FOR RELEASE: May 29, 2013 Contact: Katherine E. Johnson (212) 875-5718; johnsonk@nyphil.org CONTACT!, the New York Philharmonic’s New-Music Series, Expands to New Venues in 2013–14 Season Partnership with 92ND STREET Y To Bring CONTACT! to New Downtown Arts Venue SUBCULTURE for Three Programs Works by ESA-PEKKA SALONEN, MARC NEIKRUG, and MARC-ANDRÉ DALBAVIE Featuring YEFIM BRONFMAN, The Mary and James G. Wallach ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE; Premieres of Solo Works by YOUNG AMERICAN COMPOSERS as Part of NY PHIL BIENNIAL MATTHIAS PINTSCHER To Conduct Beyond Recall: 11 U.S. Premieres at THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART as Part of NY PHIL BIENNIAL CHRISTOPHER ROUSE, The Marie-Josée Kravis COMPOSER-IN-RESIDENCE, To Advise on Series Entering its fifth season in 2013–14, CONTACT!, the New York Philharmonic’s new-music series, is extending its reach by presenting more concerts in new venues including SubCulture — a new arts venue in downtown Manhattan — in partnership with 92nd Street Y, and The Museum of Modern Art. The upcoming season of CONTACT! will feature four concert programs, an expansion over previous seasons. Dedicated to the works of emerging and iconic contemporary composers, CONTACT! in the 2013–14 season will feature works for ensembles of New York Philharmonic musicians as well as programs of solo works performed by Philharmonic musicians and distinguished guests. The New York Philharmonic and 92nd Street Y will co-curate three programs at SubCulture, a new, intimate space hosting eclectic music and creative arts performances in Manhattan’s NoHo neighborhood. The concerts will feature a program focused on works by composerconductor Esa-Pekka Salonen; a performance by The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-inResidence Yefim Bronfman and musicians from the Orchestra; and a concert that includes World Premiere–New York Philharmonic Commissions of solo works by young American composers. The fourth CONTACT! program, co-presented by the New York Philharmonic and The Museum of Modern Art, is titled Beyond Recall and features 11 U.S. Premieres of music inspired by art works selected for the Salzburg Art Project, conducted by Matthias Pintscher and performed by New York Philharmonic musicians. The program of solo works by young American composers and Beyond Recall are both part of the inaugural NY PHIL BIENNIAL (May 28–June 7, 2014), a kaleidoscopic exploration (more) 2013–14 Season of CONTACT! / 2 of today’s music by a wide range of contemporary and modern composers. [See separate press release for more information about the NY PHIL BIENNIAL.] Christopher Rouse, who in 2013–14 will be completing the second in his two-year term as The Marie-Josée Kravis Composer-in-Residence, advises the Philharmonic on the CONTACT! series. One of America’s most prominent composers of orchestral music, Mr. Rouse won the 1993 Pulitzer Prize in Music for his Trombone Concerto, commissioned and premiered by the New York Philharmonic. Alan Gilbert said: “CONTACT! is essentially about making contact with a fresh, excited, exciting audience, with new music that is absolutely important to play,” said Alan Gilbert. “We have always felt it important for the series to reach across New York City, with performances in more intimate spaces not necessarily associated with the formality of a New York Philharmonic concert. This coming season brings CONTACT! as far south as NoHo, where SubCulture offers a great energy that perfectly matches the atmosphere we want for these concerts.” Christopher Rouse said: “CONTACT! has been involved in commissioning and giving premieres of works by emerging composers, so it’s a wonderful opportunity for young composers. I think that’s an important part of the mission.” Hanna Arie-Gaifman, director of 92nd Street Y’s Tisch Center for the Arts, said: “CONTACT! is more than a symbolic title for this series. It really points to the relationship between today’s music, composers, musicians, audience, and all of us who make music happen. It also hints