Baritone Thomas Hampson to Give the Annual Erich Leinsdorf Lecture, 1/11

American baritone Thomas Hampson, the Leonard Bernstein Scholar-in-Residence at the New York Philharmonic, will give the Annual Erich Leinsdorf Lecture, Monday, January 11, 2010, at 6:30 p.m., at the Walter Reade Theater, Broadway at 65th Street. In the lecture, titled Listening to Thought: Awakening of the American Voice — one of several Listening to Thought presentations by Mr. Hampson this season — he will discuss Walt Whitman’s impact on American song and the emergence of American identity, in conversation with Philharmonic Director of Education Theodore Wiprud. Mr. Hampson, who also serves as The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence, will perform several settings of Whitman’s poetry by a variety of composers. 
 
Mr. Hampson’s Leinsdorf Lecture comes just prior to his performances of John Adams’s The Wound-Dresser with the New York Philharmonic on January 14–16. This work, composed in 1989 for orchestra and baritone, is an elegiac setting of texts from the poet’s “The Wound-Dresser,” a part of his Leaves of Grass, which is based on Whitman’s experiences as a nurse during the American Civil War.
 
Inaugurated during the Philharmonic’s 1997–98 season, the Annual Erich Leinsdorf Lecture commemorates the esteemed conductor, pianist, essayist, and lecturer. During a long career that included positions as music director of The Cleveland Orchestra, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, New York City Opera, and Boston Symphony Orchestra, Mr. Leinsdorf conducted the New York Philharmonic nearly 400 times between 1972 and 1993 — more than any other guest conductor. In 1992 he was made an Honorary Member of the Philharmonic-Symphony Society of New York, Inc., a tribute that has been given to only a few, including Leonard Bernstein, Pierre Boulez, Zubin Mehta, Carlos Moseley, New York Philharmonic Chairman Emeritus, and most recently, former Principal Clarinet Stanley Drucker and former Music Director Lorin Maazel.  

In the 2009–10 season Thomas Hampson serves as The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence at the New York Philharmonic as well as the Leonard Bernstein Scholar-in-Residence. In these roles he will perform three programs with the Orchestra, appear on the Orchestra’s European tour, give a recital in AlIce Tully Hall, and present three lectures entitled Listening to Thought as part of the Orchestra’s Insights Series. 
 
The renowned American baritone has performed in the world’s preeminent concert halls and opera houses and with many of today’s most renowned musicians and orchestras; he also maintains an active interest in teaching, music research, and technology. An important interpreter of German romantic song, he is known as a leading proponent of the study of American song through his Hampsong Foundation, which he founded in 2003 to promote intercultural dialogue and understanding. 
 
In addition to his work with the New York Philharmonic, much of Mr. Hampson’s 2009–10 season is devoted to his “Song of America” project. Collaborating with the Library of Congress, Mr. Hampson is performing recitals and presenting master classes, educational activities, exhibitions, and broadcasts across the country and through a new interactive online resource, www.songofamerica.net. Other engagements include Mendelssohn’s Elijah, led by Kurt Masur in Leipzig; Verdi’s Ernani and Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin with Zurich Opera; Verdi’s La traviata at The Metropolitan Opera; solo recitals throughout the United States and in many European capitals; and the galas of the Vienna Staatsoper and the new Winspear Opera House in Dallas. 
 
Raised in Spokane, Washington, Thomas Hampson has released more than 150 albums that have received honors, including a Grammy Award, two Edison Prizes, and the Grand Prix du Disque. He has been named Kammersänger of the Vienna Staatsoper; Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the Republic of France; and Special Advisor to the Study and Performance of Music in America by Dr. James H. Billington, Librarian of Congress. 
 
Theodore Wiprud has been the Director of Education at the New York Philharmonic since October 2004. The Philharmonic’s education programs include the historic Young People’s Concerts, the Very Young People’s Concerts, one of the largest in-school programs of any U.S. orchestra, adult education programs, and many other special projects.
 
Mr. Wiprud created innovative programs as director of education and community engagement at the Brooklyn Philharmonic and the American Composers Orchestra, served as associate director of The Commission Project, and assisted the Orchestra of St. 
 
Luke’s in its education programs. He has also worked as a teaching artist and resident composer in a number of New York City schools. From 1990 to 1997 Mr. Wiprud directed national grant-making programs at Meet The Composer. During the 1980s, he taught and directed the music department at Walnut Hill School, a pre-professional arts boarding school near Boston. 
 
Theodore Wiprud is also known as a composer and an innovative concert producer, until recently programming a variety of chamber series for the Brooklyn Philharmonic. His own music for orchestra, chamber ensembles, and voice is published by Allemar Music.  Mr. Wiprud earned his B.A. in biochemistry at Harvard, and his master’s in music in theory and composition at Boston University. He was a visiting scholar at Cambridge University.   

Tickets to the Annual Erich Leinsdorf Lecture are free and may be obtained from the Avery Fisher Hall Box Office (limit two per person). For more information, call (212) 875-5656 or go online at nyphil.org. For press tickets, contact Lanore Carr at (212) 875-5714 or e-mail her at carrl@nyphil.org.