New York Philharmonic Sets 2015-16 Season of New-Music Series CONTACT!

Entering its seventh season in 2015-16, CONTACT!, the Philharmonic's new-music series, will extend its reach across New York City through a new partnership with National Sawdust (formerly Original Music Workshop), a new, non-profit, state-of-the-art music venue opening in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in October 2015.

The Philharmonic and National Sawdust will co-present three CONTACT! chamber programs: "Young Americans," featuring works by the next generation of American composers proposed by musicians of the New York Philharmonic, and two concerts hosted by Esa-Pekka Salonen, The Marie-Jose?e Kravis Composer-in-Residence beginning in the 2015-16 season: "Salonen's Floof and Other Delights," featuring music written by him and composers who influenced him, and "The Messiaen Connection," featuring works by Olivier Messiaen and his students, as part of the Philharmonic's Messiaen Week. The 2015-16 season of CONTACT! was planned with the guidance of Esa-Pekka Salonen, who will begin a three-year tenure as the Philharmonic's Marie-Jose?e Kravis Composer-in-Residence in the 2015-16 season.

In addition to programs at National Sawdust, CONTACT! will return to The Metropolitan Museum of Art for a concert featuring the U.S. Premiere of Wave Movements by Bryce Dessner and Richard Reed Parry, of the bands The National and Arcade Fire, respectively -- a work that couples chamber orchestra with video by artist Hiroshi Sugimoto -- as well as Thomas Ade?s's Chamber Symphony. The program, co-presented with Met Museum Presents, will be conducted by Andre? de Ridder in his New York Philharmonic debut.

The 2015-16 season's final CONTACT! program will take place as part of the second NY PHIL BIENNIAL. As previously announced, Ilan Volkov, in his Philharmonic debut, will conduct the U.S. Stage Premiere of Gerald Barry's The Importance of Being Earnest, directed by Ramin Gray, as part of the new Lincoln Center-New York Philharmonic Opera Initiative.

CONTACT!, established by Music Director Alan Gilbert in the 2009-10 season, highlights the works of both emerging and established contemporary composers, performed by smaller ensembles of Philharmonic musicians in intimate venues outside the Lincoln Center campus. Since its inception, CONTACT! has presented 21 World Premieres (as of the end of the 2014-15 season), including Matthias Pintscher's songs from Solomon's garden, Sean Shepherd's These Particular Circumstances, Carter's Three Controversies and a Conversation, and Dai Fujikura's Infinite String.

To further expand its presence throughout New York City and to provide intimate concert experiences, in the 2015-16 season the New York Philharmonic will also continue to partner with SubCulture to co-present concerts of diverse repertoire -- ranging from jazz to premieres -- performed by smaller ensembles of Philharmonic musicians and guest artists. The Philharmonic has performed CONTACT! concerts at SubCulture since the downtown venue opened in the 2013-14 season and the successful relationship will now evolve to feature concerts outside of that series. Programs and schedule will be announced at a later date.

Alan Gilbert said: "We conceived of CONTACT! as a series that would continually evolve to meet the needs of New York's new-music scene. I am really looking forward to bringing CONTACT! to Brooklyn through performances with the adventurous National Sawdust. I'm glad that we're able to bring the Philharmonic further into New York City through CONTACT! and through our new offerings at SubCulture, all designed to showcase the musicians of the orchestra in different ways and in unique venues off campus."

Esa-Pekka Salonen said: "I think it's wonderful to play new music in smaller venues, away from the sort of establishment temples of art. There's a totally different communication between the audience, the musicians, and the music. People are more relaxed, and you can let your natural curiosity guide you."

