly playlists. Explore here.
Trinity Wall Street
New York’s Trinity Church Wall Street introduces daily weekday “Comfort at One” (1 pm ET) streaming performances on Facebook with full videos posted here. Tune in for encore performances of favorite Trinity concerts, professionally filmed in HD, along with current at-home performances from Trinity’s extended artistic family.
University of Colorado Boulder
University of Colorado Boulder College of Music faculty artists perform with students and colleagues in Faculty Tuesdays, chamber music recitals featuring world premieres alongside classics. Free most Tuesdays from September 2020 through March 2021. Upcoming performers include violinist Harumi Rhodes, violist Richard O'Neill, cellist David Requiro, pianist David Korevaar, harpist Janet Harriman, and more. Explore here.
Vertical Player Repertory: The Constitution
VPR is releasing of a series of videos from Benjamin Yarmolinsky’s oratorio The Constitution, a work which played six sold-out live performances in 2019 and was called “an important work,” and “uniformly excellent,” by Musical America. First up is Voting Rights, which sets the text “The right of citizens of the United States, who are 18 years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States, or by any state, on account of age, by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax, on account of sex, on account of race, on account of color, or of previous condition of servitude.” Future releases will include The First Amendment (Treason), The Fifth Amendment (Self-Incrimination), The Sixth Amendment (Impartial Jury), The Eighth Amendment (Cruel and Unusual Punishment), The Thirteenth Amendment (Abolition of Slavery), and The Miranda Warning (a world premiere). Explore here.
Voices of Ascension
New York choir Voices of Ascension, which celebrates its 30th anniversary next season, is posting a daily offering of choral beauty on its website. Music is chosen by staff, members of the chorus and orchestra, and listeners. View here.
Warsaw Philharmonic
The Warsaw Philharmonic has made a selection of video recordings available on its YouTube channel. Recent offerings include Saint-Saëns’s Organ Symphony and Arvo Pärt’s Swansong conducted by Artistic Director Andrzej Boreyko, as well as rarities by Polish composers like Grazyna Bacewicz. It’s an excellent orchestra very much in the Eastern European tradition and concerts have been master edited for posting online.
Paid Digital Arts Services
Berlin Philharmonic Digital Concert Hall
The BPO Digital Concert Hall contains over 600 orchestra concerts covering more than ten years, including 15 concerts with the orchestra’s new Chief Conductor Kirill Petrenko, interviews, backstage footage.
Medici TV
Thousands of classical music videos are available by subscription, as well as hundreds of events that are broadcast live for free each year, available for 90 days. Subscriptions cost $83.85 per year. www.medici.tv
WHO'S BLOGGING
Law and Disorder by GG Arts Law
Career Advice by Legendary Manager Edna Landau
An American in Paris by Frank Cadenhead