FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 9, 2017 Contact: Katherine E. Johnson (212) 875-5700; [email protected]

NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC TO RETURN FOR SECOND RESIDENCY AT THE MUSIC ACADEMY OF THE WEST July 31–August 5, 2017

Alan Gilbert To Conduct Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 At Santa Barbara City College’s La Playa Stadium In Music Academy’s 70th Anniversary Community Concert Concert Also To Feature Academy Festival Orchestra Led by Assistant Conductor Joshua Gersen July 31, 2017

Residency Also To Include Concert with Academy Festival Orchestra and Renée Fleming Conducted by Alan Gilbert; Performance by the New York Philharmonic String Quartet; and Philharmonic Musicians Serving as Guest Faculty

The New York Philharmonic will return to the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California, July 31–August 5, 2017, for its second residency in a four-year partnership that began in the summer of 2014 as part of the New York Philharmonic Global Academy. The residency will feature Alan Gilbert leading a Philharmonic concert celebrating the Music Academy’s 70th anniversary as well as a concert featuring the Academy Festival Orchestra, a performance by the New York Philharmonic String Quartet, and Philharmonic musicians serving as guest faculty.

In his final appearances conducting the New York Philharmonic as Music Director, Alan Gilbert will lead Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, featuring soprano Susanna Phillips (2002 and 2003 Music Academy of the West alumna), mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke (2002 Music Academy of the West alumna), tenor Joseph Kaiser, bass Morris Robinson, and the Los Angeles Master Chorale directed by Grant Gershon, July 31, 2017, at Santa Barbara City College’s La Playa Stadium, the Music Academy of the West’s 70th Anniversary Community Concert. The performance will open with the Academy Festival Orchestra performing ’s Three Latin American Dances, led by Philharmonic Assistant Conductor Joshua Gersen. The event will close with a fireworks display over the ocean. With seating for 7,500, it will be the largest classical music event in Santa Barbara history; 7,000 seats will be offered free or for $10 as part of the Music Academy’s Community Access Initiative.

Alan Gilbert will also conduct the Academy Festival Orchestra in Richard Strauss’s Four Last Songs, with soprano Renée Fleming as soloist, August 5, 2017, at the Granada Theatre. Principal Bassoon Judith LeClair, Associate Principal Percussion Daniel Druckman, and the New York

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Philharmonic String Quartet — comprising Concertmaster Frank Huang, Principal Associate Concertmaster Sheryl Staples, Principal Viola Cynthia Phelps, and Principal Cello Carter Brey — will join Music Academy faculty members in a chamber music concert featuring works by Timo Andres, André Previn, and Beethoven, August 1, 2017, at the Lobero Theatre as part of the Festival Artists Series.

Five Philharmonic musicians — Concertmaster Frank Huang, Principal Cello Carter Brey, Principal Bassoon Judith LeClair, Principal Trombone Joseph Alessi, and Associate Principal Percussion Daniel Druckman — will be serving as guest faculty August 1–4, 2017, training Music Academy fellows in collaboration with Academy faculty, including through master classes, chamber music coaching sessions, private lessons, and lectures. They will also judge auditions for the 2018 New York Philharmonic Global Academy Fellowship Program; the selected Fellows will travel to New York City to train and play alongside Philharmonic musicians for ten days in January 2018.

The Music Academy of the West is the first American partner in the New York Philharmonic Global Academy — established by the Philharmonic as part of its commitment to develop tomorrow’s leading orchestra musicians, and featuring customized collaborations with partners worldwide that offer intensive training of pre-professional musicians by Philharmonic members, often alongside regular performance residencies by the full Orchestra. The four-year partnership with the Music Academy of the West, which began in the summer of 2014, combines training of Music Academy fellows by Philharmonic musicians; biennial performances by the Philharmonic at the Music Academy Summer Festival; and Academy Festival Orchestra performances at Music Academy Summer Festivals led by Mr. Gilbert. The partnership will continue in January 2018 when a new group of Music Academy of the West students travels to New York to train and play with the Philharmonic as Zarin Mehta Fellows under the Global Academy Fellowship Program. Twelve New York Philharmonic musicians are alumni of the Music Academy.

Artists As Music Director of the New York Philharmonic since 2009, Alan Gilbert has 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; the NY PHIL BIENNIAL, an exploration of today’s music; and the New York Philharmonic Global Academy, partnerships with cultural institutions to offer training of pre-professional musicians, often alongside performance residencies. The Financial Times called him “the imaginative maestro- impresario in residence.”