at the creative nature of the partnership between 92nd Street Y and the New York Philharmonic: innovative, energetic, and, like the music we jointly present, quite intimate. I am thrilled that 92nd Street Y’s participation in CONTACT! is part of the NY PHIL BIENNIAL and its celebration of the life and creation of music today, here and now.” AN EVENING WITH ESA-PEKKA SALONEN Mr. Salonen To Introduce His Works, Performed by Musicians from the Philharmonic November 4, 2013, at SUBCULTURE The 2013–14 season of CONTACT! opens with An Evening with Esa-Pekka Salonen. EsaPekka Salonen hosts this performance featuring musicians from the New York Philharmonic in five of his compositions: knock, breathe, shine for solo cello (2010), Memoria for wind quintet (2003), YTA III for solo cello (1986), Homunculus for string quartet (2007), and Second Meeting for oboe and piano (1992). Mr. Salonen will introduce each piece. This (more) 2013–14 Season of CONTACT! / 3 program, November 4, 2013, at SubCulture, is a co-presentation by the New York Philharmonic and 92nd Street Y. Finnish-born Esa-Pekka Salonen is an eminent composer as well as the principal conductor and artistic advisor for London’s Philharmonia Orchestra and the conductor laureate for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, where he was music director from 1992 to 2009. His pieces Floof and LA Variations are widely regarded as modern classics. In 2007 Mr. Salonen conducted the New York Philharmonic in the World Premiere of his Piano Concerto, with Yefim Bronfman, its dedicatee, as soloist. Mr. Salonen’s recordings include a CD featuring the Piano Concerto and his pieces Helix and Dichotomie with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Mr. Bronfman; it was nominated for a Grammy Award. In 2012 Mr. Salonen released a disc containing his Grawemeyer Award–winning Violin Concerto, featuring Leila Josefowicz as soloist. Mr. Salonen, Ms. Josefowicz, and the New York Philharmonic will give the New York concert premiere of the Violin Concerto on October 30–31 and November 1–2 and 5, 2013, in the days surrounding this CONTACT! concert. The title of knock, breathe, shine comes from a sonnet by John Donne and suggests the piece’s three movements. Finnish cellist Anssi Karttunen, who has performed Mr. Salonen’s work extensively, has described them thus: “knock … has a lot of pizzicatos of different kinds, which eventually get very mixed up, the bow getting more and more in their way. breathe is about breathing, about singing, about melodies.… shine shows us all the brilliance of what one could do on the cello if one were able to play it while sitting on a roller coaster.” Memoria is scored for flute (doubling alto flute), oboe (doubling English horn), clarinet, bassoon (doubling contrabassoon), and horn. Using his unfinished Mimo, from 1982, as a starting point, Mr. Salonen wrote a one-movement piece he described as “serious, sometimes even sad.” The title refers partly to the death of Luciano Berio, “the great Italian composer, whose music I greatly admire.” YTA III for solo cello is the third in a series of works for solo instruments that Mr. Salonen began in 1982, starting with a piece for solo alto flute. “The title, �Yta,’ is in Swedish, and means �surface,’” the composer wrote. “I wanted to write very demanding virtuoso music, where the surface is extremely busy, but the formal process, partly hidden behind the frenetic stream of fast gestures, is considerably slower.” YTA III is a rare example of an instrumental work by Mr. Salonen with programmatic content: “I tried to imagine what happens to the famous moth that circles around a lamp in Scriabin’s Vers a flamme after the wings have finally touched the flame. A series of gestures is introduced in the beginning. Each gesture undergoes an individual development, culminating in spasms before dying away. YTA III is a study of the death of an organism; the ugliest and most violent piece I’ve written.” Homunculus for string quartet arose out of Mr. Salonen’s wish to compose, as he put it, “a piece that would be very compact in form and duration, but still contain many different characters and textures. In other words, a little piece that behaves like a big piece.” Hence, (more) 2013–14 Season of CONTACT! / 4 the title, which in Latin means “little man.” “I have long been fascinated (and amused) by the arcane spermists’ theory,” the composer wrote, “who held the belief that the sperm was in fact a �little man’ (homunculus) that was placed inside a woman for growth into a child.