Alan Gilbert News

The New York Philharmonic This Week - a two-hour, national, weekly radio program of concerts by the New York Philharmonic - continues the week of October 19 with a presentation from the Philharmonic's seventh annual residency in Vail, Colorado, as part of the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival. The concert program, from July 30, 2009, features Music Director Alan Gilbert leading the Orchestra in Mozart's Symphony No. 41, Jupiter, and Beethoven's Symphony No. 7. The final broadcast in October features a Summertime Classics program from July 7-8, 2009, with conductor Bramwell Tovey: J. Strauss II's Overture to The Gypsy Baron, Liszt's Piano Concerto No. 2 with soloist Simone Dinnerstein, Brahms's Hungarian Dances Nos. 4 and 10, and R. Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier Suite.

At a press conference in Tokyo on June 2nd, New York Philharmonic Music Director Designate Alan Gilbert and President and Executive Director Zarin Mehta announced the details of Asian Horizons: Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic, October 8-24, 2009.

Lincoln Center: Celebrating 50 Years, the first exhibition to focus exclusively on the evolution and influence of America's first performing arts center, will feature an extensive collection of some 400 historic and contemporary objects including photographs, ephemera, correspondence, costumes, set pieces, props and video recordings.

The New York Philharmonic has received a $2.4 million grant from the Leon Levy Foundation to digitize 1.3 million pages of material from its Archives, making them available to scholars, musicians, students, and the general public over the Internet. This will be the first phase of a comprehensive long-range project to digitize almost the entire New York Philharmonic Archives. The first phase, which is scheduled for completion in three years, will digitize documents, as well as a small sample of audio and video files, from the New York Philharmonic's International Era, 1943 to 1970. The project will launch with Leonard Bernstein's marked conducting scores, scheduled for availability online in spring 2010.

At a press conference in Tokyo today, New York Philharmonic Music Director Designate Alan Gilbert and President and Executive Director Zarin Mehta announced the details of Asian Horizons: Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic, October 8?24, 2009. This will be the Orchestra?s inaugural international concert tour under the leadership of Alan Gilbert, who will begin his tenure as Music Director in September 2009. Asian Horizons will consist of eleven concerts, spanning five Asian countries, with performances in Tokyo, Japan (a destination of special significance in light of Mr. Gilbert?s Japanese heritage); Seoul, Korea; Singapore; and the Philharmonic?s debut performances in Hanoi, Vietnam, and Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Pianist Emanuel Ax and violinists Frank Peter Zimmermann and Ye-Eun Choi (Philharmonic debut) are the featured soloists on the tour. Asian Horizons marks the fourth New York Philharmonic concert tour under the aegis of Credit Suisse, the Orchestra?s Global Sponsor, and the second in Asia.

The New York Philharmonic has added three concerts to its schedule, conducted by Music Director Alan Gilbert, with pianist Emanuel Ax as soloist, Friday and Saturday, October 30-31, 2009, at 8:00 p.m., and Saturday, October 31 at 2:00 p.m.

Operatic comedy at its most appealing opens the 2009/10 L.A. Opera season. A magic love potion and destiny decide the fate of a love triangle involving a small-town bumpkin, a dashing sergeant and the bewitching town flirt in one of opera's most popular comedies. Filled with light-hearted charm and bursting with feel-good laughs, Gaetano Donizetti's The Elixir of Love features effervescent Italian melodies and plenty of bel canto vocal fireworks.

Paul B. Guenther was named Chairman Emeritus of The Philharmonic-Symphony Society of New York, Inc., at a meeting of the New York Philharmonic Board of Directors on Wednesday, September 23, 2009. The honor was bestowed upon Mr. Guenther at the conclusion of his 13-year tenure as Chairman of the Philharmonic's Board of Directors. At the same meeting, Gary W. Parr officially assumed Chairmanship of the Board of Directors. Mr. Guenther shares his Emeritus title with former Philharmonic Chairman Carlos Moseley, who in his decades with the Orchestra also served as Director of Public Relations, Managing Director, and eventually the first-ever professional, salaried president of a major U.S. symphony orchestra. As Chairman Emeritus, Mr. Guenther will remain an active member of the Board.

