The Orchestra Now Offers Free Concert at Symphony Space and 'Debussy & Matisse: Creating New Colors' at The Met

The Orchestral Now begins its winter season in New York City with a return to Peter Norton Symphony Space in a free concert led by resident conductor Zachary Schwartzman. The program features upcoming young soloist Yangxin Song, a winner of the 2022 Bard Conservatory Concerto Competition, in Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 2, and includes Mendelssohn's Ruy Blas Overture and Sibelius' Symphony No. 1 (February 18).

 

More music unfolds in March with the season's second installment of the Orchestra's popular Sight & Sound series at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Debussy & Matisse: Creating New Colors explores how the venturesome stylings of Matisse and Debussy affected both the visual and musical art scene in the early 20th century. As in all Sight & Sound presentations, Bard College president, conductor, educator, and music historian Leon Botstein surveys the parallels between orchestral music and the visual arts. Each program is accompanied by on-screen artworks and musical excerpts performed by The Orchestra Now, followed by a full performance and audience Q&A (March 10).

 

The next TŌN performance in New York City will be William Grant Still & the Harlem Renaissance, examining Still's Symphony No. 2, Song of a New Race at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on April 14, 2024. 

Mendelssohn & Sibelius

Sunday, February 18, 2024 at 4 PM

Peter Norton Symphony Space

Zachary Schwartzman, conductor

Yangxin Song, violin

Felix Mendelssohn: Ruy Blas Overture, Op. 95

Sergei Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 63

Jean Sibelius: Symphony No. 1 in E minor, Op. 39

TŌN Resident Conductor Zachary Schwartzman leads the Orchestra in a free concert, presenting Mendelssohn's Ruy Blas Overture, the composer's musical contribution to Victor Hugo's 1838 five-act historical drama; and Prokofiev's 1935 Violin Concerto No. 2, his last Western commission from the French violinist Robert Soëtens. The performance features soloist Yangxin Song, a winner of the 2022 Bard Conservatory Concerto Competition. The program closes with Sibelius' Symphony No. 1, his first numbered symphony, written at age 33.

 

Tickets: This concert is FREE, no tickets necessary, advance RSVP is requested.

 

Debussy & Matisse: Creating New Colors

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium

Sunday, March 10, 2024 at 2 PM

Leon Botstein, conductor

Claude Debussy: Images for Orchestra, L. 122

Artwork by Henri Matisse and others

Henri Matisse helped to revolutionize the visual arts in the first decades of the 20th century with daring experiments in a technicolor style that changed the course of French painting. In the same era, his compatriot Claude Debussy was rejecting classical German musical tradition, developing his own style of harmony and orchestral coloring that would strongly influence a wide range of composers for years to come. His expressive Images, which evokes English, Spanish, and French cultures, exemplifies the composer's explorations in color and texture.

 

All Tickets, priced at $30–$50, include same-day museum admission and may be purchased online here, by calling The Met at 212.570.3949, or at The Great Hall box office at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The Orchestra Now

The Orchestra Now (TŌN) currently comprises 60 vibrant young musicians from 13 different countries across the globe: Austria, Brazil, China, Colombia, France, Hungary, Japan, Korea, Mongolia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, and the United States. All share a mission to make orchestral music relevant to 21st-century audiences by sharing their unique personal insights in a welcoming environment. Hand-picked from the world's leading conservatories—including the Yale School of Music, Shanghai Conservatory of Music, Royal Academy of Music, and the New England Conservatory of Music—the members of TŌN are enlightening curious minds by giving on-stage introductions and demonstrations, writing concert notes from the musicians' perspective, and having one-on-one discussions with patrons during intermissions.

 

Conductor, educator, and music historian Leon Botstein, whom The New York Times said “draws rich, expressive playing from the orchestra,” founded TŌN in 2015 as a graduate program at Bard College, where he is also president. TŌN offers both a three-year master's degree in Curatorial, Critical, and Performance Studies and a two-year advanced certificate in Orchestra Studies. The Orchestra's home base is the Frank Gehry-designed Fisher Center at Bard, where it performs multiple concerts each season and takes part in the annual Bard Music Festival. It also performs regularly at the finest venues in New York, including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and others across NYC and beyond. HuffPost, who has called TŌN's performances “dramatic and intense,” praises these concerts as “an opportunity to see talented musicians early in their careers.”

 

The Orchestra has performed with many distinguished guest conductors and soloists, including Leonard Slatkin, Neeme Järvi, Gil Shaham, Fabio Luisi, Vadim Repin, Hans Graf, Peter Serkin, Gerard Schwarz, Tan Dun, and JoAnn Falletta. Recordings featuring The Orchestra Now include two albums of piano concertos with Piers Lane on Hyperion Records, and a Sorel Classics concert recording of pianist Anna Shelest performing works by Anton Rubinstein with TŌN and conductor Neeme Järvi. Buried Alive with baritone Michael Nagy, released on Bridge Records in August 2020, includes the first recording in almost 60 years—and only the second recording ever—of Othmar Schoeck's song-cycle Lebendig begraben. Recent releases include Classics of American Romanticism—featuring the first-ever complete recording of Bristow's Arcadian Symphony—and an album of piano concertos with Orion Weiss, both on Bridge Records, and the soundtrack to the motion picture Forte. Recordings of TŌN's live concerts from the Fisher Center can be heard on Classical WMHT-FM and WWFM The Classical Network, and are featured regularly on Performance Today, broadcast nationwide.

 

For upcoming activities and more detailed information about the musicians, visit ton.bard.edu.