David Bernard to Conduct Park Avenue Chamber Symphony in TRANSFORMATIONS, 5/16-17

The highly sought-after American conductor David Bernard will lead his Park Avenue Chamber Symphony in a program of works by Hindemith, Bach, and Schumann titled "Transformations" on Saturday evening, May 16th, 8 p.m. and again on Sunday afternoon, May 17th, 3 p.m. at All Saints Church, 230 East 60th Street, between Second and Third Avenues, New York City.

The full program follows:

Hindemith: Symphonic Metamorphosis on Themes of Carl Maria von Weber

Bach: Concerto for Violin No. 1 in A minor, BWV 1041

Yevgeny Kutik (violin)

Schumann: Symphony No. 2 in C Major, Op. 6

Tickets at $15 to $25 are available at chambersymphony.com/web/events.aspx.

Writing about the repertoire, Maestro Bernard commented: " In the Symphonic Metamorphosis on Themes by Carl Maria von Weber, Hindemith transforms piano works and ballet pieces by Weber into one of the most brilliant and colorful orchestral compositions in the repertoire. Exceptionally exciting, it exemplifies the process and brilliant potential of musical transformation."

"Next in the program is the Bach Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor, which will be performed by Yevgeny Kutik. Kutik has a very interesting story of musical transformation: Essentially, when escaping Russia, his family was only permitted to bring two suitcases, one of which his mother insisted on filling with rare Russian sheet music. Later on, at his mother's urging, Kutik started to examine these works-fell in love with them, transcribed them for violin and recorded them in an album called Music from the Suitcase. A native of Minsk, Belarus, Mr. Kutik immigrated to the United States with his family at the age of five. Shortly thereafter he began violin studies with his mother, Alla Zernitskaya, and went on to study with Zinaida Gilels, Shirley Givens, Roman Totenberg, and Donald Weilerstein. He holds a bachelor's degree from Boston University and a master's degree from the New England Conservatory and currently resides in Boston. Mr. Kutik made his debut in 2003 with Keith Lockhart and The Boston Pops as the 1st Prize recipient of the Boston Symphony Orchestra Young Artists Competition. He has since gone on to perform with orchestras throughout the United States, including the Riverside Symphony at the 92nd Street Y and Alice Tully Hall, and abroad with Germany's Norddeutsche Philharmonie Rostock and WDR Rundfunk Orchestra, Köln, and Japan's Tokyo Vivaldi Ensemble. He has also made recital appearances in Chicago, Miami, New York, Washington, DC, Montreal, Munich, Prague, and Tokyo."

Maestro Bernard describes his preparation for this program: "I began with particular excitement since the concluding work will be the premiere of my retouched version of Schumann's magnificent Second Symphony. The truth of the matter is that most conductors "retouch" works-add a doubling here and there, changing instrumentation for specific passages and even sometimes changing pitches. For example the great conductor Arturo Toscanini - a quintessential literalist - surprisingly adds a timpani roll in the final fanfare of the fourth movement of Brahms Symphony No. 1... and then of course there are Mahler's re-orchestrations of Beethoven's symphonies."

"Overall my objective in the Schumann was to address issues in texture and voice leading that sometimes impede clarity and transparency, "Maestro Bernard asserts. " I have adjusted orchestration, incorporated more coherent voice leading and presented clearer textures with the intention of achieving more transparency than Schumann's original score. And this is very important in Schumann Symphony No. 2, as this work is very much an homage to J. S. Bach. Schumann incorporated many compositional elements we associate with Bach, including opening the Symphony with a Chorale Prelude and infusing the symphony with contrapuntal elements. He even quotes "The Musical Offering" directly!"

Music Director and founder of the Park Avenue Chamber Symphony, David Bernard has gained recognition for his dramatic and incisive conducting in over 20 countries on four continents, including a nine-city tour of the People's Republic of China and a guest conducting assignment with the China Conservatory Orchestra.

