Orchestra of St. Luke’s Announces 2012/2013 Season

Orchestra of St. Luke's (OSL) announces its 2012/2013 concert season-the first with Principal Conductor Pablo Heras-Casado performing in both its summer series at Caramoor International Music Festival and orchestra series at Carnegie Hall.

"We look forward to returning to all our major venues this season with St. Luke's outstanding musicians and some of the world's most talented guest artists," said OSL President and Executive Director Katy Clark. "We are particularly enthusiastic about introducing our new Principal Conductor Pablo Heras-Casado, who will provide new creative leadership for the orchestra and help us explore new possibilities in our programming and in our new home."

"This season marks the beginning of a new chapter in my career. I am excited about getting to know music lovers in New York better through an orchestra with a sterling reputation, deep roots in the city and musical tastes that are as varied as my own," said OSL Principal Conductor Pablo Heras-Casado.

ORCHESTRAL CONCERTS

Carnegie Hall Series
Conductor Nicholas McGegan will open OSL's annual Carnegie Hall series on November 1, 2012 with a program of Haydn and Mozart that includes cellist and MacArthur 'Genius' Alisa Weilerstein performing Haydn's virtuosic Cello Concerto No. 2. This will be maestro McGegan's first performance with OSL at Carnegie Hall.

Making his debut on the Carnegie main stage, Pablo Heras-Casado will follow this concert with a broad collection of works by Beethoven, Chopin, Debussy and Schumann on February 7, 2013-including the U.S. premiere of Debussy's Five Préludes (orch. Hans Zender) and Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 2 featuring the distinguished pianist Christian Zacharias. This will be Zacharias and Heras-Casado's first collaboration. In previewing this concert, Heras-Casado said, "I think it's very important to bring the Five Préludes to audiences in the U.S. for the first time. The work respects the essence of Debussy's music, with a new light that is cast from Hans Zender, the famous German conductor and composer who wrote the arrangement for small orchestra in 1991."

Following a memorable, sold-out performance last season, Iván Fischer will once again close out OSL's orchestra series, performing J.S. Bach's St. Matthew Passion before Easter Sunday on March 28, 2013 with the superb New York City-based chorus Musica Sacra and soloists soprano Dominique Labelle, mezzo-soprano Barbara Kozelj, tenor John Tessier and bass-baritone Hanno Müller-Brachmann. This will be maestro Fischer's only U.S. guest conducting appearance in the 2012/2013 season.

Caramoor Series
As Orchestra-in-Residence, OSL will open the summer season at Caramoor with an all-Mendelssohn program led by Italian maestro Roberto Abbado on June 23, 2012. The program includes A Midsummer Night's Dream narrated by Tony Award-winner Bebe Neuwirth and Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor featuring violin virtuoso Gil Shaham.

The second of OSL's symphonic programs at Caramoor will feature Pablo Heras-Casado conducting music by Beethoven and Ravel in his debut performance as OSL's Principal Conductor on July 15, 2012. Renowned pianist Emanuel Ax will perform as soloist in Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3, his first performance with OSL at Caramoor in 25 years.

OSL will once again perform in both Bel Canto at Caramoor concerts under the baton of Will Crutchfield. Beginning with Gioachino Rossini's Ciro in Babilonia on July 7, 2012, contralto Ewa Podle? will perform the role of Ciro in this lesser-known opera, which tells the story of the Babylonian king Belshazzar. The second Bel Canto program will be Vincenzo Bellini's setting of the Romeo and Juliet story, I Capuleti ed i Montecchi, on July 21, 2012.

OSL will also perform its popular Independence Day program-this year featuring music by George Gershwin with pianist John Musto, and vocalists Darius DeHaas and Carla Jablonski. Fireworks will immediately follow the performance.

Special Projects
Throughout the season OSL will perform in three additional concerts on the main stage of Carnegie Hall outside of its annual orchestra series. On December 21, 2012 the orchestra will join the illustrious New York Virtuoso Singers for their first concert together at Carnegie Hall, performing Joseph Haydn's oratorio The Creation.

