Manhattan School of Music Symphony to Play Leonard Bernstein's SERENADE and More in Carnegie Hall Debut, 4/13

The Manhattan School of Music Symphony will be making its Carnegie Hall debut on the stage of Stern Auditorium on Sunday, April 13, at 2:00 p.m. That afternoon, Leonard Slatkin will conduct a program that opens with Roberto Sierra's Fandangos, and also includes Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, orchestrated by Maurice Ravel, and arranged by Maestro Slatkin. A concert highlight will be a performance of Leonard Bernstein's Serenade after Plato's Symposium, featuring violinist Glenn Dicterow. This concert also serves as a tribute to Mr. Dicterow who is in his final season as the New York Philharmonic's Concertmaster.

The afternoon of April 13, 2014, is not the first time that Slatkin and Dicterow have paid homage to Leonard Bernstein together, with a performance of his Serenade after Plato's Symposium. On October 9, 1990, Leonard Bernstein made the announcement that he would be retiring from conducting. Five days later on Sunday, October 14, he passed away from a heart attack at age 72. With the death of their beloved Conductor Laureate, the New York Philharmonic (Bernstein led the NY Phil in 1,244 concerts during his 47-year association) changed its originally scheduled October 18, 1990, program (Shostakovich Symphony No. 4 and the Beethoven violin concerto with Glenn Dicterow conducted by guest conductor Leonard Slatkin) to an all-Bernstein memorial concert, conducted by Maestro Slatkin, showcasing Glenn Dicterow now performing Bernstein's Serenade instead of the Beethoven Violin Concerto. When the final note was played there was not a dry eye in the house. Leonard Slatkin told the audience, "tonight's concert is not an evening on which we want to dwell on the passing of a giant, but rather on what he has left us" (Associated Press, Oct. 19, 1990). On October 18, 1990 the Bernstein memorial concert also included the Overture to Candide, the "Jeremiah" Symphony, and the Chichester Psalms.

Tickets, priced at $15 and $30, are available by calling CarnegieCharge at 212 247 7800 or at carnegiehall.org, or by visiting the Carnegie Hall Box Office t 57th Street and 7th Avenue. You can also call the Manhattan School of Music Box Office for information at 917 493 4428 or visit www.msmnyc.edu.

Manhattan School of Music Orchestral Programs: In the tradition of the classical music conservatory, the orchestral studies program at MSM forms the heart of the performing experience for undergraduate and graduate instrumentalists. All students, placed by competitive audition, are required to participate in at least one of the School's three major orchestras - the MSM Philharmonia, Symphony and Chamber Sinfonia - under the guidance of George Manahan, Director of Orchestral Activities. The three orchestras' many performances each year give the students ample opportunities to develop their audition and ensemble technique, as well as knowledge of orchestral repertoire.

In addition to Maestro Manahan, the orchestras work regularly with resident conductor David Gilbert, and guest conductors such as Philippe Entremont, and Kurt Masur. In 2008, celebrating the School's 90th anniversary, the MSM Chamber Sinfonia made its Carnegie Hall debut in Zankel Hall under the baton of Pinchas Zukerman. Other orchestral highlights have included readings with distinguished conductors such as David Robertson, Yuri Temirkanov, and Charles Dutoit; and a week-long residency in Caracas, Venezuela during which the MSM Symphony worked side by side with musicians of the Simón Bolivar Youth Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela; as well as serving as orchestra in residence under the baton of Philippe Entremont at the Académie Internationale d'Eté de Nice's "les concerts du Cloître ."

Bios:

Glenn Dicterow, Violin Soloist - One of the most prominent American concert artists of his generation, Glenn Dicterow, joined the New York Philharmonic as Concertmaster in 1980 and has since performed as its soloist every year. His extraordinary musical gifts became apparent at the age of 11 when he made his solo debut in Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He went on to win numerous awards, including the Bronze Medal in the International Tchaikovsky Competition (1970). A graduate of Juilliard, he was a student of Ivan Galamian. Other teachers include Erno Neufeld, Eudice Shapiro, Naoum Blinder, Manuel Compinsky, Jascha Heifetz, and Henryk Szeryng.

In 1967 Mr. Dicterow appeared as soloist with the New York Philharmonic under the baton of Andre Kostelanetz in the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto; he was featured in Bernstein's Serenade with the composer conducting in 1986; and in 1990 played The Carmen Fantasy under the direction of Zubin Mehta in a Live From Lincoln Center telecast. On the New York Philharmonic's 1998 tour of Asia he performed the Barber Violin Concerto in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. In recent seasons he has been the featured soloist in concertos by Prokofiev, Menotti, Rozsa, Korngold, Barber, Mozart, Brahms, Bruch, Kernis, Szymanowski, and Husa under the batons of Yuri Temirkanov, Kurt Masur, Andre Previn, Christian Thielemann, Colin Davis, David Robertson, and Lorin Maazel.

