Month: February 2017

Curtis Opera Theatre Presents the Philadelphia Premiere of Doctor Atomic March 2 and 4

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PHILADELPHIA—February 24, 2017—At the dawn of the nuclear age, scientists at Los Alamos prepare to test the first atomic bomb while pondering the massive destructive power of the force they will soon unleash. The Curtis Opera Theatre presents the Philadelphia premiere of John Adams’s Doctor Atomic on March 2 and 4 at 7:30pm in the Kimmel Center’s Perelman Theater. “A moving and compelling work of moral, as well as musical, grandeur” (Daily Telegraph), Adams’s opera, with a libretto by Peter Sellars, has become an iconic work in American contemporary opera. 

Timothy Myers leads the Curtis Symphony Orchestra and R.B. Schlather directs, with scenic design by Paul Tate dePoo III, costume design by Terese Wadden, lighting design by JAX Messenger, and sound design by Michael Kiley. Elizabeth Braden of Opera Philadelphia is the chorus master. This fully staged production is sung in English with supertitles. This production is sponsored in part by Allen R. and Judy Brick Freedman. The Curtis Opera Theatre season is sponsored by The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation and the Wyncote Foundation.

Tickets, priced $10 and $35, are available through the Kimmel Center Box Office, Kimmelcenter.org org (215) 893-1999.

Timothy Myers (conductor) is the artistic director and music director of North Carolina Opera. One of the youngest artistic leaders in American opera, he has broadened the company’s repertoire and introduced innovative and stimulating productions.

Mr. Myers’s recent and upcoming engagements include the Atlanta, Baltimore, North Carolina, Portland, Toledo, and Tulsa symphony orchestras and the Malaysian Philharmonic. Opera engagements include Wexford Festival Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera, Washington National Opera, Wolf Trap, and the workshop of a new work by Ricky Ian Gordon for the Metropolitan Opera. In 2016 he conducted Capriccio for Curtis Opera Theatre and Opera Philadelphia. A seasoned collaborator in developing new works, he recently conducted the world premieres of Ricky Ian Gordon’s A Coffin in Egypt at Houston Grand Opera; Daniel Crozier’s With Blood, With Ink at Fort Worth Opera; and John Supko’s All Souls at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

Mr. Myers’s other engagements have included the Beijing National Center for the Performing Arts; the Jerusalem and Milwaukee symphony orchestras; the Brooklyn and Johannesburg philharmonics; the opera companies of Palm Beach, Anchorage, and Asheville; Music Academy of the West; and the Wolf Trap and Central City festivals. He served for two years as associate conductor of the Castleton Festival under his mentor, Lorin Maazel; and for three years as principal guest conductor of Opera Africa in Johannesburg. He has held assistant or associate positions with the New York Philharmonic, New York City Opera, and the American and BBC symphony orchestras.

R.B. Schlather (stage director) is an artist in residence at National Sawdust (Williamsburg, Brooklyn) this season, directing Vasco Mendonca’s The House Taken Over, Philip Glass’s Madrigal Opera, and a workshop deconstructing Handel’s Ariodante in preparation for a performance installation in New York City. He has been commissioned by Opera Philadelphia to develop a performance installation with composer David Hertzberg for the Barnes Foundation, slated to premiere in September 2017. His 2016 staging of David Lang’s The Little Match Girl Passion was commissioned and produced by Miami-based Art Song and Vocal Chamber Music series IlluminArts as a week-long performance installation at the Perez Art Museum in Miami.

Mr. Schlather has professional affiliations with the Bard Music Festival, Opera Philadelphia, Boston Lyric Opera, Gran Teatre del Liceu, English National Opera, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Canadian Opera Company, Tanglewood Music Festival, New York City Opera, Gotham Chamber Opera, Chicago Opera Theater, Portland Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, Le Poisson Rouge, Salon/Sanctuary Concerts, and Ash Lawn Opera.

The Curtis Opera Theatre, under the artistic direction of Mikael Eliasen, works with established professional directors and designers to create fresh interpretations of standard repertoire and contemporary works. All of Curtis’s 25 voice and opera students are cast repeatedly each season, receiving a rare level of performance experience on stage and through frequent collaborations with Opera Philadelphia, Curtis on Tour, and the Curtis Symphony Orchestra. As a result Curtis graduates have sung with opera companies all over the world, including La Scala, Covent Garden, the Vienna Staatsoper, Houston Grand Opera, the San Francisco Opera, and the Metropolitan Opera.

CURTIS OPERA THEATRE: Doctor Atomic by John Adams 

Thursday, March 2 at 7:30 p.m. 
Saturday, March 4 at 7:30 p.m. 
Perelman Theater at the Kimmel Center, Broad and Spruce Streets, Philadelphia

Timothy Myers, conductor
R.B. Schlather, stage director
Paul Tate dePoo III, scenic designer
Terese Wadden, costume designer
JAX Messenger, lighting designer
Michael Kiley, sound designer
Elizabeth Braden, chorus master

Cast 

Edward Teller Tyler Zimmerman
Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer Johnathan McCullough
Robert Wilson Evan Johnson
Kitty Oppenheimer Siena Miller
General Leslie Groves Vartan Gabrielian
Frank Hubbard Dogukan Kuran
Captain James Nolan Jamez McCorkle
Pasqualita Sophia Fiuza Hunt
Robert and Kitty’s Daughter Frances Yee*
Robert and Kitty’s Son Aleksandr Gateniuk*
* guest artist  

Ticket information
Single tickets: $10, $35 sold by the Kimmel Center Box Office, Kimmelcenter.org or (215) 893-1999.

