Mary Chapin Carpenter to Perform with the New York Philharmonic, 2/28-3/1

Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Mary Chapin Carpenter will make her New York Philharmonic debut in Mary Chapin Carpenter with the New York Philharmonic
and Special Guests, a retrospective program featuring songs from throughout her career, some newly arranged for orchestra. Ms. Carpenter's longtime friends Joan Baez, Shawn Colvin, Jerry Douglas, Tift Merritt, and Aoife O'Donovan will join her for special guest appearances, all marking their Philharmonic debuts.

The program will include selections from her new album, Songs from the Movie - featuring orchestral reinventions of her compositions to be released January 14, 2014 - including "Come On Come On," "I Am a Town," "Ideas Are Like Stars," plus her songs "Transcendental Reunion" and "Stones in the Road." Grammy Award winner Vince Mendoza, who collaborated with Ms. Carpenter on the orchestral arrangements for Songs from the Movie, will make his Philharmonic debut conducting the program, which will also feature some of Ms. Carpenter's collaborators, musicians Peter Erskine, Matt Rollings, Duke Levine, John Jennings, Jon Carroll, and Vinnie Santoro, all in their Philharmonic debuts.

The concerts will take place Friday, February 28, 2014, at 8:00 p.m. and Saturday, March 1 at 8:00 p.m.

This season marks Ms. Carpenter's first tour appearing with orchestras; she will also appear with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, and the Nashville Symphony Orchestra this season.

60 V.I.P. tickets will be available for the March 1 concert for $245 each, allowing fans to meet Ms. Carpenter and the evening's artists at a post-concert reception and receive a signed copy of her CD Songs from the Movie. V.I.P. tickets are available only by calling 212-875-5656.

Artists:

Mary Chapin Carpenter has sold more than 13 million records and developed a loyal and devoted international fan base over the course of her two-and-a-half-decade recording career. Born in Princeton, New Jersey, she began playing guitar and writing songs early in life, and was playing her songs in D.C. clubs before she was out of her teens. Word of Ms. Carpenter's talents eventually reached Nashville, winning her a deal with Columbia Records, which released her 1987 debut album, Hometown Girl. Her debut disc set the stage for the success of 1989's State of the Heart and 1990's Shooting Straight in the Dark, each of which produced four top 20 hits, including the Grammy-winning "Down at the Twist and Shout." Those releases were followed by the commercial breakthrough of 1992's Come On Come On, which was certified quadruple platinum and yielded no less than seven charting singles. More success followed with such albums as the platinum Stones in the Road, A Place in the World, Time* Sex* Love*, and Between Here and Gone. Ms. Carpenter moved to Rounder/Zoe? in time for 2007's Grammy- nominated The Calling, which was followed by the seasonally themed Come Darkness Come Light: 12 Songs of Christmas, the Grammy-nominated The Age of Miracles, and Ashes and Roses. Ms. Carpenter's newest album, Songs from the Movie, featuring orchestral reinventions of classic Mary Chapin Carpenter compositions, will be released in January 2014. Collaborating with composer/arranger and producer Vince Mendoza and working again with co-producer Matt Rollings, Songs from the Movie harkens to Ms. Carpenter's love of classic film and symphonic music. Ms. Carpenter has won five Grammy Awards, was named the Country Music Association's Female Vocalist of the Year in 1992 and 1993, and in 2012 was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. Her compositions have also been covered by a diverse assortment of artists including Joan Baez, Wynonna Judd, Cyndi Lauper, Trisha Yearwood, Maura O'Connell, Mary Black, and Dianne Reeves. She has collaborated with the likes of Joan Baez, Shawn Colvin, Dolly Parton, the Indigo Girls, and Tony Bennett. These concerts mark Ms. Carpenter's New York Philharmonic debut.

Vince Mendoza has been at the forefront of the jazz and contemporary music scenes as a composer, conductor, and recording artist for the last 20 years. He has written compositions and arrangements for big band as well as for chamber and symphonic ensembles, and his jazz composing credits read like a "who's who" of today's modern instrumentalists and singers. Mr. Mendoza was recognized as Best Composer/Arranger by Swing Journal's critics poll in Japan. His CD Epiphany features his compositions played by the London Symphony Orchestra, and El Viento and Jazzpan?a further pushed the boundaries of jazz and flamenco music. His new album, Nights on Earth, features his own compositions arranged for small and large ensembles, with guest appearances by Luciana Souza, Malian vocalist Tom Diakite, and musicians from Spain, Africa, and Brazil. Mr. Mendoza's arrangements have appeared on critically acclaimed projects including dozens of albums with song-writers such as Bjo?rk, Chaka Khan, Al Jarreau, Bobby McFerrin, Melody Gardot, Sting, and Joni Mitchell. He has received six Grammy Awards and 28 Grammy nominations. Honorary conductor of the Netherlands Metropole Orchestra, he also appears frequently as a guest conductor with orchestras throughout Europe, the U.S., Japan, Scandinavia, and the U.K. Mr. Mendoza has been commissioned to compose and create arrangements for the Turtle Island String Quartet, Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Metropole Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic, West German Broadcasting, and the BBC. His music was featured at the Berlin Jazz Festival, and he has performed at the Montreux and North Sea Jazz Festivals.

