FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 14, 2016 Contact: Katherine E. Johnson (212) 875-5718; [email protected] CHARLIE CHAPLIN’S CITY LIGHTS Complete Film with Score Conducted Live by TIMOTHY BROCK May 19, 2016 DISNEY FANTASIA LIVE IN CONCERT Selections from Fantasia and Fantasia 2000 Celebrating Fantasia’s 75th Anniversary Conducted Live by New York Philharmonic Assistant Conductor JOSHUA GERSEN May 20–21, 2016 Programs for Families at the New York Philharmonic Presented by Daria and Eric Wallach NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC SPRING GALA A JOHN WILLIAMS CELEBRATION JOHN WILLIAMS’s Iconic Film Scores with Select Film Clips Conducted by DAVID NEWMAN May 24, 2016 The New York Philharmonic will present three film music programs in May 2016: a complete screening of Charlie Chaplin’s City Lights, May 19, 2016, with the Orchestra performing Chaplin’s score live, conducted by Timothy Brock, who restored the score for live performance; Disney Fantasia Live in Concert, May 20–21, 2016, in honor of Fantasia’s 75th anniversary, in which scenes from Fantasia and Fantasia 2000 will be screened as the Orchestra performs the music live, led by Assistant Conductor Joshua Gersen; and the Spring Gala, A John Williams Celebration, May 24, 2016, with the Orchestra performing music from the Oscar-winning film composer’s iconic scores, led by David Newman, along with clips from select films. Chaplin composed the City Lights score (with the exception of “la Violetera,” by José Padilla), and the music was arranged and orchestrated by Arthur Johnston and Alfred Newman. Chaplin wrote in My Autobiography (1964): “One happy thing about sound was that I could control the music, so I composed my own. I tried to compose elegant and romantic music to frame my comedies in contrast to the tramp character, for elegant music gave my comedies an emotional dimension.” The Philharmonic presented Chaplin’s Modern Times and his 1914 short film Kid Auto Races at Venice in September 2014 to celebrate the centennial of the character he invented, The Little Tramp, as part of the second annual THE ART OF THE SCORE: Film Week at the Philharmonic, conducted by Timothy Brock. The program will be presented Thursday, May 19, 2016, at 7:00 p.m. (more) City Lights / Fantasia / John Williams Spring Gala / 2 Disney Fantasia Live in Concert will feature scenes from Fantasia and Fantasia 2000 along with live performances of the music, including selections from Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5; Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6, Pastoral; Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker Suite; Debussy’s Clair de lune; Stravinsky’s The Firebird Suite (1919 version); Ponchielli’s Dance of the Hours; Dukas’s The Sorcerer’s Apprentice; and Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance. The program will be presented Friday, May 20, 2016, at 7:00 p.m.; Saturday, May 21, 2016, at 1:00 p.m.; and Saturday, May 21, 2016, at 7:00 p.m. The New York Philharmonic’s Spring Gala, A John Williams Celebration, will feature David Newman leading the Orchestra in music from the Oscar-winning film composer’s iconic scores from Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Jane Eyre, Memoirs of a Geisha, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Jaws, Born on the Fourth of July, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Schindler’s List, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens, and Star Wars, along with clips from select films. The program opens with For New York, variations on themes by Philharmonic Laureate Conductor Leonard Bernstein, and takes place Tuesday, May 24, 2016, at 7:30 p.m. The Spring Gala Co-Chairs are Beth and Christopher Kojima, and Leni and Peter May. For information about the Gala, which includes a pre-concert reception, concert, and post-concert seated dinner on the Grand Promenade, please call the Office of Special Events at (212) 875- 5755, or e-mail [email protected]. The Spring Gala is presented by BNY Mellon. Artists Conductor and composer Timothy Brock (Charlie Chaplin’s City Lights) specializes in early 20th-century concert works and live performances of silent film. As a silent-film score conductor and preservationist, his leading work includes the restoration of Shostakovich’s only silent-film score, to New Babylon (1929); Satie’s dadaist score to Entr’acte (1924); and Antheil’s music for Ballet mécanique (1924). Since 1999 Mr. Brock has served as score preservationist for the Charles Chaplin family; to this day he is the foremost authority on the music of the actor/filmmaker, having made 12 live-performance revised and critical editions of all Chaplin’s major films, including City Lights, Modern Times, The Gold Rush, The Kid, and The Circus. At age 23 Mr. Brock began composing new scores for silent film with G.W. Pabst’s Pandora’s Box (1929), and has since written almost 30 orchestral scores for notable orchestras and institutions including the Orchestre National de Lyon, Cinémathèque Française, Wiener Konzerthaus, Cineteca di Bologna, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Teatro