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Lincoln Center Announces 
2017 Mostly Mozart Festival
July 25–August 20

 

Pictured (L to R): Dark Mirror, Louis Langrée, Young People Chorus

 

51st annual festival showcases performances by Joshua Bell, Jeremy Denk,

Steven Isserlis, Gil Shaham, Danish String Quartet, Gianandrea Noseda,

Les Arts Florissants, Iván Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra,

Edward Gardner, Andrew Manze, International Contemporary Ensemble, and others

 

Kit Armstrong, Baldur Brönnimann, Kirill Gerstein, Víkingur Ólafsson, Beatrice Rana, 
Ksenija Sidorova, So Percussion, and the Young People’s Chorus of New York City

 to make Mostly Mozart debuts

 

Focus on Franz Schubert marked by production of

Netia Jones’s The Dark Mirror: Zender’s Winterreise, performances of

Symphonies No. 5 and No. 9, free Schubertiade Remix evening, and much more

 

Louis Langrée, Renée and Robert Belfer Music Director,

extends contract through 2020

 

 


New York, NY (April 19, 2017) — Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival, one of New York’s premiere summer performance series, was announced today by Ehrenkranz Artistic Director Jane Moss and Renée and Robert Belfer Music Director Louis Langrée. Building on last year’s 50th anniversary season, this year’s festival features appearances by world-renowned musicians, exciting new voices, memorable performances by the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, and innovative theatrical presentations from July 25 to August 20.

 

“One of the great qualities of Mozart’s genius is his boundless ability to inspire and connect us to art spanning all eras and locations. This season provides us with a chance to rediscover favorite pieces, as well as unearth connections between his music and that of his predecessors, contemporaries, and those who followed,” said Moss.

 

Two staged productions, one of which is a U.S. premiere and the other a much-heralded revival, highlight this year’s Festival. Netia Jones, the theatrical visionary behind the White Light festival’s staging of Curlew River, returns to stage an orchestration of Schubert’s Winterreise by contemporary German composer Hans Zender. The production, The Dark Mirror: Zender’s Winterreise, will feature tenor Ian Bostridge and the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), conducted by Baldur Brönnimann, in his festival debut. In addition, the Budapest Festival Orchestra and its music director, Iván Fischer, return with their acclaimed production of Don Giovanni, a highlight of the 2011 festival.

 

The Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra will present eight programs, four under the baton of Louis Langrée. The special opening-night program, The Singing Heart, will nod to the festival’s namesake composer, while embracing diverse musical traditions in a program that interweaves movements of Mozart’s “Haffner” Symphony with choral works from around the world and of the same era. The Young People’s Chorus of New York City will perform traditional and folk melodies in its festival debut, and the program culminates with Beethoven’s exuberant Choral Fantasy with pianist Kit Armstrong, the Concert Chorale of New York, and vocal soloists.

 

Also joining the orchestra this summer will be guest conductors Edward GardnerAndrew Manze, and Gianandrea Noseda; and soloists Jeremy DenkKirill GersteinBeatrice Rana (New York debut), Gil ShahamSo Percussion, and Thomas ZehetmairJoshua Bell and Steven Isserlis, in a joint performance.

 

The soulful genius of Schubert is a special focus of this year’s festival. In addition to performing in The Dark Mirror: Zender’s Winterreise, ICE, in its seventh year as the festival’s artists-in-residence, will present creative responses to Schubert’s work at a free event, Schubertiade Remix. The Festival Orchestra will perform Schubert’s Symphonies No. 5 and No. 9 (“Great”). The film Franz Peter Schubert: The Greatest Love and the Greatest Sorrow (1994), featuring performances of late Schubert works by Vladimir Ashkenazy and others, will be screened.

 

Reflecting Mostly Mozart’s strong commitment to contemporary music, the festival will feature the New York premiere of David Lang’s man made with So Percussion and the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, conducted by Langrée. ICE will present a concert of contemporary works inspired by nature, one of Schubert’s great muses, and works by living composers, including Caroline Shaw, Philip Glass, Viet Cuong, and Jonathan Berger, will be showcased in the A Little Night Music series.

 

Among visiting chamber ensembles are French early-music favorites Les Arts Florissants, which will perform an all-Charpentier program under the baton of Paul Agnew, and the Danish String Quartet, which will present an all-Beethoven program at Alice Tully Hall.

 

This year’s lineup of A Little Night Music concerts, late-night performances in the intimate, candlelit Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse, features Joshua Bell, Steven Isserlis, and Ana-Maria VeraSo Percussion, the Danish String QuartetTrio Solisti, accordionist Ksenija Sidorova, as well as pianists Pedja MuzijevicVíkingur Ólafsson, and Kirill Gerstein.

 

Louis Langrée Signs Three-Year Contract Extension

 

Entering his 15th year as music director of Mostly Mozart, Louis Langrée has extended his contract with the festival through the 2020 season. Under Langrée’s musical leadership of the Mostly Mozart Festival, the Festival Orchestra’s stature and recognition has risen to great heights, acclaimed for its mastery of classical repertoire, as well as Baroque and contemporary music. The three-year extension strengthens the festival’s ties with Langrée, and ensures that his performances at the Mostly Mozart Festival continue to be an annual summertime destination for music lovers in New York and around the world.

 

Moss remarked: “Working with Louis on the Mostly Mozart Festival, a beloved New York institution, has been an exhilarating and endlessly stimulating experience for me and our audiences. I’m thrilled that we will forge the next 50 years of the festival bolstered by this fertile and rewarding partnership.”

 

“To return to Mozart and Lincoln Center each summer has been an intellectually inspiring and creatively fulfilling process,” Langrée remarked. “This summer’s festival refreshes the way we hear Mozart through enlightening juxtapositions with music from the Baroque to a 21st-century piece by David Lang, and I’m delighted to continue our work together.”

 

Louis Langrée was appointed music director of the Mostly Mozart Festival in December 2002 and was named Renée and Robert Belfer Music Director in August 2006. Langrée has also extended his contract with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, where he has served as music director since 2013, through the 2022 season.

 

Langrée’s engagements as guest conductor have included the Berliner Philharmoniker, Wiener Philharmoniker, Gewandhaus Orchester Leipzig, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Budapest Festival Orchestra, and Orchestre de Paris. He also regularly conducts opera, at such houses as the Metropolitan Opera, La Scala, Royal Opera House, and Wiener Staatsoper.

 

A conductor with wide-ranging interests and expertise, Langrée is equally at home leading period ensembles, including l’Orchestre des Champs-Elysées, the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, as well as conducting world premieres of compositions by Magnus Lindberg, David Lang, Daníel Bjarnason, Nico Muhly, Thierry Escaich, Sebastian Currier, Caroline Shaw, and others.

 

TICKETS

 

Tickets for Friends of Lincoln Center go on sale April 24 and to the general public beginning May 3. They can be purchased online at MostlyMozart.org, by phone via CenterCharge at 212.721.6500, or in person by visiting the David Geffen Hall or Alice Tully Hall Box Offices.

***

The Mostly Mozart Festival is made possible by Rita E. and Gustave M. Hauser. Additional support is provided by The Howard Gilman Foundation, The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Inc., and Friends of Mostly Mozart.

 

American Airlines is the Official Airline of Lincoln Center

 

Nespresso is the Official Coffee of Lincoln Center

 

NewYork-Presbyterian is the Official Hospital of Lincoln Center

 

“Summer at Lincoln Center” is supported by Pepsi Zero Sugar

 

Artist Catering provided by Zabar’s and Zabars.com

 

Programs, artists, and ticket prices are subject to change.

