Over 50 Performances Set for Lincoln Center's 50th MOSTLY MOZART FESTIVAL

Lincoln Center and Ehrenkranz Artistic Director Jane Moss announced today the 50th Mostly Mozart Festival, one of the world's major music festivals and a beloved summer New York tradition, with events taking place across Lincoln Center July 22-August 27, 2016.

In honor of this special milestone season, Mostly Mozart will present more than 50 exceptional performances and events over five weeks featuring a special focus on Mozart's operas, major new commissions and premieres of over 50 new works, symphonic concerts, visiting ensembles, late-night recitals, a dance revival, and a wide range of additional free events.

"Lincoln Center founded Mostly Mozart with a dual mission: to celebrate the genius of Mozart and to offer an informal environment and accessible entry for new audiences as well as the traditional concertgoer," said Jane Moss, the architect of the annual Mostly Mozart Festival. "The Festival's milestone 50th edition celebrates and reflects that founding DNA where Mozart and access abound. Mozart's symphonic works inside David Geffen Hall contrast with an outdoor choral premiere for 1,000 singers; Mozart's operas in Alice Tully Hall are surrounded by 50 premieres from composers across the musical spectrum performed across Lincoln Center's plazas; and Mozart's piano concertos seen through the visionary lens of legendary American choreographer Mark Morris complement candlelit late-night recitals. All serve as illustrations of the sublime and the accessible present in this vibrant festival."

Lincoln Center launched America's first indoor summer music festival in 1966 with Midsummer Serenades: A Mozart Festival, a casual and welcoming concert experience featuring $3 tickets, "Mozart Forever" pins, refreshing air-conditioning and the music of Mozart. The inaugural season was a resounding success, and led to a renewal of the public's appreciation of Mozart's music. Building on the success in subsequent summers, the Festival moved beyond exclusively Mozart and was officially inaugurated as the Mostly Mozart Festival in 1970.

Fifty years and more than 2,200 performances later, Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival has become recognized for its innovations, including establishing a Festival Orchestra, adding the music of Mozart's contemporaries, predecessors, and successors, and later adding late-night concerts, visionary opera presentations, visiting period-instrument ensembles, films, lectures, and more. Most recently the Festival has developed a major commitment to contemporary music.

Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival continues with these artistic innovations, especially throughout the 50th season. Several pre-season events will lead up to the Festival's opening, including a free exhibition showcasing the history of Mostly Mozart, and a listening party with pianist Emanuel Ax, both at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

Other highlights include:

Opera

A major feature of the 50th Mostly Mozart Festival is a focus of Mozart's operas. The Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, led by Renée and Robert Belfer Music Director Louis Langrée, will open the Festival in David Geffen Hall in a fully staged operatic evening and specially designed and commissioned staging from director Netia Jones. Titled "The Illuminated Heart," the program features selections of Mozart's operas performed by singers Christine Goerke, Nadine Sierra, Peter Mattei, Matthew Polenzani, and others. This presentation is complemented by two staged concerts of Mozart's operas Cosí fan tutte andIdomeneo featuring the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra in a residency led by Louis Langrée and, in a rare New York appearance, René Jacobs.

Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra

The Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra will appear on stage in several venues across Lincoln Center, starting with the annual free preview concert, this summer outdoors at Damrosch Park. At David Geffen Hall and Alice Tully Hall, the Festival Orchestra performs works by Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn, Mendelssohn, Arvo Pärt, and arrangements of Bach works by Webern and George Benjamin under the batons of Music Director Louis Langrée, and guests Paavo Järvi, Jeffrey Kahane, Andrés Orozco-Estrada (New York debut), and Matthew Halls (New York debut). Soloists include Leif Ove Andsnes, Joshua Bell, Martin Fröst, Richard Goode, Martin Helmchen (Festival debut), and Jeffrey Kahane. The final Geffen Hall program features Mozart's grand choral works, his Mass in C minor and Requiem.

Contemporary Music

One of the summer's biggest highlights is the major new commission in honor of the Festival's 50th summer featuring the world premiere of David Lang's the public domain, a new choral work featuring 1,000 amateur singers recruited from all five boroughs of New York City, led by acclaimed British choral director Simon Halsey.

The International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) returns to the Festival for a sixth summer as artists-in-residence. The intrepid and flexible ensemble presents 50 for 50, a series of indoor and outdoor concerts with 50 premieres, highlighted by 15 free micro-concerts on Lincoln Center's Hearst Plaza.

Return of Mozart Dances

The Festival also sees the return of Mark Morris's triumphant and acclaimed Mozart Dances, originally commissioned by theMostly Mozart Festival and this summer featuring the Festival Orchestra with Louis Langrée and pianists Garrick Ohlsson and Inon Barnatan.

