CARNEGIE HALL PRESENTS
Leonard Bernstein: Arias, Barcarolles, A Sonata, And Riffs

Zankel Hall
Saturday, December 13th, 2008 at 7:30 PM

Robert Spano, Conductor and Pianist
Susan Graham, Mezzo-Soprano
Rod Gilfry, Baritone
Ricardo Morales, Clarinet
Jeremy Denk, Piano
Members of the Brooklyn Philharmonic

BERNSTEIN Sonata for Clarinet and Piano
BERNSTEIN “Rabbit at Top Speed” from La bonne cuisine
BERNSTEIN "Tavouk Gueunksis" from La bonne cuisine
BERNSTEIN "What Lips My Lips have Kissed" from Songfest
BERNSTEIN "Music I Heard with You" from Songfest
BERNSTEIN "Lucky to Be Me" from On the Town
BERNSTEIN "A Simple Song" from Mass
COPLAND El salón Mexico (arr. Bernstein)
BERNSTEIN Prelude, Fugue and Riffs
BERNSTEIN Arias and Barcarolles

Sponsored by American Express, dedicated to preserving cultural heritage

Major funding for Bernstein: The Best of All Possible Worlds has been provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, The Alice Tully Foundation, American Express, Bob and Martha Lipp, The Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation, Nash Family Foundation, and Mr. and Mrs. A. Alfred Taubman.

Additional funding provided by GWFF USA Inc., and Linda and Stuart Nelson.

Generous support has also been provided by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Program Notes:

BERNSTEIN (1918–1990) Sonata for Clarinet and Piano

Leonard Bernstein graduated from Harvard in the summer of 1939, and set about the hard business of establishing a musical career. He rejected his father’s offer of $100 a week (no mean sum) to work in the family business, but stayed instead in Greenwich Village with his friend Adolph Green who, with Betty Comden and Judy Holliday, was appearing at the Village Vanguard. By the end of August, with only four dollars in his pocket, he bought a second-hand clarinet and returned home.

Over the next few years, his musical achievements included several important highlights: working for Serge Koussevitsky at Tanglewood, meeting Dmitri Mitropoulos in Minneapolis and, most important, enjoying the constant support and advice from Aaron Copland, who both organized the publication of his piano transcription of El Salón México and introduced him to the publishers Harms-Witmark, who offered a five-year contract with advances and published his newly written clarinet sonata.

The sonata has been compared with Hindemith, but is much closer to Copland. With the wisdom of hindsight, one can even hear the germs of ideas that finally emerged in the West Side Story dances.

Composed between 1941 and 1942, the Sonata for Clarinet and Piano received its Carnegie Hall premiere in Carnegie Recital Hall (now Weill Recital Hall) on March 6, 1954, with Philip Fatt, clarinet and Martin Canin, piano.


“Rabbit at Top Speed” and “Tavouk Gueunksis” from La bonne cuisine

When assisting Koussevitsky in a lecture series in Lenox, Massachusetts, Bernstein met the mezzo-soprano Jennie Tourel, to whom he would be devoted for the rest of his life, and for whom he wrote a number of major works. At that time, the only offering he could make was a jazz collection of five songs called I Hate Music. Koussevitzky, disapproving of jazz, forbade their performance in a recital (but she sang them anyway as encores). In 1948 when he changed publishers, moving to G. Schirmer, Bernstein first offered La Bonne Cuisine, dedicated to Tourel as “the only begetter.” The cycle consists of four recipes from a French cookbook by Emile Dumont. The recipes, translated by Bernstein, are a slightly tongue-in-cheek tribute to 19th- and early 20th-century romantic French song (mélodie).

“Rabbit at Top Speed” and “Tavouk Gueunksis” from La bonne cuisine, composed in 1947, received their Carnegie Hall premieres in Weill Recital Hall on May 6, 1989, with Forrest Munger, tenor and Thomas Muraco, piano.


