Yale in New York Announces 2013-14 Season, Featuring A SOLDIER'S TALE with Yale School of Drama, 4/6

Yale in New York has announced 2013-14 Season, the seventh season at Carnegie Hall. Two concerts showcase students, faculty, and alumni from one of the nation's great music schools. Plus Yale in New York's first collaboration between the Yale School of Music and Yale School of Drama.

THE LEGACY
OF PAUL HINDEMITH
Friday, November 22, 2013, 7:30 pm

Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall

Featuring works by Hindemith and Yale composers influenced by him

Music by HINDEMITH, ALVIN ETLER, LUKAS FOSS,
MITCH LEIGH, MEL POWELL, YEHUDI WYNER

Performers include Yale School of Music faculty
WILLIAM PURVIS, horn and WENDY SHARP, violin
YEHUDI WYNER, piano
and Yale School of Music students and alumni

A SOLDIER'S TALE
Sunday, April 6, 2014, 7:30 pm

Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall

This fully staged new production commemorates the 100th anniversary
of the outbreak of World War I with a new translation of
Stravinsky's L'histoire du Soldat by Liz Diamond

A collaboration with YALE SCHOOL OF DRAMA

Tony award winner & Yale alumnus MICHAEL CERVERIS
plays Narrator/The Devil

Stellar creative team includes Yale faculty members:
LIZ DIAMOND, Translator and Director
MICHAEL YEARGAN, Scenic Designer
ILONA SOMOGYI, Costume Designer
EMILY COATES, Choreographer

Also featuring Yale School of Music faculty
DAVID SHIFRIN, clarinet and ANI KAVAFIAN, violin
and Yale School of Music students

http://music.yale.edu/concerts/new-york/

PREVIEW PERFORMANCES IN NEW HAVEN, CT
Morse Recital Hall in Sprague Hall, Yale University, 470 College Street

"The Yale School of Music has established a formidable presence with its Yale in New York series at Carnegie Hall... mainly by presenting inventive programs of mostly new or unusual works."
- The New York Times

Yale School of Music is thrilled to announce its return to Carnegie Hall with theYALE IN NEW YORK 2013-14 Season. The series-now in its seventh year at Carnegie-has garnered a reputation for its creative and diverse programming, with frequent collaborations between Yale's distinguished faculty and its exceptional network of current students and alumni.

This season, two concerts focus on musical icons of the 20th century: THE LEGACY OF PAUL HINDEMITH on Friday, November 22, 2013 at 7:30pm; and a fully staged original production and translation of Igor Stravinsky's A SOLDIER'S TALE, in collaboration with Yale School of Drama on Sunday, April 6, 2014 at 7:30pm. Both events take place at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall.

The Yale School of Music will also present these programs as Preview Performances at Morse Recital Hall in New Haven at 8:00 pm on Thursday, November 21(Hindemith) and Tuesday, April 1 (Stravinsky).

At once an innovative composer and theorist and a passionate educator, Paul Hindemith (1895-1963) served on the Yale School of Music faculty from 1940-53 and left behind a spirit of invention and exploration that remains at the heart of Yale's program.The Legacy of Paul Hindemith commemorates sixty years since the composer's stay in New Haven and fifty years since his passing, with works from several periods of Hindemith's career as well as compositions by his students.

Igor Stravinsky's compositional development was in some ways not dissimilar to Hindemith's, as both found inspiration in the neoclassical after pursuing more unorthodox forms of modernism. A Soldier's Tale (L'histoire du Soldat), Stravinsky's bittersweet story of a common soldier's thwarted homecoming, was written as a direct response to the events of World War I, and premiered in 1918. Marking one hundred years since the outbreak of the war, Yale School of Music brings a contemporary perspective to Stravinsky's theatrical work with a new translation by acclaimed director Liz Diamond in a collaboration with Yale School of Drama.

