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Home , Boris Thomashefsky, Otto Klemperer, Patricia Birch, Twyla Tharp, Willem Mengelberg

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THE THOMASHEFSKYS: Music and Memories of a Life in the Yiddish Theater

Tuesday, April 5, 2011, 7:30 p.m. 15,169 th Concert

Wednesday, April 6, 2011, 7:30 p.m. 15,170 th Concert

Global Sponsor

Michael Tilson Thomas, , Music Director, Conductor and Narrator holds The Yoko Nagae , Director Ceschina Chair . ’s Starring Judy Blazer and appearance is made possible Charles A. Dana and featuring through the Distinguished Conductors Ronit Widmann-Levy and Endowment Fund . Eugene Brancoveanu Guest artist appearances are made possible through the Hedwig van Ameringen Guest Artists Endowment Fund .

Classical 105.9 FM WQXR is the Radio Station of the .

Programs are supported, in part, by public funds from the Department of Cultural Affairs , New York State Council on the Arts , and the National Endowment for the Arts This concert will last approximately two . and three-quarter hours, which includes one Instruments made possible, in part, by The Richard S. intermission . Linda Steinberg, Executive and Karen LeFrak Endowment Fund . Director of The Thomashefsky Project, will give a talk one hour prior to Steinway is the Official Piano of the New York the performance. Philharmonic and Avery Fisher Hall.

Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center Home of the New York Philharmonic Exclusive Timepiece of the New York Philharmonic

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New York Philharmonic

THE THOMASHEFSKYS: Music and Memories of a Life in the Yiddish Theater

Michael Tilson Thomas, Conductor and Narrator Patricia Birch, Director † Script by Michael Tilson Thomas Produced in association with The Thomashefsky Project, Linda Steinberg, Executive Director and Media Designer Kirk Bookman, Production Supervisor and Lighting Designer Naomi Zapata, Associate Production Manager Dona Granata, Costume Consultant Thomas Edler, Media Coordinator Deanna Hull, Music Coordinator Joshua Robison , Executive Producer

Cast Judy Blazer † Bessie Thomashefsky Shuler Hensley † Boris Thomashefsky Ronit Widmann-Levy † Various roles Eugene Brancoveanu † Various roles Production Peter Fitzgerald, Sound Designer Domonic Sack, Associate Sound Designer Rachel Guilfoye, Wardrobe Supervisor Ed Chapman, Production Sound Mixer Aaron Kinchen, /Make-up Supervisor Michael S. LoBue, Production Electrician Buist Bickley, Props Supervisor Aland Henderson, Lighting Programmer

† The New York Philharmonic This Week, nationally denotes New York Philharmonic debut. syndicated on the WFMT Radio Network, is broadcast 52 weeks per year. Radio schedule The New York Philharmonic’s recording series, Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic: subject to change; for updated information visit nyphil.org. 2010 –11 Season, is available through iTunes via an iTunes Pass. For more information, visit In consideration of both the artists and the audi - nyphil.org/itunes. ence, please be sure that your cell phones and paging devices have been set to remain silent. Other New York Philharmonic recordings are available on all major online music stores as The photography, sound recording, or videotaping well as on major labels and the New York of these performances is prohibited. Philharmonic’s own series.

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Act One

Joseph RUMSHINSKY Overture to Khantshe in Amerike (Khantshe in America) (1912)

TRADITIONAL “A mantl fun alt-tsaytikn shtof ” (“ A Coat from Old-Time Stuff ”) JUDY BLAZER

Percy GAUNT “The Bowery ” (1892)

Abraham GOLDFADEN “Mirele’s Romance,” from Koldunye (The Witch ) (1879) RONIT WIDMANN-LEVY Overture to Koldunye “Babkelekh,” from Koldunye EUGENE BRANCOVEANU

Giacomo MINKOWSKY “Vi gefloygn kum ikh vider ” (“ As If On Wings I Come ”), Lyricist unknown from Aleksander, der kroyn prints fun yerusholaim (Alexander, Crown Prince of ) (1892) RONIT WIDMANN-LEVY , EUGENE BRANCOVEANU

Louis FRIEDSELL “Kaddish,” from Der Yeshive bokher (The Yeshiva Student ) (1899) SHULER HENSLEY

Arnold PERLMUTTER / Medley from Dos pintele yid (A Little Spark of Herman WOHL Jewishness ) (1909) Lyrics by Louis Gilrod “Pintele yid ” & Boris Thomashefsky “Shtoyst zikh on ” (“ Give a Guess ”) “Bar Mitzvah March ” JUDY BLAZER , SHULER HENSLEY , RONIT WIDMANN-LEVY, EUGENE BRANCOVEANU

Intermission

Act Two

PERLMUTTER / Reprise from Dos pintele yid WOHL

FRIEDSELL / Greenhorn Medley (1905 –08) Others JUDY BLAZER Lyrics by (continued)

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Nora BAYES/ “Who Do You Suppose Married My Sister? Jack NORWORTH Thomashefsky ” (1910) MICHAEL TILSON THOMAS

RUMSHINSKY Title Song from Uptown, Downtown (1916)

RUMSHINSKY “Khantshe,” from Khantshe in Amerike (1912) Lyrics by Isidore Lillian JUDY BLAZER

PERLMUTTER/ “Lebn zol Columbus ” (“Long Live Columbus”), from WOHL Der griner milyoner (The Green Millionaire ) (1916) Lyrics by Boris SHULER HENSLEY, EUGENE BRANCOVEANU Thomashefsky

UNKNOWN Incidental Music from Minke di dinstmoyd (Minke the Maid ) (1917)

RUMSHINSKY Title Song from Vi mener libn (The Way Men Love ) Lyricist unknown (1919) EUGENE BRANCOVEANU

Musical numbers arranged after the originals by Michael Tilson Thomas, with orchestrations by Michael Tilson Thomas, Bruce Coughlin, and Peter Laurence Gordon.

