Orchestra of St. Luke's Launches 2017-18 Season with 16 Fall Performances
By: A.A. Cristi Sep. 06, 2017
Orchestra of St. Luke's returns to Carnegie Hall for three concerts in the fall including its annual subscription series presented by Carnegie Hall, opening on October 12 with Conductor Laureate Pablo Heras-Casado on the podium. He leads Beethoven's Symphony No. 1 in C Major, Op. 21, and Mozart's Mass in C Minor, K. 427 ("Great"), featuring the Westminster Symphonic Choir, and guest vocalists sopranos Camilla Tilling and Susanna Phillips, tenor Thomas Cooley, and bass-baritone Michael Sumuel.
On October 26, the Orchestra joins forces with the Saint Thomas Choir of Men and Boys at the church for a program of moving works by Arvo Pärt, John Rutter, and Ralph Vaughan Williams, highlighted by Williams's plea for peace Dona Nobis Pacem. Daniel Hyde, Organist and Director of Saint Thomas Church will conduct. DANCE AT LINCOLN CENTER'S WHITE LIGHT FESTIVAL
Orchestra of St. Luke's collaboration with Jessica Lang Dance for the choreographer's N.Y. premiere staging of Pergolesi's stirring Stabat mater, is a highlight of Lincoln Center's White Light Festival. It will have two performances - November 1 and 2 - at Jazz at Lincoln Center's Rose Theater. ORCHESTRA OF ST. LUKE'S AT TEMPLE EMANU-EL
St. Luke's returns to Temple Emanu-El on November 16 performing four of J.S. Bach's glorious "Brandenburg" concertos No. 4 in G major, No. 3 in G major, No. 5 in D major, and No. 2 in F major. The majestic setting befits these pinnacles of Baroque repertoire.
OSL continues to engage audiences beyond the concert hall, bringing free concerts to New York City's five boroughs, including to The DiMenna Center for Classical Music, welcoming hundreds of young people, neighbors, and music lovers. This season's fall Community Concert series, Music in Color: The Legacy of Florence Price, explores the music and life of the first female African-American composer to have her work performed by a major U.S. symphony orchestra. Little-heard today, Price composed more than 300 works spanning symphonic, chamber, vocal, and keyboard music. Music excerpts, dramatic readings, and a documentary screening about the composer's life are on the program, which will be presented in six venues across the city, free of charge, from September 17 through October 6. A free Family Music Day concert at the DiMenna Center on September 23 will also feature the composer's music. In what's become an annual Hell's Kitchen tradition, the community is invited to the Holiday Sing at the DiMenna Center, this year taking place on December 15. For Orchestra of St. Luke's full 2017-2018 Season, visit OSLmusic.org.
About Orchestra of St. Luke's and St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble
Now in its 43rd year, Orchestra of St. Luke's grew out of a versatile chamber ensemble that began performing concerts at New York's Church of St. Luke in the Fields in Greenwich Village in 1974. Today, OSL performs approximately 80 concerts each year, including its Carnegie Hall Orchestra Series, performances with Paul Taylor American Modern Dance at Lincoln Center, summer concerts at Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts, and Chamber Music Series at The Morgan Library & Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, and Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Music Center. A champion of new music, St. Luke's has commissioned more than 50 new works, and given more than 175 world, U.S., and New York City premieres in its 43-year history, including The New York premiere of John Adams's Nixon in China and the world premieres of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Requiem, Steve Reich's Duet, and William Bolcom's The Hawthorne Tree. The Orchestra has appeared on more than 100 recordings, including four Grammy Award winners and seven releases on its own label. OSL owns and operates The DiMenna Center for Classical Music, which provides rehearsal, recording, teaching, and performance space for more than 30,000 musicians annually, hosts free concerts and events for more than 11,000 New York City students and families, and provides after-school instrumental instruction for the 125+ members of the Youth Orchestra of St. Luke's. For more information, visit OSLmusic.org. About the DiMenna Center for Classical Music
Opened in 2011, the 20,000+ square foot DiMenna Center for Classical Music, located at 450 West 37th Street, is OSL's permanent home and the first New York City space acoustically optimized for classical music rehearsal, recording, and education. The DiMenna Center offers local and touring musicians access to affordable, state-of-the-art facilities at its midtown Manhattan space. The Center has hosted such celebrated artists as Iván Fischer, Renée Fleming, Emanuel Ax, Christian Tetzlaff, Valery Gergiev, James Levine, Itzhak Perlman, the New York Philharmonic, Sting, James Taylor, International Contemporary Ensemble, Orpheus Chamber Ensemble, American Symphony Orchestra, American Ballet Theater, San Francisco Opera, Teatro alla Scala, and many others. Committed to serving the musical community and its Hell's Kitchen community, The DiMenna Center also hosts hundreds of neighbors, families, and school children each year, in addition to other free community events. The DiMenna Center's building is also home to Baryshnikov Arts Center (BAC). For more information, visit DiMennaCenter.org. About Pablo Heras-Casado, Conductor Laureate
