'Foreign Bodies' Multidisciplinary Event Conducted and Hosted by Esa-Pekka Salonen

The New York Philharmonic announces Foreign Bodies, a one-night-only multidisciplinary event conducted and hosted by Esa-Pekka Salonen, concluding his tenure as The Marie-Josée Kravis Composer-in-Residence. The concert, Friday, June 8, 2018, at 8:00 p.m., will feature Esa-Pekka Salonen's Foreign Bodies, accompanied by the World Premiere of a live video installation by Tal Rosner; Daníel Bjarnason's Violin Concerto, with Pekka Kuusisto in his New York Philharmonic debut; and Obsidian Tear, a dance work choreographed by Wayne McGregor performed by members of the Boston Ballet (Philharmonic debut) and set to Mr. Salonen's Nyx and Lachen verlernt. Foreign Bodies will be casual and multi-sensory; drinks and conversation will flow as attendees mingle with the performers, who will give additional impromptu performances throughout the event.

The program showcases several cross-pollinating collaborations related to Esa-Pekka Salonen. Tal Rosner previously created a video installation for Lachen verlernt (most recently presented at London's Barbican Centre in December 2017), and Wayne McGregor previously choreographed a ballet to Foreign Bodies. Mr. Salonen conducted the premiere of Wayne McGregor's Obsidian Tear in May 2016 in London. The New York Philharmonic performed Esa-Pekka Salonen's Nyx in New York and Europe in March 2015. Daníel Bjarnason, whose Violin Concerto was written for Pekka Kuusisto, co-curated the Los Angeles Philharmonic's 2017 Reykjavik Festival with Mr. Salonen.

In Foreign Bodies, video designer and director Tal Rosner will manipulate live-feed images of the players and conductor on stage. Mr. Rosner writes that he will "animate textural shifts and instrumental gestures, creating a performance that is in effect a closed circuit -- where the flow of sound and projected images are inherently intertwined. It is a hyper-synched video interpretation of the orchestral piece, drawing inspiration from action paintings and expressionist abstractions. The elemental yet simple approach is rooted in Salonen's own reading of his composition, prioritizing 'the physical reality of the music, i.e., the sound itself,' and celebrating the wild rhythmical variety in the piece."

The New York Times called Wayne McGregor's Obsidian Tear "a choreographic breakthrough." He titled the work after the Native American legend about obsidian, volcanic rock formed when lava cools rapidly: a tribe of warriors leap to their deaths over a cliff rather than be defeated by the invading U.S. cavalry, and their families' tears become obsidian. Mr. McGregor says he found a similarity between obsidian and Nyx, the Greek goddess of night: "Her darkness, her deep unknowability, arising from some hidden source, but also her shimmering almost-translucence, the aspect of night which thins the membrane between worlds so that truths are half-glimpsed in dreams."

Esa-Pekka Salonen - the composer-conductor who displays "a kind of complete musicianship rarely encountered today" (The Boston Globe) - is in his third and final season as The Marie-Josée Kravis Composer-in-Residence. The Orchestra gave the New York Premiere of his Gambit in October 2017, Susanna Mälkki led the New York Concert Premiere of his Helix this month, and in April 2018 he will conduct the World Premiere-New York Philharmonic Commission of Kravis Emerging Composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir's Metacosmos, Beethoven's Symphony No. 3, Eroica, and Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3, with Benjamin Grosvenor (inaugural recipient of the Ronnie and Lawrence Ackman Classical Piano Prize at the New York Philharmonic). Highlights of Mr. Salonen's residency have included the New York and European Premieres of his Cello Concerto with Yo-Yo Ma (2017); the CONTACT! concerts "Salonen's Floof and Other Delights" (2016) and "The Messiaen Connection" (2016); and his conducting Messiaen's Turangalîla-symphonie, as part of Messiaen Week (2016), and Circle Map, a program celebrating Kaija Saariaho presented by Park Avenue Armory (2016).