Joan Baez recently celebrated the 50th anniversaries of her legendary residency in 1958 at Club 47 in Cambridge, and her subsequent debut at the 1959 Newport Folk Festival. In recent years, she has made multiple tours of the U.S. and abroad; her 1960 debut Vanguard LP by the National Recording Academy was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame; and she was presented the inaugural Joan Baez Award for Outstanding Inspirational Service in the Global Fight for Human Rights at Amnesty International's 50th Anniversary gathering in 2012. She remains an influential artist, marching on the front line of the civil rights movement with Martin Luther King; inspiring Va?clav Havel in his fight for a Czech Republic; singing on the first Amnesty International tour; and standing alongside the late Nelson Mandela when the world celebrated his 90th birthday in London's Hyde Park. She shined a spotlight on the Free Speech Movement; took to the fields with Cesar Chavez; organized resistance to the Vietnam War; then, 40 years later, saluted the Dixie Chicks for their courage to protest the Iraq War. Ms. Baez's earliest recordings fed a host of traditional ballads into the rock vernacular, before she introduced Bob Dylan to the world in 1963, beginning a tradition of mutual mentoring that continues to this day. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Lifetime Achievement Award, the greatest honor that the Recording Academy can bestow (2007). Her 2008 album, Day After Tomorrow, was praised by critics and nominated for a Grammy. Not long after its release, PBS's American Masters premiered her life story, Joan Baez: How Sweet the Sound.

In the 24 years since the release of her debut album, Shawn Colvin has won three Grammy Awards, released 10 albums, maintained an ongoing national and international touring schedule, appeared on countless television and radio programs, and had her songs featured in major motion pictures. Her most recent album, All Fall Down (2012), is her eighth studio album and the first to be produced by her longtime friend Buddy Miller. Recorded in Nashville, the album features performances by Alison Krauss, Emmylou Harris, Jakob Dylan, Bill Frisell, Viktor Krauss, Brian Blade, Stuart Duncan, and Julie Miller, and was released simultaneously with her memoir, Diamond in the Rough (William Morrow/HarperCollins). Ms. Colvin continues to tour, and she has shared the stage with such legendary artists as Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, Bruce Hornsby, Emmylou Harris, John Hiatt, Don Henley, Richard Thompson, and Lyle Lovett. She has been a resident of Austin, Texas, since 1994.

In addition to being widely known as the foremost master of the dobro, Jerry Douglas is a recording artist whose output incorporates elements of bluegrass, country, rock, jazz, blues, and Celtic. A 13-time Grammy winner, he is one of the most innovative recording artists in music, both as a solo artist and member of groundbreaking bands including J.D. Crowe & the New South, the Country Gentlemen, Boone Creek, and Strength in Numbers. he has been included on more than 1,500 albums, including those by Garth Brooks, Paul Simon, James Taylor, Elvis Costello, Earl Scruggs, and Ray Charles, as well as the eight-million-plus selling sound track to O Brother, Where Art Thou? and its spinoff live disc, Down from the Mountain. Since 1998 Mr. Douglas has been a member of Alison Krauss and Union Station Featuring Jerry Douglas, touring extensively, co-producing, and playing on a series of platinum albums. He splits his time between Union Station, his ongoing work as co-music director of the popular BBC-TV series Transatlantic Sessions (which teams American roots musicians and singers with their Celtic counterparts), and his work as a solo artist. Mr. Douglas's latest album, Traveler (eOne Music, 2012), produced by the award-winning Russ Titelman, features guest appearances by notable friends including Paul Simon, Mumford & Sons, and Eric Clapton.

Tift Merritt's 2002 solo debut, Bramble Rose, put her on the Americana map. Following her albums Tambourine, Another Country, and See You on the Moon, she received acclaim from critics, awards organizations, and her own heroes, including Emmylou Harris. Ms. Merritt engages in dialogue with fellow artists of all disciplines on her public radio broadcast and podcast The Spark With Tift Merritt, bringing in fellow sojourners ranging from Patty Griffin and Rosanne Cash to Rick Moody and Nick Hornby (who devoted a chapter to Ms. Merritt in his book 31 Songs). Ms. Merritt's 2012 Yep Roc Records label debut, Traveling Alone, was recorded in Brooklyn with Tucker Martine (The Decemberists, My Morning Jacket, Spoon) and features a guest appearance by Andrew Bird as well as performances by Marc Ribot, Rob Burger (Lucinda Williams, Iron & Wine, Rufus Wainwright), John Convertino (Calexico), Eric Heywood (The Jayhawks, Son Volt, Alejandro Escovedo), and longtime collaborator Jay Brown. For Ms. Merritt, Traveling Alone is about the roads people have on the inside - those places that are hard to see and not easy to send postcards from.

Brooklyn-based folk singer-songwriter Aoife O'Donovan is known as the lead singer of Crooked Still, and for her vocals on the 2013 Grammy-winning The Goat Rodeo Sessions with Yo-Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer, Chris Thile, and Stuart Duncan. Ms. O'Donovan also performed on Noam Pikelny's 2013 Grammy-nominated album Beat the Devil and Carry a Rail. She has collaborated across the roots, classical, bluegrass, and jazz genres with artists ranging from Alison Krauss to Dave Douglas. Aoife (pronounced EEF-ah) has performed with the Boston Pops and is A Prairie Home Companion favorite. Fossils - her acclaimed full-length solo debut produced by Tucker Martine (My Morning Jacket, The Decemberists) - was released on Yep Roc Records.

Single tickets for this concert start at $55. 60 V.I.P. tickets will be available for the Saturday, March 1, 2014, concert for $245 each, allowing fans to meet Ms. Carpenter and the evening's artists at a post-concert reception and receive a signed copy of her CD Songs from the Movie. V.I.P. tickets are available only by calling 212-875-5656. All ticket-buyers for both concerts have the option to add a signed copy of Songs from the Movie to their purchase for an additional $20. All tickets may be purchased online at nyphil.org or by calling (212) 875-5656, 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, Saturday 1:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. and 12:00 noon to 5:00 p.m. on Sunday. Tickets may also be purchased at the Avery Fisher Hall Box Office. 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.]