FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 22, 2018 Contact: Katherine E. Johnson (212) 875-5700; [email protected]

THE MARIE-JOSÉE KRAVIS COMPOSER-IN-RESIDENCE ESA-PEKKA SALONEN TO CONDUCT NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC

WORLD PREMIERE–NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC COMMISSION of Kravis Emerging Composer ANNA THORVALDSDOTTIR’s Metacosmos

BEETHOVEN’s No. 3 with BENJAMIN GROSVENOR, Inaugural Recipient of the Ronnie and Lawrence Ackman Classical Piano Prize

BEETHOVEN’s Symphony No. 3, Eroica

April 4–6, 2018

Saturday Matinee Concert To Feature Esa-Pekka SALONEN’s Catch and Release Followed by Music by VERY YOUNG COMPOSERS from the Middle East, South America, and New York City Performed by Philharmonic Musicians April 7, 2018

Benjamin Grosvenor To Perform Chamber Music with Philharmonic Musicians at 92nd Street Y April 10, 2018

The Marie-Josée Kravis Composer-in-Residence Esa-Pekka Salonen will conduct a program featuring an emerging composer and soloist, both of whom the Philharmonic has championed: the World Premiere of Kravis Emerging Composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s Metacosmos, commissioned by the Philharmonic; Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3, Eroica; and Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3, featuring Benjamin Grosvenor, inaugural recipient of the Ronnie and Lawrence Ackman Classical Piano Prize at the New York Philharmonic, in his Philharmonic subscription debut. The performances take place Wednesday, April 4, 2018, at 7:30 p.m.; Thursday, April 5 at 7:30 p.m.; and Friday, April 6 at 8:00 p.m.

Anna Thorvaldsdottir says that her Metacosmos is “constructed around the natural balance between beauty and chaos — how elements can come together in (seemingly) utter chaos to create a unified, structured whole.” The Philharmonic commissioned Ms. Thorvaldsdottir to compose Metacosmos in 2015, when she was named the Philharmonic’s Kravis Emerging Composer, an honor bestowed on an up-and-coming composer as part of The Marie-Josée Kravis Prize for New Music. The Marie-Josée Kravis Prize for New Music and the positions of Kravis Emerging Composer and The Marie-Josée Kravis Composer-in-Residence are funded by a $10 million gift given to the Philharmonic in 2009 by Henry R. Kravis in honor of his wife, Marie-Josée. The New York Philharmonic nominated Ms. Thorvaldsdottir for the Martin E. Segal Award, part of the Lincoln Center Awards for Emerging Artists, to be presented in March 2018. (more) Esa-Pekka Salonen / Benjamin Grosvenor / 2

Benjamin Grosvenor was named the inaugural recipient of the Ronnie and Lawrence Ackman Classical Piano Prize at the New York Philharmonic, awarded to an up-and-coming pianist or piano duo poised to become exceptional figures in the piano world. Prize winners — selected by a confidential panel comprising prominent pianists, New York Philharmonic leadership, and other recognized musical figures — receive $30,000 and will perform with the New York Philharmonic, play chamber music with Philharmonic musicians, and serve as classical music ambassadors, taking part in community engagement and education initiatives around New York City. He will perform chamber music with Philharmonic musicians at 92nd Street Y (see below) and meet with middle-school students in the Composer’s Bridge program — part of the Philharmonic’s Very Young Composers program — to workshop and perform their piano works.

Esa-Pekka Salonen — the composer-conductor who displays “a kind of complete musicianship rarely encountered today” (The Boston Globe) — is in his third and final season as The Marie-Josée Kravis Composer-in-Residence. He will conclude his tenure in June 2018 conducting and hosting Foreign Bodies, a one-night-only multidisciplinary event that includes his work of the same name, accompanied by the World Premiere of a live video installation by Tal Rosner, and Obsidian Tear, a dance work choreographed by Wayne McGregor and set to Mr. Salonen’s and Lachen verlernt. Highlights of Esa-Pekka Salonen’s residency include the New York Premiere of his Gambit (2017); the New York and European Premieres of his with Yo-Yo Ma (2017); the CONTACT! concerts “Salonen’s Floof and Other Delights” (2016) and “The Messiaen Connection” (2016); and his conducting Messiaen’s Turangalîla-symphonie, as part of Messiaen Week (2016), and Circle Map, a program celebrating Kaija Saariaho presented by Park Avenue Armory (2016).

