Tenor Russell Thomas Leads NY Phil's Verdi Requiem, Conducted by Alan Gilbert, This Weekend

Tenor Russell Thomas will replace Brandon Jovanovich, who has withdrawn due to illness, in the New York Philharmonic performances of the Verdi Requiem, conducted by Music Director Alan Gilbert. The performances will also feature soprano Angela Meade (in her Philharmonic debut), mezzo-soprano Lilli Paasikivi, bass-baritone Eric Owens, and the New York Choral Artists, directed by Joseph Flummerfelt, this weekend, January 15, 2015, at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, January 16 at 7:30 p.m.; and Saturday, January 17 at 8:00 p.m.

The soloists are from the U.S. and Finland, one of whom will be making her debut and the rest of whom have appeared with Alan Gilbert and the Philharmonic, including in landmark productions. Mezzo-soprano Lilli Paasikivi performed in Mahler's Symphony No. 2, Resurrection; bass-baritone Eric Owens appeared in the Giants Are Small productions of Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre in 2010 and A Dancer's Dream: Two Works by Stravinsky in 2013 (prerecorded video appearance), in addition to numerous concert appearances; and Russell Thomas performed in the Finale from Act I of Mozart's Don Giovanni as part of Philharmonic 360, copresented
with Park Avenue Armory in 2012, in addition to Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 and Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde.

Music Director Alan Gilbert began his New York Philharmonic tenure in September 2009, the first native New Yorker in the post. He and the Philharmonic have introduced the positions of The Marie-Josée Kravis Composer-in-Residence, The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-inResidence, and the Artist-in-Association; CONTACT!, the new-music series; and the NY PHIL BIENNIAL, an exploration of today's music by a wide range of contemporary and modern composers inaugurated in spring 2014. As New York magazine wrote, "The Philharmonic and its
music director Alan Gilbert have turned themselves into a force of permanent revolution." In the 2014-15 season Alan Gilbert conducts the U.S. Premiere of Unsuk Chin's Clarinet Concerto, a Philharmonic co-commission, alongside Mahler's First Symphony; La Dolce Vita: The Music of Italian Cinema; the Verdi Requiem; a staging of Honegger's Joan of Arc at the Stake, featuring Oscar winner Marion Cotillard; World Premieres; a CONTACT! program; and Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble. He concludes The Nielsen Project - the multi-year
initiative to perform and record the Danish composer's symphonies and concertos, the first release of which was named by The New York Times as among the Best Classical Music Recordings of 2012 - and presides over the EUROPE / SPRING 2015 tour. His Philharmonictenure highlights include acclaimed productions of Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre, Janá?ek's The Cunning Little Vixen, Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd starring Bryn Terfel and Emma Thompson, and Philharmonic 360 at Park Avenue Armory; World Premieres by Magnus
Lindberg, John Corigliano, Christopher Rouse, and others; Bach's B-minor Mass and Ives's Fourth Symphony; the score from 2001: A Space Odyssey alongside the film; Mahler's Second Symphony, Resurrection, on the tenth anniversary of 9/11; and eight international tours. Conductor laureate of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and principal guest conductor of Hamburg's NDR Symphony Orchestra, Alan Gilbert regularly conducts leading orchestras around the world. His 2014-15 appearances include the Leipzig Gewandhaus
Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic, The Metropolitan Opera, and The Philadelphia Orchestra. He made his acclaimed Metropolitan Opera debut conducting John Adams's Doctor Atomic in 2008, the DVD of which received a Grammy Award. Renée Fleming's recent Decca recording Poèmes, on which he conducted, received a 2013 Grammy Award. His recordings have received top honors from the Chicago Tribune and Gramophone magazine. Mr. Gilbert is Director of Conducting and Orchestral Studies at The Juilliard School, where he holds the William Schuman Chair in Musical Studies. In May 2010 Mr. Gilbert received an Honorary Doctor of Music
degree from The Curtis Institute of Music and in December 2011, Columbia University's Ditson Conductor's Award for his "exceptional commitment to the performance of works by American composers and to contemporary music." In 2014 he was elected to The American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

