FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 9, 2013 Contact: Katherine E. Johnson (212) 875-5718; [email protected] ALAN GILBERT AND THE NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC BRITTEN’s 100th BIRTHDAY SERENADE FOR TENOR, HORN, AND STRINGS With Tenor PAUL APPLEBY and Principal Horn PHILIP MYERS SPRING SYMPHONY With Soprano KATE ROYAL, Mezzo-Soprano SASHA COOKE, Tenor PAUL APPLEBY, NEW YORK CHORAL ARTISTS, and BROOKLYN YOUTH CHORUS November 21–23 and 26, 2013 Music Director Alan Gilbert will lead the New York Philharmonic in a celebration of the centennial of English composer, conductor, and pianist Benjamin Britten. The program will include Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings, featuring tenor Paul Appleby and Philharmonic Principal Horn Philip Myers, and Britten’s Spring Symphony, with soprano Kate Royal (in her Philharmonic debut), mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke (Philharmonic subscription debut), tenor Paul Appleby, New York Choral Artists directed by Joseph Flummerfelt, and Brooklyn Youth Chorus directed by Dianne Berkun-Menaker. The concerts, which include a performance on the composer’s 100th birthday, November 22, will take place Thursday, November 21, 2013, at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, November 22 at 8:00 p.m.; and Saturday, November 23 at 8:00 p.m. “I think Benjamin Britten is one of the truly great composers of the 20th century,” Alan Gilbert said. “Spring Symphony is a piece that is not often performed but is a very fresh and inspired work about renewal and growth, one that New York should absolutely hear.” “Paul Appleby is one of the important young American singers,” the Music Director continued. “Peter Pears, the great tenor for whom Britten wrote many of his tenor roles, had an incredibly intense way of expressing language, and I think Paul has that too: it’s essential to Britten.” Paul Appleby and Philip Myers will also perform the Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings on November 26, 2013, conducted by Alan Gilbert, on a program that also includes Mozart’s Symphonies Nos. 39 and 41, Jupiter. (more) Alan Gilbert / Britten’s 100th Birthday / 2 Related Events Pre-Concert Talks Philharmonic Vice President, Artistic Planning, Edward Yim will introduce the program November 21–23. Author and lecturer Fred Plotkin will introduce the program November 26. Pre-Concert Talks are $7; discounts available for multiple concerts, students, and groups. They take place one hour before each performance in the Helen Hull Room, unless otherwise noted. Attendance is limited to 90 people. Information: nyphil.org or (212) 875-5656. National and International Radio Broadcast The program will be broadcast the week of December 15, 2013,* on The New York Philharmonic This Week, a radio concert series syndicated weekly to more than 300 stations nationally, and to 122 outlets internationally, by the WFMT Radio Network. The 52-week series, hosted by actor Alec Baldwin, is generously underwritten by The Kaplen Brothers Fund, the Audrey Love Charitable Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Philharmonic’s corporate partner, MetLife Foundation. The broadcast will be available on the Philharmonic’s Website, nyphil.org. The program is broadcast locally in the New York metropolitan area on 105.9 FM WQXR on Thursdays at 8:00 p.m. *Check local listings for broadcast and program information. Artists Music Director Alan Gilbert began his New York Philharmonic tenure in September 2009, the first native New Yorker in the post. He and the Philharmonic have introduced the positions of The Marie-Josée Kravis Composer-in-Residence and The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in- Residence; CONTACT!, the new-music series; and, beginning in the spring of 2014, the NY PHIL BIENNIAL. “He is building a legacy that matters and is helping to change the template for what an American orchestra can be,” The New York Times praised. In addition to inaugurating the NY PHIL BIENNIAL, in the 2013–14 season Alan Gilbert conducts Mozart’s three final symphonies; the U.S. Premiere of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Frieze coupled with Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony; four world premieres; an all-Britten program celebrating the composer’s centennial; the score from 2001: A Space Odyssey as the film is screened; and a staged production of Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd starring Bryn Terfel. He continues The Nielsen Project — the multi-year initiative to perform and record the Danish composer’s symphonies and concertos, the first release of which was named by The New York Times as among the Best Classical Music Recordings of 2012 — and presides over the ASIA / WINTER 2014 tour. Last season’s highlights included Bach’s B-minor Mass; Ives’s Fourth Symphony; the EUROPE / SPRING 2013 tour; and the season-concluding A Dancer’s Dream, a multidisciplinary reimagining of Stravinsky’s The Fairy’s Kiss and Petrushka, created by Giants Are Small and starring New York City Ballet principal dancer Sara Mearns. Mr. Gilbert is Director of Conducting and Orchestral Studies and holds the William Schuman Chair in Musical Studies at The Juilliard School. Conductor laureate of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and