… I decided to call my piece Homunculus despite the obvious weaknesses of the spermists’ thinking, as I find the idea of a perfect little man strangely moving.” Mr. Salonen composed Second Meeting for oboe and piano in January 1992, ten years after writing its prequel, Meeting, which is for clarinet and harpsichord. The piece follows a theme and variations form, albeit one in which the seven themes, or melodies, are closely related. Mr. Salonen later composed a version of the piece for oboe and small orchestra that is titled Mimo I. YEFIM BRONFMAN AND FRIENDS Pianist Yefim Bronfman, The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence, To Perform World Premiere of Marc Neikrug’s Passions, Reflected and Marc-André Dalbavie’s Trio No. 1 with Philharmonic Musicians Marc Neikrug To Host January 13, 2014, at SUBCULTURE In the second CONTACT! program of the season, Yefim Bronfman and Friends, the Philharmonic’s Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence for the 2013–14 season will perform a contemporary chamber work with musicians from the New York Philharmonic as well as a work for solo piano. The program includes Marc-André Dalbavie’s Trio No. 1 for violin, cello, and piano (2008) and the World Premiere of Passions, Reflected for solo piano (2008) by Marc Neikrug. Mr. Neikrug will host the concert, introducing each piece. This program, January 13, 2014, at SubCulture, is a co-presentation by the New York Philharmonic and 92nd Street Y. Yefim Bronfman is a Grammy Award–winning pianist and longtime friend of the Philharmonic. In May 2012 he and the Orchestra, led by Alan Gilbert, gave the World Premiere of former Philharmonic Composer-in-Residence Magnus Lindberg’s Piano Concerto No. 2, which the Philharmonic commissioned; this performance is featured on a recent release on Dacapo Records. Mr. Bronfman will join Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic in a reprise of the piece in New York on January 2–3 and 7, 2014, and on the ASIA / WINTER 2014 tour in February 2014. The pianist was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2009 for his recording of Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Piano Concerto, conducted by the composer (Deutsche Grammophon). Beyond performing on CONTACT!, Mr. Bronfman’s role as Artist-in-Residence includes appearing as the featured soloist in The Beethoven Piano Concertos: A Philharmonic Festival, which showcases Beethoven’s complete piano concertos alongside World Premieres by composers commissioned by the Philharmonic as part of The Marie-Josée Kravis Prize for New Music. (more) 2013–14 Season of CONTACT! / 5 In a 2010 review of Marc-André Dalbavie’s Trio No. 1 featuring Mr. Bronfman at Chicago’s Orchestra Hall, critic Bryant Manning of Chicago Classical Review wrote of the work: “There is still abundant mystery and a sharp personal signature aided by hypnotically creative sonorities. The lucidly etched narrative and crystal-clear three-part form are at the service of an incisive musical vocabulary.