Alan Gilbert to Conduct the NY Premiere of Christopher Rouse's Requiem at Carnegie Hall, 5/5

Music Director Alan Gilbert will conduct the New York Philharmonic in the New York Premiere
of The Marie-Josée Kravis Composer-in-Residence Christopher Rouse's Requiem with baritone
Jacques Imbrailo, the Westminster Symphonic Choir directed by Joe Miller, and the Brooklyn
Youth Chorus directed by Dianne Berkun-Menaker. The concert, Monday, May 5, 2014, at 7:30
p.m., will open the Spring For Music festival at Carnegie Hall, for which North American
orchestras are invited to present one-night-only performances of unusual programming. The
concert will be broadcast live on WQXR 105.9 FM and wqxr.org at 7:30 p.m., hosted by
WQXR's Elliott Forrest and David Garland. WQXR will make it available for on-demand
listening for one year following the stream on wqxr.org.

"All of us at the New York Philharmonic know that music can transport you away from daily
concerns, to create a space for contemplation and illumination," Music Director Alan Gilbert
said. "That underlies all the programs we play, but it is perhaps most perfectly manifest in Chris
Rouse's Requiem. In this astounding work Chris has captured something fundamental about
humanity, creating something both cataclysmic and cathartic. It is an honor to join our sister
orchestras in this week-long celebration of what symphonic music can bring to all of our lives."

Christopher Rouse completed his Requiem in 2002 in honor of the 2003 bicentennial of Hector
Berlioz's birth. "I feel attuned to Berlioz and his music," Mr. Rouse said. "It speaks to me almost
as though I had composed it myself. I love the combination of the wild revolutionary with the
much more traditional classicist - he's not just the 'crazy man.' I love his harmony, his rhythm, his orchestration - and his melodic sense is unlike anyone else's." Of his Requiem, Mr. Rouse
said: "It is the best thing that I can lay claim to. It's the work by which I would want to stand or
fall."

Tickets for the concerts start at $25. Tickets may be purchased 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. [Ticket prices subject to change.]

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