The Orchestra Now To Prepare For An Impressive Spring Season

The Orchestra Now (T?N) will kick off its spring season of four concerts on March 17 with music director Leon Botstein conducting an Italian evening at Carnegie Hall. Spotlighting the charming comic opera Susanna's Secret and works by Respighi, the concert is the second in this year's Carnegie Hall series. T?N Associate Conductor James Bagwell will follow with two all-American music concerts that include an 80th birthday tribute to Philip Glass. These will take place at LaGuardia Performing Arts Center in Queens (a FREE performance on April 2), and at the Performing Arts Center at Purchase College (April 1, tickets required). A history of scandal informs the Miraculous Mandarin program on April 22-23. The one-act ballet - with music by Bartók - was deemed so morally offensive it was barred from further performance after the premiere. The ballet will be coupled with a rare performance of Ligeti's Violin Concerto and Dohnányi's Symphony No. 2.

T?N at Carnegie Hall Series, Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage

Audiences will be treated to an evening of music by Italian composers at Carnegie Hall, featuring Wolf-Ferrari's delightful one-act comic intermezzo, Il segreto di Susanna (Susanna's Secret). The plot follows Count Gil's suspicions that his wife Susanna has a lover who smokes, only to discover that she is the one who's been smoking. The program will also offer two works by Respighi: the composer's Rossiniana, based on piano music from his collection Péchés de vieillesse (Sins of Old Age); and Church Windows, a four-part symphonic suite inspired by his travels to Capri.

Susanna's Secret

Fri, March 17, 2017 at 7:30 pm

The Orchestra Now

Leon Botstein, conductor

Jinwon Park, soprano

Michael Kelly, baritone
Respighi: Church Windows
Respighi: Rossiniana
Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari: Il segreto di Susanna

Tickets starting at $25 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 Avenue.

T?N at the Performing Arts Center at Purchase College

Three American composers take center stage on this program. Alfred Hitchcock film buffs may recognize the music of Bernard Herrmann as the evening begins. Of the seven film scores that resulted from the New York native's long term collaboration with the famous director, his Prelude from North by Northwest is likely one of the most exciting. Next, T?N celebrates the 80th birthday of iconic American composer Philip Glass with a performance of his Symphony No. 1, based on British avant-garde musician David Bowie's album Low. The program comes to a close with the broad orchestral palette of Roy Harris' Symphony No. 3.

Glass on Bowie

Sat. April 1, 2017 at 8 pm
The Orchestra Now

James Bagwell, conductor

Herrmann: Prelude from North by Northwest

Roy Harris: Symphony No. 3

Glass: Symphony No. 1, Low
Tickets, starting at $45, may be purchased online at www.artscenter.org, by calling The Center at 914-251-6200, or in person at The Center box office at 735 Anderson Hill Road in Purchase, NY.

Free Concerts Around Town

This program is a repeat of the April 1 concert.

LaGuardia Performing Arts Center in Queens

Sun. April 2, 2017 at 3pm

The Orchestra Now

James Bagwell, conductor

Bernard Herrmann: Prelude from North by Northwest

Roy Harris: Symphony No. 3

Glass: Symphony No. 1, Low

Tickets: All Around Town concerts are FREE, complimentary tickets will be available at the door. RSVP to show interest at theorchestranow.org.

T?N at the Fisher Center for the Performing Arts

T?N will present one of the Bard Conservatory 2016 Concerto Competition winners Matthew Woodard in Ligeti's microtonal Violin Concerto, along with a performance of The Miraculous Mandarin Suite, Bartók's music for a one-act pantomime ballet based on a scandalous story by Melchior Lengyel. Premiered in 1926 in Cologne, the work caused a moral uproar and was barred from the repertoire. Dohnányi's Symphony No. 2, a dramatically romantic work for large orchestra, will also be performed.

Bartók's The Miraculous Mandarin
Sat, April 22, 2017 at 8 PM

Sun, April 23, 2017 at 2 PM
The Orchestra Now

Leon Botstein, conductor

Matthew Woodard, violin
Bartók: The Miraculous Mandarin Suite

György Ligeti: Violin Concerto

Ern? Dohnányi: Symphony No. 2

Tickets starting at $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.

The Orchestra Now

Founded in 2015, The Orchestra Now (T?N) is an innovative pre-professional orchestra and master's degree program at Bard College that is preparing a new generation of musicians to break down barriers between modern audiences and great orchestral music of the past and present. Under the leadership of conductor, educator, and music historian Leon Botstein, T?N mines the wealth of underperformed repertoire, reimagines traditional concert formats, and strives to make the experience of the performers a part of the listeners' experience. At a T?N concert, musicians and audience inspire one another, each following their curiosity with a shared sense of adventure.

The musicians of T?N hail from across the U.S. and eleven other countries: Australia, Canada, China, France, Hungary, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Spain, Taiwan and Venezuela. In addition to a concert series at their home base - the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College - they perform multiple concerts each season at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, and offer complimentary concerts at venues across the boroughs of New York City in the Around Town series. At The Metropolitan Museum of Art they join Leon Botstein in the series Sight & Sound as he explores the places where musical and visual expression meet, pairing orchestral works with masterpieces from the museum's collection.

In addition to Mr. Botstein and T?N's associate conductor and academic director, James Bagwell, guest conductors in the first two seasons include Jindong Cai, Federico Cortese, JoAnn Falletta, Fabio Luisi, Gerard Schwarz, and Zachary Schwartzman.

For more information, 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, the pre-professional orchestra and master's degree program founded by Bard College. 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. He will assume the artistic directorship of Grafenegg, Austria in 2018. 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 LeonBotsteinMusicRoom.com.