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U.S. Premiere of Bryce DESSNER and Richard Reed PARRY's Wave Movements Thomas ADE?S's Chamber Symphony
Conducted by ANDRE? de RIDDER
November 6-7, 2015, at THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART Co-Presented with Met Museum Presents

The 2015-16 CONTACT! season opens with the U.S. Premiere of Wave Movements (2015) by Bryce Dessner, of The National, and Richard Reed Parry, of Arcade Fire, as well as Thomas Ade?s's Chamber Symphony (1990), led by Andre? de Ridder. This program takes place November 6-7, 2015, at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Thomas Ade?s began his Chamber Symphony as a concerto for basset-clarinet, which intrigued him because of its range, but eventually scored it for chamber orchestra. Mr. Ade?s writes that the ensemble "became infected with the personality of the solo instrument, until the whole group represented in my mind a super-basset-clarinet with strings and a constant rhythm section." Exploring melody, rhythm, and instrumental interplay, the work incorporates elements of early music, tango, and jazz. The Philharmonic's collaboration with Thomas Ade?s goes back almost two decades, beginning when the Orchestra commissioned and premiered his America (A Prophecy) as one of the "Messages for the Millennium" (November 1999, led by then Music Director Kurt Masur). Mr. Ade?s made his Philharmonic debut as soloist in his work In Seven Days (Concerto for Piano with Moving Image) (January 2011, led by Music Director Alan Gilbert). In 2012 Alan Gilbert conducted Mr. Ade?s's Polaris, a Philharmonic co-commission, in its New York Premiere and later in its U.K. Premiere during the Philharmonic's Barbican Centre International Associate residency as part of the EUROPE / WINTER 2012 tour. Most recently, in March 2015, Mr. Ade?s made his Philharmonic conducting debut with the U.S. Premiere of his Totentanz.

Richard Reed Parry and Bryce Dessner's collaborative work Wave Movements for chamber orchestra and film replicates the rhythm of ocean waves, based on field recordings. It is performed in sync to photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto's film Seascapes, a compilation of seascape photos from around the world; the combination of music and images is meant to evoke the feeling of overlooking the ocean. Wave Movements was co-commissioned by Met Museum Presents, and the Barbican Centre, Edinburgh International Festival, Cork Opera House, Sydney Festival, and Saint-Denis Festival. Richard Reed Parry has written works commissioned by Kronos Quartet, yMusic, and Bryce Dessner, and his chamber works have been performed by the Calder Quartet and Warhol Dervish; he is also a founding member of the indie rock band Arcade Fire. Bryce Dessner has been commissioned by groups including the Kronos Quartet, eighth blackbird, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic; he is also a member of the rock band The National.

"SALONEN'S FLOOF AND OTHER DELIGHTS"
Works by Esa-Pekka SALONEN, LUTOS?AWSKI, DONATONI, and CASTIGLIONI ESA-PEKKA SALONEN, Curator and Host
November 16, 2015, Co-Presented with and at NATIONAL SAWDUST

The season's first of three CONTACT! programs at National Sawdust in Brooklyn will feature Esa-Pekka Salonen hosting a program he curated, comprising works spotlighting his mentors and their influence on him. The program, titled "Salonen's Floof and Other Delights," features Lutos?awski's String Quartet (1964), Donatoni's Hot (1989), a work by Castiglioni to be announced at a later date, and Mr. Salonen's Floof (1982). This concert takes place November 16, 2015, at National Sawdust.

Inspired by the principles behind Alexander Calder's mobile sculptures, Polish composer and conductor Witold Lutos?awski infused these visual properties of connected yet flowing parts into his String Quartet. He wrote that the work "employs the element of chance for the purpose of rhythmic and expressive enrichment of the music without limiting in the least the full ability of the composer to determine the definitive form of the work." Highlights of the Philharmonic's history of performing music by Lutos?awski include the U.S. Premiere of Lutos?awski's Piano Concerto (December 1988, with soloist Krystian Zimerman, led by Zubin Mehta) and the New York Premiere of Funeral Music (March 1964, led by George Szell).