Alan Gilbert concludes his final season as Music Director with four programs that reflect themes, works, and musicians that hold particular meaning for him, including Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony alongside Schoenberg’s A Survivor from Warsaw, Wagner’s complete Das Rheingold in concert, and an exploration of how music can effect positive change in the world. Other highlights include four World Premieres, Mahler’s Fourth Symphony, Ligeti’s Mysteries of the Macabre, and Manhattan, performed live to film. He also leads the Orchestra on the EUROPE / SPRING 2017 tour and in performance residencies in Shanghai and Santa Barbara. Past (more)

Music Academy of the West Residency / 3 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 (2015 Emmy nomination), and Honegger’s Joan of Arc at the Stake starring Marion Cotillard; 28 World Premieres; a tribute to Boulez and Stucky during the 2016 NY PHIL BIENNIAL; The Nielsen Project; the Verdi Requiem and Bach’s B-minor Mass; the score from 2001: A Space Odyssey, performed live to film; Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony on the tenth anniversary of 9/11; performing violin in Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time; and ten tours around the world.

Conductor laureate of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and former principal guest conductor of Hamburg’s NDR Symphony Orchestra, Alan Gilbert regularly conducts leading orchestras around the world. This season he returns to the foremost European orchestras, including the Leipzig Gewandhaus, Munich Philharmonic, Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw, and Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. He will record Beethoven’s complete piano concertos with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields and Inon Barnatan, and conduct Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess at Milan’s Teatro alla Scala, his first time leading a staged there. He made his acclaimed Metropolitan Opera debut conducting ’s Doctor Atomic in 2008, the DVD of which received a Grammy Award, and he conducted Messiaen’s Des Canyons aux étoiles on a recent album recorded live at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. Mr. Gilbert is Director of Conducting and Orchestral Studies at The , where he holds the William Schuman Chair in Musical Studies. His honors include Honorary Doctor of Music degrees from The Curtis Institute of Music (2010) and Westminster Choir College (2016), Columbia University’s Ditson Conductor’s Award (2011), election to The American Academy of Arts & Sciences (2014), a Foreign Policy Association Medal for his commitment to cultural diplomacy (2015), Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (2015), and New York University’s Lewis Rudin Award for Exemplary Service to New York City (2016).

In the 2016–17 season Alabama-born soprano Susanna Phillips returned to The Metropolitan Opera for a ninth consecutive season, starring as Clémence in The Met premiere of Kaija Saariaho’s L’Amour de Loin conducted by Susanna Mälkki, and returns as Musetta in Puccini’s La bohème. Other engagements include her Zurich Opera debut as Donna Anna in Mozart’s Don Giovanni and appearances as Cleopatra in Handel’s Giulio Cesare with Boston Baroque and Martin Pearlman. Her 2016–17 orchestra engagements include a return to the San Francisco Symphony with Michael Tilson Thomas conducting a program of American songs, Mozart’s Exsultate, jubilate and Mass in C minor with Music of the Baroque, Britten’s War Requiem with Kent Tritle and the Oratorio Society of New York, and Euridice in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice with Robert Spano leading the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Phillips also performs recitals at Carnegie Hall, Celebrity Series of Boston, Huntsville Chamber Music Guild, National Museum for Women in the Arts, and a program with bass-baritone Eric Owens at the Washington Performing Arts Society. Highlights of Ms. Phillips’s previous seasons include numerous Met Opera appearances as Fiordiligi in Mozart’s Così fan tutte, Rosalinde in Richard Strauss’s Die Fledermaus, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, and Pamina in Mozart’s The Magic Flute. Additional highlights include Donna Anna in Frankfurt, Arminda in Mozart’s La finta giradiniera at , Countess in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro with Paul (more)

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McCreesh and the Gulbenkian Orchestra in Lisbon, and the title role in Handel’s Agrippina with Boston Baroque. A native of Huntsville, Susanna Phillips returns frequently to her native state for recitals and orchestral appearances. These performances will mark Susanna Phillips’s New York Philharmonic debut.