"A Little Night Music"

Mostly Mozart's traditionally sold-out "A Little Night Music" series of late-night recitals will showcase a wide array of musicians, including the Emerson String Quartet with pianist Emanuel Ax, the International Contemporary Ensemble, pianist Paul Lewis, clarinetist Martin Fröst and the Festival debut of harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani.

Featured Artists and Debuts

More than 50 featured artists will take part in the 2016 Festival, including many returning favorites, such as Emanuel Ax, Joshua Bell, the Emerson String Quartet, Martin Fröst, Richard Goode, Jeffrey Kahane, the Mark Morris Dance Group, and the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra. And continuing the Festival's legacy of supporting emerging talents, more than 30 artists will make debuts this summer, including conductor Karina Canellakis, pianist Martin Helmchen, violinist Simone Porter, harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani, singers Keira Duffy and Nadine Sierra, as well as the New York debuts of conductors Andrés Orozco-Estrada and Matthew Halls.

Free Events and Wide Access

To celebrate its role in the cultural life of New York City, this summer the Festival hosts an expanded number of free events. In addition to the public exhibition at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts and the free preview concert, there is a trivia contest/concert with ICE, a film screening, lectures, pre-concert recitals, and more. In addition, there will be freelivestreams of late-night concerts and a concert captured for a future Live From Lincoln Center broadcast on PBS.

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Tickets for Friends of Mostly Mozart go on sale April 18 and to the general public beginning April 25. Tickets can be purchased online at MostlyMozart.org, by phone via CenterCharge at 212.721.6500, or by visiting the David Geffen Hall or Alice Tully Hall Box Offices at Broadway and 65th Street.

Further details on the Mostly Mozart Festival 2016 follow. All programs and artists are subject to change.

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OPERA AT MOSTLY MOZART

Mozart's genius reached its zenith in his operatic works. The composer's stage works reveal the intimacies, intricacies, and contradictions of the human heart in transcendent musical language, and have transofrmed the operatic canon forever. Mostly Mozart is proud to cast a special spotlight on Mozart's operatic repertoire in honor of the 50th Festival.

The Illuminated Heart: Selections from Mozart's Operas

David Geffen Hall

Monday, July 25 at 8:00 pm and Tuesday, July 26 at 7:30 pm

Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra

Louis Langrée, conductor

Netia Jones, director and designer (Mostly Mozart debut)

Kiera Duffy, soprano (Mostly Mozart debut)

Christine Goerke, soprano

Ana María Martínez, soprano (Mostly Mozart debut)

Nadine Sierra, soprano (Mostly Mozart debut)

Sasha Cooke, mezzo-soprano

Marianne Crebassa, mezzo-soprano (Mostly Mozart debut)

Matthew Polenzani, tenor

Christopher Maltman, baritone (Mostly Mozart debut)

Peter Mattei, baritone (Mostly Mozart debut)

Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival officially opens with a unique program that will transform David Geffen Hall into a staged environment for a specially commissioned evening with selections from Mozart's operas. Conceived by the visionary British director and video artist Netia Jones, The Illuminated Heart will feature a white-box theater, which frames the action and serves as backdrop for a series of imaginative projections and visual imagery. Louis Langrée will conduct the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra in this opening program that traverses the many dimensions of Mozart's opera oeuvre. The Illuminated Heart, performed July 25 and 26, features an impressive range of singers including: sopranos Kiera Duffy (Mostly Mozart debut), Christine Goerke, Ana María Martínez (Mostly Mozart debut), and Nadine Sierra (Mostly Mozart debut); mezzo-sopranos Sasha Cooke and Marianne Crebassa (Mostly Mozart debut); tenor Matthew Polenzani; and baritones Christopher Maltman (Mostly Mozart debut) and Peter Mattei (Mostly Mozart debut).

Così fan tutte, K.588

Alice Tully Hall

Monday, August 15 at 7:30 pm

Freiburg Baroque Orchestra

Louis Langrée, conductor

Lenneke Ruiten, Fiordiligi (Mostly Mozart debut)

Kate Lindsey, Dorabella

Sandrine Piau, Despina

Joel Prieto, Ferrando (Mostly Mozart debut)

Nahuel di Pierro, Guglielmo (Mostly Mozart debut)

Rod Gilfry, Don Alfonso

Musica Sacra (Mostly Mozart debut)

Idomeneo, re di Creta, K.366

Alice Tully Hall

Thursday, August 18 at 7:30 pm

Freiburg Baroque Orchestra

René Jacobs, conductor

Jeremy Ovenden, Idomeneo (Mostly Mozart debut)

Gaëlle Arquez, Idamante (Mostly Mozart debut)

Sophie Karthäuser, Ilia

Alex Penda, Elettra (Mostly Mozart debut)

Julien Behr, Arbace (Mostly Mozart debut)

Nicolas Rivenq, High Priest of Neptune (Mostly Mozart debut)

Christoph Seidl, La Voce (Mostly Mozart debut)

Arnold Schoenberg Choir (Mostly Mozart debut)

The acclaimed period-instrument ensemble Freiburg Baroque Orchestra will take up residency at the Festival with two staged concerts of Mozart operas. The first program, on August 15, is the composer's comic opera Così fan tutte, one of the famed trio of operas created by Mozart with the librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte. This performance features conductor Louis Langrée, as well as a superb cast and the Arnold Schoenberg Choir.