Musical America's 2014 Conductor of the Year, Orchestra of St. Luke's Conductor Laureate Pablo Heras-Casado enjoys an unusually varied career encompassing the great symphonic and operatic repertoire, historically informed performance, and cutting-edge contemporary scores. His tenure as Principal Conductor of St. Luke's began in 2012, and he led his final concert in that role this summer for the St. Luke's concerts at Caramoor. He is the first Conductor Laureate in the Ensemble's history. He has served as Principal Guest Conductor at Teatro Real since 2014. The 2017/2018 season will be Heras-Casado's first as Director of Granada's International Festival of Music and Dance. Heras-Casado's 2017/2018 engagements include returns to the San Francisco Symphony, the Philadelphia and Philharmonia Orchestras, the Münchner Philharmoniker, the Israel Philharmonic, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich and Salzburg's Mozartwoche. He continues his touring and recording partnerships with the Balthasar Neumann Chor & Ensemble, focusing on works of Monteverdi, and Freiburger Barockorchester, with programs devoted to Beethoven and Mendelssohn. In May and June 2018, he'll conduct the Spanish premiere of Bernd Alöis Zimmermann's opera Die Soldaten, for six performances at Teatro Real. In June 2018, Heras-Casado takes the podium at the new Elbphilharmonie Hamburg to lead the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester in four performances of works by Brahms and Dvorak. Heras-Casado records for harmonia mundi, as well as Deutsche Grammophon's Archiv Produktion. About Bernard Labadie, Principal Conductor Designate
Bernard Labadie's appointment as Principal Conductor of Orchestra of St. Luke's was announced in May 2017. He will officially assume his post at the start of the Ensemble's 2018/2019 season. Widely recognized as one of the world's leading conductors of Baroque, Classical, and Early-Romantic repertoire, Labadie made his debut with the OSL, as Principal Conductor Designate, at the Caramoor Summer Music Festival on July 2 leading an all-Mozart program. Maestro Labadie's 2017 conducting engagements feature debuts with the Norwegian and Vienna Chamber Orchestras, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, the Orchestre National de Lyon, and appearances with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal and the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne. French Canadian Labadie founded the celebrated chamber orchestra Les Violons du Roy in 1984 and built it to international renown. He stepped down in 2014 from his 30-year tenure as Music Director to pursue wider interests. Labadie is a regular guest conductor with all the major North American orchestras, and has appeared locally with the New York Philharmonic, The Metropolitan Opera, and the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra. His notable European engagements include the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, and frequent assignments with period-instrument orchestras Including Academy of Ancient Music, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, The English Concert, and Collegium Vocale Gent Orchestra. An eminent opera conductor, Maestro Labadie has served as Artistic Director of Opéra de Québec and Opéra de Montréal. He made his Metropolitan Opera debut during the 2009/2010 season with Mozart's Die Zauberflöte. Bernard Labadie's extensive discography comprises many critically acclaimed recordings on the Dorian, ATMA, and Virgin Classics labels, including a collaborative recording of Mozart's Requiem with Les Violons du Roy and La Chapelle de Québec, both of which received Canada's Juno Award. ORCHESTRA OF ST. LUKE'S FALL 2017 Carnegie Hall CONCERTS Thursday, October 12, 2017, 8PM
Mozart's "Great" Mass with Heras-Casado
Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage Orchestra of St. Luke's
Pablo Heras-Casado, Conductor
Camilla Tilling, Soprano
Susanna Phillips, Soprano
Thomas Cooley, Tenor
Michael Sumuel, Bass-Baritone
Westminster Symphonic Choir
Joe Miller, Conductor BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 1
MOZART Mass in C Minor, K. 427
The spirit of Bach - particularly his Mass in B Minor - informs the grand choral writing of Mozart's Mass in C Minor. The influence of the florid Italian operatic style is evident in the works' "Laudamus te," a coloratura mezzo-soprano showpiece, and in the tender soprano aria "Et incarnatus est." Beethoven's Symphony No. 1 honors Haydn's symphonic model with more adventurous harmonies and a more robust role for winds and brass.