American soprano Angela Meade is the recipient of the 2012 Beverly Sills Artist Award from
The Metropolitan Opera and the 2011 Richard Tucker Award. She made her professional operatic debut at The Metropolitan Opera as Elvira in Verdi's Ernani, substituting for an ill
colleague, in March 2008. She had previously sung on The Met stage as one of the winners of
the 2007 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, a process that is documented in the
film The Audition, which was also released on DVD by Decca. Highlights of her 2014-15 season
include a return to The Met as Elvira opposite Plácido Domingo, conducted by James Levine,
and her acclaimed interpretation of the title role in Bellini's Norma for her debut in Seville. On
the concert stage, she tours with the orchestra of the Teatro Regio di Torino under Gianandrea
Noseda for concert performances as Mathilde in Rossini's William Tell in Chicago, Toronto,
Ann Arbor, and at New York's Carnegie Hall. Also this season, she returns to The Philadelphia
Orchestra for Mahler's Symphony No. 2, Resurrection, with Yannick Nézet-Séguin in
Philadelphia and at Carnegie Hall, and performs Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with the BBC
Scottish Symphony Orchestra under Donald Runnicles. Additional projects include a studio
recording of Donizetti's rarely performed Le Duc d'Albe with Opera Rara in London and a New
York joint recital under the auspices of the George London Foundation. Angela Meade is a
native of Washington State and an alumna of the Academy of Vocal Arts. These performances
mark her New York Philharmonic debut.

Finnish mezzo-soprano Lilli Paasikivi is one of the world's leading interpreters of Mahler's
song cycles and symphonies; performances have included Das Lied von der Erde and Des
Knaben Wunderhorn with the Los Angeles Philharmonic (conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen),
Symphony No. 2, Resurrection, with the New York Philharmonic (Alan Gilbert) and Royal
Swedish Philharmonic Orchestra (Sakari Oramo), Symphony No. 3 with the London Symphony
Orchestra (Paavo Järvi), Symphony No. 8 with the Berlin Philharmonic (Simon Rattle),
Kindertotenlieder with the New World Symphony (Michael Tilson Thomas), and Das Lied von
der Erde with London Philharmonic Orchestra (Mark Elder). Concert performances this season
include her Minnesota Orchestra debut in Berlioz's Les Nuits d'été led by Osmo Vänskä. Since
making her debut with Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic as Fricka in the Festival d'Aixen-Provence's
production of the Ring Cycle, Wagnerian roles have become central to Ms.
Paasikivi's stage work, with notable performances at La Monnaie (as Brangäne), Hamburg
Staatsoper (as Fricka), and Oper Frankfurt (as Kundry). At the Finnish National Opera she has
sung the roles of Carmen in Bizet's Carmen, Amneris in Verdi's Aida, and Eboli in Verdi's Don
Carlo, and she made house debuts at Opéra National de Lyon, as Der Komponist in Richard
Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos, and at the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, in the World Premiere of
Toshio Hosokawa's Hanjo. Ms. Paasikivi's discography includes Elgar's The Dream of
Gerontius (conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy); Beethoven's Symphony No.9 with the Leipzig
Gewandhaus Orchestra (Riccardo Chailly); Mahler's Symphony No. 3 with the Philharmonia
Orchestra (Benjamin Zander); Mahler's Symphony No. 8 with the London Symphony Orchestra
(Valery Gergiev); Sibelius's Kullervo (Vänskä); and Alma Mahler's Complete Songs (arranged
and conducted by Jorma Panula). Lilli Paasikivi is the artistic director of the Finnish National
Opera. She made her New York Philharmonic debut in the World Premiere of Rodion
Shchedrin's The Enchanted Wanderer in 2001, conducted by Lorin Maazel; she returned in 2011
for Mahler's Symphony No. 2, Resurrection, conducted by Alan Gilbert, in A Concert for New
York on the tenth anniversary of 9/11.

