ELVIS COSTELLO with the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra
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Dear Music Lovers: We are thrilled to welcome you to a full weekend of outstanding programming with the Brooklyn Philharmonic. This 52nd season has been a remarkable one for the orchestra. Under new Music Director Michael Christie's dynamic leadership we have collaborated with great innovators from all genres; from Brooklyn-based dance company nicholasleichterdance performing new choreography for Carl Orff's master work Carmina Burana; to Maestro Christie and Academy Award-winning actor F. Murray Abraham sharing the stage for the rarely-performed Mozart master work, King Thamos; to our most recent multi-media concert with cabaret superstar Ute Lemper. We conclude this vibrant season on a high note with a Friday night concert by superstar Elvis Costello and a Saturday concert with esteemed guest conductor Chelsea Tipton II, featuring the world premiere of a work about an important hero of the Abolition Movement, Harriet Tubman. Thank you for being a part of Michael Christie's exciting inaugural season with the Brooklyn Philharmonic. We hope that you will be able to enjoy our outdoor summer concert this July 14th in Prospect Park as part of the Celebrate Brooklyn I series. Thank you for joining us this evening, and enjoy the concert. Sincerely, J. Barclay Collins, Chairman of the Board Brooklyn Philharmonic Catherine M . Cahill, Chief Executive Officer Brooklyn Philharmonic 1 BROOKLYN philharmoniC MUSIC DIRECTOR michael ChriStie Music Director Michael Christie on Freedom! Earlier this year, Brooklyn Philharmonic intimate contact with the highest points of Artistic Advisor Evans Mirageas interviewed power because these were the people patron new Music Director Michael Christie for a izing them as artists. When you suddenly get a series of podcasts about the four main stage composer that's been stimulated by the power concerts. The following is adapted from and by the decision making that happens, and that interview. then they get their chance to be inspired by a text that has a real political current, you get a piece like Fidelia or you get Wagner and Shost akovich (as we heard earlier this season) whose lives were both pushed forward and pulled back by the force of politics. EM: Now, Leonard Bernstein was always a man truly engaged by politics, and his Symphony No. 1, "Jeremiah," is on this pro gram conducted by our guest conductor Chelsea Tipton, in his welcome return to the Brooklyn Philharmonic. Th is piece is, in the broadest sense, a political work, isn't it? MC: Yes, that's right. You hear a piece li ke "Jeremiah," and the sense of the forsaken, the sense of despair is just so potently described by Bernstein. EM: Th is great text of the "Jeremiah" sympho EM: Michael, there's a great saying-think ny is taken from the Book of Jeremiah, and global, act local. Nowhere is this sentiment describes at once the captivity of the Jewish more appropriate than w hen yo u start talking people, the destruction of the temple, the city about composers w ho have actually taken up laid waste as it were, and so it was so apt for a political cause of justice or freedom. Our us in those dark days after 9/ 11. But ultimately concert that concludes the season is the it is also a work about hope and I think one of perfect reflection. What do you think? the great things about a piece like "Jeremiah" is that even though it is a despairing text, MC: Political composers go back hundreds of Bernstein always seems to manage to put in years. Think of Beethoven, for example, and that tiny ray of hope some place. his opera Fidelia. These composers had such 2 MC: I think his whole life was just a ray of EM: One of the other exciting things about hope. He conducted with abandon, he com this concert, of course, is that we will be posed with abandon, he really allowed the big welcoming back the Emmanuel Baptist cities that he conducted and lived in to get Church's Tota l Praise Choir. With this concert under his skin. I think that Bernstein embodied in May, Michael, we come to the end of the human experience, and he let his life the regular winter and spring Brooklyn reflect that. There's no better place than Phi lharmonic season, but we don't go to "Jeremiah" to hear that. sleep for the rest of the season do we? EM: Leonard Bernstein was also a great MC: No. The Brooklyn Philharmonic is one friend of the Brooklyn Philharmonic. He partici busy orchestra, that's for sure. Not only do our pated in symposiums during Lukas Foss' "Meet education activities go through the end of the the Moderns" series. A little tidbit for those of school