'What Makes it Great: Theater Songs of Leonard Bernstein' Set for 2016 at Merkin Concert Hall

Rob Kapilow - conductor, composer, author and NPR music commentator - unravels and explores great musical masterpieces with audiences and performers on stage, asking what makes great music great? He takes listeners inside the music, unraveling, slowing down and recomposing key passages to hear why a piece is so extraordinary. Next, the piece is performed in its entirety, followed by a Q&A with the audience and performers.

The 2015-16 What Makes It Great? performances tell surprising stories exploring the themes of personal mentors, significant influences and finding a voice. The series begins on November 2 with an in-depth look at Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata, written at a crucial point when a major psychological breakdown radically changed his artistic vision. On Dec 14 Kapilow will show how Schumann's struggle with Beethoven's overwhelming influence helped him produce his greatest work, including his Piano Quintet. A celebration of Leonard Bernstein's theater songs on Feb 8 explores the influence of his classical experience on Broadway, where he created a whole new voice for American musical theater. The season ends on April 18 with Aaron Copland's search for a distinctively American voice in the iconic and wildly popular Appalachian Spring.

Characterized by his unique ability to create an "aha" moment for his audiences and collaborators, whatever their level of musical sophistication, Kapilow's work brings music into people's lives, opening new ears to musical experiences and helping people to listen actively rather than just hear. As the Boston Globe said, "It's a cheering thought that this kind of missionary enterprise did not pass from this earth with Leonard Bernstein. Rob Kapilow is awfully good at what he does."

2015-16 Performances:

Mon, Nov 2, 2015, 7:30 pm

Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata for Violin and Piano
Featuring Nurit Pacht, violin and Taisiya Pushkar, piano

Beethoven wrote his celebrated Kreutzer Sonata at a pivotal point in his life and career, when a major psychological breakdown had radically changed his artistic vision and sparked a musical and personal self-reinvention. Host Rob Kapilow explores what makes this conflicted, contradictory piece the first radically individual violin sonata in the history of music.

Mon, Dec 14, 2015, 7:30

Robert Schumann's Piano Quintet

Featuring Igal Kesselman, piano and Aeolus Quartet

All artists are influenced by their predecessors, says critic Harold Bloom; weak artists imitate their heroes while strong artists creatively misread them. Host Rob Kapilow shows how Schumann's struggle with Beethoven's overwhelming influence helped him find his own voice, and produce his greatest work.

Mon, Feb 8, 2016, 7:30 pm

From On the Town to West Side Story: Theater Songs of Leonard Bernstein

Featuring Broadway stars Sally Wilfert and Michael Winther

Today it seems incomprehensible that Leonard Bernstein endured brutal criticism for throwing away his talent on Broadway musicals like On the Town and West Side Story. His attempts to bring a classical compositional technique into the world of the popular theater ruffled more than a few feathers, and though Bernstein expected other classical composers to follow his lead, his extraordinary blend of the serious and the popular remains unique in Broadway history. Host Rob Kapilow explores Bernstein's attempts to reimagine the possibilities of musical theater in a program that will forever change the way you see Tony and Maria!

Mon, Apr 18, 2016, 7:30 pm

Aaron Copland's "Appalachian Spring"

Featuring the Manhattan School of Music Orchestra

Aaron Copland's mid-century works like his Pulitzer-prize winning "Appalachian Spring" helped establish an immediately recognizable voice for American classical music and an archetypal sound for the vast American heartland. But neither Copland nor his wildly popular orchestral suite - originally commissioned as a ballet by Martha Graham - are what you think they are! Host Rob Kapilow deconstructs this iconic American classic which, like Martha Graham's choreography, is "seemingly, but only seemingly, simple."

Kaufman Music Center is New York's go-to place for music education and performance.

It's where music lovers, from curious fans to renowned performers, come together to explore their musical passions. Founded in 1952 as a community music school, today's Kaufman Music Center is one of the city's most vibrant cultural organizations and home to Merkin Concert Hall; Lucy Moses School, New York's largest community arts school; and Special Music School, a groundbreaking K-12 public school for musically gifted children.

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