Outstanding Young Musicians and World-Renowned Conductors Present an Overarching Vision of What Music Can be at the National Orchestral Institute and Festival, June 6 - 29

Monday, May 13, 2013

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Sarah Snyder
ssnyder3@umd.edu
301.405.8151

May 8, 2013 – College Park, MD - The UMD School of Music’s National Orchestral Institute and Festival (NOI) welcomes nearly 100 talented orchestral musicians for four-weeks of dynamic music-making, June 6 – 29, at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center. NOI features outstanding young musicians and world-renowned conductors in chamber and orchestral concerts that celebrate musical traditions while also exploring new ways of engaging audiences.  Selected by a rigorous, cross-country audition process, NOI participants quickly coalesce into energetic ensembles that perform adventuresome programming. Performances take place every Saturday evening June 8 – 29; additional free events are open to the public.

Now in its 26th year, NOI has nurtured an entire generation of American orchestral musicians. James Undercofler, NOI’s artistic director, notes, “The musicians you hear at the National Orchestral Institute will surely be tomorrow’s first-rank players in orchestras throughout the world.” Alumni of NOI have gone on to win positions with virtually every major U.S. symphony orchestra including the Boston, Cleveland, Detroit, National, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Seattle Symphony Orchestras; the Los Angeles and New York Philharmonics; and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.

Programs

The 2013 National Orchestral Institute and Festival features a full schedule of concerts, showcases, open rehearsals and other events – free and ticketed – beginning on Thursday, June 6 at 8pm with a free Faculty Artist Chamber Concert featuring repertoire performed by the chamber music faculty of the National Orchestral Institute. NOI will culminate on Saturday, June 29 with the National Festival Orchestra in performance of John Adams’ Harmonielehre, conducted by Alan Pierson.  A complete schedule of events is below.

A Gathering of Young Virtuosos

Each year, NOI conducts a rigorous audition process at 18 sites around the country to select nearly 100 orchestral virtuosos who plan orchestral careers. They participate in a four-week intensive program to hone their skills as musicians in chamber music, unconducted chamber orchestra, and orchestral performance and career management, studying under the tutelage of distinguished musicians who help them polish their ensemble skills.  Each week culminates with a public performance in the Clarice Smith Center.

Guest Conductors

Rossen Milanov

Rossen Milanov is the newly appointed Principal Conductor of Orquesta Sinfonica del Principado de Asturias in Spain. He also serves as the Music Director of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra as well as the nationally recognized training orchestra, Symphony in C. Respected and admired by audiences and musicians alike, Maestro Milanov has established himself as a conductor with a considerable international presence. His performances are characterized by sharp musical intellect, artistic ingenuity, freedom and coherence. Recent highlights include debuts at the Musikverein in Vienna, the Grand Park Music Festival in Chicago, the Zurich Opera and a world premiere of Sergey Prokofiev’s Incidental Music, as well as Pushkin’s Evgeny Onegin with the Princeton Symphony Orchestra.

Asher Fisch

Israeli-born conductor Asher Fisch appears with many of the world’s most renowned opera companies and symphony orchestras. With a vast repertoire that spans three centuries stylistically from Gluck to Adams, Mr. Fisch is particularly known and appreciated for his interpretive command of core German Romantic and post-Romantic repertoire, from Beethoven through Berg, including virtually the entire canon of Wagner and Strauss.  Asher Fisch is currently the Principal Guest Conductor of the Seattle Opera and formerly served as Music Director of the New Israeli Opera (1998-2008) and the Wiener Volksoper (1995-2000). In September 2013, Mr. Fisch will take up the baton as Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the West Australian Symphony Orchestra.

Alan Pierson

Alan Pierson has been praised as "a dynamic conductor and musical visionary" by the New York Times, "a young conductor of monstrous skill" by Newsday, and "gifted and electrifying" by the Boston Globe.  He is the Artistic Director and conductor of the acclaimed ensemble Alarm Will Sound and recently finished his first season as the Artistic Director and conductor of the newly renovated Brooklyn Philharmonic. The New Yorker's Alex Ross wrote that "the Brooklyn Philharmonic's first season under Alan Pierson is remarkably innovative, perhaps even revolutionary," and the New York Times called the season "truly inspiring," and said that under Pierson's leadership, “the Brooklyn Philharmonic has the potential to be not just a good orchestra but also an important one."

2013 National Orchestra Institute and Festival Events

All events take place at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center.