 

 


 

Festival at a Glance  

STAGED PRESENTATIONS

 

THE DARK MIRROR: ZENDER’S WINTERREISE

August 12, 7:30 pm; August 13, 5:00 pm

Rose Theater, Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall

Conceived and directed by Netia Jones

Ian Bostridge, tenor

International Contemporary Ensemble

Baldur Brönnimann, conductor (Mostly Mozart debut)

 

BUDAPEST FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA: DON GIOVANNI

August 17 and 19, 7:00 pm; August 20, 5:00 pm

Rose Theater, Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall

Iván Fischer, conductor and director

 

MOSTLY MOZART FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA

 

THE SINGING HEART

Special festival opening presentation

July 25, 8 pm; July 26, 7:30 pm

Louis Langrée, conductor

Kit Armstrong, piano (Mostly Mozart debut)

Young People’s Chorus of New York City (Mostly Mozart debut)

Francisco J. Núñez, artistic director (Mostly Mozart debut)

Concert Chorale of New York
James Bagwell
, choral director

 

BEETHOVEN AND SCHUBERT 
July 28 and 29, 7:30 pm

Edward Gardner, conductor

Jeremy Denk, piano

 

MOZART, LANG, AND LULLY 
August 1 and 2, 7:30 pm

Louis Langrée, conductor

So Percussion

 

SCHUBERT’S “GREAT” SYMPHONY

August 4 and 5, 7:30 pm

Gianandrea Noseda, conductor

Beatrice Rana, piano (New York debut)

 

BRAHMS DOUBLE CONCERTO

August 8 and 9, 7:30 pm

Andrew Manze, conductor

Joshua Bell, violin

Steven Isserlis, cello

 

BEETHOVEN AND MOZART

 August 11 and 12, 7:30 pm

Andrew Manze, conductor

Thomas Zehetmair, violin

 

BRAHMS AND SCHUMANN

August 15 and 16, 7:30 pm

Louis Langrée, conductor

Kirill Gerstein, piano (Mostly Mozart debut)

 

TCHAIKOVSKY, PROKOFIEV, AND MOZART
August 18 and 19, 7:30 pm

Louis Langrée, conductor

Gil Shaham, violin

 

CHAMBER ENSEMBLES

 

LES ARTS FLORISSANTS: SACRED CHARPENTIER

July 27, 7:30 pm

Alice Tully Hall, Starr Theater, Adrienne Arsht Stage

Paul Agnew, conductor

 

DANISH STRING QUARTET: ALL-BEETHOVEN PROGRAM

August 10, 7:30 pm

Alice Tully Hall, Starr Theater, Adrienne Arsht Stage

 

INTERNATIONAL CONTEMPORARY ENSEMBLE: HOW FORESTS THINK

August 14, 7:30 pm

Merkin Concert Hall

Baldur Brönnimann, conductor

Wu Wei, sheng (Mostly Mozart debut)

 

A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC

                                            

Intimate late-night concerts held in the Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse at 10:00 pm

 

SO PERCUSSION

August 2

 

KSENIJA SIDOROVA, ACCORDION

Mostly Mozart debut

August 5

 

JOSHUA BELL, VIOLIN; STEVEN ISSERLIS, CELLO; AND

ANA-MARIA VERA, PIANO

Mostly Mozart debut for Ana-Maria Vera

August 9

 

DANISH STRING QUARTET

August 10

 

PEDJA MUZIJEVIC, PIANO

August 11

 

VÍKINGUR ÓLAFSSON, PIANO

Mostly Mozart debut

August 12

 

TRIO SOLISTI: SCHUBERT PIANO TRIO

August 15

 

KIRILL GERSTEIN, PIANO

August 16

 

ADDITIONAL EVENTS

 

FREE PANEL DISCUSSION: MOZART THE WUNDERKIND

July 30, 3:00 pm

Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse

Presented in association with the Mozart Society of America

 

FILM SCREENING: FRANZ PETER SCHUBERT:

THE GREATEST LOVE AND THE GREATEST SORROW

August 6, 1:00 pm

Walter Reade Theater

Christopher Nupen, director

 

FREE: SCHUBERTIADE REMIX

August 7, 7:30 pm

David Rubenstein Atrium

International Contemporary Ensemble

Rick BurkhardtAlec Duffy, and Dave Malloy, hosts

 

 


 

Program Details

 

STAGED PRESENTATIONS

 

THE DARK MIRROR: ZENDER’S WINTERREISE

August 12, 7:30 pm; August 13, 5:00 pm

Rose Theater, Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall

Conceived and directed by Netia Jones

Ian Bostridge, tenor

International Contemporary Ensemble

Baldur Brönnimann, conductor (Mostly Mozart debut)

 

Netia Jones, whose The Illuminated Heart opened last year’s Mostly Mozart Festival, returns to stage Hans Zender’s orchestration of Schubert’s haunting song cycle. Evoking a Weimar-era scene, the production sets out a novel course down Schubert’s wintry path, illustrated by Jones’s films, projections, and stage design. Tenor Ian Bostridge, one of the foremost interpreters of Winterreise and author of Schubert’s Winter Journey: Anatomy of an Obsession, sings its 24 songs based on the poetry of Wilhelm Müller. The imaginative arrangement is performed by the International Contemporary Ensemble, the trailblazing artists-in-residence of the Mostly Mozart Festival. The production comes to Lincoln Center after a successful premiere at London’s Barbican Centre in May 2016.

 

Post-performance talk: Netia Jones discusses her staging of The Dark Mirror: Zender’s Winterreise following the performance on Saturday, August 12.

 

BIOS

 

BUDAPEST FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA: DON GIOVANNI

August 17 and 19, 7:00 pm; August 20, 5:00 pm

Rose Theater, Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall

Iván Fischer, conductor and director

Christopher Maltman, Don Giovanni

Laura Aikin, Donna Anna

Zoltán Megyesi, Don Ottavio

Lucy Crowe, Donna Elvira

José Fardilha, Leporello

Sylvia Schwartz, Zerlina

Kristinn Sigmundsson, Commendatore

Matteo Peirone, Masetto

 

The innovative Budapest Festival Orchestra and music director Iván Fischer return to Mostly Mozart with their acclaimed production of Don Giovanni, a standout of the 2011 festival selling out all of its performances. With minimal sets, the powerful staging was conceived by BFO founder Fischer, who will direct and conduct the presentation. Baritone Christopher Maltman takes on the role of the lothario Don Giovanni, while soprano Laura Aikin reprises the part of Donna Anna, one of his conquests. Tenor Zoltán Megyesi, soprano Lucy Crowe, baritone José Fardilha, and bass Kristinn Sigmundsson round out the stellar cast.

 

Pre-performance talk: Director and conductor Iván Fischer speaks with Jane Moss on Saturday, August 19, at 6:00 pm in the Agnes Varis and Karl Leichtman Studio.

 

BIOS

 

 

MOSTLY MOZART FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA

 

The cornerstone of the Mostly Mozart Festival is its eponymous orchestra, the only chamber orchestra in the U.S. dedicated to the music of the Classical period. It performs in David Geffen Hall, which each summer since 2005 is transformed—its stage is extended into the hall and audience seating is added surrounding the musicians. The Festival Orchestra will present eight programs, featuring renowned soloists and conductors from around the world. All performances are in David Geffen Hall and most will be preceded by a half-hour recital at 6:30 pm.

 

THE SINGING HEART

Special festival opening presentation

July 25 and 26, 7:30 pm

Louis Langrée, conductor

Kit Armstrong, piano (Mostly Mozart debut)

Young People’s Chorus of New York City (Mostly Mozart debut)

Francisco J. Núñez, artistic director (Mostly Mozart debut)

Concert Chorale of New York
James Bagwell, choral director

 

                MOZART: Kyrie, K. 90

                MOZART: Symphony No. 35 (“Haffner”)

                TRAD.: Songs and Spirituals

                BEETHOVEN: Choral Fantasy

 

The Young People’s Chorus of New York City makes its festival debut in a vibrant program that will juxtapose Mozart’s Symphony No. 35 (“Haffner”) with traditional songs and spirituals from Mozart’s time. The evening will be capped off with Beethoven’s glorious Choral Fantasy, featuring the phenomenal pianist Kit Armstrong in his first appearance at the festival.