Italian modernist composer Franco Donatoni composed Hot for solo tenor, sopranino saxophone, and six-member ensemble, and described it as a kind of "imaginary jazz" that evolves through repetition and transmutation, and echoes the instrumental hand-offs common in jazz. Esa-Pekka Salonen studied with Donatoni, whose last completed work, ESA (In Cauda V), was dedicated to Salonen. Pierre Boulez led the Philharmonic's two previous performances of Donatoni's music: Concertino in January 1977 and TEMA, featuring Ensemble Intercontemporain, in March 1986.

Niccolo? Castiglioni's influences included Stravinsky's neo-classicism, the Second Viennese School and 12-tone technique, and post-Webernian techniques, reflected in his Impromptus I-IV, which he identified as his first true opus. He was also influenced by his time at the RAI electronic music studio in Milan, where he met Luciano Berio, and the Darmsta?dter Summer Course, where he later taught from 1958 to 1965. Following studies with Donatoni, Esa-Pekka Salonen studied with Castiglioni in Milan from 1980-81, during which time Mr. Salonen composed his Saxophone Concerto, considered a stylistic turning point. Esa-Pekka Salonen made his Philharmonic conducting debut leading the U.S. Premiere of Castiglioni's Sinfonia con giardino in 1986.

Esa-Pekka Salonen was inspired to write his post-serial Floof (Songs of a Homeostatic Homer), for coloratura soprano and up to six players, while reading Polish science-fiction writer Stanis?aw Lem's set of humorous short stories, The Cyberiad. One story is about an attempt to invent a poetry machine, which reminded Mr. Salonen of the Toimii Ensemble, which he formed with former Philharmonic Composer-in-Residence Magnus Lindberg and Anssi Karttunen as a laboratory of musical ideas. Mr. Salonen writes: "The Homeostatic Homer is learning to be a poet; onomatopoeia becomes poetry. At the same time, the musical language evolves from primitive gestures towards more complex expression. The ultimate product of the electro- troubadour, a love poem within the realm of tensor algebra, is set to a dodecaphonic rap music." Floof was composed the year after Mr. Salonen studied with Castiglioni. Mr. Salonen, the Philharmonic's Marie-Jose?e Kravis Composer-in-Residence beginning in 2015-16, made his Philharmonic conducting debut in 1986. The Philharmonic performed the World Premiere- Philharmonic Co-Commission of his Piano Concerto (2007, led by Mr. Salonen) and the New York Concert Premiere of his Violin Concerto (2013, led by Mr. Salonen with Leila Josefowicz). He hosted a November 2013 CONTACT! concert devoted to his chamber works.

"YOUNG AMERICANS"
Works by Adam SCHOENBERG, Nathan HEIDELBERGER, Caroline MALLONE?E, and Kate SOPER
February 1, 2016, Co-Presented with and at NATIONAL SAWDUST

"Young Americans," the season's second concert at National Sawdust, will feature chamber music by the next generation of American composers proposed by musicians of the New York Philharmonic and representing a wide range of styles. The program will include Adam Schoenberg's Fleeting (2008), Nathan Heidelberger's Halve Time (quartet after Zeno) (2012), Caroline Mallone?e's Unless Acted Upon: Manifestations of Newton's First Law (2011), and Kate Soper's Into That World Inverted (2006, rev. 2010). This program takes place February 1, 2016, at National Sawdust.

Fleeting, for piano, violin, cello, and clarinet, began as one of composer Adam Schoenberg's earliest works; he wrote the first movement during his final year at Oberlin in 2002. Schoenberg writes: "The concept was to create a common theme that would gradually dissolve over time. I wanted to convey a sense of searching within the music as the movement develops. This was achieved by writing no resolutions or cadential moments. The piece never resolves, but rather fades away."

Nathan Heidelberger based his Halve Time (quartet after Zeno) on the ancient philosopher Zeno's paradox that one can never fully travel a distance since one must first travel half of that distance, then half of the remaining distance, ad infinitum. Heidelberger writes: "The first movement is approximately a minute and a half long, and it lays out all the musical ideas contained within the work. The subsequent movements explore what happens to those ideas when they are forced into smaller and smaller temporal containers. In a departure from Zeno, the third movement doubles the original duration, stretching everything out as if time were unfolding in slow motion."