English lyrics by Ted Thomas and Michael Tilson Thomas.

Video segments designed and produced by Dada. Media consultation by Concept Organization, Inc. First production visuals by Jeff Sugg.

Sound design consultation by Tom Clark and Hal Nishon Soogian.

Readings excerpted from: Kaddish for a Giant by Ted Thomas; Book of My Life by Boris Thomashefsky; The Story of My Life: The Sorrow and Joys of a Yiddish Star Actress by Bessie Thomashefsky; Bessie’s Beauty Column in The Warheit newspaper; Di yidishe bine, the Thomashefskys’ magazine of The Jewish Stage, and Thomashefski’s Teater Shriftn, Boris Thomashefsky’s Writ - ings on Theatre.

Translations from the Yiddish by Chana Mlotek, Kalman Weiser, Ronald Robboy, Marc Miller, and Dr. Eli Katz.

The Thomashefsky Project acknowledges the significant contribution of the following institutions whose archival materials were used in the research and production of The Thomashefskys: New York Public Library, Dorot Jewish Division, New York City; New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center; New-York Historical Society: Department of Prints, Photographs and Architectural Collections, New York City; Museum of the City of New York: Prints, Drawings and Photograph Collections; YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, New York City; Library of Congress: Music and Film Divisions, Washington, D.C.; Library of Con - gress: African and Middle Eastern Division; Harvard College Library, , Cambridge, Massachusetts; American- Jewish Historical Society, Yiddish Theater Poster Collection, New York City; Brown University Library, Providence, Rhode Island; The Catskills Institute at Brown University; National Yiddish Book Center, Amherst, Massachusetts; Hebrew University, Israel Goor Theatre Archives, Jerusalem; Beth Hatfutsoth, Museum of the Diaspora, Tel Aviv; Jabotinsky Institute Archives, Tel Aviv; Jewish Museum of Maryland, ; Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore; Historical Society, Chicago; The Pasadena Play - house, Pasadena, ; the Historic Mayfair Hotel Archives, Los Angeles, and The B&O Railroad Museum, Baltimore.

Film segment courtesy of the National Center for Jewish Film at Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts. Sharon Pucker Rivo, Executive Director.

Audio selections courtesy of the Sound Archives, YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, New York, New York.

Mark Simon, Casting Consultant Fyvush Finkel, Dialect Assistance Rachel Guilfoyle, Costume Assistant

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Notes on the Program

In his memoir, Sounds from My Life, composer in the living room of his North Hollywood (1879 –1956) wrote: family home in the 1950s. This quest for the exact flavor of the music, The situation of the composer in the Yid - as it reverberated through the theater houses dish theater in general is a sad one. The of the a century ago, has re - world can never get to know his better mained a priority for Mr. Tilson Thomas. The musical creations, because the whole first time I heard him speak about his grand - score — in which the ensembles, serious parents, he pondered on what it might have duets, romances, and the better songs are felt like to be alive at that time and in that found — seldom, indeed hardly ever, gets place. He quoted from Aaron Copland: to print …. And the saddest thing is, as soon as the operetta closes and leaves the You compose because you want to somehow stage, the full score withers and dies. summarize in some permanent form your most basic feelings about being alive, to set Unfortunately, Rumshinsky was right. Many down … some sort of permanent statement of the scores have vanished — but not all. about the way it feels to live now, today. So In The Thomashefskys : Music and Memo - that when it’s all gone, people will be able to ries of a Life in the Yiddish Theater you will go to the artwork of the time and get some hear the music of shows that played the the - sense of what it felt like to be alive in this year. ater houses of the Lower East Side in New York and other American cities to which the We hope that The Thomashefskys will en - Thomashefsky troupe traveled in the late able audience members to feel connected to 19 th and early 20 th centuries. To say these the world of Boris and Bessie Thomashef - are rescued lost treasures is not an exagger - sky, the world of the fledgling American im - ation. For 10 years The Thomashefsky Proj - migrant, where, as Mr. Tilson Thomas has ect has been searching out, reconstructing , expressed it, “new unimagined questions and preserving these disintegrating scores. were waiting around every glittering corner.” Extant fragments of musical manuscripts, dis - When The Thomashefskys premiered at covered at various archives, have been pieced together and transcribed into a digitized Carnegie Hall in April 2005, several members music program on their way to becoming as of the audience commented that the music true a reflection of the original works as pos - didn’t “sound Jewish.” This response may be sible. And, as the manuscripts contained little due, in part, to sensibilities nurtured by Fiddler or no annotation, it remained for Michael on the Roof — Broadway’s projection of Sholom Tilson Thomas to bring them to life — to edit Aleichem’s village of Anatevka — and to con - and arrange the material according to his temporary Klezmer arrangements. It may also memory of how his grandmother Bessie be due to unfamiliarity with the basic nature of Thomashefsky, father Ted Thomas , and uncle Jewish music, a secular and sacred heritage in Harry Thomashefsky performed the numbers development since early post-Biblical times.

