Contact: Jennifer Wada Communications 718-855-7101 [email protected] YOUNG CONCERT ARTISTS 50 TH ANNIVERSARY SEASON CONTINUES INTO SPRING 2011 • February 19 : ALL-DAY, FREE MUSICAL MARATHON FEATURES 100 YCA ALUMNI FROM 50 YEARS IN 12 HOURS AT SYMPHONY SPACE, INCLUDING EMANUEL AX, SASHA COOKE, BORROMEO STRING QUARTET, URSULA OPPENS, IDA AND ANI KAVAFIAN, CHEE-YUN, ANTHONY NEWMAN, AND HOSTS/PERFORMERS JEREMY DENK, CHRISTOPHER O’RILEY, EUGENIA ZUKERMAN AND MORE… • YOUNG CONCERT ARTISTS SERIES IN NEW YORK AND WASHINGTON, DC, PRESENT DEBUTS OF RECENT YCA WINNERS: FLUTIST ALEKSANDR HASKIN, PIANIST CHARLIE ALBRIGHT, MEZZO-SOPRANO JENNIFER JOHNSON • WORLD PREMIERE OF NEW WORK BY YCA COMPOSER-IN-RESIDENCE CHRIS ROGERSON • February 23 : LIVE CONCERT AT WNYC/WQXR’s THE GREENE SPACE WITH YCA ARTISTS & ALUMNI • March 29 : 50 TH ANNIVERSARY GALA CONCERT WITH PINCHAS ZUKERMAN (YCA 1966) CONDUCTING AND PERFORMING WITH THE ORCHESTRA OF ST. LUKE’S AND 16 YCA SOLOISTS Heading into the second half of its 50 th anniversary season, Young Concert Artists, the trailblazing medium for the discovery and development of today’s great musicians, continues to present new artists of exceptional talent and promise in debut recitals, and celebrate its half- century milestone with three special events – a 12-hour Musical Marathon at New York’s Symphony Space featuring 100 YCA artists, musicians from every decade in the organization’s history; an all-French YCA artists evening at Florence Gould Hall; and a Gala Concert with orchestra at Jazz at Lincoln Center. In 1961, a young pianist named Susan Popkin (now Wadsworth), concerned that her musician friends did not have the performance opportunities that their young careers needed, set up a stage in a Greenwich Village loft with a concert piano loaned by Steinway & Sons, and created the first Young Concert Artists Series – a backbone of the organization ever since. In its five decades of existence, the organization, which Wadsworth leads to this day, has become YOUNG CONCERT ARTISTS, INC. Susan Wadsworth, Director [email protected] Telephone: (212) 307-6655 Website: www.yca.org Young Concert Artists 50 th Anniversary Season – Spring 2011 – page 2 of 8 recognized as an international role model, drawing aspiring musicians from all over the world to audition for the benefits of membership on the YCA roster. Benefits of YCA membership include appearances in Young Concert Artists Festivals in Beijing, China, and Tokyo, Japan; individual career guidance including engagements throughout the United States; the opportunity to work creatively with YCA composers; experience in educational outreach, as well as orchestra debuts in New York and debut recitals in New York and Washington, DC. Young Concert Artists’ 50-year legacy can be traced not only through its roster of distinguished performers, but also through the leadership of its alumni in the field of music as directors and creators of major arts institutions, concert series and festivals, as sought-after teachers and as champions of contemporary music. “It is because of Young Concert Artists that I am able to make music today.” -Emanuel Ax, Pianist (YCA 1973) “Young Concert Artists gave me the chance to bloom. I don’t think I would have gotten that chance anywhere else.” -Dawn Upshaw, Soprano (YCA 1984) UPCOMING: YCA 50 th ANNIVERSARY - SPRING 2011 Young Concert Artists Series The YCA milestone season continues with ongoing Young Concert Artists Series at Merkin Concert Hall in New York and at the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater in Washington, DC: Monday, January 24, 2011 – Washington, DC, Recital Debut Monday, January 31, 2011 – New York Recital Debut Aleksandr Haskin, Flute – This 2009 winner of the YCA International Auditions is a native of Belarus. He is also the winner of other top prizes and competitions including the Penderecki Flute Competition in 2008 and the International Contemporary Chamber Music Competition in 2005 in Krakow, Poland. He is joined on the program by pianist Steven Beck for a program of works by J.S. Bach, Bartok, Ian Clarke, Doppler, Dutilleux, Kornakov, and Taktakishvili in Washington; in New York, the program also features as guest artists the violinist Anne Akiko Meyers (YCA 1986) the cellist Robert Martin (1962) – who also founded the Bard Conservatory of Music - and a performance of Claude Bolling’s Suite No. 1 for flute and jazz trio. Monday, February 14, 2011 – Washington, DC, Recital Debut Tuesday, March 8, 2011 – New York Recital Debut Charlie Albright, Piano – This 2009 winner of the YCA International Auditions is also the winner of the 2010 Gilmore Young Artist Award, a Vendome Virtuoso Prize and the Elizabeth Leonskaya Special Award at the 2009 Vendome Prize International Piano Competition in Lisbon, Portugal. The 21-year-old native of Washington State also debuts this season with the San Francisco Symphony and the Seattle Symphony. His debut program includes works by Mozart, Janacek, and Chopin, as well as the world premiere of a new work by Chris Rogerson , YCA’s 21-year-old composer-in-residence, and the Mozart Sonata for Two Pianos, with