The Orchestra To Perform TRANSCRIPTION AS TRANSLATION At Carnegie Hall & Free Concert At Symphony Space

The Orchestra Now (TŌN) launches its winter/spring, 10th anniversary season in New York City with two concerts. Music Director Leon Botstein leads the first at Carnegie Hall, with a selection of orchestral transcriptions by Beethoven, Chopin, and Smetana (February 11); followed by a free concert at Peter Norton Symphony Space featuring guest cellist Raman Ramakrishnan in a work by the eminent Bard Conservatory faculty member, Joan Tower, with resident conductor Zachary Schwartzman (March 23).

Transcription as Translation

Tuesday, February 11, 2025, at 7 PM

Carnegie Hall, Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage

The Orchestra Now

Leon Botstein, conductor

Mily Balakirev: Chopin Suite

Bedřich Smetana (orch. Szell): From My Life (String Quartet in E Minor)

Beethoven (orch. Weingartner): Hammerklavier (Piano Sonata No. 29)

TŌN performs three orchestral transcriptions of works by master composers Beethoven, Chopin, and Smetana. In 1910, the last year of his life, Russian composer and pianist Mily Balakirev transcribed four pieces into an orchestral suite to celebrate the centenary of Chopin's birth. To honor another centenary in 1927, that of Beethoven's death, Austrian conductor and composer Felix Weingartner crafted a full orchestration of Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 29, the Hammerklavier. While teaching composition at Mannes College of Music in 1940, acclaimed Hungarian-born American conductor George Szell created an orchestral transcription of Smetana's E-minor String Quartet, From My Life.

Tickets, priced at $25–$50, are available online at carnegiehall.org, by calling CarnegieCharge at 212.247.7800, or at the Carnegie Hall box office at 57th & Seventh Avenue.

Joan Tower & Tchaikovsky's 5th

Sunday, March 23, 2025, at 4 PM

Peter Norton Symphony Space

The Orchestra Now

Zachary Schwartzman, conductor

Raman Ramakrishnan, cello

David Serkin Ludwig: Fanfare for Sam

Joan Tower: A New Day

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64 

Resident conductor Zachary Schwartzman opens the program with the Fanfare for Samuel Barber by David Serkin Ludwig, nephew of the late Peter Serkin, a Bard Conservatory faculty member. Cellist Raman Ramakrishnan, a founding member of the Daedalus Quartet and Bard Conservatory faculty member, joins TŌN for A New Day, a recent composition by another Bard Conservatory faculty member, the renowned Joan Tower. The concert concludes with Tchaikovsky's 5th Symphony.

Tickets are FREE and available online with RSVP at ton.bard.edu.

For detailed information about the 2025 winter/spring season, visit ton.bard.edu.