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The Ashkenazic (East European) , in repertory, including Koldunye (The Witch, often particular, created a rich body of melody. referred to as a Yiddish Cinderella story), the They developed liturgical music with Hebrew musical drama chosen by the enterprising 15- and Aramaic prayer texts and, in all areas year -old for the first presentation of Yiddish where Jews settled, their minstrels mingled theater in America (New York City, 1881). It with other music-makers, borrowing and also includes Shulamis, produced in ’s adapting elements from each other. These Music Hall in 1888 and featuring 15-year-old traveling minstrels, called badkhonim (liter - Bessie Kaufman, who had just run away from ally, ones who concoct, create, make known), home to join Boris Thomashefsky and become were folk educators as well as entertainers a starke . Both Boris and Bessie Thomashef - and sang Yiddish songs imbued with mean - sky had great affection for Goldfaden and ing. As conditions grew harsher in Tsarist helped him in his waning years in New York. In Russia, their songs also took on qualities of 1907, to support the ailing Goldfaden, Boris consolation and counsel. Thomashefsky agreed to present his last play, European Yiddish theater was officially Ben Ami, at People’s Theater. Rehearsals were born only five years before Boris Thomashef - still in progress when the Father of Yiddish sky emigrated to America. Abraham Gold - Theater died. Bessie was at his bedside. faden (1840–1908), generally regarded as While Goldfaden’s operettas dominated the the “Father of Yiddish Theater,” wrote and Thomashefskys’ early repertory, the composer presented the first productions in Jassy, Ro - Joseph Rumshinsky wrote the scores for the mania, in 1876 (see sidebar on page 29). majority of Boris and Bessie’s later hits (see Having himself been a badkhen for many sidebar on page 29) . Rumshinsky was 40 years, he now set out to create a type of years younger than Goldfaden, born in Vilna Jewish or operetta, for which he inter - in the same year that Boris Thomashefsky wove music from synagogue chants, reli - premiered Koldunye in New York City. Thus he gious hymns, holiday songs, Hasidic tunes, came of age in the 1890s, when there was Yiddish folk songs, Slavic melodies, and Eu - an already established Yiddish theater and ropean grand opera arias. That such an Jewish popular music style. As Mark Slobin, eclectic recipe would almost immediately be author of Tenement Songs, explains: labeled as “Jewish music” is not unusual. The history of Jewish music, as the history of It was also the heyday of pre-Revolution - Jewish culture itself, embodies the intermin - ary salon and cabaret music in Russia, and gling of traditional elements with new stylis - all these streams flowed through his mu - tic influences culled from the worlds in which sical life. Coming to America in 1906, Jews found themselves. We are talking Rumshinsky became the most prolific and about a nomadic people, after all. influential of the operetta composers. He Boris Thomashefsky writes in his Autobiog - lived through the transition from the older raphy that, as a boy of five in Kaminska, while European-based plots and musical styles learning liturgical numbers from his grandfa - to the advent of the lighter Americanized ther, the Talner Khasn (Chief Cantor), he was shows that set popular taste in the 1920s. also singing Goldfaden songs. In America, a number of Goldfaden’s operettas became The program assembled by Michael Tilson mainstays of Boris Thomashefsky’s early Thomas for The Thomashefskys enables us

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to travel the distance from Goldfaden to ous ” work) are easily refuted. Bessie and Rumshinsky, to stand on the threshold where Boris Thomashefsky are as difficult to label sounds of Jewish music entered mainstream as their grandson, Michael Tilson Thomas; American life and gradually evolved into eclecticism and the quest for new challenges something new. are ever present. Consider the offerings of The themes of the Thomashefskys’ pro - the Thomashefskys’ first season at The Peo - ductions evolved accordingly over the years — ples Theater, 1902–03: in addition to two from Biblical tales and nostalgic stories of the original dramas by Yiddish playwright Leon old country to the personal and social con - Kobrin (see sidebar below) dealing with reli - flicts of acculturation in America. However, gious subject matter, old world myths, and no one season can be called typical, and at - the immigrant experience, Yiddish versions tempts by historians to label their repertory of the following were presented: Goethe’s as shund (a somewhat derogatory Yiddish Faust, Hugo’s Hunchback of Notre Dame , term denoting “popular ” as opposed to “seri - and Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet (with

Images from The Thomashefsky Project

Images courtesy of The Thomashefsky Project/ Michael Tilson Thomas Collection, YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, New York and the Zylbercweig Collection, Israel Goor Theatre Archives, Hebrew University, Jerusalem

Clockwise from top left: Composer Joseph Rumshinsky pictured on the sheet music cover for the title song of Bessie Thomashefsky’s 1912 hit “Khantshe in Amerike”; Bessie Thomashefsky in the role of a suffragette; , the “Father of Yiddish Theater”; Yiddish playwright , flanked by Boris and Bessie Thomashefsky, reads a new play to the Thomashefsky Company

