The Orchestra Now

Charles Ives’ America

November 16–17

Add to Calendar2024-11-16 7:00 pm2024-11-16 9:30 pmESTCharles Ives’ AmericaFisher Center, Sosnoff Theater,
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Leon Botstein conductor
William Sharp baritone
Donald Berman piano
Peter Burkholder host

All-Ives Program
The Fourth of July from the Holidays Symphony
Central Park in the Dark
Orchestral Set No. 2
Symphony No. 2

Plus performances of songs quoted in Ives’ music.

Leon Botstein and TŌN celebrate the sesquicentennial of one of the most quintessential American composers, Charles Ives. With baritone William Sharp and preeminent Ives scholar J. Peter Burkholder, this program explores the way the composer created unique works from familiar tunes. Before each piece, Sharp and the orchestra will highlight these classic songs, including  “Bringing in the Sheaves” and “Camptown Races”.

Hear this program at the Fisher Center just days before TŌN performs it at Carnegie Hall.

Post-Concert Talk

Each performance is followed by a talk with Botstein, Sharp, Burkholder, Berman, and cultural historian Joseph Horowitz, free for all ticket holders.

Additional Events

Ives and the Piano
Saturday, November 9 at 6 pm
Olin Hall
with Donald Berman, Leon Botstein, Kyle Gann, and Joseph Horowitz
LEARN MORE

Charles Ives: A Life in Music
Saturday, November 16 at 5 pm
Sunday, November 17 at 12 pm
Olin Hall
with William Sharp, Richard Aldous, J. Peter Burkholder, Kyle Gann, and Joseph Horowitz
LEARN MORE

Funding

The November Ives events at Bard College and Carnegie Hall constitute one of four Ives sesquicentenary celebrations supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Music Unwound is a consortium of orchestras and educational institutions directed by Joseph Horowitz.

Leon Botstein

Leon Botstein is founder and music director of The Orchestra Now (TŌN), music director and principal conductor of the American Symphony Orchestra (ASO), artistic codirector of Bard SummerScape and the Bard Music Festival, and conductor laureate and principal guest conductor of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra (JSO), where he served as music director from 2003 to 2011. He has been guest conductor with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Aspen Music Festival, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Mariinsky Theatre, Russian National Orchestra in Moscow, Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden, Taipei Symphony, Simón Bolivar Symphony Orchestra, and Sinfónica Juvenil de Caracas in Venezuela, among others. In 2018, he assumed artistic directorship of Campus Grafenegg and Grafenegg Academy in Austria.

Recordings include acclaimed recordings of Othmar Schoeck’s Lebendig begraben with TŌN, Hindemith’s The Long Christmas Dinner with the ASO, a Grammy-nominated recording of Popov’s First Symphony with the London Symphony Orchestra, and other various recordings with TŌN, ASO, the London Philharmonic, NDR Orchestra Hamburg, and JSO, among others. He is editor of The Musical Quarterly and author of numerous articles and books, including The Compleat Brahms (Norton), Jefferson’s Children (Doubleday), Judentum und Modernität (Bölau), and Von Beethoven zu Berg (Zsolnay). Honors include Harvard University’s prestigious Centennial Award; the American Academy of Arts and Letters award; and Cross of Honor, First Class, from the government of Austria, for his contributions to music. Other distinctions include the Bruckner Society’s Julio Kilenyi Medal of Honor for his interpretations of that composer’s music, the Leonard Bernstein Award for the Elevation of Music in Society, and Carnegie Foundation’s Academic Leadership Award. In 2011, he was inducted into the American Philosophical Society.

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