The Orchestra Now Concludes Second Season With Three Concerts

The Orchestra Now (T?N), will conclude its 2016-2017 season with three performances in May. Starting on May 5 at Jazz at Lincoln Center's Rose Theater, T?N - led by Oleg Caetani - will present a program includingSchubert's Symphony No. 3 and Shostakovich's Symphony No. 15. On May 21 at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, music director Leon Botstein will conduct Ives' Three Places in New England and lead the discussion and audience Q&A on the relationship between Ives' music and the artwork of Marsden Hartley. Fabio Luisi will be on the podium at Bard College's Fisher Center on May 28 for T?N's season finale with Beethoven's Violin Concerto featuring violinist David Chan and Brahms' Symphony No. 4.

T?N at The Rose Theater Series

This series at Jazz at Lincoln Center's Frederick P. Rose Hall will culminate in an evening of coincidental alliteration as works of Schoenberg, Schubert, and Shostakovich are performed.Oleg Caetani, renowned internationally for his deep knowledge of Shostakovich's repertoire, will lead the Orchestra in Shostakovich's Symphony No. 15, preceded by Schoenberg's Chamber Symphony No. 1 and Schubert's Symphony No. 3.

Schubert & Shostakovich
Fri, May 5, 2017 at 7:30 pm
Oleg Caetani, conductor
Schoenberg: Chamber Symphony No. 1
Schubert: Symphony No. 3
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 15

Tickets from $25 may be purchased online at www.jazz.org, by calling 212-721-6500, or at the Frederick P. Rose Hall box office at Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Sight & Sound Series at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium

This series' closing 2016-17 chapter explores the connections between Charles Ives' music and the artwork of painter Marsden Hartley with Leon Botstein conducting Ives' Three Places in New England. In this orchestral set - one of the first American pieces played outside of the country - Connecticut-born composer Charles Ives sought to evoke the atmosphere and history of three locations in New England through music. His contemporary, Maine-born painter Marsden Hartley, was himself deeply stirred by music. The artist returned to Maine in his final years and applied his modernist aesthetic to its landscapes.

This event also includes a discussion, illustrated with on-screen artworks and orchestral excerpts, and an audience Q&A led by Leon Botstein, in addition to the full music performance. It is presented in conjunction with the exhibition Marsden Hartley's Maine, on view at The Met Breuer March 14 - June 18, 2017.

Ives & Hartley: Landscapes of Modernism

Sun. May 21, 2017 at 2 pm

The Orchestra Now

Leon Botstein, conductor
Ives' Three Places in New England and the artwork of Marsden Hartley

Tickets from $30 may be purchased online at www.metmuseum.org/sightandsound; call 212-535-7710 for more information.

Special Concert at the Fisher Center for the Performing Arts

For the season finale concert, T?N will host Fabio Luisi, principal conductor of the Metropolitan Opera, general music director of the Zurich Opera, and soon-to-be music director of the Opera di Firenze. Luisi, who is also the winner of a 2012 Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording, will lead The Orchestra Now in Beethoven's Violin Concerto featuring violinist David Chan. The season will come to a close with Brahms' Symphony No. 4.

Fabio Luisi Conducts Brahms

Sun. May 28, 2017 at 1 pm
Fabio Luisi, conductor

David Chan, violin
Beethoven:Violin Concerto
Brahms: Symphony No. 4

Tickets from $25 may be purchased by calling the box office at 845-758-7900, in person at the Fisher Center box office, or by visiting the website at fishercenter.bard.edu.

The Orchestra Now

Founded in 2015, The Orchestra Now (T?N) is an innovative pre-professional orchestra and master's degree program at Bard College that is preparing a new generation of musicians to break down barriers between modern audiences and great orchestral music of the past and present. Under the leadership of conductor, educator, and music historian Leon Botstein, T?N mines the wealth of underperformed repertoire, reimagines traditional concert formats, and strives to make the experience of the performers a part of the listeners' experience. At a T?N concert, musicians and audience inspire one another, each following their curiosity with a shared sense of adventure.

The musicians of T?N hail from across the U.S. and eleven other countries: Australia, Canada, China, France, Hungary, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Spain, Taiwan and Venezuela. In addition to a concert series at their home base-the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College-they perform multiple concerts each season at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, and offer complimentary concerts at venues across the boroughs of New York City in the Around Town series. At The Metropolitan Museum of Art they join Leon Botstein in the series Sight & Sound as he explores the places where musical and visual expression meet, pairing orchestral works with masterpieces from the museum's collection.

In addition to Mr. Botstein and T?N's associate conductor and academic director, James Bagwell, guest conductors in the first two seasons include Jindong Cai, Federico Cortese, JoAnn Falletta, Fabio Luisi, Gerard Schwarz, and Zachary Schwartzman.

For more information, visit theorchestranow.org.

Leon Botstein

Leon Botstein brings a renowned career as both a conductor and educator to his role as music director of The Orchestra Now, the pre-professional orchestra and master's degree program founded by Bard College. He has been music director of the American Symphony Orchestra since 1992, artistic co-director of Bard SummerScape and the Bard Music Festival since their creation, and president of Bard College since 1975. He was the music director of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra from 2003-2011, and is now conductor laureate. He will assume the artistic directorship of Grafenegg, Austria in 2018. Mr. Botstein is also a frequent guest conductor with orchestras around the globe, has made numerous recordings, and is a prolific author and music historian. He is the editor of the prestigious The Musical Quarterly, and has received many honors for his contributions to music.

More info online at LeonBotsteinMusicRoom.com.

Photo: Richard Termaine

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