TICKETS are available at carnegiehall.org. Thursday, December 7, 2017, 8PMLabadie Conducts Mozart's "Jupiter"
Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage
Orchestra of St. Luke's
Bernard Labadie, Conductor
Augustin Hadelich, Violin
MOZART Symphony No. 41, "Jupiter"
BEETHOVEN Violin Concerto
Mozart's final symphony, the "Jupiter," has grandeur in its opening movement, tenderness in its Andante, grace, wit in the Menuetto, and propulsive joy in its finale. The antecedents to the athletic violin concertos of the Romantic era are found in Beethoven's masterpiece Violin Concerto, which is more opulently orchestrated, and features a solo part unlike anything that came before it. The program opener is a rarely performed work by Mozart's contemporary Joseph Martin Kraus. His stirring Olympie Overture, filled with sweeping themes, is the longest of seven movements he composed as incidental music in 1791 for a Swedish production of Voltaire's play of the same name.
TICKETS are available at carnegiehall.org.Carnegie Hall FAMILY PROGRAMSSaturday, October 14, 2017, 2PM
Carnegie Hall Family Concert: Peter and the Wolf and Other Stories
Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage
Edwin Outwater, Conductor
John Lithgow, Narrator ROBERT XAVIER RODRIGUEZ The Dot and the Line (NY Premiere), co-commissioned by
Carnegie Hall and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra
CAROLINE SHAW The Mountain That Loved a Bird (World Premiere),
commissioned by Carnegie Hall
PROKOFIEV Peter and the Wolf Conductor Edwin Outwater and OSL perform two new works for children and their families alongside the beloved Prokofiev musical tale, Peter and the Wolf. Critically acclaimed composer Robert Xavier Rodriguez's whimsical orchestral style brings to life Norman Juster's classic story, The Dot and the Line. Itilluminates the tale of a "sensible straight Line" who is "hopelessly in love" with a Dot. The Dot, meanwhile, "only has eyes for a wild an unkempt Squiggle." Caroline Shaw, a Pulitzer Prize-winning composer and member of the Grammy Award-winning vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth, also displays her musical storytelling skills in The Mountain That Loved a Bird, a gentle tale of friendship, devotion, and hope by Alice McLerran. The work was commissioned by Carnegie Hall for its 125th anniversary. Celebrated film and stage actor John Lithgow is the narrator for the delightful matinee program. TICKETS are available at carnegiehall.org. ORCHESTRA OF ST. LUKE'S AT LINCOLN CENTER'S WHITE LIGHT FESTIVAL Wednesday, November 1, 2017 and Thursday, November 2, 2017, 7:30PM
Pergolesi Stabat Mater - Jessica Lang Dance (New York premiere)
Jazz at Lincoln Center / Rose TheaterJessica Lang Dance
Jessica Lang, director and choreographer
Orchestra of St. Luke's
Speranza Scappucci, conductor
Andriana Chuchman, soprano
Anthony Roth Costanzo, countertenor
Sung in Latin with English supertitles MOZART Divertimento in F major, K.138
PERGOLESI Stabat Mater In Pergolesi's ravishingly spare Stabat Mater - composed weeks before his death at age 26 - he personalizes religious experience through the heartrending song of Mary's suffering at the scene of the Crucifixion. Choreographer Jessica Lang adds "gracious flow and arresting gesture" (The New York Times) to this union of sacred music and dance. Italian born conductor Speranza Scappucci, a graduate of the Julliard School and the Conservatorio di Musica Santa Cecilia in Rome, leads the OSL, soloists Anthony Roth Costanzo and Andriana Chuchman, and members of Jessica Lang Dance. Commissioned and premiered by Glimmerglass Opera in 2013, Stabat Mater has been re-staged by Lang for the White Light Festival, Lincoln Center's annual exploration of the power art has on our inner and communal lives. The evening opens with the sparkling Divertimento in F major, K.138, composed by the 15-year-old Mozart in 1771. TICKETS are available at whitelightfestival.org. ORCHESTRA OF ST. LUKE'S AT SAINT THOMAS FIFTH AVENUE Thursday, October 26, 2017, 7:30PM
Vaughan Williams's Dona Nobis Pacem
Saint Thomas Church The Saint Thomas Choir of Men and Boys
Orchestra of St. Luke's
Daniel Hyde, conductor
Krista Bennion Feeney, violin
Sara Cutler, harp
Clara Rottsolk, soprano
Adrian Timpau, baritone ARVO PÄRT Cantus in Memorium Benjamin Britten
JOHN RUTTER Visions
Vaughan Williams Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus
Vaughan Williams Dona Nobis Pacem Arvo Pärt's achingly beautiful Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten (dedicated to the composer he most admired) sets the scene in this introspective program of choral works that commemorate heroes and prays for peace. In John Rutter's Visions, solo violin, string orchestra, harp and treble voice choir paint a pastoral picture of heavenly harmony. Set in four movements, Visions is inspired by the idea of Jerusalem as both a holy city and a utopian ideal of heavenly peace. Vaughan Williams's lush Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus is based on the folk tune recounting the Biblical passage of the rich man's suffering in hell and the poor man's triumph in heaven. The composer's stirring 1936 cantata Dona Nobis Pacem, is performed here in a version for chorus, strings, and piano. Written when the horrors of World War I were still fresh and the threat of new war loomed, Vaughan Williams's haunting plea uses poems by Walt Whitman, liturgical text and Bible verse, and a political speech given to try to avert the Crimean War, to make a musical case for laying down arms. Daniel Hyde is organist and director of music of Saint Thomas Church. TICKETS are available at saintthomaschurch.org.