 

BIOS

 

BEETHOVEN AND SCHUBERT

July 28 and 29, 7:30 pm

Edward Gardner, conductor

Jeremy Denk, piano

 

                MOZART: Masonic Funeral Music in C minor

                BEETHOVEN: Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major

                SCHUBERT: Symphony No. 5 in B-flat major

 

Conductor Edward Gardner kicks off the festival’s celebration of the work of Franz Schubert, leading the composer’s Fifth Symphony. Earlier in the program he is joined by the “irrepressibly charismatic” pianist Jeremy Denk for Beethoven’s searching Piano Concerto No. 4.

 

Pre-concert recital: Jasmine Choi, flute, and Roman Rabinovich, piano, perform Schubert’s Introduction and Variations on “Trockne Blumen.”

 

MOZART, LANG, AND LULLY

August 1 and 2, 7:30 pm

Louis Langrée, conductor

So Percussion (Mostly Mozart debut)

 

                MOZART: Overture to Die Entführung aus dem Serail

                LANG: man made (New York premiere)

                LULLY: Selections from Le Bourgeois gentilhomme

                MOZART: Symphony No. 31 in D major (“Paris”)

 

Innovative New York–based ensemble So Percussion joins the Festival Orchestra for this program. David Lang’s concerto for percussion, calling for found objects such as sticks and wine bottles, highlights the prominence of percussion in Mozart’s Turkish-themed overture, his “Paris” Symphony, and Lully’s Le Bourgeois gentilhomme.

 

Pre-concert talk: Pulitzer Prize–winning composer David Lang and WNYC host John Schaefer discuss Lang’s piece man made on Tuesday, August 1, at 6:15 pm in the Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse.

 

SCHUBERT’S “GREAT” SYMPHONY

August 4 and 5, 7:30 pm

Gianandrea Noseda, conductor

Beatrice Rana, piano (New York debut)

 

                BEETHOVEN: Piano Concerto No. 1 in C major

                SCHUBERT: Symphony No. 9 in C major (“Great”)

 

Award-winning Italian pianist Beatrice Rana makes her highly anticipated New York debut with returning guest conductor Gianandrea Noseda. Hailed as “exhilarating, extroverted, and effortlessly virtuosic” by BBC Music Magazine, Rana will perform Beethoven’s energetic First Piano Concerto. Schubert’s “Great” Symphony, which quotes Beethoven’s Ninth, follows.

 

Pre-concert recital: Beatrice Rana performs Bach’s Partita No. 2 in C minor.

 

BRAHMS DOUBLE CONCERTO

August 8 and 9, 7:30 pm

Andrew Manze, conductor

Joshua Bell, violin

Steven Isserlis, cello

 

                BRAHMS: Concerto for Violin and Cello in A minor

                BACH (arr. MANZE): Contrapunctus XIV, from Art of Fugue

                MENDELSSOHN: Symphony No. 5 in D major (“Reformation”)

 

Esteemed soloists and frequent collaborators Joshua Bell and Steven Isserlis team up for a blockbuster rendition of Brahms’s Double Concerto for Violin and Cello. Led by Andrew Manze, principal conductor of the NDR Radiophilharmonie and a composer in his own right, the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra will also perform the maestro’s orchestral arrangement of Bach’s Contrapunctus XIV, followed by the “Reformation” Symphony by Mendelssohn, who tirelessly helped popularize Bach’s music.

 

Pre-concert recital: Wei Luo performs Haydn’s Piano Sonata in E-flat major.

 

BEETHOVEN AND MOZART

August 11 and 12, 7:30 pm

Andrew Manze, conductor

Thomas Zehetmair, violin

 

                BEETHOVEN: Violin Concerto

                MOZART: Symphony No. 40 in G minor

 

Two beloved masterpieces by towering composers fill out this concert, led by the boundlessly energetic Andrew Manze. Esteemed violinist Thomas Zehetmair performs Beethoven’s trailblazing Violin Concerto, notable for demanding both endurance and virtuosity from its soloist. Mozart’s searching Symphony No. 40, the second of his exquisite final three symphonies, closes the program.

 

Pre-concert recital: Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson performs Beethoven’s Sonata No. 30 in E minor, Op. 109.

 

BRAHMS AND SCHUMANN

August 15 and 16, 7:30 pm

Louis Langrée, conductor

Kirill Gerstein, piano (Mostly Mozart debut)

 

                BRAHMS: Variations on a Theme by Schumann

                SCHUMANN: Piano Concerto in A minor

                BRAHMS: Symphony No. 1 in C minor

 

The relationship between piano virtuoso Clara Schumann, her husband Robert, and Johannes Brahms inspires this romantic program. In his Mostly Mozart debut, the expressive Kirill Gerstein performs Brahms’s tribute to his mentor, Robert, followed by the ravishing piano concerto that Robert wrote for his wife. Brahms’s First Symphony, containing a theme that the composer famously sent to Clara Schumann with the note, “Thus blew the shepherd’s horn today!,” concludes the program.

 

Pre-concert recital: In a special performance, Louis Langrée, piano, joins soprano Susanna Phillips in a performance of Schumann’s “Frauenliebe und -leben,” written during the composer and Clara’s tumultuous courtship.

 

TCHAIKOVSKY, PROKOFIEV, AND MOZART

August 18 and 19, 7:30 pm

Louis Langrée, conductor

Gil Shaham, violin

 

                PROKOFIEV: Symphony No. 1 in D major (“Classical”)

                MOZART: Symphony No. 25 in G minor

                TCHAIKOVSKY: Violin Concerto in D major

 

Mozart’s “Little G minor” symphony is bookended by two masterpieces of Russian music. Prokofiev’s “Classical” Symphony looks to Mozart’s friend and mentor, Haydn, whose work is also referenced in Mozart’s Symphony No. 25. Virtuoso Gil Shaham, known for his flawless technique, closes the program with Tchaikovsky’s notoriously difficult yet magnificent Violin Concerto.

 

Pre-concert recital: Gil Shaham and fellow violinist Adele Anthony will perform Prokofiev’s Sonata for Two Violins.

 

 

CHAMBER ENSEMBLES

 

LES ARTS FLORISSANTS: SACRED CHARPENTIER

July 27, 7:30 pm

Alice Tully Hall, Starr Theater, Adrienne Arsht stage

Paul Agnew, conductor

 

                All works by Charpentier

                Nuptial sacrae

                Second répons après la seconde leçon du premier nocturne du Mercredi saint

                                “Tristis est anima mea”
                Transfige dulcissime Jesu
                Prose pour le jour de Pâques: Victimae pascali laudes
                Le Reniement de St Pierre
                Memorare (Prière à la Vierge du Père Bernard)
                Stabat Mater pour les religieuses
                Prélude
                O crux spes unica
                Dialogus inter Magdalenam et Jesum
                Salve Regina
                Chants joyeux du temps du Pâques

 

The sacred choral works of 17th-century French composer Marc-Antoine Charpentier fill this profoundly spiritual program, performed by the extraordinary period ensemble Les Arts Florissants. Paul Agnew leads the performance, setting rarely played gems alongside some of Charpentier’s best-known works.

 

DANISH STRING QUARTET: ALL-BEETHOVEN PROGRAM

August 10, 7:30 pm

Alice Tully Hall, Starr Theater, Adrienne Arsht Stage

 

                Quartet in G major, Op. 18, No. 2

                Quartet in F major, Op. 59, No. 1 (“Razumovsky”)

 

The exciting and versatile Danish String Quartet presents an exhilarating and playful side of Beethoven. His Op.18, No. 2 is rich with humor—parodying Haydn and the Viennese customs of the time—while his first “Razumovsky” quartet, written during one of the composer’s most prolific periods, balances wit with profundity.

