Itzhak Perlman and the Perlman Music Program, and MMArtists in Concert
Conclude Their Series, Arnold Steinhardt Plays the Bach Chaconne,
The Jerusalem Chamber Music Festival is Led by Elena Bakshirova,
and Richie Havens and Steve Ross Return to the Metropolitan Museum
For tickets, call the Concerts & Lectures Department at 212-570-3949, or visit
www.metmuseum.org/tickets, where updated schedules and programs are also available.
Tickets are also available at the Great Hall Box Office, which is open
Tuesday-Saturday 10-5:00, and Sunday noon-5:00.
Student discount tickets are available for some events; call 212-570-3949.
Friday, May 2, 2008, at 7:00 p.m. - Richie Havens
Following a highly successful concert at the Metropolitan Museum last February, Richie Havens returns with Walter Parks, guitar and vocals, and Stephanie Winters, cello, for another evening of performance featuring his unique and ageless singing style. The legendary soul singer who emerged from the Greenwich Village folk scene in the 1960s has electrified audiences for the last three decades.
Richie Havens is gifted with one of the most recognizable voices in popular music. His unique singing style – by turns fiery and poignant, always soulful – has remained ageless. It is a voice that has inspired audiences from the Woodstock Music & Arts Fair in 1969 to the Clinton Presidential Inauguration in 1993, coming full circle with the 30th Woodstock Anniversary celebration, "A Day in the Garden," in 1999. For over three decades, Richie Havens has used his music to convey messages of brotherhood and personal freedom. With more than 25 albums released and a rigorous touring schedule, he continues to view his calling as a higher one. As he told the Denver Post, "I really sing songs that move me. I'm not in show business, I'm in the communications business. That's what it's about for me."
In 2003, the National Music Council awarded Richie Havens the American Eagle Award for his place as part of America's musical heritage, and for providing "a rare and inspiring voice of eloquence, integrity and social responsibility." Recently, he released a self-produced album, Grace of the Sun, consisting of original songs. The guitar work of Walter Parks and Christopher Cunningham, and the contributions of musicians Badal Roy (India), Jorge Alfano (Argentina), and Hasan Isakkut (Turkey) serve to create an exotic tapestry that complements Richie's own signature percussive strumming and melodic vocals. For Richie Havens, making music is a continuous journey, and one that advances a step further with each album. "My albums are meant to be a chronological view of the times we've come through, what we've thought about, and what we've done to grow and change. There's a universal point to which we all respond, and where all songs apply to everyone."
Tickets: $45
Saturday, May 3, 2008, at 8:00 p.m. - Itzhak Perlman Plays Chamber Music
Itzhak Perlman's long association with the Metropolitan Museum Concerts series began more than four decades ago. In the 2007-2008 season it continues with a three-concert series featuring Mr. Perlman performing with the rising stars of the Perlman Music Program, a program for exceptionally gifted young musicians administered and guided by Toby Perlman. This is the first New York chamber music series conceived and programmed by Itzhak Perlman – and the concerts will reflect his personal approach to music-making, as he will be both coaching and performing with the musicians, who have come to his program from all over the world.
This final program of the series features Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 3, BWV 1048; and Schumann's Quintet for Piano and Strings in E-flat Major, Op. 44, with guest artist David Kadouch, piano.
This series is generously supported by Mrs. Florence Irving and Mrs. Vivian Milstein.
The Perlman Music Program encompasses both chamber music workshops and an intensive six-week summer residency program serving approximately 38 exceptionally gifted students, ages 12 to 18, drawn from all over the world. Under the dedicated guidance of Toby and Itzhak Perlman and an outstanding faculty of teachers of violin, viola, cello, bass, piano, and chorus, the program offers the finest instruction, coaching, and mentoring that can be found anywhere, with a faculty-student ratio of nearly one to three. At the summer program on Shelter Island, students practice their instruments four hours a day, take private lessons and group classes, play in chamber groups and orchestra and sing in chorus. They discuss performance skills, examine performance anxiety, and perform throughout the summer. In addition, students develop social skills and learn to share the spotlight with others in this non-competitive environment.
