Marin Alsop and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Announce the 2013-2014 Season

Music Director Marin Alsop and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) announce the Orchestra's 2013-2014 season, its seventh under the direction of Maestra Alsop.

Music: Bringing Solace and Hope after Tragedy

Music's role as a balm for the afflicted is timeless. When tragedy strikes, music helps people mourn, honor the dead and find hope again. Three works during the season were specifically written in response to tragic events. The centerpiece of the 2013-2014 season is Benjamin Britten's War Requiem on November 14-16, composed to mark the rebirth of Coventry Cathedral, whose ruin was a symbol of the physical and spiritual destruction wrought by the Second World War. These performances celebrate the 100th anniversary of the composer's birth on November 22, 1913. On June 5-8, 2014, the BSO pairs John Adams' deeply affecting tribute to the victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks, On the Transmigration of Souls, with Beethoven's uplifting Ninth Symphony, with its call for joy to unite all people in universal brotherhood. And on October 18-20, 2013, guest conductor Arild Remmereit introduces the music of Karen Tanaka with Water of Life, a musical response to the devastating 2011 tsunami in her native Japan.

Britten's War Requiem

The 20th-century English composer Benjamin Britten knew music's restorative power well. An outspoken pacifist, Britten's harrowing, poignant War Requiem was commissioned to consecrate the Coventry Cathedral, which had been destroyed by a Nazi bomb in 1940 during World War II. Its text weaves the traditional Requiem liturgy with poetry by Wilfred Owen, a British soldier killed in battle in the First World War. Britten scored the music of this weighty work for a large orchestra plus an additional chamber orchestra and two choirs. Marin Alsop leads the BSO and soprano Tamara Wilson, tenor Nicolas Phan, baritone Ryan McKinny, the University of Maryland Concert Choir and the Peabody Children's Chorus in this large-scale masterpiece November 14-16.

"Music has the power to express the inexpressible. Some of my most memorable performing experiences have been in the wake of tragedy. When people are hurting and need comfort, music can be that refuge and can offer a glimmer of hope and solace," said Music Director Marin Alsop. "Britten's War Requiem premiered in the Coventry Cathedral in 1962 to christen a building that had to literally rise out of the ashes and be rebuilt. The World War II victims' metaphorical ascent out of the ashes as they rebuilt their lives and remembered the many they lost is no less significant. This masterpiece is filled with inspiring moments, especially when the multitudes assembled onstage are playing and singing at full volume. But this complex work also has many tender and mournful moments that truly connect us, reminding us of what we share as members of the human race."

John Adams' On the Transmigration of Souls and Beethoven's Ninth Symphony

To close the 2013-2014 classical subscription season on June 5-8, Marin Alsop leads the BSO in John Adams' Pulitzer Prize-winning On the Transmigration of Souls and Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.

John Adams' On the Transmigration of Souls was premiered in September 2002 by the New York Philharmonic to an audience personally affected and still keenly grieving the lives lost in the 9/11 attacks just one year prior. The composer described the work as a "memory space," where a listener can "go and be alone with your thoughts and emotions." Its text is drawn not from notable poets or religious texts, but rather the simple phrases scrawled on the posters that adorned Ground Zero, written by those left behind. "Transmigration"-or movement from one place to another-is intended to describe the movement of souls to their final resting place, but also to describe and stimulate an inner transformation in all who would hear this work.

The influence of Beethoven's monumental Ninth Symphony is immeasurable. As the first symphony to include full chorus and orchestra, Beethoven's Ninth brought the genre to a magnitude that had never been previously conceived, thereby radically changing the future of orchestral repertoire. With its uplifting text and call for universal brotherhood, the finale of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony has been used to mark historic events, including the fall of the Berlin Wall, and now serves as the European Union's anthem. The symphony was inspired by the writing of Friedrich Schiller, who, in his poem An die Freude or "Ode to Joy," states that joy is found when "all men are made brothers."

Bernstein's Symphony No. 2, "Age of Anxiety"

Among the leading interpreters of Leonard Bernstein's works, Marin Alsop has led the BSO in several critically acclaimed performances of the popular composer/conductor's music during her tenure. Reported The Washington Post of the BSO's 2012 performance of Bernstein's Symphony No. 3, "Kaddish," "Marin Alsop studied with Leonard Bernstein. This could be dismissed as a mere PR bullet point, a seal of approval, an item on the checklist of her distinctions. Or so at least you might think, until you hear her conduct Bernstein's music. ...[Alsop's] got Bernstein under her skin." The BSO's 2008 performance of Bernstein's large-scale Mass was no less riveting, prompting The New York Times to rave, "...how [Bernstein] would have loved seeing his 'Mass' touch so many people..." In the 2013-2014 season, Marin Alsop leads another work by Bernstein, his Symphony No. 2, "Age of Anxiety" (September 26-28), a major piano concerto in all but name.