 

INTERNATIONAL CONTEMPORARY ENSEMBLE: HOW FORESTS THINK

August 14, 7:30 pm

Merkin Concert Hall

Baldur Brönnimann, conductor

Wu Wei, sheng (Mostly Mozart debut)

 

                PAULINE OLIVEROS: Earth Ears

                ANNA THORVALDSDOTTIR: Aequilibria (U.S. premiere)

                LIZA LIM: How Forests Think (U.S. premiere)

 

Schubert and his fellow Romantic-era composers were fascinated with the natural world. Taking their obsession as a starting point, ICE performs a trio of works that similarly find inspiration in nature. Pauline Oliveros’s Earth Ears, which she called a sonic ritual, cycles through prescribed patterns, transitions, and changes that echo the environment. The Icelandic sky provided a stimulus for Anna Thorvaldsdottir to create her ethereal Aequilibria. The program ends with Liza Lim’s How Forests Think, based on the studies of anthropologist Eduardo Kohn, who has discovered the interconnected networks of forest ecologies.

 

Post-concert talk: Musicians from ICE will join in a discussion following the performance.

 

 

A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC

 

The inaugural season of the Mostly Mozart Festival featured special Mozart at Midnight events. The concept was re-imagined in 2005 as A Little Night Music. These popular late-night recitals present intimate concerts with candlelit tables, complimentary wine, and a sparkling skyline in the Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse in Lincoln Center’s Rose Building at 10:00 pm.

 

SO PERCUSSION

August 2

The percussion ensemble transforms household objects into vehicles of virtuosity in works by composers John Cage, Viet Cuong, and Caroline Shaw.

 

KSENIJA SIDOROVA

Mostly Mozart debut

August 5

A torchbearer of the solo accordion, Latvian virtuoso Ksenija Sidorova shows off the amazing range of the instrument in works by Rachmaninoff, Mozart, Piazzolla, and others.

 

JOSHUA BELL, STEVEN ISSERLIS, AND ANA-MARIA VERA

Mostly Mozart debut for Ana-Maria Vera

August 9

Britain’s foremost cellist Steven Isserlis performs Schumann’s Three Romances with pianist Ana-Maria Vera, and the incomparable violinist Joshua Bell joins them for Mendelssohn’s Piano Trio No. 1 in this special late-night concert.

 

DANISH STRING QUARTET

August 10

Following its fiery all-Beethoven mainstage performance, the quartet summons its Danish roots with an intimate presentation of Scandinavian folk music from Nordic countries.

 

PEDJA MUZIJEVIC

August 11

Pianist Pedja Muzijevic juxtaposes Haydn sonatas with modern and contemporary works for the keyboard by Jonathan Berger, George Crumb, and Morton Feldman. The recital will foster an era-crossing dialogue, similarly to how I.M. Pei’s modern pyramid interacts with the architecture of the Louvre, the pianist explains.

 

VÍKINGUR ÓLAFSSON

Mostly Mozart debut

August 12

The Icelandic star pianist Víkingur Ólafsson makes his Mostly Mozart debut performing Bach’s Partita No. 6, as well as Etudes by Philip Glass, with whom Ólafsson has collaborated closely. The performance of the Etudes also marks Glass’s 80th birthday this year.

 

TRIO SOLISTI

August 15

Violinist Maria Bachmann, cellist Alexis Pia Gerlach, and pianist Fabio Bidini of Trio Solisti continue the festival’s Schubert thread with a performance of his towering Piano Trio in B-flat major. Written at the same time as Winterreise, this piece was never performed during Schubert’s lifetime. However, Robert Schumann said of it: “One glance at Schubert’s Trio and the troubles of our human existence disappear and all the world is fresh and bright again.”

 

KIRILL GERSTEIN

August 16

An intimate counterpoint to Gerstein’s performance of Schumann’s First Piano Concerto, this concert continues to explore the relationship between Clara and Robert Schumann and their protégé Johannes Brahms through their music, including Brahms’s Piano Sonata No. 2, dedicated to Clara, and Clara’s own Variations on a Theme by R. Schumann.

 

 

 

ADDITIONAL EVENTS

 

FREE PANEL DISCUSSION: MOZART THE WUNDERKIND

July 30, 3:00 pm

Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse

Leading scholars examine the early years of one of history’s most famous prodigies in a 90-minute talk, presented in association with the Mozart Society of America.

 

FILM SCREENING: FRANZ PETER SCHUBERT: THE GREATEST LOVE AND

THE GREATEST SORROW

August 6, 1:00 pm

Walter Reade Theater

Christopher Nupen, director

This award-winning musical documentary by Christopher Nupen from 1994 paints a vivid portrait of the final 20 months of Schubert’s life, a particularly prolific and astonishingly creative period for the composer, through excerpts from his diaries and letters, along with performances by pianist Vladimir Ashkenazy, baritone Andreas Schmidt, and others.

 

SCHUBERTIADE REMIX

August 7, 7:30 pm

David Rubenstein Atrium

FREE

Presented in association with The New York Library for the Performing Arts

Rick Burkhardt, Alec Duffy, and David Malloy, creators of the Obie Award–winning theater piece Three Pianos, which is loosely based on Winterreise, host this evening in collaboration with the International Contemporary Ensemble to celebrate Schubert and his love of musical soirées. Artists across genres—jazz, classical, pop, and experimental—will join to explore Schubert’s influence and participate in interactive games with the audience.

 

 


 

Bios

JANE MOSS

Jane Moss is the Ehrenkranz Artistic Director of Lincoln Center, a position that includes her role as artistic director of the Mostly Mozart Festival. In that capacity, she has initiated and led the transformation and expansion of the festival into a multidisciplinary, multilayered, and far-reaching exploration of its namesake genius and his influence on succeeding generations. Moss has also created several major new initiatives at Lincoln Center, including the New Visions series—which links the worlds of the theater, dance, visual arts, and classical music—and Lincoln Center’s American Songbook series, which focuses on classic and contemporary expressions of American song. In the fall of 2010 she launched the multidisciplinary White Light Festival, focused on exploring how the performing arts illuminate our interior lives as expressed by a dynamic, international spectrum of distinctive musical, dance, and theater artists. The programming she has introduced and directs represents a continuing contribution to the vitality of New York’s cultural landscape. Moss also oversees Great Performers, Lincoln Center’s major season-long classical music series; Midsummer Night Swing; and the free Lincoln Center Out of Doors summer series. For her role as an innovator in musical and music-based presentation, she received the French Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur.

 

Prior to joining Lincoln Center, Moss worked as an arts consultant, designing and developing projects and programming initiatives for a variety of foundations and arts organizations, including the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund and the Pew Charitable Trusts. As executive director of Meet The Composer, a national organization serving American composers, Ms. Moss created the country’s largest composer commissioning program, as well as a program supporting collaborations between composers and choreographers. In addition, she served as executive director of New York’s leading off-Broadway theater company, Playwrights Horizons, and executive director of the Alliance of Resident Theaters/New York.

 

LOUIS LANGRÉE, RENÉE AND ROBERT BELFER MUSIC DIRECTOR

Artist Website

Louis Langrée was appointed music director of the Mostly Mozart Festival in December 2002, was named Renée and Robert Belfer Music Director in August 2006, and his contract has been extended through the 2020 season. Langrée has also extended his contract with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, where he has served as music director since 2013, through the 2022 season. Langrée’s engagements as guest conductor have included the Berliner Philharmoniker, Wiener Philharmoniker, Gewandhaus Orchester Leipzig, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Budapest Festival Orchestra, and Orchestre de Paris. He also regularly conducts opera at such houses as the Metropolitan Opera, La Scala, Royal Opera House, and Wiener Staatsoper. A conductor with wide-ranging interests and expertise, Langrée is equally at home leading period ensembles, including l’Orchestre des Champs-Elysées, the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, as well as conducting world premieres of compositions by Magnus Lindberg, David Lang, Daníel Bjarnason, Nico Muhly, Thierry Escaich, Sebastian Currier, Caroline Shaw, and more.

