The Art Of The Score To Return With New York Premiere Of AMADEUS: LIVE

The Art of the Score, exploring some of the most distinctive uses of music in film, will return for its fifth season with Amadeus: Live, the New York Premiere screening of Amadeus with the Mozart-centered score performed live to the complete film.

Conducted by Richard Kaufman in his Philharmonic debut and featuring Musica Sacra, directed by Kent Tritle, Amadeus: Live will take place Wednesday, April 11, 2018, at 7:30 p.m.; Thursday, April 12 at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, April 13 at 11:00 a.m.; Saturday, April l4 at 7:30 p.m.; and Tuesday, April 17 at 7:30 p.m. On April 11 actor Alec Baldwin - Philharmonic Board Member and Artistic Advisor of The Art of the Score - and special guest F. Murray Abraham - who won an Academy Award for his portrayal of Salieri - will introduce the film.

The Amadeus score includes selections from more than a dozen works by Mozart, including his Requiem; his operas The Magic Flute, The Marriage of Figaro, and Don Giovanni; and his Symphony No. 25, Serenade for 13 Winds, Gran partita, and Piano Concerto No. 20, performed by Philharmonic pianist Eric Huebner in these performances. The film's sound track won the 1985 Grammy Award for Best Classical Album and reached number one on Billboard's Classical Albums chart. Amadeus was nominated for eleven Academy Awards and won eight, including Best Picture.

Directed by Miloš Forman and adapted for the screen by Peter Shaffer from his Tony Award-winning play of the same name, Amadeus is a fictionalized account of Mozart's life as told by one of his contemporaries, composer Antonio Salieri, who (in Shaffer's story) is consumed by his jealousy of Mozart's talent.

Amadeus: Live is a production of Avex Classics International.

Richard Kaufman has devoted much of his musical life to conducting and supervising music for film and television productions, as well as performing film and classical music in concert halls and on recordings. The 2017-18 season marks his 12th with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's concert series CSO at the Movies and his 27th as principal pops conductor of Pacific Symphony. He holds the permanent title of pops conductor laureate with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. Highlights of Mr. Kaufman's 2017-18 season include debuts with the New York Philharmonic, The Philadelphia Orchestra, Phoenix Symphony, Iceland Symphony Orchestra, and the Handel and Haydn Society. In 2015 he made his conducting debut with the Boston Pops, filling in for John Williams at the Annual Pops Film Night, and Mr. Williams invited Mr. Kaufman to share the podium at the annual Tanglewood Film Night in 2016. In July 2016 he conducted the San Diego Symphony in a live performance of Michael Giacchino's new score for Star Trek Beyond, accompanying the film in its gala World Premiere in IMAX. Mr. Kaufman regularly appears as a guest conductor with The Cleveland Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, and the San Francisco, Atlanta, St. Louis, London, Liverpool, Dublin, Indianapolis, and San Diego symphony orchestras. In addition to conducting traditional concert presentations, he often leads performances of complete film scores in concert, synchronizing the music to the actual film as it is shown on the screen above the orchestra. These legendary film titles include Singin' in the Rain, The Wizard of Oz, Psycho, Casablanca, Jaws, Pirates of the Caribbean, Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Amadeus, and Star Trek. As a violinist, Mr. Kaufman performed on numerous film and television scores including Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Saturday Night Fever, and (in a moment of desperation) Animal House. He has recorded with artists including John Denver, Burt Bacharach, Neil Sedaka, The Carpenters, and Ray Charles. Richard Kaufman joined the music department of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios (MGM) in 1984 as music coordinator, and for the next 18 years supervised music for MGM. He has received two Emmy Award nominations, one for the animated series The Pink Panther, and another for Outstanding Original Song co-authored for the series All Dogs Go to Heaven. These performances Mark Richard Kaufman's New York Philharmonic debut.

Musica Sacra, the longest continuously performing professional chorus in New York City, was founded in 1964 by Richard Westenburg and is now under the artistic leadership of Kent Tritle, who began his 11th season this year. Musica Sacra presents performances at venues throughout New York, including Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts; its annual performances of Handel's Messiah at Carnegie Hall are a New York holiday tradition. The chorus is frequently invited to perform with Orchestra of St. Luke's, New York City Ballet, Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, and concert presenters throughout the region. The ensemble has given the World and New York Premieres of more than 25 choral works, including, most recently, the World Premiere of Evan Fein's oratorio Deborah, based on the Biblical character from the Book of Judges, at Alice Tully Hall. Musica Sacra's most recent recording is Eternal Reflections, an album of vocal works by Robert Paterson, the award-winning composer and founder of the American Modern Ensemble. Its growing discography of recordings on the BMG, RCA, MSR Classics, and Deutsche Grammophon labels includes Messages to Myself, a program of recent works by Daniel Brewbaker, Michael Gilbertson, Zachary Patten, Behzad Ranjbaran, and Christopher Theofanidis. Musica Sacra's community engagement initiative, in partnership with schools and social service organizations in the New York metropolitan area, reflects its dedication to educating students in the appreciation and history of choral music. In addition, Musica Sacra presents informational sessions for adult audiences to help contextualize their concert experience. Musica Sacra made its New York Philharmonic debut in the live to film presentation of 2001: A Space Odyssey, conducted by then Music Director Alan Gilbert as part of The Art of the Score in September 2013. Kent Tritle is one of America's leading choral conductors. In addition to presiding over Musica Sacra, he is director of cathedral music and organist at The Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine and music director of the Oratorio Society of New York. He is also director of choral activities and chair of the organ department at the Manhattan School of Music and a member of the graduate faculty of The Juilliard School. An acclaimed organ virtuoso, Mr. Tritle is the organist of the New York Philharmonic and the American Symphony Orchestra. His 2017-18 season is highlighted by the World Premieres of two works with the Oratorio Society of New York: Sanctuary Road, an oratorio about the Underground Railroad with music by Paul Moravec and libretto by Mark Campbell, commissioned by the OSNY, and Behzad Ranjbaran's We Are One. Previously, Kent Tritle conducted the Sacred Music in a Sacred Space series at the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola (1989-2011), was music director of the Emmy-nominated Dessoff Choirs (1996-2004), and hosted The Choral Mix with Kent Tritle on WQXR (2010-14).

