Riverside Symphony's 2018-19 Alice Tully Hall Season Opener To Include A New York Premiere, Rare Gem, And Music Hall Favorite

Riverside Symphony opens its 38th season on Friday evening, November 16th at Alice Tully Hall. Music Director George Rothman will lead the orchestra in a boldly innovative program headlined by American composer Stephen Hartke's new piano concerto, Ship of State and featuring Xak Bjerken, the pianist for whom the piece was written. Franz Schreker, known mainly as an opera composer in a short but illustrious career derailed by rising anti-Semitism in early 1930s Germany, is enjoying something of a worldwide revival. His otherworldly, hyper-Romantic Chamber Symphony-which has attained an almost cult-like status- and Kurt Weill's universally adored Little Threepenny Music, complete the program.

PROGRAM

FRIDAY, November 16, 2018 at 8pm

Featuring Xak Bjerken, piano

HARTKE Ship of State NY Premiere*

SCHREKER Chamber Symphony

WEILL Little Threepenny Music

*featured in our Hear Hear! preview performance, which precedes the concert at 7:15 pm and is free to all ticket holders

A leading American exponent of contemporary music for decades, pianist Xak Bjerken performed throughout the US as a member of the Los Angeles Piano Quartet for many years. He has appeared with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Spoleto Festival Orchestra, Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra, the Schoenberg Ensemble, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and at distinguished arts festivals and performing arts centers around the world. He is the director of Ensemble X, a new music ensemble and with his wife, pianist Miri Yampolsky, co-directs Mayfest, an international chamber music festival at Cornell University, where he currently serves as Professor of Music. He released his first solo recording on CRI in 2001, and has since recorded for Koch International, Chandos, Albany Records, and Artona, and is about to release his third recording for Open G Records.

George Rothman, Riverside Symphony's founding music director and conductor, has led orchestras throughout the United States, as well as in South America, Asia, and Europe. Praised as "adventurous, committed, [and] energetic" by Musical America, his performances of an unusually diverse repertory are also routinely acclaimed by The New York Times and other leading publications. As an advocate for new music, Mr. Rothman has led well over 150 world and local premieres from both established and emerging composers around the world, while Riverside Symphony's seven CDs of major contemporary orchestral works-mainly world premiere recordings-under his leadership have been lauded by Fanfare for their "awesomely assured performances." Furthermore, Mr. Rothman is active as a pianist and lecturer, regularly participating in workshops and seminars with leading American composers.

He has served on the music faculties of Columbia and Yale Universities and, since 2005, Brooklyn College, where he is currently Conductor of the Conservatory Orchestra and Professor of Music.

Riverside Symphony, co-founded in 1981 by George Rothman and Anthony Korf, has been widely noted for its unique focus on discovery-of young artists, unfamiliar works by the great masters, and important new pieces by living composers from around the world, for which it provides a rare forum at its annual Lincoln Center concert series at Alice Tully Hall. Critically acclaimed for its vibrant performances of music from all periods, the orchestra counts New York's finest instrumentalists among its membership. Riverside Symphony CDs have brought international acclaim, including a Grammy nomination and Editor's Pick from Britain's Gramophone and The New York Times. The orchestra can be heard on Riverside Symphony Records (1401 Constant), Bridge Records (9057 Ruders; 9091 Imbrie; 9112 Davidovsky; 9294 Korf), and New World Records (383 Davidovsky, Korf, Wright).

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.