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Boris Thomashefsky playing Mephistophe - Second, Boris and Bessie Thomashefsky’s les, the hunchback, and Romeo, respectively). comic plays never lapsed into slapstick or buf - Hundreds of manuscripts of dramas and foonery. They were quick to expose the foibles comedies belonging in the Thomashefsky of their people, but they did so with affection, repertory have been found by The Thoma- wit, and dignity. shefsky Project, and a number have been Third, their daring programming helped to translated. In comparing these productions shape the course of American drama. By im - and Boris and Bessie’s accomplishments in porting the works of Ibsen, Hauptmann, Ansky, the context of the broader Yiddish theater Chekhov, Wilde, and other avant-garde play - scene, some conclusions about their unique wrights, a bridge between the new European contributions can be made. theater art forms and the American theater The first is their dedication to socio-politi - was built for a brief but momentous period. cal causes. For them, the theater was a vehi - Finally, whether due to personal magnet - cle for social transformation. Between 1912, ism, insight, ability to inspire, or entrepre - when Bessie Thomashefsky first appeared in neurial acumen, they attracted countless Khantshe in America , to 1922, the end of her authors, composers, actors, musicians, pro - stint as owner of Bessie Thomashefsky’s Peo - ducers, and designers. Together, this creative ple’s Theater, she produced and starred in circle of talent produced plays and operettas more than a dozen plays dealing with that were pioneering products in every women’s rights and struggles, such as suffra - sense, reflecting new approaches to script- gette causes and unwed motherhood (see writing, musical composition, choreography, sidebar on page 29) . As the first Yiddish ac - acting, directing, and scenic design. Although tress to publish her memoirs and own and op - this phase of Yiddish theater was short-lived, erate her own theater, she taught by example. its influence continued as its participants Boris Thomashefsky also never shied away went on to Broadway, Hollywood, and else - from controversial issues and kept a close eye where, helping to shape the development of on current events in Europe. As evidenced by American popular culture. his chronicles of a 1913 trip back to Eastern The story of Boris and Bessie Thomashef - Europe, his childhood memories of the sky, Yiddish theater, and the immigrant experi - pogroms were always with him. Until his ence is vast and complicated. No doubt death, he continued to write plays about vic - hundreds of tales and melodies still lie dor - tims of anti-Semitism, such as Alfred Dreyfus mant among the materials accumulated by and Mendel Baylis. A manuscript in the The Thomashefsky Project, waiting to be Michael Tilson Thomas Collection, written in brought to life in the years ahead. Meanwhile, Boris’s hand, records his eyewitness account The Thomashefskys is, in the words of its host, of the 1925 trial of Stanislaw Steiger, a Jew offered to you as “an affectionate introduction.” falsely accused of attempting to murder the Polish president. In 1933, while most Ameri - Linda Steinberg is Executive Director of The cans were oblivious to the impending danger Thomashefsky Project. of the Third Reich, Boris wrote two plays about Hitler. Copyright © 2009 The Thomashefsky Project

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New York Philharmonic

2010 –2011 SEASON ALAN GILBERT, Music Director, The Yoko Nagae Ceschina Chair Daniel Boico, Assistant Conductor , Laureate Conductor, 1943–1990 , Music Director Emeritus

VIOLINS Marilyn Dubow OBOES Glenn Dicterow The Sue and Eugene The Shirley and Jon Liang Wang Concertmaster Mercy, Jr. Chair Brodsky Foundation Chair Principal The Charles E. Culpeper Martin Eshelman Evangeline Benedetti The Alice Tully Chair Chair Quan Ge Sherry Sylar* Sheryl Staples Judith Ginsberg Eric Bartlett Robert Botti Principal Associate Stephanie Jeong The Mr. and Mrs. James E. The Lizabeth and Frank Concertmaster The Gary W. Parr Chair Buckman Chair Newman Chair The Elizabeth G. Beinecke Elizabeth Dyson Chair Hanna Lachert Maria Kitsopoulos ENGLISH HORN Michelle Kim Hyunju Lee Assistant Concertmaster Joo Young Oh Sumire Kudo Qiang Tu The Joan and Joel Smilow The William Petschek Daniel Reed Chair Family Chair Mark Schmoockler Ru-Pei Yeh Enrico Di Cecco The Credit Suisse Chair Na Sun in honor of Paul Calello CLARINETS Carol Webb Vladimir Tsypin Mark Nuccio Yoko Takebe Wei Yu Wilhelmina Smith++ Acting Principal Minyoung Chang+ VIOLAS The Edna and W. Van Alan Cynthia Phelps Clark Chair Hae-Young Ham BASSES Pascual Martinez The Mr. and Mrs. Timothy Principal Eugene Levinson M. George Chair The Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Forteza P. Rose Chair Principal Acting Associate Principal Lisa GiHae Kim The Redfield D. Beckwith Rebecca Young* The Honey M. Kurtz Family Kuan-Cheng Lu Chair Chair Irene Breslaw** Orin O’Brien Newton Mansfield The Norma and Lloyd Alucia Scalzo++ The Edward and Priscilla Acting Associate Principal Chazen Chair Pilcher Chair The Herbert M. Citrin Chair Amy Zoloto++ Kerry McDermott+ Dorian Rence William Blossom E-F LAT CLARINET Anna Rabinova Katherine Greene The Ludmila S. and Carl B. Pascual Martinez Charles Rex The Mr. and Mrs. William J. Hess Chair The Shirley Bacot Shamel McDonough Chair Randall Butler Forteza Chair Dawn Hannay David J. Grossman BASS CLARINET Fiona Simon Vivek Kamath Satoshi Okamoto Sharon Yamada Peter Kenote Amy Zoloto++ Elizabeth Zeltser Kenneth Mirkin FLUTES The William and Elfriede Judith Nelson BASSOONS Ulrich Chair Robert Langevin Robert Rinehart Principal Judith LeClair Yulia Ziskel The Mr. and Mrs. G. Chris The Lila Acheson Wallace Principal Andersen Chair Chair The Pels Family Chair Marc Ginsberg Kim Laskowski* Principal Sandra Church* Lisa Kim* CELLOS Mindy Kaufman Roger Nye In Memory of Laura Mitchell Carter Brey Arlen Fast Soohyun Kwon Principal PICCOLO The Joan and Joel I. Picket The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Mindy Kaufman CONTRABASSOON Chair Samuels Chair Arlen Fast Duoming Ba Eileen Moon* The Paul and Diane Guenther Chair

