Two stars of the stage - Kelli O'Hara and Nathan Gunn -will join the New York Philharmonic for an evening of songs and duets from the Golden Age of Broadway, conducted by Tony Award winner Ted Sperling, Monday, March 21, 2011, at 7:30 p.m. Ms. O'Hara, fresh off her highly successful run as Nellie Forbush in South Pacific at Lincoln Center Theater, returns to the New York Philharmonic following two previous appearances, including her acclaimed starring role as Eliza Doolittle in the Orchestra's 2007 production of My Fair Lady. Baritone Nathan Gunn returns after winning hearts as the swashbuckling Sir Lancelot in the Philharmonic's 2008 Camelot production and his featured role in last season's SONDHEIM: The Birthday Concert! The two stage luminaries will perform selections from classic Broadway musicals by Rodgers and Hammerstein, Cole Porter, Kurt Weill, and Stephen Sondheim, ranging from Carousel to Follies.
Kelli O'Hara recently starred in the Tony Award-winning revival of South Pacific at Lincoln Center as Nellie Forbush, for which she garnered a third Tony nomination. A native of Oklahoma, she made her Broadway debut in Jekyll & Hyde and followed it with
Stephen Sondheim's Follies; The Sweet Smell of Success, opposite
John Lithgow; and Dracula. In 2003 she starred in The Light in the Piazza at Seattle's
Intiman Theatre; when the show moved to Broadway in 2005 Ms. O'Hara earned her first Tony and Drama Desk Award nominations. In 2006 she joined
Harry Connick, Jr., on Broadway in the Tony award-winning production of The Pajama Game, for which she received Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Award nominations. Ms. O'Hara has also worked regionally and Off-Broadway, and recently starred in Bells Are Ringing at
City Center Encores! Ms. O'Hara played the role of Eliza Doolittle in the critically acclaimed production of My Fair Lady with the
New York Philharmonic in March 2007. She performed at
Carnegie Hall with the New York Pops and the Kennedy Center with the National Symphony Orchestra, conducted by
Marvin Hamlisch, as well as with the Boston Pops under
Keith Lockhart and the Philly Pops with
Peter Nero; she has had sold-out runs at Café Carlyle and Feinstein's. She performed at the 2009 Kennedy Center Honors as part of the
Barbra Streisand tribute, and recently appeared on PBS's National Memorial Day Concert live from Washington, D.C. Upcoming engagements take her to the Seattle Symphony
Orchestra, the Boston Pops in Florida, and the New York City Opera.
Among
Kelli O'Hara's film and television credits are Sex & The City 2;
Martin Scorsese's short film The Key to Reserva, opposite
Simon Baker; The Dying Gaul, with
Patricia Clarkson and
Campbell Scott; Alexander Hamilton (as Maria Reynolds), starring
Brian F. O'Byrne on PBS; NUMB3RS; All My Children; the upcoming animated series Car Talk; and numerous live performances on national television shows. Her many recordings of musical theater works have been released on the Sony, Nonesuch, and PS Classics labels, and include the Grammy-nominated The Light in the Piazza and her solo album, Wonder in the World on
Ghostlight Records. Ms. O'Hara's most recent appearance with the
New York Philharmonic was on April 20, 2009, in New York Moments.
Baritone
Nathan Gunn has appeared at The Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Paris Opéra, Bayerische Staatsoper, and the Aix-en-Provence Festival. He has sung the title roles in Britten's
Billy Budd and Thomas's Hamlet; Papageno in Mozart's The Magic Flute, Guglielmo in Mozart's Così fan tutte, The Count in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, and Figaro in Rossini's The Barber of Seville. He created the roles of Clyde Griffiths in Tobias Picker's An American Tragedy at The Met, Father Delura in Peter Eötvös's Love and Other Demons at the Glyndebourne Festival, Alec Harvey in André Previn's Brief Encounter at the
Houston Grand Opera, and Paul in Daron Hagen's Amelia at the Seattle Opera. Mr. Gunn has appeared with many of the leading orchestras in the United States and Europe, including the
New York Philharmonic; the Boston, Chicago, Pittsburgh, and London symphony orchestras; and The Cleveland Orchestra. He has given recitals at
Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall, Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall, Cal Performances, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Krannert Center, London's Wigmore Hall, and the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels.