Commissioned by Bernstein's longtime mentor Serge Koussevitzky, the work is based on W.H. Auden's Pulitzer Prize-winning poem, "The Age of Anxiety," published in 1947. Auden's message of one man's quest for faith in an increasingly faithless world was a theme that Bernstein felt deeply. The Symphony's form mirrors that of Auden's text: six subsections, divided into two parts performed without a break; Bernstein scored the work for solo piano and orchestra. Koussevitzky and the Boston Symphony Orchestra premiered the work in 1949 with the composer himself at the piano. For the BSO's performance, French pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet will return to the BSO as soloist.

"Bernstein's struggle to reconcile the tenants of his faith with the devastation of war is in full display in this dramatic work," said Maestra Alsop. "Every composition for Bernstein was a personal search for answers. His second symphony, inspired by the epic poem by W.H. Auden, 'Age of Anxiety,' is Bernstein's musical quest for faith in the aftermath of the Second World War's horrors. For Bernstein, hope was never lost and was always worth pursuing."

Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream

In the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's recent tradition of theatrical productions such as Mozart's The Magic Flute and Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher, the BSO brings to the stage Mendelssohn's sprightly A Midsummer Night's Dream on May 29 through June 1, 2014, led by Maestra Alsop. This semi-staged adaptation of Shakespeare's original text is by The Juilliard School's Edward Berkeley, who also serves as the director. The classic tale chronicles the misadventures of four, young Athenian lovers, a group of bumbling amateur actors and the mischievous fairies that control them. The dialogue is interspersed with Mendelssohn's well-loved incidental music, such as the famous "Wedding March" that has become a staple in modern weddings. A women's chorus from the Baltimore Choral Arts Society joins the BSO for this program, along with a cast of talented actors to be announced at a later date.

BSO at the Movies

In the 2012-2013 season, the BSO brought audiences live screenings of some of the best films ever produced, including West Side Story, Alexander Nevsky and Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times. The concert hall becomes the movie theater once again with screenings of three more film classics: Casablanca and Charlie Chaplin's The Idle Class and The Kid.

Following the successes of the BSO's presentations in previous seasons of The Gold Rush and City Lights, the BSO pays tribute to legendary actor, director and composer Charlie Chaplin with screenings of The Idle Class and The Kid (January 30 through February 1, 2014). Produced in 1921, The Kid was Chaplin's first full-length movie, for which he served as writer, producer and director. This "dramedy" combined the physical antics for which Chaplin is known with a dramatic plot: Chaplin's character, The Little Tramp, becomes the unlikely adoptive father of an abandoned baby. Also from 1921, Chaplin's 30-minute featurette The Idle Class, which follows The Little Tramp on vacation, opens the double-bill. As usual, he gets into trouble, this time for stealing golf balls and being mistaken for a wealthy woman's alcoholic husband. On the surface, the film is an entertaining comedy, yet its deeper message conveys contempt for the ruling elite.

Immediately following the close of the subscription season, Emil de Cou leads the BSO in performances (June 12-14, 2014) of the 1942 romantic drama Casablanca. This wartime film chronicles one man's (Humphrey Bogart) decision between being with the woman (Ingrid Bergman) he loves or aiding her escape with her husband from the Moroccan city of Casablanca to lead a resistance against the Nazis. Its enduring musical score by Max Steiner, whose compositional credits include the music for Gone with the Wind, features well-known ballads like "As Time Goes By," "Perfidia" and "It Had to Be You."

A High-Definition Voyage into Space with Holst's The Planets

Marin Alsop will lead the BSO on an odyssey into space with a performance of Holst's The Planets (November 7-10), paired with high-definition projections of images from space. Once an unassuming music teacher, Gustav Holst was catapulted into fame following the 1916 premiere of The Planets. Each of the seven tone poems that comprise this suite conveys the mood of the astrological sign associated with that planet. For example, it opens with a thunderous Scherzo movement intended to depict Mars, The Bringer of War. In contrast, in the final movement, Neptune, The Mystic, the orchestra's hushed tones and the addition of a wordless chorus of women's voices from the Baltimore Choral Arts Society creates The Planets' haunting exit.

Music of Our Time

Next season, the BSO will premiere works by two American composers: John Adams and Jonathan Leshnoff.

