World Premiere Of Aaron jay Kernis' A VOICE, A MESSENGER Postponed Until 2009/10 Season

The World Premiere of Aaron Jay Kernis’s a Voice, a Messenger, featuring New York Philharmonic Principal Trumpet Philip Smith as soloist, and previously announced for June 4, 6, and 9, 2009, has been postponed until the 2009–10 season to allow the composer and the soloist more time to collaborate on the work. The piece, a Philharmonic co-commission with the Big Ten Band Association, will be replaced by Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto, to be performed by Mr. Smith. Lorin Maazel will conduct these concerts, which are part of his finAl Weeks as New York Philharmonic Music Director.

The concert program will comprise J.S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 4; Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto; Copland’s Clarinet Concerto, featuring Principal Clarinet Stanley Drucker in his final solo appearances with the Orchestra after a 60-year tenure; and Ravel’s Boléro.

Related Events

Hear & Now Pre-Concert Talk
Steven Stucky will give a Pre-Concert Talk one hour before each performance on the Avery Fisher Hall stage. Free to ticket holders.

New York Philharmonic Podcast

Mark Travis, a producer for the WFMT Radio Network since 1999 and the producer of the 52-week-per-year nationally syndicated radio series, The New York Philharmonic This Week, will host this podcast. These previews of upcoming programs — through musical selections as well as interviews with guest artists, conductors, and Orchestra musicians — are available at nyphil.org/podcast or from iTunes.

National Radio Broadcast
This concert will be broadcast the week of June 8, 2009,* on The New York Philharmonic This Week, a radio concert series syndicated nationally to more than 295 stations by the WFMT Radio Network. The 52-week series, hosted by WFMT’s Kerry Frumkin, is generously underwritten by The Kaplen Foundation, the Audrey Love Charitable Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Philharmonic’s corporate partner, MetLife Foundation. The broadcast will be available on the Philharmonic’s Website, nyphil.org. The program is broadcast locally in the New York metropolitan area on 96.3 FM WQXR on Thursdays at 9:00 p.m.
*Check local listings for broadcast and program information.

Lorin Maazel, who has led more than 150 orchestras in more than 5,000 opera and concert performances, became Music Director of the New York Philharmonic in September 2002. His appointment came 60 years after his debut with the Orchestra at Lewisohn Stadium, then the Orchestra’s summer venue. As Music Director he will have conducted 10 World Premiere–New York Philharmonic Commissions, including the Pulitzer Prize- and Grammy Award-winning On the Transmigration of Souls by John Adams; Stephen Hartke’s Symphony No. 3; MeLinda Wagner’s Trombone Concerto; and Steven Stucky’s Rhapsodies for Orchestra. He has led cycles of works by Brahms, Beethoven, and Tchaikovsky, and conducted the Orchestra’s inaugural performances in
the DG Concerts series — a groundbreaking initiative to offer downloadable New York Philharmonic concerts exclusively on iTunes.

Mr. Maazel has taken the Orchestra on numerous international tours, including the historic visit to Pyongyang, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, in February 2008 — the first performance there by an American orchestra. Other recent tours have included Europe 2008 in August–September; Asia 2008 — to Taipei, Kaohsiung, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Beijing in February; the May 2007 Tour of Europe; the November 2006 visit to Japan and Korea; the Philharmonic Tour of Italy in June 2006, sponsored by Generali; the two-part 75th Anniversary European Tour to thirteen cities in five countries in autumn 2005; and residencies in Cagliari, Sardinia, and the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival in Colorado.

In addition to the New York Philharmonic, Mr. Maazel is music director of the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia in Valencia, Spain. A frequent conductor on the world’s operatic stages, he returned to The Metropolitan Opera in January 2008 for the first time in 45 years to conduct Wagner’s Die Walküre.

Prior to his tenure as New York Philharmonic Music Director, Mr. Maazel led more than 100 performances of the Orchestra as a guest conductor. He served as music director of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (1993–2002), and has held positions as music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (1988–96); general manager and chief conductor of the Vienna Staatsoper (1982–84); music director of The Cleveland Orchestra (1972–82); and artistic director and chief conductor of the Deutsche Oper Berlin (1965–71). He is an honorary member of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, an honorary member of the Vienna Philharmonic, and a Commander of the Legion of Honor of France.

