Alan Gilbert Leads New York Philharmonic Europe Spring 2017 Tour

Music Director Alan Gilbert will lead the New York Philharmonic on the EUROPE / SPRING 2017 tour, March 23-April 7, 2017. The two-week tour - Alan Gilbert's ninth and final international tour as Music Director, the seventh with him to Europe - will feature fourteen concerts in seven countries. The Orchestra will perform in Antwerp, Belgium; Luxembourg; Düsseldorf, Essen, and Hamburg, Germany; Budapest, Hungary; Vienna, Austria; London, England; and Copenhagen, Denmark. The soloists on the tour are violinist Frank Peter Zimmermann, a former Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence at the New York Philharmonic; soprano Christina Landshamer; cellist Yo-Yo Ma; Concertmaster Frank Huang; Principal Associate Concertmaster Sheryl Staples; Principal Viola Cynthia Phelps; and Principal Cello Carter Brey.

The EUROPE / SPRING 2017 tour is sponsored by J.C. Flowers & Co.Tour highlights include the European Premiere of The Marie-Josée Kravis Composer-in-Residence Esa-Pekka Salonen's new Cello Concerto, a New York Philharmonic co-commission with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Barbican Centre, and Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, with Yo-Yo Ma as soloist; John Adams's The Chairman Dances (Foxtrot for Orchestra) and Harmonielehre, as well as Absolute Jest featuring Mr. Huang, Ms. Staples, Ms. Phelps, and Mr. Brey, in celebration of John Adams's 70th birthday year; Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 1 with Mr. Zimmermann; Mahler's Symphony No. 4 with Ms. Landshamer; and performances in the new Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, which is opening in January 2017. The Philharmonic will return to Antwerp for the first time since 1920, and will return to Copenhagen for the first time since 1968, when Leonard Bernstein led the Orchestra in a program that included Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique - which Alan Gilbert will also conduct in Copenhagen.

The concert in Antwerp will be radio broadcast live on Klara. The concerts in Budapest and Copenhagen will be recorded for radio broadcast at later dates on MR3 Bartók Rádió and DR P2, respectively.

The tour marks the Philharmonic's third residency at the Barbican Centre under the auspices of its International Associates initiative. In addition to three concerts, the residency will also feature some of the Philharmonic's signature educational projects, including a Very Young People's Concert (VYPC) featuring a chamber ensemble performance of selections from Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, marking the first time a VYPC has been taken on an international tour, and a Very Young Composers Workshop. The Philharmonic will also support the Barbican Guildhall Creative Learning team's new Young Songwriters Collective for 14-18-year-olds, which was created, in part, on the Philharmonic's Very Young Composers model, and involves training teaching artists and working directly with young composers.

Since Alan Gilbert became Music Director he has led the Philharmonic on eight international tours, two domestic tours, and eleven residencies, with appearances in 49 cities in 24 countries. These tours have featured many of the initiatives introduced during his time as Music Director, including theatrical performances; CONTACT!, the new-music series; as well as commissions, innovative programming, and artistic collaborations. Highlights have included the Orchestra's debuts in Hanoi, Vietnam, and Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (2009); a performance of Magnus Lindberg's Kraft at Volkswagen's Die Gläserne Manufaktur, or Transparent Factory, in Dresden, which was webcast live (2013); a performance in the inaugural season of the Philharmonie de Paris (2015); the World Premiere-Philharmonic Co-Commission of Peter Eötvös's Senza sangue at Cologne's Philharmonie (2015); performances of Giants Are Small's theatrical reimagining of Stravinsky's ballet Petrushka at the Barbican Centre (2015); and a concert for families in Tokyo in which the Music Director narrated Benjamin Britten's The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra in Japanese (2014).

"Thinking about my final New York Philharmonic tour brings back powerful memories of our travels together over these eight years," said Music Director Alan Gilbert. "I recall with pride my first tour, which included historic cultural immersions in Hanoi and Abu Dhabi, as well as memorable concerts in the cultural capitals of Europe. I have always been gratified by the response we receive around the world when we perform music we love, reflected in our upcoming tour through repertoire ranging from recent works by Composer-in-Residence EsaPekka Salonen and John Adams to canonic masterpieces, including Mahler in Vienna. I look forward to once again experiencing the Orchestra's commitment and artistry in the heightened atmosphere of performing on tour."