The Saturday Matinee Concert on April 7 at 2:00 p.m. opens with Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Catch and Release, conducted by the composer and performed by Philharmonic Assistant Concertmaster Michelle Kim, Principal Bass Timothy Cobb, Principal Anthony McGill, Principal Judith LeClair, Principal Christopher Martin, Associate Principal Colin Williams, and Principal Percussion Christopher S. Lamb. The rest of the program features Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3, Eroica.

The Saturday Matinee Concert on April 7 will be followed immediately by New York Philharmonic musicians performing original compositions by students in the Philharmonic’s Very Young Composers program — created by Very Young Composers Founder and Artistic Director Jon Deak — led by Assistant Conductor Joshua Gersen. Students from the Middle East and South America communicated with their counterparts in New York through Musical Postcards, in which students from different countries share stories and musical ideas. Audience members will be invited to contribute to organizations that benefit child refugees around the world: Doctors Without Borders, the International Rescue Committee in New York, and the New York Philharmonic Education Fund.

The New York Philharmonic and 92nd Street Y will co-present a chamber music program featuring Benjamin Grosvenor and Philharmonic musicians — Principal Associate Concertmaster Sheryl Staples, Associate Principal Viola Rebecca Young, Associate Principal Cello Eileen Moon-Myers, and Principal Bass Timothy Cobb — performing Brahms’s Piano Quartet No. 1 and Schubert’s Piano Quintet, Trout, on April 10, 2018. (more) Esa-Pekka Salonen / Benjamin Grosvenor / 3

Related Event  Philharmonic Free Fridays The New York Philharmonic is offering an allotment of free tickets to young people ages 13–26 for the concert Friday, April 6 as part of Philharmonic Free Fridays. Philharmonic Free Fridays offers a limited number of free tickets to 13–26-year-olds to many of the 2017–18 season’s Friday subscription concerts. Information on the 2017–18 season of Free Fridays is available at nyphil.org/freefridays.

Artists Esa-Pekka Salonen’s restless innovation drives him constantly to reposition classical music in the 21st century. He is currently the principal conductor and artistic advisor of London’s Philharmonia Orchestra and the conductor laureate of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. This is his final of three seasons as The Marie-Josée Kravis Composer-in-Residence at the New York Philharmonic and his second of five as artist-in-association at the Finnish National Opera and Ballet. Additionally, Mr. Salonen is artistic director and co-founder of the annual Baltic Sea Festival, now in its 16th year, which invites celebrated artists to promote unity and ecological awareness among the countries around the Baltic Sea. He serves as an advisor to the Sync Project, a global initiative to harness the power of music for human health. Mr. Salonen’s compositions move freely between contemporary idioms, combining intricacy and technical virtuosity with playful rhythmic and melodic innovations. The Los Angeles Philharmonic performs all of Mr. Salonen’s concertos in February 2018, with cellist Yo-Yo Ma, pianist Yefim Bronfman, and violinist Leila Josefowicz — the musicians for whom the works were written. The Violin Concerto won the prestigious Grawemeyer Award and was featured in a 2014 international Apple ad campaign for iPad. The Barbican Centre in London has a season-long focus on Mr. Salonen’s music, including the European Premiere of a new work for the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Philharmonia have experimented in groundbreaking ways to present music, with the first major virtual-reality production from a U.K. symphony orchestra; the award-winning RE-RITE and Universe of Sound installations, which have allowed people all over the world to conduct, play, and step inside the orchestra through audio and video projections; and The Orchestra, the much-hailed app for iPad that allows users unprecedented access to the internal workings of eight symphonic works. Esa-Pekka Salonen made his New York Philharmonic debut in December 1986 conducting the U.S. Premiere of Castiglioni’s Sinfonia con giardino in addition to works by Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, and Nielsen; most recently, he led the Orchestra in a New York Premiere by Stravinsky, a U.S. Premiere by Tansy Davies co-commissioned by the Philharmonic, and music by Richard Strauss in April 2017.