Caroline Mallone?e's Unless Acted Upon: Manifestations of Newton's First Law - for flute/piccolo, clarinet/bass clarinet, violin, cello, and piano - is, in the composer's words, a "sound representation" of Newton's First Law of Motion: a body at rest will stay at rest unless acted upon by an external force. Each of the work's six movements (Newton's Cradle, Friction, Gravity, Push, Bounce, and Magnetism) explores the ways in which forces can impact a body in motion. As Ms. Mallone?e writes, "friction slows a moving object, gravity makes something fall, pushing makes objects go faster, bouncing objects bounce, and a magnetic force draws objects together." The composer explores Newton's Third Law of Motion in her 2010 work Reaction.

Kate Soper composed Into That World Inverted for horn and piano when she was a student at the Tanglewood Music Center. With a title borrowed from Elizabeth Bishop's poem "Insomnia," the piece is, according to Ms. Soper, "a light exploration of the interiority of the horn - the sounds that come from the stopped instrument versus the full, loud voice of the unstopped horn." The piano is also explored through its stopped notes and the resonance of the horn in the undamped strings. Into That World Inverted pairs moments of aggression and propulsion with passages of aimless introversion.

"THE MESSIAEN CONNECTION"
Works by MESSIAEN, Pierre BOULEZ, Oliver KNUSSEN, and George BENJAMIN ESA-PEKKA SALONEN, Curator and Host
Part of MESSIAEN WEEK
March 7, 2016, Co-Presented with and at NATIONAL SAWDUST

The season's final CONTACT! concert at National Sawdust will feature chamber music by Messiaen and composers whom he influenced, presented as part of the Philharmonic's Messiaen Week. The program, titled "The Messiaen Connection," will include Messiaen's Fantasie (1933) and La Merle Noir (1952), Pierre Boulez's Anthe?mes I (1991) and Sonatine (1946), Oliver Knussen's Autumnal (1976-77), and George Benjamin's Viola, Viola (1997). This program takes place March 7, 2016, at National Sawdust.

Messiaen composed Fantasie for violin and piano in 1933 for his first wife, violinist and composer Claire Delbos, but the work was not discovered until after his death and was not published until 2007. Messiaen and Delbos gave recitals together in Paris in the 1930s, and this was the second work he wrote for them to play together. Fantasie's declamatory opening reflects Messiaen's interest in irregular rhythms, and its plainsong-like melody provides much of the material developed throughout the short work. By the 2015-16 season, the Philharmonic will have performed 14 of Messiaen's works, including the World Premieres of E?clairs sur l'au- dela?... (Illuminations of the Beyond...), commissioned by the Philharmonic (1992, conducted by Zubin Mehta) and Hymne pour grand orchestre (1947, led by Leopold Stokowski), and the U.S. Premiere of Strophe and Antistrophe from Chronochromie (1965, led by Lukas Foss). On the June 5, 2015, CONTACT! concert, Philharmonic musicians perform Sept Haikai, led by Jeffrey Milarsky.

Pierre Boulez, former Philharmonic Music Director, created his two Anthe?mes for solo violin in the 1990s. The title is not only a fusion of the English word "anthem" and French word for "themes," but it also plays on "anti-thematicism," marking the composer's return to an acceptance of thematic composition, a style he had avoided for many years. Anthe?mes I is inspired by the composer's memories of attending Lenten services as a child, during which he became familiar with the Jeremiah Lamentations, in which Hebrew letters numbered the Latin verses. The work alternates shorter phrases of suspended harmonics and glissandos (the Hebrew) with longer, contrastingly articulated sections (the Latin verses). The work is also based around the number seven: there are seven verses, and the opening motif comprises seven notes taken from his earlier work, ... explosante-fixe ..., which the Philharmonic performed on a CONTACT! program in June 2012. Previously, the Philharmonic has performed the U.S. Premieres of Mr. Boulez's Pli selon pli: improvisations sur Mallarme? nos. 1 and 2 (1960 and 1961, respectively, led by Leonard Bernstein) and Notations (1980, led by Zubin Mehta).

