Lincoln Center Announces MOSTLY MOZART FESTIVAL 2015, Running 7/25-8/22

Jane Moss, Lincoln Center's Ehrenkranz Artistic Director, today announced details of the 49th season of Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival, New York's annual summer celebration of the genius of Mozart and his enduring impact, with vibrant performances running from July 25-August 22, 2015.

The 2015 Festival will offer more than 35 events and more than 40 artists, including symphonic concerts, recitals, opera, contemporary music, a feature film, lectures and late-night performances by candlelight. George Benjamin is honored this year as the Festival's Composer-in-Residence, highlighted by the first U.S. staging of his acclaimed opera Written on Skin, in addition to other featured performances of his works.

The Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, led by Renée and Robert Belfer Music Director Louis Langrée in his 13th year, performs several concerts featuring works by the Festival's namesake inspiration in Avery Fisher Hall.

Many frequent Festivalartists return, such as the International Contemporary Ensemble (Artists-in-Residence for a fifth consecutive season), the Emerson String Quartet, Joshua Bell, Emanuel Ax, and Pierre-Laurent Aimard, as well as several artists making their Festivaldebuts, including conductors Alan Gilbert, Cristian Macelaru, and Cornelius Meister, soprano Barbara Hannigan, and cellist Sol Gabetta.

"This promises to be a very special edition of the Mostly Mozart Festival," said Moss. "The juxtaposition of Mozart's elegant classicism with the unveiled passion of George Benjamin's Written on Skin is especially striking and noteworthy. A longstanding summertime tradition in New York, Mostly Mozart continues to march boldly and with vision into the 21st century."

In recent years, the Mostly Mozart Festival has embraced contemporary artists and music, presenting them as a core feature of each summer's offerings. This summer, the Festival celebrates the acclaimed British composer George Benjamin as the featured Composer-in-Residence, joining past peers such as John Adams, Osvaldo Golijov, and Kaija Saariaho, and welcomes back the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) for a fifth summer as Artists-in-Residence. One of the major highlights of the 2015 Festival will be the American production debut of Benjamin's much-heralded opera Written on Skin, directed by Katie Mitchell and featuring conductor Alan Gilbert, singers Christopher Purves, Barbara Hannigan, Tim Mead, Victoria Simmonds, and Robert Murray, and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra (each in their Festival debuts) on August 11, 13, and 15 at the David H. Koch Theater. Since its premiere at the Aix-en-Provence Festival in 2012, Written on Skin has won rapturous praise and been hailed as "a work of genius unleashed" (The New Yorker). Furthering the Festival's exploration of Benjamin's music is a concert performance of his first opera, Into the Little Hill, led by the composer and featuring ICE on August 16. The latter also perform the music of Dai Fujikura, a student of Benjamin's, in a late-night recital on August 13, and Pierre-Laurent Aimard performs a work by Benjamin as part of his own late-night recital on August 17.

The resident orchestra of the Festival, the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, offers 16 centerpiece concerts on a specially configured stage at Avery Fisher Hall. The Orchestra is led by Renée and Robert Belfer Music Director Louis Langrée, and will be joined by guest conductors Edward Gardner, Andrew Manze, Cornelius Meister (New York debut), and Cristian Macelaru (Festival debut). Soloists this summer include pianists Emanuel Ax, Jeremy Denk, Steven Osborne, and Lars Vogt; cellist Sol Gabetta (Festival debut); violinist Joshua Bell, who also conducts in one program; sopranos Erin Morley (Festival debut) and Sarah Tynan (Festival debut); tenor Andrew Staples (Festival debut); baritone Matthias Goerne; and bass Brindley Sherratt (Festival debut). Further details about the programs and artists follow below. Continuing an annual tradition as a gift to music lovers, the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra will lead a free preview concert to kick off the Festival on July 25.

One of the most popular components of the Mostly Mozart Festival each summer is "A Little Night Music", the special late-night concert series at the Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse with candlelight and complimentary wine. The series expands this summer to nine recitals, featuring a wide range of concerts including soloists, a string quartet, several duos, and a contemporary composer portrait program. At Alice Tully Hall, two ensembles return to the Festival. Continuing a nearly annual tradition, theEmerson String Quartet performs at Mostly Mozart in a concert featuring works by Mozart, Beethoven, and Fauré with pianistJean-Yves Thibaudet on August 3. The Academy of Ancient Music (Festival debut), a period-instrument ensemble from the United Kingdom, performs an all-Mendelssohn program behind conductor Edward Gardner and violinist Alina Ibragimova(Festival debut) on August 9.