"The EUROPE / SPRING 2017 tour demonstrates many of the ways that the Philharmonic is a resource, not only at home but around the world," said President Matthew VanBesien. "This tour highlights Alan Gilbert's signature programmatic combinations and artistic collaborations, and the London residency in particular reflects our belief in a deeper immersion on our travels, including through our education projects. This tour returns us to cultural capitals like Vienna as well as to Antwerp and Copenhagen, where the Orchestra hasn't performed for decades, and again celebrates the opening of a new performance venue with the appearance in Hamburg's Elbphilharmonie. The energy and excitement of the Alan Gilbert-New York Philharmonic collaboration will be all the greater on this, his valedictory Philharmonic tour."

"I salute Alan Gilbert as he embarks on the final tour of his remarkable tenure. It is always inspiring to hear the New York Philharmonic in some of the great concert halls of Europe, and to see how audiences all over the world respond to this brilliant Orchestra when we go on tour," said Chairman Oscar S. Schafer. "We are extremely grateful for the support of Board Member J. Christopher Flowers and his wife, Anne, in making this tour possible."

"It is an honor for J.C. Flowers & Co. to support the EUROPE / SPRING 2017 tour," said J. Christopher Flowers, the firm's founder and CEO, as well as a member of the New York Philharmonic's Board of Directors since 2001. "The international focus of our activities perfectly aligns with the New York Philharmonic's role as a cultural ambassador on its travels. We are extremely gratified to help bring this dynamic Orchestra to so many European cultural capitals."

Artists

As Music Director of the New York Philharmonic since 2009, Alan Gilbert has introduced the positions of The Marie-Josée Kravis Composer-in-Residence, The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence, and Artist-in-Association; CONTACT!, the new-music series; the NY PHIL BIENNIAL, an exploration of today's music; and the New York Philharmonic Global Academy, partnerships with cultural institutions to offer training of pre-professional musicians, often alongside performance residencies. The Financial Times called him "the imaginative maestroimpresario in residence."

Alan Gilbert concludes his final season as Music Director with four programs that reflect themes, works, and musicians that hold particular meaning for him, including Beethoven's Ninth Symphony alongside Schoenberg's A Survivor from Warsaw, Wagner's complete Das Rheingold in concert, and an exploration of how music can effect positive change in the world. Other highlights include three World Premieres, Mahler's Fourth Symphony, Ligeti's Mysteries of the Macabre, and Manhattan, performed live to film. He also leads the Orchestra on the EUROPE / SPRING 2017 tour and in performance residencies in Shanghai and Santa Barbara. Past highlights include acclaimed stagings of Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre, Janá?ek's The Cunning Little Vixen, Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd starring Bryn Terfel and Emma Thompson (2015 Emmy nomination), and Honegger's Joan of Arc at the Stake starring Marion Cotillard; 28 World Premieres; a tribute to Boulez and Stucky during the 2016 NY PHIL BIENNIAL; The Nielsen Project; the Verdi Requiem and Bach's B-minor Mass; the score from 2001: A Space Odyssey, performed live to film; Mahler's Resurrection Symphony on the tenth anniversary of 9/11; performing violin in Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time; and ten tours around the world.

Conductor laureate of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and former principal guest conductor of Hamburg's NDR Symphony Orchestra, Alan Gilbert regularly conducts leading orchestras around the world. This season he returns to the foremost European orchestras, including the Leipzig Gewandhaus, Munich Philharmonic, Amsterdam's Royal Concertgebouw, and Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. He records Beethoven's complete piano concertos with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields and Inon Barnatan, and conducts Gershwin's Porgy and Bess at Milan's Teatro alla Scala, his first time leading a staged opera there. He made his acclaimed Metropolitan Opera debut conducting John Adams's Doctor Atomic in 2008, the DVD of which received a Grammy Award, and he conducted Messiaen's Des Canyons aux étoiles on a recent album recorded live at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. Mr. Gilbert is Director of Conducting and Orchestral Studies at The Juilliard School, where he holds the William Schuman Chair in Musical Studies. His honors include Honorary Doctor of Music degrees from The Curtis Institute of Music (2010) and Westminster Choir College (2016), Columbia University's Ditson Conductor's Award (2011), election to The American Academy of Arts & Sciences (2014), a Foreign Policy Association Medal for his commitment to cultural diplomacy (2015), Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (2015), and New York University's Lewis Rudin Award for Exemplary Service to New York City (2016).

