Kaija Saariaho’s Innocence (Met Opera, NYC)
Kaija Saariaho’s Innocence
Lucy Shelton reprises her role of Teacher
at The Metropolitan Opera, NYC
7 performances (April 6 - 29)
https://www.metopera.org/season/2025-26-season/innocence/
Innocence
Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center
30 Lincoln Center Plaza; Upper West Side
Monday, April 6 at 7pm, through April 29; $35–$470
metopera.org
Set in the aftermath of a school shooting, the final opera by the extraordinary Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho is unquestionably a work for our day and age. The libretto is by prominent Finnish author Sofi Oksanen and Saariaho’s son, Aleksi Barrière; Susanna Mälkki is on the podium, and the cast includes Joyce DiDonato, Vilma Jää, Jacquelyn Stucker, Miles Mykkanen, and
– making her Met Opera debut at 82 – the peerless, fearless trailblazer Lucy Shelton.
LUCY SHELTON Walter W. Naumburg Foundation 100th Anniversary Celebration
LUCY SHELTON
May 17, 2026 (Sunday at 3pm)
Walter W. Naumburg Foundation
100TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATORY CONCERT
Honoring the World’s Longest Running Classical Music Competition
Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall
The Walter W. Naumburg Foundation, the world’s longest running classical music competition, will be celebrating its 100th Anniversary with a celebratory concert on Sunday, May 17, 2026, at 3pm at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall.
The Brentano Quartet (1995 Chamber Music Award) will be joined by Lucy Shelton (1980 Vocal Award and 1977 Chamber Music Award with the Jubal Trio) and will present the world premiere of a work for string quartet and voice, Frog Prince, by Steven Mackey. This work, a Naumburg commission, is being composed to honor Naumburg’s longtime Executive Director Lucy Rowan Mann who passed away in January 2022. Lucy was known for her love as a stage performer championing more than 30 works for words and music written for her and performed with her husband Robert Mann, the legendary violinist of the Juilliard String Quartet, famed pedagogue, and Naumburg’s President from 1971 to 2018.
The afternoon will showcase performances by its illustrious alumni that will include to date: Carol Wincenc (1978 Flute Award); Colin Carr (1981 Cello Award); Charles Neidich (1985 Clarinet Award); Anton Nel (1987 Piano Award); Leonidas Kavakos (1988 Violin Award); Awadagin Pratt (1992 Piano Award); Frank Huang (2003 Violin Award); Erin Wagner (2021 Vocal Award); Valentin Kovalev (2022 Saxophone Award); and Jack Gao (2023 Piano Award).
The Emerson String Quartet (1978 Chamber Music Award) will be making a celebratory reunion on this historic occasion.
Sparks and Wiry Cries
The Song Blanket, curated by Rebecca Haas
https://www.sparksandwirycries.org/sparkslive-2026
Thalia Theater, Symphony Space, NYC
Berio Sequenza III - Talea
Lucy performs Luciano Berio’s Sequenza III (1965) (for female voice)
also on the program…
Anthony Braxton: Composition No. 304 (for clarinet and bassoon)
Luciano Berio: Sequenza IXa (1980) (for clarinet)
Luciano Berio: Sequenza XII (1995) (for bassoon)
Yoshiaki Onishi: Gz III (2019-21) (for bass clarinet and bassoon)
https://www.taleaensemble.org/event-details/talea-sequenze-iii
University of Kansas (Lawrence, Kansas) (Copy)
works by Gubaidulina, Sokolovic, and Ran,
and Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire
(with student ensemble)
World Poetry Holiday gathering
Ashkan Behzadi’s "Sneachta Gealai '78 / Moonsnow '78
with Ashkan Behzadi, piano
Francis Kite Club, 40 Loisaida Ave, East Village, NYC
Pierrot Lunaire in London
The Commission for New and Old Art, and Riot Ensemble presents PIERROT.
Repertoire will be Arnold Schönberg’s Pierrot Lunaire, and Hanns Eisler’s Fourteen Ways to Describe the Rain.
