May 23–June 11, 2016

JUNE 10, 2016, AT DAVID GEFFEN HALL:

ALAN GILBERT To Conduct the NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC

World Premiere of William BOLCOM’s Trombone Concerto with Principal Trombone JOSEPH ALESSI

New York Premiere of John CORIGLIANO’s Conjurer, with Percussionist MARTIN GRUBINGER

As part of the NY PHIL BIENNIAL, Alan Gilbert will lead the New York Philharmonic

at David Geffen Hall in works by two American composers of the same generation: the

World Premiere–Philharmonic Co-Commission of a Trombone Concerto by William

Bolcom (United States, b. 1938), with Philharmonic Principal Trombone Joseph Alessi

as soloist, and the New York Premiere of Conjurer by John Corigliano (United States,

b. 1938), with percussionist Martin Grubinger as soloist in his Philharmonic debut.

William Bolcom said of the commission for his Trombone Concerto: “Joseph Alessi’s

recordings have shown a consummate musician with perfect intonation, wide stylistic

sense, lyrical phrasing, and dazzling technique. I hope and intend that Joe’s warmth and

geniality will find their way into this concerto, along with his interpretative breadth.” The

work is a Philharmonic co-commission with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, made

possible with generous support from Edward Stanford and Barbara Scheulen. The

Philharmonic has performed six works by William Bolcom since 1973, including the

World Premiere of his Clarinet Concerto, commissioned by the Philharmonic (1992, with

former Principal Clarinet Stanley Drucker and led by Leonard Slatkin) as part of its 150th

anniversary celebration. Joseph Alessi premiered 2012–15 Marie-Josée Kravis

Composer-in-Residence Christopher Rouse’s Pulitzer Prize–winning Trombone

Concerto, also commissioned for the Orchestra’s 150th anniversary project (1992, led by

Leonard Slatkin), and Melinda Wagner’s Trombone Concerto (2007, led by Lorin

Maazel).

John Corigliano’s Conjurer: Concerto for Percussionist and String Orchestra and Brass

(2007) uses a marimba, a “keyboard” of un-pitched wooden instruments, tam-tams,

New York Philharmonic Contact: Katherine E. Johnson

(212) 875-5718; johnsonk@nyphil.org

suspended cymbals, vibraphone, and a “talking drum” accompanied by a kick drum.

Corigliano writes: “The effect in performance is that the soloist doesn’t so much as

introduce material as conjure it, as if by magic, from the three disparate choirs: materials

which the orchestra then shares and develops; hence, the title Conjurer.” The

Philharmonic has performed 14 works by John Corigliano (the son of longtime

Philharmonic Concertmaster John Corigliano, Sr.), including four World Premiere–New

York Philharmonic Commissions: Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra (1977, with

Stanley Drucker and led by Leonard Bernstein), Fantasia on an Ostinato (1986, led by

Zubin Mehta), Vocalise (1999, with Sylvia McNair and led by Kurt Masur), and One

Sweet Morning (2011, with Stephanie Blythe and led by Alan Gilbert).

This concert is presented by the New York Philharmonic.

Related Events

Radio Broadcast Highlights from this performance will be broadcast on WFMT’s nationally syndicated

new-music program Relevant Tones with Seth Boustead, available at

www.relevantones.com, in the summer of 2016. The broadcast date will be

announced at a later time.

Play Date

All audience members attending the NY PHIL BIENNIAL concert on June 10 are

invited to the NY PHIL BIENNIAL Play Date, a post-concert meet-up with

composers and performers over cocktails at Bar Biennial in the lobby of David

Geffen Hall (at the site of David Geffen Hall Café).

#biennialist

The New York Philharmonic invites audience members to be a #biennialist. The five

attendees who attend the most NY PHIL BIENNIAL events and post about it on social

media will win a free pair of tickets to the final concert, featuring the New York

Philharmonic conducted by Music Director Alan Gilbert, June 11 at 7:00 p.m at David

Geffen Hall. Additional prizes and offerings for #biennialists will be offered; follow the

New York Philharmonic on its social media channels (instagram.com/nyphilharmonic

and twitter.com/nyphil) for more information.

About the NY PHIL BIENNIAL

A flagship project of the New York Philharmonic, the NY PHIL BIENNIAL is a wide-

ranging exploration of today’s music that brings together an international roster of

composers, performers, and curatorial voices for concerts presented both on the Lincoln

Center campus and with partners in venues throughout the city. The second NY PHIL

BIENNIAL, taking place May 23–June 11, 2016, will feature diverse programs —

ranging from solo works to a chamber opera to large scale symphonies — by more than

100 composers, more than half of whom are American; present some of the country’s top

music schools and youth choruses; and expand to more New York City neighborhoods. A

range of events and activities will engender an ongoing dialogue among artists,

composers, and audience members. Partners in the 2016 NY PHIL BIENNIAL include

National Sawdust; 92nd Street Y; Aspen Music Festival and School; Interlochen Center

for the Arts; League of Composers/ISCM; Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts;

LUCERNE FESTIVAL; MetLiveArts; New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival;

Whitney Museum of American Art; WQXR’s Q2 Music; and Yale School of Music. For

complete information about the 2016 NY PHIL BIENNIAL, see press release.