Alec Baldwin (Artistic Advisor of The Art of the Score) is the Radio Host of the New York Philharmonic. Since 1980 Mr. Baldwin has appeared in numerous productions on stage, in films, and on television. He has received a Tony nomination (A Streetcar Named Desire, 1992) and an Oscar nomination (The Cooler, 2004), and has won two Emmy Awards, three Golden Globes, and seven consecutive Screen Actors Guild Awards for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series for his role on NBC's 30 Rock. His films include The Hunt for Red October, Glengarry Glen Ross, Malice, The Edge, It's Complicated, Blue Jasmine, Still Alice, Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation, and Boss Baby, among many others. Alec Baldwin earned a bachelor of fine arts degree from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts in 1994, and received an honorary doctorate in 2010. He is co-chairman of the Board of the Hamptons International Film Festival. He is the author of two books, A Promise to Ourselvesand his memoir, Nevertheless. He serves on numerous boards related to the arts, the environment, and progressive politics. Mr. Baldwin is married to author and fitness expert Hilaria Thomas Baldwin. They have three children, Carmen Gabriela Baldwin, Rafael Thomas Baldwin, and Leonardo Angel Charles Baldwin. His eldest child is his daughter Ireland Baldwin. Alec Baldwin hosts ABC's Match Game, the classic television game show; a portion of his proceeds are donated to charity. He is also the host of the Turner Classic Movies series The Essentials.

Murray Abraham is currently appearing in The New Group's production of David Rabe's Good for Otto. He has narrated concerts in Chicago, San Francisco, Detroit, and Prague, as well as many in New York City. Mr. Abraham's film and television credits include The Grand Budapest Hotel, Isle of Dogs, Inside Llewyn Davis, Homeland, The Good Fight, Louie, and Larry David's Curb Your Enthusiasm. He recently starred in Daniel Kehlmann's The Mentor in London, and has performed the plays of Sophocles, Euripides, Marlowe, Shakespeare, Molière, Pirandello, Rostand, Beckett, Miller, Albee, Brecht, Mamet, Chekhov, Pinter, and Kushner. He made his New York acting debut as a Macy's Santa, and has performed more Terrence McNally plays than any other actor. Mr. Abraham's experimental theater credits include works by Pina Bausch, Joe Chaikin, Richard Foreman, Andrei Serban, and Time and Space Ltd. His honors include an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, two Obies, the Moscow Art Theatre Stanislavski Award, and the Theater Hall of Fame. His book on A Midsummer Night's Dream was published by Faber & Faber in 2005. F. Murray Abraham is the spokesperson for the The Multifaith Alliance for Syrian Refugees. He made his New York Philharmonic debut in May 2005 as the narrator in Stravinsky's L'Histoire du soldat, conducted by Pinchas Zukerman. He most recently appeared in December 2007 as part of an Inside the Music presentation of Shostakovich's Symphony No. 4, conducted by Andrey Boreyko and with narrator and Creative Director Gerard McBurney.

Insights at the Atrium Speakers
Michael Beckerman, The Leonard Bernstein Scholar-in-Residence at the New York Philharmonic for the 2017-18 season (a role he previously served in during the 2016-17 season), is Carroll and Milton Petrie Chair and Collegiate Professor of Music at New York University. He has written articles on such subjects as film scoring; music of the Roma (Gypsies), Mozart, Brahms, exiled composers, and music in the camps; and many studies and several books on Czech topics, including Dvo?ák and His World (Princeton University Press, 1993), Janá?ek as Theorist (Pendragon Press, 1994), New Worlds of Dvo?ák (W.W. Norton, 2003), Janá?ek and His World (Princeton, 2004), and Martin?'s Mysterious Accident (Pendragon, 2007). He has been a frequent contributor to The New York Times and was a regular guest on Live From Lincoln Center and other television and radio programs in the United States, Europe, and Japan. Dr. Beckerman lectures nationally and internationally and has organized many concerts and symposia. He was awarded the Janá?ek Medal by the Czech Ministry of Culture, is a recipient of the Dvo?ák Medal, is a Laureate of the Czech Music Council, and has twice received the Deems Taylor Award. He was chair of the New York University Department of Music (2004-13), served as distinguished professor at Lancaster University (2011-15), and last year received an honorary doctorate from Palacký University in the Czech Republic.

The Leonard Bernstein Scholar-in-Residence at the New York Philharmonic position honors and recognizes the enduring contribution of Leonard Bernstein, the Orchestra's Music Director from 1958 to 1969 and subsequent Laureate Conductor. The position was created in the 2005-06 season to coincide with the 15th anniversary of Bernstein's death, on October 14, 1990. Charles Zachary Bornstein served as the first Leonard Bernstein Scholar-in-Residence, from 2005-06 through 2007-08. New York Philharmonic Program Annotator James M. Keller, The Leni and Peter May Chair, held the post in the 2008-09 season; baritone Thomas Hampson, in combination with the role of The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence, in 2009-10; Jack Gottlieb, in 2010-11 until his untimely passing in February 2011; Harvey Sachs, through the 2012-13 season; Carol J. Oja, through the 2014-15 season; and Matthew Mugmon in the 2015-16 season.

To post a comment, you must register and login.