Contact: Katherine E. Johnson (212) 875-5718; [email protected] National Press Representative: Julia Kirchhausen (917) 453-8386; [email protected]

MAY 30–31, 2014, AT AVERY FISHER HALL: ALL-STARS and the CHOIR OF TRINITY WALL STREET To Give NEW YORK PREMIERE of ’s Anthracite Fields JULIAN WACHNER To Conduct

NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC To Perform NEW YORK PREMIERE of STEVEN MACKEY’s Oratorio Dreamhouse With Vocalist/Co-Librettist RINDE ECKERT, SYNERGY VOCALS, and CATCH ELECTRIC QUARTET JAYCE OGREN To Conduct

As part of the NY PHIL BIENNIAL, the presents a double bill May 30–31, 2014, featuring the New York Premieres of oratorios by two American composers: Julia Wolfe (, b. 1958) and Steven Mackey (United States, b. 1956). The Bang on a Can All-Stars, The Choir of Trinity Wall Street, and conductor Julian Wachner will all make their Philharmonic debuts with Julia Wolfe’s oratorio explaining coal mining life in central Pennsylvania in Anthracite Fields. After intermission Jayce Ogren will conduct the New York Philharmonic in the powerful, Grammy-nominated oratorio Dreamhouse by Steven Mackey, in performances featuring Mr. Mackey’s co-librettist, vocalist Rinde Eckert, making his Philharmonic debut, as well as Synergy Vocals and Catch Electric Guitar Quartet (the latter also in its Philharmonic debut).

Julia Wolfe said: “I am thrilled that in its inaugural year the NY PHIL BIENNIAL welcomes Bang on a Can in Anthracite Fields to the stage. The NY PHIL BIENNIAL is all about new work, and this piece is hot off the press — the ink still wet.” Steven Mackey said: “Dreamhouse uses the design and construction of a house as a metaphor for the inevitable fragility of human endeavor. As the libretto says,

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‘No matter how precisely strings are laid, there will be foundation flaws.’ One could say that the piece was instigated by a need to return to creativity following the challenges, personal and otherwise, in the wake of 9/11. It is a dream come true that the first-ever presentation of my music by the New York Philharmonic will be Dreamhouse, not only because it is my most ambitious work but also because, from its inception, it was tied to this great city.”

A flagship project of the New York Philharmonic envisioned by Music Director Alan Gilbert, the NY PHIL BIENNIAL is a kaleidoscopic exploration of today’s music showcasing an array of curatorial voices through concerts presented with cultural partners throughout . Modeled on the great visual art biennials, the inaugural NY PHIL BIENNIAL, taking place May 28–June 7, 2014, brings the public together with a diverse roster of more than 50 composers, ranging from elementary school students to icons, for concerts of symphonies, concertos, staged opera, , and solo works, many of which will be premieres. Meet-up events, lectures and panel discussions, and online interactivity are planned to encourage audience members to directly engage with composers, scholars, and artists. The 2014 NY PHIL BIENNIAL partners include 92nd Street Y, The Museum of Modern Art, of St. Luke’s, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The , Gotham Chamber Opera, for the Performing Arts, Bang on a Can, American Composers Orchestra, and Kaufman Music Center’s Special Music School High School. For complete information about the 2014 NY PHIL BIENNIAL, see press release.

Related Events  Play Date All audience members attending the NY PHIL BIENNIAL concert on May 30 are invited to meet composers and performers as part of the post-concert Play Date, one of several meet- ups taking place during the biennial. Play Dates following Avery Fisher Hall concerts will take place at Bar Biennial, open for the duration of the NY PHIL BIENNIAL in the lobby of Avery Fisher Hall. Biennial Pass holders will receive a total of two free drink vouchers redeemable at Play Dates.

 Pre-Concert Talks Composer Daniel Felsenfeld will introduce the program. Pre-Concert Talks are $7; discounts available for multiple talks, students, and groups. 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.

 Kameramusik The New York Philharmonic Archives will present Kameramusik, an electronic media/photography installation by visual artist Anneliese Varaldiev, which features portraits of living composers whose work is being presented at the NY PHIL BIENNIAL. The installation will be on display May 28–June 7 in the Bruno Walter Gallery on Avery Fisher Hall’s Grand Promenade and will be open to ticket holders.