… Fragments of themes disappear and reappear, and some of the motoring accompaniment sounds like a page out of the American Minimalists.” Mr. Dalbavie’s works have been referred to as “spatialized acoustic pieces,” as they were composed specifically for the venues in which they are being premiered, with the musicians placed in unorthodox locations so sound and timbre can be used to the greatest possible effect. He studied conducting with former Philharmonic Music Director Pierre Boulez, who has conducted Mr. Dalbavie’s works and described the younger composer’s music as “always very French, with a seductive sense of harmony. He knows how to distribute sounds among the instruments of the orchestra so that the interior of the chords is easy to hear…. The complexity is in the combinations.” Mr. Dalbavie’s Melodia, a Philharmonic commission, received its World Premiere on CONTACT!’s inaugural program in December 2009, conducted by then Composer-in-Residence Magnus Lindberg. Marc Neikrug wrote that Passions, Reflected “takes its title from several aspects. I was thinking of the reflections of composer to performer and performer to audience and back again. I also was trying to base the piece on Schumann piano works, which I am passionate about, particularly the juxtaposition of a series of small pieces with musical connections, into a large structure. Hence also perhaps a reflection from Schumann’s passion.” Marc Neikrug is equally renowned as a pianist, and is the longtime collaborative partner of violinist Pinchas Zukerman. “The first word that comes to mind when describing Marc’s music is �human’” said Music Director Alan Gilbert. “To me it is very emotional and true to what people feel and experience.” The Philharmonic has performed Mr. Neikrug’s works since 1980, most recently, in April 2012, when Alan Gilbert conducted the World Premiere of Mr. Neikrug’s Concerto for Orchestra, commissioned by the Philharmonic. CONTACT! at the Biennial: MATTHIAS PINTSCHER To Conduct Beyond Recall, U.S. Premieres of Music Inspired by Sculptures Selected for the Salzburg Art Project May 29 and 31, 2014, at THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART In the third CONTACT! program, the New York Philharmonic makes its debut at The Museum of Modern Art, where conductor-composer Matthias Pintscher conducts and curates Beyond Recall, a collection of 11 works each inspired by a work of art residing in Salzburg created through the Kunstprojekt Salzburg (Salzburg Art Project), which brings contemporary artwork to the Austrian city’s public spaces. The program of all U.S. Premieres, performed by New York Philharmonic musicians, is part of the NY PHIL BIENNIAL. [See separate press release for more information about the NY PHIL BIENNIAL.] Taking place on May 29 and 31, 2014, at The Museum of Modern Art’s Agnes (more) 2013–14 Season of CONTACT! / 6 Gund Garden Lobby, these performances of Beyond Recall are a co-presentation by the New York Philharmonic and The Museum of Modern Art. Matthias Pintscher — appointed music director of Paris’s Ensemble InterContemporain beginning with the 2013–14 season — selected the composers and determined which composer should respond to which Salzburg Art Project art work. The program will include Bruno Mantovani’s on “Spirit of Mozart” by Marina Abramovic; Johannes Maria Staud’s on “Caldera” by Anthony Cragg; Dai Fujikura’s on “Sphaera” / “Frau im Fels” by Stephan Balkenhol; Vykintas Baltakas’s on “Beyond Recall” by Brigitte Kowanz; David Fulmer’s on “Awilda” by Jaume Plensa; Jay Schwartz’s on “Mozart – Eine Hommage” by Markus Lüpertz; Mark André’s on “Sky-Space” by James Turrell; Vito Zuraj’s on “Connection” by Manfred Wakolbinger; Michael Jarrell’s on “Vanitas” by Christian Boltanski; Olga Neuwirth’s on “Ziffern im Wald” by Mario Merz; and Nina Šenk’s on “Gurken” by Erwin Wurm. The music-and-art-centered performances will be prefaced with introductory remarks by Bernd Heinrich Dinter, who conceived of and directed Beyond Recall. The program will receive its World Premiere at the Salzburg Festival in August 2013 with Mr. Pintscher conducting the Scharoun Ensemble, comprising members of the Berlin Philharmonic. CONTACT! at the Biennial: Premieres of Solo Works by YOUNG AMERICAN COMPOSERS June 3, 2014, at SUBCULTURE In the season’s fourth and final installment of CONTACT!, musicians from the New York Philharmonic will perform solo works by young American composers Oscar Bettison, Ryan Brown, Michael Hersch, Chris Kapica, Eric Nathan, and Paola Prestini, including four World Premiere–New York Philharmonic Commissions and two New York Premieres. This