British composer-conductor Oliver Knussen adapted Autumnal from sketches for an abandoned chamber work he began in 1975. Written for violin and piano, it is the first panel in his Triptych (alongside Sonya's Lullaby for piano, and Cantata for oboe and string trio), and is dedicated to the memory of Benjamin Britten, who died while Mr. Knussen was composing the work. The work's two movements are named for Britten's two song cycles, Nocturne and Serenade. The Philharmonic's performances of Mr. Knussen's works include the U.S. Premieres of Oliver Knussen's Where the Wild Things Are (June 1984, led by Zubin Mehta) and Whitman Settings (March 1993, led by Mr. Knussen).

Messiaen's Le Merle noir (The Blackbird), for flute and piano, was commissioned as a competition piece for flute players at the Paris Conservatoire, where Messiaen was a professor. It is one of the earliest works the composer based primarily on bird songs, using a transcription technique he devised to notate the complex rhythms and melodies of bird song. Messaien once said, "Just as Barto?k wandered through Hungary to collect folk songs, so did I spend many years in the French provinces to write down the songs of birds." His shortest independently published piece, it has become a standard of the flute repertoire.

Pierre Boulez said his Sonatine for flute and piano represented "my first stage on the path of serial composition." Written after graduating from the Paris Conservatoire (where he had studied with Messiaen) and his first published work, Sonatine nods to both Stravinsky's rhythmic experimentations and Schoenberg's experimental harmonic techniques. Sonatine fuses the four sections of the traditional sonata form into a single movement, allowing the themes to flow throughout the piece. The writing for flute is especially technically demanding, while the piano has moments that call to mind Messiaen's Le Merle noir, written approximately five years later.

George Benjamin was commissioned by the Tokyo Opera City Cultural Foundation and its artistic director Toru Takemitsu to write Viola, Viola for the 1997 opening of the Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall. Takemitsu suggested that Mr. Benjamin write a viola duo for his friends Yuri Bashmet and Nobuko Imai. Mr. Benjamin writes: "My initial thoughts of how to solve the many compositional problems inherent within this most unconventional medium may have suggested the viola's accustomed role as a melancholy voice hidden in the shadows. However, once under way, a completely different instrumental character - fiery and energetic - imposed itself. My desire at times was to conjure an almost orchestral depth and variety of sound. This accounts for the fact that the two viola parts are virtually braided together - indeed, clearly independent lines only begin to flower towards the work's cantabile centre."

Presented in March 2016, Messiaen Week will honor the legacy of French composer and organist Olivier Messiaen (1908-92). The week will include a program conducted by Composer-in- Residence Esa-Pekka Salonen, who considers Messiaen a primary influence, featuring Messiaen's Turangali?la-symphonie; a symposium; and Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time - performed by Music Director Alan Gilbert on violin alongside Principal Cello Carter Brey, Principal Clarinet Anthony McGill, and Artist-in-Association Inon Barnatan - at The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Temple of Dendur.

CONTACT! at the NY PHIL BIENNIAL:
U.S. Stage Premiere of GERALD BARRY's The Importance of Being Earnest, June 2 and 4, 2016, at JAZZ AT LINCOLN CENTER'S FREDERICK P. ROSE HALL Part of the Lincoln Center-New York Philharmonic Opera Initiative

In the season's fifth and final installment of CONTACT!, Ilan Volkov leads a chamber orchestra of New York Philharmonic musicians in the U.S. Stage Premiere of Gerald Barry's The Importance of Being Earnest, an operatic take on Oscar Wilde's comedy, as part of the NY PHIL BIENNIAL. This program takes place June 2 and 4, 2016, at Jazz at Lincoln Center's Frederick P. Rose Hall, and is part of the Lincoln Center-New York Philharmonic Opera Initiative.

