March is “Music in our Schools” Month
For Immediate Release: February 19, 2015
Media Contacts: Sally Cohen, 585-749-1795, sally@sallycohenpr.com
RPO Info: rpo.org, facebook.com/RochesterPhilharmonic, twitter.com/RochesterPhil, rochesterphilharmonic.blogspot.com
MARCH IS MUSIC IN OUR SCHOOLS MONTH:
Intermediate Concerts, RPYO Side-by-Side, Young Artist Auditions
PLUS: Peter and the Wolf, A Night of Dance, Denzal Sinclair, Fabien Gabel
Rochester, NY – Education has a front-row seat next month to the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO), with four Intermediate Education Concerts in Kodak Hall for almost 7,500 area fourth-to-sixth graders, the Rochester Philharmonic Youth Orchestra (RPYO)’s annual Side-by-Side with the RPO concert, the Rochester Philharmonic League’s 60th annual Young Artist Auditions, and a Peter and the Wolf OrKIDStra concert.
The RPO’s Education Concerts in Kodak Hall are free for Rochester City School District students, with a nominal charge for suburban and regional districts. Last month, more than 4,000 first-through-third graders attended the 2014/15 Primary Education Concerts entitled Rumpelstiltzkin: Straw into Gold, written and conducted by Grant Cooper. The RPO’s Intermediate Education Concerts—America’s Musical Voice—will run Tuesday, March 24 – Friday, March 27 at 10:15 a.m. each day, and feature guest conductor Marlene Pauley. The hour-long program includes Copland’s Hoedown and Variations on a Shaker Melody, Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and Bernstein’s “Mambo” from West Side Story.
“The idea of this age-appropriate concert is to connect orchestral music to the students’ curriculum—in this case, American history,” explains RPO Education Director Barbara Brown. “This may also be a child’s first opportunity to hear a live symphony orchestra, and to experience that in Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre makes the event that much more memorable.”
The Rochester Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, now in its 45th year, is comprised of more than a hundred of the most accomplished middle- and high-school musicians from over thirty schools in the greater Rochester area. Indeed, the RPO’s current Music Director Ward Stare is an RPYO alumnus. This year’s annual side-by-side concert with the group’s mentors—RPO musicians—takes place Sunday, March 8 at 3 p.m. in Kodak Hall. Guest conductor Ching-Chun Lai, Director of Orchestras at the Crane School of Music, will lead Great Romantics: RPYO Side-by-Side with the RPO, which features Howard Hanson’s Merry Mount Suite, Liszt’s Les Préludes, and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 (Finale). Two RPYO Concerto Competition winners will also perform solos: violinist Paige Griffin and cellist Timothy Yee. Tickets are $15/$10 for seniors & students.
For 60 years, the Rochester Philharmonic League (RPL)—which supports the education and outreach programs of the RPO—has sponsored the annual Young Artist Auditions. This event grants talented high school musicians the chance to perform for professional judges and to win a variety of awards and scholarships totaling $4,500, as well as the chance to audition to perform with the RPO. This year’s Young Artist Auditions will take place on Sunday, March 15 at the Eastman School of Music.
The third of four family-friendly OrKIDStra concerts this season takes place Sunday, March 29 at 2 p.m. in the Performance Hall at Hochstein. Prokofiev’s enchanting symphonic fable, Peter and the Wolf, weaves music and narration together for a woodland adventure that entertains young and old alike. Marlene Pauley is guest conductor, and WROC TV 8 Anchor/Managing Editor Kevin Doran will narrate. Tickets are $15/$10 for children, and include children’s hands-on activities beginning at 1 p.m.
March comes in like a lion with Copland & Dvořák on Thursday, March 5 at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, March 7 at 8 p.m. in Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre. Guest conductor Daniel Hege leads a program featuring the always-brilliant violinist Augustin Hadelich, who brings his phenomenal interpretive artistry and "drop dead technique" (Cincinnati Enquirer) to Dvořák’s Violin Concerto in A Minor. Smetana’s Three Dances from The Bartered Bride completes the program’s first half, while the all-American second half includes Symphony No. 4 by Rochester legend David Diamond in commemoration of the centennial of his birth (July 1915). Aaron Copland’s Billy the Kid Suite—his musical monument to the notorious outlaw-turned-folk-hero that evokes the swagger, rugged beauty and ruthless ferocity of the Wild West—completes the program.
The following week brings A Night of Dance to Kodak Hall on Thursday, March 12 at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, March 14 at 8 p.m. With guest conductor Daniel Meyer, the RPO welcomes back Rochester City Ballet (Jamey Leverett, artistic director) and gives Rochester’s FuturPointe Dance (N’Jelle Gage and Guy Thorne, directors) its RPO debut. Rochester City Ballet will bring Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings to life with George Balanchine’s beautiful choreography, while FuturPointe’s excellent dancers and choreography will retell an African creation myth to Milhaud’s La création du monde. This concert also spotlights pianist Andrew Russo on Daugherty’s Tombeau de Liberace, a glittering ode to the famed pianist.
Principal Pops Conductor Jeff Tyzik returns for Denzal Sinclaire Sings the Nat King Cole Songbook, Friday and Saturday, March 20 & 21 at 8 p.m. in Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre. The Canadian jazz singer reminds us with why Nat King Cole was an American music legend with Tyzik’s arrangements of “Nature Boy,” “L-O-V-E,” “Mona Lisa,” and many more, along with Rochester pianist John Nyerges, bassist Jeff Campbell and drummer Rich Thompson.
Following his triumphant RPO debut in 2014, Parisian conductor Fabien Gabel returns to interpret two shades of Molière, along with music by Respighi and Rameau, in Molière Two Ways on Sunday, March 22 at 2 p.m. in the Performance Hall at Hochstein. A sharp satire that leaves no social class unscathed, Molière’s Le bourgeois gentilhomme (The Middle Class Aristocrat) fused theater with music and dance. The orchestra travels back to the era of the Sun King to hear Lully’s original score for the play, exactly as it would have been performed in the 17th century. Then, they’ll fast forward 200 years for a version by German master Richard Strauss. Tickets are $25/$10 for students.
Except where noted, tickets for all of the above concerts start at $23/$10 for students, and may be purchased in person at the Eastman Theatre Box Office (433 East Main Street) and at all Wegmans That’s T.H.E. Ticket! locations, by phone at (585) 454-2100, or online at rpo.org.
The Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra has been committed to enriching and inspiring our community through the art of music since its founding in 1922. The RPO presents approximately 150 concerts and broadcasts a year, serving up to 200,000 people through ticketed events, education and community engagement activities, and concerts in schools and community centers throughout the region. Recently appointed 12th Music Director Ward Stare joins the ranks of former notable RPO music directors, including Eugene Goossens, José Iturbi, Erich Leinsdorf, David Zinman and Conductor Laureate Christopher Seaman. Principal Pops Conductor Jeff Tyzik has earned a national reputation for excellence in pops programming during his 20-year tenure with the RPO. With Michael Butterman as Principal Conductor for Education and Community Engagement (The Louise and Henry Epstein Family Chair)—the first position of its kind in the country—the RPO reaches more than 13,000 children through its specific programs for school-aged children.
Media please note: High-resolution images for Philharmonics concerts may be downloaded at: https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B8FkJzlaIpThcVY4TS1ScWhlcDQ&usp=sharing; Pops at: https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B8FkJzlaIpThNUxERDVDUkdmM0k&usp=sharing. Interviews and photo and footage opportunities can also be arranged.