This concert is based on an original production presented in collaboration with the Festival of Aix-en-Provence 2016 in co-production with the Opéra de Lille and Edinburgh International Festival.

Later that week, on August 18, the Festival will present a staged concert of Mozart's Idomeneo, inspired by Greek tale, led by conductor René Jacobs in a rare New York appearance, and with a cast featuring Jeremy Ovenden in the title role and soprano Sophie Karthäuser as Ilia. Nearly the entire cast will be making their Mostly Mozart Festival debuts.

Both presentations will offer a pre-concert lecture at 6:15 pm at the Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse.

MOSTLY MOZART FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA

Each summer, the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, led by Renée and Robert Belfer Music Director Louis Langrée anchors theFestival with performances on a specially designed stage installation inside David Geffen Hall, with the audience surrounding the musicians on stage. The Festival Orchestra will perform in several Lincoln Center venues this summer: David Geffen Hall, Damrosch Park, Alice Tully Hall, and the David H. Koch Theater. This summer's Festival Orchestra programs feature a wide range of works by Mozart, including some all-Mozart concerts, as well as music by Beethoven, Haydn, Mendelssohn, Arvo Pärt, and arrangements of Bach's music by Anton Webern and George Benjamin.

FREE PREVIEW CONCERT

July 22: Continuing an annual and favorite Festival tradition, the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra will offer its annual gift to New York City with a free performance at Lincoln Center. This year, the concert will be held outside at Damrosch Park, in a co-presentation with Lincoln Center Out of Doors. The all-Mozart concert will feature Violin Concerto No. 3 in G major, K.216, with Simone Porter (Mostly Mozart debut, 2015 Avery Fisher Career Grant winner), and one of the composer's most beloved works, Symphony No. 41 in C major, K.551 ("Jupiter").

This free preview concert of the Mostly Mozart Festival is made possible in part by the Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Foundation.

July 25-26: The Illuminated Heart will be performed at David Geffen Hall. Details above.

July 28-30: The Festival Orchestra performs three concerts at Alice Tully Hall under the baton of Louis Langrée with vibrant Mozart masterpieces paired with Bach. The orchestra will perform the New York premiere of George Benjamin's 2007 arrangement of Bach's Canon and Fugue (from Art of Fugue), in addition to Webern's 1935 arrangement of Bach's Ricercare, from The Musical Offering, BWV 1079, and Mozart's Symphony No. 38 in D major, K.504 ("Prague"). Soloist Leif Ove Andsneswill perform Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466.

August 2-3: These performances feature two artists making special debut appearances. The Colombian-born conductor Andrés Orozco-Estrada also the Music Director of the Houston Symphony, makes his first Festival appearance and New York debut leading the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra at David Geffen Hall in a program featuring Haydn's Symphony No. 59 in A major ("Fire"), and Mozart's Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K.550. Performing Mozart's exuberant Piano Concerto No. 25 in C major, K.503, is the gifted German pianist Martin Helmchen, who makes his Festival debut.

August 5-6: Conductor Paavo Järvi and clarinetist Martin Fröst both return to Mostly Mozart with a panoramic program: Arvo Pärt's La Sindone, Mozart's famed Clarinet Concerto in A major, K.622, and Beethoven's Symphony No. 4 in B-flat major, Op. 60. Fröst will also perform a late-night recital following the August 6 orchestral concert.

August 9-10: Pianist Richard Goode, who first performed at Mostly Mozart in 1971 and has maintained a lasting relationship with the Festival, returns again for an all-Mozart program spanning the full spectrum of the composer's career. Goode will perform Piano Concerto No. 12 in A major, K.414. Bookending the concerto are Mozart's first and last symphonic works, led byLouis Langrée. This concert event will be captured for a future Live From Lincoln Center presentation on PBS.

August 12-13: Jeffrey Kahane, the esteemed Mozart interpreter who made his Festival debut in 1982, returns to lead the Festival Orchestra as both conductor and piano soloist in a special evening featuring a trio of Mozart piano concertos, No. 21 in C major, K. 467, No. 24 in C minor, K.491, and No. 22 in E-flat major, K.482.

