2018 SEASON ANNOUNCED

A Midsummer Night's Dream

by Britten

Pure magic comes to life on stage in Britten’s adaptation of William Shakespeare’s iconic play. The enchanting fairytale brings magical creatures together in romance and comedy. A Midsummer Night’s Dream closely follows Shakespeare’s original, and features a spectacular range of characters from fairies to royalty with interwoven plots capturing your attention to the very end

PERFORMANCES
June 30 @ 7:30 PM

Ariadne Auf Naxos 

by Strauss

Comedy and music are beautifully intertwined in Ariadne auf Naxos by Richard Strauss. Taking place in 18th century Vienna, one very serious group of opera singers is juxtaposed against a group of comedians, leading to an entertaining evening of unplanned performances and a love story in this opera-within-an-opera.

PERFORMANCES
June 29 @ 7:30 PM
July 1 @ 2:00 PM

Teseo by Handel

Handel’s 5-act opera is set in ancient Athens, where mistaken identity, sorcery, and jealousy lead to confusion, heart break and drama. Can there still there be a happy ending?

PERFORMANCE
June 30 @ 3:00 PM
July 1 @ 5:00 PM

Independence Day Celebration

Patriotic Favorites Copland appalachian spring, 1812 Overture, Stars and Stripes

Classic 80's and 90's rock favorites featuring Michelle Kim- electric violin.

Celebrate the 4th of July with the MMF Orchestra!

Capture the uniquely American spirit with music from Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring. Listen as Tchaikovsky’s bombastic 1812 Overture, movie music from John Williams, Stars and Stripes, and other patriotic favorites round out a fun evening of orchestral hits sure to please the whole family. Plus, rock out to 80s and 90s classic rock, with Michelle Kim on electric violin with the Miami Music Festival Orchestra. 

After the concert, head over to Miami Shores Village to see the fireworks. at 9 PM. 

PERFORMANCES
July 4 @ 5:00 PM

Symphony Orchestra Concert

Shostakovich Symphony No. 10

Shostakovich began his Symphony No. 10 only a few months after Joseph Stalin’s death. It has been rumored to be a musical portrait of the Communist dictator and to include many covert anti-Stalin protests, thus creating an intense score with brooding moments that eventually crash into a slower, calmer finale. The MMF Orchestra, conducted by David Effron, will bring the intensity of Shostakovich’s narrative to life in this special performance.

PERFORMANCES
July 7 @ 7:30 PM

Conductor's Institute Concert

MMF Conducting Participants showcase their talents conducting the MMF Symphony Orchestra. Program includes:

Beethoven, Leonore Overture No. 3
Dvořák, Symphony No. 8
Mozart, Symphony No. 39

PERFORMANCES
July 10 @ 7:30 PM

Free Concert

Symphony Orchestra Concert

Stravinsky's Petrouchka plus Concerto Winners

The MMF Orchestra Institute is immensely proud of its exceptional roster of student musicians, and offers an annual showcase in which select winners of our Concerto Competition get to perform with the orchestra as soloists. In addition to the masterful performances of intense classical repertoire the winners offer, the concert will also feature Stravinsky's Petrushka under the baton of conductor Joel Smirnoff.

PERFORMANCE
July 19 @ 7:30 PM

The Miami Wagner Institute

Program:

Lohengrin, Act 2- Complete
Die Walküre, Act 2- Complete

Conductor- Michael Rossi
MMF Symphony Orchestra

Director
Antoine Wagner, Die Walküre
Marc Callahan, Lohengrin

Cast
Brunhilde- Linda Watson
Wotan- Alan Held
Wagner Institute Participants

Through innovations focused on technology, the Miami Music Festival’s Wagner Institute advances the famed German composer Richard Wagner’s legacy of using an opera’s theatrics as part of the “total art.” This season, the festival has a special surprise for audiences as Wagner’s great, great grandson, Antoine Wagner, makes his directorial debut in the halls of the New World Symphony.

