Carnegie Hall celebrates the holiday season with a variety of special programs this December. On Friday, December 18 at 8:00 p.m. and Saturday, December 19 at 8:00 p.m., Tony Award nominees Stephanie J. Block (Wicked) and Brian d'Arcy James (Shrek The Musical and Something Rotten!) help to make the season bright with a program of holiday favorites performed by The New York Pops and Music Director Steven Reineke with Essential Voices USA.
The following afternoon,
Sunday, December 20 at 3:00 p.m., the orchestra and Mr. Reineke return for a
Carnegie Hall Family Holiday Concert (recommended for ages 5-10) celebrating the 50th anniversary of the beloved television special A Charlie Brown Christmas. Peanuts characters come to life through special choreography performed by dancers from New York Theatre Ballet and young actors from TADA! Youth Theater.
John Bolton narrates the heart-warming story, underscored by the music of Vince Guaraldi, performed by The New York Pops and Essential Voices USA.
The New York String Orchestra, an ensemble of remarkable young players from around the world who come together each December for a seminar of rehearsals and performance preparation, is conducted by Jaime Laredo in their annual pair of year-end concerts. On
Thursday, December 24 at 7:00 p.m., they celebrate with a program that includes Mozart's Overture to Così fan tutte and Symphony No. 35, "Haffner," as well as Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 2 featuring Emanuel Ax. On
Monday, December 28, 2015 at 8:00 p.m., the orchestra returns with Barber's Adagio for Strings, Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto featuring Jinjoo Cho, first-prize winner of the 2014 International Violin Competition of Indianapolis, and Schubert's String Quartet in D Minor, D. 810, "Death and the Maiden" (arr. for orchestra by
Andy Stein).
About The New York Pops and
Steven Reineke -
Steven Reineke is the Music Director and Conductor of The New York Pops at
Carnegie Hall, Principal Pops Conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Principal Pops Conductor of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and the Principal Pops Conductor Designate for the Houston Symphony, beginning in the 2017-2018 season. Mr. Reineke is a frequent guest conductor with The Philadelphia Orchestra and has been on the podium with the Boston Pops, The Cleveland Orchestra, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at Ravinia. His extensive North American conducting appearances include San Francisco, Houston, Seattle, Edmonton, and Pittsburgh. As the creator of more than one hundred orchestral arrangements for the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, Mr. Reineke's work has been performed worldwide, and can be heard on numerous Cincinnati Pops Orchestra recordings on the Telarc label. His symphonic works Celebration Fanfare, Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and Casey at the Bat are performed frequently in North America. His numerous wind ensemble compositions are published by the C.L. Barnhouse Company and are performed by concert bands around the world. A native of Ohio, Mr. Reineke is a graduate of Miami University of Ohio, where he earned bachelor of music degrees with honors in both trumpet performance and music composition. He currently resides in New York City with his husband,
Eric Gabbard.
The New York Pops is the largest independent pops orchestra in the United States, and the only professional symphonic orchestra in New York City specializing in popular music. Under the leadership of dynamic Music Director and Conductor
Steven Reineke, The New York Pops continues to re-imagine orchestral pops music. The orchestra performs an annual subscription series and birthday gala at
Carnegie Hall. The New York Pops is dedicated to lifelong learning and collaborates with public schools, community organizations, children's hospitals, and senior centers throughout the five boroughs of New York City. PopsEd allows thousands of New Yorkers of all ages and backgrounds to participate in fully customizable music programs that blend traditional education with pure fun.
About New York String Orchestra and Jaime Laredo - For over six decades, Jaime Laredo has excelled in the multiple roles of soloist, conductor, recitalist, pedagogue, and chamber musician. Since his stunning orchestral debut at the age of eleven with the San Francisco Symphony, he has won the admiration and respect of audiences, critics, and fellow musicians with his passionate and polished performances. At the age of seventeen, Jaime Laredo won the prestigious Queen Elisabeth of Belgium Competition, launching his rise to international prominence. In the 2015-2016 Season, Mr. Laredo tours as conductor, soloist, and member of the award-winning Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio. He will also tour as a soloist with his wife, cellist Sharon Robinson, giving the European premieres of André Previn's Double Concerto for Violin and Cello, with co-commissioners the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra. North American performances of this work, written specifically for the duo, received raves throughout the 2014-2015 season with the Cincinnati, Kansas City, Austin, Detroit, Pacific, and Toronto symphony orchestras. Trio performances include complete Beethoven cycles and the Triple Concerto.
Mr. Laredo has recorded close to one hundred discs, including a Grammy Award-winning disc of Brahms Piano Quartets with Emanuel Ax,
Isaac Stern, and
Yo-Yo Ma. His recordings range from the complete Bach Sonatas with Glenn Gould (CBS/RCA) to recent premiere recordings of double concertos with violinist Jennifer Koh, "2x4" (Cedille Records, 2014) and with cellist Sharon Robinson, "Triple Doubles" (BRIDGE, 2011), as well as many award-winning recordings with the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio.
Mr. Laredo's stewardships of the annual New York String Orchestra Seminar at
Carnegie Hall (2013 marked his 20th Anniversary as conductor) and the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis have become beloved educational pillars of the musical community. 2012 marked the beginning of his tenure at The Cleveland Institute of Music. He concurrently holds director posts with the Vermont Symphony Orchestra and Cincinnati's Linton Chamber Music, serves as Principal Conductor for the Westchester Philharmonic and was Artistic Director of the Chamber Music at the Y series in New York for forty years.