Artists
Esa-Pekka Salonen's restless innovation drives him constantly to reposition classical music in the 21st century. He is currently the principal conductor and artistic advisor of London's Philharmonia Orchestra and the conductor laureate of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. This is his final of three seasons as The Marie-Josée Kravis Composer-in-Residence at the New York Philharmonic and his second of five as artist-in-association at the Finnish National Opera and Ballet. Additionally, Mr. Salonen is artistic director and cofounder of the annual Baltic Sea Festival, now in its 16th year, which invites celebrated artists to promote unity and ecological awareness among the countries around the Baltic Sea. He serves as an advisor to the Sync Project, a global initiative to harness the power of music for human health. Mr. Salonen's compositions move freely between contemporary idioms, combining intricacy and technical virtuosity with playful rhythmic and melodic innovations. The Los Angeles Philharmonic performs all of Mr. Salonen's concertos in February 2018, with cellist Yo-Yo Ma, pianist Yefim Bronfman, and violinist Leila Josefowicz - the musicians for whom the works were written. The Violin Concerto won the prestigious Grawemeyer Award and was featured in a 2014 international Apple ad campaign for iPad. The Barbican Centre in London has a season-long focus on Mr. Salonen's music, including the European Premiere of a new work for the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Mr. Salonen and the Philharmonia have experimented in groundbreaking ways to present music, with the first major virtual-reality production from a U.K. symphony orchestra; the award-winning RE-RITE and Universe of Sound installations, which have allowed people all over the world to conduct, play, and step inside the orchestra through audio and video projections; and The Orchestra, the much-hailed app for iPad that allows users unprecedented access to the internal workings of eight symphonic works. Esa-Pekka Salonen made his New York Philharmonic debut in December 1986 conducting the U.S. Premiere of Castiglioni's Sinfonia con giardino in addition to works by Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, and Nielsen; most recently, he led the Orchestra in a New York Premiere by Stravinsky, a U.S. Premiere by Tansy Davies co-commissioned by the Philharmonic, and music by Richard Strauss in April 2017.

Pekka Kuusisto is renowned for his fresh approach to repertoire and his flair in directing ensembles from the violin. He is artistic partner with The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, artistic director of the Australian Chamber Orchestra's ACO Collective, and this year became Artistic Best Friend of Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen after a longstanding creative collaboration with the ensemble. In 2018 he will be guest artistic leader of the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra. Other directing engagements include the Tapiola Sinfonietta and the Swedish and Mahler Chamber Orchestras. This season he appears with Amsterdam's Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo, Orchestre de Paris, and the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra. He also undertakes a European tour with London's Philharmonia Orchestra and appears with the ensemble throughout the season; play-directs the Berlin Philharmonic's Karajan Academy with tenor Mark Padmore; and has a mini-residency at Pierre Boulez Saal with REDDRESS, a collaborative project with South Korean artist Aamu Song. An advocate of contemporary music, Mr. Kuusisto has premiered new works by Daníel Bjarnason, Sauli Zinovjev, Andrea Tarrodi, Anders Hillborg, and Thomas Dausgaard. He is also composing, performing, and recording music for a new animated television series of Tove Jansson's Moomin stories with Samuli Kosminen. A gifted improviser, recent projects include collaborations with Hauschka and Samuli Kosminen, Dutch neurologist Erik Scherder, electronic music pioneer Brian Crabtree, and jazz trumpeter Arve Henriksen. Pekka Kuusisto is artistic director of the award-winning annual Our Festival in Sibelius's hometown, Järvenpää, Finland. Recent concerto appearances include the Edinburgh International Festival with the Minnesota Orchestra and Osmo Vänskä, the BBC Proms with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Thomas Dausgaard, and concerts with the Seattle, Cincinnati, and Finnish Radio symphony orchestras. A keen chamber musician, his regular partners include Nicolas Altstaedt, Anne Sofie von Otter, Simon Crawford-Phillips, Alexander Lonquich, and Olli Mustonen. Pekka Kuusisto plays a Stradivarius violin kindly on loan from the Beares International Violin Society. The New York Philharmonic co-presented Pekka Kuusisto performing Ligeti's Violin Concerto, led by then Music Director Alan Gilbert, in June 2016.This performance marks his New York Philharmonic debut.