Wagner will create the concept, set design and direction for Act II of Die Walküre. Die Walküre brings Norse mythology to the stage with the continuance of Wagner’s 4-opera saga, The Ring. The second opera in the cycle, Die Walküre deals with the difficult relationship between gods and mortals as the main characters struggle with their pride in order to decide the ultimate destiny of mortals. Famous Bass Baritone Alan Held returns as Wotan and Long Time Wagnerian Soprano Linda Watson joins the cast of participants as Brunhilde.

Following Die Walküre is yet another epic Wagner episode, Act II of Lohengrin. Based on an old German legend, Lohengrin tells the story of a mysterious knight who appears by way of a magic swan boat. The enchanted story intertwines love and death with magical transformations and legendary quests.

PERFORMANCE
July 14 @ 7:30 PM

NEW WORLD CENTER

La Rondine

by Puccini

La Rondine is an Italian comic opera set in mid-19th century Paris and the French Riviera. Created by Giacomo Puccini in 1916, it tells the love story between a woman from high society and a naïve younger man of lesser means. The story twists and turns through the tumultuous times of true love.

PERFORMANCES
July 26 @ 7:30 PM
July 28 @ 7:30 PM

The Ghosts of Versailles

By Corigliano

In The Ghosts of Versailles, the spirits have literally come back to court; the court of Louis XVI that is. Marie Antoinette is upset about having been beheaded, so her favorite playwright attempts to entertain her by continuing the adventures of his characters from The Barber of Seville and The Marriage of Figaro. This opera-within-an-opera goes awry when Figaro refuses to stick to the script and the playwright must come to the Queen’s rescue and win her affection.

PERFORMANCES
July 27 @ 7:30 PM
July 29 @ 2:00 PM

Radamisto

Radamisto was the first opera Handel wrote for the newly formed Royal Academy of Music of London. The opera's plot is loosely based on incidents from Tacitus's Annals of Imperial Rome. Set in ancient Armenia, this fiery opera involves a tyrannical king who covets the wife of a neighboring kingdom and creates a world of drama in his quest to possess her.

PERFORMANCES
July 28 @ 2:00 PM
July 29 @ 5:00 PM

Ching-Yun Hu, piano

Piano Works by Bach, Rachmaninoff, Ravel, Gershwin, Alkan, Kapustin

Returning to delight South Florida audiences, pianist Ching-Yun Hu presents a virtuosic program anchored by Sergei Rachmaninoff, including the demanding set of vignettes in his Études-Tableaux, Op. 39, and the Sonata No. 2, Op. 36. Hu balances the two works with a sprinkling of Mozart, including the Sonata, K. 331, famous for its beloved “Turkish March.” Declared a “first-class talent” and praised for her “poetic use of color and confidently expressive phrasing” (The Philadelphia Inquirer), Hu is recognized worldwide for her dazzling technique, deeply probing musicality, and communicative performance style.

PERFORMANCES
June 14 @ 8:00 PM

Steinway Gallery, Coral Gables

Alexandre Moutouzkine, Piano

Chopin- Complete Etudes, Op 10. and Op. 25Concerto after Marcello in D minor by J.S Bach and Chopin 24 Etudes

Russian-American pianist Alexandre Moutouzkine has toured throughout Europe, Russia, North and South America, China, and Japan. He has appeared as soloist with the Tivoli Symphony Orchestra, Radio Television Orchestra of Spain, Cleveland Orchestra, Louisiana Philharmonic, Valencia Philharmonic, National Symphonic Orchestra of Panama, National Symphonic Orchestra of Cuba, Israel Philharmonic, and many others. International Piano Magazine hailed one performance as “grandly organic, with many personal and pertinent insights, offering a thoughtful balance between rhetoric and fantasy…technically dazzling.” The winner of many renowned piano competition awards, Mr. Moutouzkine has claimed top prizes at the Walter W. Naumburg, Cleveland, Montreal, and Arthur Rubinstein international competitions, among others. Miami Music Festival welcomes Alexandre Moutouzkine as part of our distinguished faculty in this one-night-only performance.

