New York City Opera Presents MUSIC OF SURVIVAL: Works By Weinberg, Korngold, And Rovner

New York City Opera will present Music of Survival: Works by Weinberg, Korngold, and Rovne, with the NYC Opera Orchestra, featuring Constantine Orbelian, Conductor; Kristina Reiko Cooper, Cello; and Elizaveta Ulakhovich, Soprano on Monday, February 24, 2025 at 8pm in Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall, W. 57th Street and Seventh Avenue, NYC.

This Carnegie Hall concert uncovers the poignant stories of Mieczysław Weinberg and Erich Wolfgang Korngold: two 20th-century composers of profound artistry, whose legacy is only recently being restored after being neglected during the Holocaust and its aftermath. This concert also features the American premiere of the beautiful Symphony Metamorphosis by composer Gennady Rovner, sung by the outstanding soprano Elizaveta Ulakhovich. This contemporary piece echoes the same enduring spirit for the 21st century, bridging past and present.

In performing lesser-known cello concertos by Weinberg and Korngold, Kristina Reiko Cooper and Constantine Orbelian hope to facilitate the transcendence of the two composers' legacy - out of the shadows and towards the recognition their music deserves. We learn about the pieces: Weinberg's emotional Fantasia for Cello and Orchestra op.52, as well as Korngold's highly energetic Cello Concerto in C op.37, written for the movie Deceptionin 1946, starring Bette David, Claude Rains, and Paul Heinried. These works, born from the crucible of survival, showcase the profound artistry of composers whose legacies are only now being fully appreciated. As we reflect on the journeys of Weinberg and Korngold, we are reminded of music's power to transcend borders and foster understanding. This performance invites us to learn from history, encourage empathy, and celebrate the artistic resilience that continues to inspire and unite us.

For more information and to purchase tickets, visit https://www.carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2025/02/24/The-New-York-City-Opera-Orchestra-Music-of-Survival-Works-by-Weinberg-Korngold-0800PM. Tickets range from $14 to $85.

About the Artists

Composer Gennady Rovner graduated from the Lubertz Musical School, Class of Piano, in 1975. Writing music has been a favorite hobby of his throughout the years. He made his first professional debut as a composer in 2011 with the release of the vinyl record Tanaya. This particular album is based on a full-scale symphony, a concerto for piano and orchestra.

The internationally heralded cellist Kristina Reiko Cooper stands out among her peers not only for her polished virtuosity but for her fierce intelligence and imaginative programming. Her natural stage presence and effervescent personality inform all aspects of her musicianship-whether as recitalist, soloist with orchestra, recording artist, teacher, lecturer, or as a member of a chamber performance. But it is her curiosity and enthusiasm that have led her to commission and play works by Lera Auerbach, Josef Bardanashvili, Kenji Bunch, Mario Davidovsky, Avner Dorman, Tan Dun, Philip Glass, Tania Leon, Roberto Siera, and Benjamin Yusupov. She serves as Co-Director with Joel Sachs and Cheryl Seltzer of the pioneering New York-based contemporary music group Continuum. Over the years, critics from The New York Times have extolled her praises on numerous occasions: "Kristina Cooper gave a sensational performance...of the cello threnody;" "In the cello sonata, Kristina Reiko Cooper played the challenging cello line with a fluidity that made it seem easy;" "Ms. Cooper's cello solos sang out in the slow movement with elegance and fine sentiment."

A turning point in her life came when Ms. Cooper created a consortium of Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem, and the American Society of Yad Vashem to commission composer Lera Auerbach to write Symphony No. 6 "Vessels of Light." Scored for cello, chorus, and orchestra, the work commemorates the heroic deeds of Japanese consul Chiune Sugihara who, during World War II in Lithuania, issued between 2,100 and 3,500 life-saving transit visas to Jews. Owing to his courage by defying Japan's regulations and risking his own life, generations of visa recipient families are alive today, including Ms. Cooper's husband and three children.

The world premiere of "Vessels of Light," took place in Lithuania on November 5th, 2022, with Ms. Cooper performed as soloist with the Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra and Kaunas State Choir under the leadership of music director Constantine Orbelian. Kaunas, in addition to being the city where Sugihara was vice-consul and where he issued the visas that saved so many lives, was chosen as the Cultural Capital of Europe in 2022 and the performance of this new work was one of the featured highlights of the celebration.