THE LEGACY OF PAUL HINDEMITH

Thursday, November 21, 2013, 8:00 pm at Yale University's Sprague Hall
Friday, November 22, 2013, 7:30 pm at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall
Featuring music by Hindemith and Yale composers influenced by him
Fifty years after Hindemith's passing, Yale School of Music celebrates the influential composer as a leading voice in 20th century music and as an innovative pedagogue. A member of Yale's faculty for thirteen years, Hindemith developed unique approaches to music education and composition while cultivating a similarly adventurous spirit within his students. Hindemith helped establish the school's reputation as one of the leading programs in the country, and Yale honors this legacy with a program focusing on composers, faculty, and students who have felt this profound influence.

The Legacy of Paul Hindemith is a follow-up to last season's Yale in New York concert, "Hindemith: Master and Prankster," which showcased the humorous side of the composer's early works. This year's program features several Hindemith compositions from diverse chapters of his life. His quartet for four horns, written at Yale, will be introduced by Willie Ruff ('53BM, '54MM), who studied under Hindemith and performed in the composition's premiere. Two earlier works from the celebrated Opus 24 will be heard as well: Kleine Kammermusik for wind quintet, and the jazz-influenced Kleine Kammermusik No. 1 written for flute, clarinet, bassoon, trumpet, harmonium, piano, string quartet, and percussion.

In addition, the program features compositions from several of Hindemith's former students:
Alvin Etler (1913-1973), who joined the YSM faculty in 1942 as conductor of the Yale Bands, shared many artistic values with Hindemith; these values reached beyond pure musical aesthetic and advocated for a social relevance central to composition.
Lukas Foss (1922-2009) studied with Hindemith at Tanglewood in the summer of 1939 and then followed Hindemith to Yale, where he studied for one year. Foss also received an honorary degree from Yale in 1991.
Mitch Leigh ('51BM, '52MM) also embraced his teacher's philosophy of Gebrauchsmusik, or music within a broader context, as evidenced by his celebrated work as a theatrical composer for such productions as Man of La Mancha.
Mel Powell ('52BM) (1923-1998) was a jazz pianist prodigy who worked extensively with Benny Goodman. He was a serious composition student of Hindemith's at Yale (and classmate of Willie Ruff, who will speak at this concert). Powell was the founding dean of the music department of the California Institute of the Arts.
Yehudi Wyner ('50BA, '52BM, '53MM), yet another of Hindemith's students who has since enjoyed a fruitful career-and taught at the Yale School of Music from 1963-77-contributes to the program a piece written earlier this year entitled Concordance for piano and strings, which The Boston Globe called an "eloquently contemplative new work." Wyner will play the piano part in his own piece.

Committed to upholding both the innovations of the past and the possibilities of the future,The Legacy of Paul Hindemith connects this spirit of invention across generations.

Tickets at $20-$35 can be purchased beginning two months before the concert at the Carnegie Hall box office (57th Street and 7th Ave.), by calling CarnegieCharge at 212/247-7800, or at www.carnegiehall.org. Student and senior discounts are available.

PROGRAM
Paul Hindemith: Kleine Kammermusik, Op. 24, No. 2
Alvin Etler: Suite for Flute, Oboe, and Clarinet
Mitch Leigh: The Impossible Dream
Mel Powell: Woodwind Quintet
Paul Hindemith: Sonata for Four Horns
Yehudi Wyner: Concordance for piano and strings (2013) (New York Premiere)
Lukas Foss: Three American Pieces for violin and piano
Paul Hindemith: Kammermusik No. 1, Op. 24

PLAYERS
William Purvis, Yale faculty, horn
Wendy Sharp, Yale faculty, violin
Yehudi Wyner, piano
Yale Students

A SOLDIER'S TALE

Tuesday, April 1, 2014 at 8:00 pm at Yale University's Sprague Hall
Sunday, April 6, 2014, 7:30 pm at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall
Commemorating the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of World War I
with a new translation of Stravinsky's L'histoire du Soldat
A Soldier's Tale (L'histoire du Soldat) features a new translation by Liz Diamond, OBIE Award winning Resident Director at Yale Rep and Chair of the Directing Department at Yale School of Drama, who will stage the production in collaboration with award winning faculty members and students from the School of Drama.
The production is the first large-scale collaboration between the Yale School of Music and Yale School of Drama to be presented as part of the Yale in New York series, and is the first such collaboration to be performed at Carnegie Hall.