PERFORMANCES
June 16 @ 8:00 PM

Peter Takacs, piano

Piano TBD

Hailed by the New York Times as “a marvelous pianist,” Peter Takács has performed widely, receiving critical and audience acclaim for his penetrating and communicative musical interpretations. He has performed as guest soloist with major orchestras in the U.S. and abroad, as well as at summer festivals such as Tanglewood, Music Mountain, ARIA International, and Sweden’s Helsingborg Festival.  Mr. Takács also enjoys success as a teacher; his students have won top prizes in competitions across the world and have been accepted at major graduate schools such as the Curtis Institute, Juilliard School, and Peabody Conservatory, among others. Miami Music Festival welcomes Peter Takacs as part of our distinguished faculty in this one-night-only performance.

PERFORMANCES
June 20 @ 8:00 PM

Student Piano Recitals

Young pianists from around the world showcase their talent and technical mastery in weekly performances of the classic soloist repertoire as a part of the MMF Piano Institute; repertoire to be announced.

PERFORMANCES
June 8, 13, 23  
@ 8:00 PM
FREE EVENT

OPERA ARIA NIGHT
MMF Opera Institute

The Miami Music Festival aims to bring South Florida audiences the very best classical music experiences, and offers regular opportunities to hear opera’s next generation perform the genre’s greatest hits. Throughout the festival season, music lovers can catch multiple concerts of MMF’s students singing favorite arias at the Betsy Hotel on South Beach, bringing the art form outside of the concert hall and into the community.

PERFORMANCES
July 6, 9, 16 | 8:00 PM

Zarzuela in the Summer Nights

Zarzuela Scenes from the MMF Zarzuela Project

One of the great subgenres of the operatic art form is the Zarzuela, Spanish operetta from Spain, Cuba, and the greater Latin American repertoire. Each season, select MMF Opera Institute vocalists are coached in the style of this romantic genre and bring the familiar melodies to the community with each performance. Standards like Lecuona’s Maria, la O, and Lara’s tenor favorite Grenada will have audience members humming along in the return of our beloved concert series.

PERFORMANCES

June 15 @ 8:00pm
July 18 @ 8:00pm

BROADWAY NIGHT 
MMF Opera Institute 

At the dawn of the Jazz Age, shorter hemlines and Prohibition weren’t the only new trends splashing across American culture. As the 20th century came into its own, the vocal storytelling traditions of opera and cabaret gave way to the birth of American musical theatre. The MMF Opera Institute’s vocalists present several concerts of genre favorites each season, from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s beloved standards to contemporary theatre pieces ensnaring the hearts of Broadway fans today. Featuring family-favorite melodies, uproariously funny acting, and the best of MMF’s diverse vocal talent provide a light-hearted showcase of Broadway’s best.

PERFORMANCES

June 14 @ 8:00 PM

MIAMI SUMMER CHAMBER WORKS 
MMF Orchestra Institute 

MMF’s Orchestral Institute draws a remarkable pool of talent from around the globe each season, and out of this ensemble, we offer our Chamber Concert series, comprised of student musicians who select their own programs and coach with our distinguished faculty and artists-in-residence. Chamber Concert performances can be enjoyed by the community throughout the entire festival at the Betsy Hotel on South Beach.

PERFORMANCES

Free Concerts

July 8, 15, 22
@ 8:00 PM

Faculty Chamber Music Concert

We at the Miami Music Festival are very proud of the faculty and distinguished artists-in-residence who mentor our students each summer, but it is an especial privilege to offer our audiences the opportunity to hear them perform in our Faculty Chamber Concert series. The Betsy Hotel on South Beach hosts this program, which features faculty and visiting artists in collaboration; repertoire to be announced.

PERFORMANCES

July 9, 16

The Betsy-South Beach

Apprentice Scenes

MMF Opera Apprentice singers perform an intriguing program of opera and operetta dating from the inception of the art form to current works.  Scenes explored come from such varied works as Le nozze di Figaro, Philip Glass's Appomattox, Verdi's Falstaff, Bizet's Carmen and Puccini's Suor Angelica.

PERFORMANCE
June 17 @ 8:00 PM
July 22 @ 2:00 PM

Free Concerts