The Orchestra Now announces 2023–24 season featuring concerts at Carnegie Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rose Theater, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Fisher Center at Bard, and three performances in New York City and beyond, September 16, 2023–May 19, 2024
U.S. Premieres of Walter Kaufmann’s An Indian Symphony, Josef Tal’s Exodus, and Eugene Ysaÿe’s Violin Concerto;Plus Rarely Heard Works by Grażyna Bacewicz, George Enescu, Joseph Joachim, Marcel Rubin, and Alexandre Tansman
Guest Artists Include Mezzo-Sopranos Stephanie Blythe and Megan Moore, Violinists Nikita Boriso-Glebsky and Yangxin Song, Pianists Yilin Li, Ryan MacEvoy McCullough and Terrence Wilson; Trombonist Peter Moore; and Conductors Leon Botstein, Andrés Rivas, Zachary Schwartzman, Chloé Van Soeterstéde and Jean-Marie Zeitouni
Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, August 9, 2023 — The Orchestra Now (TŌN), the far-sighted orchestra and master’s degree program founded by Bard College president, conductor, educator, and music historian Leon Botstein, launches its ninth season on September 16, 2023 through May 19, 2024. Acclaimed for presenting creative combinations of both well-known and less familiar repertoire, TŌN offers 20 programs and a total of 27 concerts, including two at Carnegie Hall, three at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, one at Lincoln Center’s Rose Theater, three free concerts at Manhattan’s Peter Norton Symphony Space and Bard College at Simon’s Rock, and six at the Orchestra’s home at Bard College’s Fisher Center.
The Orchestra welcomes 31 new members this season, for a total of 59 musicians from 13 countries around the globe.
“As we approach the ninth successful season of TŌN, I am exceedingly proud of all we have accomplished since the Orchestra was launched in 2015,” said Music Director Leon Botstein. Since then, TŌN has performed a remarkable 668 works by 304 composers in 36 venues for more than 88,000 live and virtual concertgoers, with 320 soloists and 33 conductors. I am delighted to continue that impressive record in the 2023-24 season with three U.S premieres, an exploration of numerous undiscovered masterworks, and a roster of guest artists that range from Metropolitan Opera star Stephanie Blythe—Artistic Director of Bard Conservatory’s Vocal Arts Program—to rising young winners of Bard Conservatory Concerto Competitions.”
Highlights of the 2023-24 season
Leon Botstein conducts two concerts at Carnegie Hall including Joseph Joachim’s Variations for Violin and Orchestra, as well as three New York City premieres: Josef Tal’s Exodus, Eugène Ysaÿe’s Violin Concerto in D, and Walter Kaufmann’s An Indian Symphony. At Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rose Theater, French conductor Chloé Van Soeterstédewill lead Dani Howard’s Trombone Concerto with soloist Peter Moore. The popular Sight & Sound series at The Metropolitan Museum of Art returns with three programs investigating the links between fine arts and music through a focus on Aaron Copland and political influences on 1930s artwork; Debussy’s vivid orchestral colorings and Henri Matisse; and the music of William Grant Still and James P. Johnson during the rise of the Harlem Renaissance. The Fisher Center series at Bard College offers 11 performances of six different programs including the U.S. premieres of Josef Tal’s Exodus, Eugène Ysaÿe’s Violin Concerto in D minor, and Walter Kaufmann’s An Indian Symphony, and an opening concert featuring Viennese composers of the 19th and 20th centuries. There are also three free concerts led by TŌN resident conductor Zachary Schwartzman and assistant conductor Andrés Rivas at Peter Norton Symphony Space in Manhattan and Bard College at Simon’s Rock.
Broadcasts and Recordings
This year marks the 7th season of TŌN’s popular broadcast series on WMHT-FM, the classical music radio station of New York’s Capital Region, and the 6th season on WWFM, the Classical Network station serving New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania, both featuring programs from the Orchestra’s Fisher Center series. TŌN’s performances are also heard regularly on American Public Media’s Performance Today.
For detailed information about the 2023-24 season, visit ton.bard.edu.