“What Lips My Lips Have Kissed” and “Music I Heard with You” from Songfest

In 1976, to recognize the American Centennial celebrations, Bernstein undertook two main projects. The first was a musical, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue with lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner, tracing the history of the White House and its incumbents. Massively expensive, the show was a failure and closed after seven performances. Another commission, set aside for the ill-fated musical, was a song cycle, Songfest, to celebrate 200 years of America’s history through its poetry

It was a difficult time for Bernstein, temporarily separated from his wife and family, and he read through the works of hundreds of American poets before settling on a final twelve. Jack Gottlieb, Bernstein’s indefatigable annotator and historian, indicated that “the strongest binding musical force in the Cycle is that of unabashed eclecticism, freely reflecting the pluralistic nature of our most eclectic country.”

“What Lips My Lips Have Kissed” from Songfest, composed in 1981, received its Carnegie Hall premiere on February 7, 1997, with Marilyn Horne, mezzo-soprano and Martin Katz, piano. “Music I Heard with You” receives its Carnegie Hall premiere this evening.


“Lucky to be Me” from On The Town

1944 was a wonderful year for Leonard Bernstein. In November of the previous year, he stood in at short notice for Bruno Walter, becoming an overnight sensation. Numerous engagements followed and he gave the first performance of his symphony, Jeremiah, in January. He had been approached by the choreographer Jerome Robbins to write the music for a ballet, Fancy Free, about three sailors on shore leave in New York. The ballet opened in April, with Bernstein conducting, and was an instant success. Using a similar story (three sailors on shore leave in Manhattan), but none of the music, Bernstein collaborated with Betty Comden and Adolph Green to write his first major musical, On The Town, which opened in December of the same year to almost unanimously excellent reviews—and this was just the start of his career

“Lucky To Be Me” is sung by the hero, Gabey, after meeting “Miss Turnstiles,” whose picture is displayed in the subway

“Lucky to be Me” from On The Town, composed in 1944, received its Carnegie Hall premiere in Carnegie Hall Playhouse (now Zankel Hall) on January 15, 1959, with Harold Lang (as Gabey) in a full production of On the Town that ran for 54 performances until March 1.


“A Simple Song” from Mass

In 1969, Leonard Bernstein, after more than a decade, resigned his position as Music Director of the New York Philharmonic. This permitted him to accept some of the innumerable international conducting invitations that he received and, more important, allowed him time to concentrate on composition.

For the next year, his creative powers were focused, albeit with constant distractions, on his new work, Mass. Using the Catholic service as the starting-point for a huge theatre piece, it was promised for the 1969 opening of the Kennedy Center in Washington but construction delays led to a rescheduled opening in the summer of 1971.

By the end of 1970, most of the score—either new or salvaged from other projects—was ready, but he had no lyricist. His sister, an agent for writers, took him to see Godspell, based on the Gospel according to Saint Matthew, and written by her young protégé Stephen Schwartz. The show was a religious rock musical, enjoying a successful New York run, and Bernstein was convinced that he had, at last, found a collaborator. Mass was completed quite quickly by Bernstein and Schwartz, and a star-studded production team of old colleagues assembled.

It is Bernstein’s most ambitious theatre work: part Latin text, part songs, part ‘numbers’ and set-piece choreographic sequences, ecumenical in nature, not falling into any category. With a cast of two hundred (dancers, singers, boy chorus, rock and blues singers, two orchestras and marching band), it is an enormous pageant and a theatrical/musical “experience.”

After a quadraphonic tape of Kyrie Eleisons, the Celebrant, and central character of the work, entersHe is young man, dressed in jeans and shirt, carrying a guitar.

“A Simple Song” from Mass, composed in 1971, received its Carnegie Hall premiere on December 10, 1987 with Empire Brass (Rolf Smedvig and Jeffrey Curnow, trumpets; Martin Hackleman, French horn; Scott A. Hartman, trombone; and J. Samuel Pilafian, tuba).


COPLAND (1900–1990) El salón México (arr. Bernstein)

Bernstein was the protégé of several powerful conductors, notably Fritz Reiner, who taught him at Curtis; Dimitri Mitropoulos, who helped pay for his education; and Serge Koussevitzky, who made him his assistant in Boston. But his greatest support came from the distinguished composer Aaron Copland, his lifelong friend, mentor, and sometimes critic and correspondent, who helped open many doors when the young composer/pianist/conductor set out to conquer the music world.