For more than five decades, Boston Ballet's internationally acclaimed performances of classical, neo-classical, and contemporary ballets, combined with a dedication to world-class dance education, and community initiative programs promoting excellence and access to dance, have entertained audiences and made the institution a leader in its field. Under the leadership of artistic director Mikko Nissinen and executive director Max Hodges, the company presents a broad repertoire, including classical ballets, such as Marius Petipa's The Sleeping Beauty, Rudolf Nureyev's Don Quixote, Frederick Ashton's Cinderella, George Balanchine's A Midsummer Night's Dream, Mikko Nissinen's Swan Lake, Florence Clerc's La Bayadère, and John Cranko's Romeo & Juliet; neo-classical ballets by George Balanchine; and contemporary ballets from choreographers including William Forsythe, Ji?í Kylián, Wayne McGregor, Mark Morris, Christopher Wheeldon, and Boston Ballet resident choreographer Jorma Elo. The Boston Ballet is composed of 66 dancers of 16 nationalities and is the major center for dance in New England. It performs its full season at the historic, 2,500-seat Boston Opera House and resides in a state-of-the-art facility in Boston's South End. Boston Ballet has toured nationally and internationally, including to Lincoln Center and the Kennedy Center in 2014, London in 2013, Helsinki in 2012, and Spain in 2010 and 2007. In 2016 Boston Ballet announced a five-year partnership with internationally renowned choreographer William Forsythe and presented his full-length Artifact in February 2017. Recently, Boston Ballet presented the North American Premiere of Wayne McGregor's Obsidian Tear, a co-production with The Royal Ballet. Boston Ballet School provides training for the next generation of professional ballet dancers, and the highest quality dance education serving more than 5,000 students at locations in Boston, Newton, and the North Shore. The Department of Education and Community Initiatives reaches 4,000 individuals in Boston and the surrounding communities each year through programming, events, and activities. This performance marks the New York Philharmonic debut of the Boston Ballet.

Wayne McGregor CBE is a multi-award-winning British choreographer and director. He is artistic director of Studio Wayne McGregor, the creative engine of his life-long choreographic enquiry into thinking through and with the body. Studio Wayne McGregor encompasses his extensive creative collaborations across dance, film, music, visual art, technology, and science; Company Wayne McGregor, his own touring company of dancers; and highly specialized learning and research programs. Studio Wayne McGregor opened its own creative arts space at Here East on Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London in 2017. Wayne McGregor is also resident choreographer at The Royal Ballet, where his productions are acclaimed for their daring reconfiguring of classical language. He is professor of choreography at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance and has an honorary doctor of science degree from Plymouth University and an honorary doctor of letters degree from University of Leeds. He has an honorary fellowship of the British Science Association, and he is serving on the jury for the RIBA International Prize 2018. Wayne McGregor is regularly commissioned by and has works in the repertories of the most important ballet companies around the world, including Paris Opéra Ballet, New York City Ballet, Bolshoi Ballet, Royal Danish Ballet, and San Francisco Ballet. He has choreographed for theater, opera, film (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, The Legend of Tarzan, Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them, Sing), music videos (Radiohead, Thom Yorke, The Chemical Brothers), fashion (Gareth Pugh London Fashion Week 2017, New York Fashion Week 2014), campaigns (Selfridges), television (Brit Awards 2015, 2016), and site-specific performances (Big Dance Trafalgar Square 2012). Wayne McGregor's work has earned him four Critics' Circle National Dance Awards, two Time Out Awards, two South Bank Show Awards, two Olivier Awards, a prix Benois de la Danse, and two Golden Mask Awards. In 2011 Mr. McGregor was awarded a CBE for Services to Dance. This performance marks his first collaboration with the New York Philharmonic.

Video designer and director Tal Rosner works with musicians and theater makers, combining multiple layers of sound and visuals to create a new language of classical / contemporary video installations and live performances. Most recently he was commissioned to create visual interpretations for Steve Reich's Tehillim (Psalms) by London's Barbican Centre and for Olga Neuwirth's Disenchanted Island by IRCAM and Centre Pompidou. Mr. Rosner's other work includes serving as video content director for the Rolling Stones European tour Stones - No Filter (2017); Britten's Four Sea Interludes and Passacaglia (2013-16), commissioned by the New World Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, The Philadelphia Orchestra, and BBC Symphony Orchestra; Chronograph (2011), a site-specific digital art mural in collaboration with artist Casey Reas, which inaugurated the New World Symphony's Frank Gehry-designed building and is still screened daily on its 7,000-square-foot exterior projection wall; and In Seven Days (Piano Concerto with Moving Image), a collaboration with Thomas Adès, commissioned by the Southbank Centre and the Los Angeles Philharmonic (2008), and later performed with the Tonhalle Zürich, Cologne Philharmonie, and the New York Philharmonic (in January 2011, led by Alan Gilbert). Theater and dance credits include Everyman (Rufus Norris, director) and Husbands and Sons (Marianne Elliott, director) at the National Theatre; You For Me For You (Richard Twyman, director) and X (Vicky Featherstone, director) at the Royal Court; and Les Enfants Terribles (Philip Glass; Javier de Frutos, director) at The Royal Ballet. Mr. Rosner co-designed Shopping and F'ing (Sean Holmes, director) with Jon Bausor for the Lyric Hammersmith, where he is also an associate artist, and co-created 8 Minutes (2017), a multimedia dance piece with choreographer Alexander Whitley and composer Daniel Wohl for Sadler's Wells. He is currently working on the revival of The Most Incredible Thing (Pet Shop Boys; Javier de Frutos, director) for North Carolina's Charlotte Ballet, and directing a semi-staged concert performance of Ligeti's Violin Concerto with violinist Jennifer Koh. In 2008 Tal Rosner won the BAFTA for Best Title Sequence for the Channel 4 television series Skins. He was born in Jerusalem and now lives and works in London.

