The game is on again: our popular Slam Symphony enters the next round. And so it’s time to get creative for another exciting competition between poets. This time, the theme takes us to the heart of Andalusia, where the story of Carmen is set – a temperamental and self-confident woman who wraps a handsome officer as well as a dashing bullfighter around her finger with her seductive arts, but deep down loves her freedom much more. A web of intrigue, passion and jealousy unfolds. All this amid the flair of bullfighting, cigarette factories and smuggling – and with music that is brimming with Spanish folklore. Rodion Shchedrin’s arrangement, created in 1967, lends the numbers from Bizet’s successful opera a fascinating modern sound – with lots of percussion instruments and a stirring drive. The familiar melodic earworms (such as the “Habanera”) remain, but in the kaleidoscopic splendour of this wonderful version they seem both familiar and tantalisingly unfamiliar. We look forward to hearing how the poetry slammers will illuminate the story of Carmen with their texts – and at the end, the level of applause will reveal which puns the audience liked best.

Slam Symphony

Bamberger Symphoniker

Summer is here. After the May 30th concert, the 125 musicians from all walks of life of Viva l'Orchestra! return to the forefront. And this Fête de la Musique is aptly named, as it honors amateur performance like no other. Lucie Leguay conducts the Orchestre des grands amateurs de Radio France and the musicians of the National who supported them during this unique adventure: come and applaud them a second time!

Viva l'Orchestra! Music Festival

Maison de la Radio et de la Musique

Shchedrin. Poetoria Dvořák. Cello Concerto

Mariinskiy-2

The Adventures of a Monkey
a musical narrative based on Mikhail Zoshchenko's eponymous tale, a concerto for narrator, trumpet, horn, flute, harp and two percussionists accompanied by string orchestra and cembalo in memory of Maya Plisetskaya who dearly loved this story

Shchedrin. The Adventures of a Monkey

Already 11 years old! The launch of the new edition of Viva l'Orchestra is always a celebration! The 125 amateur musicians have rehearsed for many weeks with the musicians of the Orchestre National de France, and present to you the fruits of their labor and commitment with a joy that warms the heart and is a pleasure to behold. All this in a selection of the most famous and rewarding pieces from the repertoire.

Viva l'Orchestra!

»My music is something like a signal into the unknown. What's more, I imagine and believe that my signal meets other signals and that the resulting physical changes create a new harmony.« The two »Signals« by the Japanese autodidact Tōru Takemitsu (both commissioned in 1987) are characterized by the alternation of question and answer, similar to the model of early Venetian church music. And so the wind ensemble is spatially separated from one another for the musical dialogue. »Nature and Duke Ellington were my teachers,« he is said to have once said; and we also hear the latter - alongside Takemitsu's other teacher, Messiaen - in the »Signals from Heaven«.

Cambreling – Takemitsu, Mozart, Dvořák, Shchedrin

Laeiszhalle Hamburg

Embark on a musical journey to the vibrant landscapes of Spain with the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra’s Sinfonia 4: Postcards from Spain. Join us on Saturday, May 3, 2025, at 8pm at the D.F. Cook Recital Hall, MUN School of Music, where conductor Dina Gilbert will lead you through an evening of evocative and captivating works.

Sinfonia 4: Postcards from Spain

Memorial University School of Music

Full of passion, anger, and struggle, the alluring music and human storytelling of Carmen is timeless. Reimagined over centuries through theater, film, opera and dance, the story revolves around a powerful but tragic female heroine. Jorma Elo’s version, set to the iconic score by Rodion Shchedrin after Georges Bizet, is a whirlwind of dance as technically ravaging as it is emotionally.

EPSG:4326

Carmen

Citizens Bank Opera House

Richard Stinson, Trumpet

The Juilliard School

Pre-College Studio Recital - Students of John and Annamarie McCarthy

San Francisco Conservatory of Music

PC Afternoon Recital

PC Morning Recital

A star-studded ensemble of dancers impacted by the war in Ukraine come together to perform new works and beloved classics at Festival Napa Valley’s annual Dance Gala. Led by Xander Parish, a former principal dancer at the Mariinsky Ballet, the evening features dancers who were previously part of Russia’s most elite dance companies, including the Bolshoi Ballet and Stanislavsky Ballet. Reunited in Dance is a testament to the resilience of dancers and the enduring power of ballet.

Dance Gala: Reunited in Dance

Festival Napa Valley Stage at Charles Krug

Commissioned to be performed during the centenary celebrations of Leonard Bernstein in 2018, America (A homage to Bernstein) incorporates jazz, Latin, pop, flamenco, and contemporary music. The energetic and playful score was written to encourage the listener to want to dance!

Carmen Suite

Ohio Theatre

Join Music Director Rossen Milanov and the musicians as they put the final touches on the concert program for the weekend. General admission tickets are only $14 and include free coffee and donuts prior to rehearsal! CBUSArts Ticket Center opens at 8:30am and doors open at 9am.

Friday Dress — Carmen Suite

FASTEN YOUR SEAT BELTS… Matthew Bourne’s award-winning The Car Man is back!

Loosely based on Bizet’s ever-popular opera, The Car Man has one of the most thrilling and instantly recognisable scores in New Adventures’ repertoire.

The familiar 19th century Spanish cigarette factory becomes a greasy 1950’s garage-diner in the American mid-west where the dreams and passions of a small-town are shattered by the arrival of a handsome and enigmatic stranger. Fuelled by heat and desire, the inhabitants are driven into an unstoppable spiral of greed, lust, betrayal and revenge.

Rodion Shchedrin

Events

Upcoming events

10 - 14 Nov, 2026

Matthew Bourne’s The Car Man · The Marlowe Theatre

Past events

Nov 12, 2025

Slam Symphony · Bamberger Symphoniker

Jun 21, 2025

Viva l'Orchestra! Music Festival · Orchestre National de France

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