(During the 2014-15 season tenor Russell Thomas serves as an artist-in-residence with the
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, a position that includes Christmas concerts and solo recitals. Mr.
Thomas's season also features Peter Sellars's production of John Adams's The Gospel According
to the Other Mary at English National Opera and several new roles: Pollione in Bellini's Norma
with San Francisco Opera and the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia in Valencia, Spain; the title-role
in Gounod's Faust with Michigan Opera Theatre; and Manrico in Verdi's Il Trovatore with the
Cincinnati Opera. Future engagements include returns to The Metropolitan Opera, Seattle Opera,
Oper Frankfurt, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Canadian Opera Company, and his debut at the Lyric
Opera of Chicago. Mr. Thomas's last season began with concert performances of The Gospel
According to the Other Mary at the Ravinia Festival and Verdi's I Masnadieri with Washington
Concert Opera, followed by his Deutsche Oper Berlin debut in the title-role in Verdi's Don
Carlo, Andres in Berg's Wozzeck with The Met, the title-role in Offenbach's The Tales of
Hoffmann with Seattle Opera, and the Prince in Dvo?ák's Rusalka with Opera North Carolina. In
concert, Mr. Thomas sang Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with the Mostly Mozart Festival
Orchestra and Gianadrea Noseda, Handel's Messiah with the National Symphony Orchestra, and
Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde and the Verdi Requiem with the New Jersey Symphony
Orchestra (the latter having just been released commercially). Russell Thomas made his New
York Philharmonic debut in the Finale from Act I of Mozart's Don Giovanni as part of
Philharmonic 360, co-presented with Park Avenue Armory, in June 2012. He most recently
performed in Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 in October 2013, conducted by Music Director Alan
Gilbert.

Bass-baritone Eric Owens began his 2014-15 season rejoining Simon Rattle, Peter Sellars, and
the Berlin Philharmonic for J.S. Bach's St. Matthew Passion at the Lucerne Festival and BBC
Proms, as well as at Park Avenue Armory as part of Lincoln Center's White Light Festival. In
addition to the New York Philharmonic, he performs the Verdi Requiem with the Toronto
Symphony Orchestra conducted by Andrew Davis later in the season. Mr. Owens's other
orchestral appearances include Ravel's L'Enfant et les sortileges with the Swedish Radio
Symphony led by Esa-Pekka Salonen, whom he will join again with the Chicago Symphony
Orchestra for the same opera as well as Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande, in which Mr. Owens
makes his role debut as Golaud. Eric Owens also joins the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and
Riccardo Muti for Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Mr. Owens opened his operatic season by
returning to Lyric Opera of Chicago, where he has been appointed their community ambassador,
for performances of Gershwin's Porgy and Bess directed by Francesca Zambello. He also
appears in his title role debut of Wagner's Der fliegende Holländer with Washington National
Opera conducted by Phillipe Auguin. This season Mr. Owens makes additional role debuts as
King Philip II in Verdi's Don Carlo at Opera Philadelphia, Scarpia in Puccini's Tosca with
Leonard Slatkin and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and Verdi's Macbeth at the Glimmerglass
Festival, where he returns as an artist-in-residence. He made his New York Philharmonic debut
in June 2003 singing selections from Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, led by then Philharmonic
Music Director Lorin Maazel, during the Orchestra's residency at Sardinia's Teatro Lirico di
Cagliari; he most recently performed with the Orchestra in J.S. Bach's Mass in B minor (March
2013), and made a video appearance in the Giants Are Small production of A Dancer's Dream:
Two Works by Stravinsky (June 2013).

Tickets for these performances start at $48. Tickets for Open Rehearsals are $20. Pre-Concert
Insights are $7; discounts are available for multiple talks, students, and groups (visit
nyphil.org/preconcert for more information). 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 Avery
Fisher 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. To determine ticket availability, call the
Philharmonic's Customer Relations Department at (212) 875-5656. [Ticket prices subject to
change.]