Undeniably the reigning virtuoso of the violin, Itzhak Perlman enjoys a superstar status rarely afforded a classical musician. Beloved for his charm and humanity as well as his talent, he is treasured by audiences throughout the world who respond not only to his remarkable artistry, but also to the irrepressible joy of making music. In December 2003 the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts granted Mr. Perlman a Kennedy Center Honor celebrating his distinguished achievements and contributions to the cultural and educational life of our nation. He recently performed at the State Dinner for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, hosted by President George W. Bush and Mrs. Bush at the White House. Mr. Perlman is a frequent presence on the conductor's podium, and he has performed as conductor with the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Boston Symphony, National Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and the symphony orchestras of San Francisco, Dallas, Houston, Pittsburgh, Seattle, Montreal and Toronto, as well as at the Ravinia and OK Mozart festivals. He was Music Advisor to the Saint Louis Symphony from 2002 to 2004, where he made regular conducting appearances, and he was Principal Guest Conductor of the Detroit Symphony from 2001 to 2005. This season he conducts the Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, New World Symphony, and Toronto Symphony. Internationally, Mr. Perlman has conducted the Berlin Philharmonic, Concertgebouw Orchestra, London Philharmonic, English Chamber Orchestra, Tonhalle Orchestra, and Israel Philharmonic.
As soloist, Mr. Perlman continues to visit major centers throughout the world. Highlights of his 2007-2008 season include summer performances with The Philadelphia Orchestra at the Mann Center and Saratoga Performing Arts Center, and with the Boston Symphony at Tanglewood; recitals throughout Europe and the United States including London, Paris, Brussels, Zurich, Boston, and Los Angeles; and a tour of Japan, where he will be heard both in recital and with orchestra.
Over the past decade Mr. Perlman has become more actively involved in educational activities. He has taught full time at the Perlman Music Program each summer since it was founded, and currently holds the Dorothy Richard Starling Foundation Chair at the Juilliard School.
Tickets: $60
Friday, May 9, 2008, at 7:00 p.m. -"Masterwork at 7:00: Arnold Steinhardt, Violin, Celebrating Bach's Chaconne"
Arnold Steinhardt steps out of the Guarneri String Quartet for this lecture/performance on the Chaconne from Bach's Partita for Solo Violin No. 2 in D Minor – talking about the history of the work and the place it has in his recently-published memoir, Violin Dreams. A facsimile of Bach's 1720 autograph of the work will be displayed. Mr. Steinhardt will perform the entire partita.
Arnold Steinhardt is first violinist and a founding member (1964) of the internationally acclaimed Guarneri String Quartet with which he has made innumerable tours across the globe and recorded dozens of albums for RCA Victor, Philips, Arabesque, and Surrounded By Entertainment. He is professor of violin at Rutgers University's Mason Gross School of the Arts, the University of Maryland, Bard College, and the Curtis Institute of Music. He has written two books: Indivisible by Four: A String Quartet in Pursuit of Harmony (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998); and Violin Dreams (Houghton Mifflin, 2006). He is the author of articles that have appeared in Chamber Music America, Musical America, and Keynote. Recipient of honorary doctorates from the University of South Florida and Harpur College, Arnold Steinhardt has also received an award for distinguished cultural service from the City of New York presented by Mayor Koch.
Mr. Steinhardt's recordings include Franz Schubert's complete works for violin and piano with Seymour Lipkin on Newport Classic; American Journey on Naxos Records, featuring a variety of seldom heard American music and three new works written for him; two CDs on Sheffield Lab with pianist Lincoln Mayorga of Strauss and Dvorak and Romantic music for violin and piano, which he recorded "direct-to-disc"; and a Town Hall recording of unaccompanied Bach works.
Arnold Steinhardt was born in Los Angeles, receiving his early training from Karl Moldrem, Peter Meremblum, and Toscha Seidel, and made his solo debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra at age 14. He continued his studies with Ivan Galamian at the Curtis Institute of Music and with Joseph Szigeti in Switzerland under the sponsorship of George Szell. Winner of the Philadelphia Youth Competition in 1957, the 1958 Leventritt Award, and the bronze medal in the Queen Elizabeth International Violin Competition in 1963, Mr. Steinhardt has appeared throughout North America and Europe as a recitalist and soloist with orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony, and The Cleveland Orchestra, among others.
