NY Phil's Young People's Concerts Continue with ONCE UPON A TIME: STORY AND SONG, 5/14

The 2015-16 season's New York Philharmonic Young People's Concerts (YPCs) will conclude on Saturday, May 14, 2016, at 2:00 p.m. with "Story and Song," the final program in this season's series, Once Upon a Time, which explores music inspired by stories, poems, and legends. The concert will include selections from Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn and selections from Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, performed by The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence Eric Owens; Rossini's William Tell Overture; a selection from Mahler's Symphony No. 2, Resurrection; and a selection from Copland's Appalachian Spring. Philharmonic Assistant Conductor Courtney Lewis will lead the performance; Vice President, Education, Theodore Wiprud will host.

Attendees are invited to come early to take part in YPC Overtures, at which children meet Philharmonic musicians and try out orchestral instruments on the Grand Promenade and upper tiers of David Geffen Hall, starting at 12:45 p.m. Pre-concert activities inside the hall include performances by ensembles of Philharmonic musicians of works by Very Young Composers inspired by the YPC's thematic content.

The Philharmonic will also present free instrument try-outs on Josie Robertson Plaza and Hearst Plaza from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. as part of Lincoln Center's second-annual "Spring Fling," a day of free arts events for families and children, hosted and presented by LC Kids.

Artists
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

in March 2016, 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.

As the 2015-16 Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence at the New York Philharmonic, bass-baritone Eric Owens appears as soloist throughout the season, and is expanding the role of the Philharmonic's Artist-in-Residence by curating programs and participating in educational activities. Mr. Owens's 2015-16 season features orchestral engagements including performances of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with the St. Louis Symphony, led by Markus Stenz, and with the Minnesota Orchestra, led by Osmo Va?nska?; Ravel's L'Enfant et les sortile?ges with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, led by Esa-Pekka Salonen; Brahms's A German Requiem with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, led by Mr. Stenz; and Dvor?a?k's Stabat Mater with The Cleveland Orchestra, led by Franz Welser-Mo?st. He also joins Music of the Baroque as Simon in concert performances of Handel's Judas Maccabaeus conducted by Jane Glover. Operatic highlights of Mr. Owens's season include his return to The Metropolitan Opera as Orest in a new production of Richard Strauss's Elektra, directed by Patrice Che?reau and conducted by Esa- Pekka Salonen, to be broadcast on the Emmy and Peabody Award-winning Live in HD series to movie theaters around the world, and hosting The Met's Live in HD broadcast of Verdi's Otello. He returns to Santa Fe Opera for his role debut as La Roche in a new production of Richard Strauss's Capriccio directed by Tim Albery, and to Washington National Opera as Stephen Kumalo in Weill's Lost in the Stars. At the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., he performs an evening of jazz standards featuring the music of Billy Eckstine and Johnny Hartman, and he also appears in recital under the auspices of the McCarter Theatre, Green Music Center at Sonoma State University, Oberlin College and Conservatory, Troy Chromatic Concerts, and Curtis Institute of Music. Eric Owens made his New York Philharmonic debut in June 2003 singing selections from Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, led by then Philharmonic Music Director Lorin Maazel, during the Orchestra's residency at Sardinia's Teatro Lirico di Cagliari. He will have most recently appeared with the Philharmonic in May 2016 performing selections from Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn, led by John Storga?rds.