August 16-17: Joshua Bell, a friend of Mostly Mozart since his debut at the Festival in 1987, performs Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 4 in D major, K.218, with the Festival Orchestra with conductor Matthew Halls, who makes his New York debut. Also on the program is Mendelssohn's Overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream, Op. 21, Beethoven's Overture to Coriolan, Op. 62, and Beethoven's Symphony No. 8 in F major, Op. 93

August 19-20: Two of Mozart's choral masterworks, his Mass in C minor, K.427, and Requiem, K.626, conclude the Festival Orchestra's David Geffen Hall dates. This all-Mozart program is led by Louis Langrée, alongside an all-American cast of singers with soprano Joélle Harvey, mezzo-soprano Cecelia Hall, tenor Alek Shrader, bass Christian Van Horn, and the Concert Chorale of New York (James Bagwell, director). All four vocal soloists are making their Mostly Mozart debuts with these performances.

August 24-27: The Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra and Mark Morris Dance Group perform Mark Morris's Mozart Dances at the David H. Koch Theater. Details follow below.

MEET THE FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA

In 2013, Lincoln Center launched a campaign to further connect supporters and fans of the Festival with the Festival Orchestra's outstanding musicians. Each member of the Festival Orchestra is featured on the Mostly Mozart website with an artist profile and fun facts. More than 20 members of the Festival Orchestra have been profiled in special one-minute videos called "Mozart Minutes." The series of videos were broadcast on WNYE-TV and won a 2015 local New York Emmy Award. Additional videos will be launched as the Festival approaches and continues this summer. Visit: MostlyMozart.org/MeetTheOrchestra.

Additionally, audience members can meet and greet Festival Orchestra musicians following any Friday evening performance. A premium ticket offers excellent seats and access to post-concert cocktail and dessert parties at Lincoln Center Kitchen in the lobby of David Geffen Hall. More details at MostlyMozart.org.

MOZART DANCES RETURNS, CONCLUDES 50th MOSTLY MOZART FESTIVAL

The closing performances of Mostly Mozart's 50th season will reprise a past Festival favorite, Mark Morris Dance Group'sMozart Dances. Commissioned by Lincoln Center and premiered at the 2006 Festival and presented again in 2007, this dynamic contemporary classic returns to Mostly Mozart for a third time, with four performances, August 24-27, at the David H. Koch Theater. Mozart Dances is the vision of the pioneering choreographer Mark Morris, who has had several productions presented at Mostly Mozart, starting with L'Allegro, Il Penseroso ed il Moderato in 2002, and most recently Acis and Galatea in 2014. This production also features set designs by Howard Hodgkin, lighting design by James F. Ingalls, and costume designs by Martin Pakledinaz. The accompanying music comes from Mozart Piano Concerto Nos. 11 and 27, and his D-major Sonata for Two Pianos, performed by pianists Garrick Ohlsson and Inon Barnatan, with the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra and Maestro Langrée. The Guardian (U.K.) has praised this work, stating, "To hear Mozart through Morris's ears is to appreciate the music in scintillating new detail."

A pre-performance discussion complementing this program will take place at the David Rubenstein Atrium on August 26, at 6:15 pm, with Mark Morris and Ara Guzelimian.

CONTEMPORARY MUSIC AT MOSTLY MOZART:

More Than 50 New Works For 50th Season

World Premiere of David Lang's the public domain

Large-Scale Choral Work for 1,000 Singers

Saturday, August 13

International Contemporary Ensemble

Artists-In-Residence

50 for 50

Micro-Concerts, July 27-August 7

Trivia Concert, Wednesday, August 17

Closing Week Performances, August 21-24

Though Mostly Mozart is focused on the works of its namesake composer, it has a strong commitment to the music of our own time. This new dedication was first manifested in 2007 with a series of composers-in-residence and artists-in-residence positions including Osvaldo Golijov, Kaija Saariaho, John Adams, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, George Benjamin, and the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE). In honor of the 50th Mostly Mozart Festival, more than 50 premieres will be performed across the five weeks of the Festival, offering a spectrum of new composers, ideas, and imaginative vision.

Celebrating Mostly Mozart's special place in the hearts of New Yorkers, Lincoln Center has commissioned a major new work by Pulitzer Prize-winning and Academy Award-nominated composer David Lang. This new work, titled the public domain, will feature a chorus of up to 1,000 volunteer amateur and professional singers, recruited from all five boroughs of the city and the metro area, offering Festival newcomers and longstanding enthusiasts alike the opportunity to participate first-hand in this special anniversary season and make their singing debut at Lincoln Center. The new work-a joint project of David Lang and acclaimed British choral director Simon Halsey, who will lead the performance-will receive its world premiere outdoors at Lincoln Center on August 13. Further details about the work and registration to participate are available at MostlyMozart.org/thepublicdomain. TheMostly Mozart Festival presentation of the public domain is made possible by the generous support of The Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund.