Through his libretto and score, Irish composer Gerald Barry enhances Wilde's comedy in musically unexpected, non-traditional ways and by utilizing familiar tunes to enhance the ridiculous situations. Co-commissioned by London's Barbican Centre and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, The Importance of Being Earnest received its concert premiere by the Los Angeles Philharmonic in April 2011, led by Thomas Ade?s, and its first stage performance at the Ope?ra national de Lorraine in March 2013, led by Tito Mun?oz. It received the 2013 Royal Philharmonic Society Award for Large-Scale Composition. Gerald Barry studied with Stockhausen and Kagel in the 1970s, developing a distinct style comprising intense, edgy, and humorous sound worlds.

The production was originally staged at London's Royal Opera House in June 2013; the director, Ramin Gray, and many of the cast members from this staging will reassemble for the NY PHIL BIENNIAL production, all in their Philharmonic debuts: bass Simon Wilding as Lane/Merriman, baritone Benedict Nelson as Algernon Moncrieff, tenor Paul Curievici as John Worthing, bass Alan Ewing as Lady Bracknell, and contralto Hilary Summers as Miss Prism. The roles of Gwendolen Fairfax, Cecily Cardew, and The Rev. Canon Chasuble, D.D. will be announced at a later date.

Gerald Barry's The Importance of Being Earnest will be the second presentation as part of the multi-year Lincoln Center-New York Philharmonic Opera Initiative, which will present fully staged productions of significant modern operas never before seen in New York. The new creative partnership marks the first opera collaboration between the New York Philharmonic and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and reflects a growing collaboration between the two organizations, including a co-presentation during the inaugural NY PHIL BIENNIAL.

Artists:

Esa-Pekka Salonen is currently principal conductor and artistic advisor of the Philharmonia Orchestra in London and conductor laureate of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, where he was music director from 1992 until 2009. In the 2014-15 season he became the first-ever creative chair at Zurich's Tonhalle Orchestra, which has commissioned a new piece for orchestra and chorus from him, and which will perform nine of his other works during the season. Trained in the austere world of European modernism but also enjoying a close relationship with the sunny city of Los Angeles, Mr. Salonen composes works that move freely between contemporary idioms, combining intricacy and technical virtuosity with playful rhythmic and melodic innovations. He has written several works for symphony orchestra, including Foreign Bodies (2001), Insomnia (2002), and Wing on Wing (which received its World Premiere at Walt Disney Concert Hall in 2004). Mr. Salonen's extensive recording career includes a disc of his orchestral works performed by the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, on which he also conducted; his Piano Concerto (co-commissioned by the New York Philharmonic) and Dichotomie, both performed by Yefim Bronfman, and Helix; and Out of Nowhere, featuring Nyx and Mr. Salonen's Violin Concerto, which won the prestigious Grawemeyer Award, performed by Leila Josefowicz and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra. During the 2014-15 season Mr. Salonen makes conducting appearances with the Bavarian Radio, Finnish Radio, and Chicago symphony orchestras; Los Angeles and Royal Stockholm Philharmonic orchestras; and Orchestre de Paris and Philharmonia Orchestra, among others. Throughout their relationship, Mr. Salonen and London's Philharmonia Orchestra have curated landmark multidisciplinary projects, such as the award-winning Re-Rite and Universe of Sound installations, which allow the public to conduct, play, and step inside the orchestra with Mr. Salonen through audio and video projections of musicians in performance. He also drove the development of The Orchestra, a much hailed app for iPad that allows the user unprecedented access to eight symphonic works. The New York Philharmonic has named composer-conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen The Marie-Jose?e Kravis Composer-in-Residence, beginning in the 2015-16 season through 2017-18, a three-year appointment. During his first season the Orchestra will perform three of Mr. Salonen's works, including World and New York Premieres, and he will conduct concerts during the Philharmonic's Messiaen Week, as well as advise on new-music programming.

