Zarin Mehta News

Internationally acclaimed tenor Andrea Bocelli will perform a free concert on Central Park's Great Lawn, Thursday, September 15th with the New York Philharmonic, conducted by its music director Alan Gilbert, as a special gift to New York City (tickets required for entry).

The free concert offered by internationally acclaimed tenor Andrea Bocelli on Central Park's Great Lawn, Thursday, September 15, 2011, will be recorded in high definition by THIRTEEN's GREAT PERFORMANCES. Accompanied by the New York Philharmonic, under the direction of music director Alan Gilbert, the Westminster Symphonic Choir, conducted by Joe Miller, with special guest artists to be announced, the gala event is a special gift to New York City.

The New York Philharmonic will return to Colorado's Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival for its ninth annual summer residency, for six concerts, July 22-29, 2011. Music Director Alan Gilbert, The Yoko Nagae Ceschina Chair, will conduct three concerts, leading works by Dvo?ák, Beethoven, Mozart, Mahler, Rachmaninoff, and Tchaikovsky. The Orchestra's residency will also feature appearances by conductors Ludovic Morlot and Bramwell Tovey, as well as violinists Gil Shaham, Veronika Eberle (New York Philharmonic debut) and Augustin Hadelich, and pianists Alexander Romanovsky (debut), Kirill Gerstein, and Jean-Efflam Bavouzet (debut). The New York Philharmonic has performed at the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival each summer since 2003.

Screenvision, the leading innovator in cinema advertising, continues its mission to bring the best from the world of fine arts to movie theaters as it will present the New York Philharmonic's all-new, star-studded production of Stephen Sondheim's Tony Award-winning musical, Company.

The New York Philharmonic is to be honored today with a 2010.11 ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming, winning first place in the Awards for Programming of Contemporary Music, at the Annual Meeting Breakfast at the League of American Orchestras?f National Conference in Minneapolis. The Orchestra will be presented with a plaque and $3,000 in recognition of its commitment to new music programming during the past season. This is the second consecutive year that the Philharmonic has received this award.

The New York Philharmonic will return to Colorado's Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival for its ninth annual summer residency, for six concerts, July 22-29, 2011. Music Director Alan Gilbert, The Yoko Nagae Ceschina Chair, will conduct three concerts, leading works by Dvo?ák, Beethoven, Mozart, Mahler, Rachmaninoff, and Tchaikovsky. The Orchestra's residency will also feature appearances by conductors Ludovic Morlot and Bramwell Tovey, as well as violinists Gil Shaham, Veronika Eberle (New York Philharmonic debut) and Augustin Hadelich, and pianists Alexander Romanovsky (debut), Kirill Gerstein, and Jean-Efflam Bavouzet (debut). The New York Philharmonic has performed at the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival each summer since 2003.

Pianist Emanuel Ax was named an Honorary Member of the Philharmonic-Symphony Society of New York last night, following his 100th performance with the Orchestra. The honor, created in 1843, is the highest given by the New York Philharmonic, and in the course of its 169-year history, 65 people have been recipients. Among the 46 honorees in the 19th century were composers Felix Mendelssohn, Louis Moreau Gottschalk, Franz Liszt, Richard Wagner, Anton Rubinstein, and Antonín Dvo?ák. Since 1900 only 19 people have been so honored, including Presidents Calvin Coolidge and Harry S. Truman; composers Igor Stravinsky, Paul Hindemith, and Aaron Copland; philanthropists Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller; conductors Leonard Bernstein, Zubin Mehta, Pierre Boulez, Erich Leinsdorf, and Lorin Maazel; soloists Rudolf Serkin and Isaac Stern; and former Philharmonic Principal Clarinet Stanley Drucker. Mr. Ax becomes the 66th Honorary Member.