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HORNS PERCUSSION STAGE REPRESENTATIVE Philip Myers Christopher S. Lamb Louis J. Patalano Principal Principal The Ruth F. and Alan J. Broder Chair The Constance R. Hoguet Friends of AUDIO DIRECTOR Stewart Rose++* the Philharmonic Chair Lawrence Rock Acting Associate Principal Daniel Druckman* Cara Kizer Aneff** The Mr. and Mrs. Ronald J. Ulrich * Associate Principal R. Allen Spanjer Chair ** Assistant Principal Erik Ralske+ Kyle Zerna + On Leave Howard Wall ++ Replacement/Extra David Smith++ HARP Nancy Allen Principal TRUMPETS The New York Philharmonic uses The Mr. and Mrs. William T. Knight III the revolving seating method for Philip Smith Chair Principal section string players who are The Paula Levin Chair listed alphabetically in the roster. KEYBOARD Matthew Muckey* In Memory of Paul Jacobs Ethan Bensdorf HONORARY MEMBERS OF THE Thomas V. Smith HARPSICHORD SOCIETY Lionel Party TROMBONES Stanley Drucker Joseph Alessi PIANO Principal The Karen and Richard S. LeFrak The Gurnee F. and Marjorie L. Hart Chair Carlos Moseley Chair Harriet Wingreen Amanda Davidson* Jonathan Feldman David Finlayson The Donna and Benjamin M. Rosen Chair ORGAN Kent Tritle BASS TROMBONE James Markey LIBRARIANS The Daria L. and William C. Foster Lawrence Tarlow Chair Principal Sandra Pearson** TUBA Sara Griffin** Alan Baer Principal ORCHESTRA PERSONNEL MANAGER TIMPANI Carl R. Schiebler Markus Rhoten Principal The Carlos Moseley Chair Kyle Zerna **

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The Artists

inter na tional recognition after replac ing music director mid-concert. He was music director of the Buffalo Philhar - monic (1971–79), a principal guest conduc - tor of the (1981–85), and principal conductor of the London Orchestra (1987–95). In 1995 he assumed his current post with the . His guest conduct - ing includes appearances with the major or - chestras of Europe and the United States. In l987 Michael Tilson Thomas created the New World Symphony, a post-graduate or - Michael Tilson Thomas (conductor and chestral academy based in Miami Beach. In narrator) is music director of the San Fran - 1991 he and the ensemble were presented cisco Symphony, artistic director of the New in a series of benefit concerts for UNICEF, World Symphony, and principal guest conduc - featuring Audrey Hepburn as narrator in Mr. tor of the London Symphony Orchestra. A Los Tilson Thomas’s composition From the Diary Angeles native, he began his formal music of Anne Frank. In August 1995 he led the Pa - studies at the University of Southern Califor - cific Music Festival Orchestra in the world pre - nia, where he studied piano with John Crown miere of his work Showa/Shoah , written in and and composition with Ingolf commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Dahl. He worked with Stravinsky, Boulez, the bombing of Hiroshima. He has also writ - Stockhausen, and Copland on premieres of ten song cycles for baritone Thomas Hamp - their works at Los Angeles’s Monday Evening son and soprano Renée Fleming. In 2004 Mr. Concerts. During this same period he was Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Sym - pianist and conductor for cellist Gregor Pia- phony embarked on a multi-tiered media proj - tigorsky and violinist . In 1969, ect, Keeping Score, which includes television, after winning the Koussevitzky Prize at Tan - Websites, and radio and school programs. In glewood, Mr. Tilson Thomas was appointed April 2009 he conducted the YouTube Sym - assistant conductor of the Boston Symphony phony Orchestra in Carnegie Hall; this orch- Orchestra, and made his New York debut estra was the first orchestra ever assembled with that orchestra the same year, gaining by world-wide online auditions.

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PBS specials: Bernstein’s New York and In Performance at the White House.

Judy Blazer (Bessie Thomashefsky) began her career as a young singer in opera, orato - rio, and recital in New York City and through - Shuler Hensley (Boris Thomashefsky) gar - out Italy. She moved into Broadway theater nered Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, with leading roles in Me and My Girl, A Olivier, and Theatre World awards for his per - Change in the Heir, Titanic, Neil Simon’s 45 formance as Jud Fry in the internationally ac - Seconds from Broadway, and, most recently, claimed revival of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s LoveMusik, directed by . Off- Oklahoma! He made his Broadway debut as Broadway she was featured in and Javert in the long-running musical Les Misé- Sweeney Todd with the New York City Opera, rables. He also co-starred as Kerchak, head as well as The House of Bernarda Alba, The of the Gorilla Tribe, in Disney’s Tarzan, and Torch Bearers, Lincoln Center’s Hello Again starred Off-Broadway in The Great American (Drama Desk nomination), Roundabout’s Trailer Park Musical. Most recently, he starred Hurrah at Last, and the New York City Center on Broadway as The Monster in ’s Encores! Production of Connecticut Yankee. musical Young Frankenstein , and in the world Regionally she has played the title roles in premiere of Paradise Found , directed by Harold Funny Girl at Sundance Theater; The Miracle Prince and . Mr. Hensley’s film Worker at George Street Playhouse; My Fair credits include Van Helsing , in which he por - Lady at the Paper Mill Playhouse and the 5th trayed the fabled monster created by author Avenue Theatre in ; Peter Pan at Art - Mary Shelley’s Dr. Frankenstein. Most recently park; and The Night Governess at McCarter he was seen in the feature film The Legend of Theatre. She has also been seen as Maria in Zorro starring Antonio Banderas and Catherine Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night at the Long Zeta-Jones, Someone Like You, and The Bread, Wharf Theatre, and as Lily Garland in On the My Sweet. Upcoming film projects include Opa! 20th Century with the American Musical The - with Matthew Modine, and the independent atre of San Jose. She has sung at The Met - feature Cheer the Brave . Throughout his career, ropolitan Opera, as a soloist in ’s Mr. Hensley has also appeared as guest soloist Everlast with American Theatre, and in numerous concerts, including The Happy End she has performed in concert at Lincoln Cen - by , at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in ter. She has been a featured artist on two London; The American Songbook: A Tribute to

