Tickets to the
National Philharmonic’s 2013-14 Season at Strathmore Are Now on Sale

The National Philharmonic’s 2013-14 season, led by Music
Director and Conductor Piotr Gajewski, will feature superstar violinist Sarah
Chang performing Vivaldi’s Four Seasons; cellist Zuill Bailey playing the
complete cello works of Robert Schumann; and pianist Brian Ganz, continuing his
cycle of music by Chopin. The season will also showcase the music of Handel,
Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Verdi, among others.
In its tenth year of residency at the Music Center at
Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD, the National Philharmonic
is performing to nearly 50,000 people each year. The Philharmonic will continue
its commitment to education and outreach by offering free concerts to every
second and fifth grade student in Montgomery County Public Schools, free
pre-concert lectures, master classes with renowned guest soloists and high
quality summer string and choral programs.
The success of the Philharmonic over the past 30 years is
largely credited to its critically acclaimed performances that are filled with
great, time-tested music and its family friendly approach. All young people age
7 to 17 attend National Philharmonic concerts free of charge through its unique
ALL KIDS, ALL FREE, ALL THE TIME program.
Repeat Sunday matinee performances of the Philharmonic’s
most popular programs (seven concerts in total) will also be offered again this
year. In addition, concertgoers can attend National Philharmonic’s pre-concert
lectures on featured composers and music 75 minutes before performances.
The 2013-2014 season will feature performances with such
great artists as violinists Sarah Chang and Soovin Kim; pianists Brian Ganz,
Thomas Pandolfi and Gabriela Martinez; cellist Zuill Bailey; sopranos Danielle
Talamantes , Rosa Lamoreaux and Julie Keim; and mezzo-sopranos Magdalena Wór
and Margaret Mezzacappa, among others. It will include music by Handel, Bach,
Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Verdi, among others.
Highlights include:
Season kickoff concert featuring Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 in C minor and Violin Concerto with violinist Soovin
Kim.
Violinist Sarah Chang performing Vivaldi’s most popular
work, The Four Seasons.
Cellist Zuill Bailey playing an all-Schumann recital plus
the composer’s lyrical Cello Concerto.
Award-winning pianist Brian Ganz in his fourth all-Chopin
recital at Strathmore and a performance of Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1.
A concert performance of a new opera, Lost Childhood, by American composer Janice Hamer, which explores
one boy’s struggle to survive the horrors of the Holocaust.
A performance of Verdi’s powerful and timeless Requiem with two recent winners of the
Metropolitan Opera National Council auditions—mezzo-soprano Margaret Mezzacappa
and tenor William Davenport.
Bach’s Mass in B
minor with soprano Rosa Lamoreaux, tenor Matthew Smith and the National
Philharmonic Chorale.
An all-Strauss concert with pianist Thomas Pandolfi.
Mozart’s Violin
Concerto No. 5 with National Symphony Orchestra concert master Nurit
Bar-Josef.
National Philharmonic’s annual “impressive” and
“splendidly rich-toned” (The Washington
Post) holiday performances of Handel’s Messiah.
For the fifth year, National Philharmonic is offering its
subscribers a flexible custom series. This allows subscribers to create their
own packages and receive discounts of 15-30% on tickets, depending on the
number of concerts that are ordered. Season and subscription information are
available at
nationalphilharmonic.org or by calling 301-581-5100. Single
tickets will be on sale in August 2013. The attached photo of Maestro Gajewski
was taken by Michael Ventura; the photo of Zuill Bailey was taken by the El
Paso Times.
--Deborah Birnbaum, National Philharmonic
Just Announced:
Student Competition Winners and National Documentary to be Filmed During the
PARMA Music Festival 2013, August 15-17
More news from the upcoming 2013 PARMA Music Festival, the
cross-genre/multiple venue festival Thursday-Saturday August 15-17, 2013 in
Portsmouth, New Hampshire! As the festival gets ready to roll out the red
carpet, Bob Lord, CEO of PARMA Recordings and Festival Producer announced the following
additions. "Our 2013 PARMA Student Composer Competition Winner Tina
Tallon's winning piece for string quartet will be performed at the main event
on Saturday August 17, and the Portsmouth Symphony Orchestra (PSO) Student
Concerto Winner Anna DeLoi will be playing as a soloist with the PSO at that
same concert. We are thrilled that our festival will be included such young
talent." Lord also mentioned that faculty from Portsmouth Music and Arts
Center (PMAC) will be playing a jazz combo set at the same concert, while New
England musicians Wheel of Awesome, Jim Dozet, Qwill, Chris O'Neill, and a few
others have been added to the Society of Composers, Inc. chamber concerts
sprinkled throughout the three days. Finally, to add to the excitement, Christopher
Foss, documentary filmmaker and the son of the late American composer, pianist,
and conductor Lukas Foss, will be filming part of a documentary on his father's
life during the premiere of "Elegy for Clarinet & Orchestra"
(written in 1949) at the main event and throughout the Festival.