Frank Peter Zimmermann is widely regarded as one of the foremost violinists of his generation. Praised for his selfless musicality, brilliance, and keen intelligence, he has been performing with all major orchestras in the world for well over three decades, collaborating on these occasions with the world's most renowned conductors. His many concert engagements take him to all important concert venues and international music festivals in Europe, the United States, Asia, South America, and Australia. Highlights during the 2016-17 season include engagements with the Bavarian State Orchestra conducted by Kirill Petrenko, Boston Symphony Orchestra and Jakub Hru?ša, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra with Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Göteborg Symphony Orchestra conducted by David Afkham, London's Philharmonia Orchestra with Juraj Val?uha and Rafael Payare, Berlin Philharmonic with Alan Gilbert, Finnish Symphony Orchestra and Hannu Lintu, Orchestre National de France and Juraj Val?uha, Berliner Barock Solisten, Bamberg Symphony with Manfred Honeck, and Vienna Symphonic Orchestra and Jakub Hru?ša. Mr. Zimmermann is also an avid chamber musician and recitalist. He tours Europe in December 2016 with the Trio Zimmermann, his string trio with violist Antoine Tamestit and cellist Christian Poltéra. Frank Peter Zimmermann's numerous award-winning CD recordings, spanning a wide and varied range of repertoire, are available on EMI Classics, Sony Classical, BIS Records, Decca, and ECM Records. He has received the Premio del Accademia Musicale Chigiana, Siena (1990), Rheinischer Kulturpreis (1994), Musikpreis of the city of Duisburg (2002), and the Federal Cross of Merit, First Class, of the Federal Republic of Germany (2008). Born in Duisburg, Germany, Frank Peter Zimmermann started playing the violin when he was five years old, and gave his first concert with orchestra at the age of ten. He studied with Valery Gradov, Saschko Gawriloff, and Herman Krebbers. He made his New York Philharmonic debut in December 1996 playing Bruch's Violin Concerto No. 1, led by then Music Director Kurt Masur. He most recently performed the U.S. Premiere of Magnus Lindberg's Violin Concerto No. 2, conducted by Alan Gilbert, in January 2016.

German soprano Christina Landshamer graduated from Munich's and Stuttgart's universities for music and performing arts. She is a versatile and internationally in-demand concert, opera, and recital singer, and has worked with conductors such as Ricardo Chailly, Stéphane Denève, Daniel Harding, Kent Nagano, Roger Norrington, and Christian Thielemann. Last season Ms. Landshamer made her U.S. debut at the Lyric Opera of Chicago as Sophie in Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier, followed by concerts in New York with the Ensemble MidtVest at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall. This season she returns to the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, led by Manfred Honeck, for Mahler's Symphony No. 2, Resurrection, and appears twice with the New York Philharmonic conducted by Alan Gilbert, first in Handel's Messiah (in December, marking her debut with the Orchestra), and then in Mahler's Symphony No. 4 (in March 2017), in which she will also perform during the Orchestra's EUROPE / SPRING 2017 tour. She also appears with NDR Elbphilharmonie under the direction of Thomas Hengelbrock in Haydn's The Creation as part of the Elbphilharmonie's opening festival, on tour with the Orchestre des Champs Elysées under Philippe Herreweghe in Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, and with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra under Herbert Blomstedt for J. S. Bach's Mass in B minor. Ms. Landshamer's discography includes Haydn's The Seasons and The Creation led by Philippe Herreweghe (PHI), Bizet's Carmen with Simon Rattle (CD and DVD on EMI Classics), and Bach's St. Matthew Passion with Chailly (Decca). Her musical versatility can also be enjoyed on various DVDs: Haydn's Il mondo della luna (Concentus musicus/Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Unitel Classica), St. Matthew Passion and Mahler's Symphony No. 4 (both Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra/Riccardo Chailly, Accentus), and Mozart's The Magic Flute (Nederlandse Opera, with Opus Arte). This year she released her first CD of Lieder, featuring songs by Ullmann and Schumann, with pianist Gerold Huber.

