FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 4, 2015 Contact: Katherine E

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 4, 2015
Contact: Katherine E. Johnson
(212) 875-5718; [email protected]
NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC YOUNG PEOPLE’S CONCERTS
SUPER SONIC MUSIC BOX: “Orchestra Transformed”
Saturday, February 21, 2015
SILK ROAD ENSEMBLE To Perform
Assistant Conductor Courtney Lewis To Conduct
Philharmonic Vice President, Education, Theodore Wiprud To Host
Philharmonic Musicians To Wear Clothing Provided by UNIQLO in Colors Specific to Their Sections, and
UNIQLO and NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC To Conduct CLOTHING DRIVE
At All 2014–15 Season Young People’s Concerts
The New York Philharmonic Young People’s Concerts (YPCs) continue Saturday, February 21,
2015, at 2:00 p.m. with the program “Orchestra Transformed,” the third in this season’s series,
SUPER SONIC MUSIC BOX, exploring the variety of symphonic music and its interpretation.
Featuring the Silk Road Ensemble, which is marking its 15th anniversary season, the concert
celebrates influences and instruments from different cultures through a variety of works:
Mozart’s Overture to The Abduction from the Seraglio; Cristina Pato and Wu Tong’s Fanfare for
Gaita, Suona, and Brass; and selections from Borodin’s Prince Igor, The Silk Road Suite, and
Osvaldo Golijov’s Rose of the Winds. Assistant Conductor Courtney Lewis will lead the
performance, and Vice President, Education, Theodore Wiprud will host the event.
UNIQLO, the global clothing retailer, is sponsoring the Philharmonic’s 2014–15 season of
YPCs, dressing the Orchestra for all YPCs this season in UNIQLO clothing with colors
identifying each orchestral section. Children are invited to come to the concerts dressed in the
color of their favorite section: strings will wear red or pink, woodwinds green, brass blue,
percussion orange, and harp and keyboards light blue. In addition, UNIQLO and the New York
Philharmonic will be conducting a clothing drive at all of this season’s YPCs, at which
attendees can leave gently used clothes in bins placed around Avery Fisher Hall; the clothing
will be distributed directly to people in need living in New York City Homeless Shelters by
UNIQLO volunteers.
Attendees are invited to come early to meet Philharmonic musicians and take part in YPC
Overtures, pre-concert activities inside the hall, such as live performances by ensembles of
Philharmonic musicians of works by Very Young Composers inspired by the YPC’s thematic
content, and videos projected on screen above the stage, including a tutorial on folding origami
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while audience members do so from their seats. The youngest audience members are invited to
the Helen Huntington Hull Room to hear stories read by members of the New York
Philharmonic Volunteer Council.
A special podcast for children is released the week before each YPC; it is available at
nyphil.org/ypc, as is TuneUp, the children’s concert program that includes activities related to
the event.
The Silk Road Ensemble and Yo-Yo Ma is marking its Philharmonic debut, led by Music
Director Alan Gilbert, February 19–21, 2015, in concerts celebrating the group’s 15th
anniversary.
Artists
Courtney Lewis began his tenure as Assistant Conductor of the New York Philharmonic in
September 2014, and made his debut with the Orchestra leading a Young People’s Concert in
November 2014. He also serves as music director of the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra, a
position he assumed in the 2014–15 season. Mr. Lewis’s previous posts include associate
conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra, where he made his subscription debut in the 2011–12
season, and Dudamel Fellow with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, where he made his debut in the
fall of 2011. From 2008 to 2014 Mr. Lewis was the music director of Boston’s Discovery
Ensemble, a chamber orchestra dedicated not only to giving concerts of contemporary and
established repertoire at the highest level of musical and technical excellence, but also to
bringing live music into the least privileged parts of Boston with workshops in local schools. He
made his major American orchestral debut in November 2008 with the St. Louis Symphony, and
has since appeared with the Atlanta Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles
Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony, Naples Philharmonic, Alabama
Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic, RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, and Ulster
Orchestra (for a series of BBC Radio 3 Invitation Concerts, as well as on subscription). Recent
and upcoming engagements include debuts with the Lausanne Chamber and Vancouver, Detroit,
North Carolina, and Edmonton symphony orchestras, as well as returns to the Minnesota
Orchestra, Alabama Symphony, and RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland. Born in
Belfast, Northern Ireland, Courtney Lewis graduated from the University of Cambridge where he
studied composition with Robin Holloway and clarinet with Dame Thea King. After completing
a master’s degree with a focus on the late music of György Ligeti, he attended the Royal
Northern College of Music, where his teachers included Sir Mark Elder and Clark Rundell.
Theodore Wiprud — New York Philharmonic Vice President, Education, The Sue B. Mercy
Chair — has directed the Orchestra’s Education Department since 2004. The Philharmonic’s
education programs include the historic Young People’s Concerts (which he hosts), Very Young
People’s Concerts, School Partnership Program (one of the largest in-school programs among
U.S. orchestras), Very Young Composers, adult education programs, and many special projects.
