FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE UPDATED January 13, 2015 January 7, 2015 Contact: Katherine E. Johnson (212) 875-5718; [email protected] ALAN GILBERT AND THE NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC Alan Gilbert To Conduct SILK ROAD ENSEMBLE with YO-YO MA Alongside the New York Philharmonic in Concerts Celebrating the Silk Road Ensemble’s 15TH ANNIVERSARY Program To Include The Silk Road Suite and Works by DMITRI YANOV-YANOVSKY, R. STRAUSS, AND OSVALDO GOLIJOV February 19–21, 2015 FREE INSIGHTS AT THE ATRIUM EVENT “Traversing Time and Trade: Fifteen Years of the Silkroad” February 18, 2015 The Silk Road Ensemble with Yo-Yo Ma will perform alongside the New York Philharmonic, led by Alan Gilbert, for a celebration of the innovative world-music ensemble’s 15th anniversary, Thursday, February 19, 2015, at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, February 20 at 8:00 p.m.; and Saturday, February 21 at 8:00 p.m. Titled Sacred and Transcendent, the program will feature the Philharmonic and the Silk Road Ensemble performing both separately and together. The concert will feature Fanfare for Gaita, Suona, and Brass; The Silk Road Suite, a compilation of works commissioned and premiered by the Ensemble; Dmitri Yanov-Yanovsky’s Sacred Signs Suite; R. Strauss’s Death and Transfiguration; and Osvaldo Golijov’s Rose of the Winds. The program marks the Silk Road Ensemble’s Philharmonic debut. “The Silk Road Ensemble demonstrates different approaches of exploring world traditions in a way that — through collaboration, flexible thinking, and disciplined imagination — allows each to flourish and evolve within its own frame,” Yo-Yo Ma said. “Maestro Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic pursue a similar approach, weaving together differing artistic expressions, embracing all while maintaining their integrity. The Philharmonic is an ideal partner to celebrate the Silk Road Ensemble’s anniversary and we look forward to a lively collaboration.” “Yo-Yo Ma has become a close musical colleague, and it’s always a privilege to be onstage with this giant,” Alan Gilbert said. “He has taken his unbounded curiosity and (more) Silk Road / 2 enthusiasm for all kinds of music and made it possible for people to experience, say, “Yo-Yo Ma has become a close musical colleague, and it’s always a privilege to be onstage with this giant,” Alan Gilbert said. “He has taken his unbounded curiosity and enthusiasm for all kinds of music and made it possible for people to experience, say, Persian or Appalachian music. This collaboration with Yo-Yo and the Silk Road Ensemble — bringing instruments rarely seen onstage at the New York Philharmonic and with musicians who bring a completely different skill-set — is extremely powerful and is totally in line with what we’ve been trying to do. I’m really happy that Yo-Yo is here to amplify and support that.” The New York Philharmonic’s free Insights at the Atrium series will present “Traversing Time and Trade: Fifteen Years of the Silkroad,” Wednesday, February 18, 2015, at 7:30 p.m., at which members of the Silk Road Ensemble discuss the global music traditions and ages that inspire them. The event takes place at the David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center (Columbus Avenue at 62nd Street) and is co-presented with Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. Founded in 2000 by cellist and artistic director Yo-Yo Ma, the Silk Road Ensemble is the performing arm of Silkroad, which Mr. Ma founded in 1998 to connect artists and audiences from around the globe, following the cultural tradition of the historical Silk Road. Yo-Yo Ma will join the Orchestra and conductor Long Yu the following week, on February 24, 2015, as one of the soloists in the fourth-annual Chinese New Year Concert and Gala. Related Events Philharmonic Free Fridays The New York Philharmonic is offering 100 free tickets for young people ages 13–26 to the concert Friday, February 19 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 2014–15 season’s 18 Friday evening subscription concerts; it is part of Share the Music!, a new initiative to support expanded access to the New York Philharmonic. Insights at the Atrium — “Traversing Time and Trade: Fifteen Years of the Silkroad” Members of the Silk Road Ensemble, speakers Wednesday, February 18, 2015, 7:30 p.m. David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center (Columbus Avenue at 62nd Street) Meet members of the Silk Road Ensemble and the global music traditions and ages that inspire them. What can we learn from cultures far removed from our own, and what does it sound like when the Philharmonic collaborates with them? Insights at the Atrium