Lincoln Center Highlights Mostly Mozart Festival 2016's Final Week

The fifth and final week of Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival concludes the celebration of its milestone 50th anniversary season with seven performances, including the revival of Mark Morris's triumphant and acclaimed Mozart Dances as well as three unique contemporary music events featuring the International Contemporary Ensemble.

The closing performances of Mostly Mozart's 50th season will combine Mozart and dance, reprising a past festival favorite, Mark Morris Dance Group's Mozart Dances. Commissioned by Lincoln Center ten years ago in honor of the 250th anniversary of Mozart's birth, Mozart Dances premiered at the 2006 Mostly Mozart Festival, and was presented again in 2007. This dynamic contemporary classic returns to Mostly Mozart with four performances, August 24 through 27, at the David H. Koch Theater. Mozart Dances is the vision of the pioneering choreographer Mark Morris, who has had several productions presented at Mostly Mozart. His fluid, beautiful, and unique choreography perfectly complements the Mozart music that accompanies it: Mozart's Piano Concerto Nos. 11 and 27, and his D-major Sonata for Two Pianos, which will be performed by pianists Garrick Ohlsson and Inon Barnatan, with Louis Langrée conducting the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra. This production also features set designs by Howard Hodgkin, lighting design by James F. Ingalls, and costume designs by Martin Pakledinaz. A pre-performance discussion will take place at the David Rubenstein Atrium on August 26 at 6:15 pm with Mark Morris and Ara Guzelimian.

The International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), Mostly Mozart artists-in-residence for the sixth consecutive summer, perform in three events during the festival's final week, showcasing a wide variety of contemporary works. On August 22, ICE offers a concert that explores the world of improvisation, featuring pianists Craig Taborn (making his Mostly Mozart debut) and Cory Smythe, and trumpeter Peter Evans. Two nights later, on August 24, ICE presents the New York premiere of Perle Noire: Meditations on Joséphine, with new music by Tyshawn Sorey inspired by Josephine Baker, and featuring soprano Julia Bullock in her Mostly Mozart debut. These performances will be held in the Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse, looking over New York's sparkling skyline, and conclude the festival's popular "A Little Night Music" series.

On August 23 at Merkin Concert Hall, ICE presents a showcase of new concerto works, with up-and-coming conductor Karina Canellakis making her festival debut. The program consists of five pieces (three world premieres and two U.S. premieres) by composers Dai Fujikura, Anthony Cheung, Marcos Balter, and Wang Lu, with members of ICE as soloists.

Throughout the festival, audiences can trace the history of one of the most celebrated classical music festivals in a free exhibition, Mozart Forever: Fifty Years of the Mostly Mozart Festival. The exhibition, at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, includes artwork, photographs, memorabilia, interviews, concert excerpts, and more, illuminating the festival's path from its all-Mozart roots to its current ambitious, visionary place in the cultural landscape. Mozart Forever: Fifty Years of the Mostly Mozart Festival is on display now through August 27, the festival's closing date.

Louis LangRÉE

Louis Langrée, music director of the Mostly Mozart Festival since December 2002, was named Renée and Robert Belfer Music Director in August 2006. Under his musical leadership, the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra has received extensive critical acclaim, and its performances are an annual summertime highlight for classical music lovers in New York City.

Mr. Langrée is also music director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. Earlier this year they performed in New York as part of the 50th anniversary season of Lincoln Center's Great Performers series, and future plans include a tour to Asia. Mr. Langrée will make his debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra in the fall, and in February he returns to the Metropolitan Opera for performances of Carmen. In Europe he will conduct the Gewandhaus Orchestra of Leipzig and the Orchestre National de France, the latter in Debussy's opera and Schoenberg's tone poem based on Maeterlinck's Pelléas et Mélisande.

Mr. Langrée was chief conductor of Camerata Salzburg until this summer, and has appeared as guest conductor with the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonics, Budapest Festival Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. His opera engagements include appearances with La Scala, Opéra Bastille, Vienna State Opera, and Royal Opera House-Covent Garden. Mr. Langrée was appointed Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in 2006 and Chevalier de l'Ordre National de la Légion d'Honneur in 2014.

Mr. Langrée's first recording with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra features commissioned works by Nico Muhly and David Lang, as well as Copland's Lincoln Portrait narrated by Maya Angelou. His DVD of Verdi's La traviata from the Aix-en-Provence Festival featuring Natalie Dessay and the London Symphony Orchestra was awarded a Diapason d'Or. His discography also includes recordings on the Universal and Virgin Classics labels.

