New York Philharmonic's Young People's Concerts to Continue with 'INSPIRATIONS AND TRIBUTES'

The 95th season of the New York Philharmonic Young People's Concerts (YPCs) will continue on Saturday, January 6, 2018, at 2:00 p.m. with "Classical Echoes," the second program in this season's series, Inspirations and Tributes - each program exploring how composers influence and pay tribute to each other.

The program explores the Classical style through the music of Mozart and Haydn, and how Mozart and the Classical style influenced the Romantic composer Tchaikovsky. Jeffrey Kahane will conduct Mozart's Overture to The Marriage of Figaro; Tchaikovsky's Overture to The Nutcracker; a selection from Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 17, with Mr. Kahane leading from the piano; selections from Tchaikovsky's Variations on a Rococo Theme, with cellist Sterling Elliott as soloist in his Philharmonic debut; and a selection from Haydn's Symphony No. 98. Philharmonic Associate Principal Viola Rebecca Young will host the event, written and directed by Peter Flynn (Philharmonic debut).

Attendees are invited to arrive 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 include live performances by ensembles of Philharmonic musicians of works by Very Young Composers inspired by the YPC's thematic content.

Jeffrey Kahane will also conduct and perform in the subscription program January 4-6 and 9, 2018, featuring works by Mozart, Haydn, and Tchaikovsky with cellist Alisa Weilerstein as soloist.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

Equally at home at the keyboard and on the podium, Jeffrey Kahane has established an international reputation as a versatile artist, with a diverse repertoire ranging from J.S. Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven to Gershwin, Osvaldo Golijov, and John Adams. He has appeared as soloist and conductor with major orchestras such as the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestras, The Cleveland and Philadelphia Orchestras, and the Chicago and San Francisco Symphony Orchestras, and is also a popular artist at all of the major U.S. summer festivals, including Aspen, Blossom, Caramoor, Mostly Mozart, and Ravinia. He made his Carnegie Hall debut in 1983 and has given recitals in major music centers in New York, Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Atlanta. Since his conducting debut at the Oregon Bach Festival in 1988, Mr. Kahane has led many of the major U.S. orchestras. He was music director of the Colorado and Santa Rosa Symphonies, and just concluded his 20-year tenure as music director of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, of which he is now conductor laureate. He is currently artistic director of the Sarasota Music Festival, which offers master classes and chamber music coaching and features chamber music and orchestral concerts performed by highly advanced students, young professionals, and faculty members. Recent and upcoming engagements include playing with and conducting the New York Philharmonic and the Houston, Indianapolis, Vancouver, Detroit, Milwaukee, Colorado, San Diego, and Phoenix symphony orchestras; concerto appearances with the Toronto, Cincinnati, New World, Oregon, and Utah symphony orchestras; and appearances at the Aspen, Britt, Oregon Bach, and Tippet Rise festivals as well as with the Chicago Symphony at Ravinia and with the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra. Recognized for his innovative programming and commitment to education and community involvement, he received ASCAP Awards for Adventurous Programming for his work in both Los Angeles and Denver. He has recorded for the Sony, EMI, Telarc, RCA, Nonesuch, Deutsche Grammophon, Virgin Records, Decca / Argo and Haenssler labels. A Los Angeles native and graduate of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Jeffrey Kahane received first prize at the 1983 Rubinstein Competition, was a finalist at the 1981 Van Cliburn Competition, and received a 1983 Avery Fisher Career Grant. He is currently a professor of keyboard studies at the University of Southern California-Thornton School of Music. Mr. Kahane made his New York Philharmonic debut in 1984 performing Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 23, conducted by Neal Stulberg; he most recently performed the World Premiere-New York Philharmonic Commission of Andrew Norman's Split, for piano and orchestra, led by James Gaffigan, in December 2015. Jeffrey Kahane made his New York Philharmonic conducting debut in December 2003, performing Mozart's Piano Concerto in E-flat major, K.482 from the piano and conducting works by Mozart and Haydn; he most recently conducted the Orchestra in an all-Mozart program in June 2015, including leading the Piano Concertos Nos. 20 and 21 from the piano.

Cellist Sterling Elliott began his studies at age three, made his solo debut at seven, and at fourteen won first place in the 2014 National Sphinx Competition. He also won the 2014 Richmond Symphony Concerto Competition and Bay Youth Orchestra Concerto Competition; took second place in the 2015 Richmond Symphony Concerto Competition; and was runner-up in the Hampton Roads Philharmonic Concerto Competition. Mr. Elliott performed for Yo-Yo Ma and has played alongside recording artist Jennifer Hudson. He was awarded the 2016 Isaac Stern Award by the Sphinx Organization, and was featured in a three-page interview in the October 2015 edition of Strings magazine. Mr. Elliott has attended the Eastern Music Festival and Aspen Music Festival, and was selected to study alongside Itzhak Perlman and Ronald Leonard at the Summer Perlman Music Program. In April 2016 he attended a three-week residency in Tel Aviv, Israel, where he studied with Paul Katz and performed with fellow Perlman Music Program students. Mr. Elliott has appeared as soloist with The Cleveland Orchestra, New World Symphony, Virginia Symphony Orchestra, Hampton Roads Philharmonic, South Bend Symphony Orchestra, Colour of Music Festival Orchestra, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, and San Francisco Chamber Orchestra. In the 2015-16 season he joined the seven-week national tour with the Sphinx Virtuosi Ensemble, which included a concert at Carnegie Hall. Sterling Elliott is currently pursuing a bachelor's degree in cello performance at The Juilliard School, where he studies with Joel Krosnick and is the recipient of a Kovner Fellowship. This performance marks his New York Philharmonic debut.