Since then, other notable performances of "Vessels of Light" have included the American premiere last year with the New York City Opera Orchestra and Chorus led by Maestro Orbelian at Carnegie Hall; as well as with the Prague Radio Orchestra conducted by Maestro Alexander Liebreich; UCLA Philharmonia and Chamber Singers conducted by Neal Stulberg; Festival Napa Valley with the Festival Orchestra Napa under the leadership of Maestro Orbelian; Dresden Philharmonie led by François Leleux; and the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig, Germany, conducted by Alan Gilbert.

Most recently, "Vessels of Light" was presented in Berlin by the Konzerthaus Orchester led by Joana Mallwitz at the Konzerthaus. Reviewing for Germany's prestigious Süddeutsche Zeitung, Wolfgang Schreiber wrote: "Auerbach adds a unique color to the solo parts-a lyrical, emotionally transcendent cello voice, brilliantly performed by New York cellist Kristina Reiko- Cooper. Her artistry illuminates the poetic and melodic expressiveness of the music." (November 19, 2024)

Ms. Cooper's upcoming appearances as soloist with orchestra include engagements with the Jerusalem Symphony, the Israel Sinfonietta Beer-sheva, and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Kinnor Philharmonic, Kansas City, a concert for Arte TV, and Mexico City Philharmonic. Ms. Cooper has appeared as soloist with some of the world's major orchestras in such venues as Carnegie Hall, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, Henry Crown Theater in Jerusalem, and the Kennedy Center, including with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Dresden Philharmonie, the Toronto Symphony, the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, Prague Chamber Orchestra, the Israel Chamber Orchestra, the Osaka Symphony, the Tokyo Yomiuri Symphony, and Shanghai Symphony under the batons of conductors including Tan Dun, Alan Gilbert, François Leleux, Alexander Liebriech, Joana Mallwitz, and Constantine Orbelian. A prolific chamber musician, Kristina won the Walter M. Naumburg Chamber Music Award first prize and has been a member of many renowned ensembles, including the Whitman Quartet, Quartetto Gelato, Opus X, and Intersection. Her many festival appearances include The Lincoln Center Summer Festival, Mostly Mozart, Musicians from Marlboro, Bang on a Can All-Stars, and the Stresa International Music Festival.

Born and raised in New York City, Ms. Cooper holds bachelor's and master's degrees as well as a doctoral degree from Juilliard, where she studied cello with Joel Krosnick. Her father, Rex Cooper, is an American pianist and former professor at the University of the Pacific and her mother, Mutsuko Tatman, is a violinist of Japanese descent who served for many years as concertmaster of the American Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Cooper's grandfather, Tomojiro Ikenouchi, was a highly respected Japanese composer and her great-grandfather, Takahama Kyoshi, was considered the greatest haiku poet of the 20th century.

Ms. Cooper serves as a visiting professor at the Buchmann Mehta School at Tel Aviv University, Israel. She is the founding musical director of The Israel Chamber Music Society, and serves as the Vice-President of the America-Israel Cultural Foundation. and sits on the board of the Charney Forum for New Diplomacy. Kristina plays on the 1743 Ex-Havermeyer G.B. Guadagnini cello and lives with her husband and three children in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Four-time GRAMMY-nominated conductor Constantine Orbelian "stands astride two great societies, and finds and promotes synergistic harmony from the best of each." (Fanfare) On June 7th, 2021, Maestro Constantine Orbelian was appointed Music Director and Principal Conductor of one of the great New York institutions - New York City Opera. For over 30 years, the brilliant American pianist and conductor has been a central figure in Russia's and Eastern Europe's musical life-first as Music Director of the Moscow Chamber Orchestra and the Philharmonia of Russia. He is the founder of the annual Palaces of St. Petersburg International Music Festival and is the Chief Conductor of the Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra in Lithuania. In 2016 he also became General and Artistic Director of the State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater in Yerevan, Armenia. During his four-year tenure in Armenia, Orbelian created new productions of Bizet's Carmen, Mozart's The Magic Flute, Massenet's Manon, and Karen Khachaturian's ballet Cipollino. He restored a historic production of Donizetti's opera Poliuto, produced the ballet La Bohème to the music of Charles Aznavour and brought Renée Fleming for the first time to Armenia for a recital. In 2018, Orbelian brought the Armenian Ballet company to the famed stage of the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow for gala performances of Aram Khachaturian's ballet Gayane. Performances at Dubai Opera and the grand opening of the new Opera House in Kuwait were high points of the 2018 season. In all of these and other music centers, Orbelian leads concerts and recordings with some of the world's greatest singers.

