The Eastman School of Music on Tuesday announced the lineup
for its 2016-17 Eastman Presents concert series, including performances by
soprano Renee Fleming, Tony Award-winner Kelli O’Hara, and Joyce DiDonato with
Il Pomo d’Oro, and a storytelling event with Garrison Keillor.
Eastman Presents will open its third season on Thursday,
September 29, with cello rock ensemble Break of Reality. All Eastman School of
Music alumni, the members of Break of
Reality blend together classical stylings with rock for pieces that range
from original arrangements of Radiohead to traditional Bach.
Actor and singer Kelli O’Hara will follow on Wednesday,
October 26. O’Hara — who has been
nominated for six Tony Awards — was most recently on Broadway as Anna Leonowens
in “The King and I,” for which she won her first Tony.
Well-known to Rochester audiences, National Medal of Arts
recipient Renee Fleming will return
to Kodak Hall for a performance with the Eastman Philharmonia on Saturday,
November 12. Dubbed “the people’s diva,” Fleming is an alumna of the Eastman
School, and was recently a Distinguished
Visiting Artist with the institution.
Joyce DiDonato, a
Grammy-winning mezzo-soprano, will perform Monday, December 12, with the
Baroque ensemble Il Pomo d’Oro. The program, “In War & Peace: Harmony
Through Music,” will feature selections from the Baroque opera repertoire in a
reflection on how music can inspire peace and harmony around the world.
In the New Year, Broadway actor and singer Norm Lewis will perform Friday, January
27. Lewis is the first African-American Broadway actor to portray the title
role in “Phantom of the Opera,” and has received numerous award nominations for
his performance as Porgy in “Porgy and Bess.” Lewis will perform a program
entitled “The Music of the Night” at his January date.
Garrison Keillor,
the host of “A Prairie Home Companion,” will tell his own stories on Friday,
February 17. Keillor was last in the area last summer for a taping of his radio
show at CMAC.
On Tuesday, February 28, The St. Petersburg Philharmonic
Orchestra will feature pianist Nikolai Lugansky in concert. The orchestra
will perform Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5 — the group, then known as the
Leningrad Philharmonic, premiered the work in 1937 — and Brahms’ Concerto No. 1
Choreographer Savion Glover will close the
series on Tuesday, March 21, with his show “STePz.” Glover is a Tony
Award-winner for his work in “Bring in ‘Da Noise, Bring in ‘Da Funk.”
All shows are scheduled for 8 p.m., and will take place in
Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre, 60 Gibbs Street. Season subscriptions — which
range from $134 to $548 — will go on sale at 10 a.m. on Friday, April 15, in
person at the Eastman Theatre Box Office (433 East Main Street), or by phone at
454-2100. Single tickets will be available beginning Friday, July 15.
For more information, check out eastmantheatre.org.
This article appears in Apr 6-12, 2016.