Tony Award winner Michael Cerveris, an alumnus of Yale College, joins A Soldier's Tale as narrator and devil. YSM Professor of Clarinet and the Practice of Chamber MusicDavid Shifrin will music direct. The production will feature scenic design by two-time Tony Award winner Michael Yeargan, Resident Set Designer at Yale Repertory Theatre and Co-Chair of the Design Department at the School of Drama; costumes by Ilona Somogyi, Costume Design Advisor at Yale Rep and a member of the School of Drama faculty; and choreography by Emily Coates, a lecturer in dance at Yale College and former New York City Ballet principal dancer.
"L'histoire du Soldat is a classic. While it's not the centenary of the work itself, it's the centenary of the event that significantly affected the creation of the work," explains Artistic Director David Shifrin.

The pairing of Yale's School of Music and School of Drama represents a broader philosophy of collaboration that is central to Yale's pedagogical model. The relationship between student and faculty in small chamber groups is nurtured at Yale; in A Soldier's Tale, a five-student ensemble will be led by world-renowned faculty members David Shifrin and Ani Kavafian.

"These programs are inspired by the plethora of materials in Yale's cherished libraries and collections, as well as newly created works," says the Dean of the Yale School of Music, Robert Blocker. Whether featuring classic or contemporary compositions, theYale in New York series emphasizes works that resonate with audiences both in terms of imaginative musical content and social relevance.

Tickets at $30-$45 can be purchased beginning two months before the concert at the Carnegie Hall box office (57th Street and 7th Ave.), by calling CarnegieCharge at 212/247-7800, or at www.carnegiehall.org. Student and senior discounts are available.

PROGRAM
Stravinsky: A Soldier's Tale

PLAYERS
Michael Cerveris, Narrator & The Devil
Liz Diamond, Director

David Shifrin, clarinet
Ani Kavafian, violin
Yale School of Music students

Michael Yeargan, Scenic Designer
Ilona Somogyi, Costume Designer
Emily Coates, Choreographer
TBA, Lighting Designer
Hannah Sullivan, Production Stage Manager

YALE IN NEW YORK

http://music.yale.edu/concerts/concerts/new-york/

"A fascinatingly varied series featuring faculty,
students and alumni of the distinguished university."
- The New York Times

Launched in 2007, Yale in New York is the acclaimed series in which distinguished faculty members-many of them famous soloists-share the limelight with exceptional alumni and students on Carnegie Hall's stages, capturing the intense collaboration found on every level at the Yale School of Music. Highlights of past seasons include: the classical legacy of Benny Goodman; undiscovered Prokofiev works; the Oral History of American Music project; Penderecki conducting Penderecki; Sleeping Giant; Robert Mealy's Yale Baroque Ensemble playing experimental 17th century music; a Prokofiev piano mini-marathon with Boris Berman; music for low instruments; Tokyo String Quartet; and Hindemith the Master and Prankster. The series is curated by David Shifrin.

"Constantly fresh and surprising, with the spontaneity of improvisation.
It was chamber music at its best."
- Chamber Music Magazine

"The performance was sensational: well prepared, solidly and precisely executed, and rippling with high-energy percussion and brass playing and a fluid interplay of polished strings as well as winds. If you were looking for a demonstration of how completely a conductor can convey an unusual work's ideas in all their complexity and beauty, and inspire his musicians to play the piece as if it is the most vivid, original music ever written, you could hardly have done better than this."
- The New York Times

"Who can resist it? An evening of repertoire you've always wanted to hear but nobody offers? Well, just ask the Yale School of Music, which has been making its Yale in New York season appearances with just that strategy, and its appeal is-despite the city's ferocious competition-truly irresistible."
- Don't Miss It Blog

"Even from the opening few bars, the students not only sounded technically impressive, but also displayed an incredible sensitivity to the style. Indeed, the Philharmonia Orchestra of Yale sounded more comfortable with certain stylistic elements of baroque music than some of today's fully professional ensembles."
- BachTrack

"Some of the most satisfying music-making...heard in the past half-century.
- Oberon's Grove

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