New World Symphony Presents Highlights of 2013-14 Season

The New World Symphony, America's Orchestral Academy (NWS), is pleased to share details of our 2013-2014 season. As a research-and-development arm for classical music, the coming season includes a series of commissions, partnerships and events that showcase NWS as a laboratory for generating new ideas about the way music is taught, presented and experienced. Highlights include the commissioning and presentation of new works by emerging and established artists, the development of multi-media collaborative projects, and the continuation of innovative concert formats. These initiatives exist with the goal of developing New World Symphony Fellows, who will advance the field of classical music and become ambassadors for the art forms in their communities and beyond.

The following is a selection of 2013-2014 season highlights as of July 29, 2013. For complete program information please see the attached chronological listing or visit www.nws.edu.

Video Commissions
NWS commissions and collaborates with talented visual artists to create new works to be displayed on the acoustic sails of New World Center. Video Commissions provide Fellows with the opportunity to collaborate with fellow artists and offer audiences a unique and immersive atmosphere that allows for multiple methods of understanding and interpreting the music.

· The 2013-14 season opens on October 5 and 6 with the world premiere of a video work by artist and filmmaker Tal Rosner made to accompany Benjamin Britten's Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes. The video is co-commissioned by NWS, Los Angeles Philharmonic, The Philadelphia Orchestra and the San Francisco Symphony. The NWS performances, which will include a WALLCAST concert on October 5, will be conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas and feature Gershwin's Piano Concerto in F, performed by pianist Yuja Wang. Also on the program are Gershwin's Cuban Overture and Stravinsky's Pulcinella Suite.

· On October 17 NWS will present the world premiere of a video installation produced by Netia Jones in creative collaboration with Michael Tilson Thomas, to accompany Niccolò Castiglioni's Inverno in-ver. The video will be integrated by Jones into the performance in real time. Conducted by Tilson Thomas and joined by mezzo-soprano Peabody Southwell, tenor Matthew Newlin, and bass-baritone Rod Nelman, the program will include Berio's Violin Duets and Stravinsky's Pulcinella. On October 19 this program will be presented in Chicago by the Chicago Harris Theater, the co-commissioner of Ms. Jones' work.

· On Saturday, February 15, Michael Tilson Thomas will conduct a performance of contemporary classical works including Lukas Foss' Phorion, which will be accompanied by the world premiere of a NWS-commissioned video created byAdam Larsen. Synergy Vocals will also be featured on the program performing Luciano Berio's Sinfonia.

· On April 26, in a program titled New Work, NWS will perform Stravinsky's Huxley Variations paired with the world premiere of NWS commissioned digital animation by artist Emily Eckstein, produced in creative collaboration with Michael Tilson Thomas. The program will be conducted by Tilson Thomas and includes Eckstein's animation for Stravinsky'sCircus Polka, a 2011-2012 NWS commission.

Music Commissions
New Voices, now in its second season, is an annual collaborative commissioning project between NWS, the San Francisco Symphony and music publisher Boosey & Hawkes that helps develop the professional careers of emerging composers in the Americas. This project creates opportunities for NWS Fellows to collaborate with composers, to workshop and premiere newly created works, to understand the compositional process, and to serve an important role in helping emerging composers-who are their future colleagues-realize their creations.

· On November 3 NWS will present the world premiere of 2013-2014 New Voices composer, Cynthia Lee Wong's chamber music work. The program will also include works by Schoenberg, Stravinsky, and Welcher, and features the Miró Quartet.

· On Saturday, April 26, NWS will premiere Wong's work for orchestra as part of the New Work program listed above.

Innovative Concert Formats
NWS will continue to present performances in alternate formats, involving Fellows in the process of creating events that are attractive and engaging for new audiences, and meaningful and enjoyable to existing audiences. Highlights from the season include:

· Four evenings of thirty-minute Mini-Concerts scheduled an hour apart allow audiences to experience live music for only $2.50 per performance. Each concert begins with a brief introduction by Fellows that provides context for the music. On November 8, the program includes Mozart's Exsultate, jubilate and J. S. Bach's Suite No. 3. Additional Mini-Concerts will be held on November 9, March 14 and March 15.

· Four, one-hour themed Encounters concerts with special host Jamie Bernstein are designed to enhance the audience's understanding and appreciation of the music through the use of narration and video. Concerts are followed by a post-performance social hour. On November 1 and 2 concerts will include selections from the first symphonies of Mozart, Bizet, and Shostakovich. Programs for the March 7 and 8 concerts will be announced at a later date.

· Pulse-Late Night at the New World Symphony events will be held on February 21 and April 4. Pulse events transform the New World Center into a lounge-style setting, presenting contemporary classical music interspersed with DJ-spun electronic music between sets.

· Journey Concerts are extended-length, multi-part performances featuring the orchestra and ensembles of varying sizes on different stages around the performance hall. Dates and programming to be announced.

