James M. Keller To Curate And Host MUSIC IN THE TIME OF WAR An Insights Series Event 6/2

New York Philharmonic Program Annotator and Leonard Bernstein Scholar-in-Residence James M. Keller will curate and host “Music in Time of War,” a multimedia Insight Series event, Tuesday, June 2, 2009, at 6:30 p.m., in the Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse, Rose Building, 65th Street and Amsterdam Avenue. The lecture will include musical examples that trace the relationship between composers and war over the centuries, and archival footage of Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic’s 1959 tour to the Soviet Union.

Mr. Keller will be joined by Jonathan Rosenberg of Hunter College and CUNY Graduate Center — a specialist in the history of American cultural exchange — to explore how composers and musical organizations through history have supported, protested, or otherwise responded to climates of war and international conflict. There will be a special focus on the cultural, political, literary, and musical perspectives of Britten’s War Requiem, which the Philharmonic will perform on June 11–13, 2009, led by Music Director Lorin Maazel. The expanded musical forces for these concerts will include Lionel Bringuier, who will conduct the chamber orchestra in his Philharmonic debut; soloists soprano Nancy Gustafson; tenor Vale Rideout (Philharmonic debut); baritone Ian Greenlaw; and the New York Choral Artists, The Dessoff Symphonic Choir, and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus.

Insights Series events delve into some of the season’s featured themes through talks and occasional live performances.

James M. Keller is Program Annotator of the New York Philharmonic and the San Francisco Symphony and this season also serves as Leonard Bernstein Scholar-in-Residence at the New York Philharmonic. He has contributed music-related articles to numerous books (including The Encyclopedia of New York City, George Crumb and the Alchemy of Sound, and Leonard Bernstein: American Original), and was awarded the ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award for feature writing about music in Chamber Music magazine. His book, Chamber Music: A Listener’s Guide, is in preparation for Oxford University Press.

Jonathan Rosenberg teaches 20th-century U.S. history at Hunter College and the City University of New York Graduate Center. After receiving an undergraduate degree in music from The Juilliard School, he earned his master’s and doctorate degrees in American History at Harvard University. Mr. Rosenberg is the author of How Far the Promised Land?: World Affairs and the American Civil Rights Movement from the First World War to Vietnam and is currently working on a book entitled From the New World: International Politics and the Culture of Classical Music in Modern America.

Credit Suisse is the Global Sponsor of the New York Philharmonic.

Generous support provided by the Alice Tully Foundation.

These concerts are made possible in part by an endowment gift from the Bruno Walter Memorial Foundation.

Programs of the New York Philharmonic are supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, New York State Council on the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Single tickets for this Insights Series event are $10. They are available in advance at nyphil.org/insights or by calling (212) 875-5656, 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. daily. Tickets may also be purchased at the Avery Fisher Hall Box Office, Lincoln Center, Broadway at 65th Street. The Box Office opens at 10:00 a.m. Monday through Saturday, and at noon on Sunday. On the day of performance, tickets will be available at the door. To determine ticket availability, call the Philharmonic’s Customer Relations Department at (212) 875-5656. [Ticket prices subject to change.]

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