Grammy Award–winning mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke’s 2016–17 season includes performances of Handel’s Messiah (with the New York Philharmonic), Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel (Seattle Opera), and the World Premiere of Mason Bates’s The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs (Santa Fe Opera); orchestral engagements with the Chicago, San Francisco, Atlanta, Milwaukee, National, Indianapolis, Oregon, and Nashville symphony orchestras as well as the Minnesota, Cleveland, Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw, and Los Angeles Chamber orchestras; and a staged version of the Verdi Requiem with . Ms. Cooke is working with conductors including Alan Gilbert, Riccardo Muti, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Donald Runnicles, Robert Spano, Patrick Summers, Michael Tilson Thomas, Krzysztof Urbański, and Edo de Waart. Past engagements have included The Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Santa Fe Opera, English National Opera, Opéra National de Bordeaux, Israeli Opera, and Theater an der Wien. Her symphonic engagements have included the Boston, Tokyo, Melbourne, and New Zealand symphony orchestras as well as The Cleveland Orchestra, , Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Hong Kong Philharmonic, The English Concert, and Orchestre National de Lyon. Conductors with whom she has worked include Andrew Davis, Bernard Haitink, James Levine, Trevor Pinnock, Leonard Slatkin, Pinchas Zuckerman, and Jaap van Zweden. Her chamber performances include the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and the Spoleto, Lucerne, Mostly Mozart, Seattle Chamber, and Santa Fe Chamber Music festivals. Ms. Cooke has recorded for the Hyperion, Naxos, Bridge Records, Yarlung, GPR Records, and Sono Luminus labels. A graduate of Rice University and The Juilliard School, Sasha Cooke also attended the Music Academy of the West. Sasha Cooke made her New York Philharmonic debut in Philharmonic 360 at Park Avenue Armory in June 2013, performing in the Finale to Act I of Mozart’s Don Giovanni, conducted by Alan Gilbert. She most recently appeared with the Orchestra in Handel’s Messiah in December 2016, led by Alan Gilbert.

Joseph Kaiser enjoys success in opera, oratorio, and concert appearances throughout North America and Europe. With his versatility and strength as an actor, he has worked with leading stage directors including Robert Carsen, Christof Loy, David McVicar, , and Stephen Wadsworth. He regularly appears with the Berlin Philharmonic and the Boston, Montreal, Berlin Radio, and Vienna Radio symphony orchestras. Concert highlights include Beethoven’s Fidelio with Jérémie Rhorer conducting Le Cercle de l’Harmonie on a European tour; Mozart’s Requiem with Ivor Bolton and the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra; Schumann’s Das Paradies und die Peri with Simon Rattle and The Philadelphia Orchestra; Berlioz’s Requiem with Marek Janowski and the combined forces of Zurich’s Tonhalle Orchestra and the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, and with Donald Runnicles both with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonic; Berlioz’s Te Deum with Charles Dutoit and the NHK Symphony Orchestra; and Bruckner’s Te Deum with and the Orchestra and Chorus of Milan’s Teatro alla Scala. Past opera appearances include Britten’s (more)

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Peter Grimes at Theater an der Wien; Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex at the Festival d’Aix-en- Provence; Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin and Richard Strauss’s Capriccio at the Opéra National de Paris; Mozart’s The Magic Flute and Richard Strauss’s Salome at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; Martinů’s Juliette at the Opernhaus Zürich; Eugene Onegin and Handel’s Theodora at the ; and many appearances at The Metropolitan Opera including in Roméo et Juliette, The Magic Flute, Salome, Rodelinda, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Joseph Kaiser made his New York Philharmonic debut performing in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, led by Alan Gilbert, in May 2017.

Morris Robinson, a graduate of The Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, made his Metropolitan Opera debut in 2002 in Beethoven’s Fidelio. He has since appeared there as Sarastro in Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Ferrando in Verdi’s Il trovatore, and in productions of Verdi’s Aida and Nabucco, Wagner’s Tannhäuser, Berlioz’s Les Troyens, and Richard Strauss’s Salome. He has also appeared at the San Francisco Opera, Chicago Lyric Opera, , Houston Grand Opera, Washington National Opera, Dallas Opera, and the Aix-en-Provence Festival. His many roles include Osmin in Mozart’s The Abduction from the Seraglio, Ramfis in Aida, Sparafucile in Verdi’s Rigoletto, Commendatore in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Grand Inquisitor in Verdi’s Don Carlos, Timur in Puccini’s Turandot, and Fasolt in Wagner’s Das Rheingold. Also a prolific concert singer, Mr. Robinson recently made his BBC Proms debut in a televised performance of the Verdi Requiem. He has also appeared in concert in Carnegie Hall, and with The Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Met Chamber Orchestra; the Chicago, Boston, Montreal, and São Paulo symphony orchestras; and at the Ravinia, Mostly Mozart, Tanglewood, Cincinnati May, Verbier, and Aspen festivals. In recital he has been presented by Spivey Hall in Atlanta, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art. This season, Mr. Robinson makes his debut at Milan’s Teatro alla Scala in the title role of the Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess and returns to The Met for The Magic Flute and Aida, and Los Angeles Opera in The Abduction from the Seraglio. Upcoming engagements include returns to the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and the Ravinia and Tanglewood festivals. Mr. Robinson’s first album, Going Home, was released by Decca. Morris Robinson will have made his New York Philharmonic debut as Fasolt in the enhanced concert production of Wagner’s Das Rheingold, led by Alan Gilbert in June 2017; he will have most recently appeared with the Orchestra in July 2017 performing Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, led by Alan Gilbert, during the Orchestra’s Bravo! Vail residency.

