The Orchestra Now (TON) Spring Season Presents 5 NYC Performances Including 2 Free Concerts

The Orchestra Now (T?N) will feature a prolific spring season offering no less than five concerts in New York City beginning on March 16, when associate conductor James Bagwell leads a FREE concert of works by Bizet, Pärt, and Virgil Thomson at The Great Hall at Cooper Union, part of the Orchestra's ever popular and family-friendly Around Town series. The concert will be repeated at Hudson Hall in Hudson, NY on March 18.

Music director Leon Botstein conducts the next Manhattan performance on March 29: Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique in the final installment of T?N's Rose Theater series at Jazz at Lincoln Center's Frederick P. Rose Hall. He then leads an all-Stravinsky program featuring the composer's The Rite of Spring as part of the Orchestra's residency at Bard College on April 14-15. Guest conductor Jan Latham-Koenig, artistic director of Mexico's Orquesta Filarmónica de la UNAM, will conduct the Orchestra's second FREE concert this spring, a program of Schubert's "Unfinished" Symphony No. 8 and works by Vaughan Williams and Prokofiev at Aaron Davis Hall on April 20. On May 3, Botstein returns to the podium for T?N's final Carnegie Hall concert this season, an evening featuring Bartók's Concerto for Two Pianos with special guests Anna Polonsky and world-renowned Grammy Award-winner Peter Serkin.

The Orchestra's last New York City concert this season is titled Debussy & French Painting: Beyond Realism, an afternoon comparing Debussy's Nocturnes and the artwork of the French Impressionists as part of T?N's Sight & Sound series at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The series' most recent program, Shostakovich, Michelangelo & the Artistic Conscience, played to a sold-out audience and was broadcast live on The Met's Facebook page.

Full details for each of T?N's spring performances are included below.

AROUND TOWN FREE CONCERTS

Bizet's Symphony in C

Fri. Mar 16, 2018 at 7:30 pm at The Great Hall at Cooper Union

Sun. Mar 18, 2018 at 3 pm at Hudson Hall

James Bagwell, conductor

Pärt: Fratres

Virgil Thomson: The Plow that Broke the Plains Suite

Bizet: Symphony in C

Tickets: All Around Town concerts are FREE, no tickets necessary. RSVPs can be made one month before each concert at theorchestranow.org or by calling The Orchestra Now at 646.237.5034.

T?N AT ROSE THEATER SERIES, Jazz at Lincoln Center's Frederick P. Rose Hall

Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique

Thu. Mar 29, 2018 at 7:30 pm

Leon Botstein, conductor

Walter Braunfels: Fantastic Appearances of a Theme by Berlioz

Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique

Tickets, starting at $25, may be purchased online at www.jazz.org, by calling CenterCharge at 212.721.6500, or in person at the Jazz at Lincoln Center box office on the ground floor of the Time Warner Center, Broadway at 60th Street.

THE FISHER CENTER SERIES AT BARD COLLEGE, Sosnoff Theater

Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring

Sat. Apr 14, 2018 at 8 pm

Sun. Apr 15, 2018 at 2 pm

Leon Botstein, conductor

Katherine Pracht, mezzo-soprano

Jonathan Beyer, baritone

Bard College Chamber Singers & Bard Festival Chorale

Members of the Bard College Conservatory Orchestra

All-Stravinsky:

Funeral Song

Symphony of Psalms

Requiem Canticles

The Rite of Spring

Tickets, starting $25, 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.

AROUND TOWN FREE CONCERTS

Schubert's Unfinished Symphony

Fri. April 20, 2018 at 7 pm at City College Center for the Arts at Aaron Davis Hall

Jan Latham-Koenig, conductor

Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis

Schubert: Symphony No. 8, 'Unfinished'

Prokofiev: Romeo and Juliet Suite

Tickets: All Around Town concerts are FREE, no tickets necessary. RSVPs can be made one month before each concert at theorchestranow.org or by calling The Orchestra Now at 646.237.5034.

Carnegie Hall SERIES, Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage

Bartók's Concerto for Two Pianos

Thu. May 3, 2018 at 7 pm

Leon Botstein, conductor

Peter Serkin, piano

Anna Polonsky, piano

László Lajtha: Symphony No. 7, 'Revolution'

Bartók: Concerto for Two Pianos, Percussion, and Orchestra

Ahmed Adnan Saygun: Symphony No. 4

Tickets, starting at $25, may be purchased online at www.carnegiehall.org, by calling CarnegieCharge at 212.247.7800, or in person at the Carnegie Hall box office at 57th and Seventh.

SIGHT & SOUND SERIES AT THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART

The Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium

Sun. May 20, 2018 at 2 pm

Leon Botstein, conductor

Members of the Bard Festival Chorale

Debussy & French Painting: Beyond Realism

This program explores how Debussy's works and those of Manet, Degas, and Whistler - who created his own series of atmospheric scenes that he labeled "nocturnes" - express different artistic responses to nature in music and painting. As with all Sight & Sound concerts, on-screen artworks are staged in a lively discussion alongside musical excerpts performed by the Orchestra, followed by a full performance and audience Q & A.

Presented in conjunction with the exhibition Public Parks, Private Gardens: Paris to Provence, on view at The Met Fifth Avenue March 6, 2018 - July 29, 2018.

All Sight & Sound concerts are a co-presentation with MetLiveArts.

Tickets from $30, bring the kids for $1. Tickets may be purchased online at metmuseum.org/sightandsound, by calling The Met at 212.570.3949, or in person at The Great Hall box office at The Metropolitan Museum of Art at 5th Ave and 82nd St.

The Orchestra Now

The Orchestra Now (T?N) is a group of some 80 vibrant young musicians from more than 12 different countries around the globe, whose goal is to make orchestral music relevant to 21st-century audiences. They are lifting the curtain on the musicians' experience by sharing their unique personal insights in a welcoming environment. Hand-picked from hundreds of applicants from the world's leading conservatories - including The Juilliard School, Shanghai Conservatory of Music, Royal Conservatory of Brussels, and the Curtis Institute of Music - the members of T?N are not only rousing audiences with their critically acclaimed performances, but also enlightening curious minds by presenting on-stage introductions and demonstrations at concerts, offering program notes written from the musicians' perspective, and connecting with patrons through one-on-one discussions during intermissions.

Conductor, educator, and music historian Leon Botstein founded T?N in 2015 as a master's degree program at Bard College, where he also serves as president. The Orchestra is in residence at Bard's Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts, offering multiple concerts there each season as well as participating in the annual Bard Music Festival. The Orchestra also performs numerous concert series at major venues in New York, including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, as well as a schedule of free performances across New York City boroughs. T?N has collaborated with many distinguished conductors, including Fabio Luisi, Neeme Järvi, Gerard Schwarz, and JoAnn Falletta.

For upcoming activities and more detailed information about the musicians, visit theorchestranow.org.

Leon Botstein

Leon Botstein brings a renowned career as both a conductor and educator to his role as music director of The Orchestra Now. He has been music director of the American Symphony Orchestra since 1992, artistic co-director of Bard SummerScape and the Bard Music Festival since their creation, and president of Bard College since 1975. He was the music director of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra from 2003-2011, and is now conductor laureate. This year, he assumes artistic directorship of Campus Grafenegg and Grafenegg Academy in Austria. Mr. Botstein is also a frequent guest conductor with orchestras around the globe, has made numerous recordings, and is a prolific author and music historian. He is the editor of the prestigious The Musical Quarterly, and has received many honors for his contributions to music. More info online at LeonBotstein.com.