John Adams' imprint on contemporary music is indelible. Among the world's leading classical composers, Adams is credited as one of the key influencers who shifted modern musical aesthetics away from academic modernism and toward a more expansive, expressive style. The BSO co-commissioned (with Sydney, St. Louis and São Paulo symphony orchestras) his Saxophone Concerto, to be performed September 20-22. The work's United States premiere will feature saxophonist Tim McAllister, who makes his BSO debut. As the soprano saxophonist in the esteemed ensemble PRIZM, McAllister's 2009 performance in the premiere of another of Adams' works-City Noir, performed with Los Angeles Philharmonic-was described as "volcanic," "flamboyant," and performed with "wonderful grace."

Jonathan Leshnoff is a Baltimore-based composer whose influence is far broader than the city he calls home. The BSO's world premiere in 2010 of Leshnoff's Starburst was described by The Baltimore Sun as "a curtain-raiser in the best sense of the word, full of energy and anticipation." Marin Alsop leads the BSO in the world premiere of Leshnoff's Guitar Concerto (January 9-12, 2014), a work written for another Baltimore-resident, internationally renowned guitarist, Manuel Barrueco. The work promises to dazzle with propulsive rhythms, a hauntingly slow and ethereal second movement, and a dance-like finale.

Off the Cuff

Marin Alsop's dry wit and encyclopedic knowledge of classical repertoire have been the winning combination behind the popular Off the Cuff series. Now in its sixth season at the Meyerhoff and fourth at Strathmore, fixed subscriptions to this series have grown by 30% at the Meyerhoff and 52% at The Music Center at Strathmore. The Off the Cuff series-with its unique, shorter concert format, generally featuring one masterwork--has attracted a devoted following of classical music aficionados and newcomers alike. These audiences share a desire to delve deeper into the themes and meanings of major works and the lives of the composers who wrote them.

On November 8-9, Marin Alsop and the BSO take audiences on a journey through space with Gustav Holst's The Planets. The programmatic music is illuminated by high definition images from the galaxy projected on a screen above the stage. On January 10-11, 2014 Maestra Alsop leads the BSO in Dvo?ák's Symphony No. 9, "From the New World," inspired by the scenes the Czech composer saw during his first trip to America in 1892. Known for the skillful way he wove the folk songs of his homeland into his symphonies, Maestra Alsop will uncover the American tunes-like "Three Blind Mice" and "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot"-that pop up in Dvo?ák's final symphony.

An Off the Cuff season highlight is CSI: Mozart on February 28 and March 1. Building on the successes of BSO-produced symphonic plays presented in prior seasons, including CSI: Beethoven, Analyze This: Mahler and Freud, and Wagner: A Composer Fit for a King, the BSO will once again employ the talents of playwright Didi Balle. As with 2008's CSI: Beethoven, patrons are invited to "join the investigation" and uncover the events that led to Mozart's death. How did one of history's greatest and most influential composers, who enjoyed dazzling popular celebrity at the height of his success, end up poor, alone and in debt, eventually dying of kidney failure and buried in an unmarked grave? Marin Alsop explores these questions and more with a team of experts, punctuated by selections from Mozart's most beloved works, such as selections from The Magic Flute and Symphony No. 41, "Jupiter."

On April 25-26, 2014, Marin Alsop explores Mahler's Symphony No. 1, "Titan," a work she and the BSO released in 2012 on the Naxos label to critical success. Maestra Alsop will examine the composer through the autobiographical lens of his first symphony. For example, the work's nickname-"Titan"-is the protagonist of Romantic author Jean Paul Richter's novel by the same name. The fictional Titan was a passionate dreamer, an ideal Mahler admired and aspired to emulate.

BSO Gala with Pink Martini, Sept. 7

In 1994, aspiring politician Thomas Lauderdale was attending yet another political fundraiser and was once again underwhelmed by the assembled drab and generic musical entertainment. He decided to do something about it, and created a hip "little orchestra" with a multi-cultural sound. Since its founding, this eclectic group of musicians has gone on to perform with orchestras throughout the world, including sold-out concerts everywhere from Carnegie Hall to Paris' legendary L'Olympia Theater. Founder Mr. Lauderdale describes Pink Martini's style as "wildly diverse." He explains that each member brings their globetrotting experiences and study of different languages to the compositional and repertoire selection process. "At one moment, you feel like you're in the middle of a samba parade in Rio de Janeiro, and in the next moment, you're in a French music hall of the 1930s or a palazzo in Napoli. It's a bit like an urban musical travelogue."