They met in 1937 and Copland, a central figure in New York intellectual circles, introduced the young man from Boston to his circle of musicians, writers, and poets. In October 1938 Copland came to Boston to help supervise the American premiere of his El Salón México with the Boston Symphony under Koussevitsky. Bernstein was enthralled with the colorful score and begged Copland for the opportunity to study with himThis never transpired but he made a piano reduction of El Salón and, early in 1941, Copland recommended it to his publishers. It was the first work to appear under Bernstein’s name.

Copland’s prize-winning portrait of a dance hall in Mexico City, with its seductive melodies and explosive rhythms, has long been a concert favorite, and Bernstein’s masterly transfer to the keyboard loses none of its essence.

Composed in 1941, El salón México (arr. Bernstein) received its Carnegie Hall premiere in Carnegie Recital Hall (now Weill Recital Hall) on March 12, 1982 with Andree Juliette Brun, piano.


BERNSTEIN (1918–1900) Prelude, Fugue and Riffs

Prelude, Fugue and Riffs dates back to 1948, when it was commissioned by Woody Herman. Unfortunately, the bandleader/clarinettist couldn’t pay for it, and the work went, as was Bernstein’s habit, to a “bottom drawer” for future use(One can trace the history of many Bernstein pieces that started in one place and ended in another.) It did not return until October 16, 1955, when Benny Goodman, an old friend, persuaded Bernstein to include it on an Omnibus television show “The World of Jazz”.

Jazzand its interpreters are traditionally associated with improvisation; Bernstein’s skill is such that, in a written work, he still catches improvisatory elements of the medium—even when writing a fugue, the most intellectual and disciplined classical musical form. The Prelude is played by the brass, the Fugue is given to saxophones, and the Riffs is played by solo clarinet, with the piano and the band accompanying

Composed in 1949, Prelude, Fugue and Riffs received its Carnegie Hall premiere on November 11, 1988, with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra; Leonard Bernstein, conductor; and Peter Schmidl, clarinet.
Arias and Barcarolles

Arias and Barcarolles was Leonard Bernstein’s final work (although there were always other pieces “on the boil” at the time of his death)Its title comes from a charming misnomer by President Eisenhower. After a concert of Mozart and Gershwin at the White House, the President said, “you know, I liked that last piece you played; it’s got a theme. I like music with a theme, not all them (sic) arias and barcarolles.” Presumably, he was referring to all the more abstract or non-melodic forms that music can take.

The seven songs and hummed epilogue have been described as Bernstein’s “Seven Ages of Man,” but they are more nearly an intimate, loving envoi to friends and family gathered over the years. The texts are by Bernstein (who insisted on crediting his mother with “Little Smary”) and the Yiddish poet Yankev Yitzkhok Segal, who wrote ‘At My Wedding’.

AIDS, which so cruelly diminished America’s homosexual population in the 1980s, took the life of Bernstein’s close friend, Jack Romann, of the Baldwin Piano Company, and Bernstein put the song suite together for a concert dedicated to his memory. The first song is from material he wrote to celebrate his daughter Jamie’s wedding; the second presents familiar comments from his life“Little Smary” is a bedtime story about a rabbit (“wuddit”), and “The Love of My Life” is dedicated to Stephen Wadsworth and Kurt Ollman. “Greeting” was written to celebrate the birth of his son Alexander. The sixth song, “Oif Mayn Khas’neh,” is about a klezmer musician who plays at a wedding, and “Mr. and Mrs. Webb” is a portrait of Charles Webb, dean of the Indiana School of Music, his wife Kenda, and their sons (sung by the pianists). The Epilogue, a touching waltz reminiscent of Satie, is hummed by both soloists.

Composed in 1988, Arias and Barcarolles receives its Carnegie Hall premiere this evening.

—Paul Myers

Paul Myers, a classical record producer for more than 40 years, is the author of several books, including a biography of Leonard Bernstein (Phaidon).

© 2008 by The Carnegie Hall Corporation

Robert Spano, Conductor and Pianist
Now in his eighth season as Music Director of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Robert Spano is among the most innovative and imaginative conductors of his generation. He has conducted the major North American and international orchestras including the Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, BBC, BBC Scottish, and City of Birmingham symphony orchestras; the Cleveland and Philadelphia orchestras; the Los Angeles, New York, Czech, New Japan, and Oslo philharmonics; Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra; Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala; and Berlin Radio Sinfonie Orchestra. In addition, he has appeared with the opera companies of Chicago, Houston, and Santa Fe, as well as at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, and Welsh National Opera.