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Frank Loesser, at Lincoln Center; Regina , with embarked on a world concert tour for her CD Patti LuPone at the Kennedy Center; and the Como la Rosa. Her repertoire includes the premiere of The Thomashefsky Project, con - roles of Violetta in Verdi’s La traviata, the title ducted by Michael Tilson Thomas. His television role in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, Micaëla in appearances include the recurring role of Bob Bizet’s Carmen, Mimì in Puccini’s La bohème, Arnovitz on NBC’s Ed; the TNT movie Monday Liù in Puccini’s , Gilda in Verdi’s Rigo - Night Mayhem; and appearances on Law & letto, and Freia in Wagner’s Das Rheingold. Order: Criminal Intent and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit . Mr. Hensley attended The Man - hattan School of Music and The Curtis School of Music.

Eugene Brancoveanu (various roles, includ - ing Young Boris Thomashefsky and Leon Blank, co-star of The Green Millionaire ) recently performed in San Francisco Opera’s The Little Ronit Widmann-Levy (various roles, includ - Prince. This season, in addition to appearing ing Mme. Krantzfeld and Sophie Karp) has re - with The Orchestra and the New ceived accolades for her operatic and concert York Philharmonic in The Thomashefskys , Mr. performances throughout the world. She has Brancoveanu returns to the Santa Cruz County sung in opera houses and festivals in San Fran - Orchestra as soloist in Beethoven’s Symphony cisco, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Cincinnati, No. 9. His 2009–10 season included the role , Munich, London, Bangkok, and Jeru- of Gonzalvo in Schreker’s Die Gezeichneten salem. She has also sung at the Ravinia Festi - with Los Angeles Opera; the title role in val, the Bath and Dartington Festivals in Mozart’s with Berkeley Opera; England, the Jüdische Kulturtage in Berlin, and Yeletzky in Tchaikovsky’s Pique Dame with the the America Haus Concert Series in Munich. Israeli Opera; and a recital in California’s San Ms. Widmann-Levy made her debut with the Francisco Performances concert series. With San Francisco Symphony in February 2005 in San Francisco Opera he has performed Chris - Schumann’s Das Paradies und die Peri , con - tian in Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera; Marullo in ducted by Ingo Metzmacher. She has per - Verdi’s Rigoletto; Moralès in Bizet’s Carmen; formed with Michael Tilson Thomas and the Frank in J. Strauss II’s Die Fledermaus; Fiorello San Francisco Symphony at Carnegie Hall, and in Rossini’s The Barber of Seville; and the with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Innkeeper and the Captain in Puccini’s Manon New World Symphony. In the fall of 2005 she Lescaut. Mr. Brancoveanu has performed The

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Thomashefskys with the Los Angeles Philhar - Ms. Birch’s directing and choreography monic, Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tangle - credits include Celebrating Gershwin at the wood, San Francisco Symphony, and New Academy of Music, and the televised World Symphony, and originated the role of concert production of with the Marcello in Baz Luhrmann’s Broadway pro - London Symphony Orchestra, both with duction of La bohème. Mr. Brancoveanu, who Michael Tilson Thomas; the original production has made numerous appearances with the Ro - of Maurice Sendak and Carole King’s Really manian , is a graduate of the Amer - Rosie ; and Joe Raposo’s Raggedy. She ican Institute of Musical Studies in Graz and the worked with Mr. Tilson Thomas and the San Universität Mozarteum Salzburg. Francisco Symphony on Stravinsky’s Le Rossignol and a double bill of Of Thee I Sing and Let’ Em Eat Cake. In development are Or - phan Train , a dramatic musical; Wo Dzai , a mul - timedia martial arts adventure; and Road to Ruin , an exploitation musical. Opera and music projects include Salome , The Mikado , Candide , and Street Scene for New York City Opera, and The Mass and The Balcony for The Opera Company of Boston, also presented at the Bolshoi Theatre. Her film credits include cho - reography for all musical sequences for and direction as well for Grease 2. She has also staged musical sequences for Big , Patricia Birch (Director) has earned two Working Girl , Sleeping with the Enemy , Stella , Emmy Awards and five Tony nominations in a Awakenings , Billy Bathgate , Roseland , The Wild career that crosses all media. Other honors in - Party , First Wives Club , The Human Stain , and clude Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Barry - The Stepford Wives. more, Billboard, and MTV awards, as well as a Directors Guild nomination and the prestigious Kirk Bookman (Production Supervisor and Fred Astaire Award for her choreography and Lighting Designer) has designed lighting on direction of music-driven projects, with music Broadway for The Sunshine Boys (starring ranging from Stephen Sondheim to the Rolling Jack Klugman and Tony Randall), The Gin Stones. She has recently been inducted into Game ( and Charles Durning), and the Theater Hall of Fame. Ms. Birch has created Gentlemen Prefer Blondes . Off-Broadway the musical staging for original Broadway and credits include Right You Are , Havana Is Wait - Off-Broadway shows including Grease; You’re a ing , Force Continuum , My One Good Nerve Good Man, Charlie Brown; The Me Nobody (), What Then , The Cook, Recent Knows; ; Candide; Over Tragic Events (Heather Graham), Shangai Here; Diamond Studs; The Happy End; Pacific Moon, Mondo Drama , The Book of Liz (David Overtures; They’re Playing Our Song; Gilda Rad - and Amy Sedaris), Les MIZrahi (Isaac Mizrahi), ner, Live from New York; Zoot Suit; Rosa; ; Hope Is the Thing with Feathers , As Thousands Like ; and LoveMusik , with Donna Murphy Cheer , June Moon , The Green Heart, Bed - and Michael Cerveris, directed by Harold Prince. bound , Playboy of the Western World , Eclipsed ,

