David Lang's THE WHISPER OPERA and More Set for Lincoln Center's 2013 Mostly Mozart Festival This Week

The third week of the 2013 Mostly Mozart Festival continues with opera performances, both classic and contemporary. Following their acclaimed 2011 Festival production of Don Giovanni, the Budapest Festival Orchestra (BFO) returns to Mostly Mozart with a new production of Mozart's masterwork comic opera Le nozze di Figaro. The final two Festival performances of this great work take place at the Rose Theater in Jazz at Lincoln Center's Frederick P. Rose Hall at the Time Warner Center tonight, August 13 and August 15, each at 7pm.

These special staged-concert presentations are led by BFO Music Director Iván Fischer, who also directs, along with a cast of artists making their Festival debuts, including Hanno Müller-Brachmann (Figaro), Laura Tatulescu (Susanna), Roman Trekel (Count Almaviva), Miah Persson (Countess Almaviva), and others. A special pre-performance discussion will take place at the Irene Diamond Education Center at Frederick P. Rose Hall between Fischer and Lincoln Center's Ehrenkranz Artistic Director Jane Moss on August 15 at 6:00pm.

International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), the intrepid new music group, returns to the Mostly Mozart Festival for its third summer as artists-in-residence, offering a mini-series of events with 10 contemporary composers from New York. During this series, ICE presents the New York premiere of David Lang's the whisper opera, recently called "an extraordinary achievement" by the Chicago Tribune. This new work is a chamber opera based on texts from internet "secrets" and explores the tenuous relationship with our interior dialogues, addressing what secrets we keep from each other and from ourselves. Part opera, concert piece and installation, the work is presented with limited and restrained staging, reflecting an appropriate intimacy for its small expressions. Lang's the whisper opera features members of ICE, with soprano Tony Arnold (Mostly Mozart Festival debut) and is directed by Jim Findlay. The final two Festival performances of the whisper opera take place during the third week of the Mostly Mozart Festival, at Lincoln Center's Clark Studio Theater, August 12 and 13, each at 7:30pm.

Two internationally recognized conductors will make their Mostly Mozart Festival debuts this summer with the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra: Gianandrea Noseda and David Afkham. Noseda, an Italian conductor who holds posts as Music Director of Turin's Teatro Regio, Guest Conductor at the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Laureate Conductor of the BBC Philharmonic, leads the Festival Orchestra in two major works: Beethoven's Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 36, and Rossini's remarkable yet seldom-performed masterwork Stabat mater, August 13 and 14 at 8:00pm at Avery Fisher Hall. Several other artists mark their Festival debuts with the performance of the Rossini, including soprano Maria Agresta (also her U.S. debut), mezzo-soprano Daniella Barcellona, tenor Gregory Kunde and bass-baritone Kyle Ketelsen. The Concert Chorale of New York, directed by James Bagwell, accompanies the Festival Orchestra and soloists. Preceding both of these concerts is a pre-concert recital by the Dover Quartet, performing Beethoven's "Razumovsky" String Quartet in E minor, Op. 59, at 7:00pm.

Joining a list of other rising conductors who have made their Festival debuts at a young age is the German conductor David Afkham, who at age 30 has already conducted such groups as the Bamberg Symphony, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and the Seattle Symphony. Earlier this year, it was announced he will become the Music Director of Madrid's Orquesta Nacional de España in 2014. Making his first New York appearance in his Mostly Mozart Festival debut, Afkham leads the Festival Orchestra in an all-Brahms program, featuring the Concerto for violin and cello in A minor, Op. 102, with soloists Vadim Repin, violin, and Truls Mørk, cello, and Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 73. These concerts take place August 16 and 17 at 8:00pm at Avery Fisher Hall. Complementing the all-Brahms concert is a pre-concert recital featuring Budapest Festival Orchestra Principal Cello Péter Szabó and pianist Jon Nakamatsu, who perform the composer's Cello Sonata No. 1 in E minor, Op. 38, starting at 7pm on each evening.

In addition to ICE's presentation of David Lang's the whisper opera, their mini-series within the Festival kicks into high gear with three concerts during the third week of events. ICE's 10 concerts this summer feature 10 premieres by 10 established and rising New York-based composers, all while celebrating their 10th anniversary as an ensemble and continuing their artistic mission for commissioning, incubating and creating new works. The first of this week's concerts feature two introspective pieces by Matthias Pintscher, works that receive their first Festival performances, alongside two works by Beethoven onAugust 15. A solo accordion arrangement of Beethoven's Egmont Overture (by William Schimmel, who performs in this concert) is paired with Pintscher's dernier espace avec introspectuer, for accordion and cello. Following this are two works for violin, viola and cello trio in Pintscher's Study II for Treatise on the Veil and Beethoven's ebullient String Trio in G major, Op. 9, No. 1.