· WALLCAST concerts bring free, live performances outdoors onto New World Center's 7,000-square-foot projection wall overlooking the 2.5 acre Miami Beach SoundScape. WALLCAST events will take place October 5 and 25, December 7 and 21, February 1 and 2, March 1 and 22, April 12 and 13, and May 3.

Contemporary Works
NWS, a winner of multiple ASCAP Adventurous Programming awards, is dedicated to presenting the work of living contemporary composers. During this process, NWS Fellows work directly with composers to deepen their understanding of the compositional process, resulting in a stronger performance that more fully represents the ideas expressed through the work.

· On September 12, NWS Fellows will perform Gary Kulesha's The Devil's Dictionary (1971-93).

· On September 21 American composer Kevin Puts' Two Mountain Sketches (2007), which was inspired by the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and written as an orchestral showpiece, will be paired with Aaron Copland's Suite from Appalachian Spring and Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances.

· Fellows will work with William Kraft in preparation for a performance of his Encounters II for Solo Tuba on October 20.

· On November 3 Dan Welcher's Museon Polemos (2012) for two antiphonal string quartets will be paired with a new chamber music work by emerging New Voices composer Cynthia Lee Wong. Also on the program are Arnold Schoenberg'sEin Stelldichein and Igor Stravinsky's Octet for Wind Instruments.

· A December 7 performance features a trio of living American composers, NWS Fellows, and the adventurous Grammy winning contemporary music ensemble eighth blackbird in a performance of Steve Reich's Double Sextet (2007), John Adams' Guide to Strange Places (2001) and Jennifer Higdon's On A Wire (2010). The performance will be WALLCAST.

· On January 18 soloists from the Ensemble Modern will perform György Kurtág's Double Concerto for piano, cello and two chamber ensembles (1989-1990) alongside fellow Hungarian composer György Ligeti's Double Concerto for Flute and Oboe.

· Fellows will again work with New Voices composer Cynthia Lee Wong to workshop and perform her new work for full orchestra. The world premiere on April 26 will be performed along with Stravinsky's Huxley Variations and Circus Polka, both accompanied by commissioned video and animations by Emily Eckstein.

Returning Alumni & Partnerships
To date NWS has seen more than 917 of its Fellows move into the classical music field, having won positions in orchestras and ensembles around the world. For this season's final performances on May 3 and 4, ten alumni will join current Fellows for a performance of Mahler's Symphony No. 7 conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas. In the week preceding the performance returning alumni will coach and lead master class sessions with current Fellows and local Miami musicians.

NWS encourages and enables Fellow to participate in collaborative interdisciplinary partnerships exploring the intersection of music, technology and art. During the 2013-14 season, NWS will support a series of these projects, including the New World Symphony's Musicians' Forum series, for which Fellows design and execute their own programs and performances, and the Musical Xchange series, which seeks to explore the integration of technology within the concert hall. This year's collaborators hail from institutions including Parsons The New School for Design, the University of Miami, and others.

A focal point of this season's partnerships is the Medellín Cultural Partnership and Exchange with the Academia Filarmónica De Medellín (AFMED) in Medellín, Colombia. NWS Fellows travel to Medellín to serve as collaborators and instructors for the academy, a prestigious youth program of the Orquesta Filarmónica de Medellín, along with members of the Philharmonic and music faculty from EAFIT, helping with the advancement of young musicians in and around Medellín. The relationship extends throughout the year by a number of in-person visits to Medellín, visits by young Medellín musicians to the New World Symphony, and online instruction administered by NWS Fellows. This program aims to serve a wide range of functions; including the development of young pre-professional musicians; preparing Fellows to work and communicate their knowledge via an online platform; and to use technology to advance the great tradition of classical music.

About the New World Symphony
The mission of NWS is to prepare highly gifted graduates of distinguished music programs for leadership roles in orchestras and ensembles around the world. NWS is dedicated to the artistic, personal and professional development of outstanding instrumentalists. The NWS fellowship program provides top graduates of music programs the opportunity to enhance their musical education with the finest professional training. As a laboratory for musical education and expression, NWS seeks to develop twenty-first century first-class musicians through a wide range of performance and instructional activities. Under the artistic direction of Michael Tilson Thomas, the program offers in-depth exposure to traditional and modern repertoire, with the active involvement of leading guest conductors, soloists and coaches. The relationships with these artists are extended through NWS's pioneering experimentation with distance learning via Internet2.

About the New World Center
Designed by Frank Gehry and opened in January 2011, the New World Center is a unique performance, education, production and creative space with state-of-the-art capabilities, owned and operated by the New World Symphony. A global hub for creative expression and collaboration and a laboratory for the way music is taught, presented and experienced, the new building enables the New World Symphony to continue its role as a leader in integrating technology with music education and concert presentation. New World Center is used by the New World Symphony for educational activities, musical and related cultural performances and events, rehearsals, Internet2 transmissions, recordings, broadcasts and webcasts.

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