 

MOSTLY MOZART FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA

The Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra is the resident orchestra of the Mostly Mozart Festival and is the only orchestra in the U.S. dedicated to the music of the Classical period. Since 2002 Louis Langrée has been the orchestra’s music director. Over the years, the orchestra has been an ambassador for Mostly Mozart, touring to such notable festivals and venues as Ravinia, Great Woods, Tanglewood, Bunkamura in Tokyo, and the Kennedy Center. It has also been an early identifier of great talent. Conductors who made their New York debuts leading the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra include Michael Tilson Thomas, Jérémie Rhorer, Edward Gardner, Lionel Bringuier, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Charles Dutoit, Leonard Slatkin, Susanna Mälkki, and Edo de Waart. Mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli, flutist James Galway, soprano Elly Ameling, and pianist Mitsuko Uchida all made their U.S. debuts with the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra.

 

THE DARK MIRROR: ZENDER’S WINTERREISE [BACK TO EVENT]

 

IAN BOSTRIDGE, TENOR

Artist Website

Ian Bostridge's international recital career takes him to the foremost concert halls of Europe, Asia, and North America, with regular appearances at the Salzburg, Edinburgh, Munich, Vienna, Schwarzenberg, and Aldeburgh festivals. He has had residencies at the Wiener Konzerthaus, Carnegie Hall, Het Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Philharmonie Luxembourg, and London's Barbican Centre and Wigmore Hall. His many recordings have won all the major international prizes and been nominated for 15 Grammys. He was awarded a CBE in the 2004 New Year's Honours. In 2016 he was awarded The Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize for nonfiction writing for his latest book, Schubert's Winter Journey: Anatomy of an Obsession.

 

BALDUR BRÖNNIMANN, CONDUCTOR

Artist Website

Baldur Brönnimann is a conductor of great flexibility with a broad-minded approach to music making and a particular affinity for the most complex contemporary scores. He shares his time between the concert hall and the opera house, and whenever possible seeks out opportunities for educational and outreach work. In January 2015, he became the principal conductor of the Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto Casa da Música, following a longstanding relationship with the ensemble, and in September 2016 took up the position of principal conductor with the Basel Sinfonietta.

 

INTERNATIONAL CONTEMPORARY ENSEMBLE

Artist Website

The International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) is an artist collective committed to transforming the way music is created and experienced. As performer, curator, and educator, ICE explores how new music intersects with communities across the world. The ensemble’s 35 members are featured as soloists, chamber musicians, commissioners, and collaborators with the foremost musical artists of our time. Works by emerging composers have anchored ICE’s programming since its founding in 2001, and the group’s recordings and digital platforms highlight the many voices that weave music’s present. A recipient of the American Music Center’s Trailblazer Award and the Chamber Music America/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming, ICE was also named the 2014 Musical America Ensemble of the Year. The group currently serves as artists-in-residence at the Mostly Mozart Festival and previously led a five-year residency at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. ICE has been featured at the Ojai Music Festival since 2015 and has appeared at festivals abroad such as Acht Brücken Cologne and Musica nova Helsinki. Other recent performance stages include the Park Avenue Armory, The Stone, ice floes at Greenland’s Diskotek Sessions, and boats on the Amazon River.

 

NETIA JONES, DIRECTOR

Artist Website

Netia Jones is a British director/designer and video artist working in opera, staged concerts, performance, and installation, using video, film, and projected media in all of her work. A “leading video pioneer” (Times, U.K.) who is “bringing intelligence and integrity to the task of bringing video into classical music” (Guardian, U.K.), she is director of LIGHTMAP, a mixed-media partnership with whom she has created video, film, installation, and interactive media projects in the U.K., U.S., and Europe, from large-scale external projection mapping to multi-projector integrated film in opera performances.

 

 

BUDAPEST FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA: DON GIOVANNI [BACK TO EVENT]

 

IVÁN FISCHER, CONDUCTOR AND DIRECTOR

Artist Website

Iván Fischer is the founder and music director of the Budapest Festival Orchestra, as well as the music director of the Konzerthaus and Konzerthausorchester Berlin. In recent years he has also gained a reputation as a composer, with his works being performed in the United States, the Netherlands, Belgium, Hungary, Germany, and Austria. He has also directed a number of successful opera productions. The BFO’s frequent worldwide tours and a series of critically acclaimed records, released first by Philips Classics and later by Channel Classics, have contributed to Fischer’s reputation as one of the world’s most high-profile music directors.

 

BUDAPEST FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA

Artist Website

The Budapest Festival Orchestra is one of the major success stories of the international music scene, being rated among the world’s top ten orchestras. Both audiences and critics alike acknowledge the quality in the ensemble’s captivating chamber music performances, as well as the all-pervasive dynamism with which it shares the joy of music-making with the audience. The orchestra is a regular guest at the world’s most important music venues and concert halls, including Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York, Vienna’s Musikverein, the Royal Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and London’s Royal Albert Hall. It has regularly been invited to perform at international music events such as the Mostly Mozart Festival, the Salzburger Festspiele, and the Edinburgh International Festival. The Association of Music Critics of Argentina awarded BFO as the Best Foreign Symphonic Orchestra in 2016.

 

CHRISTOPHER MALTMAN (DON GIOVANNI)

Artist Website

Winner of the Lieder Prize at the 1997 Cardiff Singer of the World Competition, Christopher Maltman studied singing at the Royal Academy of Music. A renowned Don Giovanni, he has sung the role at the Salzburg Festival, in Berlin, Munich, Cologne, and at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, where he has also sung Papageno, Guglielmo, Lescaut, Forester, Marcello, and Ramiro. At the Vienna State Opera, his roles include Siskov (Aus einem Totenhaus), Onegin, Figaro, and Prospero (The Tempest). Increasingly in demand for Verdi roles, he has sung Simon Boccanegra in Frankfurt, Post (Don Carlos) in Amsterdam and Frankfurt, and this season sings Conte di Luna (Il Trovatore) at Covent Garden. Other operatic appearances include Il Conte in Paris, Alfonso in Munich, Friedrich (Das Liebesverbot) in Madrid, and Figaro (Il Barbiere di Siviglia), Papageno, and Silvio at the Metropolitan Opera. 

 

LAURA AIKIN (DONNA ANNA)

Artist Website

World-renowned American soprano Laura Aikin is a familiar presence in the world’s great opera houses and concert halls, performing with many of the greatest conductors of our time, including Claudio Abbado, Daniel Barenboim, Pierre Boulez, Sylvain Cambreling, William Christie, Christoph von Dohnányi, Daniele Gatti, Michael Gielen, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, René Jacobs, Fabio Luisi, Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Helmuth Rilling, Donald Runnicles, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Markus Stenz, and Franz Welser-Möst. Possessing a range of more than three octaves and an arresting stage presence, her repertoire embraces works from the Baroque to the contemporary.

 

LUCY CROWE (DONNA ELVIRA)

Artist Website

Described as having a voice of bell-like clarity with an impeccable vocal technique and powerful stage presence, Lucy Crowe has established herself as one of the leading lyric sopranos of her generation. With repertoire ranging from Purcell, Handel, and Mozart to Donizetti’s Adina and Verdi’s Gilda, she has sung with opera companies throughout the U.K. and Europe, including the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, the Glyndebourne Festival, English National Opera, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, and the Bavarian State Opera. She made her U.S. operatic debut as Iole (Handel’s Hercules) at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, reprising the role at Canadian Opera Company, and she made her debut with the Metropolitan Opera as Servilia (La clemenza di Tito), returning last season as Adele (Die Fledermaus).

 

JOSÉ FARDILHA (LEPORELLO)

Artist Website

Born in Lisbon, Portuguese baritone José Fardilha made his Royal Opera House debut in the 2016/17 season as Bartolo (Il Barbiere di Siviglia). After winning the Toti dal Monte Competition he went on to make his professional debut as Leporello (Don Giovanni) in Treviso, Strasbourg, and Trieste. He has since performed for leading international opera houses and festivals, including La Scala, Milan, Vienna State Opera, Salzburg Festival, Barbican Centre, Paris Opéra, Berlin State Opera, Bavarian State Opera, Zürich Opera House, Teatro Regio Torino, Rome Opera, La Fenice, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Sferisterio di Macerata, Festival della Valle d’Itria, Martina Franca, Teatro Nacional de São Carlos, Lisbon, and the Israeli Opera.