The New York Philharmonic and Chicago?s WFMT Radio Network will launch the sixth season of the concert broadcast series, The New York Philharmonic This Week, beginning the week of September 28, 2009. Emmy Award-winning actor Alec Baldwin is the new host of the two-hour radio program, which is broadcast and syndicated nationally 52 weeks a year by the WFMT Radio Network.

Today the New York Philharmonic launches its 168th season and the tenure of Alan Gilbert as its new Music Director. The new era began with a crowd assembled at Avery Fisher Hall to attend the Free Dress Rehearsal, led by Mr. Gilbert and featuring opera star Renée Fleming, in preparation for the evening's Gala Opening Night Concert.

The New York Philharmonic is celebrating the centennial of the start of Gustav Mahler's tenure as its music director with an exhibit displaying letters from the composer/conductor to his newly-appointed New York Philharmonic Concertmaster, as well as a two-page sketch from the third movement of his Ninth Symphony and other memorabilia from Mahler's two-year tenure with the New York Philharmonic, the only symphonic orchestra directorship he ever held.

Alan Gilbert will launch the New York Philharmonic's 168th season's subscription concerts in his new role as Music Director, conducting works that reflect his interest in creating programs that feature established repertoire and new and lesser-known music in innovative contexts.

The New York Philharmonic and Credit Suisse, the Orchestra's Global Sponsor, will offer a Free Dress Rehearsal of the Opening Night program, which launches Alan Gilbert's tenure as the Orchestra's 25th music director, on Wednesday, September 16, 2009, at 9:45 a.m.

Alan Gilbert will become the 25th music director of the New York Philharmonic when he conducts the Opening Night Gala Concert of the Orchestra's 168th season, Wednesday, September 16, 2009, at 7:30 p.m.

The New York Philharmonic will open its doors to the public on Wednesday, September 16, 2009, at 9:45 a.m. for a free Open Rehearsal for the evening's concert, which will launch the Orchestra's 168th season, Alan Gilbert's inaugural season as the Philharmonic's 25th Music Director.

The New York Philharmonic will receive a $10 million gift from Henry R. Kravis in honor of his wife, Marie-Josée Kravis, to endow its new Composer-in-Residence position, a major initiative of Alan Gilbert's tenure as Music Director, which begins this month.

Operatic comedy at its most appealing opens the 2009/10 L.A. Opera season. A magic love potion and destiny decide the fate of a love triangle involving a small-town bumpkin, a dashing sergeant and the bewitching town flirt in one of opera's most popular comedies. Filled with light-hearted charm and bursting with feel-good laughs, Gaetano Donizetti's The Elixir of Love features effervescent Italian melodies and plenty of bel canto vocal fireworks.

The New York Philharmonic and Credit Suisse, the Orchestra's Global Sponsor, will offer a Free Dress Rehearsal of the Opening Night program, which launches Alan Gilbert's tenure as the Orchestra's 25th music director, on Wednesday, September 16, 2009, at 9:45 a.m.

Rotary International is joining violin virtuoso Itzhak Perlman and the world-renowned New York Philharmonic, led by Philharmonic Assistant Conductor Daniel Boico, to present the Concert to End Polio, a benefit performance supporting the global effort to eradicate this disabling childhood disease. The Concert to End Polio will take place on Wednesday, December 2, 2009, at 7:30 p.m. in Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, New York City. Program information will be announced at a later date.

Lincoln Center: Celebrating 50 Years, the first exhibition to focus exclusively on the evolution and influence of America's first performing arts center, will feature an extensive collection of some 400 historic and contemporary objects including photographs, ephemera, correspondence, costumes, set pieces, props and video recordings.