Music lovers know that the Mostly Mozart Festival is one of the places to see rising stars and emerging artists at pivotal points in their careers. This summer, the Festival will continue to showcase talented musicians and welcome other high-profile artists for the first time, with 22 artists making their Festival debuts. Artists making their Festival debuts in 2015 include conductors George Benjamin, Alan Gilbert, Cristian Macelaru, and Cornelius Meister; pianist Anna Polonsky; violinist Alina Ibragimova; cellist Sol Gabetta; clarinetist Jean Johnson; sopranos Barbara Hannigan, Erin Morley, Hila Plitmann, and Sarah Tynan; mezzo-sopranos Susan Bickley and Victoria Simmonds; countertenor Tim Mead; tenors Robert Murray and Andrew Staples; baritone Christopher Purves; bass Brindley Sherratt; the Academy of Ancient Music, the Danish String Quartet, and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra.

Further details on the Mostly Mozart Festival 2015 follow. All programs and artists are subject to change.

Tickets for Mostly Mozart Festival 2015 will go on sale to the general public beginning April 27. Tickets can be purchased online at MostlyMozart.org, by phone via CenterCharge at 212-721-6500, or by visiting the Avery Fisher Hall or Alice Tully Hall box offices at Broadway and 65th St.

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MOSTLY MOZART FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA

CONCERTS IN AVERY FISHER HALL

Mostly Mozart Festival's Renée and Robert Belfer Music Director Louis Langrée developed this summer's Festival Orchestra programming with Jane Moss. The Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra will perform eight programs, each with two concerts, in addition to a free preview concert. Langrée will conduct four programs plus the free preview concert, and will be joined by two returning guest conductors and two debuts. Under Langrée's musical leadership of the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, the ensemble has been praised for its engaging and vibrant performances, and expanded its repertoire beyond the era of Mozart to include further periods of music and even contemporary music. This summer marks 10 years since Avery Fisher Hall's intimate stage arrangement was developed specifically for the Festival, with the audience surrounding the musicians on stage.

New this summer: Festival Orchestra concerts will start at 7:30 p.m., moved up from the previous start time of 8:00 p.m. (There is one exception: the concert on July 28 will begin at 8:00 p.m.)

FREE PRE-FESTIVAL EVENT July 22: Lincoln Center President Jed Bernstein moderates a free event with Louis Langrée and a performance by members of the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra. More details on page 11.

FREE PREVIEW July 25: The Mostly Mozart Festival continues an annual tradition by starting the season with a FREE preview concert by the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, led by Renée and Robert Belfer Music Director Louis Langrée at Avery Fisher Hall. This year's preview concert features two great symphonic works: Mozart's Symphony No. 34, K.338 and Brahms's Symphony No. 4, Op. 98, which also appear on programs in the Festival's opening week.

*Tickets will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis on Saturday, July 25 at

10:00 a.m. from the Avery Fisher Hall box office. Limit two per person.

July 28-29: The 2015 Festival officially opens with an all-Mozart program over two nights, featuring legendary pianist Emanuel Ax and the Festival debut of soprano Erin Morley. Louis Langrée leads the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra in five works, starting with the Overture to The Impresario, K.486, followed by Piano Concerto No. 14, K.499 with Ax. The second half of the program features Erin Morley, a rising coloratura soprano, in her Festival debut, singing two arias by Mozart. The program concludes with Symphony No. 34, K.338. The July 28 concert will begin at 8:00 p.m., and July 29 at 7:30 p.m.

July 31-August 1: Jeremy Denk, the thought-provoking and multifaceted pianist, returns to the Festival for the first time since 2010. Since that time, Denk has received high-profile honors, including a 2013 MacArthur Foundation Fellowship and the 2014 Avery Fisher Prize, and was named Musical America's 2014 Instrumentalist of the Year. In this Brahms-focused Festival Orchestra program, Denk performs Brahms's transcription for the left hand of Bach's Chaconne, followed by Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 20, K.466 (with a Brahms cadenza) and finishes with Brahms's Symphony No. 4, led by Louis Langrée.

