Carnegie Hall Notables Present Love Letters with Renée Fleming, Alec Baldwin

On Thursday, November 17 at 7:30 p.m. in Zankel Hall, the Carnegie Hall Notables-a membership and ticket program for music enthusiasts in their 20s and 30s-will host Love Letters, a performance of contemporary American playwright A. R. Gurney's work. Celebrated soprano Renée Fleming and award-winning actor Alec Baldwin will perform the piece as directed by Mark Lamos with executive producer Susan Q. Gallin. After the exclusive event, the Notables will gather at Providence for cocktails and hors d'oeuvres, with music by Paul D. Miller, aka DJ Spooky.
Love Letters, a play by A.R. Gurney, traces the lifelong correspondence of the staid, dutiful lawyer Andrew Makepeace Ladd III and the lively, unstable artist Melissa Gardner. Their bittersweet relationship gradually unfolds from what is written-and what is left unsaid-in their letters.

Love Letters is generously underwritten by Pia and Jimmy Zankel. Additional support provided by Ryan Brown, Alexander Goldberg, Adriana Herrera, Daniel Montilla, and Jason Soloway. RÖKK Vodka is the exclusive beverage sponsor of the Love Letters after-party. The New York Observer is media partner of Love Letters.

This special event is hosted by Carnegie Hall's Notables, whose support benefits the music education and community programs created by Carnegie Hall's Weill Music Institute (WMI). Love Letters benefits The Song Continues... an annual WMI program, created by acclaimed mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne, which fosters the careers of young professional singers from around the world through public master classes with renowned artists and performances at Carnegie Hall. For more information on The Song Continues... click here.

For the November 17 Love Letters performance and after-party, Notables members at the Supporter level (annual contribution of $500) and higher receive complimentary admission for two to this membership event. Admission for non-members is $120 each (in honor of Carnegie Hall's 120th Anniversary) with the price of each ticket applied toward a Notables membership. Tickets are not available to the general public. For more information, please contact the Notables office at 212-903-9734 or notables@carnegiehall.org, or visit carnegiehall.org/LoveLetters.

Love Letters is part of a series of annual special events offered for Carnegie Hall Notables members. Previous events have included panel discussions exploring music's connection to other areas of culture including music and video games, Broadway's youth movement, film soundtracks, fashion, and politics. Celebrity panelists have included Academy Award-nominated film director Wes Anderson; musicians Lou Reed, Natalie Merchant, Moby, Pete Wentz, Rickie Lee Jones, Steven Adler, Henry Rollins, Ace Frehley, Darryl "DMC" McDaniels (Run-DMC), Grandmaster Flash, and Wu-Tang Clan's chief music producer RZA; Saturday Night Live's Ana Gasteyer; songwriter and composer Duncan Sheik; director and costume designer Julie Taymor; fashion designer Zac Posen; composer Lin-Manuel Miranda; and Sex and the City stylist Patricia Field.

About the Artists
One of the most celebrated musical ambassadors of our time, soprano Renée Fleming continues to grace the world's greatest opera stages and concert halls, now extending her reach to include other musical forms and media. In recent seasons, Ms. Fleming has hosted a wide variety of television and radio broadcasts, including the Metropolitan Opera's Live in HD series for movie theaters and Live From Lincoln Center on PBS. As a musical statesman, she has performed at the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize ceremony, during the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, and at the "We Are One" inaugural celebration for Barack Obama in 2009. A three-time Grammy Award winner, Ms. Fleming has recorded a wide range of CDs and DVDs, including Verdi's La Traviata filmed at the Royal Opera, the jazz album Haunted Heart, and recently a pop covers album Dark Hope. Master Chef Daniel Boulud created the dessert "La Diva Renée" in her honor, and in 2008, Ms. Fleming launched "La Voce by Renée Fleming," a fragrance with proceeds benefiting the Metropolitan Opera. Her awards include the Fulbright Lifetime Achievement Medal (2011), the Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur (2005), and Honorary Doctorates from the Eastman School of Music (2011) and The Juilliard School (2003), where she was also a commencement speaker. Ms. Fleming is currently a member of the Board of Trustees of Carnegie Hall, the Board of Sing for Hope, and the Advisory Board of the White Nights Foundation of America. In 2010, she was named the first ever Creative Consultant at Lyric Opera of Chicago. Over the years, Ms. Fleming has performed nearly 40 times at Carnegie Hall including the dedication of Zankel Hall and Carnegie's season opening gala in 2004.

