Alan Gilbert to Conduct Second Season of CONTACT!, 11/19

New York Philharmonic Music Director Alan Gilbert will launch the second season of CONTACT!, the Orchestra's new-music series, leading Philharmonic musicians in concerts on Friday, November 19, 2010, at 8:00 p.m. at Peter Norton Symphony Space, and Saturday, November 20, at 7:00 p.m., at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The centerpiece of the program will be the World Premiere of Souvenir (in memoriam Gérard Grisey), a New York Philharmonic Commission by Magnus Lindberg, The Marie Josée Kravis Composer-in-Residence, written as a tribute to his late teacher, followed by Grisey's own Quatre chants pour franchir le seuil, performed by soprano Barbara Hannigan, who made her critically acclaimed New York Philharmonic debut last season as Gepopo in Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre. The CONTACT! concerts, which are curated by Mr. Lindberg, began in the 2009-10 season as a showcase for emerging and established contemporary composers.

WNYC's John Schaefer, host of Soundcheck and New Sounds, will host the November 19 concert; the November 20 concert will be hosted by Alan Gilbert. The performance will be presented on Q2, WQXR's online contemporary music stream, on Wednesday, November 24, at 8:00 p.m., Saturday, November 27, at 8:00 p.m., and Tuesday, November 30, at 4:00 p.m. Listeners may access the stream at www.wqxr.org/q2: select the Q2 tab on the Player and click "Listen."

The next CONTACT! program takes place on Friday, December 17, 2010, at 7;00 p.m., at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Saturday, December 18, at 8:00 p.m., at Symphony Space, and will feature the U.S. Premiere of Julian Anderson's Comedy of Change, and two World Premiere-New York Philharmonic Commissions: James Matheson's TRUE SOUTH, and Jay Alan Yim's neverthesamerivertwice. John Schaefer will host the first concert; Alan Gilbert, the second.

Alan Gilbert became Music Director of the New York Philharmonic in September 2009, the first native New Yorker to hold the post, ushering in what The New York Times called "an adventurous new era" at the Philharmonic. In his inaugural season he introduced a number of new initiatives: the positions of The Marie-Josée Kravis Composer-in- Residence, held by Magnus Lindberg; The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in- Residence, held in 2010-11 by violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter; an annual three-week festival, which in 2010-11 is titled Hungarian Echoes, led by Esa-Pekka Salonen; and CONTACT!, the New York Philharmonic's new-music series. In the 2010-11 season Mr. Gilbert is leading the Orchestra on two tours of European music capitals; two performances at Carnegie Hall, including the venue's 120th Anniversary Concert; and a staged presentation of Janá?ek's The Cunning Little Vixen. Highlights of his inaugural season included major tours of Asia and Europe and an acclaimed staged presentation of Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre.
Mr. Gilbert is the first person to hold the William Schuman Chair in Musical Studies at The Juilliard School, and is conductor laureate of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and principal guest conductor of Hamburg's NDR Symphony Orchestra. He has conducted other leading orchestras in the U.S. and abroad, including the Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco symphony orchestras; Los Angeles Philharmonic; Cleveland and Philadelphia Orchestras; and the Berlin Philharmonic, Munich's Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, and Amsterdam's Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. From 2003 to 2006 he served as the first music director of the Santa Fe Opera.

Alan Gilbert studied at Harvard University, The Curtis Institute of Music, and The Juilliard School. From 1995 to 1997 he was the assistant conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra. In November 2008 he made his acclaimed Metropolitan Opera debut conducting John Adams's Doctor Atomic. His recordings have received a 2008 Grammy Award nomination and top honors from the Chicago Tribune and Gramophone magazine. On May 15, 2010, Mr. Gilbert received an Honorary Doctor of Music degree from The Curtis Institute of Music.

Photo Credit: Chris Lee

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