 

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Cellist Carter Brey performs February 26 at the Curtis Institute of Music

Date

PHILADELPHIA—February 23, 2017—Curtis Presents continues its season with a recital by Carter Brey, longtime principal cello of the New York Philharmonic, on Sunday, February 26 at 3 p.m. in Field Concert Hall. With playing that has been praised as “probing, supple, and brilliant” (New York Times), Mr. Brey and pianist Benjamin Pasternack (’76) present a program of works by Schumann, Chopin, 20th-century composers Elliott Carter, Leon Kirchner, and Leonard Bernstein, a Curtis alumnus.

A force in classical music for over 35 years, Carter Brey has appeared as a soloist with numerous major American orchestras. As a chamber musician he has performed and recorded with an elite circle of musical partners. He has been principal cello of the New York Philharmonic for the past 20 years and joined the Curtis faculty in 2008. 

Tickets are $25 and are available from the Curtis Patron Services Office at (215) 893-7902 or Curtis.edu/tickets. The concert will also be streamed live on Curtis.edu/CurtisPerforms at 3 p.m. EST.

The Curtis Presents season is sponsored by Blank Rome LLP. Live streaming of Curtis performances in 2016-17 is made possible by BNP Paribas.

CURTIS PRESENTS: CARTER BREY

Sunday, February 26 at 3 p.m.
Field Concert Hall, 1726 Locust Street, Philadelphia, Pa.

SCHUMANN      Fantasiestücke, Op. 73

Carter Brey, cello
Benjamin Pasternack, piano

BERNSTEIN       Three Dance Episodes from On the Town, transcr. Benjamin Pasternack

Benjamin Pasternack, piano

CARTER              Cello Sonata

Carter Brey, cello
Benjamin Pasternack, piano

KIRCHNER         For Solo Cello

Carter Brey, cello

CHOPIN              Sonata in G minor, Op. 65

Carter Brey, cello
Benjamin Pasternack, piano

Tickets: $25, available from the Curtis Patron Services Office, Curtis.edu/tickets or (215) 893-7902.

The Curtis Presents season is sponsored by Blank Rome LLP. Live streaming of Curtis Presents recitals is made possible by BNP Paribas.

Mr. Brey holds the Nina and Billy Albert Chair in Cello Studies.


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Curtis 20/21 Ensemble Presents “The New Yorkers” February 11, Streamed Live on Curtis Performs

Date

PHILADELPHIA—February 8, 2017—The Curtis 20/21 Ensemble presents “The New Yorkers,” the second in a three-concert series exploring the Darmstadt School and its musical legacy. On Saturday, February 11 at 8 p.m. in Gould Rehearsal Hall (and streamed live at www.curtis.edu/CurtisPerforms), the Curtis 20/21 Ensemble focuses on the “New York School” and works by its most (in)famous member John Cage, an American contemporary to the Darmstadt composers. Cage was a leader in the American avant-garde movement of the 1950s and 1960s, whose experimental work challenged most every convention in art and performance, and whose radical ideas inspired many composers to come. 

This concert is performed in memory of Rosalyn Tureck, a keyboard artist, teacher, and scholar whose multi-faceted career was driven by the same kind of musical curiosity that spurred John Cage. In order to ensure the continuation of collaborative projects, learning, and performances uniquely championed by Dr. Rosalyn Tureck, the Tureck Bach Research Institute merged with the Curtis Institute of Music in 2015.

The February 11 program features five selections from Cage’s ambitious Ten Thousand Things—an indeterminate project that includes a series of pieces that can be performed in any order, concurrently or alone. The work has no fixed ensemble and Cage conceived of it as an ongoing work-in-progress he would add to throughout his life. Performers from the Curtis 20/21 Ensemble will play pieces from the series that include strings, piano, percussion, and speaker. Joining 20/21 to perform as speaker is guest artist Laura Kuhn, director of the John Cage Trust and editor of the recently published Selected Letters of John Cage.

This concert will be streamed live at 8 p.m. EST on Curtis Performs (www.curtis.edu/CurtisPerforms), and the video will remain online for a week. The free event will include a pre-concert conversation on Cage and the “New York School” at 7:30 p.m. with Laura Kuhn and Curtis 20/21 Artistic Director David Ludwig. Live streaming of Curtis 20/21 performances is made possible by BNP Paribas.

Flexible in size and scope, the Curtis 20/21 Ensemble performs a wide range of music from the 20th and 21st centuries, including works by Curtis students, faculty, and alumni. The ensemble has appeared at major U.S. venues such as the Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall, and has presented concert portraits of iconic composers in residence John Corigliano, George Crumb, Krzysztof Penderecki, and Steven Stucky, among others. Of the ensemble’s Joan Tower portrait program, the New York Times wrote, “Ms. Tower could hardly have hoped for more passionate performances.” 


CURTIS 20/21 ENSEMBLE: THE NEW YORKERS

Saturday, February 11 at 8 p.m.
Gould Rehearsal Hall, Lenfest Hall, 1616 Locust Street

CAGE       59 1/2” for a String Player (1953) (cello)
                 45’ for a Speaker (1954)
                 31’ 57.9864” for a Pianist (1954)
                 26’ 1.1499” for a String Player (1955) (viola)
                 27’ 10.554” for a Percussionist (1956)

The concert is free and no advance reservations are required. 

Streamed live at Curtis Performs (www.curtis.edu/CurtisPerforms), 7:30 p.m. EST preconcert talk, 8 p.m. performance

Live streaming of Curtis 20/21 performances in 2016-17 is made possible by BNP Paribas.

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