UPDATE February 4, 2013 Contact: Katherine E
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE UPDATE February 4, 2013 Contact: Katherine E. Johnson (212) 875-5718; [email protected] NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC TO CELEBRATE THE CHINESE NEW YEAR — THE YEAR OF THE SNAKE — WITH GALA CONCERT February 12, 2013 LONG YU TO CONDUCT Jazz Pianist HERBIE HANCOCK, Soprano YING HUANG, Mezzo-Soprano JENNIFER JOHNSON CANO, and Speaker HSIN-MEI AGNES HSU To Perform SNOW LOTUS TRIO and Soprano YAN WANG To Sing in Traditional Costume Program To Spotlight Contrasts and Connections Between Chinese and Western Music Broadcast on THIRTEEN/WNET and Nationally in China on Beijing Television (BTV) Medici.tv To Offer Free Webcast Beginning February 16 Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company To Perform Traditional Dragon Dance with Lady White from the Legend of the White Serpent Free Performance Open To Public on Lincoln Center’s Josie Robertson Plaza, 5:00 p.m. on February 12 Performance To Continue at Avery Fisher Hall Throughout Evening The New York Philharmonic in collaboration with CAMI Music will celebrate the Chinese New Year for the second consecutive year with a Gala concert exploring the contrasts and connections between Chinese and Western music, Tuesday, February 12, 2013, at 7:30 p.m. A new tradition for the Philharmonic, the event celebrates the cultural heritage of China and America and honors the Chinese-American community. Long Yu — artistic director and chief conductor of the China Philharmonic, music director of the Shanghai and Guanzhou Symphony Orchestras, artistic director of the Beijing Music Festival, and a key figure in the creation of the Philharmonic’s Orchestral Academy and performance residencies in Shanghai — will return to the Philharmonic to conduct the concert. The New York Philharmonic’s Chinese New Year festivities will be broadcast in the New York area on THIRTEEN/WNET and nationwide in China on Beijing Television (BTV), as well as Webcast for free by medici.tv (www.medici.TV) beginning February 16, 2013, at 1:00 p.m. EST for 90 days. (more) Chinese New Year / 2 Grammy Award–winning jazz pianist Herbie Hancock will make his Philharmonic debut performing contemporary Chinese composer Qigang Chen’s Er Huang, for Piano and Orchestra. Soprano and Peking Opera star Yan Wang (also in her Philharmonic debut) will sing the Peking Opera classic The Drunken Concubine in makeup and costume. The Snow Lotus Trio, a folk ensemble from the mountains of China (also making its debut), will appear in national costume, joining forces with the New York Philharmonic to showcase Chinese folk-music traditions. The program will also juxtapose two settings of the same Tang Dynasty poems by Li Bai and Wang Wei: “Der Einsame im Herbst,” from Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde, and the U.S. Premiere of contemporary Chinese composer Ye Xiaogang’s The Song of the Earth, inspired by Mahler’s song cycle. Mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano will perform “Der Einsame im Herbst,” soprano Ying Huang (debut) will sing The Song of the Earth, and Hsin-Mei Agnes Hsu (debut) will recite selected readings of the poems that inspired both works, including the English translation of “Long Autumn Night.” The Spring Festival Overture, a traditional work celebrating the Chinese New Year, will once again open the concert, ringing in the Lunar New Year. Also for the second consecutive year, a special Dragon Dance will take place in and around Avery Fisher Hall beginning at approximately 5:00 p.m. (weather permitting), this time including a performer dressed in full costume as Lady White from the Legend of the White Serpent. Arranged for the occasion by Nai-Ni Chen, it will be performed by the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company and be accompanied by live percussion music. Gala events will include a pre-concert champagne reception from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m., the concert, and a seated dinner immediately following the concert. The dress will be traditional Chinese attire or black-tie. Honorary Gala Chairmen are Mr. and Mrs. Maurice R. Greenberg and H.E. Ambassador SUN Guoxiang, Consul General of the People’s Republic of China in New York, and Madam WANG Min. The Gala Co-Chairmen are Angela Chen, Guoqing Chen and Ming Liu, Gary W. Parr, Oscar L. Tang, and Shirley Young. A portion of the proceeds will support a music-education program for public school students in New York City’s Chinese community. Artists Conductor Long Yu is co-founder, artistic director, and chief conductor of the China Philharmonic Orchestra, music director of the Shanghai and Guanzhou Symphony Orchestras, founding artistic director of the Beijing Music Festival, and a key figure in the creation of the Philharmonic’s Orchestral Academy and performance residencies in Shanghai. Long Yu has appeared with Orchestre de Paris, Hamburg Staatsoper, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Teatro la Fenice, and Philadelphia Orchestra; the Los Angeles, Hong Kong, and Tokyo philharmonic orchestras; and the Chicago, Sydney, and