ORCHESTRA OF ST. LUKE'S AT TEMPLE EMANU-EL
Thursday, November 16, 2017, 6:30PM
Bach "Brandenburg"
Temple Emanu-El
The Streicker Center
J.S. BACH Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G major, BWV 1048
J.S. BACH Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D major, BWV 1050
J.S. BACH Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F major, BWV 1047 Orchestra of St. Luke's makes its return to the majestic sanctuary of Temple Emanu-El, with the St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble performing a program of four of Bach's beloved "Brandenburg" Concertos. The six concertos, presented as a gift to the Margrave of Brandenburg in 1721, stand as a testament to Bach's inventive genius. Written in an Italian Concerto Grosso style, they are considered pinnacles of the Baroque repertoire, and will feature several of the orchestra's virtuosic members as soloists. FREE; for information visit emanuelstreickernyc.org. ORCHESTRA OF ST. LUKE'S FREE COMMUNITY PROGRAMS Music in Color: The Legacy of Florence Price Sunday, September 17, 2017, 2PM
BROOKLYN: Restoration Plaza
RestorationART at the Billie Holiday Theatre Saturday, September 23, 2017, 3PM
QUEENS: Flushing Town Hall
Gallery Thursday, September 28, 2017, 6PM
MANHATTAN: Harlem School of the Arts
Gallery Sunday, October 1, 2017, 2PM
STATEN ISLAND: Snug Harbor
Main Hall, Building C Thursday, October 5, 2017, 7PM
BRONX: Hostos Center for the Arts & Culture
Black Box Theatre Friday, October 6, 2017, 7PM
The Caged Bird: The Life and Music of Florence B. Price
The DiMenna Center: Documentary Screening & Reception
Mary Flagler Cary HallFlorence Price (1887-1953) - the first African-American female composer to have a work premiered by a major American orchestra (Chicago Symphony, 1933) - is the focus of these exhilarating community concerts featuring musical performance, dramatic monologues, and a documentary film. Born to a prominent family in Little Rock, Arkansas, Price graduated from the New England Conservatory of Music with degrees in organ performance and piano pedagogy. Movements from Price's string quartets, including the inventive Five Folksongs in Counterpoint; lush arrangements of spirituals; and dramatic readings-written and performed by Kirya Traber - are featured in this program celebrating this great, under-sung composer who synthesized western classical music and African-American traditions. Vocal selections include Price's settings of "My Country 'Tis Of Thee" and "My Soul's Been Anchored In The Lord," the latter performed by Marian Anderson at her ground-breaking Lincoln Memorial concert. Concluding the series is a screening of the documentary The Caged Bird: The Life and Music of Florence B. Price by James Geeson, University of Arkansas professor of music. FREE, open to the public; for information visit OSLmusic.org. Saturday, September 23, 2017, 10AM
Family Music Day
Cary Hall at The DiMenna Center for Classical Music This special concert features the music of Florence Price. Children are invited to try out instruments from the Orchestra, play and learn about traditional Irish instruments from instructors from Irish Arts Center, and enjoy interactive workshops for a morning of hands-on musical fun. FREE; RSVP: OSLmusic.org.
Friday, December 15, 2017, 7PM
Holiday Sing
Cary Hall at The DiMenna Center
for Classical Music
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