Final Concert: Bright Sheng & Friends

The “exquisite blend of the musical East and West” of Bright Sheng (The New York Times) closes out three weeks of contemporary song and the 2014-15 NYFOS Next series. The Chinese-American composer and MacArthur Fellow hosts and curates a concert that includes a preview of the opening to his new opera Dream of the Red Chamber, written with co-librettist David Henry Hwang. The opera is set to premiere with the San Francisco Opera in fall 2016.

Sheng, the Leonard Bernstein Distinguished University Professor of Composition at the University of Michigan, will also showcase recent work from his students Brandon Scott Rumsey, Iman Habibi, and Matthew Tommasini, and an affectionate acknowledgement of his mentors, George Perle and Leonard Bernstein. Sheng’s diverse background informs an approach that Anthony Tommasini in The New York Timeswrites, “has won critical respect and appreciative audiences for works that deftly synthesize wildly varied musical influences.” The Telegraph (UK) called Sheng’s opera Madam Mao, which debuted at Santa Fe Opera in 2003, “…extraordinary music and a riveting evening in the theater.”

Tickets $15, general admission. Cash only at the door.