 

ZOLTÁN MEGYESI (DON OTTAVIO)

Artist Website

Hungarian-born tenor Zoltán Megyesi performs operatic and concert repertoire ranging from Monteverdi to Donizetti; song cycles by Schubert, Schumann, and Britten; as well as works from the 20th and 21st centuries. He has appeared internationally in concerts at Philharmonie Köln, Brugge Concertgebouw, Wiener Konzerthaus, and the Auditorium of the Danish Radio with conductors including Helmuth Rilling, Ádám Fischer, and Iván Fischer. He performs regularly at the Hungarian State Opera in roles such as Ferrando (Così fan tutte), Don Ramiro (La Cenerentola), Count Almaviva (Il Barbiere di Siviglia), Orfeo (Orfeo ed Euridice), and Aceste (Ascanio in Alba). Megyesi reprises his role as Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, which he sang with the Budapest Festival Orchestra at the 2011 Mostly Mozart Festival.

 

MATTEO PEIRONE (MASETTO)

Artist Website

Born in Savona, Italy, Matteo Peirone initially studied Greek ancient literature before training as a singer with Franca Mattiucci, Paolo Montarsolo, and Renata Scotto. Among the competitions he has won are "ASILICO" in Milano and "Verdi" in Parma. He has already sung in the most important opera houses in Italy and abroad, specializing as an interpreter of the principal roles of "Basso Buffo" or "Brillante" and in other character roles. He is regularly invited to perform at Teatro alla Scala, where has sung under the direction of Riccardo Muti. He has also performed at the Ravenna Festival with Maestro Muti and the Wiener Philarmoniker. Peirone is the founder and artistic director of the Noli Musica Festival.

 

SYLVIA SCHWARTZ (ZERLINA)

Artist Website

Spanish soprano Sylvia Schwartz is one of the most exciting lyric singers of her generation. She has appeared at many of the world’s finest opera houses and festivals, including La Scala, Berlin Staatsoper, Wiener Staatsoper, and Bayerische Staatsoper, The Bolshoi Theatre, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, and the Edinburgh, Baden Baden, Salzburg, and Verbier festivals. Schwartz is also in demand in concert and is a celebrated recitalist. She has worked with pianists such as Wolfram Rieger, Charles Spencer, and Malcolm Martineau; and with conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Daniel Barenboim, Philippe Jordan, René Jacobs, Fabio Luisi, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Sir Colin Davis, Gustavo Dudamel, Patrick Fournillier, Marc Minkowski, Ivor Bolton, Yves Abel, Jean-Christophe Spinosi, Helmut Rilling, and Christopher Hogwood.

 

KRISTINN SIGMUNDSSON (COMMENDATORE)

Artist Website

Icelandic native Kristinn Sigmundsson is one of the world’s leading basses on the opera stage. During the 2016/17 season, Sigmundsson performed with Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie as La Roche in Capriccio, returned to the Staatsoper Hamburg to reprise Melchthal in Guillaume Tell, Teatro Regio Torino for Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte, and the London Philharmonic Orchestra for Rocco in Fidelio. He also was engaged as Bartolo in Le nozze di Figaro with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Commendatore in Don Giovanni with the Budapest Festival Orchestra, and Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra.

 

 

THE SINGING HEART [BACK TO EVENT]

 

YOUNG PEOPLE’S CHORUS OF NEW YORK CITY

Artist Website

Young People’s Chorus of New York City is internationally renowned for its superb virtuosity, brilliant showmanship, and as a model for an inclusive society that is being replicated globally. Founded in 1988 by artistic director Francisco J. Núñez, a MacArthur Fellow, YPC harnesses the power of music to fulfill the potential of children musically, academically, and socially and has heightened the awareness of the ability of young people to rise to great levels of artistry. YPC performs on four continents, and its repertoire spans Renaissance and Classical traditions through gospel, folk, pop, contemporary, and world music. YPC has extended and invigorated the repertoire for young voices by commissioning more than 100 pieces of new music, the majority through its Transient Glory and Radio Radiance series. More than 1,600 children participate in the after-school and in-school programs of YPC, which has been recognized with a National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award, the country’s highest honor for youth programs.


FRANCISCO J. NÚÑEZ

Artist Website

Francisco J. Núñez, a MacArthur Fellow, is a composer, conductor, visionary, leading figure in music education, and the artistic director/founder of the Young People’s Chorus of New York City. He leads the University Glee Club of New York City, as its fifth conductor since the all-men’s chorus was established in 1894, and is sought after nationwide as a guest conductor, a master teacher, and frequent keynote speaker. In addition to composing his own works, Núñez writes arrangements in all musical formats and styles for choirs, orchestras, and solo instruments. He has received an ASCAP Victor Herbert Award, the New York Choral Society’s Choral Excellence Award, and was profiled as ABC-TV’s “Person of the Week.” NYU Steinhardt honored him with its Distinguished Alumnus Achievement Award, and last season he was presented with an honorary Doctor of Music degree from Ithaca College.

 

KIT ARMSTRONG, PIANO

Artist Website

Born in Los Angeles in 1992, Kit Armstrong is a classical pianist and composer. He started composing at the age of five and shortly after that began piano studies. Armstrong studied at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and at the Royal Academy of Music in London. At the age of seven, he started studying natural sciences at various universities, including the University of Pennsylvania and Imperial College London. He earned his master’s degree in pure mathematics at the University of Paris VI. At the age of 13, Armstrong came to know Alfred Brendel, who since then has guided him as his teacher and mentor and ascribes to him “an understanding of the great piano works that combines freshness and subtlety, emotion and intellect.”

 

CONCERT CHORALE OF NEW YORK

Artist Website

The Concert Chorale of New York is a group of professional singers that performs with various conductors and presenters in New York. The group has appeared at the Caramoor Festival in concert versions of Handel’s L’Allegro and Theodora, Brittten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Rossini’s La Cenerentola. Other credits include the Brooklyn Academy of Music productions of Philip Glass’s The CIVIL warS, John Adams’s Nixon in China and The Death of Klinghoffer, as well as Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and L’Allegro with the Mark Morris Dance Company.

 

JAMES BAGWELL, CHORAL DIRECTOR

Artist Website

James Bagwell maintains an active international schedule as a conductor of choral, operatic, and orchestral music. He was most recently named associate conductor of The Orchestra Now (TON) and in 2009 was appointed principal guest conductor of the American Symphony Orchestra, leading them in concerts at both Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center. From 2009 to 2015 he served as music director of the Collegiate Chorale. Highlights of his tenure with them include conducting a number of rarely performed operas at Carnegie Hall, including Bellini’s Beatrice di Tenda, Rossini’s Möise et Pharaon, and most recently, Boito’s Mefistofele. Bagwell has also trained choruses for numerous major American and international orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, NHK Symphony (Japan), St. Petersburg Symphony, Budapest Festival Orchestra, and Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra.

 

FEATURED MUSICIANS AND ENSEMBLES

 

PAUL AGNEW, CONDUCTOR

Artist Website

An artist of international renown and an accomplished teacher, Paul Agnew was born in Glasgow and began his musical education with the Birmingham Cathedral Choir. He continued his musical studies at Magdalen College, Oxford, and afterwards joined the Consort of Musicke with which he performed music from the Italian and English Renaissance. Agnew is also co-director of Le Jardin des Voix, Les Arts Florissants’s academy for young singers. This interest in the training of new generations of musicians has also led him to conduct the Orchestre Français des Jeunes Baroque on many occasions, as well as the European Union Baroque Orchestra. In 2017, Agnew will direct the European Baroque Academy in Ambronay. Dedicated to musical education for all, and especially the youngest, he also devises educational concerts, such as Monsieur de Monteverdi and La Lyre d’Orphée.