CARNEGIE HALL SERIES, Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage
Exodus: Jewish Composers in Exile
Tuesday, November 7, 2023 at 7 PM
Leon Botstein, conductor
Alexandre Tansman: Polish Rhapsody
Josef Tal: Exodus (NYC premiere)
Walter Kaufmann: An Indian Symphony (NYC premiere)
Marcel Rubin: Symphony No. 4, Dies irae
The Orchestra’s Carnegie Hall series opens with seldom-heard works by Jewish composers written while they were in exile from their homelands during World War II. The program comprises Alexandre Tansman’s Polish Rhapsody, inspired by the invasion of his homeland and dedicated to the defenders of Warsaw; the NYC premiere of Josef Tal’s Exodus, based on the Passover Haggadah; the NYC premiere of Walter Kaufmann’s An Indian Symphony, written while in exile in Bombay; and Marcel Rubin’s Symphony No. 4, Dies irae, reflecting his experiences during the Second World War.
Violinist as Composer
Wednesday, May 8, 2024 at 7 PM
Leon Botstein, conductor
Nikita Boriso-Glebsky, violin (Carnegie Hall debut)
Grażyna Bacewicz: Partita for Orchestra
Joseph Joachim: Variations for Violin and Orchestra in E minor
Eugène Ysaÿe: Violin Concerto in D minor (NYC Premiere)
George Enescu: Symphony No. 2 in A Major, Op. 17
Leon Botstein spotlights four European virtuoso violinists who were also major composers in their respective countries, but are not household names elsewhere today. The program includes the NYC premiere of a recently discovered concerto by famed Belgian violinist and composer Eugène Ysaÿe, Polish composer Grażyna Bacewicz’s Partita for Orchestra, and the Second Symphony of Romanian composer George Enescu. The evening also includes Hungarian composer Joseph Joachim’s virtuosic Variations for Violin and Orchestra, featuring internationally acclaimed Russian violinist Nikita Boriso-Glebsky, winner of both the Jean Sibelius and Fritz Kreisler Violin Competitions, who makes his Carnegie Hall debut.
Tickets, priced at $25–$50, are available online at carnegiehall.org, by calling CarnegieCharge at 212.247.7800, or at the Carnegie Hall box office at 57th & Seventh Avenue.
ROSE THEATER
Debussy’s Afternoon of a Faun
Sunday, May 19, 2024 at 3 PM
Chloé Van Soeterstéde, conductor
Peter Moore, trombone (NY solo debut)
Claude Debussy: Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, L. 86
Dani Howard: Trombone Concerto
Sergei Rachmaninoff: Symphonic Dances, Op. 45
TŌN welcomes rising French conductor Chloé van Soeterstède, a former Dudamel and Taki Alsop Fellow who has conducted orchestras around the globe, including the London and Royal Philharmonic Orchestras. Her program begins with one of Debussy’s most popular works, Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, inspired by a poem about the mythical creature and some alluring nymphs. Next on the program is Dani Howard’s Trombone Concerto, written to celebrate the unsung heroes of the pandemic and declared “an instant classic” by the London Times. Principal trombonist of the London Symphony Orchestra Peter Moore, for whom the work was written, joins the Orchestra at this performance. The afternoon concludes with Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances, his final work, and the only one fully composed in the United States.
Tickets, priced at $15–$35, will be available online at jazz.org, by calling CenterCharge at 212.721.6500, or at the Jazz at Lincoln Center box office at Broadway & 60th, Ground Floor.
SIGHT & SOUND SERIES AT THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
The Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium
In the popular series Sight & Sound, conductor and music historian Leon Botstein explores the parallels between orchestral music and the visual arts. Each program is accompanied by on-screen artworks and musical excerpts performed by The Orchestra Now, followed by a full performance and audience Q&A.