Mr. Gunn has ventured outside the standard opera repertoire, including appearances in Camelot with the
New York Philharmonic in May 2008 (broadcast live on PBS's Great Performances) and Showboat at
Carnegie Hall. He was also a featured soloist in SONDHEIM: The Birthday Concert! with the
New York Philharmonic in March 2010 - his most recent performance with the Orchestra -and appeared with Sting and
Trudie Styler in the Allen Room at Jazz at Lincoln Center in Twin Spirits, a work that explores the relationship between Clara and
Robert Schumann. Mr. Gunn's most recent solo album, Just Before Sunrise, was released on the Sony/BMG Masterworks label. Other recordings include the title role in Britten's
Billy Budd with Daniel Harding and the London Symphony Orchestra (Virgin Classics), which recently won the 2010 Grammy Award; the first complete recording of Rogers and Hammerstein's Allegro (Sony's Masterworks Broadway), Britten's Peter Grimes with Sir Colin Davis and the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO Live!), The Barber of Seville (SONY Classics), Sibelius's Kullervo with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (Telarc), and his debut album, American Anthem, a collection of American songs (EMI).
Ted Sperling is a conductor, music director, arranger, singer, pianist, and violinist. He was music director and conductor of the first Broadway revival of South Pacific, which won seven Tony Awards and played to sold-out Lincoln Center Theater houses, and in 2005 he won the Tony and Drama Desk Awards (with Adam Guettel and Bruce Coughlin) for his orchestrations for The Light in the Piazza, for which he was also music director. Mr. Sperling also has an active conducting career, performing with Audra McDonald, Victoria Clark, Patti LuPone, Kelli O'Hara, Paulo Szot, and Deborah Voigt. He has conducted performances regularly with the New York Philharmonic for Live From Lincoln Center, the American Songbook Series at Lincoln Center, and the Lyrics and Lyricists series at the 92nd Street Y, and he recently led a concert presentation of Ricky Gordon's opera The Grapes of Wrath at Carnegie Hall. Mr. Sperling was music director and conductor of the 2009 Tony-nominated revival of Guys and Dolls. Other Broadway credits as music director/conductor/pianist include Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The Full Monty, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Angels in America, My Favorite Year, Falsettos, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Les Misérables, Roza, and Sunday in the Park with George. Mr. Sperling was an original cast member of the Broadway musical Titanic. OffBroadway credits as music director include A Man of No Importance, Wise Guys, A New Brain, Saturn Returns, Floyd Collins, Falsettoland, and Romance in Hard Times. Mr. Sperling has conducted the scores for the films The Manchurian Candidate and Everything Is Illuminated, and directed the short film, Love Mom, starring Tonya Pinkins. He was a recipient of the 2006 Ted Shen Family Foundation Award for leadership in the musical theater and is the director of the Music Theater Initiative at The Public Theater, as well as the creative director of the 24-Hour Musicals. He last appeared with the New York Philharmonic playing keyboard for a Barbara Cook concert on January 8, 2008.
Tickets, which start at $35, go on sale to the general public on Monday, December 13, 2010, at 10:00 a.m. They may be purchased online at nyphil.org or by calling (212) 875-5656, 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., Monday through Saturday, and 12:00 noon to 5:00 p.m. on Sunday. Tickets may also be purchased at the Avery Fisher Hall Box Office or the Alice Tully Hall Box Office at Lincoln Center, Broadway at 65th Street. The Box Office opens at 10:00 a.m. Monday through Saturday, and at noon on Sunday. On performance evenings, the Box Office closes one-half hour after performance time; other evenings it closes at 6:00 p.m. To determine ticket availability, call the Philharmonic's Customer Relations Department at (212) 875-5656. [Ticket prices subject to change.]
Photo Credit: Walter McBride/WM Photos