 

JOSHUA BELL, VIOLIN

Artist Website

With a career spanning more than 30 years as a soloist, chamber musician, recording artist, and conductor, Joshua Bell is one of the most celebrated violinists of his era. An exclusive Sony Classical artist, Bell has recorded more than 40 CDs garnering Grammy, Mercury, Gramophone, and Echo Klassik Awards, and is a recipient of the Avery Fisher Prize. Named the music director of the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields in 2011, he is the only person to hold this post since Sir Neville Marriner formed the orchestra in 1958. In September 2016, Sony Classical released Bell’s newest album, For the Love of Brahms, with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, cellist Steven Isserlis, and pianist Jeremy Denk. Bell is also involved in Turnaround Arts, a program providing arts education to low-performing elementary and middle schools.  

 

DANISH STRING QUARTET

Artist Website

Embodying the quintessential elements of a fine chamber music ensemble, the Danish String Quartet has established a reputation for its integrated sound, impeccable intonation, and judicious balance. With its technical and interpretive talents matched by an infectious joy for music-making and “rampaging energy” (Alex Ross, The New Yorker ), the quartet is in demand worldwide by concert and festival presenters alike. Since making their debut in 2002 at the Copenhagen Festival, the musical friends have demonstrated a passion for Scandinavian composers, who they frequently incorporate into adventurous contemporary programs, while also giving skilled and profound interpretations of the classical masters. The Danish String Quartet received the 2016 Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award provided to support outstanding young artists in their international endeavors, joining a small, illustrious roster of past recipients since the trust’s founding in 2003.

 

JEREMY DENK, PIANO

Artist Website

Jeremy Denk is one of America’s foremost pianists—an artist The New York Times hails as “someone you want to hear no matter what he performs.” Winner of a MacArthur Fellowship, the Avery Fisher Prize, and Musical America’s Instrumentalist of the Year award, Denk was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2016. Denk returns frequently to Carnegie Hall and has recently appeared at the BBC Proms with Michael Tilson Thomas and in the U.S. with the Chicago Symphony, New York Philharmonic, and Cleveland Orchestra, as well as on tour with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. Following the release of his recording of the Goldberg Variations—which reached number one on Billboard’s Classical Chart—Denk performed the piece throughout Europe, including at Wigmore Hall and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. Denk has toured frequently with violinist Joshua Bell, and their recently released Sony Classical album, French Impressions, won the 2012 Echo Klassik award. He also collaborates regularly with cellist Steven Isserlis and has appeared at numerous festivals, including the Italian and American Spoleto Festivals and the Verbier, Ravinia, Tanglewood, Aspen Music, and Mostly Mozart Festivals.

 

EDWARD GARDNER, CONDUCTOR

Artist Website

Edward Gardner is chief conductor of the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, a position he assumed in October 2015 leading its 250th anniversary gala concert. The coming season will see Gardner touring the orchestra to cities including Berlin, Munich, London, and Amsterdam and continuing his hugely successful relationship with Chandos Records. During recent seasons, Gardner has worked with some of the world’s major orchestras, including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Frankfurt Radio, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Swedish Radio, Filarmonica della Scala, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, and the Boston, Toronto, Montreal, and Houston Symphony Orchestras.

 

KIRILL GERSTEIN, PIANO 

Artist Website

The multifaceted pianist Kirill Gerstein has rapidly ascended into classical music’s highest ranks. With a masterful technique, discerning intelligence, and a musical curiosity that has led him to explore repertoire spanning centuries and styles, he has proved to be one of today’s most intriguing and versatile musicians. His early training and experience in jazz has contributed an important element to his interpretive style, inspiring an energetic and expressive musical personality that distinguishes his playing. Gerstein is the sixth recipient of the prestigious Gilmore Artist Award, presented every four years to an exceptional pianist who, regardless of age or nationality, possesses broad and profound musicianship and charisma and who desires and can sustain a career as a major international concert artist.

 

STEVEN ISSERLIS, CELLO

Artist Website

Acclaimed worldwide for his profound musicianship and technical mastery, British cellist Steven Isserlis enjoys a distinguished career as a soloist, chamber musician, educator, author, and broadcaster. As a concerto soloist he appears regularly with the world’s leading orchestras and conductors. Recent engagements include performances with the Berlin Philharmonic, Budapest Festival, Philharmonia, Cleveland, Minnesota, Zurich Tonhalle, and NHK Symphony Orchestras. He gives recitals every season in major musical centers, working with pianists such as Jeremy Denk, Kirill Gerstein, Stephen Hough, Alexander Melnikov, Olli Mustonen, Mikhail Pletnev, Sir András Schiff, Connie Shih, Ferenc Rados, and Dénes Várjon, and plays with many of the world’s leading chamber orchestras, including period-instrument ensembles. Unusually, he also directs chamber orchestras from the cello, in classical programs.

 

LES ARTS FLORISSANTS

Artist Website

An ensemble of singers and instrumentalists specializing in the performance of Baroque music on period instruments, Les Arts Florissants is renowned the world over. Founded in 1979 by the Franco-American harpsichordist and conductor William Christie, the ensemble, named for a short opera by Marc-Antoine Charpentier, has played a pioneering role in the revival of a Baroque repertoire that had long been neglected (including the rediscovery of countless treasures in the collections of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France). Today that repertoire is widely performed and admired: not only French music from the reign of Louis XIV, but also more generally European music of the 17th and 18th centuries. The ensemble is directed by William Christie, who, since 2007, has regularly passed the conductor’s baton over to British tenor Paul Agnew.

 

ANDREW MANZE, CONDUCTOR

Artist Website

Andrew Manze has rapidly emerged as one of the most stimulating and inspirational conductors of his generation. His extensive and scholarly knowledge of the repertoire, together with his rare skill as a communicator and his boundless energy, are his trademarks. After reading Classics at Cambridge University, Manze studied the violin and rapidly became a leading specialist in the world of historical performance practice. He became associate director of the Academy of Ancient Music in 1996 and then artistic director of the English Concert from 2003 to 2007. As a violinist, Manze has released an astonishing variety of CDs, many of them award winning. Manze is a fellow of the Royal Academy of Music and a visiting professor at the Oslo Academy and has contributed to new editions of sonatas and concertos by Mozart and Bach published by Bärenreiter and Breitkopf and Härtel. He also teaches, edits, and writes about music, as well as broadcasting regularly on radio and television. In September 2014, Manze became the principal conductor of the NDR Radio Philharmonic Orchestra in Hanover.

 

PEDJA MUZIJEVIC, PIANO

Artist Website

Hailed by critics as a “thinking” musician with engaging stage presence and a gratifying combination of virtuosity and eloquence, pianist Pedja Muzijevic has defined his career with creative programming, unusual combinations of new and old music, and lasting collaborations with other artists and ensembles. The Financial Times eloquently sums him up as “a virtuoso with formidable fingers and a musician with fiercely original ideas about the music he plays.” Muzijevic’s symphonic engagements include performances with the Atlanta Symphony, Dresden Philharmonic, Milwaukee Symphony, Orquesta Sinfonica in Montevideo, Residentie Orkest in The Hague, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Santa Fe Pro Musica, Shinsei Nihon Orchestra in Tokyo, and the Zagreb Philharmonic. His discography also includes, besides his Carnegie Hall concerto debut, two CDs on fortepianos: a Schumann Salon and Mozart and Beethoven Quintets for piano and woodwinds.

 

GIANANDREA NOSEDA, CONDUCTOR

Artist Website

Widely recognized as one of the leading conductors of his generation, Gianandrea Noseda was the International Opera Awards Conductor of the Year 2016 and Musical America’s Conductor of the Year 2015. He was recently appointed principal guest conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra beginning with the 2016/17 season. In the 2017/18 season he will become music director of the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., an appointment recognized internationally. As Music Director of the Teatro Regio Torino since 2007, his initiatives have propelled the Teatro Regio Torino onto the global stage, where it has become one of Italy’s most important cultural ambassadors. Under his leadership, the Teatro Regio Torino has recorded with the leading singers of our time and embarked on tours to Austria, China, France, Germany, Japan, Russia, and the United States, including a recent visit to the Hong Kong Arts Festival.

