For Immediate Release
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE George Steel, Gardner Museum’s new Abrams Curator of Music, looks forward to fall season with more diversity, exciting debuts, and tribute to Leonard Bernstein Tai Murray to perform with A Far Cry, the Gardner Museum’s resident chamber orchestra. BOSTON (June 2018) – George Steel, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum’s new Abrams Curator of Music, brings a fresh perspective to the Museum’s fall 2018 classical music season with exciting debuts and diverse lineups interspersed among returning audience favorites. The season, opening Sept. 8, will celebrate auspicious Boston debuts by young artists such as Sphinx Virtuosi, a chamber ensemble comprising 18 of the nation’s top Black and Latino musicians; Sergey Malov performing on a rare violoncello da spalla; and renowned French cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras in a five-concert Bach Festival, among others, fulfilling Steel’s vision of bringing new voices and talent to the Gardner Museum’s longstanding and popular concert program. The Gardner Museum’s resident chamber orchestra, A Far Cry, enters its ninth season in a 10- year residency. Their opening performance presents a Museum-commissioned world premiere by composer Jessica Meyer, featuring music written in response to the works in the Museum collection, as well as violinist Tal Murray as soloist in a movement from Leonard Bernstein’s violin Concerto Serenade. In addition to Sphinx and A Far Cry, the fall season will showcase two more chamber orchestras, Boston’s own young and innovative ensemble Phoenix and the period-instrument Handel and Haydn Society. The world premiere of “true pearl: an opera, in five tapestries” by composer David Lang and librettist Sibyl Kempson will be the first (and only) live performance of the complete score, performed by Roomful of Teeth and Callithumpian Consort. true pearl is inspired by five of the Museum’s spectacular tapestries. These five come from a 16th century Flemish series that tells the story of King Cyrus of Persia. Following this live concert premiere performance, true pearl will be available to Museum visitors as the creators intended: as an “in-ear” opera via headsets in the Tapestry Room through January 13, 2019. Another highlight is the Museum’s Thursday-night pop, rock, and hip hop series, RISE, which will feature rising R&B superstar Bilal; Boston-based hip hop artists Oompa, Dutch ReBelle, and Res; and Grammy Award-winning jazz drummer Terri Lyne Carrington. Steel, a nationally acclaimed musician and impresario, joined the Gardner Museum full-time in January 2018 after serving as the Museum’s Visiting Curator for Performing Arts in 2017. He previously served as Artistic Director of New York City Opera from 2009 to 2013. He was Executive Director of Columbia University’s performing arts venue, Miller Theatre, for 11 years. “This upcoming season highlights the Museum’s unshakeable commitment to Isabella’s vision — particularly for her love of music,” says Steel. “There are many familiar friends, as well as the Boston debuts of many exciting artists. And in honor of his centennial birthday we are undertaking a season-long theme of exploring the music of Boston native Leonard Bernstein.” With the theme, ‘In Boston, It’s Bernstein,’ almost every concert throughout the 2018-2019 season will feature at least one of his works, large or small. Bernstein, a native of Roxbury, spent his formative years in Boston, and attended Boston Latin High School and Harvard University. The concerts will feature a wide selection of Bernstein’s repertoire, from favorites West Side Story, Candide and On the Town to his lesser-known yet masterful chamber and ensemble works. According to The New York Times, Steel has long been a champion of “ways to make classical music matter to new generations of listeners.” His programming this fall aims to do just that. “What an inspiring and exciting fall musical season we have to look forward to, thanks to George Steel’s quest to feature new talent and unique performers,” says Peggy Fogelman, the Museum’s Norma Jean Calderwood Director. “We know they will enhance our already strong and beloved musical program.” Performing arts at the Museum are getting extra emphasis this year with a new Visiting Curator of Performing Arts Helga Davis, who begins July1, and Peter DiMuro, who is the Museum’s Choreographer-in-Residence, both of whom are planning new initiatives in dance and other art forms. The Museum’s classical music concerts take place in the Museum’s Calderwood Hall on Saturday and Sunday afternoons starting September 8. The new opera will be performed on Thursday, Oct. 4, and RISE concerts will also be on Thursday nights in September and October. Tickets for members go on sale July 25 through August 6 and to the general public on August 8. Here is the complete schedule: A Far Cry with Tai Murray, violin Saturday, September 