British pianist Benjamin Grosvenor is internationally recognized for his electrifying performances and insightful interpretations. His virtuosic command over the most strenuous technical complexities underpins the remarkable depth and understanding of his musicianship, and he is renowned for his distinctive sound, making him one of the most sought-after young pianists in the world. Mr. Grosvenor first came to prominence at the age of 11 as the winner of the 2004 BBC Young Musician Competition Keyboard Final. Since then, he has performed with orchestras across the world, including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, The Cleveland Orchestra, Milan’s Filarmonica della Scala, Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne, and the London Symphony Orchestra. A 2010–12 BBC New Generation Artist, Mr. Grosvenor has performed at the BBC Proms on a number of occasions, and in 2015 starred on the Last

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Night, performing Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the BBC Symphony Orchestra led by Marin Alsop. In 2011 Benjamin Grosvenor signed to Decca Classics, becoming the youngest British musician ever to sign to the label and the first British pianist to sign to the label in almost 60 years. His honors include receiving Gramophone’s Young Artist of the Year and Instrumental Award, a Classic Brits Critics’ Award, UK Critics’ Circle Award for Exceptional Young Talent, a Diapason d’Or Jeune Talent Award, and a Fellowship from the Royal Academy of Music. In 2016 Benjamin Grosvenor was named the inaugural recipient of the Ronnie and Lawrence Ackman Classical Piano Prize at the New York Philharmonic. Mr. Grosvenor made his Philharmonic debut on a Young People’s Concert, conducted by then Music Director Alan Gilbert, at London’s Barbican Centre as part of the EUROPE / WINTER 2012 tour. He also appeared with the Orchestra during its 2012 Bravo! Vail residency, performing Saint-Saëns’s Piano Concerto No. 2, conducted by Andrey Boreyko.

Principal Associate Concertmaster Sheryl Staples, The Elizabeth G. Beinecke Chair, joined the New York Philharmonic in September 1998. She has been featured in more than 30 solo performances with the Philharmonic in concertos by Tchaikovsky, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Haydn, J.S. Bach, and Vivaldi with conductors including Alan Gilbert, Lorin Maazel, Kurt Masur, Kent Nagano, Jeffrey Kahane, and Colin Davis. In the 2014–15 season, she performed Mozart’s Sinfonia concertante with Principal Viola Cynthia Phelps, led by Jaap van Zweden in November, and by Alan Gilbert in July. Previously, she was associate concertmaster of The Cleveland Orchestra and concertmaster of the Pacific Symphony and Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra. She has appeared as soloist with more than 45 orchestras, including The Cleveland Orchestra and Los Angeles Philharmonic. Ms. Staples is a member of the New York Philharmonic String Quartet; has participated in the La Jolla, Boston, Salt Bay, Santa Fe, Mainly Mozart, and Aspen chamber music festivals; and was a member of The Cleveland Orchestra Piano Trio. She is on the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music, Juilliard Pre-College Division, and The Juilliard School. She performs on the “Kartman” Guarnerius del Gesù, ca. 1728.

Violist Rebecca Young joined the New York Philharmonic in 1986 as its youngest member, and in 1991 was named the Orchestra’s Associate Principal Viola, The Joan and Joel Smilow Chair. After serving as principal viola of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1992–93, she resumed her Philharmonic Associate Principal position in 1994. An avid chamber musician, she has performed with groups such as the Boston Chamber Music Society, Boston Symphony Chamber Players, and The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and has recorded Schubert’s Trout Quintet with Yo-Yo Ma, Emanuel Ax, Pamela Frank, and Edgar Meyer (on Sony Classical). Her Philharmonic solo performances include the 1999 World Premiere of Sofia Gubaidulina’s Two Paths, a concerto for two violas commissioned by the Philharmonic and underwritten by then Music Director Kurt Masur’s wife, Tomoko, for Ms. Young and Philharmonic Principal Viola Cynthia Phelps. The two reprised the work with the Philharmonic on several of the Orchestra’s tours and in New York, most recently in April 2011. She also gave the World Premiere of Oscar Bettison’s Threaded Madrigals for solo viola in a June 2014 CONTACT! concert. She is a graduate of The Juilliard School and host of the Philharmonic’s popular Very Young People’s Concerts.

Eileen Moon-Myers joined the New York Philharmonic in 1998, and in 2007 was named Associate Principal Cello, The Paul and Diane Guenther Chair. Born and raised in Los Altos, California, she studied with Irene Sharp in the Pre-College Division of the San Francisco Conservatory. As a member (more) Esa-Pekka Salonen / Benjamin Grosvenor / 5 of the Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra, Ms. Moon-Myers toured Europe and the West Coast, often as a featured soloist. She continued her studies at The Juilliard School, where she earned her bachelor of music degree, and then moved to Vienna to study with Valentin Erben of the Alban Berg Quartet. She was a top prize winner in numerous competitions, including YoungArts (Florida) in 1987, Irving Klein (California) in 1988, Geneva International Competition (Switzerland) in 1991, and Tchaikovsky International Competition (Moscow) in 1994. She has performed in prestigious festivals, and is the founder of the Warwick Music Series in Warwick, New York. Ms. Moon-Myers’s biggest passions are music presentation, cooking, running, and animal advocacy. She co-founded Friends of Warwick Valley Humane Society and aims to open a sanctuary for injured, abandoned, and “retired” animals and wildlife.