National Orchestral Institute: Faculty Artist Chamber Concert
Thursday, June 6, 2013 . 8PM

Venue

Dekelboum Concert Hall

Tickets

Free, no tickets required

Description & Program:

Indulge in some of the finest chamber music repertoire performed by the chamber music faculty of the National Orchestral Institute:

  • Telemann:  Concerto in D for trumpet, oboe, violin, strings and continuo
  • Gibson: November Field for double bass and oboe
  • Paganini: Duo for violin and bassoon
  • Bridge: String Sextet

National Orchestral Institute: Chamber Music Showcase 1
Friday, June 7, 2013 . 7PM

Venue

Gildenhorn Recital Hall

Tickets

Free, no tickets required

Description

After less than two weeks of rehearsals and coachings, NOI participants masterfully perform a variety of chamber music repertoire for strings, winds and percussion.

National Festival Chamber Orchestra
Saturday, June 8, 2013. 8PM

Venue

Dekelboum Concert Hall

Tickets

  • Regular: $25
  • Subscriber: $20
  • UMD Faculty & Staff: $20
  • Senior Citizen: $20
  • UMD Alumni Association: $20
  • Students/Youth: $10

Description

In this concert, the musicians lead each other, performing challenging chamber orchestra repertoire without a conductor.

Program

  • Ginastera: Variaciones concertantes
  • Wagner: Siegfried Idyll
  • Stravinsky: Suite from Pulcinella

National Orchestral Institute: Chamber Music Showcase 2
Friday, June 13, 2013 . 7PM

Venue

Gildenhorn Recital Hall

Tickets

Free, no tickets required

Description

NOI participants masterfully perform a variety of chamber music repertoire for strings, winds and percussion.

National Festival Orchestra: Milanov Conducts Strauss
Saturday, June 15, 2013 . 8PM

Venue

Dekelboum Concert Hall

Tickets

  • Regular: $25
  • Subscriber: $20
  • UMD Faculty & Staff: $20
  • Senior Citizen: $20
  • UMD Alumni Association: $20
  • Students/Youth: $10

Description

This program features the winner of the National Orchestral Institute’s first-ever concerto competition performing the first movement of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto.

Program

  • Strauss: Don Juan, Op. 20
  • Tchaikovsky: Allegro moderato from Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35*
  • Strauss: Ein Heldenleben, Op. 40 ("A Hero's Life")

* The soloist for the Tchaikovsky concerto will be selected from among the NOI participants.

National Festival Orchestra: Fisch Conducts Mozart and Mahler
Saturday, June 22, 2013 . 8PM

Venue

Dekelboum Concert Hall

Tickets

  • Regular: $25
  • Subscriber: $20
  • UMD Faculty & Staff: $20
  • Senior Citizen: $20
  • UMD Alumni Association: $20
  • Students/Youth: $10

Description

Asher Fisch leads the National Festival Orchestra as both conductor and soloist in Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 17 in G Major, K. 453. He conducts Mahler’s Symphony No. 6 in A Minor (“Tragic”) on the second half of the program.

Program

  • Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 17 in G Major K.453
  • Mahler: Symphony No. 6 in A Minor (“Tragic”)

National Festival Chamber Orchestra: Peter and the Wolf
June 23, 2013 . 3PM and 5PM

Venue

Grand Pavilion

Tickets

Free, No tickets required

Description

In this family-friendly performance, members of the National Orchestral Institute play Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf and give their own imaginative musical interpretations of beloved children’s books.

National Festival Orchestra: Pierson Conducts Adams
Saturday, June 29, 2013 . 8PM

Venue

Dekelboum Concert Hall

Tickets

  • Regular: $25
  • Subscriber: $20
  • UMD Faculty & Staff: $20
  • Senior Citizen: $20
  • UMD Alumni Association: $20
  • Students/Youth: $10

Description

Known for his dynamic interpretations of modern music, Alan Pierson leads the National Festival Orchestra in John Adams’s groundbreaking work, Harmonielehere.

Program

  • Ravel: Daphnis et Chloe, Suite No. 2
  • Schoenberg: Chamber Symphony No. 1, Op. 9b (version for full orchestra)
  • Adams: Harmonielehre

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The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at the University of Maryland is a collaborative space shared by the School of Music (SOM), the School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies (TDPS) and the Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library. The Clarice Smith Center presents performances and programs by visiting artists as well as by students and faculty of SOM and TDPS in an environment of creative learning, exploration and growth. A national model for a performing arts center on a major research university campus, the Center enables innovative partnerships and extraordinary experiences.

The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center is supported by a grant from the Maryland State Arts Council, an agency dedicated to cultivating a vibrant cultural community where the arts thrive. An agency of the Department of Business & Economic Development, the MSAC provides financial support and technical assistance to nonprofit organizations, units of government, colleges and universities for arts activities. Funding for the Maryland State Arts Council is also provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.