August 4-5: Two rising young artists make their debuts in these Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra concerts. The German conductor Cornelius Meister, who has been gaining attention from appointments in Heidelberg and more recently at the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, makes his New York and Mostly Mozart Festival debuts leading Mozart's Overture to Le nozze di Figaro and Beethoven's Symphony No. 4. Argentine cellist Sol Gabetta, also in her Mostly Mozart Festival debut, is the featured soloist for Haydn's Cello Concerto. Gabetta also performs a late-night concert on August 5.

August 7-8: Since his debut at the Festival in 2008, British conductor Edward Gardner has achieved much success in his career, notably as the music director of the English National Opera and as the incoming principal conductor of Norway's Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra. He returns this summer to Mostly Mozart, alongside another returning artist, pianist Steven Osborne, who wowed audiences last summer. Their program together with the Festival Orchestra includes Weber's Overture to Der Freischütz, Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 24, K.491 and Beethoven's Symphony No. 7. Osborne will also perform in two late-night recitals with different musical partners in this week of the Festival: with violinist Alina Ibragimova on August 6 and with his wife and clarinetist Jean Johnson on August 8.

August 11-12: Louis Langrée returns to conduct a varied program of music by Mozart and Bach, with esteemed baritoneMatthias Goerne, who returns to the Festival for the first time in 17 years. He'll sing Bach's Ich habe genug, Cantata BWV 82, alongside two symphonic masterpieces by Mozart, Symphony No. 25, K.183 and Symphony No. 40, K.550.

August 14-15: Romanian-born conductor Cristian Macelaru is quickly making a name for himself in the classical world. He conducted the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on late notice in 2012 and continues a growing relationship with that ensemble and the Philadelphia Orchestra, where he is now Conductor-in-Residence. This summer, he comes to New York to conduct the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra for the first time, leading Mozart's Symphony No. 39, K.543. In the second half of the program, pianist Lars Vogt is the soloist for Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4. Vogt will perform a solo late-night concert on August 14.

August 18-19: The incomparable Joshua Bell, a Festival favorite for many years, returns once more to Avery Fisher Hall in a unique role this summer. Andrew Manze will conduct works by Mozart and Schumann, and Bell will lead the Orchestra for two Bach works: the Violin Concerto in E major, and an orchestral arrangement of the Chaconne, from Partita No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1004.

August 21-22: The Festival comes to a close with one of the greatest oratorios in the canon: The Creation by Joseph Haydn. Premiered in 1799 in his native Austria, this far-reaching Handel-inspired work for orchestra, choir, and three vocal soloists is celebrated as one of Haydn's enduring masterpieces. Louis Langrée leads his Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, alongside soprano Sarah Tynan (Mostly Mozart Festival debut), tenor Andrew Staples (Mostly Mozart Festival debut), bass Brindley Sherratt (Mostly Mozart Festival debut), and the Concert Chorale of New York (director, James Bagwell). The Festival's finale is sure to leave audiences excited for what's to come in summer 2016.

MEET THE FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA

Since 2013, the Mostly Mozart Festival has been introducing videos of Festival Orchestra members to connect supporters of theFestival with these outstanding musicians. Each member of the Festival Orchestra is featured online with an artist profile and fun facts, such as their pre-concert ritual, favorite thing to do in New York, or their all-time favorite piece of music by Mozart. More than 20 members have been featured in one-minute videos ("Mozart Minutes"), which were broadcast last summer on WNYE-TV and nominated for a 2015 local New York Emmy Award. Additional videos will be launched as the Festival approaches and continues this summer. Visit: MostlyMozart.org/MeetTheOrchestra

Additionally, audiences can meet Festival Orchestra members up-close after each Friday evening performance. A Premium Ticket offers excellent seats and access to post-concert cocktail and dessert parties at Lincoln Center Kitchen in the lobby of Avery Fisher Hall. More details at MostlyMozart.org

FOCUS ON GEORGE BENJAMIN:

MOSTLY MOZART FESTIVAL 2015

COMPOSER-IN-RESIDENCE

INTERNATIONAL CONTEMPORARY ENSEMBLE:

ARTISTS-IN-RESIDENCE

Written on Skin

U.S. Production Premiere

Tuesday, August 11, 7:30 p.m.

Thursday, August 13, 7:30 p.m.

Saturday, August 15, 3:00 p.m.

A Little Night Music: Dai Fujikura

Thursday, August 13, 10:00 p.m.

