CARNEGIE HALL ANNOUNCES 2016–2017 SEASON

Programming highlights include a citywide festival—La Serenissima: Music and Arts from the Venetian Republic—in February 2017; the appointment of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Steve Reich to hold the Richard and Barbara Debs Composer’s Chair; the second season of conductor Sir Simon Rattle’s two-year Carnegie Hall Perspectives series with concerts by the Berliner Philharmoniker, The Philadelphia Orchestra, and Ensemble ACJW; and a cycle of Anton Bruckner’s nine symphonies with Daniel Barenboim and the Staatksapelle Berlin—the first time this cycle has been performed at Carnegie Hall in one season.

“Our 2016-2017 season invites audiences to make new and inspiring discoveries,” said Clive Gillinson, Carnegie Hall’s Executive and Artistic Director. “It’s a year filled with opportunities to hear long-lost gems from the Venetian Republic, brand new works from the Hall’s 125 Commissions Project, or an extraordinary journey through all of Bruckner’s symphonies, just to name a few. Whether through concerts or creative education and community programs at the Hall and beyond, it’s about enjoying and engaging in remarkable musical experiences with performances by a dazzling array of the world’s finest artists.”

2016–2017 Season Highlights Overview

Carnegie Hall’s 126th season will open Thursday, October 6 with an Opening Night Gala concert by Gustavo Dudamel and the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra performing Stravinsky’s vivid ballet scores for Pétrouchka and Le sacre du printemps (The Rite of Spring). Mr. Dudamel and the orchestra will return for additional concerts on the following two evenings, including a program of Ravel works paired with music by Latin American composers, and a performance of Messiaen’s ecstatic masterpiece Turangalîla-symphonie with pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet and ondes Martenot player Cynthia Millar.

Building upon a recent and highly successful emphasis on early music programming, Carnegie Hall leads a citywide festival—La Serenissima: Music and Arts from the Venetian Republic—in February 2017 with concerts featuring vocal masterpieces and virtuoso instrumental music that emanated from the Republic which flourished for more than one thousand years until it fell to Napoleon in 1797. Highlights include a survey of a thousand years of music from Venice, Istanbul, Cyprus, and Crete by Jordi Savall and his ensembles Hespèrion XXI, Le Concert des Nations, and La Capella Reial de Catalunya; Vivaldi’s dramatic oratorio Juditha Triumphans with the Venice Baroque Orchestra and Andrea Marcon; and Monteverdi’s monumental and final opera L’incoronazione di Poppea performed by Concerto Italiano and Rinaldo Alessandrini.

Also featured as part of La Serenissima: Quicksilver with instrumental music from the Venetian Baroque, and New York-based TENET, presenting Music By, For, and About Women in 17th Century Italy; the innovative group Il Pomo d’Oro with emotionally wrought opera arias and duets by lesser-known Baroque composers as well as an evening of Vivaldi violin concertos and other works featuring Dmitry Sinkovsky; and The Tallis Scholars, who lead a Weill Music Institute workshop for young singers culminating in a joint concert of polychoral repertoire written expressly for Venice’s St. Mark’s Basilica.

The festival extends throughout New York City with events at leading cultural institutions including lectures, art exhibits, panel discussions, and other performances that will examine not just the unparalleled cultural innovations of the Venetian Republic but also the scandalous, ribald, and libertine history that the passage of time has rendered less familiar.

Also during the 2016-2017 season, Carnegie Hall has appointed the Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer Steve Reich to hold the Richard and Barbara Debs Composer’s Chair. Acclaimed for his visionary style, Mr. Reich is celebrated by Carnegie Hall on the occasion of his 80th birthday with a special event on November 1 in Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage. The program features a concert performance of his and Beryl Korot’s video opera Three Tales plus the world premiere of a new work, Pulse, co-commissioned by Carnegie Hall, and the Quartet for two percussionists and two pianists. Performers include ICE, Sō Percussion, Synergy Vocals, and conductor David Robertson.

In spring 2017, Mr. Reich will curate Three Generations: Changing the Direction of Concert Music, a four-concert series in Zankel Hall that explores how the language of composition changed from the mid-20th century to the present day, pivoting from serial atonal music toward a new harmonic and rhythmic style led by Mr. Reich, Terry Riley, John Adams, Philip Glass, and Arvo Pärt; continuing with Bang on a Can composers David Lang, Julia Wolfe, and Michael Gordon; and on to younger innovators Nico Muhly and Bryce Dessner. Featured performers in the series include Ensemble Signal, Bang on a Can All-Stars, JACK Quartet, and more. An integral part of each of these events will be Steve Reich in conversation with many of the featured composers in pre-concert discussions.

Carnegie Hall’s commitment to new music continues with the second year of its five-year 125 Commissions Project over the span of which at least 125 new works will be commissioned from today’s leading composers. Launched during the Hall’s current 125th anniversary season, the project features new solo, chamber, and orchestral music from both established and emerging composers, including works in the new season by Yves Chauris, Donnacha Dennehy, Sofia Gubaidulina, James MacMillan, Frederic Rzewski, Caroline Shaw, Chris Thile, and Jörg Widmann, among others.

Conductor Sir Simon Rattle will conclude his two-season Carnegie Hall Perspectives series with concerts that feature the music of composers with whom he has been closely associated over the course of his illustrious career. Sir Simon makes his final New York appearances as music director of the Berliner Philharmoniker, leading the orchestra in Mahler’s urgent and elusive Symphony No. 7, revelatory works from the Second Viennese School, and Brahms’s tender yet expansive Symphony No. 2. He also conducts Mahler’s rapturous Symphony No. 6 with The Philadelphia Orchestra—another ensemble with which he has earned tremendous acclaim. An energetic innovator and proponent of daring repertoire, Sir Simon conducts Ensemble ACJW in Hans Zender’s fascinating reimagining of Schubert’s song cycle Winterreise with acclaimed tenor Mark Padmore.