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Repertoire Julia Wolfe’s Anthracite Fields (2013), commissioned through New Music USA (previously Meet the Composer) and the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, explores coal-mining life and the fields of central Pennsylvania near her hometown. The composer draws from oral histories, interviews, speeches, geographic descriptions, local rhymes, and coal advertisements in creating this intimate look at a particular slice of American life. Ms. Wolfe has described her compositional influences as “funk, hip-hop, Appalachian folk music, Led Zeppelin, and Beethoven.” These concerts take place a month after the work’s World Premiere in with the All-Stars and the Mendelssohn Club chorus. Julia Wolfe, along with composers and Michael Gordon, co-founded Bang on a Can in 1987 and its renowned ensemble the Bang on a Can All-Stars in 1992, and remains one of its artistic directors. This season sees the release of her , a musical exploration of the myriad of legends surrounding the figure of , which Ms. Wolfe describes as a companion work to Anthracite Fields. Recorded by the Norwegian vocal ensemble Trio Mediaeval and the Bang on a Can All-Stars, Steel Hammer will be released on on April 29, 2014.

When Steven Mackey received the commission for Dreamhouse (2003) from NPS (Dutch Radio) in 2001, his immediate desire was “simply to hear a band of diverse elements playing and singing together with abandon — a traditional symphony orchestra, twanging electric , [a] pure-toned vocal quartet, and a somewhat theatrical ‘front man’ inhabiting a place between operatic tenor and Jim Morrison.” Rinde Eckert, Synergy Vocals, and Catch Electric Guitar Quartet (all of whom are featured in these concerts) performed on the 2010 recording of Dreamhouse, which was nominated for three Grammy Awards. Mr. Eckert and Mr. Mackey are members of Big Farm, the “prog-rock” super group with drummer Jason Treuting of So Percussion and bassist Mark Haanstra. Mr. Mackey identifies the work’s influences as “allegorical texts in ’60s psychedelic rock, the symphonic vocalise of 16th-century masses and motets, and the unstaged theatricality of baroque oratorio.” Mr. Mackey’s background as an electric guitarist has strongly influenced his writing; in addition to composing two concertos for the instrument, his score for Dreamhouse calls for the use of three such guitars. Mr. Mackey co- wrote the libretto with Mr. Eckert, his longtime collaborator, during a time of post-9/11 introspection as a meditation on the American Dream, “not as political commentary per se but rather a journal of self-reflection.”

Artists

Julia Wolfe’s Anthracite Fields Grammy-nominated conductor Julian Wachner is sought after as conductor, composer, and keyboard artist. Recent and upcoming engagements include those with the Philadelphia Orchestra, , Pittsburgh, Pacific, and Jacksonville symphonies, Lincoln Center Festival, BAM Next Wave Festival, Juilliard Opera Theatre, , Hong Kong Philharmonic, TENET, Philharmonia Baroque, Portland Baroque, Handel and Haydn Society, and with (Arvo Pärt’s Passio). As director of music and the arts at New York’s historic Trinity Wall Street, Mr. Wachner oversees an annual season of over 900 events, including Trinity’s numerous and varied concert offerings, series and festivals, museum expositions, dance and theatre performances, poetry and literary readings, and

4 educational/outreach initiatives in lower and in partnership with New York City’s public school system. He was recently nominated for a 2012 Grammy award for Trinity’s recording of Handel’s complete Israel in Egypt. Julian Wachner is also music director of the Grammy Award–winning Washington Chorus, with whom he won ASCAP’s Alice Parker Award for Adventurous Programming in 2011. A Baroque specialist, he was the founding music director of the Bach Ensemble and the Bach Académie de Montréal, besides serving as artistic director of International Bach Festivals in Boston and Montreal. In 2011 he founded New York City’s newest music festival, The Twelfth Night Festival of Early Music, most recently presented in collaboration with Gotham Early Music Society and featuring many of New York’s leading baroque and renaissance ensembles. In 2010, Mr. Wachner made New York City Opera history when he was selected as both conductor and composer at the company’s annual VOX festival of contemporary opera. He was the festival’s sole conductor in 2012. Mr. Wachner’s recordings are with the Chandos, Naxos, Atma Classique, Arsis, Dorian, Musica Omnia, and Titanic labels. These are his first appearances in concerts presented by the New York Philharmonic.