Copland, Culture & Politics in the 1930s
Sunday, December 3, 2023 at 2 PM
Leon Botstein, conductor
Aaron Copland: Statements for Or
Artwork from the exhibition Art for the Millions: American Culture and Politics in the 1930s
The 1930s were a time of political and social turmoil in the United States. Through the Dust Bowl and Great Depression, art and music anchored the struggling nation’s search for identity and hope, depicting and publicizing the struggle of the era’s marginalized masses. Aaron Copland mixed everyday Americana tunes with classical music in an unprecedented way. His orchestral Statements for Orchestra, written when the composer was becoming more politically active, and the Wild-West ballet Billy the Kid, both quote popular folk music of the day, earned him a reputation as the United States’ “populist” composer.
Art for the Millions: American Culture and Politics in the 1930s will be on view at The Met Fifth Avenue September 7–December 10, 2023 in galleries 691–693.
Debussy & Matisse: Creating New Colors
Sunday, March 10, 2024 at 2 PM
Leon Botstein, conductor
Claude Debussy: Images for Orchestra, L. 122
Artwork by Henri Matisse
Henri Matisse helped to revolutionize the visual arts in the first decades of the 20th century with daring experiments in a technicolor style that changed the course of French painting. In the same era, his compatriot Claude Debussy was rejecting classical German musical tradition, developing his own style of harmony and orchestral coloring that would strongly influence a wide range of composers for years to come. His expressive Images for Orchestra, which evokes English, Spanish, and French cultures, exemplifies the composer’s explorations in color and texture.
Still, Johnson & the Harlem Renaissance
Sunday, April 14, 2024 at 2 PM
Leon Botstein, conductor
Terrence Wilson, piano
William Grant Still: Lenox Avenue
James P. Johnson (orch. by Still): Yamekraw, A Negro Rhapsody
With the rise of new, urban Black communities both in New York City and abroad, the Harlem Renaissance became the first African American-led movement of international modern art. With that art came developments in visual art, poetry, jazz, and concert music. William Grant Still’s Lenox Avenue, commissioned by CBS for a 1937 radio broadcast, was inspired by street scenes in Harlem. This performance features pianist Terrence Wilson, an Avery Fisher Career Grant winner dubbed “one of the biggest pianistic talents to have emerged in this country in the last 25 years” by the Baltimore Sun. Still’s orchestration of James P. Johnson’s Yamekraw, A Negro Rhapsody was a response to Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, capturing what the composer felt was a more “authentic” rhapsody about a Black neighborhood in Savannah, Georgia.
Harlem Renaissance will be on view at The Met Fifth Avenue February 20–July 28, 2024 in Gallery 999.
All Tickets, priced at $30 – $50, include same-day museum admission. Tickets will be available starting August 9. They may be purchased online here, by calling The Met at 212.570.3949, or at The Great Hall box office at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
THE FISHER CENTER SERIES AT BARD, Sosnoff Theater
The Orchestra Now, Bard’s orchestral masters, presents its ninth season of six different programs and 11 concerts. All performances will be livestreamed on TŌNtube at ton.bard.edu/tontube.
Two Sides of Vienna
Saturday, September 16, 2023 at 7 PM
Sunday, September 17, 2023 at 2 PM
Leon Botstein, conductor
Franz Lehár: The Merry Widow Overture
Eduard Strauss: Bahn frei!
Johann Strauss II:Kaiser-Walzer (Emperor Waltz)
Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 6
Music Director Leon Botstein opens the Bard season with a concert juxtaposing two distinct styles of Viennese music from the late 19th and early 20th centuries: the melodies of Franz Lehár and the Strauss brothers, and Mahler’s Sixth Symphony. The performance begins with an overture of music from Lehár’s well-known 1905 operetta The Merry Widow, written in 1940 to celebrate the composer’s 70th birthday. This is followed by two dance pieces: Eduard Strauss’ train-themed polka Bahn frei!, and his brother Johann Jr.’s Emperor Waltz, composed for the 40th anniversary of Emperor Franz Josef’s crowning. The program closes with a contrasting style from the same era, Mahler’s deeply personal Symphony No. 6.