Pink Martini's inclusive musical style fits perfectly with the annual BSO Gala Concert, which seeks to be a community-wide celebration. Conducted by BSO Principal Pops Conductor Jack Everly and held on Saturday, September 7 at 8:30 p.m., the Orchestra's largest fundraising event of the season will raise support for the BSO's broad education and community outreach programs, such as OrchKids, OrchLab, Baltimore Symphony Youth Orchestras, the Midweek programs and more. Gala event packages will be available later this Spring and concert tickets are first available to 2013-2014 subscribers and then to the general public for $75 and $100 in early August.

Holiday Fun for the Family with the BSO

Critically-acclaimed conductor Edward Polochick leads the Concert Artists of Baltimore Symphonic Chorale in their annual performance at the Meyerhoff of Handel's Messiah, December 6, 2013. The Baltimore Sun raves, "Polochick and his Concert Artists of Baltimore enjoy a remarkable rapport that can produce startling, highly satisfying results." Handel's powerful and iconic oratorio, which has become a beloved holiday tradition with the BSO and beyond, will ignite the winter program.

In December 2011, Holiday Cirque audiences were spellbound by the dazzling feats of grace and strength, paired with inspiring symphonic music played by the BSO. The concert hall becomes the Big Top once again when a new act-Cirque Musica-takes the stage for seven shows on December 11-15. Strongmen, contortionists, acrobats and more entertain, choreographed to the Holiday season's favorite tunes.

The BSO's 2012 full-length production of Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker, featuring dancers from the Baltimore School for the Arts, complete with scenery by students from the Maryland Institute College of Art, was a critical success and filled four packed houses at The Lyric Modell for the Performing Arts Center. The BSO again presents this holiday tradition for the whole family in four productions on December 20-22 (tickets available May 1, 2013 via Ticketmaster).

Jack Everly and the BSO SuperPops Season

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Principal Pops Conductor Jack Everly's 11th season with the BSO includes tributes to legends like Barbra Streisand, the late Marvin Hamlisch and The Bee Gees, and headliners like Ann Hampton Callaway, George Takei and Chris Botti.

If anyone is up to the challenge of emulating the living legend Barbra Streisand, it must be singer-songwriter Ann Hampton Callaway, performing The Streisand Songbook on October 10-13, 2013. Best-known for her Tony Award-nominated performance in the hit Broadway show Swing!, BSO patrons may remember Callaway for her turn as the witty and golden-voiced host of the 2009 Holiday Spectacular. Callaway enjoys a professional relationship with Streisand, and has written some of Streisand's favorite songs, including "I Dream of You," which Streisand sang at her own wedding to Josh Brolin.

Strathmore audiences have the opportunity to hear one of the leading trumpeters of our day, Chris Botti, on November 14, 2013. Known early in his career for his collaborations with Sting, he has gone on to cement his reputation with an unparalleled sonorous sound that has inspired audiences for years. Editor's Note: the BSO will not be performing on this program. (This performance is only at Strathmore.)

On November 22-24, 2013, the BSO welcomes "the best jazz band in the land" (The San Francisco Examiner)-New Orleans' own Preservation Hall Jazz Band. The group of friends that began jamming together in 1961 in the French Quarter's Preservation Hall has gone on to set the standard for pure, unadulterated jazz entertainment. Their music is known for its unique blend of high-energy traditional American spirit. Editor's Note: the BSO will not be performing on this program. (This performance is only in Baltimore at the Meyerhoff.)

Jack Everly leads the BSO in a tribute to former BSO Pops Conductor, Marvin Hamlisch. Vocalist Debbie Gravitte and the Baltimore Choral Arts Society join the BSO to remember the legendary conductor and composer, performing hits from A Chorus Line, The Sting, The Way We Were and more on January 23-26, 2014.

Before he became a highly followed icon on Facebook, George Takei was better known as the hit television show Star Trek's Mr. Sulu. Takei will join conductor Jack Everly, soprano Kristen Plumley and The Sci-Fi-ettes on a journey through outer space in Sci-Fi Spectacular! on February 20-23, 2014. Takei serves as narrator and host on a galactic adventure with tunes from Star Trek, E.T., Somewhere in Time, Star Wars and more.

On March 27-30, 2014, the tribute group Stayin' Alive joins the BSO in a celebration of the nine-time Grammy Award-winning band The Bee Gees. Their smash hits like Stayin' Alive defined an era's music and continue to live on with future generations.

On May 15-18, 2014, Jack Everly concludes the 2013-2014 SuperPops season in All the Jazz: A Symphonic Celebration of Kander & Ebb. This Broadway blockbuster duo has written the music for many of Broadway's greatest shows, including Cabaret, Chicago, New York, New York, Kiss of the Spider Woman and more.

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