Formed in 1992 by New York’s renowned new-music collective Bang on a Can, the Bang on a Can All-Stars are recognized worldwide for their ultra-dynamic live performances and recordings of today’s most innovative music. Freely crossing the boundaries between classical, jazz, rock, world, and experimental music, this six-member amplified ensemble has consistently forged a distinct category-defying identity, taking music into uncharted territories. Performing each year throughout the U.S. and internationally, the All-Stars have shattered the definition of what concert music is today. Together, the All-Stars have worked in unprecedented close collaboration with some of the most important and inspiring musicians of our time, including , Ornette Coleman, Burmese circle drum master Kyaw Kyaw Naing, Tan Dun, DJ Spooky, and many more. The group’s celebrated projects include their landmark recordings of Brian Eno’s ambient classic Music for Airports and Terry Riley’s In C, as well as live performances with Philip Glass, Meredith Monk, , Iva Bittova, Thurston Moore, Owen Pallett, and others. The All-Stars were awarded Musical America’s Ensemble of the Year in 2005. Recent project highlights include the world premiere, performances, and recording of Steve Reich’s 2x5 including a sold-out performance at Carnegie Hall; the group’s recent tours to the Sydney Opera House in Australia and Beijing Music Festival in China; the U.S. tour and Carnegie Hall performance of Julia Wolfe’s Steel Hammer, an evening-length staged concert with Trio Mediaeval; commissioned works by Louis Andriessen, , Ryuichi Sakamoto, and others. With a massive repertoire of works written specifically for the group's distinctive instrumentation and style of performance, the All-Stars have become a genre in their own right. The All-Stars record on Cantaloupe Music and have released past recordings on Sony, Universal, and Nonesuch. These performances mark the ensemble’s New York Philharmonic debut.

The Grammy-nominated Choir of Trinity Wall Street is the premier vocal ensemble at Trinity Wall Street. Under the direction of Julian Wachner, the Choir leads the liturgical music at Trinity Church during Sunday services, performs in concerts throughout the year, and has made world- class recordings for Naxos, Musica Omnia, and Arie Records. In addition to their liturgical and concert presentations, the Choir has appeared at Mostly Mozart (performing Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas with the Mark Morris Dance Group), The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Cloisters, and in ’ 50th-anniversary tour. Trinity Choir was also chosen to perform Arvo

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Pärt’s Passio as part of a mixed-media collaboration with Paolo Cherchi Usai in his film Passio at the Tribeca Film Festival. The Choir is increasingly in demand around the world, and this season sees the ensemble performing at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, BAM, ’s Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, and ’s Barbican Hall. The ensemble is making its New York Philharmonic debut in these concerts.

Steven Mackey’s Dreamhouse This season Jayce Ogren conducts a concert of works by Rufus Wainwright with the Symphony Orchestra; a month-long run of Robert Carsen’s new production of Lerner & Loewe’s My Fair Lady at Paris’s Théâtre du Chatelet; a program of music by Gershwin, John Adams, and Sibelius with the RTE Symphony in Ireland; and these two concerts in the inaugural NY PHIL BIENNIAL, conducting the New York Premiere of Steven Mackey’s Dreamhouse. In the 2012– 13 season Mr. Ogren led new productions of Britten’s The Turn of the Screw and Rossini’s Mosè in Egitto for New York City Opera; conducted the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) in programs at Lincoln Center, Columbia University's Miller Theatre, and at the Wien Modern Festival; and led all-Stravinsky programs with the New York City Ballet. He made his New York Philharmonic debut CONTACT!, the Orchestra’s new-music series, and led performances of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro at the Verbier Festival Academy. In London he premiered the orchestral film version of Bernstein’s West Side Story at Royal Albert Hall, an event he repeated with the Detroit Symphony and with the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa. Returning to London he conducted the BBC Symphony at the Barbican in premieres of works by Nico Muhly, David Lang, and Paola Prestini. Jayce Ogren graduated from St. Olaf’s College and the New England Conservatory and, with a Fulbright grant, completed a postgraduate diploma in orchestral conducting with Jorma Panula at the Royal College of Music in . He attended the American Academy of Conducting at Aspen and, for three years, was Assistant Conductor to Franz Welser-Möst at the Cleveland Orchestra. Mr. Ogren has conducted the Philharmonic, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and the Boston Symphony. With the New York City Opera he led the American premiere of Wainwright’s Prima Donna, Mozart’s The Magic , and Bernstein’s A Quiet Place, for which he won extensive critical acclaim.