Jean-Marie Zeitouni Conducts
Saturday, September 30, 2023 at 7 PM
Jean-Marie Zeitouni, conductor
Megan Moore, mezzo-soprano
Ryan MacEvoy McCullough, piano
Camille Saint-Saëns: Bacchanale from Samson et Dalila
Hector Berlioz: Les Nuits d’été (The Summer Nights), Op. 7
Gabriel Fauré:Pelléas et Mélisande Suite, Op. 80
Vincent d’Indy: Symphony on a French Mountain Air, Op. 25
Celebrated Canadian conductor Jean-Marie Zeitouni makes his debut with TŌN in an all-French program. The evening begins with Saint-Saëns’ Bacchanale from his opera Samson et Dalila. Then mezzo-soprano Megan Moore, a co-founder of the Lynx Project who has performed with The Metropolitan Opera, joins the orchestra for Berlioz’s song cycle The Summer Nights. The program also includes Fauré’s suite of incidental music for the play Pelléas et Mélisande, and d’Indy’s Symphony on a French Mountain Air, featuring Bard College Conservatory faculty pianist Ryan MacEvoy McCullough.
Exodus: Jewish Composers in Exile, A Carnegie Hall Preview Concert
Saturday, November 4, 2023 at 7 PM
Sunday, November 5, 2023 at 2 PM
Leon Botstein, conductor
Alexandre Tansman: Polish Rhapsody
Josef Tal: Exodus (U.S. premiere)
Walter Kaufmann: An Indian Symphony (U.S. premiere)
Marcel Rubin: Symphony No. 4, Dies irae
Leon Botstein and The Orchestra Now perform seldom-heard works by Jewish composers written while they were in exile from their homelands during World War II. The program offers Alexandre Tansman’s Polish Rhapsody, inspired by the invasion of his homeland and dedicated to the defenders of Warsaw; the U.S. premiere of Josef Tal’s Exodus, based on the Passover Haggadah; the U.S. premiere of Walter Kaufmann’s An Indian Symphony, written while in exile in Bombay; and Marcel Rubin’s Symphony No. 4, Dies irae, reflecting his experiences during the Second World War.
TŌN performs this program at Carnegie Hall on November 7.
Stephanie Blythe Sings Brahms
Saturday, February 3, 2024 at 7 PM
Sunday, February 4, 2024 at 3 PM
Leon Botstein, conductor
Stephanie Blythe, mezzo-soprano
Bard Festival Chorale
All-Brahms Program
Rinaldo, Op. 50
Alto Rhapsody, Op. 53
Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68
Award-winning Metropolitan Opera mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe, artistic director of Bard Conservatory’s Graduate Vocal Arts Program, joins TŌN for an all-Brahms concert. She performs his Alto Rhapsody, based on a Goethe poem, as well as the cantata Rinaldo, inspired by another Goethe poem about a knight enchanted by a cunning sorceress. The program concludes with Brahms’ First Symphony, over which the composer toiled for 14 years before its debut performance.
Beethoven’s 6th & The Rite of Spring
Saturday, April 6, 2024 at 7 PM
Sunday, April 7, 2024 at 2 PM
Leon Botstein, conductor
Musicians from the Bard College Conservatory Orchestra
Egon Wellesz: Vorfrühling (The Dawn of Spring)
Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 6 in F Major, Op. 68, Pastoral
Igor Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring
TŌN welcomes spring with three musical tributes to the vernal equinox. Egon Wellesz’s 1911 The Dawn of Spring which combines Viennese musical tradition with French expressionism, while Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring sent audience members into a riot with what Paris newspapers promised would be “the most astonishing polyrhythm ever to come from the mind of a musician.” Stravinsky’s work is performed by TŌN alongside members of the Bard College Conservatory Orchestra. The program also includes Beethoven’s lush Pastoral Sixth Symphony, echoing the composer’s love of nature.