Artist

Music Director Alan Gilbert began his New York Philharmonic tenure in 2009, the first

native New Yorker in the post. He and the Philharmonic have introduced the positions of

The Marie-Josée Kravis Composer-in-Residence, The Mary and James G. Wallach

Artist-in-Residence, and Artist-in-Association; CONTACT!, the new-music series; the

NY PHIL BIENNIAL, an exploration of today’s music; and the New York Philharmonic

Global Academy, partnerships with cultural institutions to offer training of pre-

professional musicians, often alongside performance residencies. As The New Yorker

wrote, “Gilbert has made an indelible mark on the orchestra’s history and that of the city

itself.”

Alan Gilbert’s 2015–16 Philharmonic highlights include R. Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben to

welcome Concertmaster Frank Huang; Carnegie Hall’s Opening Night Gala; and four

World Premieres. He co-curates and conducts in the second NY PHIL BIENNIAL and

performs violin in Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time. He leads the Orchestra as part

of the Shanghai Orchestra Academy and Residency Partnership and appears at Santa

Barbara’s Music Academy of the West. Philharmonic-tenure highlights include

acclaimed stagings of Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre, Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen,

Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd starring Bryn Terfel and Emma Thompson (for

which Mr. Gilbert was nominated for a 2015 Emmy Award for Outstanding Music

Direction), and Honegger’s Joan of Arc at the Stake starring Marion Cotillard; 24 World

Premieres; The Nielsen Project, a performance and recording cycle; Verdi Requiem and

Bach’s B-minor Mass; the score from 2001: A Space Odyssey alongside the film;

Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony on the tenth anniversary of 9/11; and nine tours around

the world. In August 2015 he led the Mahler Chamber Orchestra in the U.S. Stage

Premiere of George Benjamin’s Written on Skin, co-presented as part of the Lincoln

Center–New York Philharmonic Opera Initiative.

Conductor laureate of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and former principal

guest conductor of Hamburg’s NDR Symphony Orchestra, Alan Gilbert regularly

conducts leading orchestras around the world. This season Mr. Gilbert makes debuts with

four great European orchestras — Filarmonica della Scala, Dresden Staatskapelle,

London Symphony, and Academy of St Martin in the Fields — and returns to The

Cleveland Orchestra and Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra. He made his

acclaimed Metropolitan Opera debut conducting John Adams’s Doctor Atomic in 2008,

the DVD of which received a Grammy Award. Renée Fleming’s recent Decca recording

Poèmes, on which he conducted, received a 2013 Grammy Award. His recordings have

received top honors from the Chicago Tribune and Gramophone magazine. Mr. Gilbert is

Director of Conducting and Orchestral Studies at The Juilliard School, where he holds the

William Schuman Chair in Musical Studies. His honors include an Honorary Doctor of

Music degree from The Curtis Institute of Music (2010), Columbia University’s Ditson

Conductor’s Award for his “exceptional commitment to the performance of works by

American composers and to contemporary music” (2011), election to The American

Academy of Arts & Sciences (2014), a Foreign Policy Association Medal for his

commitment to cultural diplomacy (2015), and being named Officier de l’Ordre des Arts

et des Lettres.

Joseph Alessi was appointed the New York Philharmonic’s Principal Trombone, the

Gurnee F. and Marjorie L. Hart Chair, in the spring of 1985. He began musical studies

with his father, Joseph Alessi, Sr., as a high school student in California, and was a

soloist with the San Francisco Symphony before continuing his musical training at The

Curtis Institute of Music. Prior to joining the Philharmonic, Mr. Alessi was second

trombone of The Philadelphia Orchestra for four seasons, and principal trombone of the

Montreal Symphony Orchestra for one season. He has performed as guest principal

trombonist with the London Symphony Orchestra in Carnegie Hall, led by Pierre Boulez.

Mr. Alessi is an active soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician. In April 1990 he made

his New York Philharmonic solo debut, performing Creston’s Fantasy for Trombone, and

in 1992 premiered Christopher Rouse’s Pulitzer Prize–winning Trombone Concerto with

the Philharmonic, which commissioned the work for its 150th anniversary celebration.