events are free and open to the public. Seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis. Subscribers, Friends at the Affiliate level and above, and Patrons may secure guaranteed admission by emailing [email protected]. Space is limited. (more) Silk Road / 3 Artists Music Director Alan Gilbert began his New York Philharmonic tenure in September 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 the Artist-in-Association; CONTACT!, the new-music series; and the NY PHIL BIENNIAL, an exploration of today’s music by a wide range of contemporary and modern composers inaugurated in spring 2014. As New York magazine wrote, “The Philharmonic and its music director Alan Gilbert have turned themselves into a force of permanent revolution.” In the 2014–15 season Alan Gilbert conducts the U.S. Premiere of Unsuk Chin’s Clarinet Concerto, a Philharmonic co-commission, alongside Mahler’s First Symphony; La Dolce Vita: The Music of Italian Cinema; Verdi’s Requiem; a staging of Honegger’s Joan of Arc at the Stake, featuring Oscar winner Marion Cotillard; World Premieres; a CONTACT! program; and Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble. He concludes The Nielsen Project — the multi-year initiative to perform and record the Danish composer’s symphonies and concertos, the first release of which was named by The New York Times as among the Best Classical Music Recordings of 2012 — and presides over the EUROPE / SPRING 2015 tour. His Philharmonic- tenure highlights include acclaimed productions of Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre, Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen, Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd starring Bryn Terfel and Emma Thompson, and Philharmonic 360 at Park Avenue Armory; World Premieres by Magnus Lindberg, John Corigliano, Christopher Rouse, and others; Bach’s B-minor Mass and Ives’s Fourth Symphony; the score from 2001: A Space Odyssey alongside the film; Mahler’s Second Symphony, Resurrection, on the tenth anniversary of 9/11; and eight international tours. 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. His 2014–15 appearances include the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic, The Metropolitan Opera, and The Philadelphia 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. In May 2010 Mr. Gilbert received an Honorary Doctor of Music degree from The Curtis Institute of Music and in December 2011, Columbia University’s Ditson Conductor’s Award for his “exceptional commitment to the performance of works by American composers and to contemporary music.” In 2014 he was elected to The American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Inspired by his curiosity about the world and eager to forge connections across cultures, disciplines, and generations, cellist Yo-Yo Ma founded the nonprofit organization Silkroad in 1998. The Silk Road Ensemble was formed in 2000 as a way of bringing together innovative performers and composers representing traditions from around the world. Silkroad is a collective of rooted explorers, inclusive independents, storytelling musicians, passionate learners, (more) Silk Road / 4 connected nomads, and cultural entrepreneurs. With the belief that exploring our differences enriches our humanity, the project seeks the point at which education, business, and the arts come together to spark new ways of looking at the world. Silkroad strives to create unexpected connections, collaborations, and communities in pursuit of meaningful change. Through performances and the creation of new music, cultural partnerships, education programs, and cross-disciplinary collaborations, Silkroad seeks to create meaningful change at the intersection of the arts, education, and business. Since 2000 the Silk Road Ensemble has been redefining classical music for 21st-century audiences. Representing a global array of cultures, Silk Road Ensemble members co-create art, performances, and ideas. Cellist Yo-Yo Ma established the nonprofit organization Silkroad and the Ensemble to explore the role of the arts in fostering cross-cultural understanding, deepening learning, and promoting innovation. Silk Road Ensemble performers and composers hail from more than 20 countries. Passionate about learning from one another’s traditions, these rooted explorers perform on instruments ranging from world percussion to Western strings to the Chinese pipa (lute) and sheng (mouth organ), the Japanese shakuhachi (bamboo flute), the Galician gaita (bagpipe), Indian tabla (paired drums), and Persian kamancheh (spike fiddle), among others. Under the artistic direction of Mr. Ma, these storytelling musicians celebrate the multiplicity of approaches to music from around the world.