principal guest conductor of Hamburg’s NDR Symphony Orchestra, he regularly conducts leading orchestras around the world. He made his acclaimed Metropolitan Opera debut conducting John Adams’s Doctor Atomic in 2008, the DVD of which received a Grammy Award. Renée Fleming’s recent Decca recording Poèmes, on which he conducted, (more) Alan Gilbert / Britten’s 100th Birthday / 3 received a 2013 Grammy Award. His recordings have received top honors from the Chicago Tribune and Gramophone magazine. In May 2010 Mr. Gilbert received an Honorary Doctor of Music degree from The Curtis Institute of Music and in December 2011, Columbia University’s Ditson Conductor’s Award for his “exceptional commitment to the performance of works by American composers and to contemporary music.” Philip Myers, The Ruth F. and Alan J. Broder Chair, joined the New York Philharmonic as Principal Horn in January 1980. He has appeared as a Philharmonic soloist on numerous occasions, including in Schumann’s Konzertstück for Four Horns, with Lorin Maazel in February 2007 and Kurt Masur in May 2001 as well as on tour; Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings led by André Previn in October 2001; and Mozart’s Sinfonia concertante in E-flat major for Oboe, Clarinet, Horn, and Bassoon in March 2010, led by Music Director Alan Gilbert. He is a member of the New York Philharmonic Principal Brass Quintet, which performs an annual Holiday Brass Concert at Avery Fisher Hall, and appears often internationally in conjunction with the Orchestra’s tours. Mr. Myers began his orchestral career in 1971 with a three-year term as principal horn of the Atlantic Symphony in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He was third horn with the Pittsburgh Symphony from 1974 until 1977. As principal horn of the Minnesota Orchestra for a season and a half, he made his solo debut with that ensemble in 1979, performing Richard Strauss’s Horn Concerto No. 1 with Neville Marriner conducting. A native of Elkhart, Indiana, Philip Myers holds two degrees from Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh. He plays Engelbert Schmid French horns. He made his Philharmonic solo debut in January 1980 performing the premiere of William Schuman’s Three Colloquies, led by Zubin Mehta; he most recently appeared with the Orchestra as soloist in October 2012 in Mozart’s Horn Concerto No. 3, conducted by Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos. Born in London, Kate Royal studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the National Opera Studio. Her awards include the 2004 Kathleen Ferrier Award, the 2004 John Christie Award, and the 2007 Royal Philharmonic Society Young Artist Award. In concert she has appeared at the Edinburgh Festival led by Charles Mackerras, with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment led by Simon Rattle at BBC Proms and Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, at the Bach Akademie Stuttgart with Helmuth Rilling, the National Symphony Orchestra led by Helmuth Rilling, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic led by Vassily Petrenko, the Orchestra of La Scala Milan led by Myung-Whun Chung, the Los Angeles Philharmonic led by Pablo Heras- Casado, Le Concert d’Astree led by Emanuelle Haïm, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra led by Robin Ticciati, the Boston Symphony Orchestra led by Thomas Adès, and both the Berlin Philharmonic and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra led by Simon Rattle. She has also appeared in recital throughout Europe and North America. Ms. Royal has recorded Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 with the Manchester Camerata and Schumann’s Liederkreis (for the Hyperion label) with Graham Johnson. In October 2006 she signed an exclusive contract with EMI Classics, with whom her first solo recordings were a musical portrait with the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields conducted by Edward Gardner, Midsummer Night with the Orchestra of English National Opera and Gardner, and A Lesson in Love with Malcolm Martineau. Other concert engagements this season include the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Verbier Festival, and the Berlin, London, and Rotterdam philharmonic orchestras. She has appeared at The Metropolitan Opera; Royal Opera, Covent Garden; Teatro Real, Madrid; English National Opera; the Paris Opera; the Glyndebourne, Lucerne, and Aix-en-Provence festivals; and Glyndebourne on Tour. This is Kate Royal’s New York Philharmonic debut. (more) Alan Gilbert / Britten’s 100th Birthday / 4 Mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke is known for her symphonic, opera, chamber, and recital performances, and has performed roles in Mark Adamo’s The Gospel of Mary Magdalene at San Francisco Opera and in John Adams’s Doctor Atomic at The Metropolitan Opera. In the 2013–14 season she returned to the Hollywood Bowl in Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, Resurrection, with the Los Angeles Philharmonic led by Michael Tilson Thomas; appears with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra led by Pierre Boulez, Berlin’s German Symphony Orchestra, and the Columbus Symphony Orchestra; and makes debuts with The Philadelphia Orchestra as well as the Indianapolis Symphony in Verdi’s Requiem.