The many-faceted career of cellist Yo-Yo Ma is testament to his continual search for new ways to communicate with audiences and to his personal desire for artistic growth and renewal. Mr. Ma maintains a balance between his engagements as soloist with orchestras worldwide and his recital and chamber music activities. His discography includes more than 100 albums, including 18 Grammy Award winners. Mr. Ma serves as the artistic director of Silkroad, an organization he founded to promote cross-cultural performance and collaborations at the edge where education, business, and the arts come together to transform the world. More than 80 works have been commissioned specifically for the Silk Road Ensemble, which tours annually. Mr. Ma also serves as the Judson and Joyce Green creative consultant to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's Negaunee Music Institute. His work focuses on the transformative power music can have in individuals' lives, and on increasing the number and variety of opportunities audiences have to experience music in their communities. Mr. Ma was born in Paris to Chinese parents who later moved the family to New York. He began to study cello at the age of four, attended The Juilliard School, and in 1976 graduated from Harvard University. He has received numerous awards, among them the Avery Fisher Prize (1978), the National Medal of Arts (2001), and the Presidential Medal of Freedom (2010). In 2011 Mr. Ma was recognized as a Kennedy Center Honoree. Most recently, Mr. Ma joined the Aspen Institute Board of Trustees. He has performed for eight American presidents, most recently at the invitation of President Obama on the occasion of the 56th Inaugural Ceremony. Yo-Yo Ma made his New York Philharmonic debut in May 1978 performing Beethoven's Triple Concerto alongside Yefim Bronfman and Shlomo Mintz, conducted by Alexander Schneider. He most recently appeared as part of the annual Chinese New Year Concert and Gala in February 2015, conducted by Long Yu.

Frank Huang joined the New York Philharmonic as Concertmaster, The Charles E. Culpeper Chair, in September 2015. The First Prize Winner of the 2003 Walter W. Naumburg Foundation's Violin Competition and the 2000 Hannover International Violin Competition, he has established a major career as a violin virtuoso. Since performing with the Houston Symphony in a nationally broadcast concert at the age of 11 he has appeared with orchestras throughout the world, including The Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony, NDR Radio Philharmonic Orchestra of Hannover, Amadeus Chamber Orchestra, and Genoa Orchestra. He has also performed on NPR's Performance Today, ABC's Good Morning America, and CNN's American Morning with Paula Zahn. He has appeared at Wigmore Hall (in London), Salle Cortot (Paris), Kennedy Center (Washington, D.C.), and Herbst Theatre (San Francisco), as well as a second recital in Alice Tully Hall (New York), which featured the World Premiere of Donald Martino's Sonata for Solo Violin. Mr. Huang's first commercial recording - featuring fantasies by Schubert, Ernst, Schoenberg, and Waxman - was released on Naxos in 2003. He has had great success in competitions since the age of 15 and received top prize awards in the Premio Paganini International Violin Competition and the Indianapolis International Violin Competition. Other honors include Gold Medal Awards in the Kingsville International Competition, Irving M. Klein International Competition, and D'Angelo International Competition. In addition to his solo career, Mr. Huang is deeply committed to chamber music. He has performed at the Marlboro Music Festival, Ravinia's Steans Institute, Seattle Chamber Music Festival, and Caramoor. He frequently participates in Musicians from Marlboro's tours, and was selected by The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center to be a member of the prestigious CMS Two program. Before joining the Houston Symphony as concertmaster in 2010, Frank Huang held the position of first violinist of the Grammy Award-winning Ying Quartet and was a faculty member at the Eastman School of Music. He is an alumnus of the Music Academy of the West, now a partner in the New York Philharmonic Global Academy, and now serves on the faculties of The Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, also a New York Philharmonic Global Academy partner, and the University of Houston. Mr. Huang made his New York Philharmonic solo debut leading and performing Vivaldi's The Four Seasons and Piazzolla's Four Seasons of Buenos Aires, as well as leading Grieg's The Last Spring in June 2016; he reprised the Vivaldi and Piazzolla later that month, leading a chamber orchestra of Philharmonic musicians at the Free Indoor Concert in Staten Island as part of the free Concerts in the Parks, Presented by Didi and Oscar Schafer. Most recently he appeared as soloist in Bruch's Violin Concerto No. 1, led by Pablo HerasCasado, in October-November 2016.