Mr. Wiprud has also created innovative programs as director of education and community
engagement at the Brooklyn Philharmonic and the American Composers Orchestra; served as
associate director of The Commission Project; and assisted the Orchestra of St. Luke’s on its
education programs. He has worked as a teaching artist and resident composer in a number of
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New York City schools. From 1990 to 1997 he directed national grant-making programs at Meet
the Composer. Prior to that position, he taught at and directed the music department for Walnut
Hill School, a pre-professional arts boarding school near Boston. Mr. Wiprud is also an active
composer, whose Violin Concerto (Katrina) was recently released on Champs Hill Records. His
music for orchestra, chamber ensembles, and voice is published by Allemar Music. Theodore
Wiprud holds degrees from Harvard and Boston Universities and studied at Cambridge
University as a visiting scholar.
Since 2000 the Silk Road Ensemble has been redefining classical music for 21st-century
audiences. Representing a global array of cultures, Silk Road Ensemble members co-create art,
performances, and ideas. Cellist Yo-Yo Ma established the nonprofit organization Silkroad and
the Ensemble to explore the role of the arts in fostering cross-cultural understanding, deepening
learning, and promoting innovation. Silk Road Ensemble performers and composers hail from
more than 20 countries. Passionate about learning from one another’s traditions, these rooted
explorers perform on instruments ranging from world percussion to Western strings to the
Chinese pipa (lute) and sheng (mouth organ), the Japanese shakuhachi (bamboo flute), the
Galician gaita (bagpipe), Indian tabla (paired drums), and Persian kamancheh (spike fiddle),
among others. Under the artistic direction of Mr. Ma, these storytelling musicians celebrate the
multiplicity of approaches to music from around the world. They also develop new repertoire
that responds to the new realities of our global society. In engaging, high-energy performances,
the Silk Road Ensemble draws on a rich tapestry of traditions that make up our shared cultural
heritage, creating a new musical language — a uniquely engaging and accessible encounter
between the foreign and the familiar that reflects our many-layered contemporary identities. The
Silk Road Ensemble has performed in more than 100 cities in over 30 countries, in venues
including Carnegie Hall, Suntory Hall, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, and the John F. Kennedy
Center for the Performing Arts. Ensemble performances have also highlighted the Nobel Prize
celebrations in Stockholm, the Sir Bani Yas Forum in the United Arab Emirates, the Special
Olympics in Shanghai, the Lucerne Festival in Switzerland, and London’s BBC Proms. The
Ensemble has recorded five albums, including the most recent CD, A Playlist Without Borders,
and Live From Tanglewood DVD. The Sound of Silk, a documentary about the ensemble by the
Academy Award–winning filmmaker Morgan Neville, is in production and is expected to
premiere in 2015.
***
MetLife Foundation is the Lead Corporate Underwriter for the New York Philharmonic’s
Education Programs.
***
Additional support by The Theodore H. Barth Foundation.
***
The New York Philharmonic is dressed by UNIQLO for Young People’s Concerts.
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***
Programs are supported, in part, by public funds from New York City Department of Cultural
Affairs in partnership with the City Council, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the
New York State Council on the Arts, with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the
New York State Legislature.
***
Tickets
Individual tickets for the Young People’s Concerts are $13 to $40. All tickets include admission
to YPC Overtures. Tickets may be purchased online at nyphil.org or by calling (212) 875-5656,
10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Monday through Friday; 1:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. Saturday; and noon to
5:00 p.m. Sunday. Tickets may also be purchased at the Avery Fisher Hall Box Office. The Box
Office opens at 10:00 a.m. Monday through Saturday, and at noon on Sunday. On performance
evenings, the Box Office closes one-half hour after performance time; other evenings it closes at
6:00 p.m. To determine ticket availability, call the New York Philharmonic’s Customer
Relations Department at (212) 875-5656.
For press tickets, call Lanore Carr in the New York Philharmonic Communications Department
at (212) 875-5714, or e-mail her at [email protected].
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New York Philharmonic Young People’s Concerts®
Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center
SUPER SONIC MUSIC BOX: “Orchestra Transformed”
Saturday, February 21, 2015, 2:00 p.m.
YPC Overtures — 1:00 p.m.
Courtney Lewis, conductor
Silk Road Ensemble
Theodore Wiprud, host
MOZART
Cristina PATO and Wu TONG
BORODIN
VARIOUS
Osvaldo GOLIJOV
Overture to The Abduction from the Seraglio
Fanfare for Gaita, Suona, and Brass
Selection from Prince Igor
Selections from The Silk Road Suite
Selection from Rose of the Winds
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ALL PROGRAMS SUBJECT TO CHANGE
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contacting the Communications Department at (212) 875-5700; [email protected].