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The Importance of Being Earnest, and Major Thomashefskys and early American Yiddish Barbara . His work with the San Francisco theater’s contribution to American cultural life, Symphony has included The Thomashefskys, to communicate this story with authenticity Of Thee I Sing, , The Nightingale, through the visual and performing arts, and A Flowering Tree , Iolanthe, and most recently, to preserve it in an accessible mode for fu - John Adams’s El Ni n˜o. Currently, he is the ture generations. During the prior decade she lighting designer for Charles Busch’s new Off- was director of The Jewish Museum San Broadway play The Divine Sister . Francisco, earning numerous awards for arts excellence for the institution and personal Peter Fitzgerald (Sound Designer) is cur - awards for publication and exhibition design. rently designing the sound for Priscilla Queen Other positions she has held include associ - of the Desert , Ghetto Klown , Burn the Floor , ate director of the Center for the Arts at the and Freckleface Strawberry. He is president University of Judaism in Los Angeles and Di - of Sound Associates, Inc. and CEO of GPR rector of the Brandeis-Bardin Institute in Simi Records.com , a new record company estab - Valley, California. lished in 2010. He was the sound designer In addition to being on the national lecture for the Philharmonic’s Stephen Sondheim circuit with themes on Jewish and Israeli art 80 th Birthday Celebration, Camelot, and My history, Ms. Steinberg has taught on the art Fair Lady. His other credits include Will Far - faculties of the University of Judaism’s Lee rell’s Your Welcome America, Movin’ Out, Paul College for Jewish Studies, Los Angeles; Simon’s The Capeman, The Will Rogers Fol - California College of Arts and Crafts, Oak - lies, 42nd Street, The Best Little Whorehouse land, and San Francisco State University. in Texas, City of Angels , and The Life. In ad - Among the institutions for which she has dition, Mr. Fitzgerald has worked on the plays served as guest curator or arts consultant Blithe Spirit , The Odd Couple , M. Butterfly, are the Museum of Jewish Heritage, New and The Beauty Queen of Leenane . York City; National Foundation for Jewish Culture, New York City; Moore College of Art, Philadelphia; Skirball Museum, Los Angeles; and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. She is a visiting scholar at Stanford Univer - sity and is currently working on a book about the Thomashefskys. In July 2010 Ms. Steinberg assumed the position of Director of Education for the new National Museum of American Jewish His - tory on Independence Mall in Philadelphia.

Naomi Zapata (Associate Production Man - ager) a long time South Florida resident, has Linda Steinberg (Media Designer) has worked with organizations there such as served as executive director of The Thoma- Acme Acting Company, Florida Shakespeare shefsky Project since it was founded in July Theatre, Florida Grand Opera, Coconut 1998, in order to rescue the story of the Grove Playhouse, and Mosaic Theatre. Her

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New York associations include the Brooklyn Symphony, the Chicago Symphony Orches - Academy of Music, La MaMa E.T.C., and tra, the San Francisco Symphony and the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival. She Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood. has been the Associate Production Manager Ms. Zapata holds a B.F.A. in Stage Manage - for The Thomashefskys with the New World ment from North Carolina School of the Arts.

