The New York Philharmonic Presents Asian Horizons: Alan Gilbert 10/8-24

At a press conference in Tokyo today, New York Philharmonic Music Director Designate Alan Gilbert and President and Executive Director Zarin Mehta announced the details of Asian Horizons: Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic, October 8–24, 2009. This will be the Orchestra’s inaugural international concert tour under the leadership of Alan Gilbert, who will begin his tenure as Music Director in September 2009. Asian Horizons will consist of eleven concerts, spanning five Asian countries, with performances in Tokyo, Japan (a destination of special significance in light of Mr. Gilbert’s Japanese heritage); Seoul, Korea; Singapore; and the Philharmonic’s debut performances in Hanoi, Vietnam, and Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Pianist Emanuel Ax and violinists Frank Peter Zimmermann and Ye-Eun Choi (Philharmonic debut) are the featured soloists on the tour. Asian Horizons marks the fourth New York Philharmonic concert tour under the aegis of Credit Suisse, the Orchestra’s Global Sponsor, and the second in Asia.

The repertoire for Asian Horizons will include a New York Philharmonic commission by Magnus Lindberg, who will become the Orchestra’s Composer-in-Residence in September 2009. This new work will have its world premiere in New York at the Orchestra’s 2009–10 Opening Night Gala Concert on September 16, 2009. In addition, the New York Philharmonic will perform Barber’s Adagio for Strings; Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 (featuring Emanuel Ax as soloist) and Symphony No. 7; Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique; Brahms’s Violin Concerto (featuring Frank Peter Zimmermann as soloist, performing on his first Philharmonic tour); Mahler’s Symphony No. 1; Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto (featuring Ye-Eun Choi, in her Philharmonic debut); and Mozart’s Symphony No. 41, Jupiter.

“Making music with the New York Philharmonic as a guest conductor since 2001 has always been a pleasure,” said Alan Gilbert, who becomes the 25th Music Director of the New York Philharmonic in September 2009. “To debut as Music Director with the New York Philharmonic in Tokyo, the land of my ancestors — on my very first international endeavor with the Orchestra — is more than a dream come true. It is deeply gratifying to be able to lead the Philharmonic in Seoul and Singapore, where it has been welcomed so many times before — and to have the opportunity to reach new horizons in Hanoi and Abu Dhabi with this truly global Orchestra is a great honor. I’m looking forward to the concerts, the companionship of the musicians, and to meeting new audiences around the world.”

“While the New York Philharmonic has a long history of bringing music to the world, the Asian Horizons tour represents the opening of a new chapter in our history, as we embark on the very first international endeavor with our new Music Director, Alan Gilbert,” said Zarin Mehta, President and Executive Director of the New York Philharmonic. “Alan’s vision is fresh, and his musicianship inspiring, and we are pleased to be able to share this new energy and excitement with our friends in Tokyo, Seoul, and Singapore. We also relish the opportunity to show the new partnership between Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic to new audiences when we make our debuts in Hanoi and Abu Dhabi. These new horizons, and the renewal of longstanding relationships with audiences throughout Asia, are made possible through the exemplary commitment of our partner, Credit Suisse, the Global Sponsor of the New York Philharmonic.”

“Credit Suisse is proud to support the New York Philharmonic and its 2009 Asian Horizons tour as the Orchestra’s sole Global Sponsor,” said Paul Calello, CEO of Credit Suisse’s Investment Bank and New York Philharmonic Board Member. “We are particularly delighted to participate in the first international tour with new Music Director Alan Gilbert. After such an enthusiastic response to last year’s Asia tour, we anticipate with great pleasure being able to share another season of the New York Philharmonic with our clients and employees in the region — from the Orchestra’s first stop in Tokyo to its debuts in Hanoi and Abu Dhabi, and its performances in all the other tour cities.”

THREE CONCERTS AT TOKYO’S SUNTORY HALL

Learning Overtures: Japan Presents Very Young Composers Performance

Asian Horizons launches in Tokyo, with three concerts at Suntory Hall, October 8–10, 2009, as part of the Kajimoto World Orchestras Series 2009. These concerts represent Mr. Gilbert’s inaugural tour performances as Music Director of the New York Philharmonic. This is the Orchestra’s 14th trip to Japan; it last performed there in November 2006, with concerts in Tokyo, Oita, and Hyogo.

During the New York Philharmonic’s 2006 visit to Japan, a collaboration called Learning Overtures: Japan was initiated with the Tokyo-based Life With Music Project to share Philharmonic educational methods with Japanese musicians and educators. As part of the 2009 Asian Horizons tour, music composed by Japanese school children through the Philharmonic’s Very Young Composers program will be performed by Philharmonic musicians and Teaching Artists at a venue to be announced.