In a major orchestral highlight, for the first time in its history, Carnegie Hall presents a complete cycle of Anton Bruckner’s nine numbered symphonies in a single season, performed by the Staatskapelle Berlin and Music Director Daniel Barenboim. Presented in nine concerts over eleven days in January 2017, the cycle is paired with several of Mozart’s most celebrated piano concertos—with Mr. Barenboim as soloist, conducting from the keyboard—as well as two of the composer’s Sinfonia concertantes. After a four-year absence, Mr. Barenboim returns to Carnegie Hall to lead these colossal performances in the 60th anniversary year of his Carnegie Hall debut.

A number of exciting new artistic collaborations will take place on the Carnegie Hall stages in the new season, including recitals by pianist Mitsuko Uchida featuring clarinetist / composer Jörg Widmann; pianists Leif Ove Andsnes and Marc-André Hamelin performing two-piano repertoire by Mozart, Debussy, and Stravinsky; pianist Jonathan Biss exploring late style in two concerts with the Brentano String Quartet and in a recital with tenor Mark Padmore; soprano Susanna Phillips and bass-baritone Eric Owens in a program of Schubert lieder; tenor Ian Bostridge and pianist Thomas Adès performing Schubert’s Wintereisse; and mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter and Brooklyn Rider performing new music by Caroline Shaw and Colin Jacobsen plus new arrangements of songs by Nico Muhly (by the composer); John Adams and Björk (by Evan Ziporyn); and Sting and Elvis Costello (by Rob Mathes).

Additional highlights of Carnegie Hall’s 2016-2017 season include the The English Concert and Artistic Director Harry Bicket continuing their multiyear Handel operas and oratorios project with a concert performance of Ariodante with mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato singing the title role; and a performance of John Adams’s The Gospel According to the Other Mary by the St. Louis Symphony and St. Louis Symphony Chorus led by Music Director David Robertson, with mezzo-soprano Kelley O’Connor as Mary Magdalene, in celebration of the composer’s 70th birthday.

Also next season: Tony Award winner Kelli O’Hara making her solo headlining Carnegie Hall debut; A Night of Inspiration, an exciting evening featuring gospel’s biggest stars, presented by acclaimed composer, music director, and producer Ray Chew; return performances by both the legendary Goran Bregović & His Wedding and Funeral Band and Grammy Award-winning vocalist Angelique Kidjo; and an outstanding six-concert Carnegie Hall series with Steven Reineke and The New York Pops.

Ensemble ACJW celebrates its tenth anniversary throughout the 2016-2017 season. Established in January 2007, the group is comprised of the finest young professional classical musicians in the United States, taking part in a two-year fellowship program created in 2007 by Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, and the Weill Music Institute in partnership with the New York City Department of Education. In addition to working in the community and in New York City public schools, Ensemble ACJW performs throughout the city, with Carnegie Hall programming highlights in the new season to include the world premiere of a new work by Caroline Shaw commissioned by Carnegie Hall performed during the La Serenissima festival, and the previously-mentioned concert with conductor Sir Simon Rattle during his Perspectives series.

Carnegie Hall also announced that the music education and community programs of the Weill Music Institute (WMI) will serve more people than ever before, serving 600,000 participants during the coming season. Highlights include a renewed focus on expanding access to instrumental and orchestral instruction nationwide through NYO2 and PlayUSA, two initiatives that target communities underserved and underrepresented in classical music.

In summer 2016, the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America (NYO-USA), featuring the country’s best young players ages 16-19, will be led by conductor Christoph Eschenbach at Carnegie Hall in a concert featuring pianist Emanuel Ax, before embarking on a European tour with conductor Valery Gergiev and Denis Matsuev. Also announced: NYO-USA will tour South America in summer 2017 with conductor Marin Alsop.

Link Up, a WMI program for grades 3–5 offered for free to over 90 orchestras nationally and in select international locations, continues to grow, adding a fourth curriculum, The Orchestra Swings, and Musical Explorers for grades K–2 continues to serve students across the country. WMI’s Summer Music Educators Workshop will bring teachers from across the nation together in 2016 to share best practices and cultivate a strong community of music educators. Among WMI’s acclaimed master classes and workshops for young musicians, Joyce DiDonato, Marilyn Horne, Dame Felicity Lott, Margo Garrett, The Tallis Scholars, and Jonathan Biss lead sessions in the new season.

For a sixth consecutive year, Carnegie Hall and WQXR 105.9 FM in New York will partner to produce Carnegie Hall Live, an engaging nationwide live broadcast and digital series featuring 12 performances from Carnegie Hall’s season. To encourage community and conversation, the series offers digital content surrounding each concert, including Twitter commentary by the broadcast team from backstage and in the control room, live and on-demand audio, special videos, program notes, photo galleries, and more. This year’s series launches on October 6 with Carnegie Hall’s Opening Night Gala performance by Gustavo Dudamel and the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra. The full schedule of the 2016–2017 broadcasts will be announced at a later date.

For the twelfth consecutive year, Bank of America will be Carnegie Hall’s season sponsor. “We’re very proud to continue our partnership with Bank of America,” said Mr. Gillinson. “Their generous support plays a fundamental role in enabling us to offer this incredible lineup of performances next season as well as engaging music education and community programs in New York City and worldwide. We deeply appreciate their ongoing collaboration and applaud their strong global commitment to supporting arts and culture.”