The Orchestra Now Announces 2016-17 Season

The Orchestra Now (TON), the visionary master's degree program and pre-professional training orchestra founded in 2015 by Bard College and conductor, educator, and music historian Leon Botstein, will open its impressive second season, comprising five series, at Bard College on September 24.

The 2016-17 TON season has added 36 new participants to the program for a total of 68 exceptional graduate musicians from ten different countries including the U.S., Australia,Canada, China, Hungary, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Spain, and Venezuela. All undertake the three-year Master of Music Degree Program in Curatorial, Critical, and Performance Studies. As Bard is uniquely suited to offer TON musicians an outstanding opportunity for orchestral training, hundreds of applicants competed for the chance to rehearse, perform, and study with Bard College faculty, guest scholars, and performing artists, surrounded by the intellectual atmosphere of a liberal arts college that encompasses one of the most progressive classical music centers in America.

"The resounding success of TON's first season has been demonstrated not only by the positive response of its new and growing audiences, but also by the enthusiastic feedback our faculty has received from its pre-professional musicians," said music director Leon Botstein. "The overarching goal of TON is to prepare these young artists for the challenges facing today's symphony orchestra. In our expanded 2016-17 concert season, it is my hope that musicians and audiences will continue to inspire each other through meaningful communication, non-traditional program formats that engage the community, and a shared sense of adventure."

Highlights of the 2016 - 17 season include a new series at Jazz at Lincoln Center's Frederick P. Rose Hall featuring an all-American composers concert, a special performance of Bernstein's Candide at Bard, and an expanded Bard College series that has increased from five to seven performances since last season. Concerts will continue at Carnegie Hall and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, as well as throughout New York City's boroughs as part of TON's popular free performance events. The Orchestra will be led by music director Leon Botstein, associate conductor and academic director James Bagwell, and guest conductors including Fabio Luisi, Oleg Caetani, Jindong Cai, Harold Farberman, JoAnn Falletta, and Zachary Schwartzman. TON's programs offer unconventional combinations of familiar and lesser-known repertoire, and in select concerts, Leon Botstein will discuss the works and answer questions from the audience in addition to conducting the performance.

THE ORCHESTRA NOW 2016-17 PERFORMANCE SEASON

THE FISHER CENTER SERIES AT BARD COLLEGE, Sosnoff Theater

The TON season opens in residence at Bard College's Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Artson September 24, and continues with an expanded subscription series of five performances at the Sosnoff Theater through April 23, 2017. The Orchestra will be led by music director Leon Bostein with guest conductors Jindong Cai, the award-winning holder of Stanford's Gretchen B. Kimball Director of Orchestral Studies Chair; and Harold Farberman, American conductor, composer and founder of the Conductors Guild. Among the featured soloists are Bard College Conservatory of Music concerto competition winners John Belk, cello, Viktor Toth, clarinet, and Matthew Woodard, violin. The details of the fifth performance will be announced soon. There will also be two special off-series events at Bard College; a semi-staged production of Leonard Bernstein's much-loved opera Candide led by TON associate conductor and academic director James Bagwell with soloists from Bard's Graduate Vocal Arts Program, and a season finale concert conducted by Fabio Luisi, general music director of the Zurich Opera and principal conductor of the Metropolitan Opera.

Copland & Bruckner

Sat. Sep 24, 2016 at 8 pm

Sun. Sep 25, 2016 at 2 pm

Leon Botstein, conductor

Viktor Toth, clarinet
Copland: Clarinet Concerto
Bruckner: Symphony No. 5

Elgar's Enigma Variations

Sat. Oct 29, 2016 at 8 pm

Sun. Oct 30, 2016 at 2 pm

Leon Botstein, conductor
John Belk, cello
Britten: Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes

Mahler: Adagio from Symphony No. 10 (Harold Farberman, conductor)