OSL returns to Carnegie Hall on March 14, 2013 to reunite with one of its longtime collaborators, soprano Renée Fleming. As part of Ms. Fleming's Perspectives residency at Carnegie Hall, OSL will perform a semi-staged production of André Previn's opera A Streetcar Named Desire, based on the play by Tennessee Williams.

On April 20, 2013 OSL will join a festival chorus of young singers from around the country for a performance of the Mozart Requiem in Carnegie Hall's Stern Auditorium. John Nelson will conduct the program, and Kent Tritle will prepare the chorus.

On April 12 and 13, 2013 OSL will take part in The Rite of Spring at 100 presented by Carolina Performing Arts and The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. This year-long, multidisciplinary centennial commemoration will explore the impact of The Rite of Spring and what the work means today. Together with Basil Twist, a third-generation puppeteer and one of the most creative performers in contemporary theater, OSL will perform a world premiere "ballet without dancers" inspired by Stravinsky's masterwork. Twist will also stage his new versions of Stravinsky's Pulcinella and Fireworks with OSL.

On November 8, 2012 OSL will once again accompany the Saint Thomas Choir of Men and Boys to perform Brahms' German Requiem at the stunning Saint Thomas Church in midtown Manhattan.

CHAMBER CONCERTS

Chamber Music Series
St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble will return to The Morgan Library & Museum and Brooklyn Museum to present three programs that range from the Baroque era to a new, commissioned work. Beginning with Baroque In Pieces on October 14, 17 and 19, 2012, St. Luke's talented chamber musicians will present a musical dialogue that spanned across Italy, France and Germany throughout the 17th and 18th centuries.

Later in the season, on March 3, 6 and 8, 2013, Spin Paris will feature music by three composers who defined French music at the turn of the 20th century, along with a world premiere by American composer Sean Shepherd, whose work reflects a French musical sensibility. To close the series, St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble will perform Three Part Inventions on April 28, May 1 and May 3, 2013 tracing the evolution of the trio over a period of 125 years with works by Schubert, Brahms and Bartók.

Special Projects
On September 20 and 21, 2012 St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble will co-present a program of Mozart's Gran Partita and György Ligeti's Six Bagatelles for Wind Quintet. The performance will take place at Baryshnikov Arts Center's Howard Gilman Performance Space, with set design by celebrated visual artist Anne Patterson and lighting design by Matt Frey. This will be OSL's second co-production with BAC since moving into their shared home at 450 West 37th Street in Manhattan.

Support for Chamber Music Programs
Orchestra of St. Luke's would like to thank Richard Gilder for underwriting the Richard Gilder Chamber Music Series at The Morgan Library & Museum and The Ernst C. Stiefel Foundation for its support of OSL's Chamber Music Series.

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT AND ARTS EDUCATION

Subway Series
As part of its ongoing community engagement programs, OSL travels to each of the five boroughs every year to present five free concerts in St. Luke's Subway Series. This year's concerts will take place in the fall 2012 and feature Beethoven's Septet in E-flat Major. Stay tuned for dates and further details on OSLmusic.org.

Support for Subway Series programs
The St. Luke's Subway Series is supported in part by funds from the National Endowment of the Arts and The MetLife Foundation.

OSL@DMC
Since opening The DiMenna Center for Classical Music in March 2011, OSL has utilized its new home to expand its educational and community engagement programs. As part of the OSL@DMC series, St. Luke's presents regular, free events that connect audiences to the artistic process of composers and musicians. This year's OSL@DMC series will include a Holiday Community Sing; a preview of Sean Shepherd's new work for St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble; an open rehearsal with Pablo Heras-Casado and Orchestra of St. Luke's and another with St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble; a concert showcasing OSL's continued partnership with the Amateur Classical Musicians Association (ACMA) and more. For the latest OSL@DMC schedule, visit OSLmusic.org.