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New York Philharmonic

The New York Philharmonic , founded in 1842 Tennstedt, (Music Advisor, 1969–70), by a group of local musicians led by American-born and Erich Leinsdorf. , is by far the oldest symphony Long a leader in American musical life, the Philhar - orchestra in the United States, and one of the monic has become renowned around the globe, and oldest in the world. It currently plays some 180 has appeared in 430 cities in 63 countries on five con - concerts a year, and on May 5, 2010, gave its tinents. In February 2008 the Orchestra, led by then- 15,000th concert — a milestone unmatched by any Music Director Lorin Maazel, gave a historic performance other symphony orchestra in the world. in Pyongyang, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea — Music Director Alan Gilbert, The Yoko Nagae the first visit there by an American orchestra. In Octo - Ceschina Chair, began his tenure in September 2009, ber 2009 the Orchestra, conducted by Music Director the latest in a distinguished line of 20th-century Alan Gilbert, made its debut in Hanoi, Vietnam. The musical giants that has included Lorin Maazel Philharmonic subsequently received the 2008 Com - (2002–09); Kurt Masur (Music Director from 1991 mon Ground Award for Cultural Diplomacy for its his - to the summer of 2002; named Music Director toric performance in Pyongyang, and on November Emeritus in 2002); Zubin Mehta (1978–91); Pierre 16, 2010, received the Asia Society’s Cultural Am - Boulez (1971–77); and Leonard Bernstein, who was bassador Award for its concerts in Pyongyang and appointed Music Director in 1958 and given the Hanoi. Other historic tours have included the 1930 lifetime title of Laureate Conductor in 1969. Tour to Europe, with Toscanini; the first South Ameri - Since its inception the Orchestra has champi - can Tour, in 1951; the first Tour to the U.S.S.R., in 1959; oned the new music of its time, commissioning or the 1984 Asia Tour, including the first tour of India; the premiering many important works, such as Dv oˇrák’s 1998 Asia Tour with Kurt Masur, with the first per - Symphony No. 9, From the New World; Rachmani - formances in mainland China; and the 75th Anniver - noff’s Piano Concerto No. 3; Gershwin’s Piano sary European Tour, in 2005, with Lorin Maazel. Concerto in F; and Copland’s Connotations . The A media pioneer, the Philharmonic began radio Philharmonic has also given the U.S. premieres of such broadcasts in 1922 , and is currently represented by The works as Beethoven’s Nos. 8 and 9 and New York Philharmonic This Week — syndicated na - Brahms’s Symphony No. 4. This pioneering tradition tionally 52 weeks per year, and available on nyphil.org. has continued to the present day, with works of major On television, in the 1950s and 1960s, the Philhar - contemporary composers regularly scheduled each monic inspired a generation through Bernstein’s Young season, including John Adams’s Pulitzer Prize– and People’s Concerts on CBS. Its television presence has Grammy Award–winning On the Transmigration of continued with annual appearances on Live From Lin - Souls; Stephen Hartke’s Symphony No. 3; Augusta coln Center on PBS, and in 2003 it made history as the Read Thomas’s Gathering Paradise, Emily Dickinson first Orchestra ever to perform live on the Grammy Settings for Soprano and Orchestra; Esa-Pekka Awards, one of the most-watched television events Salonen’s Piano Concerto; Magnus Lindberg’s EXPO worldwide. In 2004 the Philharmonic became the first and Al Largo; and Christopher Rouse’s Odna Zhizn . major American orchestra to offer downloadable con - The roster of composers and conductors who certs, recorded live. The most recent initiative is Alan have led the Philharmonic includes such historic Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic: 2010–11 — figures as Theodore Thomas, Antonín Dv oˇrák, Gustav downloadable concerts, recorded live, available either Mahler (Music Director, 1909–11), Otto Klemperer, as a subscription or as 12 individual releases. Since , Willem Mengelberg (Music Director, 1917 the Philharmonic has made nearly 2,000 record - 1922–30), Wilhelm Furtwängler, ings, with more than 500 currently available. (Music Director, 1928–36), , Aaron On June 4, 2007, the New York Philharmonic Copland, (Music Advisor, 1947–49), proudly announced a new partnership with Credit (Music Director, 1949–58), Klaus Suisse, its first-ever and exclusive Global Sponsor.

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The Music Director

EUROPE / WINTER 2010 tour in February 2010. Also in the 2009–10 season he con - ducted world, U.S., and New York premieres, as well as an acclaimed staged presentation of Ligeti’s opera, Le Grand Macabre . In January 2011 Alan Gilbert was named Director of Conducting and Orchestral Studies at The Juilliard School, a position that will begin in fall 2011. This adds to his responsibilities as the first holder of Juilliard’s William Schuman Chair in Musical Studies, establishing Mr. Gilbert as the principal teacher for all conducting majors at the school. He is also conductor laureate of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Music Director Alan Gilbert , The Yoko Nagae Orchestra and principal guest conductor of Ceschina Chair, began his tenure at the New ’s NDR Symphony Orchestra . He has York Philharmonic in September 2009. The conducted other leading orchestras in the U.S. first native New Yorker to hold the post , he and abroad, including the Boston, Chicago, ushered in what called and San Francisco symphony orchestras; Los “an adventurous new era” at the Philharmonic. Angeles Philharmonic; Cleveland and Philadel - In his inaugural season he introduced a num - phia Orchestras; and the , ber of new initiatives: the positions of The Munich’s Bavarian Radio Symphony Orches - Marie-Josée Kravis Composer-in-Residence, tra, and Amsterdam’s Royal held by Magnus Lindberg ; The Mary and Orchestra . From 2003 to 2006 he served as James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence , held in the first music director of the Santa Fe Opera. 2010–11 by violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter; an Alan Gilbert studied at Harvard University, annual three-week festival , which in 2010–11 The Curtis Institute of Music, and The Juilliard is titled Hungarian Echoes, led by Esa-Pekka School. From 1995 to 1997 he was the as - Salonen; and CONTACT! , the New York Phil - sistant conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra. harmonic’s new-music series . In the 2010–11 In November 2008 he made his Metropolitan season Mr. Gilbert is leading the Orchestra on Opera debut conducting John Adams’s Doctor two tours of European music capitals; two Atomic. His recording of Prokofiev’s Scythian performances at Carnegie Hall, including the Suite with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra venue’s 120th Anniversary Concert; and a was nominated for a 2008 Grammy Award, and staged presentation of Jan áˇcek’s The Cunning his recording of Mahler’s Symphony No. 9 re - Little Vixen . Highlights of his inaugural sea - ceived top honors from the Chicago Tribune son included a major tour of Asia in October and Gramophone magazine. On May 15, 2010, 2009, with debuts in Hanoi and Abu Dhabi, Mr. Gilbert received an Honorary Doctor of and performances in nine cities on the Music degree from The Curtis Institute of Music.

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LGOs

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LGOs

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