Riverside Symphony Announces 2018 Season

Premieres, rarities from the past, and a special collaboration are among the highlights of Riverside Symphony's 37th season. January 20 and June 6 Alice Tully Hall performances will frame a February 25 family-friendly program at Merkin Concert Hall with Robert Rogers Puppets.

Under the baton of founding Music Director George Rothman, the orchestra's longstanding reputation for programmatic innovation will be amply evident throughout the season. For example, the season-opener traces an arc from the Baroque to the Classical-with a modern take on the former via the U.S. Premiere of New York composer Matthew Greenbaum's The Jig is Up featuring the orchestra's newly-appointed principal oboist, Roni Gal-Ed. In February, Robert Roger's globally-renowned puppet troupe will freshly interpret two beloved chamber masterpieces, Saint Saëns' Carnival of the Animals and Stravinsky's l'Histoire du soldat. The season will close on June 6 with Schubert and Sibelius symphonies and the World Premiere of Anthony Korf's Concerto for Violin and Orchestra featuring Jesse Mills.

PROGRAMS

Antecedents

SATURDAY, JANUARY 20, 2018, 8pm

Featuring Roni Gal-Ed, oboe

TELEMANN Concerto "alla Francese" in C Major

GREENBAUM The Jig is Up US Premiere

C.P.E. BACH Berlin Symphony in E-flat major H. 654, Wq. 179

MOZART Symphony No. 29 in A major

Georg Philipp Telemann's dancing concerto grosso sets the stage for Matthew Greenbaum's similarly light-footed concertino for oboe, a work-in both title and substance-that reveals the composer's deep affinity for Baroque music. Correspondingly, Mozart's glowing, shockingly mature early symphony betrays a significant debt to transitional master C.P.E. Bach-of whom the former once proclaimed: "He is the father, we are the children."

Described as an "expressive, wonderful player" (SZ Magazine, Germany); "virtuoso and elegant" (Double Reed Magazine, Germany); and "outstanding" (The New York Times) - Roni Gal-Ed is a first prize winner at the International Lauschmann Oboe Competition in Mannheim, Germany, and a recipient of scholarships from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation and from the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra.

Strings Attached

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2018, 3pm

With Robert Rogers Puppets

Featuring Riverside Symphony principal players

SAINT-SAENS Carnival of the Animals

STRAVINSKY l'Histoire du Soldat

Camille Saint-Saëns's disarming classic and Igor Stravinsky's urbane chamber masterpiece are transformed through the magical melding of virtuoso musicianship and exquisite puppetry.

Renowned for more than thirty years, Robert Rogers Puppets has appeared at performing arts centers, universities, museums and schools across the country. Internationally, they have performed at the Neopolis Children's Theater Festival in Tunisia; the Global Puppet Theater Festival in Taiwan; the World Puppet Festival in Prague; the Puppets Up! Festival in Almonte, Canada; the Children's Palace in Beijing; and FANA, the Foundation for the Assistance of Abandoned Children in Bogota, Colombia.

New Wine-Old Bottles

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 6, 2018, 8pm

Featuring Jesse Mills, violin

SCHUBERT Symphony No. 8 in B minor "Unfinished"

KORF Concerto for Violin and Orchestra World Premiere

SIBELIUS Symphony No. 3 in C major

Schubert's incomplete masterpiece bears out Beethoven's deathbed decree that, "Truly in Schubert there is the divine spark," while Sibelius's radiant mid-period statement brings what many thought to be a tired, old form to new heights. Anthony Korf's bold new concerto proposes that frontiers remain to be conquered.

Two-time Grammy nominated violinist Jesse Mills has performed as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the U.S. and Canada. Mills is the co-founder of the Horszowski Trio and Duo Prism, a violin-piano duo with Rieko Aizawa, which earned 1st Prize at the Zinetti International Competition in Italy in 2006. In 2010, the Third Street Music School Settlement in NYC honored him with the 'Rising Star Award' for musical achievement.

Tickets range in price from $34 to $65. Subscriptions, group rates, family plan, and student tickets are available. To purchase, please call (212) 864-4197 or visit www.riversidesymphony.org.