Michelle DeYoung to Replace Eric Owens with the New York Philharmonic

Mezzo-soprano Michelle DeYoung will replace The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence Eric Owens, who has withdrawn due to illness, on advisement from his doctor, in selections from Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn, led by John Storga?rds in his Philharmonic debut, Thursday, May 12, 2016, at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, May 13 at 8:00 p.m.; and Saturday, May 14 at 8:00 p.m.

Ms. DeYoung will also sing selections from Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn in place of Mr. Owens in the Young People's Concert on Saturday, May 14, 2016, at 2:00 p.m., led by Assistant Conductor Courtney Lewis. The selections from Gershwin's Porgy and Bess on the Young People's Concert will be performed by baritone Stephen Salters.

The Des Knaben Wunderhorn selections will include Revelge, Trost im Unglu?ck, Der Schildwache Nachtlied, Lied des Verfolgten im Turm, Des Antonius von Padua Fischpredigt, and Der Tamboursg'sell. The Porgy and Bess selections will include "I Got Plenty o' Nuttin,'" "Where's My Bess," and "O Lawd, I'm on My Way."

Michelle DeYoung most recently appeared with the New York Philharmonic in September 2011 in a performance of Mahler's Symphony No. 2, Resurrection, led by Music Director Alan Gilbert, on A Concert for New York, commemorating the tenth anniversary of 9/11.

Related Events:

- Philharmonic Free Fridays
The New York Philharmonic is offering 100 free tickets for young people ages 13-26 to the concert Friday, May 13 as part of Philharmonic Free Fridays. Information is available at nyphil.org/freefridays. Philharmonic Free Fridays offers 100 free tickets to 13-26-year-olds to each of the 2015-16 season's 15 Friday evening subscription concerts.

- Pre-Concert Insights
New York Philharmonic Program Annotator James M. Keller, The Leni and Peter May Chair, will introduce the program. Pre-Concert Insights are $7, and discounts are available for three (3) or more talks and for students. They take place one hour before these performances in the Helen Hull Room, unless otherwise noted. Attendance is limited to 90 people. Information: nyphil.org/preconcert or (212) 875-5656.

Single tickets for the May 12-14 program start at $29. Pre-Concert Insights are $7 (visit nyphil.org/preconcert for more information). Individual tickets for the Young People's Concerts are $13 to $40. All tickets include admission to YPC Overtures. 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; 1:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. Saturday; and noon to 5:00 p.m. Sunday. Tickets may also be purchased at the David Geffen 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. A limited number of $16 tickets for select concerts may be available through the Internet for students within 10 days of the performance, or in person the day of. Valid identification is required. To determine ticket availability, call the Philharmonic's Customer Relations Department at (212) 875-5656. (Ticket prices subject to change.)

Artists:

Mezzo-soprano Michelle DeYoung is in demand throughout the world, appearing regularly with the New York Philharmonic and the Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, London, and BBC symphony orchestras as well as The Cleveland Orchestra, Vienna Philharmonic, The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, and Amsterdam's Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. She has also performed at the prestigious festivals of Ravinia, Tanglewood, Saito Kinen, Edinburgh, and Lucerne. On the opera stage, Ms. DeYoung has appeared with The Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Milan's Teatro alla Scala, Bayreuth Festival, Berlin Staatsoper, Paris Ope?ra, Theater Basel, and the Tokyo Opera. She has appeared in leading roles in Wagner's Ring Cycle, Parsifal, Tannha?user, and Tristan und Isolde, Verdi's Don Carlos and Aida, Berlioz's Le Damnation de Faust and Les Troyens, as well as Saint-Sae?ns's Samson et Dalilah, Britten's The Rape of Lucretia, Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana, Barto?k's Bluebeard's Castle, and Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex. She created the role of the Shaman in Tan Dun's The First Emperor at The Met. A multi-Grammy Award-winning recording artist, Ms. DeYoung has recorded Mahler's Kindertotenlieder, Symphony No. 3, and Das Klagende Lied with the San Francisco Symphony (SFS Media), Les Troyens with the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO Live!), and Mahler's Symphony No. 3 with both the Chicago Symphony (CSO Resound) and Pittsburgh Symphony (Challenge Records International). Her first solo disc was released on the EMI label. Michelle DeYoung's recent appearances include her role debut as Herodias in Richard Strauss's Salome at Opera San Antonio and her house debut at Opera Philadelphia as Eboli in Don Carlos; engagements with the Dallas Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, Israel Philharmonic, Sydney Symphony, BBC Symphony, and the Hong Kong and Seoul Philharmonic orchestras; and festival appearances at Aspen, Vail, and Ravinia, as well as serving as artist-in-residence at Wolf Trap. This season she returned to The Met in Tannha?user, and tours Europe with the Dallas Symphony. She made her New York Philharmonic debut in March 2001, in performances of Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius led by Colin Davis; her most recent appearance was in Mahler's Symphony No. 2, Resurrection, on September 10, 2011 - a performance led by Music Director Alan Gilbert on the tenth anniversary of 9/11.