Violinist Sheryl Staples joined the New York Philharmonic as Principal Associate Concertmaster, The Elizabeth G. Beinecke Chair, in September 1998. She made her solo debut with the Philharmonic in 1999 performing Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto, led by then Music Director Kurt Masur, and has since been featured in concertos by Mendelssohn, Mozart, Haydn, Bach, and Vivaldi with conductors including Alan Gilbert, Lorin Maazel, and Colin Davis. She has performed as soloist with more than 40 other orchestras nationwide, including The Cleveland, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Diego and Richmond Symphony, and Louisiana Philharmonic orchestras. Previously she was the associate concertmaster of The Cleveland Orchestra and concertmaster of the Pacific Symphony and Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestras. Ms. Staples frequently performs chamber music in the New York area in venues including Avery Fisher Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, 92nd Street Y, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art. She has performed chamber music for U.S. Ambassadors in London, Paris, Berlin, Beijing, and Hong Kong, and in 2013 she toured Mexico, Brazil, and Chile. Ms. Staples has participated in the La Jolla, Boston, Salt Bay, Santa Fe, Mainly Mozart, and Aspen chamber music festivals. She appears on three Stereophile compact discs with the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. Currently she is on faculty at The Juilliard School, working with students aspiring toward orchestral careers. Ms. Staples and her husband, percussionist Barry Centanni, premiered William Kraft's Concerto a Tre for piano, violin, and percussion (written for them), at Martha's Vineyard Chamber Music Society's summer festival (recorded for release on the Albany Records label in 2008) and David Sampson's Black River Concerto for solo violin, percussion, and orchestra, with the Montclair State University Symphony in April 2011. Ms. Staples performs on the "Kartman" Guarneri del Gesu, c. 1728, previously on loan from private collector Peter Mandell and now in the collection of the New York Philharmonic. Most recently, she performed Mozart's Sinfonia concertante with Principal Viola Cynthia Phelps, in November 2014 led by Jaap van Zweden and in July 2015 led by Alan Gilbert on the Orchestra's Bravo! Vail summer residency.

Cynthia Phelps is the New York Philharmonic's PrincipAl Viola, The Mr. and Mrs. Frederick P. Rose Chair. Highlights of her solo appearances with the Orchestra have included performances on the 2006 Tour of Italy, sponsored by Generali, performances of Mozart's Sinfonia concertante in 2010 and 2014 (the latter conducted by Jaap van Zweden), and Sofia Gubaidulina's Two Paths, which the Orchestra commissioned for her and Philharmonic Associate PrincipAl Viola Rebecca Young and which they premiered in 1999 and reprised both on tour and in New York, most recently in 2011. Other solo engagements have included the Minnesota Orchestra, San Diego Symphony, Orquesta Sinfónica de Bilbao, and Hong Kong Philharmonic. Ms. Phelps performs with The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Jupiter Chamber Players, and the Santa Fe, La Jolla, Seattle, Chamber Music Northwest, and Bridgehampton festivals. She has appeared with the Guarneri, Tokyo, Orion, American, Brentano, and Prague Quartets, and the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio. She has given recitals in the major music capitals of Europe and the U.S. She is also a founding member of the chamber group Les Amies, a flute-harp-viola group formed with Philharmonic Principal Harp Nancy Allen and flutist Carol Wincenc. Ms. Phelps is a first-prize winner of both the Lionel Tertis InternationAl Viola Competition and the Washington International String Competition, and is the recipient of the Pro Musicis International award. Under the auspices of this philanthropic organization, she has appeared as soloist in New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Rome, and Paris, as well as in prisons, hospitals, and drug rehabilitation centers worldwide. Her recording Air, for flute, viola, and harp on Arabesque, was nominated for a Grammy Award. Her television and radio credits include Live From Lincoln Center on PBS; St. Paul Sunday Morning on NPR; Radio France; Italy's RAI; and WGBH in Boston. Ms. Phelps has served on the faculties at The Juilliard School and the Manhattan School of Music. She is married to cellist Ronald Thomas. Cynthia Phelps made her New York Philharmonic solo debut in Mozart's Sinfonia concertante alongside then Concertmaster Glenn Dicterow in March 1993, led by then Music Director Kurt Masur. Most recently she was the soloist in the New York Premiere-Philharmonic Co-Commission of Julia Adolphe's Unearth, Release (Concerto for Viola and Orchestra), led by Jaap van Zweden, in November 2016.

