Young People's Concerts Conclude With COMING TO NEW YORK - IMMIGRANT VOICES

The 96th season of the New York Philharmonic Young People's Concerts (YPCs) will conclude on Saturday, May 11, 2019, at 2:00 p.m. with "Coming to New York - Immigrant Voices," the fourth program in this season's series of YPCs, Music Across Borders.Conducted by Thomas Wilkins, co-hosted by Mr. Wilkins and Philharmonic Teaching Artist Jihea Hong-Park, and directed by Habib Azar, the program will use music and storytelling to explore personal and collective identities in America. The program will feature selections from Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra; Girl from the Da Ban City from Huang Ruo's Folk Songs for Orchestra; Tumbao from Roberto Sierra's Sinfonía No. 3, La salsa; Enough! I Intended To Leave You from Kareem Roustom's Aleppo Songs for Orchestra; and Hero Brothers and Arbol de Sueños from Gabriela Lena Frank's Peregrinos.

The program will also feature World Premieres by two Philharmonic Very Young Composers: This Element That Questions a Woman, about Russian immigrant and suffragist Theresa Malkiel, by 10-year-old Ilaria Loisa Hawley (2019 ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composer Award winner), and 16-year-old Ziyi Tao's Being, centered on the concept of home while also expressing a sense of being lost.

The program will tell the story of immigration and migration through the composers' music and lives. Chinese-born Huang Ruo now resides in New York City; Syrian-born Kareem Roustom moved to the US at age 13; Roberto Sierra was born in Puerto Rico, now resides in Ithaca, New York, and incorporates salsa, deriving from Afro-Caribbean / New York City influences, in his music; Gabriela Lena Frank was born in California to a mother of mixed Peruvian / Chinese ancestry and a father of Lithuanian / Jewish descent; Hungarian-born Bartók immigrated to the US in 1940; and both Very Young Composers of New York were born elsewhere: Ilaria Loisa Hawley in Lincoln, Nebraska, and Ziyi Tao in Beijing, China.

Created by Jon Deak (Director, Very Young Composers Program) - a composer and former Philharmonic Associate Principal Bass - the Very Young Composers Program enables students from diverse backgrounds to compose music to be performed by Philharmonic musicians, sometimes by the full Orchestra.

Attendees are invited to arrive early to take part in YPC Overtures on the Grand Promenade and upper tiers of David Geffen Hall, at which children can meet Philharmonic musicians, try out orchestral instruments, and participate in an interactive performance featuring original compositions by Very Young Composers.

A version of the same program will be presented to students in grades 3-12 - many of whom have been prepared by Philharmonic Teaching Artists through the Philharmonic Schools program - May 8-10, 2019, at David Geffen Hall as part of Young People's Concerts for Schools.

Single tickets to Young People's Concerts start at $15; all tickets include admission to YPC Overtures. (Ticket prices subject to change.)

Tickets may be purchased online at nyphil.org or by calling (212) 875-5656, 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Monday through Friday; 1:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. Saturday; and noon to 5:00 p.m. Sunday. Tickets may also be purchased at the David Geffen Hall Box Office. The Box Office opens at 10:00 a.m. Monday through Saturday, and at noon on Sunday. On performance evenings, the Box Office closes one-half hour after performance time; other evenings it closes at 6:00 p.m.