--Bob Lord, PARMA Recordings
New Path for
Dominican Sisters of Mary Leads to Record Deal
Debut Album, Mater Eucharistiae, To Be Released August 13th On De
Montfort Music/Decca
They follow in the 13th-century footsteps of St. Dominic,
while very much engaging the modern world. They teach in schools all over the
United States. They have been guests on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” more than
once, and seen on The Today Show, Fox News and CNN discussing various aspects of the Catholic faith and their
vocation to live a religious life. Most recently, they made it to the finals of
the Game Show Network’s highly rated “The American Bible Challenge.”
Now, the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the
Eucharist, will be known as recording artists, as they release their first
recording August 13th on De Montfort Music/Decca, Mater Eucharistiae. Their
debut album of sacred music was recorded live at their chapel in Ann Arbor,
Michigan, and reflects their Dominican spirituality that they lovingly hope to
share with the masses.
The Dominican Sisters are also label-mates with another
community of musical Sisters, The Benedictines of Mary, who have had two
successful releases with De Montfort Music/Decca in the past six months. Their chart-topping albums are the
holiday-themed, Advent at Ephesus, and
their latest, Angels and Saints at
Ephesus, which is currently #1 on Billboard’s Classical Traditional Chart
for an impressive 11th straight week. While the Benedictines of Mary are a community of young cloistered
Sisters who never leave their priory and sing completely a capella, the
Dominican Sisters are a large community of young Sisters who are invited to
teach at Catholic institutions across America, and are visible to the world
except when otherwise quietly observing a monastic life.
Produced by the 2013 Grammy Award-winning Classical
Producer of the Year, Blanton Alspaugh, Mater Eucharistiae will feature 15
tracks in both English and Latin, spanning ancient chants, polyphony, and
original compositions. Some pieces are accompanied by the organ, trumpet, and
chimes, while others are sung a capella.
Sr. Joseph Andrew, OP, Vicaress General of The Dominican
Sisters of Mary, commented on the recording: “Music has always been part of the
daily life of our Religious Community.
It is an important medium
through which we seek to express our deep love of The Lord. Through our arrangement of this music, we
hope to make available the sharing of our prayer-life so that others may, by
it, be drawn into their own deeper love of God. This recording has also
provided an opportunity for us to make accessible a few original pieces written
and arranged by the Sisters in hopes of furthering our unique Dominican Spirit
through the gift of song.”
--Olga Makrias, Universal Music
American Bach
Soloists News
Save the Date! On September 21 at 5:00 p.m., the 2013-14
season of American Bach Soloists officially kicks off with Silver Soirée, our
annual gala held at St. Stephen’s Church in Belvedere, CA. Celebrating 25 years
of the greatest performances by the best musicians, this year’s event will be
an elegant and festive occasion befitting this remarkable benchmark. Join
Jeffrey Thomas and the entire ABS family as we honor the group’s illustrious
past and look forward to even greater musical achievements.
The Soirée begins with a cocktail hour and silent auction.
ABS musicians Elizabeth Blumenstock (violin), William Skeen (violoncello),
Corey Jamason (harpsichord), Steven Lehning (violone), and recent Academy alumni
Kyle Stegall (tenor), Nola Richardson (soprano) and Christopher Matthews
(flute), will present a program including music from J.S. Bach’s
Musical Offering. A delectable dinner
and live auction fill out this fantastic event. Join us and support another 25
years of ABS! For more information or to purchase your gala tickets, please
visit our Gala web site:
https://americanbach.ejoinme.org/MyEvents/HomePage/tabid/444935/Default.aspx
Sensational ABS Festival & Academy Wrap-up:
A tender “Agnus Dei” and the uplifting “Dona nobis pacem”
final chorus from Bach’s great Mass in B Minor brought the fourth annual ABS
Festival & Academy to a breathtaking close on July 21. For two full weeks
ABS and members of the 2013 Academy reigned forth at the San Francisco Conservatory
of Music, making beautiful music together and energizing capacity audiences
with amazing performances. Six sold-out main stage concerts and record
attendance at the free public events once again proved that the ABS Festival
& Academy has become one of the premiere cultural attractions of its kind
in the country. Festival highlights included an opening night chamber concert
featuring the renowned members of ABS, the highly anticipated spectacle of
Heinrich Biber’s gargantuan Missa
Salisburgensis for 53 parts, ‘cellist Tanya Tomkins in recital, a concert
performance of Handel’s Esther, and
two performances of Bach’s Mass in B
Minor.