In addition, Teaching Artists will perform a number of in-school concerts throughout the Minato-ku School District and in the city of Niigata. In addition to the support of Credit Suisse, the New York Philharmonic’s Global Sponsor, the October 9 concert is sponsored by Mitsui & Co., Ltd., and the October 10 concert is sponsored by Nihon Unisys, Ltd.

“We are deeply grateful for the support of Mitsui & Co., and Nihon Unisys,” said New York Philharmonic President and Executive Director Zarin Mehta. “Their friendship and commitment to the arts, over a long period of time, plays a key role in bringing Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic to Tokyo, the first stop on our 2009 Asian Horizons tour. We are also very appreciative of our new friend, Asahi Breweries, for their support.”

TWO CONCERTS AT SEOUL ARTS CENTRE

Violinist Ye-Eun Choi To Make Philharmonic Debut

Following the performances in Tokyo, the Orchestra will travel to Seoul for two concerts at the Seoul Arts Centre, October 12 and 13, 2009, presented by the Kumho Asiana Cultural Foundation. The Korean violinist Ye-Eun Choi will make her Philharmonic debut on October 12 as soloist in Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto. These concerts will mark the Philharmonic’s tenth visit to Korea, and the first appearances in Seoul since February 2008, when the Orchestra performed a companion concert immediately following its historic visit to Pyongyang, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

“The Kumho Asiana Cultural Foundation has supported the New York Philharmonic for many years,” said Zarin Mehta, “most recently for the Orchestra’s historic concert in Pyongyang, DPRK, and the subsequent companion concert in Seoul. Theirs is an indelible friendship, and one for which we are truly appreciative, once again, as we return to Seoul on the 2009 Asian Horizons tour.”

New York Philharmonic MAKES DEBUT IN VIETNAM

Concerts To Be Accompanied by Educational Activities and Public Simulcast

The New York Philharmonic, which has visited 425 cities in 59 countries over its history, reaches new horizons with its first-ever performances in Vietnam. The Orchestra will give two concerts in Hanoi, October 16 and 17, 2009, at the historic Hanoi Opera House. Planning is in process for a large-screen simulcast of the concerts on the plaza adjacent to the Opera House; further details about the simulcasts will be announced. To complement the performances, musicians from the Orchestra will give master classes and participate in educational activities with Vietnamese students. The New York Philharmonic would like to thank the government of Vietnam and, in particular, the InternationAl Cooperation Department; the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism of Vietnam; and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Vietnam for supporting and organizing this visit. The New York Philharmonic also wishes to acknowledge the assistance and counsel of Ambassador Michael M. Michalak and the United States Embassy in Vietnam.

ESPLANADE — THEATERS ON THE BAY, SINGAPORE

Following the concerts in Hanoi, the New York Philharmonic will offer two performances in Singapore at Esplanade — Theaters on the Bay on October 19 and 20, 2009. These concerts mark the Orchestra’s fifth visit to Singapore, as well as the Philharmonic’s first performances there since October 2002.

PHILHARMONIC DEBUT IN UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

Orchestra To Give Two Concerts at Emirates Palace Auditorium Following Singapore, the Philharmonic will make its debut concerts in Abu Dhabi, October 23 and 24, 2009. The concerts will take place at the Emirates Palace Auditorium, and will mark the opening of the 2009–10 season of Abu Dhabi Classics, the first year-round performing arts series in the Arab world. The New York Philharmonic would like to thank the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage for making this visit possible.

Alan Gilbert will become Music Director of the New York Philharmonic in the 2009–10 season. In the same season he will become the first to hold the William Schuman Chair in Musical Studies at The Juilliard School, a position that will include coaching, conducting, and performance master classes. Highlights of his 2008–09 season with the New York Philharmonic have included the November 14, 2008 Bernstein anniversary concert at Carnegie Hall — part of the citywide festival, Bernstein: The Best of All Possible Worlds, in collaboration with Carnegie Hall — and a performance with the Juilliard Orchestra, presented by the Philharmonic, featuring Bernstein’s Symphony No. 3, Kaddish. In May 2009 he conducted the World Premiere of Peter Lieberson’s The World in Flower, a New York Philharmonic Commission. He also returned to the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonic.

In June 2008 Mr. Gilbert was named conductor laureate of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, following the last concert of his eight-and-a-half-year tenure as its chief conductor and artistic advisor. He has been principal guest conductor of Hamburg’s NDR Symphony Orchestra (NDRSO) since 2004. Mr. Gilbert regularly conducts other leading orchestras in the U.S. and abroad, including the Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco symphony orchestras; The Cleveland Orchestra; Munich’s Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra; Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw; and Orchestre National de Lyon. In 2003 he was named the first music director of Santa Fe Opera, and has conducted at Los Angeles Opera as well as at the Zurich Opera.