Players:
Soprano - Lucy Shelton
Piano - Daniel Browell
Cello - Jonathan Pether
Clarinet - Elliot Gretsy
Violin - Marie Schreer
Flute - Amy Yule
Musicians are drawn from Riot Ensemble and the Halle Orchestra in Manchester. Lucy Shelton, a Californian living in Manhattan, pioneers techniques and approaches to 20th century post-tonal singing honed over her six decades of performance experience. She is making her Metropolitan Opera debut in the spring of 2026, at the age of 82. She is, quietly, a legend.
London, Vortex Jazz Club, Dalston. 3rd November, Doors at 7pm, concert at 8pm prompt.
LUCY SHELTON Faculty Recital
LUCY SHELTON presents a program featuring Schoenberg's PIERROT LUNAIRE and related repertoire at 7:30 pm in Greenfield Hall of the Manhattan School of Music on October 22nd. Joined by performers who are either alumni or current students of the MSM Contemporary Performance Program where she has been teaching since 2007
The first half will include various moon-centric works:
-Ana Sokolovic "Looking at the Moon - For Lucy" (2024) (with viola/cello)
-Shulamit Ran "Moon Songs" excerpts (2011) (with flute/cello/piano)
as well as five pieces commissioned by the Schoenberg Institute (to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Pierrot lunaire using texts not chosen by Schoenberg):
-Karl Kohn "Pantomime" (1986) (full ensemble)
-John Harbison "Im Spiegel" (1987) (violin/piano)
-Miriam Gideon "Böhmischer Krystall" (1988) (full ensemble)
-Stephen Mosko "Schwere Loos" (1988) (piccolo/bass clarinet/violin)
-Ursula Mamlok "Die Laterne" (1988) (full ensemble)
The second half will be a performance of "Pierrot lunaire" (1912) with an ensemble of CPP alumni conducted by Jeremy Gill.
21st Century Consort
21st Century Consort’s 50th Anniversary Season
WHO’S COUNTING?
Season Opening Concert
Saturday October 18, 2025, 5pm
(with pre-performance discussion at 4pm)
Hirshhorn Museum’s Ring Auditorium
LUCY SHELTON performs
SOFIA GUBAIDULINA’s Aus den Visionen von Hildegard von Bingen
These Are The People I Know (a revue)- hosted by Austin Philemon and Amber Evans
Lucy performs Berio’s Sequenza III
Don’t Tell Mama
343 West 46TH St. NYC 10036
Doors at 3:15pm Show at 4pm in the Original Room
$15 cover | $20 / 2 drink minimum
Food Menu Available - Cash only
https://shows.donttellmamanyc.com/9429-austin-philemon-amber-evans-these-are-the-people-i-know-10-5-25
Yellow Barn Festival
LUCY SHELTON performs
Stephen Coxe - Three Poems of Heinrich Heine (premiere)
Francisco Pais - Malmequer: Four Pernicious Fados (premiere)
Luciano Berio - Altra Voce
Isang Yun - Memory
Sofia Gubaidulina - Aus den Visionen von Hildegard von Bingen
Hans Eisler - Palmström
https://www.yellowbarn.org/events/2025-summer-festival-concerts
LUCY SHELTON A Song Bouquet for Tea-Time
LUCY SHELTON
A Song Bouquet for Tea-Time
Sunday, June 29, 4:30pm recital
with Kayo Iwama, piano
The Atrium at Navesink Harbor, NJ
works by Rossini, Gubaidulina, Ives, Botti, Parlor Songs
LUCY SHELTON Black Box Ensemble
LUCY SHELTON
with the Black Box Ensemble
May 11, 2025
Whitney Museum, NYC
Julius Eastman - Macle
Laura Kaminsky’s Lucidity Opera Ithaca
OPERA:
Lucidity
Music: Laura Kaminsky
Libretto: David Cote
Lucy Shelton reprises the role of Lili
Opera Ithaca
April 25-27, 2025
https://www.operaithaca.org/lucidity
NPR feature:
https://www.npr.org/2024/11/14/nx-s1-5147421/opera-memory-loss-lucidity-lucy-shelton-laura-kaminsky
21st Century Consort
21st Century Consort
Saturday April 12, 2025
Hirshhorn Museum’s Ring Auditorium
LUCY SHELTON performs
Berio - Sequenza III
LUCY SHELTON Music for Food
LUCY SHELTON
Music for Food
