Greenwich Village Orchestra Announces 2019-2020 Season Concerts

The Greenwich Village Orchestra (GVO) announces its 2019-2020 season concerts, led by Music Director Barbara Yahr. Now in its 33rd season, the GVO is committed to making music at the highest possible level and enriching the lives of both players and audience through emotionally charged, exhilarating performances. All concerts of the 2019-2020 season will take place at All Saints Church, 230 East 60th Street, Manhattan, unless otherwise noted.

Music Director Barbara Yahr says, "It is my great pleasure to announce the Greenwich Village Orchestra's 33rd Season! With a season that takes us from our firmly rooted tradition of Beethoven to two New York premieres by Clarice Assad and Jonathan Leshnoff, I am thrilled with the breadth of our offerings this year.We are once again thrilled to be performing at All Saints Church this season as our regular hall undergoes further improvements. And, to celebrate the orchestra's continued success, we take the stage at Peter Norton Symphony Space this May with an exciting season finale. I hope to see you this fall!"

The 2019-2020 season opens with Pastoral Project on Sunday, October 6, 2019 at 3:00pm at All Saints Church (230 East 60th Street, NYC) featuring two beloved masterworks. From its first notes,Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony sweeps us away to a bucolic countryside, where shepherds dance, storms brew, and sunshine prevails. And Wolfgang Schmidt - "one of the leading cellists of our generation" according to his teacher Rostropovich - returns for Dvořák's passionate (and NYC-composed!) Cello Concerto.

On Sunday, November 24, 2019 at 3:00pm at All Saints Church, GVO joins forces withMetropolitan Opera bass Christian Zaremba in Defying Death, a program featuringMussorgsky's Songs and Dances of Death, orchestrated by Shostakovich. Rounding out the program, the GVO brings to life Rimsky-Korsakov's rich musical tapestry Scheherazade andProkofiev's evocative ballet music from The Love for Three Oranges.

GVO performs its annual family concert on Sunday, December 8, 2019 at 3:00pm at All Saints Church. The fifty-minute program features solo performances by principal flutist Simon Dratfield and teenage violinist Ben Lerman, as well as classics and popular selections to delight the whole family.

On Friday, January 24, 2020 at 7:30pm, the GVO presents its first Chamber Music Concert at the Tenri Cultural Institute (43A West 13th St., NYC), featuring ensembles from the GVO.

The season continues on Sunday, February 9, 2020 at 3:00pm at All Saints Church with Classical Romantics. The orchestra takes the lead in Mozart's Magic Flute Overture, Stravinsky's Pulcinella Suite and Sibelius' sweeping Symphony No. 5.

In Bohemian Rhapsodies on Sunday, March 15, 2020 at 3:00pm at All Saints Church, the GVO invites pianist-presenter Astrith Baltsan to lead us through a Bernstein-inspired theatrical program of rhapsodies. Featuring Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2, Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, and Enescu's Rumanian Rhapsody No. 1,Baltsan explores what the rhapsodies reveal, from stories of immigration to the internal lives of the composers.

On Sunday, April 19, 2020 at 3:00pm, the GVO presents its second Chamber Music Concert at the Tenri Cultural Institute (43A West 13th St., NYC), featuring ensembles from the GVO.

To close the season, GVO moves uptown to Peter Norton Symphony Space to present Stealing Fireon Sunday, May 3, 2020 at 4:00pm. The finale opens with a spark: Beethoven's Creatures of Prometheus Overture is a depiction of the eponymous Titan who defied his fellow gods by giving fire-and with it civilization and creativity - to humankind. The GVO then performs two of humanity's newest creations: the New York premiere of Jonathan Leshnoff's Double Concerto for Clarinet & Bassoon - featuring Pittsburgh Symphony principals Nancy Goeres and Michael Rusinek - and the US premiere of Clarice Assad's Saravá, a rhapsody paying homage to Brazilian poet, singer-songwriter and diplomat Vinicius de Moraes. Respighi's colossal Pines of Rome brings our season to a triumphant close.

Tickets ($25 recommended donation, $15 seniors/students) are available at www.gvo.org for all concerts.

To post a comment, you must register and login.