Back to Press Release List > 09/30/2009 - American Orchestras Play Chinese and Western Composers in Last Week of Ancient Paths, Modern Voices

From October 21 to November 10, 2009, Carnegie Hall presents Ancient Paths, Modern Voices: A Festival Celebrating Chinese Culture, paying tribute to China’s diverse and vibrant culture and its influence around the world with 21 days of events at Carnegie Hall and throughout the city at New York partner institutions.

On Wednesday, November 4 at 8:00 p.m. in Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage, Music Director David Robertson conducts the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra in a program featuring percussionist Colin Currie performing Tan Dun’s Water Concerto and Bright Sheng’s Colors of Crimson, two percussion concertos by composers from China’s famed “Class of 1978.” Also on the program are two orchestral suites by Western composers with Chinese themes: Stravinsky’s Chant du rossignol and Bartók’s The Miraculous Mandarin Suite. A pre-concert talk with David Robertson and Jeremy Geffen, Carnegie Hall’s Director of Artistic Planning, begins at 7:00 p.m.

On Saturday, November 7 at 8:00 p.m., the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra performs in Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage with Music Director Robert Spano conducting the New York premiere of Chinese-American composer Angel Lam’s Awakening from a Disappearing Garden, commissioned by Carnegie Hall and featuring cellist Yo-Yo Ma and the composer as narrator. Also on the program is a concert performance of Stravinsky’s complete opera Le Rossignol (“The Nightingale”), based on the Hans Christian Andersen story and set in China. The performance of Le Rossignol also features the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chamber Chorus; sopranos Celena Shafer (Nightingale) and Jessica Rivera (Cook); mezzo-soprano Irina Tchistiakova (Death); tenor Vinson Cole (Fisherman; replacing previously announced soloist Thomas Glenn); bass-baritone Kostas Smoriginas (Emperor); and basses Jason Grant (Bonze) and Denis Sedov (Chamberlain).

Tickets are on sale now at the Carnegie Hall Box Office, CarnegieCharge at 212-247-7800, or online at carnegiehall.org. In conjunction with Ancient Paths, Modern Voices, Carnegie Hall has launched a special web site: carnegiehall.org/chinafestival. This online companion features the most up-to-date information on festival events, video interviews and performance excerpts from featured artists, and insights into Chinese culture and festival programs.

Ancient Paths, Modern Voices: A Festival Celebrating Chinese Culture is made possible by a leadership gift from Henry R. Kravis in honor of his wife, Marie-Josée.

Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra: November 4
“There’s a great fascination with Chinese music amongst Western audiences, but a huge lack of actual experience,” Music Director David Robertson says about his November 4 festival program. “Most experience, as it is, is the occasional dabble into what the French call chinoiserie, carrying home a few souvenir trinkets brought back from a not-understood musical culture. So what I wanted to do in this program is to present two contemporary composers who demonstrate very different continuations of their Chinese heritage. Bright uses his ideas about his heritage to throw a completely different light on the Western classical orchestra, while Tan Dun is one of our most remarkable fantasists, whose ideas fall outside the framework of what we think is possible. Then we have two Western composers who were absolutely fascinated by folklore, and what music represents in daily life.”

Percussionist Colin Currie will be the guest soloist in two vivid concertos by Tan Dun and Bright Sheng. Tan Dun’s Water Concerto from 1999 is illustrative of the composer’s great interest in creating music with organic materials such as water, stone, and metal. It is theatrical in nature, calling for dramatic lighting and the percussionist to literally plunge his hands into bowls of water. Though Bright Sheng’s 2004 percussion concerto Colors of Crimson utilizes the more traditional marimba—albeit amplified—the composer elicits an amazing variety of sounds from the monotonic instrument. The work, which he calls a “Fantasy,” contains thematic material from a reconstruction of a love song he wrote during his teenage years while living in a remote province in northwest China known for its folk music. Stravinsky’s Chant du rossignol is a symphonic poem written in 1917 as an adaptation of music from his 1914 opera Le Rossignol (“The Nightingale”). Told from the point of view of a Chinese fisherman, the opera is based on Hans Christian Andersen’s fairytale “The Nightingale”. (The complete opera is performed in concert on November 7; see below.) Bartók’s The Miraculous Mandarin Suite, is an orchestral setting of music from the composer’s one-act pantomime ballet composed from 1918–24. Based on a horrifying tale by Menyhért Lengyel, The Miraculous Mandarin concerns a girl forced by thieves to rob men by pretending to seduce them—until she comes into contact with the titular Mandarin (a wealthy Chinese man of the Imperial era).

