Orchestra of St. Luke Sets 40th Anniversary Season with Shows at Carnegie Hall & More

In the 2014/2015 season, Orchestra of St. Luke's (OSL) celebrates 40 years since a group of astounding musicians first performed at The Church of St. Luke in the Fields. OSL's concerts and programs show that the values held since the orchestra's earliest days-flexibility, a collaborative spirit, commitment to the community, and commensurate artistry-continue to distinguish OSL and propel it forward.

"This season's programs highlight the most unique aspects of OSL-intimate and focused at its core as a chamber ensemble, and enthralling when expanded to its full forces," says Principal Conductor Pablo Heras-Casado. "Many of the works we will perform hold a special place in the hearts of our musicians and audience members, and I am delighted to work with my OSL family to develop compelling interpretations, proving that music, whether old or new, is vibrant and ever-evolving."

OSL President and Executive Director Katy Clark notes, "Looking back on OSL's highlights and growth since 1974, it is clear that the success of Orchestra of St. Luke's is a result of its extraordinary versatility and adaptability. With our brilliant principal conductor, gifted musicians, and our home, The DiMenna Center for Classical Music, we begin our next 40 years as a thriving organization-equipped to meet the challenges facing the performing arts, and working with artistic and community partners to make excellent classical music accessible to all."

OSL's Carnegie Hall Orchestra Series will feature Heras-Casado, one of the most praised young conductors today, in two concerts. Heras-Casado has invited the exciting young cellist Alisa Weilerstein for the April 2015 program, and stunning vocalists Elizabeth DeShong, Joseph Kaiser, and Luca Pisaroni for Mendelssohn's Die erste Walpurgisnacht on the season-opening concert in November. Stephen Hough will join OSL for Dvo?ák's Piano Concerto in G minor in a program guest conducted by Harry Bicket. In honor of its 40th anniversary, OSL celebrates its longtime commitment to new music and contributes to the repertoire by commissioning new works by Roberto Sierra, Gabriela Lena Frank, and Maria Chavez for each of its Chamber Music Series concerts, with the generous support of Linda and Stuart Nelson. St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble members have handpicked works that have special meaning to the ensemble to complete the programs, and the commissioned composers will draw inspiration from these for their own pieces.

This summer, OSL returns as orchestra-in-residence at Caramoor Music Festival, where it first performed as a full orchestra in 1979. In addition to playing for this season's two bel canto operas, Verdi's Rigoletto and Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia, OSL will perform three orchestral programs with world-class guest artists-violinist Joshua Bell, conductor/pianist Jeffrey Kahane, and cellist Alisa Weilerstein. Heras-Casado makes his first appearance at Caramoor since his debut there in 2012, conducting the Festival Finale in August featuring Weilerstein in the Elgar Cello Concerto. As part of a new collaboration, WQXR will broadcast concerts at Caramoor Music Festival for the first time, reaching thousands of radio and online listeners in the New York Metropolitan area. The three OSL programs to be broadcast are Joshua Bell-Sibelius, Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia, and Alisa Weilerstein-Elgar.

Demonstrating its versatility, OSL performs two all-contemporary concerts co-presented with the New York Philharmonic as part of the inaugural NY PHIL BIENNIAL this spring. Featuring U.S. and New York premieres, Principal Conductor Pablo Heras-Casado conducts OSL in programs that explore the works of Pierre Boulez and George Benjamin, set alongside works by contemporary composers from France, Switzerland, and England whose lives and compositional styles have intersected with theirs.

OSL will continue to engage audiences beyond the concert halls in its 2014/2015 season, bringing free concerts across the city; welcoming hundreds of children, neighbors, and music lovers for free community events at The DiMenna Center for Classical Music; and providing ensemble coaching for adults through the Amateur Musicians Project (AMP). Entering its second season, and already recognized with prestigious grants, Youth Orchestra of St. Luke's (YOSL) offers intensive instrumental coaching in partnership with Police Athletic League (PAL) and New York City public schools.

Carnegie Hall Orchestra Series

Heras-Casado & Musica Sacra
November 6, 2014

Principal Conductor Pablo Heras-Casado, named Musical America's 2014 Conductor of the Year, opens OSL's Carnegie Hall Orchestra Series with a program of evocative musical fantasies-fairies and rustics in Purcell's Suite from A Midsummer Night's Dream; a sprawling and turbulent seascape in Tchaikovsky's The Tempest; a chilling midnight masquerade in Mendelssohn's Die erste Walpurgisnacht with Musica Sacra and soloists Elizabeth DeShong, Joseph Kaiser, and Luca Pisaroni; and a different take on night in Dallapiccola's ominous Piccola musica notturna.

Bicket & Hough
January 15, 2015

Renowned for his interpretations of Classical-era works, British conductor Harry Bicket leads OSL in Haydn's last symphony, "London," an exuberant tour de force infused with Slavonic folk tunes. This contrasts with the voice of a true Slavonic composer, Dvo?ák, in his Piano Concerto performed by British pianist Stephen Hough, "a thinking person's virtuoso" (The New York Times). OSL's principal players are featured in Wagner's gentle and intimate Siegfried Idyll for chamber orchestra, which the composer wrote as a gift for his wife.

Weilerstein & Heras-Casado
April 23, 2015

Pablo Heras-Casado leads OSL in music by two 20th-century Russian masters-Stravinsky's Symphonies of Wind Instruments and Shostakovich's Cello Concerto No. 2. Alisa Weilerstein- already widely acclaimed for her interpretation of Shostakovich's first cello concerto-will be soloist in this, the second and lesser-known of the two concertos. The program concludes with Beethoven's Symphony No. 5, sure to be an exceptionally charismatic and lively performance under Heras-Casado.

Chamber Music Series

Through the Looking Glass
October 19, 22, 24, 2014

Treasured masterpieces are refracted through the lens of a different composer in the opening concert of the Chamber Music Series. A newly commissioned work by Puerto Rican-American composer Roberto Sierra receives its premiere, taking inspiration from the Schubert Octet-a favorite of St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble members that is also performed on this program. Beethoven's Symphony No. 2 is interpreted for chamber ensemble in the world premiere of an arrangement by Andy Stein. St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble members Krista Bennion Feeney and John Feeney worked closely with Stein to assist in refining the arrangement, reading an early draft and contributing ideas on articulations and other musical aspects.

Short Stories
February 8, 11, 13, 2015

Composer Gabriela Lena Frank, whose exotic and colorful music is influenced by her Peruvian heritage, is commissioned to compose a new work featuring longtime St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble flutist Elizabeth Mann. Graceful melodies and astounding virtuosity characterize Mozart's Flute Quartet in D Major and Oboe Quartet in F Major, Ginastera's Impresiones de la Puna for flute and string quartet, and Britten's colorful Phantasy for oboe quartet.

Tale of Five Cities
May 10, 13, 15, 2015

Composers from the Baroque, Classical era, and present day represent five cities in works including Telemann's "Darmstadt" Trio and one of his "Paris" Quartets, Boccherini's Musica notturna delle strade di Madrid, Rameau's "La Coulicam" (written in Paris), Farina's Capriccio stravagante (written during his time in Dresden), and a new work by New York's own Maria Chavez, commissioned by OSL. Peruvian-born Chavez, a sound artist and DJ, will create a piece fusing electronic music, turntable techniques, and chamber ensemble.