Into the Little Hill

Sunday, August 16, 5:00 p.m.

A Little Night Music: Pierre-Laurent Aimard

Monday, August 17, 10:00 p.m.

Though the Festival is rooted in the music of Mozart, contemporary music is essential to each summer's offerings. This season,Mostly Mozart is honored to welcome George Benjamin, one of today's leading British composers, as Composer-in-Residence, and to welcome back the International Contemporary Ensemble as Artists-in-Residence for a fifth straight summer. Combined, their programs will encompass two operas and two late-night programs, among other works.

"It is a privilege to welcome the acclaimed British composer George Benjamin to Mostly Mozart as our composer-in-residence this summer," said Moss. "His is a major musical voice for the 21st century. Introducing his extraordinary opera Written on Skinto New York audiences and highlighting other works such as Into the Little Hill make a profound contribution to the musical range and vibrancy of the Mostly Mozart Festival."

George Benjamin studied composition with Olivier Messiaen and piano with Yvonne Loriod. His first orchestral work, Ringed by the Flat Horizon, was performed at the BBC Proms when he was only 20, which made him the youngest composer to have an orchestral work performed at a BBC Proms concert. He soon became a major figure in British musical life, curating the first Meltdown Festival at London's Southbank Centre in 1993 and being the subject of By George, a season-long festival of his works given by the London Symphony Orchestra in 2002-03 that featured the premiere of Shadowlines with Pierre-Laurent Aimard. In 2006 the chamber opera Into the Little Hill, which had its U.S. premiere at the Lincoln Center Festival the following year, represented the beginning of a collaboration with playwright Martin Crimp that has since produced Written on Skin. Both operas have received world-wide acclaim, and a third will be premiered at London's Royal Opera House in 2018. In 2013, Benjamin was named the Composer of the Year by Musical America. The composer is a CBE, Commandeur dans l'ordre des Arts et des Lettres, and an Honorary Member of the Royal Philharmonic Society. He lives in London, and since 2001 has been the Henry Purcell Professor of Composition at King's College, London.

Returning to Mostly Mozart for a fifth consecutive summer as Artists-in-Residence is the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE). The group's appearances this year continue to showcase its vision in redefining the role of a performing arts ensemble in the 21st century, its dedication to reshaping the way music is created and experienced, and its long-standing artistic focus to present innovative music by today's composers. This summer the always intrepid ensemble will perform in two concerts: a presentation of George Benjamin's chamber opera Into the Little Hill alongside concert works by Ligeti and Messiaen, and a late-night recital devoted to the music of composer Dai Fujikura, a student of Benjamin's. ICE has complemented Mostly Mozart'sprogramming with fresh sounds and new works since the start of its artistic association in 2011, including works by more than 30 composers ranging from Schoenberg, Carter and Cage, to David Lang, Kaija Saariaho, John Zorn, and Anna Thorsvaldsdottir.

Written on Skin (2012)

U.S. production premiere

An opera in three parts

Tuesday, August 11, 7:30 p.m.

Thursday, August 13, 7:30 p.m.

Saturday, August 15, 3:00 p.m.

David H. Koch Theater

Composer: George Benjamin

Libretto: Martin Crimp

Conductor: Alan Gilbert (Mostly Mozart Festival debut)

Director: Katie Mitchell (Mostly Mozart Festival debut)

Mahler Chamber Orchestra (Mostly Mozart Festival debut)

Scenic and Costume Design: Vicki Mortimer (Mostly Mozart Festival debut)

Lighting Design: Jon Clark (Mostly Mozart Festival debut)

Cast:

Christopher Purves (The Protector) (Mostly Mozart Festival debut)

Barbara Hannigan (Agnès) (Mostly Mozart Festival debut)

Tim Mead (Angel 1 / The Boy) (Mostly Mozart Festival debut)

Victoria Simmonds (Angel 2 / Marie) (Mostly Mozart Festival debut)

Robert Murray (Angel 3 / John) (Mostly Mozart Festival debut)

Sung in English with English supertitles

One of the most highly-anticipated events of this summer's Festival and of the 2015 classical music calendar is the American production debut of George Benjamin's much-heralded opera Written on Skin. Since the opera's highly acclaimed world premiere at the Aix-en-Provence Festival in July 2012, it has been staged with continued success under the direction of Katie Mitchell at the Holland Festival and Royal Opera House, among other venues, and was presented in concert in August 2013 at Tanglewood and in March 2015 by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Reviewing the Tanglewood concert performance, The New York Times hailed the work as "psychologically gripping, emotionally heart-pounding and viscerally satisfying drama." Written on Skin has been widely regarded as a modern masterpiece and a successor to such 20th century classics as Berg's Wozzeck and Debussy's Pelléas and Mélisande.

