George Rothman To Lead Riverside Symphony In Concert On 2/12

RIVERSIDE SYMPHONY with Alan Kay, clarinet Friday, February 12, 2010, at 7:30pm
Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center Single Tickets: $50 & $35, Students ½ price at box office (day of concert) For tickets, call Riverside Symphony at 212-864-4197. Group rates available.
www.riversidesymphony.org

PROGRAM
RICHTER String Symphony No. 63 in B flat
BUSONI Concertino for Clarinet and Chamber Orchestra
BIGGS Symphonia brevis (World Premiere)
MOZART Symphony No. 36 in C Major, "Linz"

Hayes Biggs's Symphonia brevis to be Premiered on Riverside Symphony Program Devoted to Classicism Program will span three centuries of works defining-or defined by Classicism

Music Director George Rothman will lead Riverside Symphony in the second concert of the orchestra's 29th season on Friday evening, February 12, at 7:30 p.m. at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall. The program, titled "Classics Revisited," will trace classical form from Symphony No. 63 in B flat by the formidable Mannheim School composer Franz Richter to Symphonia brevis, a Riverside Symphony commission by the esteemed New York-based composer Hayes Biggs.

Alan R. Kay, the orchestra's brilliant principal clarinetist, will be showcased in Ferrucio Busoni's rarely performed gem, Concertino for Clarinet and Chamber Orchestra, which, in the waning months of The Great War, represented an emotional respite for the fin-de-siècle Italian composer. Concluding Riverside Symphony's exploration will be Mozart's glorious Symphony No. 36 in C Major "Linz."

This concert is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and the New York State Council on the Arts.

Alan R. Kay, clarinet. In addition to serving as Riverside Symphony's principal clarinetist since the orchestra's founding, Alan R. Kay is a member of Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and performs frequently as principal clarinet with the American Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of St. Luke's and the American Ballet Theater. A founding member of the chamber ensembles Windscape and Hexagon, he appears often as a guest with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and the Mendelssohn, Rossetti, Mirò, and Shanghai Quartets. His honors include the C.D. Jackson Award at Tanglewood, a Presidential Scholars Teacher Recognition Award, Juilliard's 1980 Clarinet Competition and the 1989 Young Concert Artists Award with the piano and wind sextet Hexagon featured in the prize-winning documentary film, "Debut." Alan Kay, in his role as artistic director of the New York Chamber Ensemble, is known for the popular series of thematic programs performed by the ensemble at the Cape May Festival, the group's summer home. A champion of new music, Kay has premiered solo works commissioned by Orpheus from Charles Wuorinen and Paul Moravec. Recognized as a virtuoso of the wind chamber music repertoire, Alan Kay has recorded with Hexagon, Windscape and the Sylvan Winds. He is currently a faculty member at the Manhattan School of Music, The Juilliard School and Stony Brook University.

George Rothman, Music Director of Riverside Symphony since its incep tion, has guest conducted throughout the Far East, Europe, South America, and the United States. His pas sion for discovery is reflected in his premiere performances of well over 150 new or chestral compositions and his introduc tion to New York audiences of seldom-heard works by composers as diverse as Biber, Haydn, and Sibelius, and local premieres of works by Prokofiev and Ravel. He has been widely praised by major critics here and abroad for his musically sensitive, incisive performances and recordings. A native New Yorker, he trained at the Manhattan School of Music, The Juilliard School and, as a scholarship student, at Tanglewood Music Center, studying conducting under Leonard Bernstein and Seiji Ozawa. He has served on the faculties of Columbia and Yale Universities and currently serves as Music Director and Conductor of Brooklyn College's Conservatory Orchestra.

Riverside Symphony, co-founded in 1981 by George Rothman and Anthony Korf, is unique in its focus on discovery - discovery of young artists, unfamiliar works by the great masters and important new pieces by living composers from around the world. Critically acclaimed for its vibrant performances of music from all periods, the orchestra counts this city's finest instrumentalists among its membership. In addition to its annual Alice Tully Hall concert series, Riverside Symphony's International Composer Reading Project has brought outstanding works by unheralded composers to wider attention through national composer competitions, workshop and major venue performances, and recordings. Riverside Symphony plans to release a new recording in the spring devoted to major works by the French master Marius Constant. The orchestra's six previous CDs have brought international acclaim, including a 2000 Grammy nomination, a place on Fanfare Magazine's 2009 "Want List" and Editor's Pick from Britain's Gramophone and The New York Times. Riverside Symphony's Music Memory Project, a widely valued music education initiative created to instill a love for great music in young people, is now serving nearly 7,000 children in all five boroughs. The program combines an innovative classroom curriculum that teaches 16 great musical works each school year with a finals competition, held at the end of the school year.

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