New York Classical Players Announces 2017-18 Season

NYCP is proud to announce its 2017/18 season, featuring NYCP's dynamic roster of musicians in 25 performances throughout New York City and beyond. The ensemble opens its season on Friday, September 29 with an evening featuring guest soloist HaeSun Paik performing Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4, and works by Shostakovich, Saint-Saens, and Eric Nathan.

The season builds showcases the ensemble's virtuosity, consummate artistry, and versatility. The 2017/18 season features guest performances by some of today's leading classical musicians, including 2016 Avery Fisher Career Grant winner Tessa Lark, pianist HaeSun Paik - whose performances are "a wonder - elastic, mercurial, charged with meaning, surprising" (Boston Globe), and William Short, Principal Bassoonist of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. From Bach's beloved Brandenburg Concerto to the poetic fire of Saint-Saëns's Rondo Capriccioso, the ensemble's five cycles of orchestral programs will delight music lovers of all ages and backgrounds. Venues include Flushing Town Hall, W83 Concert Hall, the majestic Church of the Heavenly Rest, the College of Mount Saint Vincent in the Bronx, Advent Lutheran Church, Chodae Community Church, and West Side Presbyterian Church, among other venues to be announced. In the spirit of NYCP's mission of bringing accessible classical music to the community, each performance is open to the public and free of charge.

Dongmin Kim, Founder and Music Director, says, "This season is a musically exciting year that exhibits the creativity and talents of our ensemble members - and the virtuosity of our incredible guest artists." Kim, a native of Seoul, founded the ensemble in 2010 and has conducted the gifted young artists of NYCP in more than 80 performances throughout the metropolitan region, as well as the ensemble's 2014 national tour. A noted violist and conductor, he was awarded the distinguished Herbert von Karajan Fellowship with the Vienna Philharmonic and counts Kurt Masur, Lorin Maazel, Leonard Slatkin, Christoph Eschenbach, Sergiu Comissiona, and David Effron among his mentors.

In December, NYCP returns to the Library of the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center for American Encounters, the ensemble's annual three-concert chamber series performing the Library's astonishing manuscript archives of American chamber music. Copland's beloved Appalachian Spring open the series, followed by a performance of Dvorak's American Quartet and quartets by American composers Charles Ives, George Antheil, and Charles Griffes in January. Works by Amy Beach, Rebecca Clark, and Mary Howe conclude the series in a concert featuring underperformed works of American women composers in May. The corresponding exhibit of the original scores at the Library of the Performing Arts offers an unparalleled opportunity for audiences to experience the music of "American Encounters" through performance and as a visual artifact.Performances, in collaboration with the Library for the Performing Arts, are presented free of charge.

NYCP takes it artistry on the road for its first-ever Arkansas Tour in October, sharing the ensemble's vision and artistry with audiences in Little Rock, Jonesboro, and Fayetteville, among other Arkansas communities. NYCP partners with local universities for this tour, augmenting the ensemble's performances with community outreach and educational programming for student musicians. NYCP will appear at Ouachita Baptist University, Henderson State University, Arkansas State University, Harding University, University of Arkansas Little Rock, Arkansas Tech University, and University of Arkansas Fayetteville. Each performance features a university faculty member as a guest soloist.

Dedicated to championing the next generation of composers, NYCP will premiere two new works by Eric Nathan this year: "Omaggi a Gesualdo", inspired by the complex and austere beauty of Renaissance music, and "Four to One, " a sonic recreation of an autumnl sunset. NYCP will continue its commitment to expanding the chamber orchestra repertoire this year with the premieres of a new chamber arrangement of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 by Yoomi Paick and a reimagining of a Schubert fantasy by Dobrinka Tabakova. Past premieres have included works by Clint Needham, Texu Kim, Joseph Hallman, Edward Smaldone, and Teddy Niedermaier, among others.

This season, NYCP proudly announces a new endeavor with pianist HaeSun Paik to perform all five Beethoven piano concertos, as well as the singular Triple Concerto for Piano, Violin, and Cello over the next three seasons. This project, which will conclude in the year of Beethoven's 250th centenary, allows NYCP to build a longstanding artistic relationship with Paik and to delve deeply and immersively into Beethoven's legendary works for piano and orchestra. Flushing Town Hall joins NYCP as a presenting partner for the Paik & Beethoven Project, which kicks off NYCP's season on September 29.

Paik says, "I'm very happy to join New York Classical Players for the Beethoven Project over the next three seasons. I've always admired NYCP's dedicated and passionate performances and their creative programs. I'm especially grateful because it's not just one performance, but we are going to be playing all five Beethoven piano concerti and the Triple Concerto. We will work together, sweat together, and grow together over Beethoven."

Founded in 2010, New York Classical Players (NYCP) is an ensemble dedicated to the highest standards of artistry, collaboration, and virtuosity. Fuelled by the belief that access to musical excellence is an essential human right, NYCP presents all of its concerts free of charge. NYCP is comprised of dynamic young musicians who are launching their professional careers. Graduates of some of the world's leading conservatories come together as NCYP to share free performances of familiar masterpieces, bold new commissions, and unexpected musical treasures with the public. Each season, thousands of NYCP concertgoers experience both the dynamic power of the orchestral repertoire and the versatile intimacy of chamber performance - without charge.

A registered 501c3 organization, NYCP is supported, in part, by public funds from The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with City Council.

For a complete season listing, please visit www.NYCPmusic.org.