Marin Alsop will lead the New York Philharmonic in four concerts, each featuring Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9, From the New World, October 7, 10, and 11, 2008. The programs on October 7 at 7:30 p.m. and October 11 at 8:00 p.m. will comprise Bartók’s The Wooden Prince Suite; Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2, with Rafał Blechacz making his New York Philharmonic debut; and the Dvořák symphony. The Saturday Matinee on October 11 at 2:00 p.m. will begin with Brahms’s Piano Quintet, featuring Philharmonic musicians and guest pianist Shai Wosner, followed by Dvořák’s New World Symphony. On Inside the Music, Friday, October 10, at 8:00 p.m., the story of the Dvořák symphony will be told in a multimedia presentation, followed by a complete performance, conducted by Ms. Alsop. Bass Kevin Deas will participate in this program, which was written and produced by Joseph Horowitz. Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9, From the New World, received its world premiere by the New York Philharmonic on December 16, 1893.

The schedule will be as follows:

• Insights Series
“Dvořák in Search of America” traces the composer’s influence in a program exploring his music, his African-American student Harry Burleigh, and jazz stylist Art Tatum. Joseph Horowitz, curator and host; Steven Mayer, piano. Saturday, October 4, 2008, 2:00 p.m., Gilder Lehrman Hall, The Morgan Library & Museum, 225 Madison Avenue, at 36th Street.

• Pre-Concert Talk
Joseph Horowitz will introduce the evening programs on October 7 and 11 and the Saturday Matinee on October 11 one hour before each performance. Tickets are $5 in addition to the concert ticket. Attendance is limited to 90 people. Information: nyphil.org or (212) 875-5656.

• New York Philharmonic Podcast
Elliott Forrest, Peabody Award-winning broadcaster, producer, and afternoon host of 96.3 FM WQXR, will host this podcast. These previews of upcoming programs — through musical selections as well as interviews with guest artists, conductors, and Orchestra musicians — are available at nyphil.org/podcast or from iTunes.

• National Radio Broadcast
The evening programs of October 7 and 11 will be broadcast the week of October 20, 2008,* on The New York Philharmonic This Week, a radio concert series syndicated nationally to more than 250 stations by the WFMT Radio Network. The 52-week series, hosted by WFMT’s Kerry Frumkin, is generously underwritten by The Kaplen Foundation, the Audrey Love Charitable Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Philharmonic’s corporate partner, MetLife Foundation. The broadcast will be available on the Philharmonic’s Website, nyphil.org. The program is broadcast locally in the New York metropolitan area on 96.3 FM WQXR on Thursdays at 9:00 p.m.

Marin Alsop was appointed the 12th music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, beginning with the 2007–08 season. She is the first woman to head a major American orchestra, mirroring her ongoing success in the United Kingdom as principal conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra since 2002. The first artist to win both Gramophone’s “Artist of the Year” award and the Royal Philharmonic Society’s conductor’s award in the same season, Ms. Alsop was named a MacArthur Fellow and won the Classical Brit Award for Best Female Artist that year — the first conductor to receive this prestigious American honor. She has also received the Royal Philharmonic Society’s BBC Radio 3 Listeners Award and European Women of Achievement Award.
Ms. Alsop is a regular guest conductor of the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Los Angeles Philharmonic. She is also one of the few conductors to appear every season with both the London Symphony and the London Philharmonic orchestras, and has appeared as a guest conductor with many other distinguished orchestras worldwide, including Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Zurich Tonhalle, Orchestre de Paris, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, and Tokyo Philharmonic.

Highlights of Marin Alsop’s recording collaboration with Naxos include a Brahms symphony cycle with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and an ongoing series of Bournemouth Symphony CDs of music by Bartók, Bernstein, Orff, and several living American composers. One of her first projects as music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra will be a Dvořák symphonic cycle. Ms. Alsop can also be heard regularly as a commentator on NPR’s Weekend Edition segment “Marin on Music,” and on BBC’s Radio 3.

In 2006, Marin Alsop was the only classical musician invited to attend the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, alongside presidents, prime ministers, and CEOs of the world’s most powerful companies. She is a native of New York City, attended Yale University, and received her master’s degree from The Juilliard School. She last appeared with the New York Philharmonic in July 2006 at the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival.

