The New York Philharmonic

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Musical Postcards

Throughout this 175th anniversary season, the New York Philharmonic has been celebrating its hometown, as well as exploring the meaning of home, through The New World Initiative.

This past Saturday, a very special Saturday Matinee concert gave audiences a particularly resonant look at the idea of “home” when Philharmonic musicians and Teaching Artists performed works written by students of the Very Young Composer’s Program (VYC), aged 9–22, some of which were inspired by original compositions by Middle Eastern children in refugee camps.

The concert was a result of the Musical Postcards program, through which VYC participants correspond with children in other countries and ultimately compose music in reaction to pieces written by their counterparts abroad. Works on Saturday’s program included “Musical Postcards” from New York composers to those in Venezuela, Israel, and Syria as well as a work by an Afghan refugee.

Jennifer Sime, Senior Vice President, United States Programs, of the International Rescue Committee, opened the concert with remarks about the current refugee crisis.

As Jon Deak, Artistic Director of VYC, said: “The spirit of these displaced children inspires us. Our New York kids have expressed solidarity by answering their counterparts with their own music.”

The works performed were:

Claudia Meléndez (Venezuela) El Secreto

Cassandra Stevens (New York) Where Is Home?

Naama Rolnick (Israel) Keep Walking

Chi-Chi Ezekwenna (New York) Sequence of War

Ram Shanati (Syria) Watar (String)

Nina Moske (New York) 11,000,000

Milad Yousufi (Afghanistan) Freedom

Above, New York Philharmonic musicians and Teaching Artists who performed pose with (left to right): Milad Yousufi, Naama Rolnick, Nina Moske, Cassandra Stevens, and Chi-Chi Ezekwenna.   

The performers, all of whom donated their services, encouraged the audience to reach out to children in need, naming three possible organizations to support: Doctors Without Borders, New York Philharmonic Education Fund, and International Rescue Committee.

“The healing and creative power of children is a wonder to behold. We feel that now, more than ever, it is important to listen to them,” Deak said. 

(Photo: Chris Lee)

New World Composition Challenge Winners: What’s New with The New World Initiative

The votes are in! Eleven winners of the New World Composition Challenge have been chosen.

Gregor Huebner will take the grand prize of $1,000 for his piece New World, Nov. 9th, 2016, a quartet based on themes from the second movement of Dvořák’s New World Symphony and influenced by last year’s presidential election. Michael Pineda, from the Bronx, Yazmin Morales-Vincente (Brooklyn), Luke Cissell (Manhattan), Joel Pierson (Queens), and Sabrina Isaac (Staten Island) are the second-place winners; each will receive $500. Five honorable mentions will receive $100: Teni Apelian, Dionne McClain-Freeney and Allison Sniffin, Miky von der Nahmer and Zack Childers, Norbert and Karen Stachel, and Sammy Sussman. Congratulations to all!

In other New World Initiative (NWI) news, six NWI participating ensembles have been chosen to perform on stage at the Concerts in the Parks, June 13–18, as part of Share the Stage, which presents local musicians performing in their home boroughs before the Philharmonic’s concerts. BombaYo will perform in Van Cortlandt Park, The Ebony Hillbillies and Zulal will perform in Central Park, The Queens Cartoonists and Slum Suit will perform in Cunningham Park, and The Side Project will take the stage in Prospect Park.

Finally, Alan Gilbert and the Philharmonic’s critically acclaimed performance of Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9, From the New World is now available for download from all major download services, including  iTunes, Amazon, and is available for streaming on Spotify. The symphony was recorded live during the opening week of the 2016–17 season.

Don’t miss the conclusion of The New World Initiative in the Parks, June 13–16, including your chance to play and sing along with the New York Philharmonic. Click here for more information.

New York Philharmonic Presents Leonard Bernstein’s Marked Mahler Score to Vienna Philharmonic

 

This morning in Vienna, the New York Philharmonic and the family of Leonard Bernstein presented the Vienna Philharmonic with Bernstein’s marked score of Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde, in celebration of the Austrian orchestra’s 175th birthday. Above: New York Philharmonic Archivist / Historian Barbara Haws; Andreas Grossbauer, President (and violin) of the Vienna Philharmonic; and Wolfgang Plank, Director of Archives (and oboe) of the Vienna Philharmonic, at the Vienna Philharmonic’s new Archives.

Following his 1966 Vienna Philharmonic debut, Bernstein kept the score, which he had obtained from the Vienna Philharmonic’s Archives. He treasured it for the rest of his life; on his death it was transferred to the New York Philharmonic Archives as part of the collection of his marked conducting scores.

The New York Philharmonic and Vienna Philharmonic are both celebrating their 175th anniversaries this season. The New York Philharmonic presented the gift at the Vienna opening of Vienna and New York: 175 Years of Two Philharmonics, a joint exhibit of archival material drawn from both orchestras’ histories that will be on display at Vienna’s Haus der Musik until January 2018 (having previously been displayed at the Austrian Cultural Forum in New York).