Conductor Andre? de Ridder has collaborated with artists and ensembles including the Halle? Orchestra, cartoon band Gorillaz, jazz musician Uri Caine, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood, and The National's Bryce Dessner. He performs regularly at festivals including BBC Proms, Holland Festival, Manchester International Festival, and Venice Biennale, and was artist-in-residence at Sydney Festival 2013. In the 2014-15 season he appeared at festivals with his musical collective 's t a r g a z e,' following last season's launch at Berlin's Volksbu?hne; the line-up featured World Premieres and new collaborations with Nico Muhly, Bryce Dessner, and Ben Shemie with artists Tyondai Braxton, Mouse on Mars, My Brightest Diamond, and Pekka Kuusisto. Particularly interested in the developments of contemporary pop/folk/electronica, the ensemble appears at Haldern Festival and Into the Great Wide Open as ensemble-in-residence. Further appearances include the Kilkenny Arts Festival with The Dodos, Berlin with Grant Hart, the Muziekgebouw Amsterdam with These New Puritans, and London's Barbican Centre. He also returns to London's Southbank Centre for the U.K. Premiere of Terry Riley's organ concerto, At the Royal Majestic, with Cameron Carpenter and the BBC Concert Orchestra. Further invitations include the London Sinfonietta, BBC NOW, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Residentie Orkest, Orchestre de Paris, Copenhagen Philharmonic (where he is artistic director of its 60 Minutes series), Le Poisson Rouge, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Melbourne Symphony Orchestra at the Metropolis New Music Festival. In opera, Mr. de Ridder makes his Finnish National Opera debut in Kaija Saariaho's Emilie, conducts revivals of Monteverdi's Orpheus and Odysseus at Berlin's Komische Opera (the 2012 project for which he took a creative role in arranging three Monteverdi operas in a new version by Elena Kats-Chernin directed by Barrie Kosky), and appears at Ope?ra de Paris, Teatro Real, and Netherlands Opera. Mr. de Ridder's discography includes Damon Albarn's Dr Dee (Virgin), Gorillaz's Plastic Beach (EMI), Max Richter's The Four Seasons Recomposed (DG, 2013 ECHO Klassik Classic Without Borders award), and works by Bryce Dessner and Jonny Greenwood with the Copenhagen Philharmonic (DG). Andre? de Ridder studied at the music academies of Vienna and London under Leopold Hager and Colin Davis, was assistant conductor at the Halle? Orchestra from 2005-06, and was principal conductor of Sinfonia ViVA until 2012. This appearance marks his New York Philharmonic debut.

Born in Israel in 1976, Ilan Volkov began his conducting career at the age of 19. Following studies at London's Royal College of Music, he secured positions as principal conductor of the London Philharmonic Youth Orchestra and assistant conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. In 2003 he became principal conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and, subsequently, principal guest conductor in 2009. Since 2011 he has held the post of music director and principal conductor of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Volkov's arrival coincided with the opening of Harpa, Reykjavi?k's visually striking new concert hall. In March 2012 he curated and directed the contemporary music festival Tectonics, celebrating the centenary year of John Cage, exploring works by Icelandic composers and featuring world premieres by, among others, Jesper Pedersen, Frank Denyer, Guðmundur Steinn Gunnarsson, and A?ki A?sgeirsson. In 2013 Tectonics took place in two different cities, Reykjavi?k and Glasgow, with Iceland Symphony Orchestra and BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra respectively. In 2014 Tectonics expanded even further, to the Adelaide Festival, Tel Aviv, and New York, where it will return in 2015 and 2016. A frequent guest with leading orchestras worldwide, Ilan Volkov also works regularly with the BBC Proms and Salzburg, Edinburgh, Lucerne, and Berlin festivals. Highlights of his recent and forthcoming schedule include performances with the BBC Symphony and Stuttgart Opera, as well as CBSO, SWR Stuttgart, Utah Symphony, and Stavanger Symphony orchestras. Equally active in the opera house as in the concert hall, Mr. Volkov has conducted Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin for San Francisco Opera, Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Glyndebourne Festival, Peter Grimes for Washington National Opera and, most recently, Barto?k's Duke Bluebeard's Castle with the Israeli Opera. His acclaimed recordings for Hyperion include two albums of Stravinsky ballets and a Gramophone Award-winning disc of Britten's complete works for piano and orchestra with Steven Osborne. Mr. Volkov's NMC disc of works by Jonathan Harvey including Body Mandala received a Gramophone Award in 2008, and his Aeon recording of Harvey's Speakings won the Monaco Prize and Prix Caecilia de l'Union de la Presse Musicale Belge in 2011. Mr. Volkov is one of the guiding forces behind Levontin 7. The performance venue, among the most adventurous in Tel Aviv, brings together classical, jazz, electronic, and rock music, and reflects Mr. Volkov's determination to keep alive the creative spirit and sense of artistic adventure that shaped many works composed during the opening decades of the last century.