Pianist Rafał Blechacz was born on June 30, 1985, in Nakło nad Notecią, Poland. He began studying the piano at the age of five and completed his formal education in 2007 at the Feliks Nowowiejski Music Academy in Bydgoszcz, studying with Professor Katarzyna Popowa-Zydron. He won second prize at the Arthur Rubinstein Young Pianist Competition in Bydgoszcz in 2002 and at the Fifth International Young Pianist Competition in Hamamatsu, Japan, in 2003. In 2004 he garnered first prize at the Fourth International Piano Competition in Morocco. In 2005 Mr. Blechacz won first prize at the 15th International Frederic Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw; in special recognition of his achievement, the jury decided, for the first time in the competition’s history, not to award a second prize. He also won four special prizes, including the Polish Radio Award for best performance of the mazurkas, the Polish Chopin Society Award for best performance of the Polonaise, the Warsaw Philharmonic Award for best performance of a concerto, and the award founded by Krystian Zimerman for best sonata performance.
In 2006 Mr. Blechacz was invited to perform at Warsaw Philharmonic Hall; the Moscow Conservatory with the Mariinsky Orchestra under Valery Gergiev; the Tonhalle in Zurich, and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. He has given a series of recitals in Japan, and appeared at the Ruhr, Verbier, and La Roque d’Antheron summer music festivals. In 2007 he appeared in Herkules Saal in Munich, Wigmore Hall in London, Auditorio Nacional in Madrid, and Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels. In May 2006 he signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon for three recordings. The first — the complete Chopin Preludes coupled with Two Nocturnes Op. 62 — was released in September 2007. It achieved gold status after one day, and subsequently went platinum.

Kevin Deas has gained international acclaim as one of America’s leading basses. He is perhaps most acclaimed for his signature portrayal of the title role in Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, having sung it with the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and the orchestras of San Francisco, Atlanta, San Diego, Utah, Houston, Baltimore, and Montreal, and at the Ravinia and Saratoga Festivals. During the 2008–09 season, Mr. Deas returns to the Pittsburgh, Detroit, and Atlanta symphony orchestras, Pacific Symphony, National Philharmonic, Boston Baroque, and Winter Park Bach Festival. Over the past two seasons, Mr. Deas performed with the Pittsburgh, Houston, and Detroit Symphony Orchestras, Rochester Philharmonic, National Philharmonic, and Boston Baroque; he made his debut with the Orchestre Symphonique de Québec. He also sang Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony under the baton of Daniel Barenboim with the Filarmonica della Scala in Accra, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the founding of Ghana in April 2007.

Kevin Deas recorded Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (Decca/London) with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under the late Sir Georg Solti, and Varèse’s Ecuatorial with Holland’s Asko Ensemble under the baton of Ricardo Chailly. Other releases include Bach’s Mass in B minor and Handel’s Acis and Galatea (both on Vox Classics), and Dave Brubeck’s To Hope! with the Cathedral Choral Society (Telarc). Mr. Deas last appeared with the New York Philharmonic in Ravel’s L’Enfant et les sortilèges, conducted by Lorin Maazel, in October 2006.
Joseph Horowitz is the author of eight books. Both his Classical Music in America: A History and Artists in Exile: How Refugees from Twentieth Century War and Revolution Transformed the American Performing Arts deal extensively with Dvořák in America. As the director of a national education project for the National Endowment for the Humanities, he also created a work of historical fiction for middle and high school readers, Dvorák in America, and commissioned an interactive DVD, From the New World: A Celebrated Composer’s American Odyssey. As an artistic consultant, Mr. Horowitz has created six Dvorák festivals — the first of which was presented by the Brooklyn Philharmonic during his tenure as executive director. Mr. Horowitz is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, two National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, and a certificate of appreciation from the Czech Parliament for his “exceptional explorations of Dvořák’s historic sojourn in the United States.” He is also co-founder and artistic director of Post-Classical Ensemble of Washington, D.C., and of Post-Classical Productions, which this season and next begins producing thematic, inter-disciplinary concerts in New York City and Chicago.
Repertoire

Béla Bartók’s ballet The Wooden Prince, one of his earliest major successes, was first produced in Budapest in 1917. Its scenario, by Béla Balázs, depicts a fairy tale in which a prince and princess are at first kept apart, and then united, by the enchantments of a fairy. This simple storyline, which suggests numerous possible symbolic meanings, is enriched through a musical score in Bartók’s forceful and individual voice, incorporating influences as diverse as Wagner, Debussy, and Hungarian folk music. The ballet was received with great enthusiasm and produced repeatedly in the composer’s lifetime; he was moved to make at least two concert suites from the score, including the present arrangement. The New York Philharmonic’s only previous performances of the complete Wooden Prince Suite were in February 1975, led by Pierre Boulez.