 

VÍKINGUR ÓLAFSSON, PIANO

Artist Website

Possessing a rare combination of passionate musicality, explosive virtuosity, and intellectual curiosity, Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson has won all the major prizes in his native country, including four Musician of the Year prizes at the Icelandic Music Awards as well as The Icelandic Optimism Prize. Ólafsson has premiered five piano concertos to date and worked with composers including Philip Glass, Mark Simpson, and Daníel Bjarnason. He has collaborated with leading artists from diverse fields, such as Roman Signer, Lillevan, and Yann Malka, and appeared at festivals such as Busoni and Transart (Bolzano), MITO SettembreMusica (Milano), and Nordic Cool (Washington, D.C.). Away from the concert stage, Ólafsson is the driving force behind numerous innovative musical projects, including the classical music television series Útúrdúr (Out-of-tune), produced for the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service in 2013/14, which was broadcast to unanimous critical and public acclaim.

 

BEATRICE RANA, PIANO

Artist Website

At only 23 years old, Beatrice Rana?is making waves on the international classical music scene, earning admiration and interest from conductors, critics, and audiences around the world. Born in Italy into a family of musicians, Rana began her piano studies at the age of four and made her orchestral debut at the age of nine. She currently lives in Rome, where she continues her studies with her mentor, Benedetto Lupo. She studied previously with Arie Vardi at the Hochschule für Musik in Hanover. Rana came to public attention in 2011 after winning first prize and all special jury prizes at the Montreal International Competition. Her promising career was brought to an even higher level in 2013 when she won the Silver Medal and the Audience Award at the 14th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. In September 2015 she was named a BBC New Generation Artist, and in April 2016 she was awarded a fellowship from the Borletti-Buitoni Trust. She collaborates regularly with conductors of the highest level and performs at the world’s most esteemed concert halls and festivals.

 

GIL SHAHAM, VIOLIN

Artist Website

Gil Shaham is one of the foremost violinists of our time; his flawless technique combined with his inimitable warmth and generosity of spirit has solidified his renown as an American master. The Grammy Award winner is sought after throughout the world for concerto appearances with leading orchestras and conductors, and he regularly gives recitals and appears with ensembles on the world’s great concert stages and at the most prestigious festivals. Shaham was awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant in 1990, and in 2008 he received the coveted Avery Fisher Prize. In 2012, he was named “Instrumentalist of the Year” by Musical America, which cited the “special kind of humanism” with which his performances are imbued. He plays the 1699 “Countess Polignac” Stradivarius.  

 

KSENIJA SIDOROVA, ACCORDION 

Artist Website

Praised as “superbly subtle and virtuosic” (The Arts Desk) and “an amazingly accomplished artist” (Classical Source), Ksenija Sidorova is the leading ambassador for the accordion. Encouraged to take up the instrument by a grandmother steeped in the folk tradition of accordion playing, Sidorova started to play the instrument at age eight under the guidance of Marija Gasele in her hometown of Riga. Her quest for more exposure to both classical and contemporary repertoire took her to London, where she became a prize-winning undergraduate at the Royal Academy of Music studying under Owen Murray. She subsequently received her master’s degree with distinction. A recipient of both the Philharmonia Orchestra’s Martin Musical Scholarship and Friends of the Philharmonia Award, as well as the Worshipful Company of Musicians Silver Medal, Sidorova has just been appointed a Junge Wilde Artist by the Konzerthaus Dortmund.

 

SO PERCUSSION

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So Percussion is a New York–based music ensemble that creates and presents new collaborative works to adventurous and curious audiences and educational initiatives to engaged students. Through this work the ensemble provides meaningful service to its communities, in order to exemplify the power of music to unite people and forge deep social bonds. With innovative multi-genre original productions, sensational interpretations of modern classics, and an “exhilarating blend of precision and anarchy, rigor and bedlam,” (The New Yorker ), So Percussion has redefined the scope and role of the modern percussion ensemble. So Percussion is the Edward T. Cone Ensemble-in-Residence at Princeton University, where it offers educational work and presents an annual series of concerts. The members are also co-directors of the percussion department at the Bard College Conservatory of Music, and run the annual So Percussion Summer Institute (SoSI), providing college-age composers and percussionists an immersive exposure to collaboration and project development.

 

TRIO SOLISTI

Artist Website

Trio Solisti has forged a reputation as “the most exciting piano trio in America” (The New Yorker), with a passionate performance style that combines exceptional virtuosity and musical insight. Possessing a repertoire that encompasses standard works and pieces by contemporary composers, rave reviews follow the trio throughout its concert tours. Founded in 2001, Trio Solisti—violinist Maria Bachmann, cellist Alexis Pia Gerlach, and pianist Fabio Bidini—has performed on major concert series such as Great Performers at Lincoln Center, People’s Symphony Concerts at Town Hall N.Y., Washington Performing Arts Society at the Kennedy Center, Seattle’s Meany Hall, and La Jolla’s Revelle Series.

 

THOMAS ZEHETMAIR, VIOLIN

Artist Website  

Thomas Zehetmair’s ability to skillfully blend his musical interests is unparalleled. He enjoys widespread international acclaim not only as a violinist, but also as a conductor and chamber musician, making him one of the most prominent artist personalities today. His international career as a conductor is defined primarily by his position as artistic partner of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, as well as principal conductor of the Musikkollegium Winterthur, since the beginning of the 2016/17 season. Zehetmair is both a sought-after soloist and conductor among leading international orchestras. He is also the founding member of the Zehetmair Quartet, with which he was awarded the Paul Hindemith Prize by the City of Hanau in November 2014 in recognition of outstanding musical achievement.

 

 

About Mostly Mozart Festival

Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival—America’s first indoor summer music festival—was launched as an experiment in 1966. Called “Midsummer Serenades: A Mozart Festival,” its first two seasons were devoted exclusively to the music of Mozart. The official title of Mostly Mozart was coined in 1970, and the festival has evolved over time to become a New York institution and a highlight of the city’s summer classical music season. Through the leadership of Ehrenkranz Artistic Director Jane Moss and Renée and Robert Belfer Music Director Louis Langrée, Mostly Mozart has broadened its focus beyond the music of Mozart to include works by his predecessors, contemporaries, and successors. In addition to concerts by the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, Mostly Mozart now includes concerts by the world’s outstanding period-instrument ensembles, chamber orchestras and ensembles, and acclaimed soloists, as well as opera, dance, film, and late-night performances.

 

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (LCPA) serves three primary roles: presenter of artistic programming, national leader in arts, education, and community engagement, and manager of the Lincoln Center campus. A presenter of more than 3,000 free and ticketed events, performances, tours, and educational activities annually, LCPA offers 16 series, festivals, and programs, including American Songbook, Avery Fisher Career Grants and Artist program, David Rubenstein Atrium programming, Great Performers, The Performing Arts Hall of Fame at Lincoln Center, Lincoln Center at the Movies, Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Awards, Lincoln Center Festival, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, Lincoln Center Vera List Art Project, Midsummer Night Swing, Mostly Mozart Festival, White Light Festival, the Emmy Award–winning Live From Lincoln Center, which airs nationally on PBS, and Lincoln Center Education, which is in its 41st year, enriching the lives of students, educators, and lifelong learners. As manager of the Lincoln Center campus, LCPA provides support and services for the Lincoln Center complex and its 11 resident organizations: The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, The Film Society of Lincoln Center, Jazz at Lincoln Center, The Juilliard School, Lincoln Center Theater, The Metropolitan Opera, New York City Ballet, New York Philharmonic, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, School of American Ballet, and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

 

Lincoln Center has become a leading force in using new media and technology to reach and inspire a wider and global audience. Reaching audiences where they are—physically and digitally—has become a cornerstone of making the performing arts more accessible to New Yorkers and beyond. The re-imagination of David Geffen Hall will play an important part in these efforts. For more information, visit LincolnCenter.org.

 

Lincoln Center is committed to providing and improving accessibility for people with disabilities. For information, call the Accessibility at Lincoln Center at 212.875.5375.