A second-generation American, born in Paris, Mr. Maazel was raised and educated in the United States. He took his first violin lesson at age five, and conducting lesson at seven. Between ages 9 and 15 he conducted most of the major American orchestras. In 1953 he made his European conducting debut in Catania, Italy. Mr. Maazel is also an accomplished composer. His opera, 1984, received its world premiere on May 3, 2005, at London’s Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. It was revived in the 2007–08 season at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, and the DVD has been
released by Decca.

Philip Smith joined the New York Philharmonic as Co-Principal Trumpet in 1978, and became Principal Trumpet (The Paula Levin Chair) in 1988. His early training was provided at The Salvation Army and by his father, Derek Smith. He is a graduate of The Juilliard School; while still a student, he was appointed to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Smith performs regularly as soloist, recitalist, chamber performer, clinician, and recording artist. He has been featured as a soloist with the Philharmonic almost 100 times, either in New York or on tour, under conductors such as Bernstein, Neeme Järvi, Leinsdorf, Kurt Masur, and Zubin Mehta; his most recent solo appearance
was in April 2006 in the New York premiere of Ellen Taaffe Zwilich’s American Concerto. In addition to solo releases on labels such as Deutsche Grammophon, Cala, Summit, New World, and Arabesque, Mr. Smith has recorded with the Canadian Brass, Empire Brass, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, Bargemusic, and New York Virtuosi Chamber Symphony.

Stanley Drucker, Principal Clarinet (The Edna and W. Van Alan Clark Chair) was named Musical America’s 1998 Instrumentalist of the Year on his 50th anniversary with the Orchestra. He is marking his 60th anniversary with the Philharmonic this season, performing Copland’s Clarinet Concerto in these concerts — a work he will have played with the Orchestra 64 times — and will retire at the close of the season. In addition to his more than 150 solo appearances with the Philharmonic since joining it at age 19, he maintains an active solo career with ensembles throughout the world. Nominated twice for a Grammy Award, Mr. Drucker is featured on a number of recordings with the Philharmonic, in solo recital, and performing chamber music. His most recent recording presents all of Brahms’s chamber music pieces that feature the clarinet. Mr. Drucker began clarinet studies at age ten with Leon Russianoff, his principal teacher, and later attended the High School of Music and Art and The Curtis Institute of Music. He was appointed principal clarinet of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra at age 16, Adolf Busch Chamber Players at 17, and Buffalo Philharmonic at 18.

Franz Joseph Haydn’s popular Trumpet Concerto was composed in 1796 when Haydn was 64. By that time he had written all 18 of his operas and all except the final nine of his string quartets. He was apparently inspired to write the Trumpet Concerto by the invention in the 1790s of a keyed trumpet. The new instrument, developed by Anton Weidinger, a court trumpeter in Vienna, had the advantage of allowing the trumpet for the first time to play all the notes of the chromatic scale, allowing it to modulate from one key to another. Although the keyed trumpet did not survive, the Trumpet Concerto became an important vehicle for the even more versatile valve trumpet, which came into use in the early part of the 19th century. The New York Philharmonic last performed the
concerto in March 2002, with Principal Trumpet Philip Smith as soloist and Bramwell Tovey on the podium.

Credit Suisse is the Global Sponsor of the New York Philharmonic.

Single tickets are $36 to $114. Tickets for Open Rehearsals are $16. All tickets may be purchased online at nyphil.org or by calling (212) 875-5656, 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. daily. Tickets may also be purchased at the Avery Fisher Hall Box Office, Lincoln Center, Broadway at 65th Street. The Box Office opens at 10:00 a.m. Monday through Saturday, and at noon on Sunday. On performance evenings, the Box Office closes onehalf hour after performance time; other evenings it closes at 6:00 p.m. A limited number of $12 tickets for select concerts may be available through the Internet for students within 10 days of the performance, or in person the day of. Valid identification is required. To determine ticket availability, call the Philharmonic’s Customer Relations Department at (212) 875-5656. [Ticket prices subject to change.]

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