de la Zarzuela de Madrid, and the Cité de la Musique de Paris. The Chaplin family commissioned Mr. Brock to write an original score to celebrate the centennial of Kid Auto Races at Venice (1914), the very first appearance of the “Gentleman Tramp” (often called The Little Tramp). In June 2017 Mr. Brock will conduct the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra in the World Premiere of his long-awaited new score for Fritz Lang’s science-fiction epic Frau im Mond (1929), commissioned by the Wiener Konzerthaus. His concert works include three symphonies, three concertos, a cantata, two operas, and orchestral pieces. Timothy Brock is a regular guest of major orchestras worldwide, including the BBC, BBC Scottish, and Chicago symphony orchestras, Orchestre National de Lyon, NDR Radiophilharmonie, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI, Orchestra della Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, and Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Brock has (more) City Lights / Fantasia / John Williams Spring Gala / 3 created a concert series of programs of Entartete Musik (“degenerate music,” by composers banned by the Third Reich), including works by Schulhoff, Schreker, Zemlinsky, Krása, Klein, and Haas. Mr. Brock gave the North American Premieres of Eisler’s Kleine Sinfonie, Niemandslied, and Kuhle Wampe; Schulhoff’s Symphony No. 2; and one of the first performances of Ullmann’s opera Der Kaiser von Atlantis, written from within the Terezin ghetto in 1944. He had also included his own string-orchestra transcriptions of the string quartets of Haas. Mr. Brock led Chaplin’s The Gold Rush with Members of the New York Philharmonic in 2011 and 2012 performances at Alice Tully Hall; he made his Philharmonic debut leading “Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times: The Tramp at 100” in September 2014 as part of THE ART OF THE SCORE: Film Week at the Philharmonic. Joshua Gersen (Disney Fantasia Live in Concert), music director of the New York Youth Symphony, began his tenure as New York Philharmonic Assistant Conductor in September 2015. A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, he recently finished his tenure as the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation Conducting Fellow of the New World Symphony, where he served as assistant conductor to artistic director Michael Tilson Thomas. He was principal conductor of the Ojai Music Festival in 2013; has conducted the San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, and Jacksonville symphony orchestras; and has served as a cover conductor for the Los Angeles Philharmonic and many other orchestras throughout the U.S. Winner of a Solti Foundation U.S. Career Assistance Award, he is also a recipient of the 2010 Robert Harth Prize and 2011 Aspen Conducting Prize from the Aspen Summer Festival, where he served as assistant conductor in the summer of 2012. His work as a composer has led to an interest in conducting contemporary music; he has led World Premieres with the New World Symphony and New York Youth Symphony, and has collaborated with composers including John Adams, Christopher Rouse, Steven Mackey, Mason Bates, and Michael Gandolfi. Joshua Gersen made his New York Philharmonic debut conducting a Young People’s Concert in December 2015. He most recently led Musicians from the New York Philharmonic during the February 2016 CONTACT! concert at National Sawdust, “Salonen’s Floof and Other Delights.” David Newman (A John Williams Celebration) is one of today’s most accomplished creators of music for film. In his 28-year career he has scored more than 100 films, ranging from War of the Roses, Matilda, Bowfinger, and Heathers to the more recent Five Flights Up and Serenity. His music has brought to life the critically acclaimed dramas Brokedown Palace and Hoffa; the top- grossing comedies Galaxy Quest and Throw Mama from the Train; and the award-winning animated films Ice Age, The Brave Little Toaster, and Anastasia. He holds an Academy Award nomination for his score to Anastasia, and was the first composer to have a piece — 1001 Nights — performed in the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s FILMHARMONIC series, conducted by Esa- Pekka Salonen. Mr. Newman is also a highly sought-after conductor and appears with leading orchestras throughout the world, including the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Berlin Score Orchestra, San Diego Symphony, Boston Symphony Orchestra, and Philadelphia Orchestra. He is currently on a mini-tour performing the sound tracks, live with orchestra, of movies such as West Side Story, Back To The Future, Star Trek Into Darkness, and E.T. – The Extra Terrestrial. The son of nine-time Oscar- winning composer Alfred Newman and an active composer for the concert hall, David Newman has composed works that have been performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Indianapolis (more) City Lights / Fantasia / John Williams Spring Gala / 4 Symphony, and Long Beach Symphony, as well as at the Ravinia Festival, Spoleto Festival USA, and Chicago’s Grant Park Music Festival.