Born and raised in New York City, Alan Gilbert studied at Harvard University, The Curtis Institute of Music, and The Juilliard School; he was a substitute violinist with The Philadelphia Orchestra for two seasons, and assistant conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra from 1995 to 1997. In November 2008 he made his acclaimed Metropolitan Opera debut conducting John Adams’s Dr. Atomic. His recording of Prokofiev’s Scythian Suite with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra was nominated for a 2008 Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance.

Founded in 1842, the New York Philharmonic is the oldest symphony orchestra in the United States and one of the oldest in the world. Since its inception, the Philharmonic has played a leading role in American musical life, championing the new music of its time and commissioning or premiering many important works, from Dvo?ák’s Symphony No. 9, From the New World (1893) and Gershwin’s An American in Paris (1928) to John Adams’s Pulitzer Prize-winning On the Transmigration of Souls (2002) and Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Piano Concerto (2007). Alan Gilbert will become Music Director in the 2009–10 season, succeeding Lorin Maazel in a distinguished line of 20th-century musical giants that has included Kurt Masur, Leonard Bernstein, Zubin Mehta, and Pierre Boulez; Gustav Mahler, Bruno Walter, and Arturo Toscanini. Over the last century the Philharmonic has become renowned around the globe, having appeared in 425 cities in 59 countries on five continents. In February 2008 the Philharmonic made a historic visit to Pyongyang, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea — the first performance there by an American orchestra and an event that was watched around the world and for which the Philharmonic received the 2008 Common Ground Award for Cultural Diplomacy.

Long a media pioneer, the Orchestra began radio broadcasts in 1922, and is currently represented by The New York Philharmonic This Week, syndicated nationally 52 weeks per year, streamed on the Orchestra’s Website, nyphil.org, and carried on XM Satellite Radio. On television, in the 1950s and ’60s, the Philharmonic inspired a generation of music lovers through Leonard Bernstein’s Young People’s Concerts, telecast on CBS, and its presence on television has continued with annual appearances on Live From Lincoln Center, which began with that series’ inaugural episode in 1976. The Internet has expanded the Orchestra’s reach, and in 2006 the Philharmonic became the first major American orchestra to offer downloadable concerts, recorded live, which are available on the DG Concerts label, exclusively on iTunes. Credit Suisse is the exclusive Global Sponsor of the New York Philharmonic.

Pianist Emanuel Ax was born in Lvov, Poland, and moved to Winnipeg, Canada, with his family when he was a young boy. His studies at The Juilliard School were supported by the sponsorship of the Epstein Scholarship Program of the Boys Clubs of America, and he subsequently won the Young Concert Artists Award. Mr. Ax, who attended Columbia University with a major in French, captured public attention in 1974 when he won the first Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Competition in Tel Aviv. In 1975 he won the Michaels Award of Young Concert Artists, followed four years later by the Avery Fisher Prize. In the 2008–09 season Mr. Ax returned to several orchestras with which he has had relationships for many years including New York Philharmonic, The Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic and the San Francisco, St. Louis, Toronto, and Kansas City symphony orchestras; in Kansas City he performed the world premiere of Stephen Hartke’s Piano Concerto. Special projects included a duo recital tour with pianist Yefim Bronfman; a performance with violinist Itzhak Perlman and cellist Yo-Yo Ma at Carnegie Hall; and a solo recital tour in both North America and Europe. Other European engagements include a tour of the Far East with the Dresden Staatskapelle and Fabio Luisi, and performances with Zurich’s Tonhalle Orchestra; the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in Munich and Carnegie Hall; London Philharmonia; and Orchestre National de France. Mr. Ax last appeared with the New York Philharmonic in January 2009, performing R. Strauss’s Burleske for Piano and Orchestra and Szymanowski’s Symphony No. 4 for Piano and Orchestra, led by Music Director Lorin Maazel. He is appearing on tour with the Philharmonic for the first time since the 2007 Tour of Europe.

Born in 1965 in Duisburg, Germany, Frank Peter Zimmermann began playing the violin when he was five years old, and gave his first concert with an orchestra at the age of ten. Since finishing his studies in 1983, he has been performing with the world’s major orchestras and conductors. Recent and future highlights include engagements with the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic orchestras; Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw; and the Chicago, Boston, Pittsburgh, and London symphony orchestras. He has given the world premieres of violin concertos by Augusta Read Thomas, Brett Dean, and Matthias Pintscher. Mr. Zimmermann is also an avid chamber musician and recitalist; his music partners include pianists Emanuel Ax, Piotr Anderszewski, Enrico Pace, and Christian Zacharias, and cellist Heinrich Schiff. He also performs as a member of the Trio Zimmerman with violist Antoine Tamestit and cellist Christian Poltéra. Over the past two decades Mr. Zimmermann has recorded virtually all the major concertos, as well as many recital works. His recordings, released by EMI Classics, Teldec Classics, ECM Records, and Sony Classical, have received awards and prizes worldwide. Frank Peter Zimmermann plays a Stradivarius from 1711 which once belonged to Fritz Kreisler, and which is sponsored by the WestLB AG. He last appeared with the New York Philharmonic in March 2006, performing Brahms’s Violin Concerto, led by Ludovic Morlot.