Violinist as Composer, A Carnegie Hall Preview Concert
Saturday, May 4, 2024 at 7 PM
Sunday, May 5, 2024 at 2 PM
Leon Botstein, conductor
Nikita Boriso-Glebsky, violin
Grażyna Bacewicz: Partita for Orchestra
Joseph Joachim: Variations for Violin and Orchestra in E minor
Eugène Ysaÿe: Violin Concerto in D minor (U.S. Premiere)
George Enescu: Symphony No. 2 in A Major, Op. 17
Leon Botstein spotlights four European virtuoso violinists who were also major composers in their respective countries, but not well-known today. The program features the U.S. premiere of a recently discovered concerto by famed Belgian violinist and composer Eugène Ysaÿe, Polish composer Grażyna Bacewicz’s contemplative Partita for Orchestra, and the passionate Second Symphony of Romanian composer George Enescu. The evening also includes Hungarian composer Joseph Joachim’s virtuosic Variations for Violin and Orchestra, featuring internationally acclaimed Russian violinist Nikita Boriso-Glebsky, winner of both the Jean Sibelius and Fritz Kreisler Violin Competitions.
TŌN performs this concert at Carnegie Hall on May 8.
Tickets, priced at $15–35, will be available starting August 9 online at fishercenter.bard.edu, or by calling the Fisher Center at 845.758.7900.
Schumann & Strauss
Sunday, November 19, 2023 at 4 PM
Peter Norton Symphony Space
Zachary Schwartzman, conductor
Samuel Barber: The School for Scandal Overture, Op. 5
Richard Strauss: Death and Transfiguration, Op. 24
Robert Schumann: Symphony No. 4 in D minor, Op. 120
TŌN Resident Conductor Zachary Schwartzman leads the Orchestra at Symphony Space for a free concert. The program presents Barber’s first full work for orchestra, his overture to The School for Scandal, written in reference to Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s comic play by the same name; Strauss’ tone poem Death and Transfiguration, exploring the puzzle of what lies beyond man’s earthly existence; and Schumann’s Symphony No. 4—actually the composer’s second symphony—heavily revised before its completion in 1851.
Mendelssohn & Sibelius
Sunday, February 18, 2024 at 4 PM
Peter Norton Symphony Space
Zachary Schwartzman, conductor
Yangxin Song, violin
Felix Mendelssohn: Ruy Blas Overture, Op. 95
Sergei Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 63
Jean Sibelius: Symphony No. 1 in E minor, Op. 39
TŌN Resident Conductor Zachary Schwartzman leads the Orchestra in a free concert, offering Mendelssohn’s Ruy Blas Overture, the composer’s musical contribution to Victor Hugo’s five-act historical drama; and Prokofiev’s 1935 Violin Concerto No. 2, his last Western commission from the French violinist Robert Soëtens. The performance features soloist Yangxin Song, a winner of the 2022 Bard Conservatory Concerto Competition. The program closes with Sibelius’ Symphony No. 1, his first numbered symphony, written at age 33.
Schumann’s Piano Concerto
Sunday, March 3, 2024 at 3 PM
Bard College at Simon’s Rock
Andrés Rivas, conductor
Yilin Li, piano
Erich Wolfgang Korngold: Schauspiel (Dramatic) Overture, Op. 4
Robert Schumann: Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54
Larry Wallach Species of Motion
Ernő Dohnányi Symphonic Minutes, Op. 36
TŌN Assistant Conductor Andrés Rivas returns to Simon’s Rock for a program that includes Species of Motion by retiring music department chair Larry Wallach. The afternoon also includes a performance of Schumann’s only symphonic Piano Concerto, premiered by his wife Clara in 1845 and performed at this concert by Yilin Li, a winner of the 2022 Bard Conservatory Concerto Competition.
The Orchestra Now
The Orchestra Now (TŌN) is a group of 59 vibrant young musicians from 13 different countries across the globe: Austria, Brazil, China, Colombia, France, Hong Kong, Hungary, Mongolia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and the United States. All share a mission to make orchestral music relevant to 21st-century audiences by sharing their unique personal insights in a welcoming environment. Hand-picked from the world’s leading conservatories—including the Yale School of Music, Shanghai Conservatory of Music, Royal Academy of Music, and the New England Conservatory of Music—the members of TŌN are enlightening curious minds by giving on-stage introductions and demonstrations, writing concert notes from the musicians’ perspective, and having one-on-one discussions with patrons during intermissions.