Explore a virtual tour of the exhibition from when it was on view in New York.

(Photo: Wiener Philharmoniker, Terry Linke)

Dvořák 9 on Kazoo? What’s New with The New World Initiative

If you haven’t heard the Largo from Dvořák’s Ninth Symphony played on kazoos, see this extremely clever and fun video.

As part of The New World Initiative — the Philharmonic’s season-long, citywide immersion in Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9, From the New World — the cartoon-loving jazz band The Queen’s Cartoonists arranged a smart, jazzy version of Dvořák’s New World Symphony — cycling through the work’s main themes in two minutes using kazoos, upright bass, saxophone, and more.

There are still many opportunities to hear this work performed as part of The New World Initiative. Upcoming performances include a joint concert with the highly acclaimed students of Opus 118 Harlem School of Music and The Harlem Chamber Players, a musical saw performance by Natalia “Saw Lady” Paruz, a community chamber concert featuring two arrangements of the Largo hosted by The Broadway Bach Ensemble, and a new work by Bruce Adolphe inspired by the New World Symphony titled Dvorshock performed by the International Chamber Orchestra of America, paired with maya + rouvelle’s live, virtual-reality performance.

More than 1,000 musicians from all five boroughs have been spreading the sounds of Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9, From the New World throughout the city: from NYC classrooms and churches to concert halls and subway stations. It’s not too late to join in the fun! Visit newworldinitiative.com to learn more.

Young People’s Concerts Bring The New World Initiative to Kids

 

Saturday capped an inspiring week in which our renowned Young People’s Concerts and Young People’s Concerts for Schools intersected powerfully with The New World Initiative, our season-long, citywide project revolving around Dvořák’s New World Symphony and its theme of home through performances, community outreach, and education projects on the occasion of the Philharmonic’s 175th anniversary season.

More than 12,000 students and teachers attended the school concerts, and more than 2,000 attended the public concert on Saturday — nearly 15,000 in all were at the seven concerts. Read More...

Watch Beethoven’s ‘Emperor’ Concerto and Brahms’s Third

From the concert on January 14, 2017: Music Director Alan Gilbert conducts the New York Philharmonic in Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5, Emperor, with soloist Stephen Hough, and Brahms’s Symphony No. 3.

This video is taken from a live broadcast on Facebook, the Philharmonic’s second. The host was Terrance McKnight, and the director was Habib Azar.

Enjoy!

The New World Initiative Events in December

 

It’s December, but this year New York City rings with more than sleigh bells and carols. Dvořák abounds, thanks to The New World Initiative, a centerpiece of our 175th season celebration, which offers New Yorkers the chance to connect with each other through a wide variety of performances of Dvořák’s New World Symphony, a work associated with the Orchestra since its premiere and so a piece of the city’s cultural history.

We kicked it off in September, with our Opening Gala Concert (you can see it here). Now, four other NYC–based groups are performing excerpts, especially “Goin’ Home,” based on the memorable English horn melody heard in the sympho­ny’s Largo.

On December 4 the Greenwich Village Orchestra’s autism-friendly Annual Family Concert features an audience sing-along of “Goin’ Home.”

Head to Brooklyn on December 6 and 9 for the Borough of Manhattan Community College Select Chorus’s premier­e of an original choral piece based on it, written by Eun Ho Kim, its composer-in-residence.

On December 10 Corona Youth Music Project is performing an arrangement of the symphony’s 4th movement.

And on the 15th the middle- and upper-school choirs, orchestras, and jazz ensem­bles of the Berkeley Carroll School will perform “Goin’ Home” in the school’s win­ter concert.

Check out these and future events, as well as videos of the NWI performances to date, at newworldinitiative.com.

New York and Vienna Philharmonics Celebrate 175th Anniversaries with Joint Exhibit

New York Philharmonic Vienna Philharmonic 

Eighteen forty-two was a good year for orchestras. As it happens, both the New York Philharmonic and Vienna Philharmonic were founded that year — about eight months, and 4,000 miles, apart.

Both celebrating their 175th anniversaries this season, the New York Philharmonic and Vienna Philharmonic will present a joint exhibit, Vienna and New York: 175 Years of Two Philharmonics, featuring archival material from both orchestras. You can catch it in New York February 23–March 10 at the Austrian Cultural Forum New York. The exhibit will then open in Vienna on March 28 at the Haus der Musik. (The New York Philharmonic performs at Vienna’s Konzerthaus the next day as part of its EUROPE / SPRING 2017 tour.)

Among the many treasures to be featured are documents written at the founding of each orchestra, including a call for musicians written by Vienna Philharmonic founder Otto Nicolai, and the New York Philharmonic’s “Constitution of the Philharmonic Society of New York,” establishing the Orchestra’s operating principles. Also on display: historic conducting scores, programs, photos from performances and tours, and letters from composers and conductors.