Principal Bass Timothy Cobb joined the New York Philharmonic in May 2014, after serving as principal bass of The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and as principal bass of the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra. He has appeared at chamber music festivals worldwide, including the Marlboro Music Festival, through which he has toured with the Musicians from Marlboro series. A faculty member of the Sarasota Music Festival, he is helping to launch a new bass program for the Killington Music Festival in Vermont. Mr. Cobb is a UNESCO Artist for Peace, an honor achieved through his role as principal bass for Valery Gergiev’s World Orchestra for Peace, an invited group of musicians who donate their time to promote international harmony. He has an ongoing collaboration with actor Stephen Lang, for whom he recorded a solo bass sound track for the animated short film The Wheatfield. A native of Albany, New York, Timothy Cobb graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music. He serves as bass department chair for The Juilliard School and is also on the faculties of the Manhattan School of Music, SUNY–Purchase College, and Rutgers University.

Repertoire, April 4–6, 2018 The New York Philharmonic commissioned Kravis Emerging Composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir (b. 1977) to compose Metacosmos (2018). She writes that the orchestral work “is constructed around the natural balance between beauty and chaos — how elements can come together in (seemingly) utter chaos to create a unified, structured whole. The idea and inspiration behind the piece is the speculative metaphor of falling into a black hole — the unknown — with endless constellations and layers of opposing forces connecting and communicating with each other, expanding and contracting, projecting a struggle for power as the different sources pull on you and you realize that you are being drawn into a force that is beyond your control.” The Orchestra gave the New York Premiere of Ms. Thorvaldsdottir’s Aeriality in May 2017, conducted by then Music Director Alan Gilbert, and presented her Ró on the January 2018 CONTACT! concert at National Sawdust. In addition, her Reflections for String Trio was featured on the May 2017 NY PHIL Off The Grid concert at House of Yes.

Ludwig van Beethoven’s (1770–1827) Piano Concerto No. 3 (1803) was one of his works that wasn’t quite finished in time for its first performance. The composer conducted from the keyboard, while Ignaz von Seyfried turned pages: “I saw almost nothing but empty pages; at the most, on one page or another a few Egyptian hieroglyphs…. He gave me a surreptitious nod whenever he was at the end of one of the invisible passages, and my scarcely concealable anxiety not to miss the decisive moment amused him greatly, and he laughed heartily at the jovial supper afterwards.” The concerto was presented during a spring 1803 marathon benefit for the composer himself that also included premieres of the Second (more) Esa-Pekka Salonen / Benjamin Grosvenor / 6

Symphony, the oratorio Christ on the Mount of Olives, and a reprise of the Symphony No. 1. Sadly, this performance was one of the last in which Beethoven himself performed as soloist: his increasing deafness would soon make ensemble playing nearly impossible. Nevertheless, the Piano Concerto No. 3 was a masterpiece that spoke with a new voice — a personal statement from the heart of its creator as well as a showcase for his prodigious pianistic abilities. The Philharmonic first presented the complete Piano Concerto No. 3 in 1865 at the Academy of Music, led by Carl Bergmann and with Richard Hoffman as soloist; the Orchestra’s most recent performance was in December 2016, led by Jiří Bělohlávek and with Kun Woo Paik as soloist.

Repertoire, April 10, 2018 Johannes Brahms (1833–97) completed his Piano Quartet No. 1 in 1861 — when he spent that summer in Hamm, a town not far from Hamburg, focusing on chamber works with piano, particularly his three piano quartets and his piano quintet — although the piece had evolved slowly since he began it in 1856. It was premiered in Hamburg in November 1861 by an ensemble that included pianist Clara Schumann, the widow of his mentor who herself had become an important advisor and friend. The structurally complex, intellectually intense quartet finishes with a Rondo alla Zingarese that is infused with a Gypsy-like character that led Hungarian violinist Joseph Joachim to comment: “In the last movement you have outstripped me on my own territory by a considerable track.”