program is part of the NY PHIL BIENNIAL. [See separate press release for more information about the NY PHIL BIENNIAL.] Taking place on June 3, 2014, at SubCulture, this performance is a co-presentation by the New York Philharmonic and 92nd Street Y. Krank (2004) for solo percussion by Oscar Bettison will receive its New York Premiere in this program. In a program note, Mr. Bettison wrote: “When I first started thinking about writing Krank, I imagined a little music box made up of 18 �found objects’ arranged into three keyboards. Like a music box, Krank needs to be wound up in order to [be played], but Krank is a music box with a difference. Krank is a music box that tries to fight against its mechanical constitution; it wants to sing and be free of its constraints like a kind of musical Pinocchio. Three times it tries increasingly hard to break free. Three times it tries and … well, that would be telling.” Known for his innovative approach to presenting concert music, Mr. Bettison reimagines the instruments he composes for, finding new and unusual ways to employ them and incorporating electro-acoustic elements and instruments commonly used in rock music. (more) 2013–14 Season of CONTACT! / 7 Also receiving its New York Premiere in this performance is Four Pieces for Solo Piano (2010) by Ryan Brown. Comprising Cellar Door, Buckle, Stage Whisper, and Shoestring, the work uses the highest registers of the instrument to create percussive, playful, and strangely beautiful and engrossing mini-works. Ryan Brown’s music reflects his diverse musical tastes and background as an electric guitarist and bassist, and has been performed by pianist Lisa Moore, guitarist Mark Stewart, Robin Cox Ensemble, BluePrint Project, Great Noise Ensemble, and MATA Festival. His teachers have included Dan Becker, Martin Herman, Steve Mackey, Julia Wolfe, and David Lang. As a celebrated electric guitarist and electric bassist, Mr. Brown has been featured in works by John Adams, Steve Reich, and Steven Mackey. Michael Hersch is composing his Philharmonic commission, which will receive its World Premiere on this CONTACT! program at the NY PHIL BIENNIAL, for solo violin. Mr. Hersch has previously composed works for solo violin, including a commission from violinist Midori (who will be featured in the June 5 and 7 NY PHIL BIENNIAL performances). Celebrated composer George Rochberg said of Mr. Hersch’s works: “His music sounds the dark places of the human heart and soul. The inherent drama of his work is remarkable for being completely unself-conscious, unstudied and powerful in its projection, convinced and convincing.” Chris Kapica is composing his Philharmonic commission, to receive its World Premiere on this CONTACT! program at the NY PHIL BIENNIAL, for solo clarinet. An in-demand bass clarinetist, electric guitarist, and electric bassist as well as composer, Mr. Kapica draws on a wide range of influences in his compositions, including R&B, rock, flamenco, jazz, and world music. He is a former student of the New York Philharmonic’s Marie-Josée Kravis Composer-in-Residence Christopher Rouse. Eric Nathan is composing his Philharmonic commission, receiving its World Premiere on this CONTACT! program at the NY PHIL BIENNIAL, for solo trombone. Mr. Nathan — who has composed solo works for trumpet, piano, clarinet, and soprano — has said: “My biggest influences are from other art forms: painting, sculpture, dance, poetry. I analyze how each artwork is constructed, and this usually informs the processes and structures I use in my work. I’m also inspired by the physicality of performing music; when I compose I try to imagine someone performing the piece visually in my mind. As a result I think gesture plays a large role in my pieces, both musically and also with the physical reaction it produces.” Paola Prestini is composing her Philharmonic commission, receiving its World Premiere on this CONTACT! program at the NY PHIL BIENNIAL, for solo cello. Named one of the top 100 composers in the world under 40 by NPR, Ms. Prestini has said her influences range “from [John] Zorn (his music, his life) and [Philip] Glass to Beethoven, Palestrina, and folk music.” She has composed numerous solo works, including Limpopo Songs for solo piano, Sympathique for solo viola, and Phoenix for solo violin. In 1999 Ms. Prestini co-founded VisionIntoArt, which has created more than 50 multimedia productions around the world; she recently became creative director of the Brooklyn-based Original Music Workshop. (more) 2013–14 Season of CONTACT! / 8 *** CONTACT! at SubCulture is made possible with generous support from Linda and Stuart Nelson. *** Major support for the NY PHIL BIENNIAL is provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The Susan and Elihu Rose Foundation, and The Francis Goelet Fund. Tickets Tickets start at $20. Tickets may be purchased online at nyphil.org or 92y.org. To determine ticket availability, call the Philharmonic’s Customer Relations Department at (212) 8755656, 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, 1:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Saturday, and noon to 5:00 p.m. on Sunday. [Ticket prices subject to change.] (more) 2013–14 Season of CONTACT! / 9 CHRONOLOGICAL LISTING OF CONTACT! 2013–14 CONTACT! AT SUBCULTURE: AN EVENING WITH ESA-PEKKA SALONEN A Co-Presentation of the New York Philharmonic and 92nd Street Y Monday, November 4, 2013, 7:30 p.m. SubCulture 45 Bleecker Street Esa-Pekka Salonen, host Musicians from the New York Philharmonic Esa-Pekka SALONEN knock, breathe, shine for solo cello Memoria for wind quintet YTA III for solo cello Homunculus for string quartet Second Meeting for oboe and piano CONTACT! AT SUBCULTURE: YEFIM BRONFMAN AND FRIENDS A Co-Presentation of the New York Philharmonic and 92nd Street Y Monday, January 13, 2014, 7:30 p.m. SubCulture 45 Bleecker Street Yefim Bronfman, piano Marc Neikrug, host Musicians from the New York Philharmonic Marc-André DALBAVIE Marc NEIKRUG Trio No. 1 for violin, cello, and piano Passions, Reflected for solo piano (World Premiere) (more) 2013–14 Season of CONTACT! / 10 CONTACT! AT THE BIENNIAL: BEYOND RECALL A Co-Presentation of the New York Philharmonic and The Museum of Modern Art Agnes Gund Garden Lobby The Museum of Modern Art 11 West 53rd Street Thursday, May 29, 2014, 10:00 p.m. Saturday, May 31, 2014, 10:00 p.m. Beyond Recall (11 U.S. Premieres) Matthias Pintscher, conductor Mezzo-soprano tba Baritone tba Musicians from the New York Philharmonic Bruno MANTOVANI Johannes Maria STAUD Dai FUJIKURA Vykintas BALTAKAS David FULMER Jay SCHWARTZ Mark ANDRÉ Vito ZURAJ Michael JARRELL Olga NEUWIRTH Nina ŠENK on “Spirit of Mozart” by Marina Abramovic on “Caldera” by Anthony Cragg on “Sphaera” / “Frau im Fels” by Stephan Balkenhol on “Beyond Recall” by Brigitte Kowanz on “Awilda” by Jaume Plensa on “Mozart – Eine Hommage” by Markus Lüpertz on “Sky-Space” by James Turrell on “Connection” by Manfred Wakolbinger on “Vanitas” by Christian Boltanski on “Ziffern im Wald” by Mario Merz on “Gurken” by Erwin Wurm (more) 2013–14 Season of CONTACT! / 11 CONTACT! AT THE BIENNIAL: SOLO WORKS BY YOUNG AMERICAN COMPOSERS A Co-Presentation of the New York Philharmonic and 92nd Street Y SubCulture 45 Bleecker Street Tuesday, June 3, 2014, 7:30 p.m. Musicians from the New York Philharmonic Oscar BETTISON Ryan BROWN Michael HERSCH Chris KAPICA Eric NATHAN Paola PRESTINI Krank (New York Premiere) Four Pieces for Solo Piano (New York Premiere) New work for solo violin (World Premiere– New York Philharmonic Commission) New work for solo clarinet (World Premiere– New York Philharmonic Commission) New work for solo trombone (World Premiere– New York Philharmonic Commission) New work for solo cello (World Premiere– New York Philharmonic Commission) ### Contact: Katherine E. Johnson (212) 875-5718; johnsonk@nyphil.org ALL PROGRAMS SUBJECT TO CHANGE Tumblr — Your Backstage Pass Photography is available for the NY PHIL BIENNIAL at nyphil.org/newsroom/1314/Biennial, or by contacting the Communications Department at (212) 875-5700; PR@nyphil.org.
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