Percussionist Colin Currie has established a diverse career as a percussion soloist in a variety of settings, including as a concerto soloist with major orchestras across Europe and North America. During the 2009–10 season, The Colin Currie Group, a young ensemble devoted to performing the music of Steve Reich, will perform its first concerts. His repertoire includes an impressive list of works written for him, among them Jennifer Higdon's Percussion Concerto, premiered in November 2005 with The Philadelphia Orchestra under Christoph Eschenbach and Steve Mackey's Time Release, which received its US premiere with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall in 2008. Mr. Currie has collaborated with such artists as Katia and Marielle Labèque, The Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Joshua Bell, and Hákan Hardenberger, as well as conductors Marin Alsop, David Robertson, Osmo Vänskä, and Sir John Eliot Gardiner.

In fall 2009, American conductor David Robertson begins his fifth season as Music Director of the 130-year-old Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, while continuing as Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, a post he has held since 2005. Mr. Robertson is a compelling and passionate communicator whose stimulating ideas and exhilarating music-making produce riveting performances, captivating and inspiring international audiences and musicians alike. Highlights of David Robertson’s 2009–10 season include a four-city California spring tour with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra and guest engagements with the San Francisco Symphony, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, The Cleveland Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Staatskapelle Dresden, Berliner Philharmoniker, Israel Philharmonic, and Sydney Symphony among others.

Founded in 1880, the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) is the second-oldest orchestra in the country and is widely considered one of the world’s finest. In September 2005, internationally acclaimed conductor David Robertson became the 12th Music Director and second American-born conductor in the Orchestra’s history. Currently in the 130th season, the SLSO continues to strive for artistic excellence, fiscal responsibility, and community connection. In addition to its regular concert performances at Powell Hall, the SLSO is an integral part of the St. Louis community, presenting more than 250 free education and community partnership programs each year.

Atlanta Symphony Orchestra: November 7
Says Music Director Robert Spano about his November 7 festival program: “I think it’s such an appropriate pairing of repertoire. In some ways, Angel’s piece is an inversion of Stravinsky’s Rossignol ideas, which utilize a Western format with some Eastern influences. Stravinsky, especially during this period of his career, was just so Russian, but through him we see Russia as a bridge to other cultures, including that of China. Moreover, Rossignol is such a fascinating work in and of itself.”

Yo-Yo Ma is soloist in the New York premiere of Angel Lam’s Awakening from a Disappearing Garden. Ms. Lam, who often bases her music on her own short stories, is narrator for this piece, commissioned by Carnegie Hall through the generosity of Henry R. Kravis in honor of his wife Marie-Josée. The work, which has its world premiere in Atlanta on October 15, is scored for solo cello, narration, woodwinds, brass, piano/celesta, harp, strings, and a wide variety of percussion including timpani, finger cymbal, wind chimes, Indian hand bells, Chinese opera gongs, glockenspiel, temple bowls, tuned gongs, tam-tam, gamelan gong, thunder sheet, marimba, Chinese drums, and vibraphone. Ms. Lam grew up in Hong Kong and California and did her undergraduate work at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts before receiving two graduate degrees in composition and music theory from the Peabody Conservatory, where she is currently a doctoral candidate. She previously participated in two Professional Training Workshops presented by Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute, which resulted in the composition of two works: Empty Mountain, Spirit Rain (for Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble, which has recorded the work twice) and Sun, Moon, and Star (for a workshop led by Osvaldo Golijov and Dawn Upshaw).