Mr. Dicterow has been a guest artist with the symphony orchestras of Baltimore; San Diego; San Francisco; Hong Kong; London (LSO); Mexico City; Montreal; and Washington, D.C., among many others. Mr. Dicterow's discography includes Copland's Violin Sonata, Largo, and Piano Trio; Ives's Sonatas Nos. 2 and 4 and Piano Trio; and Korngold's Piano Trio and Violin Sonata, all for EMI. He also has recorded the Barber and Shostakovich Violin Concertos with the New York Philharmonic. His recent solo recital for Cala Records, New York Legends, features Corigliano's Sonata for Violin and Piano, Korngold's Much Ado About Nothing, Bernstein's Sonata for Violin and Piano, and Martinu's Three Madrigals, with violist Karen Dreyfus and pianist Gerald Robbins. His latest CD releases include the Dvo?ák Piano Trio and Piano Quartet in E-Flat Major (Bridge) and the Mozart Sinfonie Concertante with violist Karen Dreyfus and the Warsaw Philharmonic (Navona). He can also be heard in the film scores of The Turning Point, The Untouchables, Altered States, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, and Interview with a Vampire. Mr. Dicterow is also on the faculty of the Juilliard School and is a faculty artist at the Music Academy of the West. He and his wife, Karen Dreyfus, are founding members of The Lyric Piano Quartet and the Amerigo Trio. Beginning in the fall of 2013 he will become the first holder of the Robert Mann Chair in Strings and Chamber Music at the University of Southern California's Thornton School of Music.

At Manhattan School of Music Glenn Dicterow serves as Chairman of the Graduate Program in Orchestral Performance and is a member of MSM's Board of Trustees and Artistic Advisory Board.

Leonard Slatkin, conductor - Internationally acclaimed American conductor Leonard Slatkin began his tenure as Music Director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in September of 2008. In addition to his post at the DSO, he serves as Music Director of the Orchestre National de Lyon (ONL), France and is also Principal Guest Conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Maestro Slatkin is the author of a new book entitled Conducting Business.

Following a 17-year appointment as Music Director of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, Maestro Slatkin became Music Director of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C. in 1996. Since his debut with the New York Philharmonic in 1974, Mr. Slatkin has led virtually all of the world's leading orchestras including those of Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, Cleveland, Minnesota and Philadelphia. European orchestras include the Berlin Philharmonic, Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, the Vienna Philharmonic, the Czech Philharmonic, and all the prominent ensembles in Paris and London. He has appeared on podiums throughout the Far East and is a regular guest at major summer festivals such as Aspen, Tanglewood, and Ravinia. Opera performances have taken him to many of the leading stages in the U.S. and abroad, including the Metropolitan Opera, Opera Theater of St. Louis, the Santa Fe Opera, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Opera Bastille, the Vienna Staatsoper, the Stuttgart Opera, and the Washington National Opera.

Leonard Slatkin's more than 100 recordings have been recognized with seven Grammy awards and 64 nominations. He has recorded with the symphony orchestras of Detroit, Saint Louis, Nashville and Chicago, as well as the New York Philharmonic, the Minnesota Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra, and all of the major London orchestras as well as those in Munich, Paris, Lyon, Prague, Stockholm and Berlin.

Throughout his career, Mr. Slatkin has demonstrated a continuing commitment to arts education and to reaching diverse audiences. He was the founder, and for nine seasons director, of the National Conducting Institute, an advanced career development program for rising conductors. Maestro Slatkin also founded the Saint Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra, and he continues to work with student orchestras throughout the world. Leonard Slatkin has received many honors and awards, including the 2003 National Medal of Arts (the highest award given to artists by the United States Government), the Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, the American Symphony Orchestra League's Gold Baton for service to American music, ASCAP awards with both the National and Saint Louis Symphonies, the Lifetime Achievement Award at the DC Mayor's Arts Awards, and the prestigious Declaration of Honor in Silver from the Austrian ambassador to the United States for outstanding contributions to cultural relations. Maestro Slatkin is the Arthur R. Metz Foundation Conductor at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music.

Born in Los Angeles to a distinguished musical family, his parents were the conductor-violinist Felix Slatkin and cellist Eleanor Aller, founding members of the famed Hollywood String Quartet. Maestro Slatkin began his musical studies on the violin and studied conducting with his father, followed by Walter Susskind at Aspen and Jean Morel at The Juilliard School.

Leonard Slatkin is on the Manhattan School of Music Board of Trustees. MSM presented him with the degree of Doctor of Musical Arts, honoris causa at its May 10, 2013 commencement.