Tickets: $30
Thursday, May 15, 2008, at 8:00 p.m. - Jerusalem Chamber Music Festival
This program from the Jerusalem Chamber Music Festival – Elena Bashkirova, pianist and artistic director – in its only New York appearance, also features Michael Barenboim, violin; Amichai Grosz, viola; Kyril Zlotnikov, cello; and Matthias Glander, clarinet, performing Schumann's Six Pieces in Canon Form, Op. 56; Beethoven's Trio for Piano, Clarinet, and Viola, Op. 38; and Kurtág's Hommage á Robert Schumann for Piano, Clarinet, and Viola.
The Jerusalem Chamber Music Festival was founded in September 1998, drawing artists from around the world to the cradle of culture that is its home city. The dedication of the participants created a familial atmosphere, with each artist generously contributing his free time and appearing without remuneration. From its inception, under the artistic direction of renowned pianist Elena Bashkirova, the festival has received enthusiastic response in Israel and abroad. Participants continue to include such luminaries as Daniel Barenboim, Lang Lang, Maxim Vengerov, Julia Fischer, Miriam Fried, and Emmanuel Pahud, as well many other distinguished artists from Europe, North America, and Israel.
Each year the festival chooses a different theme, a thread that weaves its way through10 to 12 consecutive concerts; in the first year, each program represented a different country. Over the years, the festival has celebrated "Departing Centuries," which features compositions written at the close of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, and composers whose revolutionary vision changed the existing musical language and the path of creation; and "Transcriptions and Transformations" that showed well-known pieces in a different light, either transformed by the composers themselves or transcribed by their colleagues. The 2003 festival was dedicated to Vienna, the city that above all others influenced and determined the path of music, and in 2004 the festival was built around the composers of Eastern Europe, with special emphasis given to the music of Dvorak.
Every year the Jerusalem Chamber Music Festival commissions a new piece, which receives its world premiere in Jerusalem and in many cases becomes part of the festival's touring program. Festival ensembles tour Europe and the U.S., performing regularly in Berlin, Frankfurt, Geneva, Paris, Madrid, Lisbon, London, Vienna, and New York. They are also regular guests of international summer festivals such as Lucerne, Rheingau, Menton, Bad Kissingen, Schwetzingen, Stresa, and Schleswig-Holstein.
Tickets: $50
Friday, May 16, 2008, at 8:00 p.m. - MMArtists in Concert
MMArtists in Concert, led by cellist Edward Arron, the artistic coordinator, was created in Metropolitan Museum Concerts' 50th anniversary season, and it is the first ensemble to bear the Museum's name. The ensemble has received critical acclaim not only for "bring[ing] solo quality to ensemble playing," but for the inviting nature of the events: "Connections play an important part in this fine ensemble's programs," noted Steve Smith in The New York Times, and "so do communication and enthusiastic advocacy." The three Friday evening programs will be introduced onstage by WQXR Morning Host Jeff Spurgeon and will be broadcast live on 96.3 FM WQXR as well as streamed online on www.WQXR.com.
String quintets of Beethoven – original and in arrangement – is the theme for the ensemble's fifth season of concerts. This third and final program features Beethoven's Trio in One Movement in B-flat Major for Piano, Violin, and Cello; Folk Songs for Baritone, Piano, Violin, and Cello; Carter's Con leggerezza pensosa: Omaggio a Italo Calvino for Clarinet, Violin, and Cello (1990); Copland's Sextet for Clarinet, Piano, and String Quartet (1937), and selected American Songs; and Beethoven's String Quartet in C Major, Op. 29.
Joining the ensemble as special guest artist is baritone Randall Scarlata. The musicians performing on the program are Carol McGonnell, clarinet; Jennifer Frautschi and Laura Frautschi, violin; Colin Jacobsen, violin and viola; Nicholas Cords, viola; Edward Arron, cello; and Jeremy Denk, piano.