8 at 3 PM Sunday September 9 at 1:30 PM A Far Cry, the Museum’s adventurous self-conducted resident chamber ensemble, opens the fall concert season with musical selections inspired by other works of art. The program includes a Gardner-commissioned world premiere by Artist-in-Residence Jessica Meyer, written in response to works in the Gardner collection; and Leonard Bernstein’s “Agathon” from Serenade after Plato’s Symposium, Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, Ottorino Respighi’s Botticelli Triptych (in advance of the Museum’s winter Botticelli exhibition), and African-American composer William Grant Still’s Mother and Child. Borromeo String Quartet Saturday, September 15 at 3 PM Sunday, September 16 at 1:30 PM This first concert in a two-year cycle of Felix Mendelssohn’s six quartets features String Quartet No. 2 in A minor, Op. 13 and String Quartet No. 6 in F minor, Op. 80. The program also includes Leonard Bernstein’s Ilana the Dreamer, and Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson’s String Quartet No. 1, Calvary, based on black spirituals. A major African-American conductor and composer, Perkinson collaborated with artists as diverse as Jerome Robbins, Alvin Ailey, Max Roach, Marvin Gaye and Harry Belafonte. New York Festival of Song: Songs of Leonard Bernstein Sunday, September 23 at 1:30 pm Songs from Leonard Bernstein’s hit Broadway shows anchor this program, which opens with his brilliant late song cycle, Arias and Barcarolles, performed by the pianist-founders of NYFOS, Steven Blier and Michael Barrett. Audiences will recognize selections from Bernstein’s beloved productions A West Side Story, On the Town, Wonderful Town and more. Bach Festival: Sergey Malov, violoncello da spalla Sunday, September 30 at 1:30 PM Boston Debut The remarkable violoncello da spalla (a cello played “on the shoulder”) has been almost completely forgotten. J. S. Bach loved the instrument and wrote expressly for it—it may in fact be the instrument for which he wrote one or more of his cello suites. This Boston debut by the world’s greatest performer on this extraordinary instrument will change the way one hears this iconic music. Malov will perform Bach’s Cello Suites Nos. 2, 3, and 6 in the first of five Bach Festival concerts. Sphinx Virtuosi Sunday, October 7 at 1:30 pm Boston Debut Sphinx Virtuosi, one of America’s finest chamber orchestras, comprises eighteen of the nation’s top Black and Latino classical soloists. This superb ensemble makes its long-awaited Boston debut with a program of music from around the world. Musical selections include Yasushi Akutagawa’s Triptyque for String Orchestra, Miguel de Águila’s Life is a Dream (La vida es sueño), Op. 76, Terence Blanchard’s 2018 Concerto for SV, Dmitri Shostakovich’s Chamber Symphony, Op. 110a, Kareem Roustom’s “Dabke” from A Voice Exclaiming, and Leonard Bernstein’s “America” from West Side Story. Phoenix With special guest Paula Robinson, flute Sunday, October 14 at 1:30 PM Gardner Museum Debut One of Boston’s most exciting new ensembles, Phoenix makes its Gardner debut in an all- American program that includes the original version of Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring, Leonard Bernstein’s flute concerto Halil with special guest Paula Robinson, Missy Mazzoli’s Violent, Violent Sea, Tania León’s Indígena, and George Walker’s Lyric for Strings. Bach Festival: Paavali Jumppanen, piano Sunday, October 21 at 1:30 PM J.S. Bach, The Art of Fugue Bach Festival: Corey Cerovsek, violin Sunday, October 28 at 1:30 PM All-Bach program Bach Festival: Jean-Guihen Queyras, cello Boston Solo Recital Debut Sunday, November 4 at 1:30 PM J.S. Bach, Cello Suites Nos. 1, 4, and 5 Boston Children’s Chorus Saturday, November 10 at 1:30 PM Story of Her Tales passed down throughout the ages are told, more often than not, from the male perspective. In this concert inaugurating two seasons dedicated to honoring women through song, Boston Children’s Chorus explores history through a woman’s eyes. Claremont Trio Sunday, November 11 at 1:30 PM The dazzling Claremont Trio returns to Calderwood Hall with Queen of Hearts, a new work written for them by Kati Agócs, professor of composition at New England Conservatory of Music; Bernstein’s 1937 Piano Trio, one of his earliest works, written and premiered at Harvard when he was 19 during his formative years as an undergraduate; and Ludwig van Beethoven’s Archduke Piano Trio in B-flat Major, Op. 97. Musicians from Marlboro Sunday, November 18 at 1:30 PM The Musicians from Marlboro return to perform Leonard Bernstein’s Four Anniversaries, Béla Bartók’s String Quartet No. 4 and Antonin Dvořák’s Miniatures, Op. 75a and Piano Trio in F Minor, Op. 65. A Far Cry Saturday, December 1 at 3 PM Sunday, December 2 at 1:30 PM The Gardner’s resident orchestra performs Leonard Bernstein’s “Benediction” from Concerto for Orchestra, Paul Moravec’s Morph, Edvard Grieg’s String Quartet in G minor, Op.