Ramin Gray is the artistic director of the Actors Touring Company, based in the United Kingdom, and has led operatic and theatrical productions over the course of his career. Born in London, Ramin Gray has led productions in his home country at such as organizations as the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Theatre Downstairs, and the Royal Court (where he served as international associate, and later as associate director). He has also led works at the Salzburg Festival, the Volkstheater Wien, and Moscow's Pratika Theatre. Apart from theater, Mr. Gray directed Benjamin Britten's Death in Venice at the Hamburg State Opera in 2009, which was also staged at Theater an der Wien. Additionally, he directed the European premiere of Brett Dean's Bliss at the Hamburg State Opera. Most recently, Ramin Gray led the production of Barry's The Importance of Being Earnest at the Royal Opera House.

Opening in October 2015 in the heart of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, the non-profit National Sawdust will be a dynamic home for artists and new music of all kinds. It will be a place for exploration and discovery - where emerging and established artists can share their music with serious music fans and casual listeners alike. In a city teeming with venues, National Sawdust is a singular space founded with an expansive vision: to provide composers and musicians across genres with a setting in which they can flourish, and a place where they are given unprecedented support and critical resources essential to create, and then share, their work. In addition to hosting rehearsals, performances, recordings, and broadcasts in state-of-the art facilities, National Sawdust will commission new works and will arrange workshops and residencies. It aims to be a resource not only for the community of musicians, but also for audiences in search of remarkable musical experiences at accessible ticket prices. For the local community, National Sawdust will create progressive public programs and educational initiatives. Other offerings will include talks, publications, and mentorship programs for composers and musicians, and for related fields. A diversity of world-class artists, arts organizations, and institutions will collaborate with National Sawdust's Creative and Executive Director, the composer Paola Prestini, to develop work and program performances. Designed by Brooklyn's Bureau V, National Sawdust is constructed within the existing shell of a century-old sawdust factory, preserving the authenticity of Williamsburg's industrial past while providing a refined and intimate setting for the exploration of new music. At the venue's core is a flexible chamber hall, acoustically designed by renowned engineering firm Arup to provide the highest-quality experience of both unamplified and amplified music.

Tickets for CONTACT! at The Metropolitan Museum of Art start at $50 and may be purchased online at metmuseum.org/tickets. Tickets for CONTACT! at National Sawdust start at $25 and will be available at a later date. Tickets for The Importance of Being Earnest (part of CONTACT! at the NY PHIL BIENNIAL) start at $40 and will be available at a later date. To determine ticket availability, call the Philharmonic's Customer Relations Department at (212) 875-5656, 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, 1:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Saturday, and noon to 5:00 p.m. on Sunday. [Ticket prices subject to change.]

Pictured: Rendering of National Sawdust, interior. Photo by Bureau V.