The always pioneering International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) will serve as Mostly Mozart artists-in-residence for a sixth consecutive summer, building on their already significant contributions to the Festival with original presentations and the music of today's voices. Since the start of their artistic relationship with Lincoln Center, ICE has presented works by more than 30 composers at Mostly Mozart, ranging from Stravinsky, Schoenberg, and Ligeti to Kaija Saariaho, George Benjamin, Pauline Oliveros, and Matthias Pintscher.

This summer marks ICE's most ambitious contribution to Mostly Mozart yet. Titled 50 for 50, ICE will perform 50 new works(including local, U.S., and world premieres) over the course of their appearances. Many will be performed as part of a series of 15 free micro-concerts at Lincoln Center's Hearst Plaza, in co-presentation with Lincoln Center Out of Doors. Each micro-concert will feature a world premiere, supported by ICE's new First Page commissioning program. Composers whose works will be premiered include Rama Gottfried, Rand Steiger, Suzanne Farrin, Ken Ueno, Anna Thorvaldsdóttir, Ashley Fure, and more. Guest artists, works, and further details will be announced at a later date.

In addition to its involvement in the New York premiere of Seven Responses (below), ICE will perform three other performances in the Festival's closing week: two late-night recitals and a concert of premiere concertos. On August 22, as part of the "A Little Night Music" series, pianists Craig Taborn and Cory Smythe are joined by trumpeter Peter Evans for a concert bridging the worlds of modern and classic jazz. The following evening, August 23, they present a showcase of new concerto works with conductor Karina Canellakis (Mostly Mozart debut) at Merkin Concert Hall. The program consists of five pieces (two world premieres and three U.S. premieres) from Dai Fujikura, Anthony Cheung, Marcos Balter, and Wang Lu, with members of the ensemble as soloists. On August 24, ICE presents Josephine Baker: A Personal Portrait, a journey through the performing icon's life with new music and arrangements by Tyshawn Sorey. Created in partnership with Mostly Mozart, Ojai Music Festival, and Da Camera of Houston, Josephine Baker is directed by Peter Sellars, and features soprano Julia Bullock (Mostly Mozart debut), and Tyshawn Sorey with the ensemble.

Mostly Mozart will also present the New York premiere of Seven Responses, a series of new works commissioned and organized by the acclaimed Philadelphia-based vocal ensemble The Crossing, across two concerts on August 21 at Merkin Concert Hall. Seven Responses-performed by The Crossing, ICE, and Quicksilver (Mostly Mozart debut), with conductor Donald Nally-features works by seven disparate and exciting composers who have created musical responses to Buxtehude'sMembra Jesu Nostri, an iconic German Baroque-era work consisting of seven sacred-text cantatas. The original cantatas alternate with the new works at each performance. Each of the seven composers-Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen, David T. Little, Santa Ratniece, Caroline Shaw, Lewis Spratlan, Hans Thomalla, and Anna Thorvaldsdóttir-were invited to collaborate with an author of their choice or to create an original libretto.

EMERSON STRING QUARTET AND EMANUEL AX

Two Mostly Mozart Festival mainstays, the Emerson String Quartet (Festival debut, 1984) and pianist Emanuel Ax (Festivaldebut, 1977), team up for the first time at the Festival to perform two concerts on August 1. In the first concert, at 7:30 pm at Alice Tully Hall, the quartet will perform Purcell's Chacony in G minor and Schubert's String Quartet in A minor, D.804 ("Rosamunde"), and will be joined by Ax for Dvorák's Piano Quartet in A major, Op. 81. Afterward, they perform the Festival's first late-night recital at 10:00 pm at the Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse, offering Schubert's Quartettsatz in C minor, D.703, Mozart's Piano Quartet in G minor, K.478; Ax performs Beethoven's 6 Variations in F Major, Op. 34.

A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC - LATE-NIGHT CONCERTS IN THE STANLEY H. KAPLAN PENTHOUSE

The inaugural season of the Festival featured special "Mozart at Midnight" events. The concept was re-imagined in 2005 as "A Little Night Music." These popular late-night recitals present intimate concerts with candlelit tables, complimentary wine, and a sparkling skyline at the Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse atop Lincoln Center's Rose Building at 10:00 pm, with audiences up-close to the artists. This summer's seven late-night recitals offer a diverse range of artists and music. The programs are as follows:

August 1: Emerson String Quartet and pianist Emanuel Ax perform Schubert, Beethoven, and Mozart.

August 2: Pianist Paul Lewis, who mesmerized audiences at a late-night recital in 2013, returns to the Festival for one evening, performing music by Schubert and Brahms.