He has been a guest soloist with the National Repertory Orchestra, Colorado Symphony

Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic, Mannheim National Theater Orchestra, National

Symphony of Taiwan, and the Hague Philharmonic, among others. He is a founding

member of the Summit Brass ensemble at the Rafael Mendez Brass Institute in Tempe,

Arizona. In 2002 Mr. Alessi was awarded an International Trombone Association Award

for his contributions to the world of trombone music and trombone playing. Mr. Alessi is

currently on the faculty of The Juilliard School; his students occupy posts with major

symphony orchestras in the U.S. and internationally. He has performed as soloist with

several leading concert bands, including the U.S. Military Academy Band at West Point,

U.S. Army Band (“Pershing’s Own”), and the U.S. Marine Band (“The President’s

Own”). Mr. Alessi’s discography includes many releases on the Summit record label,

including Trombonastics Fandango (with New York Philharmonic Principal Trumpet

Philip Smith) and conductor/composer Bramwell Tovey’s Urban Cabaret. Joseph

Alessi’s recording of George Crumb’s Starchild on the Bridge record label won a

Grammy Award for 1999–2000. Joseph Alessi made his New York Philharmonic solo

debut in April 1990, performing Creston’s Fantasy for Trombone; he most recently

appeared as soloist in Bramwell Tovey’s The Lincoln Tunnel Cabaret for Trombone and

Orchestra, written for Mr. Alessi, at Summertime Classics and at Bravo! Vail in July

2013, both performances conducted by the composer.

Austrian multi-percussionist Martin Grubinger makes his solo percussion performances

“must-see” events. A regular guest with many of the leading orchestras and at the world’s

top venues, he possesses an unusually broad repertoire including solo works, chamber music

with partners including his own Percussive Planet Ensemble, and percussion concertos. In

the 2015–16 season Mr. Grubinger makes his debut with New York Philharmonic and

returns to Zurich’s Tonhalle Orchestra, Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, Leipzig

Gewandhaus Orchestra, National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing, and National

Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C. He will be artist-in-residence at the Frankfurt

Radio Symphony. He tours a recital program with baritone Thomas Hampson to Munich’s

Gasteig, Vienna’s Konzerthaus, and Milan’s Teatro alla Scala. He appears in leading halls

across Europe on a tour with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra conducted by Manfred

Honeck. Mr. Grubinger was the Leipzig Gewandhaus’s artist-in-residence in 2008–09 and

has followed this with residences with Camerata Salzburg and at the Philharmonie Köln,

Philharmonie München, Vienna’s Konzerthaus, and Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival. He

has appeared with orchestras including NHK Symphony, Oslo Philharmonic, National

Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan, Hamburg’s NDR Symphony Orchestra, Bamberg

Symphony, and the Munich, Hamburg, Dresden Vienna, and BBC philharmonic orchestras.

He regularly appears as a guest with leading orchestras in the United States, among them

Los Angeles Philharmonic. The growing number of works written for Mr. Grubinger include

Avner Dorman’s Frozen in Time (2007) and Friedrich Cerha’s Concerto (2008), performed

and recorded with the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Peter Eötvös on Kairos, as well as

Tan Dun’s concerto, Tears of Nature (2012). In the spring of 2014 he gave the German

premiere of Eötvös’s Speaking Drums with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra conducted by the

composer. His versatility is also reflected in his own percussion projects, The Percussive

Planet and the recently premiered Caribbean Showdown.

* * *

Major support for the NY PHIL BIENNIAL is provided by The Andrew W. Mellon

Foundation, The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, and The Francis

Goelet Fund.

* * *

Additional funding is provided by the Howard Gilman Foundation and Honey M.

Kurtz.

* * *

William Bolcom’s commission is made possible with generous support from Edward

Stanford & Barbara Scheulen.

Tickets

Tickets for this performance start at $25. Tickets may be purchased online at nyphil.org

or by calling (212) 875-5656, 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Monday through Friday; 1:00 p.m.

to 6:00 p.m. Saturday; and noon to 5:00 p.m. Sunday. To determine ticket availability,

call the Philharmonic’s Customer Relations Department at (212) 875-5656. Ticket prices

subject to change.

For press tickets, call Lanore Carr at the New York Philharmonic at (212) 875-5714, or e-

mail her at carrl@nyphil.org.

For more information about all NY PHIL BIENNIAL events, visit nyphil.org/biennial.

Photography is available for the NY PHIL BIENNIAL at nyphil.org/newsroom/1516/biennial

or by contacting the Communications Department at (212) 875-5700; pr@nyphil.org.

ALAN GILBERT CONDUCTS WORLD PREMIERE OF WILLIAM BOLCOM’S

TROMBONE CONCERTO WITH PRINCIPAL TROMBONE JOSEPH ALESSI

Presented by the New York Philharmonic

David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center

Friday, June 10, 2016, 7:00 p.m.

Play Date with composers and performers after the concert at Bar Biennial in the David

Geffen Hall lobby

Alan Gilbert, conductor

Joseph Alessi, trombone

Martin Grubinger*, percussion

New York Philharmonic

William BOLCOM Trombone Concerto (World Premiere–New York

Philharmonic Co-Commission with

the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra)

John CORIGLIANO Conjurer: Concerto for Percussionist and String

Orchestra and Brass (New York Premiere)

* denotes New York Philharmonic debut

# # #

ALL PROGRAMS SUBJECT TO CHANGE