Rebecca Young joined the New York Philharmonic in 1986 as its youngest member. In 1991 she won the position of Associate Principal Viola. Two months later she was named principal viola of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. After spending the 1992-93 season in Boston and two summers at Tanglewood, she ultimately decided to return to her family in New York, resuming her Associate Principal position with the Philharmonic in September 1994. She can currently be seen leading the viola section of the All-Star Orchestra, a popular televised educational series about classical music. An avid chamber musician, Ms. Young has performed with many renowned groups, including the Boston Chamber Music Society, Boston Symphony Chamber Players, New York Philharmonic Ensembles, and The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. She can be heard in a recording of Schubert's Trout Quintet with cellist Yo-Yo Ma, pianist Emanuel Ax, violinist Pamela Frank, and bass player Edgar Meyer on the Sony Classical label. In the spring of 1999 Ms. Young joined Philharmonic Principal Viola Cynthia Phelps in the World Premiere of Sofia Gubaidulina's Two Paths: Music for Two Solo Violas and Symphony Orchestra with the Philharmonic. The work was commissioned for them by Tomoko Masur, wife of Philharmonic Music Director Emeritus Kurt Masur and herself a former violist. The two performed it at Avery Fisher Hall, in Washington, D.C., and again during the Orchestra's subsequent tour of the Canary Islands, Spain, and Portugal, as well as the Europe 2000 Tour, and again in April 2011, at Avery Fisher Hall. Ms. Young is a graduate of The Juilliard School. Ms. Young was first introduced to music at the age of two when her parents took her to the New York Philharmonic's Young People's Concerts led by Leonard Bernstein. Today, she is the host of the Philharmonic's popular Very Young Peoples Concerts.

Peter Flynn is a New York City-based director, producer, and teacher whose recent directing credits include Drew Brody's Off-Broadway musical Curvy Widow; Stephen Flaherty's Ragtime for Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C; and Born Yesterday for the Maltz-Jupiter Theatre. His New York credits include The Actors Fund's concerts of Thornton Wilder's Our Town with B.D. Wong and S. Epatha Merkerson, C. Coleman's On the Twentieth Century with Douglas Sills and Marin Mazzie, Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus's Chess with Josh Groban and Julia Murney, and Jule Styne's Funny Girl with Whoopi Goldberg and Andrea Martin. For Theatreworks USA, Mr. Flynn has directed Eli Bolin's Skippyjon Jones and Marcy Heisler and Zina Goldrich's Junie B. Jones. He also directed Seth Rudetsky's one-man show, Rhapsody in Seth, for Actors Playhouse. Mr. Flynn's other credits include Andrea Martin's one-woman show, Andrea Martin: Final Days! Everything Must Go!; the World Premiere of Willy Holtzman's new play Smart Blondestarring Andréa Burns; Katori Hall's The Mountaintop; Jule Styne's Gypsy at The Muny in St. Louis; Sherman Edwards's 1776 and William Finn's The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee for Ford's Theatre; and Mitch Leigh's Man of La Mancha for the Maltz-Jupiter Theatre, which earned him the South Florida Carbonell Award for Best Direction. As a producer, Peter Flynn is a partner in Mainspring Arts Cooperative, a not-for-profit organization that produces and presents national tours to regional theaters. He is a graduate of Northwestern University. This concert marks his New York Philharmonic debut.

Individual tickets for the Young People's Concerts are $15 to $42. 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. To determine ticket availability, call the Philharmonic's Customer Relations Department at (212) 875-5656. (Ticket prices subject to change.)

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PROGRAM:

New York Philharmonic Young People's Concerts
David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center
Saturday, January 6, 2018, 2:00 p.m.
YPC Overtures at 12:45 p.m.

Jeffrey Kahane, conductor / piano
Sterling Elliott*, cello
Rebecca Young, host
Peter Flynn*, scriptwriter and director

Inspirations and Tributes: "Classical Echoes"

MOZART Overture to The Marriage of Figaro
TCHAIKOVSKY Overture to The Nutcracker
MOZART Selection from Piano Concerto No. 17
TCHAIKOVSKY Selections from Variations on a Rococo Theme
HAYDN Selection from Symphony No. 98

* New York Philharmonic debut