The Los Angeles Master Chorale is widely recognized as the country’s leading professional choir. Led by artistic director Grant Gershon and president and CEO Jean Davidson, it is a founding resident company of The Music Center and the choir-in-residence at Walt Disney Concert Hall. Chorister positions are highly sought-after and the professional choir is a diverse and vocally dynamic group showcasing the many voices of Los Angeles. Presenting its own concert series each season, the Los Angeles Master Chorale performs choral music from the earliest writings to contemporary compositions, striking a balance between innovation and tradition. It also regularly performs with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at Disney Hall and the Hollywood Bowl. The choir is also committed to recording the choral repertoire and has also been featured with Mr. Gershon on the sound tracks of many major motion pictures. It is heard (more)

Music Academy of the West Residency / 6 beyond the concert hall via broadcasts by Southern California’s Classical KUSC. The Los Angeles Master Chorale’s acclaimed education program includes its annual High School Choir Festival that brings teenagers from around the Southland to perform in Walt Disney Concert Hall. These performances mark the New York Philharmonic debut of the Los Angeles Master Chorale. Grant Gershon recently completed his 16th season as the Kiki and David Gindler artistic director of the Los Angeles Master Chorale. During his tenure Mr. Gershon has led more than 200 Master Chorale performances at Walt Disney Concert Hall. A champion of new music, he has led World Premiere performances of major works by John Adams, Esa-Pekka Salonen, , , Christopher Rouse, , Morten Lauridsen, , Gabriela Lena Frank, Shawn Kirchner, and Chinary Ung, among many others. Mr. Gershon is the resident conductor of Los Angeles Opera. Since making his debut with the company with Verdi’s La Traviata in 2008 he has subsequently conducted Catán’s and Florencia en el Amazonas, Puccini’s Madame Butterfly, Bizet’s , and Bernstein’s Wonderful Town. In November Mr. Gershon will conduct the World Premiere of John Adams’s Girls of the Golden West for San Francisco Opera. His discography includes two Grammy Award–nominated recordings: Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd (New York Philharmonic Special Editions) and Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre (Sony Classical). Grant Gershon prepared the New York Choral Artists for the New York Philharmonic’s May 2000 staged production of Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

* * * The Global Academy Fellowship Program, in association with the New York Philharmonic Global Academy, is supported in part by The Hilaria and Alec Baldwin Foundation, Inc., an anonymous donor, and other gifts made toward the Zarin Mehta Fund. Additional support provided by Shirley Young / US–China Cultural Foundation.

* * * The Music Academy’s partnership with the New York Philharmonic is supported by Lead Sponsors Linda and Michael Keston.

* * * Citi. Preferred Card of the New York Philharmonic.

* * * Emirates is the Official Airline of the New York Philharmonic.

* * * Programs are supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the New York State Council on the Arts, with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

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2017 New York Philharmonic Residency Music Academy of the West

Concert Schedule

Date Location / Artists Program

Monday, Santa Barbara City College’s Gabriela Lena FRANK: Three Latin American July 31 La Playa Stadium Dances 7:30 p.m. BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 9 Academy Festival Orchestra (Frank) Joshua Gersen, conductor

New York Philharmonic (Beethoven) Alan Gilbert, conductor Susanna Phillips, soprano Sasha Cooke, mezzo-soprano Joseph Kaiser, tenor Morris Robinson, bass Los Angeles Master Chorale* Grant Gershon, director

Tuesday, Lobero Theatre Timo ANDRES: Tides and Currents August 1 New York Philharmonic String Quartet: André PREVIN: Trio 7:30 p.m. Frank Huang, Sheryl Staples, violin; BEETHOVEN: String Quartet in F minor, Cynthia Phelps, viola; Carter Brey, cello Quartetto serioso Additional New York Philharmonic Musicians: Judith LeClair, bassoon; Daniel Druckman, percussion Music Academy of the West Faculty: Conor Hanick, piano; Michael Werner, percussion; Cynthia Koledo DeAlmeida, oboe; Jonathan Feldman, piano Guest artists: Timo Andres, piano

Saturday, Granada Theatre R. STRAUSS: Four Last Songs August 5 Academy Festival Orchestra 7:30 p.m. Alan Gilbert, conductor Renée Fleming, soprano

* denotes New York Philharmonic debut # # #

ALL PROGRAMS SUBJECT TO CHANGE

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