Jane Moss

Jane Moss is the Ehrenkranz Artistic Director of Lincoln Center, a position that includes her role as Artistic Director of the Mostly Mozart Festival. In that capacity, she has initiated and led the transformation and expansion of the festival into a multidisciplinary, multilayered, and far-reaching exploration of its namesake genius and his influence on succeeding generations. Ms. Moss also created several major new initiatives at Lincoln Center, including the international, multigenre Lincoln Center Festival, the New Visions series-which linked the worlds of the theater, dance, visual arts, and classical music-and Lincoln Center's American Songbook series, which focuses on classic and contemporary expressions of American song. In 2010 she launched the multidisciplinary White Light Festival, focused on exploring how the performing arts illuminate our interior lives as expressed by a dynamic, international spectrum of distinctive musical, dance, and theater artists. The programming she has introduced and directs represents a continuing contribution to the vitality of New York's cultural landscape. Ms. Moss also oversees Great Performers, Lincoln Center's major season-long classical music series; Midsummer Night Swing; and the free Lincoln Center Out of Doors summer series. Ms. Moss has played an important role as an innovator in musical and music-based presentation and is a recipient of the French Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur.

Prior to joining Lincoln Center, Ms. Moss worked as an arts consultant, designing and developing projects and programming initiatives for a variety of foundations and arts organizations, including the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund and the Pew Charitable Trusts. As Executive Director of Meet the Composer, a national organization serving American composers, Ms. Moss created the country's largest composer commissioning program, as well as a program supporting collaborations between composers and choreographers. In addition, she served as Executive Director of New York's leading off-Broadway theater company, Playwrights Horizons, and Executive Director of the Alliance of Resident Theaters/New York.

ABOUT THE MOSTLY MOZART FESTIVAL

Celebrating its 50th anniversary, Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival-America's first indoor summer music festival-was launched as an experiment in 1966. Called "Midsummer Serenades: A Mozart Festival" its first two seasons were devoted exclusively to the music of Mozart. The official title of Mostly Mozart was coined in 1970, and the festival has evolved over time to become a New York institution and a highlight of the city's summer classical music season. Under the leadership of Ehrenkranz Artistic Director Jane Moss and Renée and Robert Belfer Music Director Louis Langrée, Mostly Mozart has broadened its focus beyond the music of Mozart to include works by his predecessors, contemporaries, and successors. In addition to concerts by the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, Mostly Mozart now includes performances by the world's outstanding period-instrument ensembles, chamber orchestras, and acclaimed soloists, as well as opera productions, dance, film, and late-night concerts. Contemporary music has become an essential part of the festival, embodied in annual artist and composer residencies that have included Osvaldo Golijov, John Adams, Kaija Saariaho, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, George Benjamin, and the International Contemporary Ensemble. Among the many artists and ensembles who have had long associations with the festival are Joshua Bell, Christian Tetzlaff, Itzhak Perlman, Emanuel Ax, Garrick Ohlsson, Stephen Hough, Osmo Vänskä, the Budapest Festival Orchestra, Emerson String Quartet, Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, and the Mark Morris Dance Group. The festival's popularity has been reflected in several cultural touchstones, including an Al Hirschfeld illustration, a Peanuts cartoon strip, beer cans, and a cover of The New Yorker magazine.

The Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra is the resident orchestra of the Mostly Mozart Festival, and is the only chamber orchestra in the U.S. dedicated to the music of the Classical period. Since 2002 Louis Langrée has been the Orchestra's music director, and since 2005 the Orchestra's David Geffen Hall home has been transformed each summer into an appropriately intimate venue for its performances. Over the years, the Orchestra has been the festival's ambassador, touring to such notable festivals and venues as Ravinia, Great Woods, Tanglewood, Bunkamura in Tokyo, the Kennedy Center, and The White House. Conductors who made their New York debuts leading the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra include Michael Tilson Thomas, David Zinman, Jérémie Rhorer, Edward Gardner, Lionel Bringuier, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Charles Dutoit, Leonard Slatkin, Susanna Mälkki, and Edo de Waart. Mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli, flutist James Galway, soprano Elly Ameling, and pianist Mitsuko Uchida all made their U.S. debuts with the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra.

ABOUT LINCOLN CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (LCPA) serves three primary roles: presenter of artistic programming, national leader in arts and education and community engagement, and manager of the Lincoln Center campus. A presenter of more than 3,000 free and ticketed events, performances, tours, and educational activities annually, LCPA offers 16 series, festivals, and programs, including American Songbook, Avery Fisher Career Grants and Artist program, David Rubenstein Atrium programming, Great Performers, Legends at Lincoln Center: The Performing Arts Hall of Fame, Lincoln Center at the Movies, Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Awards, Lincoln Center Festival, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, Lincoln Center Vera List Art Project, Midsummer Night Swing, Mostly Mozart Festival, White Light Festival, the Emmy Award-winning Live From Lincoln Center, which airs nationally on PBS, and Lincoln Center Education, which is celebrating 40 years enriching the lives of students, educators, and lifelong learners. As manager of the Lincoln Center campus, LCPA provides support and services for the Lincoln Center complex and the 11 resident organizations: The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Film Society of Lincoln Center, Jazz at Lincoln Center, The Juilliard School, Lincoln Center Theater, The Metropolitan Opera, New York City Ballet, New York Philharmonic, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, School of American Ballet, and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. For more information, visit LincolnCenter.org.

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