In August 2009 Spano will return to the Seattle Opera to conduct three cycles of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen. This month, he conducts Golijov’s Ainadamar with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s and appears with the Zankel Band as part of Carnegie Hall’s Bernstein festival. Other North American engagements include performances with the New World Symphony and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He is a guest soloist with Green Bay Symphony, playing Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20.

This season’s Atlanta programs reflect Spano’s broad and diverse repertoire as well as his commitment to living composers, including commissions from Jennifer Higdon and Christopher Theofanidis, an American Originals festival, concert performances of John Adams’s Dr. Atomic, and Joseph Haydn’s The Creation.

The Atlanta Symphony’s distinguished recording legacy with Spano includes Grammy Award–winning recordings of Vaughan Williams’s A Sea Symphony and Berlioz’s Requiem. In addition, it recently recorded two discs of the music of Osvaldo Golijov for Deutsche Grammophon, one featuring Three Songs and Oceana and the chamber opera Ainadamar, which was awarded two Grammys.

Musical America’s 2008 Conductor of the Year, Spano was music director of the Ojai Festival in 2006, director of the Festival of Contemporary Music at the Tanglewood Music Center in 2003 and 2004, head of the conducting fellowship program at Tanglewood from 1998 to 2002, and music director of the Brooklyn Philharmonic from 1996–2004. He is on the faculty of Oberlin Conservatory and has received honorary doctorates from Bowling Green State University and the Curtis Institute of Music.

Susan Graham, Mezzo-Soprano
Susan Graham, world famous in opera, concerts, and recitals—particularly in French repertoire—opens her season singing Berlioz in South America, and later performs in New York, Paris, and Munich. She hosted the fourth annual Opera News Awards in November and sings at the renowned Prague Spring Festival, closing her season with recitals in Berlin, Copenhagen, London, Vienna, and Brussels. At the Met she is Elvira in Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Marguérite in Berlioz’s Damnation de Faust; at Carnegie Hall she sings Arias and Barcarolles during a citywide Leonard Bernstein Festival; and later salutes Marilyn Horne for her 75th birthday. Also on Graham’s agenda are songs by Berg in St. Louis, Mozart arias in Salzburg, and Rorem songs with Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.

Graham has sung Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride at the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, and the Royal Opera House Covent Garden. She has performed leading roles from the 17th to 20th centuries at the world’s principal opera houses, including La Scala, Vienna State Opera, Opéra National de Paris, Dresden’s Semperoper, and the Salzburg Festival, and she has appeared with most of the world’s foremost conductors and orchestras. The Grammy Award-winning singer captivates audiences with her expressive voice, tall and graceful stature, and natural, engaging acting ability in comedy as well as tragedy.

Last season at the Met, Graham portrayed both Gluck’s Iphigénie and Mozart’s Sesto in La clemenza di Tito, and gave recitals in London, Madrid, Amsterdam, and Paris with her frequent collaborator, pianist Malcolm Martineau. Her season finale as Handel’s Ariodante with San Francisco Opera prompted a local critic to write, “Susan Graham added one more entry to her long list of triumphs with the company, turning in a performance marked by nobility and technical bravura.”

Susan Graham releases two new recordings this season: Un frisson français, with Malcolm Martineau, surveys a century of French song; and her famous rendition of La mort de Cléopatre by Hector Berlioz, as recorded with the Berlin Philharmonic and Sir Simon Rattle, is released by EMI Classics. Her discography of complete operas ranges from Handel’s Alcina and Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride, to Barber’s Vanessa, Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking, and Berlioz’s Troyens on DVD.

Graham created the part of Sister Helen Prejean in Dead Man Walking for San Francisco Opera, and created roles in two Metropolitan Opera world premieres, Tobias Picker’s An American Tragedy and John Harbison’s Great Gatsby.

Born in New Mexico and raised in Texas, Susan Graham studied at Texas Tech University and Manhattan School of Music. As a young artist she won awards from the Metropolitan Opera National Council, San Francisco Opera, and the Richard Tucker Music Foundation. She was Musical America’s Vocalist of the Year, and her hometown of Midland, Texas, has made September 5 its annual “Susan Graham Day.”