Rinde Eckert (The Architect) is a writer, composer, librettist, musician, performer, and director. His opera/new music theater productions have toured throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. With a virtuosic command of gesture, language, and song, he moves beyond the boundaries traditional music theater, grappling with complex issues. He began his career in the 1980s, writing librettos for the Paul Dresher Ensemble and dance scores for choreographers Sarah Shelton Mann and the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company. In 1992 he began composing and performing solo music/theater pieces. His works have been produced by the Foundry Theatre, Culture Project, Theatre for a New Audience, the New York Theatre Workshop, American Repertory Theatre in Boston, Center Stage in , Dobama Theatre Company, REDCAT in Los Angeles, and Berkeley Repertory Theatre under directors Tony Taccone, Robert Woodruff, David Schweizer, Richard ET White and Ellen McLaughlin. He has directed his own and others’ work for The Asia Society, Juggernaut Theater, Opera Piccola, and the Paul Dresher Ensemble. Recent productions include The Schick Machine for Steven Schick; Gurs Zyklus, a collaboration with sculptor/sound artist Trimpin; Steven Mackey’s Dreamhouse, which received three Grammy nominations; and Slide, with composer/guitarist Mackey and , which was renamed Lonely Motel and won a 2011 Grammy Award for Best Small Ensemble

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Performance. The recipient of numerous awards and distinctions: Rinde Eckert was named one of the inaugural Doris Duke Artists in 2012. He was recipient of the Marc Blitzstein Award (Highway Ulysses); an OBIE Award (And God Created Great Whales); and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize (Orpheus X). Mr. Eckert teaches at and has led extensive writing/directing residencies at the University of Nebraska; the University of California, Davis; the University of Iowa; Wesleyan University; and Barnard College. Mr. Eckert appeared in a 1986 New York Philharmonic Horizons concert, performing Paul Dresher’s Slow Fire, Act I. the NY PHIL BIENNIAL marks his New York Philharmonic debut.

Synergy Vocals (soprano/director Micaela Haslam, alto Heather Cairncross, tenor Andrew Busher, and baritone Michael Dore) provides bespoke teams of vocalists for a wide variety of projects, and specialises in close-microphone singing. The group is often associated with the music of Steve Reich, Louis Andriessen, Steven Mackey, and the late Luciano Berio, and performs regularly with Ensemble Modern, Ictus, Ensemble InterContemporain, Asko|Schönberg, London Sinfonietta, and the Colin Currie Group. Synergy Vocals has given with international and ensembles including the Boston, , London, St. Louis, and New World symphony orchestras; Los Angeles and Brooklyn Philharmonic orchestras; as well as Nexus, Percussion Claviers de Lyon, Tempo Reale Ensemble, Hebrides Ensemble, and all five of the U.K.’s BBC orchestras. They have also collaborated with several dance companies, including the Royal Ballet (London), Rosas (), and Opéra de Paris. The works the group has premiered include Reich’s and Daniel Variations, Mackey’s Dreamhouse, Andriessen’s video opera La Commedia, David Lang’s Writing on Water, and (most recently) James MacMillan’s Since it was the Day of Preparation…, as well as the U.K. première of Nono’s Prometeo on London’s South Bank. The group has undertaken educational and outreach projects in the U.K., The , the U.S., and South America, and Micaela Haslam regularly coaches instrumental ensembles for Reich in the preparation of his Music for 18 Musicians, most recently The Colin Currie Group (London), and Ensemble InterContemporain (Paris). Synergy Vocals is featured on a variety of film sound tracks, television advertisements, and pop-backing tracks, as well as CDs including the 2011 Grammy- winning Dreamhouse by Mackey, De Staat by Andriessen (with London Sinfonietta), Three Tales by Reich (with Steve Reich & Musicians), Kompendium’s Beneath the Waves, and ’s Grace for Drowning. Synergy Vocals previously appeared with the New York Philharmonic as part of Berio’s Sinfonia in 2008, conducted by .

The members of the -based Catch Electric Guitar Quartet (Aart Strootman, Seth Josel, and Patricio Wang on electric guitar and Mark Haanstra on electric bass) spent nearly 20 years crisscrossing paths and collaborating within the context of rock bands, free improvisation groups, and contemporary ensembles, but it was the 2003 premiere of Steve Mackey’s Dreamhouse (a Holland Festival commission) with the Radio Filharmonisch Orkest (Hilversum) that finally brought the talents of all four musicians together. The long-awaited North American premiere of Dreamhouse was presented with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project in May 2007. Catch has also appeared as a concertino group with the BBC Philharmonic Manchester. Since its founding, the quartet has been involved in further premieres of works by Peter Adriaansz, Huib Emmer, Christopher Fox, Patricio Wang; ensemble collaborations with Cappela Amsterdam, Nederlands Vocal Laboratorium; and has become the ensemble in residence at the OUTPUT Festival in Amsterdam. The group has also collaborated with the Slagwerk Den Haag, featuring a

7 multi-city tour of Holland in the Autumn of 2007 and an appearance at the Huddersfield Festival. In April 2007 the group was in residence at Princeton University, culminating in the premieres of seven works by such composers as Judd Greenstein, David Little, Seth Cluett (whose quartet a murmur which redoubles appears on a L-NE records), Alan Tormey, and Scott Smallwood. Catch has also performed concerts on college campuses in Grinnell, Los Angeles and Berkeley. These performances mark the quartet’s New York Philharmonic debut.