This is the first opera to be presented as part of a new artistic partnership between Lincoln Center and the New York Philharmonic to stage new works not yet seen in New York. Philharmonic Music Director Alan Gilbert leads the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, for which the music was written and which performed the music at the premiere and subsequent productions. As with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Barbara Hannigan's role was developed specifically for her by Benjamin. All of these artists, including the full cast, will make the Festival debuts in these performances, on August 11, 13, and 15, 2015 at the David H. Koch Theater.

With a libretto by Martin Crimp, who collaborated with Benjamin on Into the Little Hill, Written on Skin is inspired by a 13th-century story by Occitan poet Guillem de Cabestany about a rich and powerful landowner in the Provence region of France who commissions a young artist to write a book about his riches and status. The landowner, referred to as "The Protector" in the piece and portrayed by Christopher Purves, invites The Boy (Tim Mead) to stay with him and his wife, Agnès (Barbara Hannigan), so that he might further celebrate his property and legacy. Agnès becomes drawn to the boy, and an affair ensues, with shocking consequences for all parties. Erotic and visceral, Written on Skin is a tale of submission, desire, and liberation.

In his striking score, Benjamin showcases a diverse range of instruments, including a glass harmonica, pebbles, viola da gamba, tabla, and mandolins. The opera features a cast of five, including three Angels who double as the Boy, Agnès's sister Marie (Victoria Simmonds), and Marie's husband John (Robert Murray). The Angels themselves serve to frame the story as a sort of cautionary tale. Crimp also uses a self-narrating device with all of the characters to remind the audience that both the present and the past exist in the piece. This production, directed by Katie Mitchell, further explores the connection between the three main characters and the Angels as interplay between our world and days gone by.

A post-performance discussion with the artists will take place following the August 11 and August 13 performances. Further details to be announced.

Presented in association with the New York Philharmonic

Written on Skin is a production of the Aix-en-Provence Festival, in co-production with the Nederlandse Opera, Amsterdam, Capitol Theatre-Toulouse, and the Royal Opera House, London. It was commissioned by the Aix-en-Provence Festival, the Nederlandse Opera, Amsterdam, the Capitol Théâtre-Toulouse, the Royal Opera House, London, and the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.

Messiaen: Oiseaux exotiques (1955-56)

Ligeti: Piano Concerto (1985-86)

Benjamin: Into the Little Hill (2006)

Sunday, August 16, 5:00 p.m.

Alice Tully Hall

Conductor: George Benjamin (Mostly Mozart Festival debut)

Pierre-Laurent Aimard, piano

Hila Plitmann, soprano (Mostly Mozart Festival debut)
Susan Bickley, mezzo-soprano (Mostly Mozart Festival debut)

Following the performances of Benjamin's Written on Skin is a concert version of his first opera, Into the Little Hill (2006), furthering the Festival's exploration of the composer's opera oeuvre. This 40-minute chamber opera, based on the famous Pied Piper of Hamelin tale, was Benjamin's first collaboration with librettist and playwright Martin Crimp; in addition to Written on Skin, the pair is now working on a third work set to premiere in 2018. Benjamin's dark "lyric tale" features a unique arrangement with two singers (soprano and mezzo-soprano) singing all the parts, joined by an ensemble with unusual instrumentation including bass flute, basset horns, cimbalom, mandolin and banjo, among others. Into the Little Hill premiered in Paris in 2006, and returns this summer to Lincoln Center, following its U.S. premiere at Lincoln Center Festival 2007. The Guardian (UK) calls the opera a "spell-binding piece of storytelling."

The composer himself will conduct this concert performance of Into the Little Hill, marking his Mostly Mozart Festival debut. Joining Benjamin are members of the International Contemporary Ensemble, pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard, and two singers who each play multiple roles making their Festival debuts: soprano Hila Plitmann and mezzo-soprano Susan Bickley. The program also features two other works by composers who influenced Benjamin: Messiaen's Oiseaux exotiques and Ligeti's Piano Concerto.