Carter Brey was appointed Principal Cello, The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Chair, of the New York Philharmonic in 1996. He made his solo debut with the Orchestra in May 1997 performing Tchaikovsky's Rococo Variations under the direction of then Music Director Kurt Masur. He has since appeared as soloist each season, and was featured during The Bach Variations: A Philharmonic Festival, when he gave two performances of the cycle of all six of Bach's Cello Suites. He rose to international attention in 1981 as a prizewinner in the Rostropovich International Cello Competition. The winner of the Gregor Piatigorsky Memorial Prize, Avery Fisher Career Grant, Young Concert Artists' Michaels Award, and other honors, he also was the first musician to win the Arts Council of America's Performing Arts Prize. Mr. Brey has appeared as soloist with virtually all the major orchestras in the United States, and performed under the batons of prominent conductors including Claudio Abbado, Semyon Bychkov, Sergiu Comissiona, and Christoph von Dohnányi. He has made regular appearances with the Tokyo and Emerson String Quartets, as well as The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and at festivals such as Spoleto (both in the United States and Italy) and the Santa Fe and La Jolla Chamber Music Festivals. He presents an ongoing series of duo recitals with pianist Christopher O'Riley; together they recorded Le Grand Tango: Music of Latin America, a disc of compositions from South America and Mexico released on Helicon Records. Mr. Brey was educated at the Peabody Institute, where he studied with Laurence Lesser and Stephen Kates, and at Yale University, where he studied with Aldo Parisot and was a Wardwell Fellow and a Houpt Scholar. His violoncello is a rare J.B. Guadagnini made in Milan in 1754. Carter Brey most recently appeared as soloist with the Orchestra in Schumann's Cello Concerto, led by Alan Gilbert, in April-May 2016 in New York and on the CALIFORNIA 2016 tour.

About the New York Philharmonic

The New York Philharmonic plays a leading cultural role in New York City, the United States, and the world. This season the Philharmonic will connect with up to 50 million music lovers through live concerts in New York City and on its worldwide tours and residencies; digital recording series; international broadcasts on television, radio, and online; and as a resource through its varied education programs and the New York Philharmonic Leon Levy Digital Archives. In the 2016-17 season the New York Philharmonic celebrates its 175th anniversary and Alan Gilbert's farewell season as Music Director.

The Orchestra has commissioned and/or premiered works by leading composers from every era since its founding in 1842 - including Dvo?ák's New World Symphony, John Adams's Pulitzer Prize-winning On the Transmigration of Souls, dedicated to the victims of 9/11, and Magnus Lindberg's Piano Concerto No. 2.

Renowned around the globe, the Philharmonic has appeared in 432 cities in 63 countries - including the groundbreaking 1930 tour of Europe; the unprecedented 1959 tour to the USSR; the historic 2008 visit to Pyongyang, D.P.R.K., the first there by an American orchestra; and the Orchestra's debut in Hanoi, Vietnam, in 2009. The New York Philharmonic serves as a resource for its community and the world. It complements its annual free concerts across the city - including the Concerts in the Parks, Presented by Didi and Oscar Schafer - with Philharmonic Free Fridays and wide-ranging education programs, among them the famed, long-running Young People's Concerts and Philharmonic Schools, an immersive classroom program that reaches thousands of New York City students.

The Orchestra established the New York Philharmonic Global Academy - collaborations with partners worldwide offering training of pre-professional orchestral musicians, often alongside performance residencies - following the launch of the flagship collaboration with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra and Shanghai Conservatory of Music, including the formation of the Shanghai Orchestra Academy. Additional Global Academy partners include the Music Academy of the West and The Shepherd School of Music at Rice University. The Orchestra also has a residency partnership with the University Musical Society at the University of Michigan.

The oldest American symphony orchestra and one of the oldest in the world, the New York Philharmonic has made more than 2,000 recordings since 1917, including several Grammy Award winners, and its self-produced digital recording series continues in the 2016-17 season. Music Director Alan Gilbert began his tenure in September 2009, succeeding a distinguished line of 20th-century musical giants that includes Leonard Bernstein, Arturo Toscanini, and Gustav Mahler.

J.C. Flowers & Co.

J.C. Flowers & Co. (JCF) is a leading private investment firm dedicated to investing globally in the financial services industry. Founded in 1998, the firm has invested nearly $15 billion of capital, including co-investment, in 46 portfolio companies across 16 countries. JCF invests across a range of deal types and industry sectors including banking, insurance and reinsurance, securities, services and asset management, and specialty finance. With approximately $6 billion of assets under management, J.C. Flowers & Co. has offices in New York and London. Founded and led by J. Christopher Flowers - regarded as one of the industry's preeminent investors and advisors with more than three decades of experience - JCF has an experienced team of 15 investment professionals with a 20+ year track-record of executing complex transactions across multiple economic cycles. The firm actively manages its investments and seeks to create value, including through optimal deal structuring, operational enhancement, and engaged board oversight. Notably, affiliates of J.C. Flowers & Co. have been approved as a financial investor in more than a dozen jurisdictions.