ASO Celebrates George Perle at 100 with AMERICAN VARIATIONS at Carnegie Hall Tonight

American Symphony Orchestra's AMERICAN VARIATIONS concert will celebrate the centenary of Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer George Perle in a special program presenting two of his pieces alongside variations by three of his contemporaries: Lukas Foss, William Schuman, and Aaron Copland.

Perle was part of the post-World War I generation that strived to create a distinct American voice following 1920s pioneers like Aaron Copland. He subsequently earned his place in American music history by writing American music with both the warmth of Classical practice and the clarity of his modern era.

The Carnegie Hall program uses the idea of "variations" to demonstrate how Perle and his contemporaries composed music that, in many ways, represented America's own search for a definitive American sound.

Maestro Botstein shares the stories behind the music in a lively 30-minute Conductor's Notes Q & A at 7 PM in Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage. Free for all ticketholders.

The concert takes place tonight, May 29 at 8 PM at Carnegie Hall (Stern Auditorium, Perelman Stage), 57th Street and 7th Avenue.

PROGRAM:
American Symphony Orchestra
Leon Botstein, conductor

Aaron Copland: Orchestral Variations
George Perle: Transcendental Modulations
George Perle: Adagio
Lukas Foss: Baroque Variations
William Schuman: New England Triptych

Tickets: $29 / $39 / $54 and subscriptions are available at americansymphony.org and by phone at 212-868-9276. Tickets are also available at CarnegieHall.org, at the Carnegie box office, or by calling CarnegieCharge at 212-247-7800. The Conductor's Notes Q&A at 7pm in Stern Auditorium is free with concert ticket.

Leon Botstein is now in his 23rd year as Music Director and Principal Conductor of the American Symphony Orchestra. He has been hailed for his visionary zeal, often creating concert programs that give audiences a once-in-a-lifetime chance to hear live performances of works that are ignored in the standard repertory, and inviting music lovers to listen in their own way to create a personal experience. At the same time he brings his distinctive style to core repertory works. He is also co-Artistic Director of Bard SummerScape and the Bard Music Festival, which take place at the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College, where he has been President since 1975. He is also Conductor Laureate of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, where he served as Music Director from 2003-2011.

Mr. Botstein leads an active schedule as a guest conductor all over the world, and can be heard on numerous recordings with the London Symphony (including their Grammy-nominated recording of Popov's First Symphony), the London Philharmonic, NDR-Hamburg, and the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra. Many of his live performances with the American Symphony Orchestra are available online, where they have cumulatively sold more than a quarter of a million downloads. Upcoming engagements include the Royal Philharmonic, Wiesbaden, UNAM Mexico, and the Simon Bolivar Orchestra. Recently he conducted the Russian National Orchestra, the Taipei Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, and the Sinfónica Juvenil de Caracas in Venezuela and Japan, the first non-Venezuelan conductor invited by El Sistema to conduct on a tour.

Highly regarded as a music historian, Mr. Botstein's most recent book is Von Beethoven zu Berg: Das Gedächtnis der Moderne (2013). He is the editor of The Musical Quarterly and the author of numerous articles and books. He is currently working on a sequel toJefferson's Children, about the American education system. Collections of his writings and other resources may be found online at LeonBotsteinMusicRoom.com. For his contributions to music he has received the award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and Harvard University's prestigious Centennial Award, as well as the Cross of Honor, First Class from the government of Austria. Other recent awards include the Caroline P. and Charles W. Ireland Prize, the highest award given by the University of Alabama; the Bruckner Society's Julio Kilenyi Medal of Honor for his interpretations of that composer's music; the Leonard Bernstein Award for the Elevation of Music in Society; and Carnegie Foundation's Academic Leadership Award. In 2011 he was inducted into the American Philosophical Society.

Now in its 53rd season, the American Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1962 by Leopold Stokowski, with a mission of making orchestral music accessible and affordable for everyone. Music Director Leon Botstein expanded that mission when he joined the ASO in 1992, creating thematic concerts that explore music from the perspective of the visual arts, literature, religion, and history, and reviving rarely-performed works those audiences would otherwise never have a chance to hear performed live. The Orchestra's Vanguard Series, which includes these themed programs as well as an opera-in-concert and a celebration of an American composer, consists of six concerts annually at Carnegie Hall. ASO goes in-depth with three familiar symphonies each season in the popular series Classics Declassified at Peter Norton Symphony Space, and has an upstate home at the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College, where it performs in an annual subscription series as well as Bard's SummerScape Festival and the Bard Music Festival. The Orchestra has made several tours of Asia and Europe, and performed in countless benefits for organizations including the Jerusalem Foundation. Many of the world's most accomplished soloists have performed with the ASO, including Yo-Yo Ma, Deborah Voigt, and Sarah Chang. The Orchestra has released several recordings on the Telarc, New World, Bridge, Koch, and Vanguard labels, and numerous live performances are also available for digital download. In many cases, these are the only existing recordings of some of the rare works that have been rediscovered in ASO performances. More information is available at americansymphony.org.