William Walton: Cello Concerto

Elgar: Enigma Variations

Cai Conducts Rachmaninoff

Sat. Nov 19, 2016 at 8 pm

Sun. Nov 20, 2016 at 2 pm
Jindong Cai, conductor

Jie Yuan, piano

Adams: The Chairman Dances

Xiaogang Ye: Scent of the Green Mango

Rachmaninoff: Symphonic Dances

Bartok's The Miraculous Mandarin

Sat. Apr 22, 2017 at 8 pm

Sun. Apr 23, 2017 at 2 pm

Leon Botstein, conductor

Matthew Woodard, violin
Bartok: The Miraculous Mandarin Suite

Ligeti:Violin Concerto

Erno Dohnanyi: Symphony No. 2

Special Concerts at the Fisher Center

Candide

Sat. Feb 25, 2017 at 8 pm

Sun. Feb 26, 2017 at 2 pm

James Bagwell, conductor
Bard's Graduate Vocal Arts Program soloists
Leonard Bernstein: Candide (semi-staged production)

Fabio Luisi Conducts Brahms

Sun. May 28, 2017 at 1 pm
Fabio Luisi, conductor

Program to include Brahms' Symphony No. 4

Tickets from $25 (series from $56.25). Packages available now; single tickets beginning August 8. Tickets may be purchased by calling the box office at 845-758-7900, in person at the Fisher Center box office, or by visiting the website at fishercenter.bard.edu.

SIGHT & SOUND SERIES AT THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, The Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium

TON returns to The Metropolitan Museum of Art, where conductor and music historian Leon Botstein and the Orchestra explore the places where musical and visual expression meet, pairing orchestral works with masterpieces from The Met's collection. Each event in this three-concert series includes a discussion illustrated with on-screen artworks and orchestral excerpts, a full performance of the selected music, and an audience Q&A.

Hindemith & Beckmann: Expressionism and Exile

Sun. Oct 16, 2016 at 2 pm
Hindemith's Mathis der Maler Symphony and the Artwork of Max Beckmann

Hindemith composed this symphony in 1934 during the early stages of work on an opera by the same name. It centers on the Medieval artist Matthias Grunewald, whose famous altarpiece Max Beckmann greatly admired. Both Hindemith and Beckmann ran afoul of the Nazi regime as artists and emigrated to the U.S. Presented in conjunction with the exhibition Max Beckmann in New York, on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art Oct. 18, 2016 - Feb 20, 2017.

Brahms, Menzel & Klinger: The Canvas of Sound

Sun. Jan 29, 2017 at 2 pm
Brahms' Symphony No. 3 and the Artwork of Adolph Menzel and MaxKlinger

Critic Eduard Hanslick called this symphony "artistically the most nearly perfect" of Brahms' works. The composer was profoundly interested in painting and held two particular contemporaries in high regard: Adolf Menzel and Max Klinger. The 3rd symphony invites an exploration of the connection between the visual and the musical in Brahms's world.

Ives & Hartley: Landscapes of Modernism

Sun. May 21, 2017 at 2 pm
Ives' Three Places in New England and the Artwork of Marsden Hartley

In this orchestral set--one of the first American pieces played outside of the country--Connecticut-born composer Charles Ives set out to evoke the atmosphere and history of three locations in New England through music. His contemporary, Maine-born painter Marsden Hartley, was himself deeply stirred by music. The artist returned to Maine in his final years and applied his modernist aesthetic to its landscapes. Presented in conjunction with the exhibition Marsden Hartley's Maine, on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art Mar. 14 - June 18, 2017.

Tickets from $30, series from $75, available now. Tickets may be purchased online at www.metmuseum.org/sightandsound; call 212-535-7710 for more information.

CARNEGIE HALL SERIES, Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage

In TON's second season at Carnegie Hall, Leon Botstein and the Orchestra will present two concerts that focus on music by composers from specific countries. On December 9, a program titled Denounced! illuminates three great Russian composers whose works were deemed politically incorrect, displaying tendencies alien to the Soviet people. Because Shostakovich's song cycle From Jewish Folk Poetry used texts from Jewish folksongs, the 1948 work was not publicly premiered until after the anti-Semitism of the time had abated. That same year, the Central Committee of the Communist Party issued a declaration condemning recent works by Prokofiev and Shostakovich, as well as several other composers. The musical focus moves to Italy on March 17 with an evening offering two works by Respighi and Wolf-Ferrari's delightful one-act comic intermezzo, Il segreto di Susanna (Susanna's Secret).

