EDWARD GARDNER, MUSIC DIRECTOR OF THE ENGLISH NATIONAL OPERA, RETURNS TO LEAD
THE JUILLIARD ORCHESTRA IN WORKS BY KNUSSEN, RACHMANINOFF, AND VAUGHAN WILLIAMS
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2014 AT 8 P.M. IN ALICE TULLY HALL
Juilliard Oboist Hugo Lee is Soloist in Vaughan Williams’s Concerto in A Minor
NEW YORK –– Edward Gardner, music director of the English National Opera, returns to lead the Juilliard Orchestra in Knussen’s The Way to Castle Yonder; Vaughan Williams’s Concerto for Oboe and Strings in A Minor with Juilliard oboist Hugo Lee; and Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 2 in E Minor, Op. 27, on Saturday, October 25, 2014 at 8p.m. in Alice Tully Hall. This is Mr. Gardner’s second appearance with the Juilliard Orchestra; he made his conducting debut with the Juilliard Orchestra on December 13, 2012 in a program of Mahler and Walton. Tickets for the concert at $30 are available at events.juilliard.edu, through CenterCharge (212) 721-6500, or at the Alice Tully Hall Box Office. Students with a valid ID may purchase tickets at $15 at the Alice Tully Hall Box Office.
About the Program
Knussen’s The Way to Castle Yonder is a concise digest of orchestral interludes for the composer’s second operatic collaboration with Maurice Sendak, Higglety Pigglety Pop!. Vaughan Williams’s Concerto for Oboe and Strings in A Minor was composed for oboist Leon Goossens. The premiere was planned for July 4, 1944, but air raids by the Germans postponed the concert, and the performance didn’t take place until September 30, 1944 with the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Malcolm Sargent conducting. Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 2 in E Minor, Op. 27 was composed between October 1906 and April 1907 and conducted by the composer at the premiere in Saint Petersburg on January 26, 1908.
About Hugo Lee
Oboist Hugo Lee is in the third year of the bachelor of music program at Juilliard in the studio of Elaine Douvas. Mr. Lee was born in Toronto, Canada, and his family is from Macau and Hong Kong. In Toronto, he studied with Keith Atkinson while he was enrolled at the former Arts York program at Unionville High School in Ontario. He was a member of the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra and the National Youth Orchestra of Canada. He holds a Jerome L. Greene Fellowship at Juilliard. Mr. Lee also is a computer programmer, and his passions include animation and 4X strategy.
About Edward Gardner
Edward Gardner began his tenure as music director of the English National Opera in May 2007 with a critically-acclaimed new production of Britten’s Death in Venice. In recognition of his talent and commitment, Mr. Gardner received the Royal Philharmonic Society Award in 2008 for Best Conductor and in 2009, the Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera. In June 2012, he was awarded an OBE for his Services to Music in the Queen’s Birthday Honors. Equally successful as an opera conductor outside the ENO, Mr. Gardner received immediate invitations from the Metropolitan Opera and La Scala after his debut appearances of Carmen and Britten’s Death in Venice. In October 2015, he will take up his new appointment as chief conductor of the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra leading their 250th anniversary gala concert. He became their principal guest conductor in August 2013 and has projects planned including recordings on Chandos and touring. Mr. Gardner was educated at Cambridge and the Royal Academy of Music where he studied under the instruction of Colin Metters.
About the Juilliard Orchestra
Known for its versatility and the freshness of its performances, the Juilliard Orchestra performs frequently in its own New York City series each season, and is a strong partner to Juilliard’s operatic and dance performances.
The 2013-14 season saw the first appearances of conductors Hans Graf and Vladimir Jurowski with the Juilliard Orchestra, and return appearances by Anne Manson, Nicholas McGegan, Jeffrey Milarsky, Matthias Pintscher, and Larry Rachleff. The 2013-14 season also included collaborations with James Levine in a Met+Juilliard Concert of Comic Operas, Emmanuel Villaume in Massenet’s Cendrillon, and Matthew Aucoin conducting Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin.
In the 2012-13 season, Alan Gilbert conducted the Met+Juilliard co-production of Mozart’s Così fan tutte. Juilliard faculty member, violinist Itzhak Perlman, conducted the Juilliard Orchestra for the first time in an Avery Fisher Hall concert. British conductor Mark Wigglesworth led the Juilliard Orchestra in the closing concert of the 2013 FOCUS! festival, The British Renaissance. Alumna Marin Alsop conducted the Juilliard Orchestra in a concert celebrating American composer and Juilliard faculty member, John Corigliano’s 75th birthday at Carnegie Hall. Other guest conductors during the 2012-13 season included Semyon Bychkov, James Gaffigan, Edward Gardner, Jeffrey Kahane, Stephen Lord, Anne Manson, alumnus Leonard Slatkin, and Emmanuel Villaume, as well as Juilliard conductors Jeffrey Milarsky and George Stelluto.
# # #
PROGRAM LISTING:
Saturday, October 25, 2014 at 8p.m. in Alice Tully Hall
Juilliard Orchestra
Edward Gardner, conductor
Hugo Lee, oboe
KNUSSEN The Way to Castle Yonder
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Concerto for Oboe and Strings in A Minor
RACHMANINOFF Symphony No. 2 in E Minor, Op. 27
Tickets for the concert at $30 are available at events.juilliard.edu, through CenterCharge (212) 721-6500, or at the Alice Tully Hall Box Office.
Students with a valid ID may purchase tickets at $15 at the Alice Tully Hall Box Office.