August 5: Mahan Esfahani, a rising Iranian-American harpsichordist, makes his Mostly Mozart Festival debut. Esfahani has won acclaim for his recent albums of works by Górecki (Decca) and Rameau (Hyperion Records). His program, titled "Songs in the Key of Bach," includes music by J.S. Bach, C.P.E. Bach, J.C. Bach, Dušek, and Ligeti.

August 6: Following his performance with the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, clarinetist Martin Fröst is joined by pianist Roland Pöntinen (Mostly Mozart debut) for a lively recital of folk dance-inspired music.

August 13: Pianist Inon Barnatan, a 2015 Martin E. Segal Award winner, makes his Mostly Mozart Festival debut. Barnatan will perform a wide-ranging program with music from Handel, Rameau, Ligeti, and Barber, and the New York premiere of a work by Thomas Adès.

August 22: The International Contemporary Ensemble offers an event bridging the worlds of modern and classic jazz, with pianists Craig Taborn and Cory Smythe, and trumpeter Peter Evans.

August 24: The International Contemporary Ensemble presents Josephine Baker: A Personal Portrait, a journey through the performing icon's life with new music and arrangements by Tyshawn Sorey. Peter Sellars directs, and soprano Julia Bullock makes her Mostly Mozart debut.

FREE MOSTLY MOZART FESTIVAL EVENTS

Accessibility was a founding principle of Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival and continues today as a priority of the 50th edition. This summer features an expanded slate of free events, welcoming audiences to celebrate the milestone season. Details below:

Shakespeare vs. Mozart: A Library Debate

The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Bruno Walter Auditorium

Friday April 1 at 7:00 pm

For four hundred years, western culture has continuously looked to Shakespeare to share the truth of the human condition. On the other hand, the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart has miraculously captured the sublime and expressed the inexpressible. As The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts presents concurrent exhibitions celebrating the work of Shakespeare and of Mozart, the question must be answered-who is the greater genius? Shakespeare experts include Michael Sexton from The Shakespeare Society and Adam Gopnik of The New Yorker. Mozart defenders include Michael Beckerman and Peter A. Hoyt from the Mostly Mozart Festival. Each side will battle with competing evidence, utilizing live performances and historic materials from The Library's archives. Q2 Music's Brothers Balliett moderate.

Presented by The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts in collaboration with Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival. Free reservations available after March 1 at nypl.org/lpa/events.

Mozart Forever: Fifty Years of the Mostly Mozart Festival

The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts

Tuesday, May 24-Saturday, August 27

Through artwork, photographs, memorabilia, interviews, concert excerpts, and more, this special free exhibition traces the history of Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival, illuminating the path from its all-Mozart roots to its current ambitious, visionary place in the cultural landscape.

This event is presented jointly by Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival and The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

Emanuel Ax's Listen List

The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Bruno Walter Auditorium

Thursday, June 30 at 6:00 pm

What would Emanuel Ax listen to while taking a walk through Central Park? What's on his dinner party playlist? What recording changed his life? Get to know one of the music world's most thoughtful and admired artists through the recordings he loves. Join us for a conversation with the celebrated pianist.

Presented by the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts in collaboration with Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival. Free reservations available after May 30 at nypl.org/lpa/events.

Film - In Search of Mozart (2006)

David Rubenstein Atrium

Wednesday, July 13 at 6:00 pm

In this film presentation, Mostly Mozart screens In Search of Mozart, a 2006 documentary filmed and directed by Phil Grabsky. Part of a trilogy exploring the lives and work of iconic composers, In Search of Mozart features interviews with musicologists and musicians alike as part of a journey into the heart of Mozart's genius. Musicians featured include Sir Roger Norrington, Renée Fleming, Magdalena Kožená, Ian Bostridge, Gerald Finley, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Leif Ove Andsnes, and Lang Lang, among others.

Free Pre-Festival Discussion with Jed Bernstein, Louis Langrée, Members of the Festival Orchestra

David Rubenstein Atrium

Wednesday, July 20 at 6:00 pm

Lincoln Center President Jed Bernstein moderates a free event with Louis Langrée and members of the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, followed by a musical performance.

Free Preview Concert - Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra

Damrosch Park

Friday, July 22 at 7:30 pm

The Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra offers its annual gift to New York City with a free concert at Lincoln Center's Damrosch Park, with Music Director Louis Langrée and violinist Simone Porter. Details above.

ICE Micro-Concerts

Hearst Plaza

Wednesday, July 27-Sunday, August 7, various times

In celebration of the 50th Festival, ICE will perform 50 new works, many of which will appear on free micro-concerts at Lincoln Center's Hearst Plaza. These performances are co-presented with Lincoln Center Out of Doors.

Panel Discussion: Mozart and Opera

Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse

Sunday, August 7, at 3:00 pm

This year's panel discussion will focus on Mozart's operatic output. Details will be announced at a later date. This event is presented in association with the Mozart Society of America.