Denounced!

Fri, Dec 9, 2016 at 7:30 pm
Shostakovich: From Jewish Folk Poetry

Nikolai Myaskovsky: Symphony No. 25

Prokofiev: Symphony No. 6

Susanna's Secret

Fri, March 17, 2017 at 7:30 pm
Respighi: Church Windows
Respighi: Rossiniana
Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari: Il segreto di Susanna

Tickets prices start at $25, available beginning September 6. Tickets may be purchased online at www.carnegiehall.org, by calling CarnegieCharge 212-247-7800, or in person at the Carnegie Hall box office at 57th and Seventh.

TON AT THE ROSE THEATER SERIES

This new series at Jazz at Lincoln Center's Frederick P. Rose Hall will kick off in November with an all-American program of works by Blitzstein, Bernstein, and Copland, followed in the spring by an evening of coincidental alliteration: Schoenberg, Schubert, and Shostakovich.

Bernstein & Copland

Sun, Nov 6, 2016 at 3 pm
Leon Botstein, conductor
Marc Blitzstein: Orchestra Variations
Bernstein: Symphony No. 1, "Jeremiah"
Copland: Statements for Orchestra
Copland: Appalachian Spring

Schubert & Shostakovich
Fri, May 5, 2017 at 7:30 pm
Oleg Caetani, conductor
Schoenberg: Chamber Symphony No. 1
Schubert: Symphony No. 3
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 15

Tickets from $25, available beginning Sept. 6. Tickets may be purchased online at www.jazz.org, by calling 212-721-6500 or at the Frederick P. Rose Hall box office at Jazz at Lincoln Center.

AROUND TOWN FREE CONCERTS SERIES AND ADDITIONAL PERFORMANCES

TON's popular Around Town series attracted dynamically diverse new audiences of all ages during the Orchestra's first season. These free community outreach events have become crowd-pleasing neighborhood activities and are a great opportunity to introduce families and new explorers to the joys of classical music. In the coming season, TON will present four free performances in New York City's boroughs, beginning on December 16, 2016 in Harlem and continuing in the Bronx, Brooklyn, and at an additional venue to be announced, through April 2, 2017.

Free Concerts Around Town

Harlem

Fri. Dec. 16, 2016 at 7 pm

Aaron Davis Hall

JoAnn Falletta, conductor

Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade

Ravel: Sheherazade

Carl Nielsen: Aladdin Suite

The Bronx

Sun. Dec 18 at 3 pm

Lehman Center for the Performing Arts
JoAnn Falletta, conductor

Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade

Ravel: Sheherazade

Carl Nielsen: Aladdin Suite

Brooklyn

Sun. Mar. 5, 2017 at 3 pm

Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts

Zachary Schwartzman, conductor
Mikhail Glinka: Overture from Ruslan and Lyudmila
Messiaen: L'Ascension
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4

Sun. Apr 2, 2017 (borough and venue to be announced)
James Bagwell, conductor

Herrmann: Prelude from North by Northwest

Roy Harris: Symphony No. 3

Glass: Symphony No. 1, Low

Tickets: All Around Town concerts are FREE. Ticketing requirements vary by venue.

ADDITIONAL CONCERTS

Bard College at Simon's Rock in Great Barrington, MA

Daniel Arts Center, McConnell Theater

Fri. Mar. 3, 2017, at 7:30 pm
Zachary Schwartzman, conductor
Mikhail Glinka: Overture from Ruslan and Lyudmila
Messiaen: L'Ascension
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4

Tickets: FREE reserved seat tickets available beginning Feb. 3, 2017.

The Performing Arts Center at Purchase College

Sat. April 1, 2017 at 8 pm
James Bagwell, conductor

Herrmann: Prelude from North by Northwest

Roy Harris: Symphony No. 3

Glass: Symphony No. 1, Low
Tickets from $25, available mid-August.