Screenvision, the leading innovator in cinema advertising, continues its mission to bring the best from the world of fine arts to movie theaters as it will present the New York Philharmonic's all-new, star-studded production of Stephen Sondheim's Tony Award-winning musical, Company. Through an arrangement with Ellen M. Krass Productions and the New York Philharmonic, Screenvision will bring the special performance recorded live in New York at Lincoln Center's famed Avery Fisher Hall to its North American digital cinema network for a limited number of engagements beginning June 15. The concert will be screened in over 500 theaters, with four showings per venue. Tickets will average $18.

The New York Philharmonic will celebrate the Chinese New Year with a gala concert featuring Chinese and western orchestral music, Tuesday, January 24, 2012, at 7:30 p.m. Long Yu - artistic director and chief conductor of the China Philharmonic, music director of the Shanghai and Guanzhou Symphony Orchestras, and artistic director of the Beijing Music Festival - will make his Philharmonic debut.

Internationally acclaimed tenor Andrea Bocelli will perform a free concert on Central Park's Great Lawn, Thursday, September 15th with the New York Philharmonic, conducted by its music director Alan Gilbert, as a special gift to New York City (tickets required for entry).

Music Director Alan Gilbert, The Yoko Nagae Ceschina Chair, will lead the New York Philharmonic on the EUROPE/SPRING 2011 tour, May 12-24, 2011. The tour - the fourth with Mr. Gilbert as Music Director - will take the Orchestra to musical capitals of Central Europe, with eleven concerts in nine cities: Basel, Switzerland; Baden-Baden and Munich, Germany; Vienna, Austria; Budapest, Hungary; Berlin, Dresden and Leipzig, Germany; and Prague, Czech Republic. Although Mr. Gilbert has a long history conducting in Europe, and has taken the Orchestra on two previous European tours, this will be his first appearances in all nine cities as Music Director of the New York Philharmonic.

André Soltner, founder and chef of the legendary New York restaurant Lutèce, will create a special edition of New York Philharmonic Musical Suppers, Friday, January 7, 2011.

The Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival and the New York Philharmonic today announced a three-year extension of the Orchestra's annual Vail summer residency. This extension, which begins with the Festival's 25th anniversary season in the summer of 2012, will see the Philharmonic in Vail through 2014, for the orchestra's 12th summer residency.

André Soltner, founder and chef of the legendary New York restaurant Lutèce, will create a special edition of New York Philharmonic Musical Suppers, Friday, January 7, 2011.

Yoko Nagae Ceschina, a patron of the New York Philharmonic since 2004, will give a significant annual gift to name the position of Music Director Alan Gilbert. The Yoko Nagae Ceschina Music Director - the first such designation for a Music Director of the New York Philharmonic - has been created to support Mr. Gilbert's artistic vision. Ms. Ceschina, a native of Japan and a trained harpist, a friend of Zarin Mehta and Mr. Gilbert, and of the Philharmonic, has provided major support for several of its Gala Opening Night concerts and initiatives of Alan Gilbert. Ms. Ceschina provided the lead underwriting gift for the Philharmonic's historic performance in Pyongyang, North Korea, in February 2008.

Two previously announced concerts of the New York Philharmonic in the Republic of Georgia have been cancelled by the Government of Georgia.

The New York Philharmonic will present its third international concert tour under the direction of Music Director Alan Gilbert: EUROPE / AUTUMN 2010, October 21-November 4, 2010. The wide-ranging European tour will feature eleven concerts in eight countries, with debuts in the Republic of Georgia (in Tbilisi and Batumi) and Republic of Lithuania (in Vilnius), in addition to concerts in Belgrade, Republic of Serbia; Ljubljana, Republic of Slovenia; Warsaw, Poland; Hamburg, Germany; Paris, France; and Luxembourg. Soloists on the tour include Georgian violinist

In his second entry, Alan Gilbert discusses possible ramifications of the announcement that Zarin Mehta will leave the Philharmonic in two years, considers the orchestral audition process, and more.

Zarin Mehta, President and Executive Director of the New York Philharmonic,will step down upon the expiration of his current contract, August 31, 2012, after 12 years of leadership, and shortly before his 74th birthday.

Two previously announced concerts of the New York Philharmonic in the Republic of Georgia have been cancelled by the Government of Georgia.