A Little Night Music: Dai Fujikura

International Contemporary Ensemble

Pierre-Laurent Aimard, pianos

Thursday, August 13, 10:00 p.m.

Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse

ICE, along with Pierre-Laurent Aimard on piano and toy piano, will continue this summer's focus on George Benjamin with a late-night program dedicated to one of his students, the accomplished Japanese composer Dai Fujikura. ICE and Fujikura have worked together for many years, including commissioning several works, and touring Fujikura's homeland last year with concerts and educational events in collaboration with the Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra. At last summer's Mostly Mozart Festival, ICE performed the New York premiere of Fujikura's Minina. The program for this concert will feature eight pieces including solo and ensemble works.

Fujikura initially aimed to compose music for the cinema, but after discovering the music of Pierre Boulez, György Ligeti and Toru Takemistu, he focused on creating contemporary concert music. As a result, his music often portrays a sense of drama and imagery. As his studies and career continued, he spent time as a student of George Benjamin at King's College in London. Today, Fujikura's music is performed by leading contemporary ensembles and soloists around the world, including London's Philharmonia Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, Seattle Symphony, Ensemble Modern, Klangforum Wien, the Arditti Quartet, and Ensemble Intercontemporain. Beyond contemporary classical music, Fujikura has collaborated with experimental pop and jazz artists, including Ryuichi Sakamoto and David Sylvian. ICE has been performing solo and ensemble works by the Osaka native for several years now, including premiering Fujikura's Minina for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and dulcimer in his native country in 2014. ICE also recorded Fujikura's Abandoned Time for a 2011 album by the same name on New Focus Records. Fujikura's first opera, Solaris, based on Stanislaw Lem's famous novel, recently premiered in Paris at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées.

A Little Night Music: Pierre-Laurent Aimard

Monday, August 17, 10:00 p.m.

Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse

Pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Mostly Mozart's Artist-in-Residence in 2010 and a uniquely significant interpreter of piano repertoire from every age, returns to the Festival for several concerts as part of this summer's focus on composer George Benjamin. On August 17, Aimard performs a solo late-night recital in the Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse with a wide-ranging and thought-provoking program featuring music by Bach, Mozart, Scriabin, and Webern, as well as George Benjamin's Shadowlines. Benjamin wrote Shadowlines, which features several canonic preludes in a continuous structure, for Aimard. Aimard premiered the work in 2001 and recorded it in 2004 for an all-Benjamin album released by Nimbus Records. Aimard has structured thisMostly Mozart program to feature six preludes and six canons by a wide range of composers, from Bach, Mozart, and Schumann to Webern, Boulez, and Ligeti, to complement the Benjamin piece. The complete program is listed in the chronological listing document.

CHAMBER ORCHESTRAS AND ENSEMBLES

August 3: The highly-acclaimed Emerson String Quartet, a Mostly Mozart mainstay since 1984, will return to Alice Tully Hall with pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet. This year's performance will feature a pre-concert recital with the group performing Haydn's String Quartet in G major, Op. 76, No. 1, followed by the main performance of Mozart's String Quartet in G major, K.387, Beethoven's String Quartet in F major, Op. 135, and Fauré's Piano Quartet No. 2 in G minor, Op. 45. The quartet's first New York appearance with its newest member, cellist Paul Watkins, was at the 2013 Festival.

August 9: Once described as "the finest period-instrument orchestra in the world" by Classic FM, the Academy of Ancient Music will make its the Mostly Mozart Festival debutwith an all-Mendelssohn program. Guest conductor Edward Gardner will lead rising-star violinist Alina Ibragimova in the Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64, just days after her August 6 Festival debut. The ensemble will also perform The Hebrides, Op. 26 ("Fingal's Cave") and Symphony No. 3 in A minor, Op. 56 ("Scottish"). While the ensemble has a long history of performances at Lincoln Center, this performance marks its Festival debut.

A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC

LATE-NIGHT CONCERTS IN THE

STANLEY H. KAPLAN PENTHOUSE

The 2015 Mostly Mozart Festival presents nine late-night recitals as part of its ever-popular A Little Night Music series, featuring intimate concerts with candlelit tables, complimentary wines and a sparkling skyline at the Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse atop Lincoln Center at 10:00 p.m. The programs range from soloists to string quartets, with classical and contemporary music sprinkled throughout. The programs this summer are as follows:

July 29: Pianists Emanuel Ax, Anna Polonsky (Mostly Mozart Festival debut), and Orion Weiss. Program includes works by Brahms and Schumann.