https://musicforfood.net
April 10, 2025
Gubaidulina - Aus den Visionen von Hildegard von Bingen
Sokolovic - Looking at the Moon
Berio - Sequenza III
Kaija Saariaho’s Innocence (Adelaide)
Kaija Saariaho’s Innocence
Lucy Shelton reprises her role of Teacher
at the Adelaide Festival, Australia
4 performances (February 28 - March 5, 2023)
https://www.adelaidefestival.com.au/events/2025-events/innocence/
Laura Kaminsky’s Lucidity Seattle Opera
OPERA:
Lucidity
Music: Laura Kaminsky
Libretto: David Cote
Lucy Shelton reprises the role of Lili
Seattle Opera
November 21 - 24, 2024
https://www.seattleopera.org/performances-events/lucidity/
NPR feature:
https://www.npr.org/2024/11/14/nx-s1-5147421/opera-memory-loss-lucidity-lucy-shelton-laura-kaminsky
Laura Kaminsky’s Lucidity (world premiere) On Site Opera
OPERA:
Lucidity (world premiere)
Music: Laura Kaminsky
Libretto: David Cote
Lucy Shelton premieres the role of Lili
On Site Opera
November 14 - 16, 2024
https://osopera.org/productions/lucidity/
NPR feature:
https://www.npr.org/2024/11/14/nx-s1-5147421/opera-memory-loss-lucidity-lucy-shelton-laura-kaminsky
LUCY SHELTON Ensemble Pi
LUCY SHELTON
Ensemble Pi
October 10, 2024
selections by Schoenberg and Eisler
Yellow Barn Festival
LUCY SHELTON performs
Villa Lobos - Il Bove
Saariaho - Du Gick
Sokolovic - Drin Drin
Mann - How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin
Villa Lobos - Suite for Violin and Voice
Berio - Sequenza III
Czernowyn - Maidenhair Fern 1
Sokolovic - Looking at the Moon (premiere)
Kaija Saariaho’s Innocence (San Francisco)
Kaija Saariaho’s Innocence
Lucy Shelton reprises her role of Teacher
at the San Francisco Opera
6 performances (June 1 - 21)
https://www.sfopera.com/operas/innocence/
LUCY SHELTON Music for Food
LUCY SHELTON
Music for Food
https://musicforfood.net
February 15, 2024
Villa Lobos - Suite for Voice and Violin
Villa Lobos - Il Bove
21st Century Consort
21st Century Consort
Saturday January 20, 2024
Hirshhorn Museum’s Ring Auditorium
LUCY SHELTON performs
Deak - The Jury
Lee - Zenobia
Johnson - Praise to the Mother of Jamaican Art
Kaija Saariaho’s Innocence (Amsterdam)
Kaija Saariaho’s Innocence
Lucy Shelton reprises her role of Teacher
at the Dutch National Opera, Amsterdam
7 performances (October 5 - 22, 2023)
https://www.operaballet.nl/en/dutch-national-opera/2023-2024/innocence
Kaija Saariaho’s Innocence (London)
Kaija Saariaho’s Innocence
Lucy Shelton reprises her role of Teacher
at Covent Garden, London
5 performances (April 17 - May 4, 2023)
https://www.rbo.org.uk
LUCY SHELTON Chamber Music America honoree
LUCY SHELTON
Chamber Music America honoree
Bogomolny Award for Achievement and Service
Named in recognition of the outstanding leadership of former CMA Board Chairman, the Richard J. Bogomolny National Service Award is presented to an individual or organization who has made a significant and lasting contribution to the chamber music field and enriched our national culture by fostering a greater appreciation for chamber music.
https://chambermusicamerica.org/articles/master-of-the-modern/
January 8, 2023
Kaija Saariaho’s Innocence (Helsinki)
Kaija Saariaho’s Innocence
Lucy Shelton reprises her role of Teacher
at the Finnish National Opera, Helsinki
11 performances (October 21 - November 24, 2022)
https://oopperabaletti.fi/en/repertoire/innocence/
Kaija Saariaho’s Innocence (Aix-en-Provence)
Kaija Saariaho’s Innocence (premiere)
Lucy Shelton originates the role of Teacher
at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, France
4 performances (June 3 - 12, 2021)
https://festival-aix.com/en/programmation/opera/innocence