Alec Baldwin is a graduate of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and received an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from NYU in 2010. Mr. Baldwin last appeared on stage in the 2010 Guild Hall (East Hampton) production of Peter Shaffer's Equus. Other stage credits include the Roundabout Theatre Company's 2006 production of Entertaining Mr. Sloane as well as productions of Loot; Serious Money; Prelude to a Kiss; A Streetcar Named Desire; Macbeth; and The Twentieth Century. Mr. Baldwin has appeared in over forty films, including Beetle Juice, Working Girl, Miami Blues, The Hunt for Red October, Glengarry Glen Ross, Malice, The Juror, The Edge, Ghosts of Mississippi, State and Main, The Cat in the Hat, The Cooler (for which he earned an Oscar nomination), The Aviator, The Departed, and It's Complicated, among many others. On television, he currently stars with Tina Fey on NBC's 30 Rock, winner of the Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series in 2007, 2008, and 2009. Mr. Baldwin has received five SAG Awards, three Golden Globes, the Television Critics Award, and two Emmy Awards as Best Actor in a Comedy Series for his performance on the show.

A. R. ("Pete") Gurney was born in 1930 in Buffalo, New York. He graduated from Williams College in 1952, served as an officer in the Navy, and afterwards attended the Yale School of Drama. For many years, he taught literature at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and moved to New York in 1982 to devote more time to writing for the theater. Among his works are: Scenes from American Life, Children, The Dining Room, The Cocktail Hour, Love Letters, Sylvia, Far East, Ancestral Voices, Big Bill, Indian Blood, and most recently, Black Tie. He has also written three novels, television scripts, and the libretto of Strawberry Fields (a one-act opera). Mr. Gurney is a member of the Theatre Hall of Fame and the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Mark Lamos is a director of plays, musicals, and opera. He spent 17 seasons as artistic director of Connecticut's Hartford Stage, for which he accepted the Tony Award in 1989 and now acts as artistic director at Westport Country Playhouse. Mr. Lamos made his Broadway directing debut with a transfer from Hartford Stage of Our Country's Good, for which he received a Tony Award nomination as Best Director. His other Broadway credits include Cymbeline, Seascape (Tony Award nomination for Best Revival), The Rivals, the world premiere of A.R. Gurney's The Grand Manner, The Gershwins' Fascinating Rhythm, and The Deep Blue Sea. In the realm of opera, he directed Francesco Cilea's Adriana Lecouvreur with Plácido Domingo for the Metropolitan Opera. His extensive work in opera includes new productions for the Metropolitan Opera, including the world premiere of John Harbison's The Great Gatsby (also seen at Lyric Opera of Chicago), numerous productions for New York City Opera, and new productions for San Francisco Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, among many other companies in the U.S. and abroad.

The Carnegie Hall Notables, a membership and ticket program for music enthusiasts in their 20s and 30s, is an exciting and energetic community of young people committed to advancing music education and the arts. Through original events, discussions with world-famous composers and musicians, discounted ticket prices to concerts, and music events throughout New York City, Notables members are invited to celebrate and intimately experience the exceptional power of music. The annual roster of events is curated by the Notables Committee, a diverse group of artists, socialites, and entrepreneurs in their 20s and 30s led by co-chairs Jimmy Zankel and Cody Franchetti. Members experience all types of musical genres. Contributions to the Notables program support the vital music education programs of Carnegie Hall's Weill Music Institute, which annually serves over 170,000 children, students, teachers, parents, young music professionals, and adults in the New York metropolitan area and across the US, with more than an additional 100,000 people taking advantage of WMI's online music education resources. For more information, visit carnegiehall.org/notables.

Bank of America is the Proud Season Sponsor of Carnegie Hall.

Event Information
Thursday, November 17, 2011
LOVE LETTERS
By A.R. Gurney

Renée Fleming (Melissa Gardner)
Alec Baldwin (Andrew Makepeace Ladd III)

Mark Lamos, Director
Susan Q. Gallin, Executive Producer

7:30 p.m. - Love Letters reading in Zankel Hall (Seventh Avenue between 56th and 57th Streets)

9:00 p.m. - After-Party featuring DJ Spooky at Providence (311 West 57th Street between 8th and 9th Avenues)

Notables members at the Supporter level (annual contribution of $500) and higher receive complimentary admission for two to this membership event. Admission for non-members is $120 each (in honor of Carnegie Hall's 120th Anniversary) with the price of each ticket applied toward a Notables membership. Tickets are not available to the general public. For more information, please contact the Notables office at 212-903-9734 or notables@carnegiehall.org, or visit carnegiehall.org/LoveLetters.