Born in Bolivia, Jaime Laredo resides in Guilford, VT and Cleveland, OH with his wife, cellist Sharon Robinson.
The New York String Orchestra Seminar, founded in 1969 by arts administrator Frank Salomon for the late conductor and violinist Alexander Schneider, is a professional education program that has prepared over 2,000 young musicians for careers as chamber, orchestral, and solo artists Alumni of the New York String Orchestra Seminar can be found in virtually every major orchestra in the United States; in such eminent chamber ensembles as the Tokyo, Emerson, Kronos, Takacs, and Orion string quartets, and Brooklyn Rider; on the faculties of prestigious music schools and conservatories such as Curtis, Cleveland Institute, Juilliard, Eastman, Colburn, Shepherd School, Oberlin, and Yale; enjoying careers as celebrated soloists such as
Yo-Yo Ma, and violinists Cho-Liang Lin, Gil Shaham, Shlomo Mintz, and Kyoko Takezawa; and as conductors such as
Marin Alsop, Peter Oundjian, and Douglas Boyd. A project of Mannes College The New School for Music; the seminar brings young musicians ages 16 - 23 from around the world to New York City in December for a ten-day seminar of rehearsals and performance preparation led by violinist and conductor Jaime Laredo, along with three hours a day of chamber music study with distinguished chamber artists. In 1993, Mr. Laredo, Mr. Schneider's personal choice for successor, became artistic director and conductor of the seminar. In the New York String Orchestra Seminar's 46-year history all those invited to participate have always received full scholarships to this acclaimed national program. This season, 342 students applied, representing 10 different countries in addition to the United States, of which applicants came from 38 states. Auditions were held in six cities across the country, ensuring that as many students as possible could audition without incurring travel costs. The sixty-two students invited to participate in the program come from nineteen states and 3 foreign nations. Six are still in high school and the rest attend colleges and conservatories.
Program Information:
Friday, December 18 at 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, December 19 at 8:00 p.m.
Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage
THE NEW YORK POPS
Steven Reineke, Music Director and Conductor
Stephanie J. Block, Guest Artist
Brian d'Arcy James, Guest Artist
Essential Voices USA
Judith Clurman, Music Director and Conductor
IT'S CHRISTMAS TIME IN THE CITY
The concert on December 18 is sponsored by Breguet, Exclusive Timepiece of
Carnegie Hall.
Tickets: $40-$122
Sunday, December 20 at 3:00 p.m.
Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage
CARNEGIE HALL FAMILY HOLIDAY CONCERT: THE NEW YORK POPS
Steven Reineke, Music Director and Conductor
John Bolton, Narrator
New York Theatre Ballet
Diana Byer, Founder and Artistic Director
Liza Gennaro, Director and Choreographer
Carmina de Dios, Costume Designer for A Charlie Brown Christmas
Tristan Raines, Costume Designer for Holiday Follies
TADA! Youth Theater
Janine Nina Trevens, Executive and Artistic Director
Essential Voices USA
Judith Clurman, Music Director and Conductor
A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMASCarnegie Hall Family Concerts are made possible, in part, by endowment gifts from The Irene Diamond Fund, Mr. and Mrs. Lester S. Morse Jr., and the Henry and
Lucy Moses Fund.
Thanks to the New York City Administration for Children's Services and the New York Department of Homeless Services for supporting families at this concerts.
Tickets: $10-$25
Thursday, December 24 at 7:00 p.m.
Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage
NEW YORK STRING ORCHESTRA
Jaime Laredo, Conductor
Emanuel Ax, Piano
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART Overture to Così fan tutte
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat Major, Op. 19
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART Symphony No. 35 in D Major, K. 385, "Haffner"
This concert is made possible, in part, by an endowment fund for young artists established by Stella and
Robert Jones.
Tickets: $30-$65
Monday, December 28 at 8:00 p.m.
Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage
NEW YORK STRING ORCHESTRA
New York String Orchestra
Jaime Laredo, Conductor
Jinjoo Cho, Violin
SAMUEL BARBER Adagio for Strings
PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 35
FRANZ SCHUBERT String Quartet in D Minor, D. 810, "Death and the Maiden" (arr. for orchestra by
Andy Stein)
This concert is made possible, in part, by an endowment fund for young artists established by Stella and
Robert Jones.
Tickets: $30-$65
Tickets are available at the Carnegie Hall Box Office, 154 West 57th Street, or can be charged to major credit cards by calling CarnegieCharge at 212-247-7800 or by visiting the Carnegie Hall website, carnegiehall.org.
For
Carnegie Hall Corporation presentations taking place in Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage, a limited number of seats, priced at $10, will be available day-of-concert beginning at 11:00 a.m. Monday through Saturday and 12:00 noon on Sunday until one hour before the performance or until supply lasts. The exceptions are
Carnegie Hall Family Concerts and gala events. These $10 tickets are available to the general public on a first-come, first-served basis at the
Carnegie Hall Box Office only. There is a two-ticket limit per customer.
For more information on this and other discount ticket programs, including those for students, Notables members, and Bank of America customers, visit
carnegiehall.org/discounts. Artists, programs, and prices are subject to change.
Image of The New York Pops by Richard Termine.
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