Conductor, educator, and music historian Leon Botstein, whom The New York Times said “draws rich, expressive playing from the orchestra,” founded TŌN in 2015 as a graduate program at Bard College, where he is also president. TŌN offers both a three-year master’s degree in Curatorial, Critical, and Performance Studies and a two-year advanced certificate in Orchestra Studies. The Orchestra’s home base is the Frank Gehry-designed Fisher Center at Bard, where it performs multiple concerts each season and takes part in the annual Bard Music Festival. It also performs regularly at the finest venues in New York, including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and others across NYC and beyond. HuffPost, who has called TŌN’s performances “dramatic and intense,” praises these concerts as “an opportunity to see talented musicians early in their careers.”
The Orchestra has performed with many distinguished guest conductors and soloists, including Leonard Slatkin, Neeme Järvi, Gil Shaham, Fabio Luisi, Vadim Repin, Hans Graf, Peter Serkin, Gerard Schwarz, Tan Dun, and JoAnn Falletta. Recordings featuring The Orchestra Now include two albums of piano concertos with Piers Lane on Hyperion Records, and a Sorel Classics concert recording of pianist Anna Shelest performing works by Anton Rubinstein with TŌN and conductor Neeme Järvi. Buried Alive with baritone Michael Nagy, released on Bridge Records in August 2020, includes the first recording in almost 60 years—and only the second recording ever—of Othmar Schoeck’s song-cycle Lebendig begraben. Recent releases include an album of piano concertos with Orion Weiss on Bridge Records, and the soundtrack to the motion picture Forte. Recordings of TŌN’s live concerts from the Fisher Center can be heard on Classical WMHT-FM and WWFM The Classical Network, and are featured regularly on Performance Today, broadcast nationwide.
For upcoming activities and more detailed information about the musicians, visit ton.bard.edu.
Leon Botstein
Leon Botstein is founder and music director of The Orchestra Now (TŌN), music director and principal conductor of the American Symphony Orchestra (ASO), artistic codirector of Bard SummerScape and the Bard Music Festival, and conductor laureate and principal guest conductor of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra (JSO), where he served as music director from 2003 to 2011. He has been guest conductor with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Aspen Music Festival, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Mariinsky Theatre, Russian National Orchestra in Moscow, Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden, Taipei Symphony, Simón Bolivar Symphony Orchestra, and Sinfónica Juvenil de Caracas in Venezuela, among others. In 2018, he assumed artistic directorship of Campus Grafenegg and Grafenegg Academy in Austria.
Recordings include acclaimed recordings of Othmar Schoeck’s Lebendig begraben with TŌN, Hindemith’s The Long Christmas Dinner with the ASO, a Grammy-nominated recording of Popov’s First Symphony with the London Symphony Orchestra, and other various recordings with TŌN, ASO, the London Philharmonic, NDR Orchestra Hamburg, and JSO, among others. He is editor of The Musical Quarterly and author of numerous articles and books, including The Compleat Brahms (Norton), Jefferson’s Children (Doubleday), Judentum und Modernität (Bölau), and Von Beethoven zu Berg (Zsolnay). Honors include Harvard University’s prestigious Centennial Award; the American Academy of Arts and Letters award; and Cross of Honor, First Class, from the government of Austria, for his contributions to music. Other distinctions include the Bruckner Society’s Julio Kilenyi Medal of Honor for his interpretations of that composer’s music, the Leonard Bernstein Award for the Elevation of Music in Society, and Carnegie Foundation’s Academic Leadership Award. In 2011, he was inducted into the American Philosophical Society. More info online at LeonBotstein.com.
Press Contacts
Pascal Nadon
Pascal Nadon Communications
Phone: 646.234.7088
Email: [email protected]
Mark Primoff
Associate Vice President of Communications
Bard College
Phone: 845.758.7412
Email: [email protected]