Massachusetts Students to Perform Opera Legend Frederica von Stade at 2015 Sistema Side by Side Celebration, 3/20

World-renowned singer and artist Frederica von Stade will take the stage on March 20 to perform with Longy's Sistema Side by Side Orchestra at the 2015 Sistema Side by Side Celebration, under the baton of the orchestra's newly appointed Music Director Jorge Soto. The program will feature orchestral masterpieces Brahms Hungarian Dance No 5 and Dvorák's Symphony No. 9 in e minor, as well as classic and playful tunes such as Rodgers and Hammerstein's Do Re Mi from The Sound of Music.

The evening is part of an ongoing series of events at Longy that pairs students from El Sistema- inspired programs throughout Massachusetts with Longy's Conservatory Orchestra in rehearsals and performances conducted by nationally renowned conductors and guest artists. The program launched publicly in grand style in March of 2014 with an open rehearsal of the Side by Side Orchestra under the direction of Gustavo Dudamel, Grammy Award-winning music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic in MIT's Kresge Auditorium. Since then, the orchestra has worked with members of the Simón Bolívar String Quartet and given an enthusiastically received performance for Maestro José Antonio Abreu, founder of El Sistema.

Ms. von Stade will receive the Leonard Bernstein Lifetime Achievement Award for the Elevation of Music in Society. The award was authorized by the Bernstein family and established by Longy in 2000 and has celebrated great artists such as Gustavo Dudamel, Eileen Farrell, Marilyn Horne, Leonard Slatkin, Mark Morris, Leon Botstein and Gunther Schuller.

A celebratory dinner will follow the concert. Tickets to the event are available at www.longy.edu/gala. Proceeds from the gala will support Longy's ongoing work as a leader in the El Sistema-inspired movement in the U.S. and scholarships and teaching assistantships for Longy Conservatory students.