Active throughout the greater New York City area, Maestro Bernard has appeared as a guest conductor with the Long Island String Festival, the Massapequa Philharmonic, the New York Symphonic Arts Ensemble, the Putnam Symphony, as well as the South Shore Symphony. Mr. Bernard has previously served as Music Director of the Stony Brook University Orchestra, the Gilbert and Sullivan Light Opera Company of Long Island, and Theater Three. Previously Bernard held the post of Assistant Conductor of both the Jacksonville and Stamford symphony orchestras.

A multiple First Prize Winner of the Orchestral Conducting Competition of The American Prize, David Bernard was described by the judges as "a first rate conductor. With no score, an animated and present Maestro Bernard led a phenomenal performance of incredibly difficult repertoire-masterly in shaping, phrasing, technique and expressivity". A reading of Richard Strauss's Tod und Verklärung brought high praise from Lucid Culture which found the performance to be "unsurpassed in its dynamic range and attention to detail."

Maestro Bernard recently led the Park Avenue Chamber Symphony at the Rose Theater, Jazz at Lincoln Center's Frederick P. Rose Hall, Time Warner Center in New York City on February 22, 2015 in an ambitious program of Stravinsky's Le Sacre du Printemps and the Wagner/Maazel The Ring Without Words, which drew the following superlatives from Alan Young of Lucid Culture (February 24, 2015):

Anyone who experienced Stravinsky's Rite of Spring for the first time in concert Sunday at the Rose Theatre at Jazz at Lincoln Center is spoiled for life ... their performance this time out was transcendent..Segues were similarly seamless, contrasts were vivid and Stravinsky's whirling exchanges of voices were expertly choreographed.

Paul Pelkonen of Superconductor praised the "large and ambitious program" for its "ferocity, building a dark, memorable crescendo around the rising chords that indicate the procession of the ancients, and blasting through the thunderous Final Dance and Sacrifice in powerful fashion. ... The final cataclysm showed the benefits of considerable preparation, with Mr. Bernard relishing each bar of the famous final chords." (February 25, 2015)

Devoted to the music of our own time, Bernard has presented world premières of scores by Bruce Adolphe, Chris Caswell, John Mackey, and Ted Rosenthal, while distinguished concert collaborators include Carter Brey, David Chan, Catherine Cho, Pedro Díaz, Stanley Drucker, Bart Feller, Whoopi Goldberg, Sirena Huang, Judith Ingolfsson, Christina Jennings, Anna Lee, Jessica Lee, Kristin Lee, Jon Manasse, Spencer Myer, Todd Phillips, and James Archie Worley.

Maestro Bernard's discography includes 17 albums spanning music from Vivaldi to Copland, including a complete Beethoven symphony cycle praised for its "intensity, spontaneity, propulsive rhythm, textural clarity, dynamic control, and well-judged phrasing" (Fanfare). About his release of 20th century orchestral music by Copland, Stravinsky, Vaughan Williams, and Bartók Fanfare Magazine wrote:

David Bernard is an exceptional conductor... His performances are marked by a strong sense of the music's structure, an outstanding feeling for orchestral texture and phrasing, and a dynamic rhythmic propulsion that makes itself felt even in quiet passages. (July 2014)

Maestro Bernard is passionately committed to elementary and secondary school music education, continuously developing new talent and providing solo performance experience to exciting young artists. His leadership in fundraising for music education programs has bolstered outreach, community music schools and conservatory preparatory programs-most notably the Harmony Program (a New York City initiative modeled after Venezuela's "El Sistema") and the Lucy Moses School. Mr. Bernard and the Park Avenue Chamber Symphony have also established the Parent's Association Endowed Scholarship Fund at The Juilliard School Pre-College Division.

David Bernard is an alumnus of The Juilliard School, Curtis Institute of Music, Stony Brook University, Tanglewood, and Saratoga Performing Arts Center.