Concurrent with the Festival, the ABS Academy welcomed 63
participants from the United States, Canada, Bolivia, Dominican Republic,
Puerto Rico, and China to study with ABS faculty and perform alongside their
teachers in Festival performances. Their enthusiasm, hard-working spirits, and
talents were astonishing to witness. This Academy class certainly lived up to
their billing as the next generation of early music virtuosi.
Hear Jeffrey Thomas discuss Biber’s Missa Salisburgensis
with San Francisco Classical Voice and enjoy a glimpse of rehearsals for the
historic premiere on July 13, 2013.
For those who missed Jeffrey Thomas’s daily chronicle of
Festival happenings and work within the Academy, his entire blog can be read
here:
blog.americanbach.org. Don’t forget to sign up for future musings there,
as well.
Messiah Tickets
Now On Sale:
Tickets for ABS’s annual performances of Handel’s Messiah at Grace Cathedral in San
Francisco went on sale to the general public on July 1. Fewer than 20 premium
seats remain for the December 11 & 12 performances of this beloved Bay Area
tradition. Order your tickets now to get the best seats for Messiah. Following
last year’s record-breaking attendance for the event, tickets won’t be
available for long, so don’t miss out on this year’s performances where Jeffrey
Thomas, ABS, and the American Bach Choir will be joined by four sensational soloists:
Arianna Zukerman (soprano), Eric Jurenas (countertenor), Aaron Sheehan (tenor),
and Mischa Bouvier (baritone).
--American Bach Soloists
Santa Fe Chamber
Music Festival’s 41st Season Fifth Week of Concerts
World Premiere of Thierry Lancino’s Falling Angels for String Quartet
Sunday, August 11 at 6pm
The Lensic Performing Arts Center
Pre-concert talk with Composer Thierry Lancino and Marc
Neikrug at 5pm
The Orion String Quartet present the world premiere of
French composer Thierry Lancino’s first string quartet, Falling Angels, a Festival commission. Lancino’s groundbreaking work in both electronic and traditional
composition places him at the forefront of his musical generation. Lancino
returns to the Festival after a successful 2008 U.S. premiere of ONXA written
for mezzo-soprano and strings. The
Festival’s 2013 Artist-in-Residence, pianist Garrick Ohlsson, joins violinist
William Preucil and the Orion String Quartet for Chausson’s luscious and
evocative Concerto for Violin, Piano, and
String Quartet. Pianist Haochen Zhang, clarinetist Patrick Messina, and
violist Cynthia Phelps round out the program with Schumann’s colorful and
light-hearted Märchenerzählungen, one
of the composer’s last works.
Sunday Series subscription: $390
Single tickets: $12-73; Ages 35 & Under $15; Ages 6-10
$10
“Years of Wonder” Mini-Festival
Monday, August 12 at 6pm
The Lensic Performing Arts Center
The “Years of Wonder” Mini-Festival is a four-concert
series focusing on particularly productive years in the lives of Gesualdo,
Mozart, and Schumann. Throughout the series, Joshua Habermann leads The Santa
Fe Desert Chorale and Baroque specialist Richard Savino in Gesualdo’s intensely
expressive fifth book of madrigals, written in 1611. Violinist Ida Kavafian,
pianist Anne-Marie McDermott, and cellist Peter Wiley join for three of
Mozart’s piano trios written within the span of a year-and-a-half and the Orion
String Quartet present Schumann’s three string quartets written in 1842.