Cellist Yo-Yo Ma maintains a balance between his engagements as soloist with orchestras throughout the world and his recital and chamber music activities. He draws inspiration from a wide circle of collaborators, each fueled by the artists' interactions. One of Mr. Ma's goals is the exploration of music as a means of communication, and as a vehicle for the migrations of ideas, across a range of cultures throughout the world. Mr. Ma is an exclusive Sony Classical artist, and his discography of over 75 albums (including more than 15 Grammy award winners) reflects his wide-ranging interests. In addition to the standard concerto repertoire, Mr. Ma has recorded many of the large body of works that he has commissioned or premiered. He has made several successful recordings that defy categorization, including Hush with Bobby McFerrin, Appalachia Waltz and Appalachian Journey with Mark O'Connor and Edgar Meyer and two Grammy-winning tributes to the music of Brazil, Obrigado Brazil and Obrigado Brazil - Live in Concert. Mr. Ma was born in 1955 to Chinese parents living in Paris, began to study the cello with his father at age 4 and soon came with his family to New York, where he spent most of his formative years.

Conductor Robert Spano is now in his ninth season as Music Director of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (ASO) and is recognized internationally as one of the most imaginative conductors of his generation. Since his arrival in September 2001, the Orchestra and audiences have been invigorated through a creative programming mix, recordings, and visual enhancements. Also since the beginning of his tenure, Mr. Spano and the ASO have performed nearly 100 contemporary works, including seven ASO-commissioned world premieres. The ASO’s 30-year recording legacy with Telarc continues with Mr. Spano, expanding the discography to include the music of Atlanta School composers Christopher Theofanidis, Jennifer Higdon, and Michael Gandolfi, as well as works by John Adams, David Del Tredici, Sibelius, Brahms, and the Grammy Award-winning recordings of Vaughan Williams’s A Sea Symphony and Berlioz’s Requiem. Mr. Spano and the ASO have also recorded two discs of music by Osvaldo Golijov for Deutsche Grammophon: one of Three Songs and Oceana and another of the chamber opera Ainadamar, which received two Grammy Awards.

The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (ASO), currently in its 65th season, is one of America’s leading orchestras, known for the excellence of its live performances, renowned choruses, and its impressive list of Grammy Award-winning recordings. Under the creative partnership of Music Director Robert Spano, Principal Guest Conductor Donald Runnicles, and President and CEO Allison Vulgamore since September 2001, the ASO and audiences together explore a creative programming mix, such as the ASO Theater of a Concert, an exploration of different formats, settings, and enhancements for the performance experience. Another example is the Atlanta School of Composers, which reflects Mr. Spano and the Orchestra’s commitment to nurturing and championing music through multi-year partnerships defining a new generation of American composers. During its 31-year history with Telarc, the ASO has recorded more than 100 albums, which have won 26 Grammy Awards. Each year, the ASO performs more than 200 concerts, including educational and community concerts, to a combined audience numbering over half a million.

Ancient Paths, Modern Voices
This fall, Carnegie Hall presents Ancient Paths, Modern Voices: A Festival Celebrating Chinese Culture, paying tribute to China’s diverse and vibrant culture and its influence around the world with 21 days of events at Carnegie Hall and New York partner institutions, presented from October 21 to November 10, 2009. An exciting new alliance between Carnegie Hall and Segerstrom Center for the Arts will also bring select Ancient Paths, Modern Voices programming to Costa Mesa, California, resulting in a festival presented simultaneously by the Philharmonic Society of Orange County and partner institutions on the West Coast from October 11 to November 24, 2009.