Ye-Eun Choi was born in Seoul, Korea, in 1988, and studied violin at the Korean University of Arts with Nam Yun Kim and, since 2004, at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München with Ana Chumachenco. She made her concert debut at the age of 10 with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, and since then has performed with numerous orchestras, including the Munich Radio Orchestra; Indianapolis and Montreal Symphony Orchestras; Kumho, Baroque, and Indianapolis chamber orchestras; and China Xiamen Philharmonic Orchestra. Her festival appearances include Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Schleswig-Holstein, Verbier Asiago, Gdnask, and Rheingau, and she was invited to the Chamber Music Connects the World Festival, where she will perform with violinist Gidon Kremer, violist Yuri Bashmet, and cellist Lynn Harrell. Ms. Choi performed recently with the English Chamber Orchestra under Ralf Gothony, and appeared at Frankfurt’s Alter Opera, as well as in Dresden’s Frauenkirche with Anne-Sophie Mutter and the Trondheimer Soloists. She was a prizewinner at the Indianapolis International Competition, and a second-prize winner at the International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians, the Leopold Mozart International Competition, and Montreal International Musical Competition. She plays the Giuseppe Guadagnini, on loan from the Kumho Asiana Cultural Foundation. The concert in Seoul on October 12, 2009, will mark her New York Philharmonic debut.

As one of the world’s leading banks, Credit Suisse provides its clients with private banking, investment banking, and asset management services worldwide. Credit Suisse offers advisory services, comprehensive solutions, and innovative products to companies, institutional clients, and high-net-worth private clients globally, as well as retail clients in Switzerland. Credit Suisse is active in more than 50 countries and employs approximately 46,700 people. Credit Suisse is comprised of a number of legal entities around the world and is headquartered in Zurich. The registered shares (CSGN) of Credit Suisse’s parent company, Credit Suisse Group AG, are listed in Switzerland and, in the form of American Depositary Shares (CS), in New York. Further information about Credit Suisse can be found at www.credit-suisse.com.

Mitsui & Co., Ltd. (Mitsui) is engaged globally to create new businesses, values, and relationships to contribute to the development in quality of life worldwide through international trade and business and its Corporate Social Responsibility efforts. this understanding that Mitsui wholeheartedly supports the New York Philharmonic’s visit to Japan in 2009, as it did in 2004 and 2006. Mitsui has long supported many cultural activities in various countries around the world. Since 2001, Mitsui USA’s successive presidents have served on the Philharmonic’s Board, extending broad support to the Philharmonic. The presidents also co-chaired opening night galas twice, once in 2004 and again in 2008. Further, the Mitsui USA Foundation continuously sponsors efforts that bring symphonic education to more than 3,000 students each year from greater New York area schools through the “Music Encounters” program designed and executed by the New York Philharmonic. Friends and partners, Mitsui and the New York Philharmonic believe music is a universal language to carry us all into a borderless world.

Nihon Unisys, Ltd. It is with great pleasure that Nihon Unisys, Ltd. has the opportunity to support the New York Philharmonic, the most renowned and venerable musical institution in the United States, by sponsoring the Orchestra’s concert tour in Japan, as it did once before, in 2006. The Nihon Unisys, Ltd. Group is engaged in various kinds of CSR (Corporate Social Responsibilities) activities, under the theme “What ICT (Information and Communications Technology) can do for society and people.” Sponsoring the New York Philharmonic’s tour in Japan is a perfect complement to the goals of Nihon Unisys’s CSR initiative, and the firm is delighted to be able to serve in this capacity. Nihon Unisys, Ltd. believes that music inspires and soothes humanity, and ultimately leads to felicity. It would therefore be its utmost pleasure to see as many people as possible experience firsthand the joy and power of music as performed by the New York Philharmonic, under the direction of Music Director Alan Gilbert, during their tour in Japan. Nihon Unisys, Ltd. wishes Mr. Gilbert and the Orchestra every success in their endeavors.

Credit Suisse is the Global Sponsor of the New York Philharmonic.

Mitsui & Co., Ltd. Is the corporate sponsor for the concert in Tokyo on October 9, 2009. Nihon Unisys, Ltd. is the corporate sponsor for the concert in Tokyo on October 10, 2009.

Additional support for Tokyo concerts provided by Asahi Breweries, Ltd.

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