Conductor and violinist John Storga?rds is principal guest conductor of the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and Canada's National Arts Centre Orchestra Ottawa, and artistic director of the Chamber Orchestra of Lapland. He served as chief conductor of the Helsinki Philharmonic from 2008 to 2015 and has appeared with the WDR, Bamberg, Netherlands Radio, BBC, City of Birmingham, Sydney, Melbourne, and New Zealand symphony orchestras; Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France; Zurich's Tonhalle Orchestra; the Royal Scottish National Orchestra; and all of the major Scandinavian orchestras. In North America he has appeared with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood, The Cleveland Orchestra at Blossom, and with the National, Toronto, St. Louis, Detroit, Atlanta, Montreal, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, and Houston symphony orchestras. In the 2015-16 season he makes his debuts with the New York Philharmonic and the Baltimore and Vancouver Symphony Orchestras; begins his tenure as the principal guest conductor of the National Arts Centre Orchestra; and returns to the St. Louis, Toronto, and Houston symphony orchestras. Highlights of his 2015-16 European season include a return to the BBC Proms with the BBC Philharmonic; European and Mexican tours with the Helsinki Philharmonic to mark Sibelius's 150th birthday; his Japanese debut with the NHK Symphony; and recordings with the Gothenburg Symphony and Oslo Philharmonic. John Storga?rds conducted the Finnish premieres of both Haydn's Orlando Paladino at the Finnish National Opera and Schumann's only opera, Genoveva. He has also conducted most of Mozart's operas and the major operas of Richard Strauss and Verdi. Chandos has released recordings of Mr. Storga?rds conducting the BBC Philharmonic in the complete Nielsen symphonies (2015) and complete Sibelius symphonies (2014), including the Three Late Fragments, thought to be sketches for Sibelius's Eighth Symphony. Additional discs include works by Korngold and Rautavaara; Holmboe symphonies with the Lapland Chamber Orchestra; and a recording of Pe?teris Vasks's Second Symphony and Violin Concerto (featuring him conducting the former and as soloist in the latter), which won the Classical Disc of the Year Award. Mr. Storga?rds studied violin with Chaim Taub, was concertmaster of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra under Esa-Pekka Salonen, and subsequently studied conducting with Jorma Panula and Eri Klas at the Sibelius Academy. He received the Finnish State Prize for Music in 2002 and the Pro Finlandia Prize 2012. These performances mark his New York Philharmonic debut.

Courtney Lewis began his tenure as Assistant Conductor of the New York Philharmonic in September 2014. The 2015-16 season marks Mr. Lewis's first as music director of the Jacksonville Symphony. His previous posts include associate conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra, where he made his subscription debut in the 2011-12 season, and Dudamel Fellow with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, where he made his debut in the fall of 2011. From 2008 to 2014 Mr. Lewis was the music director of Boston's Discovery Ensemble, a chamber orchestra dedicated both to giving concerts of contemporary and established repertoire at the highest level of musical and technical excellence, and to bringing live music into the least privileged parts of Boston through workshops in local schools. He made his major American orchestral debut in November 2008 with the St. Louis Symphony, and has since appeared with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Houston Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, RTE? National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, and Ulster Orchestra, among others. In the 2015-16 season he makes his subscription debuts with the Hong Kong Philharmonic, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, and Colorado Symphony; returns to the RTE? National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland; and assists Thomas Ade?s at the Salzburg Festival for the World Premiere of Ade?s's opera The Exterminating Angel. Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Courtney Lewis graduated from the University of Cambridge, where he studied composition with Robin Holloway and clarinet with Dame Thea King. After completing a master's degree with a focus on the late music of Ligeti, he attended the Royal Northern College of Music, where his teachers included Mark Elder and Clark Rundell. Courtney Lewis made his New York Philharmonic debut leading a Young People's Concert in November 2014; most recently, in March 2016, he led the Young People's Concert Once Upon a Time: "Babble and Verse," which included selections from The Marie- Jose?e Kravis Composer-in-Residence Esa-Pekka Salonen's Karawane.