year, but we have our annual concert you who are playing trivia questions, Leonard at Prospect Park on July 14th. It'll be a very Bernstein is actually buried in Brooklyn in the exciting summer for people who want to Greenwood cemetery. Speaking of Brooklyn come over the bridge and hear great music. and its landmarks, I think another wonderful fact about our borough that a lot of people EM: It's a very busy time for the Brooklyn don't know is that it was a very important Ph il harmonic because in addition to our fina l stop on the Underground Railroad. subscription concert with Chelsea Tipton II , we're also inviting Elvis Costello to come and MC: That's right. Just around the corner from present an amazing evening of his music. BAM, which is where we perform these con certs, is the site of a major stop on the EM: Michael, even though you'll be else Underground Railroad. where for a lot of the summer, Brooklyn will probably be in your thoughts a lot of the time EM: A few years ago, in the mid 1980's, I now, won't it? had the privilege of participating in the world premiere of an opera about the life of Harriet MC: Brooklyn is always in my thoughts. We Tubman, one of the great Underground have such a mission. Railroad conductors, and a hero of the Abolition Movement. Composer Thea EM: And in the summertime, w hen you are Musgrave wrote an opera about Harriet working with your wonderful festival in Tubman, which successfully premiered in Colorado, and breathing in that fresh moun Norfolk, and we're going to be giving the tain air, you'll also be thinking of the grit and world premiere of a suite that Musgrave has the excitement of the streets of the borough specially constructed from this opera for us. of Brooklyn. MC: That's right, and we're so happy to have MC: Well, I think there's really no better place Chelsea Tipton II here to conduct this very to be than a lot of the parks in Brooklyn that I important concert-important not only in its saw during the summer last year. I think peo subject matter, but in its scope of composers ple will be having a pretty good time out there, taking a risk to reflect on some disturbing and I wish I could be out there with them. political events, and saying, 'let's bring this back to the concert hall, let's have some dis cussions about this, let's relive the potency of some of these events.' 3 WHO'S WHO MICHAEL CHRISTIE Symphony, the Netherlands Radio Symphony, became Music Director the City of Birmingham Symphony, the of the Brooklyn Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Philharmonic in the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, the NOR September 2005. That Hannover Orchestra, the Czech Ph ilharmonic, same month he was plus engagements in al l five Scandinavian appointed the Virginia countries. G. Piper Music Director Michael Christie also enjoys a strong profile of the Phoenix in Australia, where aside from his former role as Symphony. Already Music Director of the Chief Conductor of the Queensland Orchestra, Colorado Music Festival, where he has been he has also conducted the Sydney Symphony, much praised for his innovative programming, Tasmanian Symphony, Opera Queensland and he also holds the position of Princi~al Guest the Western Australian Symphony in Perth. Conductor with the Queensland Orchestra in Maestro Christie has regularly conducted Australia, having concluded his tenure as Chief both operas and ballet performances at the Conductor there at the end of 2004. Opernhaus in Zurich where, in the 1997-1998 The 2004-2005 season was an exciting one season, he was Assistant Co nductor to Franz for Michael Christie. In the Spring of 2005 he Weiser-Most (a position especially created for conducted orchestras including the Brooklyn him). That season he made his highly success Philharmonic, the Vancouver Symphony, the ful debut conducting performances of Romeo Calgary Philharmonic and the Oregon & Juliet and a new production of Hansel and Symphony. In Europe, he had engagements in Gretel. In March 2004 he made his opera France with the Orchestre de Bretagne and the debut in the Netherlands conducting John Orchestre National de Lille, performances with Adams' The Death of Klinghoffer with the the Odense and Aarhus Orchestras. In Spring Rotterdam Philharmonic. 2005 he also made his Berlin conducting debut Michael Christie first came to international with the Deutsches Symphony Orchestra. This attention in 1995 when he was awarded a past season ended with a series of concerts special prize for "Outstanding P0tential" at w ith the Los Angeles Ph ilharmonic, where he the First International Sibelius Conductor's has been invited to return during the 2006 Competition in Helsinki.