Rod Gilfry, Baritone
Rod Gilfry is one of today's most sought-after and compelling baritones. His artistry has been heard in every music capital, including Vienna, Paris, London, Munich, Zurich, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.
In the 2008–2009 season, Gilfry performs Trouble in Tahiti in concert with the Bayerische Rundfunk in Munich, sings recitals and concerts on the West Coast, performs Elijah with the Orchestre de Paris, and returns to San Diego Opera for performances of Balstrode in Peter GrimesRecent engagements include Carmina Burana with the Tonhalle-Orchester (Zurich) under the baton of John Nelson, Danilo in The Merry Widow with Dallas Opera, the title role in Messian’s St. François d'Assise with Netherlands Opera, and Falke in Die Fledermaus at Seiji Ozawa’s prestigious Saito-Kinen Festival.
With a repertoire of over 40 roles, Gilfry sings music from the Baroque to that composed expressly for him. He was brought to worldwide attention when he created the role of Stanley Kowalski in the 1998 premiere of André Previn's A Streetcar Named Desire with the San Francisco Opera. In the fall of 2006, he created his fifth world premiere role as Jack London in the new Libby Larsen / Philip Littell opera, Every Man Jack, in Sonoma, California. In the spring of 2007, he performed the role of De Guiche in Alfano’s Cyrano de Bergerac in Valencia, Spain, opposite Placido Domingo, as well as The Merry Widow at Los Angeles Opera. Additionally, last season he performed his one-man show, “Rodgers to Rossini,” in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, and sang the role of Joey in Frank Loesser’s musical, The Most Happy Fella, at the Ravinia Festival with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
Other recent notable engagements include Lionel in the San Francisco Opera production of Tchaikovsky’s Joan of Arc, Prospero in the American premiere of Thomas Ades’s The Tempest at the Santa Fe Opera, and Nathan in the American premiere of Nicholas Maw’s Sophie’s Choice in Washington, DC, a role he created at Covent Garden’s Royal Opera House in 2002.
Gilfry has been recognized as a Distinguished Alumnus of both Cal State Fullerton, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in 1981, and the University of Southern California, where he earned a master’s degree in vocal performance in 1983.

Ricardo Morales, Clarinet
Ricardo Morales was appointed Principal Clarinet of The Philadelphia Orchestra by Wolfgang Sawallisch in 2002 and joined the Orchestra in 2003Prior to this he was principal clarinet of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, a position he assumed at the age of 21 under the direction of James Levine. He has also served as principal clarinet of the Florida Symphony.

A native of San Juan, Puerto Rico, Morales began his studies at the Escuela Libre de Musica along with his five siblings, who are all distinguished musicians. He continued his studies at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music and Indiana University, where he received his Artist Diploma.

He has been a featured soloist with many orchestras, including the Philadelphia and Metropolitan Opera orchestra, as well as the Chicago, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Flemish Radio, North Carolina, Puerto Rico, Florida, and Columbus symphony. He has also been a soloist on the Metropolitan Museum of Art Concert Series. During his tenure with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Morales soloed under the baton of James Levine in Carnegie Hall and on two European tours. He made his solo debut with The Philadelphia Orchestra in 2004 with Charles Dutoit at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, and performed as soloist in 2005 with Christoph Eschenbach in Verizon Hall.

An active chamber musician, Morales has performed in the MET Chamber Ensemble series at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall with James Levine at the piano, at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Saratoga Chamber Music Festival, Kennedy Center, on NBC’s The Today Show, and with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Morales is highly sought after for his recitals and master classes, which have taken him throughout North America and Europe. In addition, he currently serves on the faculties of The Juilliard School and Temple University.

Morales’s performances can be seen and heard on the numerous televised and radio broadcasts from the Metropolitan Opera Live from Lincoln Center series. His debut solo recording, French Portraits, is available on the Boston Records label. Morales has joined forces with internationally recognized master acoustician and instrument maker Morrie Backun to create MoBa, a company of top of the line clarinet accessories, including mouthpieces, bells, and barrels.

Jeremy Denk, Piano
American pianist Jeremy Denk has steadily built a name as one of today’s most compelling young artists.

Denk has appeared as a soloist with several major orchestras, including The Philadelphia Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, London Philharmonia, Dallas Symphony, and Houston Symphony. This season he appeared for the third time with the San Francisco Symphony, replacing an ailing Itzhak Perlman and performing Beethoven’s First Concerto.