Theodore Wiprud - New York Philharmonic Vice President, Education, The Sue B. Mercy Chair - has directed the Orchestra's Education Department since 2004. The Philharmonic's education programs include the famed Young People's Concerts (which Mr. Wiprud hosts), Philharmonic Schools (an immersive classroom program that reaches thousands of New York City students), Very Young Composers (which enables students to express themselves through original works, often performed by Philharmonic musicians), adult education programs, and many special projects. Mr. Wiprud has also created innovative programs as director of education and community engagement at the Brooklyn Philharmonic and the American Composers Orchestra; served as associate director of The Commission Project; and assisted the Orchestra of St. Luke's on its education programs. He has worked as a teaching artist and resident composer in a number of New York City schools. From 1990 to 1997 he directed national grant-making programs at Meet the Composer. Prior to that position, he taught at and directed the music department for Walnut Hill School, a pre-professional arts boarding school near Boston. Mr. Wiprud is also an active composer, whose Violin Concerto (Katrina) was released on Champs Hill Records. His music for orchestra, chamber ensembles, and voice is published by Allemar Music. Theodore Wiprud holds degrees from Harvard and Boston Universities and studied at Cambridge University as a visiting scholar.

Repertoire:

Robert Schumann (1810-1856) composed his only opera, Genoveva, in 1847-48. Based on the Friedrich Hebbel play of the same name, the tale, set in the Middle Ages, follows Genoveve of Brabant, whose husband, Siegfried, has just embarked on a crusade and left her in the care of his knight Golo, who tries to seduce her. After she rejects him, he spreads the rumor that she was the seductress, and Siegfried sentences her to death. She is saved just in time - the truth comes out, and happiness is restored. While the opera itself is not frequently performed, the Genoveva Overture has become a more established work in the repertoire. It was one of the first sections of the opera to be sketched (a departure, as most composers choose to write them toward the end of the process), and foreshadows the mood of the story, rather than the musical material itself. The New York Philharmonic first performed the Genoveva Overture in March 1861, conducted by Carl Bergmann; its most recent performance was led by Music Director Emeritus Kurt Masur in May 2003.

Gustav Mahler's (1860-1911) Des Knaben Wunderhorn (The Boy's Magic Horn) is the culmination of a century of German fascination with a collection of folk poetry. First published between 1805 and 1808, the collection was a source of inspiration to the nation's poets from Goethe onward, and, through them, to the composers of the Romantic era. Collected by Achim von Arnim and Clements Brentano, the texts reached beyond social, economic, and educational boundaries and inspired a sense of German national identity. Mahler discovered the collection in his late 20s, and for the next 15 years it was a primary source of inspiration. More than half of his songs are based on Wunderhorn texts, several of which supplied themes and even vocal movements for his Second, Third, and Fourth Symphonies. The New York Philharmonic first performed selections from Des Knaben Wunderhorn in November 1910, conducted by the composer, with Alma Gluck as vocalist; the most recent complete performance was given in November 1998, with Colin Davis conducting Inger Dam-Jansen and Thomas Quasthoff.

Many believe that with his Symphony No. 2, Jean Sibelius (1865-1957) was tapping into the contemporary undercurrent of Finnish patriotism and intense longing for self-rule after years of Swedish and Russian domination. Written in 1901, in part while he was traveling in Italy and central Europe, Sibelius himself conducted its premiere in 1902 in Helsinki. Its optimistic, heroic, and triumphant opening and closing movements were an instant popular success, and solidified the composer's standing with the Finnish public. It has subsequently become the most frequently recorded of Sibelius's symphonies. The New York Philharmonic first performed Sibelius's Second Symphony in January 1914, when Walter Damrosch led the New York Symphony (which later merged with the New York Philharmonic); the Orchestra most recently performed the symphony in July 2010, led by Alan Gilbert at Bravo! Vail.