Frédéric Chopin began his Piano Concerto No. 2 in 1829 at a relatively early stage in his career. The composer’s intensely coloristic and free-spinning miniature piano works, impregnated with melodic traits of Polish popular music, are his most often-performed works, but the concertos nevertheless display the fundamental traits of his style on much larger canvases. Like all his compositions, they constituted an important source for future developments in harmony through their genius for chromaticism, modulation, and lyrical pianistic writing. The first Philharmonic performance of the Piano Concerto No. 2 was in November 1846, led by George Loder, with pianist Henry Christian Timm. The most recent Philharmonic performance was in November 2004, led by David Robertson, with Emanuel Ax as soloist.

Symphony No. 9, From the New World, by Antonín Dvorák was given its world premiere by Anton Seidl and the New York Philharmonic on December 16, 1893. At the time, the Czech composer had been in the United States just a little over a year, having been lured by promises of a large teaching salary at New York’s National Conservatory of Music. His sponsor, Mrs. Jeanette Thurber, had implored him to compose an American opera, but Dvořák instead composed a symphony, which he completed in May 1893. During both a public rehearsal and the subsequent premiere, audience reaction to the new symphony was overwhelmingly positive. The Philharmonic most recently performed the symphony as part of its historic, internationally televised concert in Pyongyang, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, on February 26, 2008, led by Music Director Lorin Maazel.
Credit Suisse is the Global Sponsor of the New York Philharmonic.

Marin Alsop’s appearance is made possible through the Claudette Sorel Performance Endowment Fund.

Generous support for Inside the Music is provided by The Fan Fox and Leslie Samuels Foundation.

Programs of the New York Philharmonic are supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, New York State Council on the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Single tickets for the evening performances on October 7 and 11 are $30 to $109; for the Saturday Matinee on October 11, $28 to $82; for Inside the Music on October 10, $26 to $72. Tickets for the Insights Series program on October 4 are $20. Pre-Concert Talks are $5. Tickets for Open Rehearsals are $16. All tickets may be purchased online at nyphil.org or by calling (212) 875-5656, 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. daily. Tickets may also be purchased at the Avery Fisher Hall Box Office, Lincoln Center, Broadway at 65th Street. The Box Office opens at 10:00 a.m. Monday through Saturday, and at noon on Sunday. On performance evenings, the Box Office closes one-half hour after performance time; other evenings it closes at 6:00 p.m. A limited number of $12 tickets for select concerts may be available through the Internet for students within 10 days of the performance, or in person the day of. Valid identification is required. To determine ticket availability, call the Philharmonic’s Customer Relations Department at (212) 875-5656.

For more information please visit www.nyphil.org

Flemish director Guy Cassiers makes his American debut with Sunken Red—a multimedia theater work created in collaboration with and performed by one of Europe’s leading stage actors, Dirk Roofthooft. This U.S. premiere also marks the U.S. debuts of two of the most vital European contemporary theater companies—Toneelhuis (Belgium) and ro theater (Netherlands). Sunken Red has been performed in The Netherlands, Switzerland, Canada (Festival d’Amériques) and France (Festival d’Avignon), and was selected for the 2005 Theaterfestival Vlaanderen (Flanders Theatre Festival). De Volkskrant (NL) raved, “Sometimes drama is hallucinatory. Like a trip, a dream that lifts you out of your theatre seat. It happens only rarely, but Guy Cassiers and Dirk Roofthooft have succeeded with Sunken Red.”

BAM will present four performances of Sunken Red at the BAM Harvey Theater (651 Fulton St.) October 7, 9–11 at 7:30pm. Tickets, priced at $20, 35, and 45, may be purchased by calling BAM Ticket Services at 718.636.4100 or online at BAM.org.

About Sunken Red

This solo performance is based on Jeroen Brouwers’ 1981 autobiographical novel, Bezonken rood, an account of his family’s internment in a Japanese prison camp during World War II. In 1943, the three-year-old Brouwers—along with his sister, mother, and grandmother—was imprisoned in the women’s camp, Tjideng, in present-day Jakarta. The New York Times said of the novel: “Told with an aching beauty in a spiraling form that gradually reveals more and more, 'Sunken Red' is a cathartic achievement in which we watch Mr. Brouwers emerge from the walking dead.” The author describes how his years in the camp destroyed his relationship with his mother, comparing the loss of maternal affection with the disintegration of each subsequent love affair in adulthood. On a set designed to evoke a formal Japanese garden and framed by multiple live-feed video projections, Cassiers stages Brouwers’ devastating story and creates an emotionally intense piece that is a magnificent expression of love from a wounded man.