Founded in 1842, the New York Philharmonic is the oldest symphony orchestra in the United States and one of the oldest in the world; on May 5, 2010, it performed its 15,000th concert — a milestone unmatched by any other symphony orchestra in the world. The Orchestra has always played a leading role in American musical life, championing the music of its time, and is renowned around the globe, having appeared in 432 cities in 63 countries — including its October 2009 debut in Vietnam and its February 2008 historic visit to Pyongyang, DPRK, earning the 2008 Common Ground Award for Cultural Diplomacy. The Philharmonic’s concerts are broadcast on the weekly syndicated radio program The New York Philharmonic This Week, streamed on nyphil.org, and have been telecast annually on Live From Lincoln Center on U.S. public television since the series’ premiere in 1976. The Philharmonic has made almost 2,000 recordings since 1917, with more than 500 currently available. The first major American orchestra to offer downloadable concerts, recorded live, the Philharmonic released the first-ever classical iTunes Pass in 2009–10; the self-produced recordings continue with Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic: 2013–14 Season. The Orchestra has built on its long-running Young People’s Concerts to develop a wide range of education programs, including Very Young People’s Concerts, for pre-schoolers; School Day Concerts, with supporting curriculum for grades 3–12; the School Partnership Program, enriching music education in New York City; Very Young Composers, enabling students to express themselves through original works; Learning Overtures, fostering international exchange among educators; and online resources used in homes and classrooms around the world. Alan Gilbert became Music Director in September 2009, succeeding a series of 20th-century musical giants that goes back to and Arturo Toscanini. Credit Suisse is the New York Philharmonic’s exclusive Global Sponsor.

* * * Credit Suisse is the Global Sponsor of the New York Philharmonic.

* * * Major support for the NY PHIL BIENNIAL is provided by The Francis Goelet Fund, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The Susan and Elihu Rose Foundation, and The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation.

* * * These concerts are made possible with support from The Francis Goelet Fund

* * * Classical 105.9 FM WQXR is the Radio Home of the New York Philharmonic.

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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.

Tickets Tickets for these concerts are $49. Biennial Passes are $95 each and are available by calling (212) 875-5656. Tickets may be purchased online at nyphil.org or by calling (212) 875-5656, 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, 1:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Saturday, and noon to 5:00 p.m. on Sunday. To determine ticket availability, call the Philharmonic’s Customer Relations Department at (212) 875-5656. Ticket prices subject to change.

For press tickets, call Lanore Carr in the New York Philharmonic Marketing and Communications Department at (212) 875-5714, or e-mail her at [email protected].

For more information about all NY PHIL BIENNIAL events, visit nyphil.org/biennial.

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TWO NEW YORK PREMIERES: JULIA WOLFE’S ANTHRACITE FIELDS WITH BANG ON A CAN ALL-STARS, AND STEVEN MACKEY’S DREAMHOUSE WITH THE NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC A Presentation of the New York Philharmonic

Avery Fisher Hall

Friday, May 30, 2014, 8:00 p.m. Open Rehearsal — 9:45 a.m. Saturday, May 31, 2014, 7:00 p.m.

Play Date with composers/performers following the Friday performance at Bar Biennial located in Avery Fisher Hall

Pre-Concert Talk (one hour before each concert) with composer Daniel Felsenfeld

Jayce Ogren, conductor (Mackey) Julian Wachner*, conductor (Wolfe) Bang on a Can All-Stars* (Wolfe) The Choir of Trinity Wall Street* (Wolfe) Rinde Eckert*, vocalist (The Architect in Mackey) Synergy Vocals (Mackey) Catch Electric Guitar Quartet* (Mackey) New York Philharmonic (Mackey)

Julia WOLFE Anthracite Fields (New York Premiere) Steven MACKEY Dreamhouse (New York Premiere)

*denotes New York Philharmonic debut

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ALL PROGRAMS SUBJECT TO CHANGE

Photography is available for the NY PHIL BIENNIAL at nyphil.org/newsroom/1314/Biennial, or by contacting the Communications Department at (212) 875-5700; [email protected].