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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE November 23, 2015 Contact: Katherine E. Johnson (212) 875-5718; [email protected] ALAN GILBERT AND THE NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence ERIC OWENS To Perform Richard STRAUSS Songs and Final Scene from Act III of WAGNER’s Die Walküre With Soprano HEIDI MELTON in Her Philharmonic Debut Program Also To Include WAGNER’s Ride of the Valkyries and SIBELIUS’s En saga Saturday Matinee Concert To Feature Grieg’s String Quartet Performed by Philharmonic Musicians January 7–9 and 12, 2016 Bass-baritone Eric Owens will continue his tenure as The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in- Residence with performances, led by Music Director Alan Gilbert, of Richard Strauss songs — “Ruhe, meine Seele,” Op. 27, No. 1; “Cäcilie,” Op. 27, No. 2; “Pilgers Morgenlied,” Op. 33, No. 4 — and the Final Scene from Act III of Die Walküre, alongside soprano Heidi Melton in her Philharmonic debut. The program also includes Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries and Sibelius’s En saga, one of several programs this season honoring the 150th anniversary of Sibelius’s birth. The performances take place Thursday, January 7, 2016, at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, January 8 at 8:00 p.m.; Saturday, January 9 at 8:00 p.m.; and Tuesday, January 12 at 7:30 p.m. These performances mark Mr. Owens’s first time singing Wotan in New York. He has been widely acclaimed for his mastery of the German Romantic repertoire, including his celebrated performance as Alberich in The Metropolitan Opera’s 2012 production of Wagner’s Ring Cycle. These Philharmonic performances precede Mr. Owens’s appearances as Wotan in Lyric Opera of Chicago’s upcoming Ring Cycle, beginning in the 2016–17 season. “Eric is the quintessential Wotan,” Alan Gilbert said. “His voice is perfect for the role, and he can bring out its complexity — its heroism, but also its vulnerability. Performing it without staging can be a challenge, but Eric’s singing is so expressive that he will bring the character to life through his voice alone. In this he will be helped by the Philharmonic musicians, who can play Wagner’s technically difficult passages not only with flair but also with amazing tonal depth. Conducting Wagner with this Orchestra is more than a dream-come-true; they have a quintessential way with his music.” (more) Alan Gilbert / Eric Owens / Heidi Melton / 2 The Saturday Matinee Concert on January 9 at 2:00 p.m. opens with Grieg’s String Quartet, with Philharmonic Concertmaster Frank Huang, Principal Associate Concertmaster Sheryl Staples, Principal Viola Cynthia Phelps, and Principal Cello Carter Brey. The rest of the program features Sibelius’s Symphony No. 4, conducted by Alan Gilbert. Related Events Philharmonic Free Fridays The New York Philharmonic is offering 100 free tickets for young people ages 13–26 to the concert Friday, January 8 as part of Philharmonic Free Fridays. Information is available at nyphil.org/freefridays. Philharmonic Free Fridays offers 100 free tickets to 13–26-year-olds to each of the 2015–16 season’s 15 Friday evening subscription concerts. Pre-Concert Insights Writer, music historian, and former Leonard Bernstein Scholar-in-Residence at the New York Philharmonic Harvey Sachs will introduce the program. Pre-Concert Insights are $7, and discounts are available for three (3) or more talks and for students. They take place one hour before these performances in the Helen Hull Room, unless otherwise noted. Attendance is limited to 90 people. Information: nyphil.org/preconcert or (212) 875-5656. Artists Music Director Alan Gilbert began his New York Philharmonic tenure in 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, The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence, and Artist-in-Association; CONTACT!, the new-music series; NY PHIL BIENNIAL, an exploration of today’s music; and New York Philharmonic Global Academy, collaborations with partners worldwide offering training of pre-professional musicians, often alongside performance residencies. As The New Yorker wrote, “Gilbert has made an indelible mark on the orchestra’s history and that of the city itself.” Alan Gilbert’s 2015–16 Philharmonic highlights include R. Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben to welcome Concertmaster Frank Huang; Carnegie Hall’s Opening Night Gala; and five World Premieres. He co-curates and conducts in the second NY PHIL BIENNIAL and performs violin in Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time. He leads the Orchestra as part of the Shanghai Orchestra Academy Residency and Partnership and appears at Santa Barbara’s Music Academy of the West. Philharmonic-tenure highlights include acclaimed stagings of Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre, Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen, Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd starring Bryn Terfel and Emma Thompson (for which Mr. Gilbert was nominated for a 2015 Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Direction), and Honegger’s Joan of Arc at the Stake starring Marion Cotillard; 24 World Premieres; The Nielsen Project, a performance and recording cycle; Verdi Requiem and Bach’s B-minor Mass; the score from 2001: A Space Odyssey alongside the film; Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony on the tenth anniversary of 9/11; and nine tours around the world. In August 2015 he led the Mahler Chamber Orchestra in the U.S. Stage Premiere of George Benjamin’s Written on Skin, co-presented as part of the Lincoln Center–New York Philharmonic Opera Initiative. (more) Alan Gilbert / Eric Owens / Heidi Melton / 3 Conductor laureate of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and principal guest conductor of Hamburg’s NDR Symphony Orchestra, Alan Gilbert regularly conducts leading orchestras around the world. This season Mr. Gilbert makes debuts with four great European orchestras — Filarmonica della Scala, Dresden Staatskapelle, London Symphony, and Academy of St Martin in the Fields — and returns to The Cleveland Orchestra and Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra. 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, received a 2013 Grammy Award. His recordings have received top honors from the Chicago Tribune and Gramophone magazine. Mr. Gilbert is Director of Conducting and Orchestral Studies at The Juilliard School, where he holds the William Schuman Chair in Musical Studies. His honors include an Honorary Doctor of Music degree from The Curtis Institute of Music (2010), Columbia University’s Ditson Conductor’s Award for his “exceptional commitment to the performance of works by American composers and to contemporary music” (2011), election to The American Academy of Arts & Sciences (2014), and a Foreign Policy Association Medal for his commitment to cultural diplomacy (2015). As the 2015–16 Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence at the New York Philharmonic, bass-baritone Eric Owens appears as soloist throughout the season, and is expanding the role of the Philharmonic’s Artist-in-Residence by curating programs and participating in educational activities. Mr. Owens’s 2015–16 season features orchestral engagements including performances of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the St. Louis Symphony, led by Markus Stenz, and with the Minnesota Orchestra, led by Osmo Vänskä; Ravel’s L’Enfant et les sortileges with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, led by Esa-Pekka Salonen; Brahms’s A German Requiem with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, led by Mr. Stenz; and Dvořák’s Stabat Mater with The Cleveland Orchestra, led by Franz Welser-Möst. He will also join Music of the Baroque as Simon in concert performances of Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus conducted by Jane Glover. Operatic highlights of Mr. Owens’s season include his return to The Metropolitan Opera as Orest in a new production of Richard Strauss’s Elektra, directed by Patrice Chéreau and conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen, which will be broadcast on the Emmy and Peabody Award–winning Live in HD series to movie theaters around the world, and he will host The Met’s Live in HD broadcast of Verdi’s Otello. He returns to Santa Fe Opera for his role debut as La Roche in a new production of Richard Strauss’s Capriccio directed by Tim Albery, and to Washington National Opera as Stephen Kumalo in Weill’s Lost in the Stars. At the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., he will perform an evening of jazz standards featuring the music of Billy Eckstine and Johnny Hartman, and he will also appear in recital under the auspices of the McCarter Theatre, Green Music Center at Sonoma State University, Oberlin College and Conservatory, Troy Chromatic Concerts, and Curtis Institute of Music. Eric Owens made his New York Philharmonic debut in June 2003 singing selections from Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, led by then Philharmonic Music Director Lorin Maazel, during the Orchestra’s residency at Sardinia’s Teatro Lirico di Cagliari. He will have most recently appeared with the Philharmonic in December 2015 in Oh, What Fun! A Philharmonic Holiday, performing “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch.” (more) Alan Gilbert / Eric Owens / Heidi Melton / 4 In the 2015–16 season dramatic soprano Heidi Melton makes her Vienna Philharmonic debut singing Brünnhilde’s “Immolation Scene” from Wagner’s Götterdämmerung, conducted by Valery Gergiev, at Vienna’s Musikverein and Carnegie Hall. She will sing Sieglinde in concert performances of Wagner’s Die Walküre with the Hong Kong Philharmonic led by Jaap van Zweden, to be recorded by Naxos, and returns to Deutsche Oper Berlin as Venus/Elisabeth in Wagner’s Tannhäuser, with Donald Runnicles, and to Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe for her first performances as Isolde in a new Christopher Alden production of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, conducted by Justin Brown.