NY Philharmonic Offers Free Dress Rehearsal 9/22

For the fourth consecutive year, the New York Philharmonic and Credit Suisse, its Global Sponsor, will celebrate the start of the season with a Free Dress Rehearsal - a gift to the people of New York - at 9:45 a.m. on Wednesday, September 22, 2010, the morning of the New York Philharmonic's Opening Night Concert. The first 2,000 visitors waiting in line for the rehearsal on Lincoln Center's Josie Robertson Plaza will receive cards for a free download from Alan Gilbert: The Inaugural Season iTunes Pass.

Attendees will be greeted by Philharmonic musicians, and will be entered to win one of two iPads
preloaded with four albums of New York Philharmonic concert recordings, conducted by Mr. Gilbert.

Winners will be announced prior to the start of the rehearsal. The free, general-admission tickets will be distributed - one per person - on a first-come, first served basis, starting at 8:00 a.m. The previous season's Opening Night Free Dress Rehearsals drew thousands to Avery Fisher Hall.

Inside the hall, visitors will hear the music for the evening's concert, which ushers in the Orchestra's 169th season: the U.S. Premiere of Wynton Marsalis's Swing Symphony (Symphony No. 3), a New York Philharmonic Co-Commission performed jointly by the New York Philharmonic and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Wynton Marsalis, music director and trumpet; R. Strauss's Don Juan; and Hindemith's Symphonic Metamorphoses on Themes by Carl Maria von Weber, all conducted by Philharmonic Music Director Alan Gilbert.

The evening's Opening Night Concert will be broadcast live at 7:30 p.m. on Classical 105.9 FM WQXR, co-hosted by Elliott Forrest and Terrance McKnight, and available as a live audio webstream at wqxr.org. The concert will also be broadcast nationally on Live From Lincoln Center, hosted by Alec Baldwin, on a tape-delayed basis on PBS at 9:00 p.m. [check local listings].