August 1: Pianist Alexei Lubimov performs music by Debussy and Satie, including selections from Debussy's two books ofPréludes.

August 5: Cellist Sol Gabetta, following her Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra program, performs works by Rachmaninoff and Servais.

August 6: Violinist Alina Ibragimova, in her Festival debut, and pianist Steven Osborne perform an all-Prokofiev program featuring his two violin sonatas. Ibragimova and Osborne released an album on the Hyperion label in 2013 featuring these Prokofiev sonatas together.

August 7: The Danish String Quartet, in its Festival debut, performs a varied program featuring Mozart's Fugues Nos. 2 and 4 for String Quartet from Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II, Thomas Adès's Arcadiana, Op. 12, and Beethoven's Grosse Fuge in B-flat major, Op. 133.

August 8: Husband-and-wife team Steven Osborne (piano) and Jean Johnson (clarinet, in her Festival debut) perform together: Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 28 in A major, Op. 101, Adagio in D-flat major for clarinet and piano, and Brahms's Clarinet Sonata in in F minor, Op. 120, No. 1.

August 13: This summer's Artists-in-Residence, the International Contemporary Ensemble, perform a portrait concert of contemporary music by composer Dai Fujikura, a student of this summer's Composer-in-Residence George Benjamin. Pierre-Laurent Aimiard joins ICE on piano and toy piano.

August 14: Pianist Lars Vogt, following his Festival Orchestra appearance earlier in the evening, performs a program of Schubert (Sonata in C minor, D.958) and Beethoven (Sonata No. 32 in C minor, Op. 111).

August 17: Pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard performs a solo late-night recital focused on Shadowlines by the summer's Composer-in-Residence George Benjamin, and various preludes and canons complementing that solo piece from a wide range of composers including Bach, Mozart, Debussy, Boulez, and Ligeti.

ADDITIONAL EVENTS: FILM, LECTURES, PRE-CONCERT RECITALS

Each summer, the Mostly Mozart Festival complements the live performances with a series of additional events, including pre-concert discussions, lectures, and recitals. These events are free to ticketholders attending the performance.

- A free pre-Festival event takes place on Wednesday, July 22 at 6:00 p.m. at the David Rubenstein Atrium, featuring Jed Bernstein, President, Lincoln Center; Louis Langrée, Renée and Robert Belfer Music Director; and members of the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra. The event will include a discussion and a performance of Brahms's Horn Trio in E-flat major, Op. 40.

- Pre-concert recitals take place one hour prior to the main performance events in the same venue. This summer's events include:

o August 1: Pianist Orion Weiss will perform Brahms's Klavierstücke, Op. 118 at Avery Fisher Hall, 6:30 p.m.

o August 3: Emerson String Quartet performs Haydn's String Quartet in G major, Op. 76, No. 1, at 6:30 p.m. at Alice Tully Hall.

o August 4 and 5: Piano duo Anderson & Roe perform works by Ligeti and Brahms at Avery Fisher Hall, 6:30 p.m.

o August 7 and 8: The Calidore String Quartet performs Haydn's String Quartet in C major, Op. 33, No. 3 ("The Bird") at Avery Fisher Hall, 6:30 p.m.

o August 11 and 12: Charlie Albright, a 2014 Avery Fisher Career Grant Recipient, performs works by Beethoven and Chopin at Avery Fisher Hall, 6:30 p.m.

o August 14 and 15: Two members of the Festival Orchestra (Jon Manasse, clarinet, and Ilya Finkelsteyn, cello) are joined by pianist Jon Nakamatsu. Together they perform Brahms's Clarinet Trio, Op. 114 at Avery Fisher Hall, 6:30 p.m.

o August 18 and 19: Baritone Tyler Duncan and pianist Erika Switzer perform Schumann's Liederkreis, Op. 24 at Avery Fisher Hall, 6:30 p.m.

- Prior to the August 21 performance of Haydn's The Creation, there will be a pre-concert lecture by Elaine Sisman at 6:15 p.m. at the Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse.

- A special panel discussion, titled "Listening to Mozart" and moderated by Bruce Alan Brown, will take place on August 15 at 4:00 p.m. at the Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse. This event is presented in association with the Mozart Society of America.