Monday Series subscription: $390
“Years of Wonder” subscription (August 12, 14, 15 and 19):
$252*
Single tickets: $12-73; Ages 35 & Under $15; Ages 6-10
$10
*Monday Series subscribers can attend all “Years of
Wonder” concerts for an additional $126, and Thursday Series subscribers can
attend all “Years of Wonder” concerts for an additional $189
Orion String Quartet Music at Noon Series
Tuesday, August 13 at 12pm
St. Francis Auditorium, New Mexico Museum of Art
The Orion String Quartet brings its burnished sound to
Schumann’s second string quartet on the noon concert. Pianist Anne-Marie McDermott, violinist Ida Kavafian, and cellist
Peter Wiley join for Mozart’s graceful, yet unpredictable Piano Trio No.3.
“Years of Wonder” Mini-Festival
Wednesday, August 14 at 6pm
The Lensic Performing Arts Center
Music of Gesualdo, Mozart, and Schumann
“Years of Wonder” subscription (August 12, 14, 15 and 19):
$252*
Single tickets: $12-69; Ages 35 & Under $15; Ages 6-10
$10
*Monday Series subscribers can attend all “Years of
Wonder” concerts for an additional $126, and Thursday Series subscribers can
attend all “Years of Wonder” concerts for an additional $189
Garrick Ohlsson, Artist-in-Residence Solo Piano Recital
Thursday, August 15 at 12pm
St. Francis Auditorium, New Mexico Museum of Art
Since his triumph as winner of the 1970 Chopin
International Piano Competition, pianist Garrick Ohlsson has established
himself worldwide as a musician of magisterial interpretive and technical
prowess. As the Festival’s 2013 Artist-in-Residence, Mr. Ohlsson brings the
world premiere of composer Michael Hersch’s Tenebrae
to Santa Fe in an intimate recital setting- a rarity for this concert
pianist. Widely considered among the
most gifted composers of his generation, Mr. Hersch’s first piano concerto
received its world premiere by Mr. Ohlsson in 2002 with the St. Louis Symphony
conducted by Marin Alsop. Mr. Ohlsson
pairs this premiere with masterworks of the piano literature by Chopin,
Griffes, and Prokofiev.
Music at Noon subscription: $198
Single tickets: $20-25; Ages 35 & Under $15; Ages 6-10
$10
“Years of Wonder” Mini-Festival
Thursday, August 15 at 6pm
The Lensic Performing Arts Center
Music of Gesualdao, Mozart, and Schumann
Thursday Series subscription: $305
Years of Wonder subscription (August 12, 14, 15 and 19):
$252*
Single tickets: $12-69; Ages 35 & Under $15; Ages 6-10
$10
*Monday Series subscribers can attend all “Years of
Wonder” concerts for an additional $126, and Thursday Series subscribers can
attend all “Years of Wonder” concerts for an additional $189
Latin Jazz with Tiempo Libre
Friday, August 16 at 8pm
The Lensic Performing Arts Center
Come celebrate Cuban-style with three-time
Grammy-nominated music group Tiempo Libre!
As one of the hottest young bands today, Tiempo Libre is equally at home
in concert halls, jazz clubs and dance venues.
Classically trained at Cuba’s premiere conservatories, today the group
is a hit in the U.S. and abroad and is celebrated for its sophisticated
performances of timba, a dynamic mix of high voltage Latin jazz and the
seductive rhythms of traditional Cuban song.
Single tickets: $12-42; Ages 35 & Under $15; Ages 6-10
$10
Bach & Vivaldi Concertos, Bach Plus Series
Saturday, August 17 at 6pm
Bach Plus Series
The Lensic Performing Arts Center
The Orion String Quartet, bassist Kristen Bruya, and
harpsichordist Kathleen McIntosh join esteemed Festival artists cellist Eric
Kim, oboist Robert Ingliss, violinists William Preucil and Benny Kim, and
flutist Tara Helen O’Connor for a concert encompassing the great concertos of
the Baroque period. Written in 1942, Australian composer Arthur Benjamin’s Oboe Concerto on Themes of Cimarosa
broadly follows the late Baroque style of Cimarosa’s keyboard sonatas. Also,
music of J.S. Bach, C.P.E. Bach, and Antonio Vivaldi.
Bach Plus subscription: $190
Single tickets: $32-40; Ages 35 & Under $15; Ages 6-10
$10
For more information on Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival's
concerts and to order tickets, please call 505-982-1890 or visit
www.SantaFeChamberMusic.com. The box office is located in the lobby of the New
Mexico Museum of Art at 107 West Palace Avenue and is open daily from 10:00 am
- 4:00 pm.
--Ashlyn Damm, Kirshbaum Demler & Associates