Randall Scarlata has appeared as soloist with the Minnesota Orchestra (singing Copland's Old American Songs under David Alan Miller), The Philadelphia Orchestra (singing Mahler's Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen), the National Symphony (as Figaro in scenes from Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro under Chistopher Hogwood), the Brooklyn Philharmonic (as Frère Leon in Messiaen's Saint François d'Assise, under Robert Spano), the American Symphony Orchestra (as Siskov in Janácek's From the House of the Dead, under Leon Botstein), and many others. In recital, Mr. Scarlata has performed with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and the Vocal Arts Society in Washington, D.C., as well as at venues including the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, New York's Morgan Library and Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall, and at the Ravinia, Seattle Chamber Music, and Marlboro Music festivals. Abroad, he has performed in major concert halls of Vienna, Salzburg, Hamburg, Nice, and Caracas, and for the Edinburgh International Festival (with pianist Richard Goode).
Tickets: $40
Friday, May 23, 2008, at 7:00 p.m. - Steve Ross – "Once Upon a Time – Story Songs"
Cabaret star Steve Ross returns to the Museum with the second of the season's two programs, featuring work songs, patter songs, and ballads including those by Harry Chapin, Johnny Cash, Cole Porter, and Noel Coward.
Steve Ross was born in New Rochelle, New York, one of five children. He studied the piano, and after attending Georgetown University and serving in the Army, he became what he calls a "background piano player," playing the music he'd grown up with: Cole Porter, Noel Coward, and Gershwin. In the early 1970s, he moved to New York City. Many jobs hinged on his singing as well as playing – he told the club owners that he couldn't really sing, but they insisted. He decided to train his voice further, and so his style developed. A boost to Steve Ross's career came later in the 1970s, when he began his run at Ted Hook's popular Backstage piano bar and restaurant in the Broadway theater district. His major career thrust came when he became the first cabaret artist in 40 years to perform in the newly opened Algonquin Hotel's Oak Room, putting him in the vanguard of the cabaret revival. He performed regularly at the Oak Room for almost four years, and still returns for sell-out performances. A self-proclaimed Anglophile, Steve was happy to begin dinner cabaret at the Ritz in London. He enjoys performing regularly at London's popular Pizza on the Park. He has played at the Spoleto Festival, the Hong Kong Arts Festival, and the Perth Festival in Australia. He has also performed in Brazil, and around the United States, including on-and off-Broadway. In 1989, the BBC asked Steve Ross to host a live cabaret series. He was also the host of a popular radio series for National Public Radio, New York Cabaret Nights, with live broadcasts from cabaret rooms in New York City, featuring noted guests.
Tickets: $40
Also in May 2008 – The following music lectures:
Thursdays, April 24, May 1 & 8, 2008, at 11:00 a.m. - "The Language of Music" with Stuart Isacoff
Stuart Isacoff offers music lovers a deeper understanding of the workings of music, why stylistic changes occur from era to era, and how composers manage to grip our emotions. The power behind some of the world's musical masterpieces will be explored.
Stuart Isacoff, classically trained in both piano and composition, was also a protégé of the late jazz great Sir Roland Hanna. He writes on music for many publications, is the author of Temperament: How Music Became a Battleground for the Great Minds of Western Civilization (Vintage), and is founding editor of the magazine Piano Today. Mr. Isacoff is a winner of the ASCAP Deems Taylor Award for excellence in writing about music. He lectures on musical topics and performs frequently at institutions both here and abroad.
April 24: "Music and Painting: The Influence of Michelangelo, Hogarth, and Seurat on Josquin des Prez, Mozart, and Debussy"
May 1: "Music in Times of War: The Influence on Haydn, Benjamin Britten, and Shostakovich"
May 8: "Soulful Music: From Ancient Chant to Bach and Bernstein, Music as a Journey of the Spirit"
Tickets: $23 (Series: $50)
Thursdays, May 1 & 8, 2008, at 2:30 p.m. - "The Sound of Broadway:
Guys and Dolls Meets Kismet" with June LeBell
The 1950s were the golden years of American musical theater. "The Sound of Broadway" pays tribute to two contrasting shows of the era: Guys and Dolls and Kismet. Members of the original casts and road companies of the shows will perform and talk about their experiences in these two events hosted by June LeBell, broadcaster and American musical theater aficionado.
May 1: Guys and Dolls
May 8: Kismet
Tickets: $27 (Series: $45)
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April 25, 2008
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