Franz Schubert (1797–1828) composed his evocative Piano Quintet, Trout, in 1819, when he was 22 years old. He had been touring Upper Austria with a friend, baritone Johann Michel Vogl, and when they arrived in Vogl’s hometown of Steyr, the singer introduced Schubert to Sylvester Paumgartner, an amateur cellist as well as a music patron who regularly hosted musical events in his home. Paumgartner commissioned the young composer to write a quintet for piano, violin, viola, cello, and double-bass (rather than the more typical quintet for piano and string quartet), and requested that it incorporate one of his favorite Schubert songs: 1817’s “Die Forelle” (“The Trout”), which uses a poem by Christian Friedrich Daniel Schubart to tell the story of a trout caught by a fisherman, an allegory warning women to guard themselves against men. Schubert indeed used the song in the fourth movement, a theme and variations. The quintet wasn’t published until 1829, a year after the composer’s death, and remains one of his most well-known works.

* * * Esa-Pekka Salonen is The Marie-Josée Kravis Composer-in-Residence.

* * * Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s commission is made possible by the generous support of The Marie-Josée Kravis Prize for New Music.

* * * Benjamin Grosvenor is the inaugural recipient of the Ronnie and Lawrence Ackman Classical Piano Prize at the New York Philharmonic.

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* * * These concerts are made possible with generous support from the Francis Goelet Charitable Lead Trusts.

* * * Major support for Philharmonic Free Fridays is provided by an Anonymous Donor.

Additional funding is provided by Muna and Basem Hishmeh.

* * * Major support for Very Young Composers is provided by Susan and Elihu Rose.

Additional funding is provided by Muna and Basem Hishmeh; Mr. and Mrs. A. Slade Mills, Jr.; The West Family; The ASCAP Foundation; the Solender Family Funds; and the UJA-Federation of New York.

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

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

* * * PurePoint Financial. Season Sponsor 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.

Tickets Single tickets for the April 4–7, 2018, performances start at $49. 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. Saturday; and noon to 5:00 p.m. Sunday. Tickets may also be purchased at the David Geffen Hall Box Office. The Box Office opens at 10:00 a.m. Monday through Saturday, and at noon on Sunday. On performance evenings, the Box Office closes one-half hour after performance time; other evenings it closes at 6:00 p.m. A limited number of $18 tickets for select concerts may be available for students within 10 days of the performance at nyphil.org, or in person the day of. Valid identification is required. To determine ticket availability, call the Philharmonic’s Customer Relations Department at (212) 875-5656. (Ticket prices subject to change.)

Tickets for the April 10 concert may be purchased at 92y.org/event/benjamin-grosvenor or by calling (212) 415-5500.

For press tickets, call Lanore Carr at the New York Philharmonic at (212) 875-5714, or email her at [email protected]. (more) Esa-Pekka Salonen / Benjamin Grosvenor / 8 New York Philharmonic

David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center

Wednesday, April 4, 2018, 7:30 p.m. Open Rehearsal — 9:45 a.m. Thursday, April 5, 2018, 7:30 p.m. Friday, April 6, 2018, 8:00 p.m.

Esa-Pekka Salonen, conductor Benjamin Grosvenor**, piano

Anna THORVALDSDOTTIR Metacosmos (World Premiere–New York Philharmonic Commission) BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 3 BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 3, Eroica

Saturday Matinee Concert

David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center

Saturday, April 7, 2018, 2:00 p.m.

Esa-Pekka Salonen, conductor Michelle Kim, violin Timothy Cobb, bass Anthony McGill, clarinet Judith LeClair, bassoon Christopher Martin, trumpet Colin Williams, trombone Christopher S. Lamb, percussion

Esa-Pekka SALONEN Catch and Release BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 3, Eroica

The concert will be followed by New York Philharmonic musicians performing original compositions by students in the Philharmonic’s Very Young Composers program in the Middle East, South America, and New York, led by Assistant Conductor Joshua Gersen. Audience members will be invited to contribute to organizations that benefit child refugees around the world: Doctors Without Borders, the International Rescue Committee in New York, and the New York Philharmonic Education Fund.

(more)

Esa-Pekka Salonen / Benjamin Grosvenor / 9

A Co-Presentation of the New York Philharmonic and 92nd Street Y

92nd Street Y 1395 Lexington Avenue

Tuesday, April 10, 2018, 7:30 p.m.

Benjamin Grosvenor, piano Sheryl Staples, violin Rebecca Young, viola Eileen Moon-Myers, cello Timothy Cobb, bass

BRAHMS Piano Quartet No. 1 SCHUBERT Piano Quintet, Trout

** New York Philharmonic subscription debut

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ALL PROGRAMS SUBJECT TO CHANGE

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