Repertoire
Esa-Pekka Salonen (b. 1958) composed Foreign Bodies in 2001 and revised the score in 2002, after its first performances. It blends new material with some from his previously-written piano work Mécanisme (the first movement of Dichotomie) and the choral piece djupt I rummet (Deep Within the Chamber), and is a synthesis of the thinking and ideas he developed in 2000 during a sabbatical from conducting. Scored for very large orchestra, Foreign Bodies is in three movements played without pause: Body Language, Language, and Dance. Mr. Salonen writes: "As the title Foreign Bodies suggests (it actually suggests lots of things), the music is very physical in expression, almost like an imaginary scène de ballet. The title also refers to the fact that I am less concerned about the purely cerebral aspects of music and more interested in the physical reality of the music, i.e. the sound itself, than before. Also, more than two decades of conducting have helped me to think in a simpler, more direct way than before." Commissioned by the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Foreign Bodies is dedicated to Mr. Salonen's friend and colleague Jukka-Pekka Saraste, who conducted the premiere at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival in 2001.

Icelandic composer Daníel Bjarnason (b. 1979) composed his Violin Concerto (2017) for Finnish violinist Pekka Kuusisto. Born to Icelandic parents and raised in Denmark, Iceland, and the U.S., Mr. Bjarnason is part of the Nordic-American experimental-music scene. He is a member of the Bedroom Community collective and artist-in-residence of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, and has worked with the bands Sigur Rós and Efterklang. Open to exploration (he's as likely to write a neo-classical take on a melody as he is to use white noise or electronic remixes), Mr. Bjarnason said of his music: "I give them titles which maybe open up or suggest a way, or a mood, or a space that you can go into, to listen to those pieces. But I want it to stay quite open." Daníel Bjarnason's Violin Concerto highlights Pekka Kuusisto's interest in extended violin techniques (it gives the soloist two improvised cadenzas), and pushes technical boundaries for both violinist and orchestra. Daníel Bjarnason's Violin Concerto was co-commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Iceland Symphony Orchestra, and was premiered in August 2017 by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel.

Choreographer Wayne McGregor created Obsidian Tear in 2016, set to a pair of pieces by Esa-Pekka Salonen: his symphonic poem Nyx (2011) and the violin solo Lachen verlernt (2002). The world of Obsidian Tear is inspired by Nyx, the premiere of which Mr. McGregor heard in Paris in 2011, conducted by Mr. Salonen. Composed for large orchestra, Nyx is named for the Greek goddess of night. Mr. Salonen writes: "Nyx is a shadowy figure in Greek mythology ... we have no sense of her character or personality. ... I'm not trying to describe this mythical goddess in any precise way musically. However, the almost constant flickering and rapid changing of textures and moods as well as a certain elusive character of many musical gestures may well be related to the subject." Of the second piece in Obsidian Tear, Mr. Salonen writes: "The title Lachen verlernt (Laughing Unlearnt) is a quotation from the ninth movement of Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire, Gebet an Pierrot (Prayer to Pierrot). The narrator declares that she has unlearnt the skill of laughing and begs Pierrot, the 'Horse-doctor to the soul,' to give it back to her. I felt that this is a very moving metaphor of a performer: a serious clown trying to help the audience to connect with emotions they have lost, or believe they have lost." Obsidian Tear, which is named for the volcanic rock that sometimes appears as small ovals known as obsidian tears (or Apache tears, based on a Native American legend), is a co-production between The Royal Ballet and Boston Ballet, and was premiered in May 2016 at The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. The New York Philharmonic performed Nyx in March 2015 in New York and on the EUROPE / SPRING 2015 tour, all led by then Music Director Alan Gilbert.

Photo Credit: Chris Lee

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