- A special film screening event, "In Search of Haydn," on August 1 at 1:00 p.m. at the Walter Reade Theater. This 2012 film, presented here in its New York premiere, completes director Phil Grabsky's trilogy of the exploration of iconic composers, following a 2006 film on Mozart and a 2009 film on Beethoven. "In Search of Haydn" features intimate interviews with experts and musicians, including Emanuel Ax, Gianandrea Noseda, and Marc-André Hamelin about the life and work of Franz Joseph Haydn. This event is co-presented with the Film Society of Lincoln Center's Sound + Vision series and features the director, Phil Grabsky, as host.

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. Mr. Langrée is also Music Director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and Chief Conductor of the Camerata Salzburg. Under Mr. Langrée's musical leadership of the Mostly Mozart Festival, the Festival Orchestra's stature and recognition has received growing critical acclaim, further marking these performances as an annual highlight for summertime classical music lovers in New York City. In addition to its focus on the classical repertoire, concerts by the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra now regularly feature works from musical periods following Mozart, including works from the 20th century and beyond.

Mr. Langrée frequently appears as guest conductor with the Berliner Philharmoniker, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhaus, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, NHK Symphony Orchestra, and Wiener Philharmoniker, as well as with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. His opera engagements include appearances with the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, La Scala, Opéra Bastille, Royal Opera House-Covent Garden, and Vienna State Opera. His festival engagements include appearances at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, BBC Proms, Glyndebourne Festival, Mozartwoche Salzburg, and Wiener Festwochen. He has held positions as music director of the Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège, Orchestre de Picardie, Opéra National de Lyon, and Glyndebourne Touring Opera. Highlights from the current season include Mr. Langrée leading world premiere performances with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra of commissioned works by Daniel Bjarnason, André Previn, and Caroline Shaw, international tours with Camerata Salzburg, and return engagements with Orchestre de Paris, the Metropolitan Opera (Carmen), Vienna State Opera (Eugene Onegin). Mr. Langrée's first recording with the Cincinnati Symphony, released in September 2014, features commissioned works by Nico Muhly, and David Lang, as well as Copland's Lincoln Portraitnarrated 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 includes additional recordings on Accord, Naïve, Universal, and Virgin Classics labels. Mr. Langrée was appointed Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in 2006 and Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur in 2014.

JANE MOSS

Jane Moss, Lincoln Center's Vice President of Programming since 1992, was named Ehrenkranz Artistic Director of Lincoln Center in 2011, a position which 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 has also created several major new initiatives at Lincoln Center including the international, multi-genre Lincoln Center Festival, the New Visions series-which links 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 the fall of 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 Order of the Legion of Honor.

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

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. Now a New York institution, Mostly Mozart continues to broaden its focus to include works by Mozart's predecessors, contemporaries, and related successors. In addition to concerts by the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, Mostly Mozart now includes concerts by the world's outstanding period-instrument ensembles, chamber orchestras and ensembles, and acclaimed soloists, as well as opera productions, dance, film, late-night performances, and visual art installations. Contemporary music has become an essential part of the festival, embodied in annual artists-in-residence including Osvaldo Golijov, John Adams, Kaija Saariaho, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, 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 Emerson String Quartet, Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and the Mark Morris Dance Group.

The Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra is the resident orchestra of the Mostly Mozart Festival, and is the only 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 Avery Fisher Hall home has been transformed each summer into an appropriately intimate venue for its performances. Over the years, the Orchestra has toured to such notable festivals and venues as Ravinia, Great Woods, Tanglewood, Bunkamura in Tokyo, and the Kennedy Center. Conductors who made their New York debuts leading the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra include Jérémie Rhorer, Edward Gardner, Lionel Bringuier, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Charles Dutoit, Leonard Slatkin, David Zinman, 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 relations, 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 15 series, festivals, and programs including American Songbook, Avery Fisher Artist Program, Great Performers, Lincoln Center Festival, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, Midsummer Night Swing, Martin E. Segal Awards, Meet the Artist, Mostly Mozart Festival, and the White Light Festival, as well as the Emmy Award-winning Live From Lincoln Center, which airs nationally on PBS. As manager of the Lincoln Center campus, LCPA provides support and services for the Lincoln Center complex and 11 resident organizations: Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, The 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, the School of American Ballet and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. For more information: aboutlincolncenter.org