Four-time Grammy-nominated conductor Constantine Orbelian has been called "the singer's dream collaborator" by Opera News, which hailed him for conducting vocal repertoire "with the sensitivity of a lieder pianist." On June 7th, 2021, Maestro Orbelian was appointed Music Director and Principal Conductor of one of the great New York institutions - New York City Opera.

He has toured and recorded with some of the world's greatest singers, such as American stars Renee Fleming, Sondra Radvanovsky and Lawrence Brownlee, Stephen Costello and Charles Castronovo, and with the great Dmitri Hvorostovsky and other renowned Russian singers in European, North American, Russian and Asian music centers.

Mr. Orbelian's accomplishments include being Music Director of the Moscow Chamber Orchestra and the Philharmonia of Russia, founder of the annual Palaces of St. Petersburg International Music Festival, Chief Conductor of the Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra in Lithuania, and Artistic Director of the State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater in Yerevan, Armenia. Among his concert and televised appearances are collaborations with Hvorostovsky, Renée Fleming, Anna Netrebko and Van Cliburn, including the legendary pianist's farewell performance.

Recent performances included debuts at the famed Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires with Isabel Lenoard, Palacio Bellas Artes in Mexico City with Elina Garanca, Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra in Bucharest, and a recent production of Eugene Onegin in Cluj Napoca Opera house în România.

Born in San Francisco to Ukrainian and Armenian emigré parents, Mr. Orbelian made his performing debut as a piano prodigy with the San Francisco Symphony at the age of 11. After graduating from Juilliard in New York, he embarked on a career as a piano virtuoso that included appearances with major symphony orchestras throughout the U.S., U.K., Europe and Russia.

The first American to become music director of an ensemble in Russia, he was awarded the coveted title "Honored Artist of Russia" in 2004 in recognition of his efforts championing Russian-American cultural exchange. In 2012 the Russian Consulate in San Francisco awarded the maestro the Russian Order of Friendship Medal, joining such luminaries as Cliburn and Riccardo Muti in being honored. In 2001 Mr. Orbelian was awarded the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, given to immigrants, or children of immigrants, who have made outstanding contributions to the United States. www.constantineorbelian.com

Elizaveta Ulakhovich was born in St. Petersburg, Russia. Growing up in a cultural epicenter, Liza developed her love of opera from a young age. ​Liza studied in the N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov Music College in her hometown. At the end of the third year she entered the St. Petersburg State Conservatory. ​ While enrolled in the N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory, Elizaveta had the honor of studying under Evgeniya Gorokhovskaya, a People's Artist of the RSFSR (National Rankings of Russian Federation). ​ During that time, Liza won the third prize in the 2013 International Competition S.Monyushko "Ubelskaya swallow" in Minsk, Belarus. Then, in 2016, she received the Special Award in the 32nd international competition "Ismaele Voltolini" in Buscoldo, Italy. ​ She was involved in the production of mono-opera "Cormorant, Samson and Delilah" based on Elena Skulskaya's novel in Tallinn, which was broadcasted on Estonian national radio and television. ​ Also in 2016, a year before her graduation, she was accepted into the Young Artist Program of the Bolshoi Theatre of Russia, under the direction of Honored Art Worker, Dmitry Vdovin. ​ Her time in the Bolshoi was filled with many accomplishments. Liza participated in more than 100 concerts on the stage of the Beethoven Hall. She was involved in the premiere of M. Weinberg's opera "Idiot" (the role of Alexandra Yepanchina's) on the New Stage of the Bolshoi Theatre, and performed the role of the Polovtsian girl in Borodin's opera "Prince Igor" on the historical main stage of the Bolshoi Theatre. ​ Throughout all of her studies, Elizaveta has worked with many teachers, including Irina Bogacheva, Lyubov Orfenova and Semyon Skigin (Russia), Alessandro Amoretti, Giulio Zappa, Franco Pagliazzi and Gianluca Pagliuso (Italy), Elizabeth Vidal and Jamal Moquadem (France), Evamaria Wieser (Austria), Mark Lawson, Robert Tuohy, Scott Barnes and Michael Paul (USA). ​ At the conclusion of her program, Liza moved to New York City, where she now resides with her fiance and dog. She placed 3rd in 2019's Giulio Gari International Singing Competition, and is signed with Lombardo Associates. Elizaveta Made her debut for New York City Opera the summer of 2022 and was part of the US premiere as the soprano soloist in "Concert for Sugihara" performed at Carnegie Hall. She continues to perform in New York, her home of Russia, and around the world.

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