Trivia Contest / Concert

David Rubenstein Atrium

Wednesday, August 17 at 9:00 pm

Curators and archivists of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts and musicians from Mostly Mozart come together for an imaginative, arts-focused trivia night. Hosted by ICE, this concert/trivia competition features live music, prizes, and the Library's unparalleled archive of composers' manuscripts, choreographic notes, costume designs, plus countless other fun and fascinating art objects and ephemera.

This event is presented jointly by Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival and The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

Pre-Concert Recitals

These events take place one hour prior to the main performances in the same venue. Admission is only available only with a ticket to the later performance. This summer's pre-concert recitals include:

- July 28-30: Mozart's Piano Quartet in E-flat major, K.493, performed by pianist Leif Ove Andsnes and members of the Festival Orchestra.

- August 2 and 3: Pianist Martin Helmchen will perform Mozart's Sonata in F major, K.332, ahead of his appearance with the Festival Orchestra.

- August 5 and 6: Details to be announced

- August 9 and 10: Baritone Thomas Meglioranza and pianist Reiko Uchida.

- August 12 and 13: The Lysander Piano Trio performs Haydn and Liszt.

- August 16 and 17: Violinist Alexi Kenney performs Matteis, Kaija Saariaho, and Bach.

LIVESTREAMS AND LIVE FROM LINCOLN CENTER

Last summer, Lincoln Center presented the first livestreams of Mostly Mozart Festival concert events, with five performances broadcast to the world. Building on last summer's success, Lincoln Center will present more livestreamed presentations of Mostly Mozart Festival events this summer. Details for the livestreams, available for free viewing at LincolnCenter.org, will be announced at a later date.

The concerts on August 9 and 10 featuring the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra with Renée and Robert Belfer Music Director Louis Langrée and pianist Richard Goode will be captured for a future Live From Lincoln Center broadcast on PBS. The program features Mozart's Symphony No. 1 in E-flat major, K.16, Piano Concerto No. 12 in A major, K.414, and Symphony No. 41 in C major, K.551 ("Jupiter"). More details about this broadcast will be announced at a later date.

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Louis Langrée, music director of the Mostly Mozart Festival since December 2002, was named Renée and Robert Belfer Music Director in August 2006. Mr. Langrée is also music director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and chief conductor of Camerata Salzburg. Under Mr. Langrée's musical leadership of the Mostly Mozart Festival, the Festival Orchestra's stature and recognition have received extensive critical acclaim, further marking these performances as an annual highlight for summertime classical music lovers in New York City. In addition to its focus on the classical repertoire, concerts by the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra now regularly feature works from musical periods following Mozart, including works from the 20th 21st centuries.

Mr. Langrée frequently appears as guest conductor with the Berliner Philharmoniker, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Gewandhaus Orchestra of Leipzig, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, NHK Symphony Orchestra, and Wiener Philharmoniker, as well as with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. His opera engagements include appearances with the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, La Scala, Opéra Bastille, Royal Opera Covent Garden, and Wiener Staatsoper. His festival engagements include appearances at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, BBC Proms, Glyndebourne Festival, Mozartwoche Salzburg, and Wiener Festwochen.

Highlights from the current season include Mr. Langrée conducting the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in New York, as part of the 50th anniversary season of Lincoln Center's Great Performers series. In Cincinnati, he conducted the world premiere performances of Concertos for Orchestra by Sebastian Currier, Thierry Escaich, and Zhou Tian. With Camerata Salzburg, he will tour Germany, and guest engagements include the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra (opening their annual Mendelssohn Festival) and Così fan tutte with the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, which he will also conduct at the Mostly Mozart Festival this year.

Mr. Langrée's first recording with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, released in September 2014, features commissioned works by Nico Muhly and David Lang, as well as Aaron Copland's Lincoln Portrait, narrated by Maya Angelou. His DVD of Verdi's La traviata from the Aix-en-Provence Festival featuring Natalie Dessay and the London Symphony Orchestra was awarded a Diapason d'Or. His discography includes additional recordings on Accord, Naïve, Universal, and Virgin Classics labels. Mr. Langrée was appointed Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in 2006 and Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur in 2014.