guest artist Anne-Marie McDermott (YCA 1983). Young Concert Artists 50 th Anniversary Season – Spring 2011 – page 3 of 8 Monday, April 11, 2011 – Washington, DC, Recital Debut Monday, May 2, 2001 – New York Recital Debut Jennifer Johnson, Mezzo-Soprano – This 2009 winner of the YCA International Auditions is also a member of the Lindemann Young Artists Development Program of the Metropolitan Opera. This season at the Met she sings the roles of Ludmilla in The Bartered Bride and Wellgunde in Wagner’s Das Rheingold ; returns to the Chicago Opera Theater singing Schumann's Frauenliebe und Leben and tours with Musicians from Marlboro. She is joined on her recital debut program by pianist Christopher Cano in works by Porpora, Mahler, and Argento, and performs Ravel’s Cinque Melodies Populaires Grecques with Dutch harpist Gwyneth Wentink (YCA l999) as her guest. Young Concert Artists “Encores” In collaboration with The Morgan Library & Museum, YCA presents noon-time, hour-long recitals by recent YCA winners. Wednesday, January 19, 2011 Hahn-Bin, Violin (YCA 2009), with John Blacklow, Piano Works by Lutoslawski, Cage, Chopin, Saint-Saëns, De Falla, Ravel, Debussy, Sarasate Wednesday, February 9, 2011 Narek Hakhnazaryan, Cello (YCA 2008), with Noreen Polera, Piano Works by Beethoven, Rachmaninoff, Achron, Paganini Young Concert Artists 50 th Anniversary Special Events Saturday, February 19, 2011, at Symphony Space – Free to the public Young Concert Artists Musical Marathon Fifty years in 12 hours: 100 YCA artists – musicians from every year in the organization’s history – will participate in a 12-hour musical extravaganza, free to the public , at Symphony Space, in the spirit of their own “Wall to Wall” events. Each of four three-hour segments will be hosted by an illustrious YCA alumnus/alumna – Eugenia Zukerman (1970), Jeremy Denk (1997), Mary Beth Peil (l964) and Christopher O’Riley (1981) – and all of the musicians will cycle into the program, performing solo and in chamber combinations, repertoire ranging all over the musical map. Wednesday, February 23, 2011 Live from The Greene Space at WQXR Robert Sherman hosts a concert featuring YCA artists and alumni in The Greene Space, the WQXR/WNYC venue in lower Manhattan. The concert will be broadcast later on WQXR’s The McGraw-Hill Companies Young Artists Showcase . Tuesday, March 29, 2011, at the Rose Theater, Jazz at Lincoln Center Young Concert Artists 50 th Anniversary Gala Concert Pinchas Zukerman (YCA 1966) leads and performs with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s and 16 YCA artists and alumni ranging from harpsichordist Anthony Newman (1968) to violinists Chee-Yun ( l989) and Tim Fain (1999) to Ran Dank, piano and Bella Hristova, violin (both 2009) in a concert featuring multiple concertos by Bach, Mozart and Maurer. Young Concert Artists 50 th Anniversary Season – Spring 2011 – page 4 of 8 Wednesday, April 20, 2011, at Florence Gould Hall, French Institute/ Alliance Française French Stars of YCA Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, Piano The Modigliani String Quartet YCA and the French Institute /Alliance Française co-present pianist Jean-Efflam Bavouzet (l986), and the Modigliani String Quartet (2006) in a program of music by Haydn, Debussy, and Franck. YOUNG CONCERT ARTISTS, INC. Over fifty seasons, Young Concert Artists has brought forth a diverse array of renowned artists who are deeply involved in our musical life. Among YCA's 228 "alumni" are soprano Dawn Upshaw; pianists Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Emanuel Ax, Olli Mustonen, Jeremy Denk, Murray Perahia, Christopher O'Riley, Anne-Marie McDermott, Richard Goode, and Jean-Efflam Bavouzet; cellists Carter Brey, Robert Martin and Fred Sherry; flutists Marya Martin, Paula Robison, and Eugenia Zukerman; clarinetists Paul Green, Todd Palmer; violinists Ani Kavafian, Ida Kavafian, Chee-Yun and Pinchas Zukerman; and the Tokyo, Borromeo, and St. Lawrence String Quartets. Young Concert Artists, Inc. was founded in 1961 by Susan Popkin (now Wadsworth) to discover and launch the careers of extraordinary musicians, and since 1994 it has also filled that role for outstanding young composers. YCA performers are chosen by the annual Young Concert Artists International Auditions. The musicians compete against a standard of excellence - not each other. There is no limit to the number of First Prize winners each year, and the jury has the right to select none if none qualify. Winners become members of the YCA management roster, winning New York, Washington and Boston debut concerts, career guidance, and concert and educational outreach engagements. Young Concert Artists, Inc. is a non-profit organization whose mission is supported by individual patrons, foundations, The National Endowment for the Arts, The New York State Council on the Arts, and The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. Recap: YCA 50 th ANNIVERSARY FALL 2010 The 2010-2011 YCA Series opened in November with the debut of violinist Caroline Goulding and then presented the pianist Gleb Ivanov in a Michaels Award concert at Alice Tully Hall.