Furthering ICE's exploration of new music in the Festival are ICElab concerts, which pair music by two emerging composers in each event. The first ICElab event showcases Phyllis Chen and Carla Kihlstedt on August 17, including Chen's Hush for piano, toy piano, music box and bowls (which replaces the previously announced work Glass Clouds We Have Known), the world premiere of The Archipelagos for mandolin and toy piano (previously this title was unannounced), Mobius by Chen and collaborator Rob Dietz for music box and electronics, and Everything Turns Everything Revolves for violin, clarinet, toy piano and toys with film by Hans Richter, along with Kihlstedt's At Night We Walk in Circles and Are Consumed By Fire for voice and ensemble. Both composers will perform in the program, with Kihlstedt making her Festival debut. The second installment features works by Felipe Lara and Tyshawn Sorey on August 18 conducted by Steven Schick, including four world premieres: Sorey's New York/Copenhagen for violin and drums (previously this title was unannounced), Acts II for mixed ensemble, which replaces Guitar, Percussion, Piano and Brass, and Lara's Som(bra) for two flutes and Tiento for mixed ensemble. Sorey will make his Festival debut performing trombone, drums and piano in the concert. Each of the ICE concerts take place at Lincoln Center's intimate Clark Studio Theater, in the Samuel B. and David Rose Building on West 65th Street. The final ICElab event will take place in the Festival's concluding week.

The Mostly Mozart Festival has long paired concert events with additional exploratory panels and lectures, and this summer is no different. A special lecture panel, titled "Mozart Revealed" will take place on August 17 at 4:00pm at the Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse. The panel, presented in association with the Mozart Society of America, will be moderated by Peter A. Hoyt, President of the Mozart Society of American and a noted scholar on the composer. This event is free and tickets are not required. Seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis.

All programs and artists are subject to change.

Tickets for Mostly Mozart Festival 2013 can be purchased online at MostlyMozart.org, by phone via CenterCharge at 212-721-6500, or by visiting the Avery Fisher Hall or Alice Tully Hall box offices at Broadway and 65th St. For a Mostly Mozart brochure, call 212.875.5766. Single tickets to all ICE events are available for purchase as of July 1. Ticket prices subject to change.

Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival-America's first indoor summer music festival-was launched as an experiment in 1966. Called Midsummer Serenades: A Mozart Festival, its first two seasons were devoted exclusively to the music of Mozart. Renamed the Mostly Mozart Festival in 1970, it has become a New York institution and, now in its 47th year, continues to broaden its focus to include works by Mozart's predecessors, contemporaries, and related successors. It is currently the only group in the United States dedicated to the Classical period. In addition to concerts by the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra,Mostly Mozart now includes concerts by visiting period-instrument ensembles, chamber orchestras and ensembles, and acclaimed soloists, as well as staged music presentations, opera productions, dance, film, and visual art.

The Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra is the resident orchestra of the Mostly Mozart Festival, and is the only orchestra in the U.S. dedicated to the music of the Classical period. Members of the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra come from all over the world, performing in such premier orchestras and ensemble including the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, MET Opera Orchestra, New York City Ballet Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony and St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, among others. Internationally celebrated conductor Louis Langrée has been music director of the Mostly Mozart Festival since December 2002, and was named Renée and Robert Belfer Music Director in August 2006. Each summer since 2005, the Orchestra's Avery Fisher Hall home at Lincoln Center is transformed into an appropriately intimate venue for its performances. Over the years, the Orchestra has toured to such notable festivals and venues as Ravinia, Great Woods, Tanglewood, Bunkamura in Tokyo, and the Kennedy Center. Conductors who made their New York debuts leading the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra include Jérémie Rhorer, Edward Gardner, Lionel Bringuier, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Charles Dutoit, Leonard Slatkin, David Zinman, and Edo de Waart. Mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli, flutist James Galway, soprano Elly Ameling, and pianist Mitsuko Uchida all made their U.S. debuts with the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra.

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (LCPA) serves three primary roles: presenter of artistic programming, national leader in arts and education and community relations, and manager of the Lincoln Center campus. A presenter of more than 3,000 free and ticketed events, performances, tours, and educational activities annually, LCPA offers 15 series, festivals, and programs including American Songbook, Avery Fisher Artist Program, Great Performers, Lincoln Center Books, Lincoln Center Dialogue, Lincoln Center Festival, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, Lincoln Center Vera List Art Project, Midsummer Night Swing, Martin E. Segal Awards, Meet the Artist, Mostly Mozart Festival, Target Free Thursdays, and the White Light Festival, as well as the Emmy Award-winning Live From Lincoln Center, which airs nationally on PBS. As manager of the Lincoln Center campus, LCPA provides support and services for the Lincoln Center complex and the 11 resident organizations. In addition, LCPA led a $1.2 billion campus renovation, completed in October 2012.

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Visit MostlyMozart.org for information about the Festival and other updates.

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