Singapore symphony orchestras. In the summer of 2010 Long Yu led the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra in a historic joint performance with the New York Philharmonic on Central Park’s Great Lawn in celebration of the World Expo, featuring Lang Lang as one of the soloists. Later that year he brought Yo-Yo Ma, Midori, Sarah Chang, and others to Guangzhou for the Canton Asian Music Festival in connection with the XVI Asian Games. In 1992 Long Yu was appointed principal conductor of the Central Opera (more) Chinese New Year / 3 Theatre in Beijing. He also produced operas for the Urban Council of Hong Kong for five successive years. His work with the Beijing Music Festival, which he helped create in 1998, has included overseeing commissions of new works from Krzysztof Penderecki, Philip Glass, Guo Wenjing, and Ye Xiaogang. Deutsche Grammophon has released Long Yu’s recordings of Wagner’s Tannhäuser Overture, Brahms’s Piano Quartet in G minor, and a wide range of Chinese orchestral music, including Xian Xinghai’s Yellow River Concerto with Lang Lang as soloist. Long Yu was born into a family of musicians in Shanghai. He received early education from his grandfather Ding Shande, a renowned composer, later studying at the Shanghai Conservatory and the Hochschule der Kunst in Berlin. Long Yu last conducted the New York Philharmonic in January 2012, his debut, conducting the inaugural Chinese New Year Gala concert. Herbie Hancock is a true icon of modern music. Throughout his explorations he has transcended limitations and genres while maintaining his unmistakable voice. In addition to being recognized as a legendary pianist and composer, Mr. Hancock has been an integral part of every jazz movement since the 1960s. As a member of the Miles Davis Quintet, he became one of the pioneers of the avant-garde sound. His recordings during the 1970s combined electric jazz with funk and rock sounds in an innovative style that continues to influence contemporary music. Rockit and Future Shock marked Mr. Hancock’s foray into electronic dance music and included several chart-topping hits; during the same period he continued to work in an acoustic setting with V.S.O.P., which included ex-Miles Davis band-mates Wayne Shorter, Ron Carter, and Tony Williams. Herbie Hancock received an Academy Award for his Round Midnight film score as well as 14 Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year for River: The Joni Letters and two 2011 Grammy Awards for his recently released globally collaborative CD, The Imagine Project. Many of his compositions — including Cantaloupe Island, Maiden Voyage, Watermelon Man, and Chameleon — are modern standards that have had a profound effect on all styles of modern music. This performance marks Herbie Hancock’s New York Philharmonic debut. Ying Huang has appeared in operas at The Metropolitan Opera, Brussels’s Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, Royal Danish Opera, Cologne Opera House, and China National Center of Performing Arts. She has performed major roles in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, The Magic Flute, and Don Giovanni; Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore; Verdi’s Rigoletto and Falstaff; Massenet’s Werther; and Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier. She became the first Chinese vocalist to star in an opera movie when she played Cio-Cio San in Frédéric Mitterrand’s 1995 film of Puccini’s Madame Butterfly. In December 2006 she starred in The Magic Flute at The Metropolitan Opera, the first in the globally broadcast Met HD Live series. In 2009 she was selected for the “Wall of Fame” in the Met’s 125th anniversary celebration. Equally devoted to Chinese contemporary opera, Ms. Huang worked with Tan Dun to prepare the opera The First Emperor and starred in his Peony Pavilion, Guo Wenjing’s The Poet Li Po, and others. In 2011 she played the title role in the premiere production of Zhou Long’s Madame White Snake, which won the Pulitzer Prize. On the concert stage, Ying Huang has appeared regularly with the Chicago Symphony, London Symphony, Royal Philharmonic, and SWR Radio orchestras. She has sung at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and the Goldener Saal in Vienna’s Musikverein. Her festival engagements have (more) Chinese New Year / 4 included the Mostly Mozart Festival, Festival d’Automne à Paris, Vienna’s Festwochen, Cincinnati Music Festival, Beijing International Music Festival, and Shanghai’s Music in the Summer Air. A recording artist for Sony Classical, Ying Huang has recorded Roger Waters’s Ça Ira with Bryn Terfel and Paul Groves, arias with James Conlon and the London Symphony Orchestra, Richard Danielpour’s Sonnets to Orpheus, and Bitter Love, a concise version of Peony Pavilion composed and conducted by Tan Dun. This performance marks Ying Huang’s New York Philharmonic debut. A 2012 Richard Tucker Career Grant and Opera Index Winner and a 2011 Sara Tucker Study Grant Recipient, mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano joined The Lindemann Young Artist Development Program at The Metropolitan Opera in 2008 and made her Met debut in 2009–10.