About the artists

In 2006, theater director Guy Cassiers became the artistic director of Toneelhuis, which is based in Antwerp, Belgium. Upon his arrival, Cassiers threw out the classical model of the civic theater: a fixed troupe of actors with one or more permanent directors. He reinvented this model by inviting six fellow artists from different disciplines to take up residence with him. Along the way Cassiers has developed a personal theatrical language in which technology serves to deepen and intensify human emotions. Cassiers also combines a fascination for technology with a passion for literature; he has garnered acclaim for stage adaptations of well-known novels.

Renowned Flemish actor Dirk Roofthooft has achieved success on the European stage as well as in his film roles. Roofthooft has won two Joseph Plateau Awards, Belgium’s most prestigious honor for film and television work. He has collaborated with jazz musician Henry Threadgill in a work inspired by the poetry of Nobel Laureate Derek Wolcott. De Volkskrant raved of his performance in Sunken Red: “Roofthooft is a phenomenal actor … every breath, every movement of his voice is audible. This creates scope for an unprecedented subtlety. Even in a huge theatre, you get the impression that the story is told to you personally.”

Artist Talk with Guy Cassiers

BAM presents an Artist Talk with Guy Cassiers on Thursday, October 9 at 6pm in BAM Rose Cinemas (30 Lafayette Avenue). For tickets, priced at $8 ($4 for Friends of BAM and free for students with valid I.D., subject to availability), call BAM Ticket Services at 718.636.4100 or visit BAM.org.

About the Next Wave Festival

BAM’s Next Wave Festival, which enters its 26th season in 2008, has permanently changed the landscape of culture through breakout performances, landmark productions, daring experiments, and once-in-a-lifetime moments. The Festival originated as a fall series entitled “The Next Wave/New Masters.” In November 1981, Philip Glass’ new opera, Satyagraha, was presented as one of four productions under the Next Wave moniker. A more ambitious series followed in 1982, including a two-evening performance work by Laurie Anderson—United States:

From the seeds of these two rich years grew an idea for something bolder and riskier. The Next Wave Festival, dedicated to exciting new works and cross-disciplinary collaborations by promising young artists, was launched in October 1983. Pieces that previously had been presented in downtown lofts and small “black box” theaters were staged in the exquisite 2,100-seat BAM Opera House (later renamed the Howard Gilman Opera House), a renovated 1,000-seat playhouse (the Helen Carey Playhouse, now home to BAM Rose Cinemas), and a flexible 300-seat performance venue (the Lepercq Space). In 1987, with Peter Brook’s Mahabharata, BAM opened another large stage—the 874-seat Majestic Theater—since renamed the Harvey Theater in honor of Harvey Lichtenstein (former president and executive producer). Since 1999, BAM has been led by President Karen Brooks Hopkins and by Executive Producer Joseph V. Melillo, who curates the Next Wave Festival and served as the producer of the inaugural festival.
 
Credits
 
BAM 2008 Next Wave Festival is sponsored by Altria Group, Inc. Leadership support for the Next Wave Festival is provided by The Ford Foundation.

Programming in the BAM Harvey Theater is endowed by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.

Leadership support for BAM Theater is provided by The Shubert Foundation, Inc. and The SHS Foundation.

BAM thanks its many donors and sponsors, including:  The Peter Jay Sharp Foundation; New York City Council; Estate of Richard B. Fisher; The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; The Starr Foundation; Robert Sterling Clark Foundation; The Shubert Foundation, Inc.; Carnegie Corporation of New York; Time Warner Inc.; The Howard Gilman Foundation; The Skirball Foundation; The SHS Foundation; The Harkness Foundation for Dance; New York State Assembly Brooklyn Delegation; Friends of BAM and BAM Cinema Club.  Sovereign Bank is the BAM Marquee sponsor. Yamaha is the official piano for BAM. R/GA is the BAM.org sponsor. New York Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge is the official hotel for BAM.
General Information

BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, BAM Rose Cinemas, BAMcafé, and Shakespeare & Co. BAMshop are located in the Peter Jay Sharp building at 30 Lafayette Avenue (between St Felix Street and Ashland Place) in the Fort Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn. BAM Harvey Theater is located two blocks from the main building at 651 Fulton Street (between Ashland and Rockwell Places). BAM Rose Cinemas is Brooklyn’s only movie house dedicated to first-run independent and foreign film and repertory programming. BAMcafé, operated by Great Performances, is open for dining prior to Howard Gilman Opera House performances. BAMcafé also features an eclectic mix of spoken word and live music for BAMcafé Live nights on Friday and Saturday with a special BAMcafé Live menu available starting at 8pm.