Jane Moss is the Ehrenkranz Artistic Director of Lincoln Center, a position that includes her role as Artistic Director of the Mostly Mozart Festival. In that capacity, she has initiated and led the transformation and expansion of the Festival into a multidisciplinary, multilayered, and far-reaching exploration of its namesake genius and his influence on succeeding generations. Ms. Moss has also created several major new initiatives at Lincoln Center, including the international, multigenre Lincoln Center Festival, the New Visions series-which links the worlds of the theater, dance, visual arts, and classical music-and Lincoln Center's American Songbook series, which focuses on classic and contemporary expressions of American song. In the fall of 2010 she launched the multidisciplinary White Light Festival, focused on exploring how the performing arts illuminate our interior lives as expressed by a dynamic, international spectrum of distinctive musical, dance, and theater artists. The programming she has introduced and directs represents a continuing contribution to the vitality of New York's cultural landscape. Ms. Moss also oversees Great Performers, Lincoln Center's major season-long classical music series; Midsummer Night Swing; and the freeLincoln Center Out of Doors summer series. Ms. Moss has played an important role as an innovator in musical and music-based presentation and is a recipient of the French Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur.

Prior to joining Lincoln Center, Ms. Moss worked as an arts consultant, designing and developing projects and programming initiatives for a variety of foundations and arts organizations, including the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund and the Pew Charitable Trusts. As Executive Director of Meet The Composer, a national organization serving American composers, Ms. Moss created the country's largest composer commissioning program, as well as a program supporting collaborations between composers and choreographers. In addition, she served as Executive Director of New York's leading off-Broadway theater company, Playwrights Horizons, and Executive Director of the Alliance of Resident Theaters/New York.

Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival-America's first indoor summer music festival-was launched as an experiment in 1966. Called "Midsummer Serenades: A Mozart Festival," its first two seasons were devoted exclusively to the music of Mozart. The official title of Mostly Mozart was coined in 1970, and the Festival has evolved over time to become a New York institution and a highlight of the city's summer classical music season. Over time, and through the leadership of Ehrenkranz Artistic Director Jane Moss and Renee and Robert Belfer Music Director Louis Langrée, Mostly Mozart has broadened its focus beyond the music of Mozart to include works by his predecessors, contemporaries, and successors. In addition to concerts by the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, Mostly Mozart now includes concerts by the world's outstanding period-instrument ensembles, chamber orchestras and ensembles, and acclaimed soloists, as well as opera productions, dance, film, and late-night performances. Contemporary music has become an essential part of the Festival, embodied in annual artist and composer residencies including Osvaldo Golijov, John Adams, Kaija Saariaho, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, George Benjamin, and the International Contemporary Ensemble. Among the many artists and ensembles who have had long associations with the Festivalare Joshua Bell, Christian Tetzlaff, Itzhak Perlman, Emanuel Ax, Garrick Ohlsson, Stephen Hough, Osmo Vänskä, the Budapest Festival Orchestra, Emerson String Quartet, Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, and the Mark Morris Dance Group. The Festival's popularity has been reflected in several cultural touchstones, including an Al Hirschfeld illustration, a Peanuts cartoon strip, beer cans, and a cover of The New Yorker magazine.

The Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra is the resident orchestra of the Mostly Mozart Festival, and is the only chamber orchestra in the U.S. dedicated to the music of the Classical period. Since 2002 Louis Langrée has been the Orchestra's music director, and since 2005 the Orchestra's David Geffen Hall home has been transformed each summer into an appropriately intimate venue for its performances. Over the years, the Orchestra has been the Festival's ambassador, touring to such notable festivals and venues as Ravinia, Great Woods, Tanglewood, Bunkamura in Tokyo, the Kennedy Center, and The White House. Conductors who made their New York debuts leading the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra include Michael Tilson Thomas, David Zinman, Jérémie Rhorer, Edward Gardner, Lionel Bringuier, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Charles Dutoit, Leonard Slatkin,Susanna Mälkki, and Edo de Waart. Mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli, flutist James Galway, soprano Elly Ameling, and pianist Mitsuko Uchida all made their U.S. debuts with the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra.

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (LCPA) serves three primary roles: presenter of artistic programming, national leader in arts and education and community engagement, and manager of the Lincoln Center campus. A presenter of more than 3,000 free and ticketed events, performances, tours, and educational activities annually, LCPA offers 16 series, festivals, and programs including American Songbook, Avery Fisher Career Grants and Artist program, David Rubenstein Atrium programming, Great Performers, Legends at Lincoln Center: The Performing Arts Hall of Fame, Lincoln Center at the Movies, Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Awards, Lincoln Center Festival, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, Lincoln Center Vera List Art Project, Midsummer Night Swing, Mostly Mozart Festival, White Light Festival, the Emmy Award-winning Live From Lincoln Center, which airs nationally on PBS, and Lincoln Center Education, which is celebrating 40 years enriching the lives of students, educators, and lifelong learners. As manager of the Lincoln Center campus, LCPA provides support and services for the Lincoln Center complex and the 11 resident organizations: The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, The Film Society of Lincoln Center, Jazz at Lincoln Center, The Juilliard School, Lincoln Center Theater, The Metropolitan Opera, New York City Ballet, New York Philharmonic, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, the School of American Ballet, and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. For more information, visit lincolncenter.org.