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FEBRUARY 2006

Carnegie Hall Announces 2006-7 Musical Offerings: Collaboration, Innovation, and Access are Themes

By Emily Sherwood, Ph.D.

Quoting former President Teddy Roosevelt, Carnegie Hall’s executive and artistic director Clive Gillinson announced at a standing room only press conference recently that, in planning the venerable institution’s 2006-7 musical season, “we kept our eyes on the stars and our feet on the ground.” Carnegie Hall will continue to build on its longstanding commitment to “imaginative, strategic, and rigorous” programming, but, according to Mr. Gillinson, who began his Carnegie Hall directorship in July 2005 following a 35 year career with the London Symphony Orchestra where he began as a cellist and ended as its Managing Director, “we must also play an active role in the future of music.”

The diversity in Carnegie Hall’s 2006-7 programming is evident in a dazzling mix of genres, from the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra to the Mongolian Buryat Band, from the Boston Symphony Orchestra to Ladysmith Black Mambazo. But there’ll be plenty of old favorites for the traditionalists. In a series of eight Perpectives concerts, the Emerson String Quartet will survey the complete Beethoven string quartets and their central presence in the quartet literature. Covering a span of more than 200 years, the concerts will also feature works by Mendelssohn, Schubert, Ives, Bartok, and Shostakovich.

 “Equally important to Carnegie Hall is extending [our] tradition to the next generation, which includes ten young composers in their 20’s and 30’s, most of whom you will not yet know,” stated Mr. Gillinson. To wit, composer Osvaldo Golijov and soprano Dawn Upshaw will mentor eight young composers who will write new works for voice and chamber ensemble. The world premiere concerts will take place in the Weill Recital Hall.

In a collaboration with the Brooklyn Academy of Music and Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall will present a month long, citywide tribute to contemporary composer Steve Reich on the occasion of his 70th birthday. Titled “Steve Reich at 70”, the festival will showcase the diverse musical sources that inspired Reich, including African, electronic, medieval and Indian music, with a concert in Isaac Stern Auditorium to include the new Daniel Variations (a musical memorial to the late Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl) and Different Trains (a haunting portrayal of the trains that transported so many to their deaths in the Holocaust).

A new partnership with City Center, which will feature shared music, dance, and drama programming to reap the benefits of an expanded audience, will kick off in the 2008-9 season.

When asked what his individual stamp on Carnegie Hall had been to date, Mr. Gillinson modestly declined to do so, emphasizing instead the team effort of the hall’s top managers. Key to their collective vision is making the concerts accessible to audiences who can’t afford the steep ticket prices at Carnegie Hall. Current efforts include deeply discounted subscription series for young adults in their twenties, a limited number of $10 tickets for students and seniors for most performances, free tickets for underserved groups, free neighborhood concerts, and affordably priced family concerts. Student demand alone has grown 200 percent since last year. “This is our future,” added Mr. Gillinson. Similarly, the hall sends performing artists into the city’s schools, although Mr. Gillinson admitted that the program is not as robust as it might be. As for podcasting, the ultimate technological tool for accessibility to the masses, Mr. Gillinson noted that “it’s being developed….we’ve made a commitment to it and explored ideas, but it’s a ways away.”

In summarizing his goals for the upcoming season, Mr. Gillinson repeatedly stressed that he and his management team are encouraging audiences to travel from their comfort zone and take more risks in their musical appreciation. “Looking ahead, we will continue to build on [our] historic strengths as we seek to develop ever more creative and compelling musical journeys for our audiences,” he concluded.#

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