Denk appears often in recital in New York, Washington, Boston, and Philadelphia, and was an artist-in-residence at the 2008 Gilmore Keyboard Festival. He made his solo recital debut presented by Carnegie Hall last month in a tour pairing Ives’s “Concord” Sonata with Beethoven’s “Hammerklavier.” He will give four additional performances in New York and in Boston this season, and appears in recital and with orchestras in cities from Florida to Colorado,
and from Houston to Buffalo.

A pianist with an unusually broad repertoire, Denk maintains working relationships with a number of living composers. He has participated in such premieres as Jake Heggie’s concerto Cut Time; Libby Larsen’s Collage: Boogie; Kevin Puts’s Alternating Current, and Ned Rorem’s The Unquestioned Answer. In 2002 he recorded Tobias Picker’s Second Piano Concerto with the Moscow Philharmonic. He has also worked closely with composer Leon Kirchner on many of his recent compositions, recording his Sonata No. 2 (2001). This season he performs works by György Ligeti, Elliott Carter, Morton Feldman, Thomas Adès, and Ives.

An avid chamber musician as well, Denk has collaborated with many of the world’s finest string quartets, and appeared at such festivals as Spoleto (US and Italy), Verbier, and the Santa Fe and Seattle Chamber Music. He has also spent several summers at the Marlboro Music School and Festival in Vermont, and participated in Musicians from Marlboro national tours. At Spoleto
in 2004, Denk met and first performed with violinist Joshua Bell, whose subsequent invitation to do a recital tour sparked a continuing musical partnership that has resulted in a recording of Corigliano’s Violin Sonata on the Sony Classical label.

Denk maintains a widely-read blog entitled Think Denk. It has been praised by colleagues and the music press alike, and records some of his touring, practicing, and otherwise unrelated experiences, as well as delving into fairly detailed musical analyses and essays.

After graduating from Oberlin College and Conservatory, where he studied the piano and chemistry, Denk earned a master’s degree in music from Indiana University as a pupil of György Sebök, and a doctorate in piano performance from The Juilliard School, where he worked with Herbert Stessin.

Denk lives in New York City. His website and blog address is jeremydenk.net.

Members of the Brooklyn Philharmonic

One of the nation’s groundbreaking music ensembles, the Brooklyn Philharmonic continues to be a vital presence in the cultural life of the New York metropolitan area. For the past five decades, the Brooklyn Philharmonic has played a leading role in the presentation of innovative and thematic programming, receiving 21 ASCAP Awards for Adventurous Programming of Contemporary Music. Since its 1954 inception, audiences have embraced the Brooklyn Philharmonic’s commitment to the concept of the orchestra as a contemporary performance ensemble emphasizing important present-day music. The Philharmonic has world premiered over 166 works, including 65 commissions.

Brooklyn Philharmonic enters this season under the baton of Music Director Michael Christie, who is in his fourth season with the orchestra and is the fifth conductor in this role since the founding of the Brooklyn Philharmonic. Christie, a paramount American conductor of the 21st century, succeeds a line of illustrious predecessors: Robert Spano, Dennis Russell Davies, Lukas Foss, and the Brooklyn Philharmonic’s founding father, Siegfried Landau

Devoted to bringing music to the entire Brooklyn community, Brooklyn Philharmonic serves the borough’s cultural and educational communities through partnerships with Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyn Museum, and Brooklyn Public Library to present programs such as Music Off The Walls, Target First Saturdays, and Music Off The Shelves. Brooklyn Philharmonic also annually performs a free summer concert series, playing at such venues as The South Street Seaport, Asser Levy Park in Coney Island, Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park section of Brooklyn Bridge Park, and The Naumburg Bandshell in Central Park.

The Brooklyn Philharmonic is continually expanding its role as a leader in music education and as a critical cultural resource for economically disadvantaged children and at-risk youth. Current initiatives include School Time Concerts that have introduced more than 350,000 children to the concert hall experience over the past 45 years, open rehearsals for middle and high school music students, in-school repertoire workshops, curriculum-based workshops at elementary schools, pre- and post-concert discussions, master classes, in-school coaching, and free or reduced price tickets for students and community groups. The Philharmonic proudly continues its legacy of being a risk-taking institution of artistic excellence.