For ticket and BAMbus information, call BAM Ticket Services at 718.636.4100, or visit BAM.org.

The star-studded, live television production of Mister Roberts debuts on DVD on October 7, 2008 from Acorn Media. Capturing all the intimacy and electricity of live theatre, this stirring comedic drama rekindles the rousing warmth of the original production that won five Tony Awards on Broadway.

The time is 1945. The setting, a navy cargo ship far from battles raging in the Pacific. Longing to see real action, Lt. Doug Roberts (Robert Hays, Airplane!) wages a war of wills against Capt. Morton (two-time Oscar®-nominee Charles Durning), a petty tyrant whom the rambunctious crew considers "approximately God." Allied with Ensign Pulver (Kevin Bacon, Mystic River, Apollo 13, Footloose) and Doc (Howard Hesseman, WKRP in Cincinnati), Roberts finds himself torn between his ambition to serve his country and his duty to serve his men. The production also co-stars Marilu Henner (Taxi) as Nurse Girard.

By turns hilarious and heartbreaking, the script was supervised by Joshua Logan (Picnic, South Pacific), the Oscar-nominated and Tony®-winning original Broadway director and co-writer. Broadcast on NBC in 1984 and filmed before a studio audience, it gracefully combines the magic of a theatre performance and the daring of a live broadcast.

The original production of "Mister Roberts" won five Tony Awards in 1948 including Best Dramatic Actor for Henry Fonda and Best Play.

Headquartered in suburban Washington, D.C., Acorn Media distributes distinctive home video releases to the North American market with a special focus on the best of British television. Acorn's DVD sets are available from select retailers, catalog companies, and direct from Acorn Media at (888) 870-8047 or www.acornonline.com.

Olivia Newton-John, the four-time Grammy Award winner and iconic star of the film GREASE, has partnered with CURVES, the world's largest fitness franchise for women, to launch an international campaign to distribute 1 million units of the LIV AID®, a breast self-exam aid that assists women to exercise breast exams correctly, during "Breast Cancer Awareness Month." Newton-John will join the Broadway cast of GREASE on stage at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre immediately following the Tuesday, October 7 performance and present a LIV AID® kit to every female audience member.

ABOUT THE LIV AID The Liv Aid is a simple, patented, and FDA-cleared medical device that makes clinical and breast self-examinations effortless and more comfortable. It comes in the form of a heart shaped thin silicone pillow filled with a non-toxic lubricant. The Aid reduces the friction between the fingers and the breast for ease of movement of the fingers over the breast. For more information visit www.Liv.com.

ABOUT CURVES Curves works to help women lose weight, gain muscle strength and aerobic capacity, and raise metabolism with its groundbreaking, scientifically proven method that ends the need for perpetual dieting. Curves works every major muscle group with a complete 30-minute workout that combines strength training and sustained cardiovascular activity through safe and effective hydraulic resistance. Founders Gary and Diane Heavin are considered the innovators of the express fitness phenomenon that has made exercise available to over 4 million women, many of whom are in the gym for the first time. With more than 10,000 locations in over 60 countries, Curves is the world's largest fitness franchise. For more information, visit: www.curves.com

GREASE™ opened on Broadway at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre (256 West 47th Street) on Sunday, August 19, 2007 following preview performances which began on Tuesday, July 24, 2007.  Directed and choreographed by two-time Tony Award-winner Kathleen Marshall (The Pajama Game, Wonderful Town),   GREASE™ features book, music and lyrics by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey.

GREASE™ stars Ace Young, NBC's "Grease: You're the One That I Want" finalists Derek Keeling as "Danny" and Ashley Spencer as "Sandy" along with Ryan Patrick Binder as "Doody," Susan Blommaert as "Miss Lynch," Will Blum as "Roger," Jeb Brown as "Vince," Janine DiVita as "Rizzo," Allison Fischer as "Patty," Robyn Hurder as "Marty," Lindsay Mendez as "Jan," Jose Restrepo as "Sonny," Jamison Scott as "Eugene" and Kirsten Wyatt as "Frenchy."  The ensemble of GREASE™ features Ashley Arcement, Brian Crum, Natalie Hill ("Cha-Cha"), Keven Quillon, Josh Rouah, Allie Schulz, Brian Sears, Christina Sivrich, Amber Stone, Anna Aimee White.

Photo Credit Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.