Ancient Paths, Modern Voices features performances by leading international musicians, including some artists traveling outside China for the first time. Festival performances will feature many genres of music—from Western symphonic and chamber music influenced by Chinese culture to Chinese traditional folk music and contemporary music, including premieres by internationally recognized Chinese composers Chen Qigang, Tan Dun, and Angel Lam. The festival exploration also includes a wide variety of other offerings on each coast, including traditional marionette theater, dance, film screenings, calligraphy, panel discussions, and art exhibitions, offering insights into a world that mixes the ancient and the modern, the traditional and the cutting-edge.

With over 30 events, the reach of Ancient Paths, Modern Voices in New York will be extended throughout the city through partnerships between Carnegie Hall and other prestigious cultural institutions: Asia Society, China Institute, Works & Process at the Guggenheim, The Joyce Theater, The Juilliard School, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Chinese in America, and The Paley Center for Media, as well as through a series of free Neighborhood Concerts presented by Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute in the community venues of Flushing Town Hall in Queens as well as Abrons Arts Center at Henry Street Settlement and The Performance Project @ University Settlement on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.

Program Information
Wednesday, November 4 at 8:00 p.m.
Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage
SAINT LOUIS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
David Robertson, Music Director and Conductor
Colin Currie, Percussion

IGOR STRAVINSKY Chant du rossignol
TAN DUN Water Concerto
BRIGHT SHENG Colors of Crimson
BÉLA BARTÓK The Miraculous Mandarin Suite

Pre-concert talk starts at 7:00 p.m. in Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage with David Robertson in conversation with Jeremy Geffen, Director of Artistic Planning, Carnegie Hall.

Tickets: $31, $37, $47, $63, $85, $94
______________________________________

Saturday, November 7 at 8:00 p.m.
Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage
ATLANTA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Robert Spano, Music Director and Conductor
Yo-Yo Ma, Cello
Angel Lam, Narrator
Celena Shafer, Soprano (Nightingale)
Jessica Rivera, Soprano (Cook)
Irina Tchistiakova, Mezzo-Soprano (Death)
Vinson Cole, Tenor (Fisherman)
Kostas Smoriginas, Bass-Baritone (Emperor)
Jason Grant, Bass (Bonze)
Denis Sedov, Bass (Chamberlain)
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chamber Chorus
Norman Mackenzie, Director

ANGEL LAM Awakening from a Disappearing Garden for Cello and Orchestra (NY Premiere, commissioned by Carnegie Hall through the generosity of Henry R. Kravis in honor of his wife Marie-Josée)
IGOR STRAVINSKY Le Rossignol

This evening’s performance is made possible, in part, by a leadership gift from Henry R. Kravis in honor of his wife, Marie-Josée.

Tickets: $42, $50, $64, $87, $118, $130
______________________________________

Ancient Paths, Modern Voices: A Festival Celebrating Chinese Culture is made possible by a leadership gift from Henry R. Kravis in honor of his wife, Marie-Josée.

Sponsored, in part, by Deloitte LLP
Additional funding from Roche, China Merchants Bank, and Hong Kong Economic & Trade Office, New York

Bank of America is the Proud Season Sponsor of Carnegie Hall.

Ticket Information
Tickets are available at the Carnegie Hall Box Office, 154 West 57th Street, or can be charged to major credit cards by calling CarnegieCharge at 212-247-7800 or by visiting the Carnegie Hall website, carnegiehall.org.

For Carnegie Hall Corporation presentations taking place in Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage, a limited number of seats, priced at $10, will be available day-of-concert beginning at 11:00 a.m. Monday through Saturday and 12:00 noon on Sunday until one hour before the performance or until supply lasts. The exceptions are Carnegie Hall Family Concerts and gala events. These $10 tickets are available to the general public on a first-come, first-served basis at the Carnegie Hall Box Office only. There is a two-ticket limit per customer.

In addition, for all Carnegie Hall presentations in Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage a limited number of partial view (seats with obstructed or limited sight lines or restricted leg room) will be sold for 50% of the full price. For more information on this and other discount ticket programs, including those for students, Notables members, and Bank of America customers, visit carnegiehall.org/discounts.

###