Maestro Zubin Mehta to Lead Israel Philharmonic Orchestra at Carnegie Hall for Final Tour Concerts
Zubin Mehta returns to Carnegie Hall with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (IPO) this fall, following a recent announcement that he will be retiring from his post as Music Director of the IPO in 2019 after 50 years in the position. Three back-to-back concerts in Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage celebrate his legacy and his extraordinary achievements as the Orchestra’s Music Director for Life.
On Tuesday, November 7 at 8:00 p.m. guest soloist Yefim Bronfman joins the IPO for Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Minor, Op. 37, recognizing his more than 30-year relationship with the orchestra. Maestro Mehta also leads the Orchestra in the New York premiere of Amit Poznansky’sFootnote Suite, as well as Richard Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben.
The following program, on Wednesday, November 8 at 8:00 p.m., features a performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 with Japanese mezzo-soprano Mihoko Fujimura along withMasterVoices, directed by Ted Sperling. The Manhattan Girls Chorus (directed by Michelle Oesterle) – which made its Carnegie Hall debut with Mr. Mehta and the IPO in 2012 – will also join the program. A pre-concert talk will be held in Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage at 7:00 p.m. with Ara Guzelimian, Provost and Dean of The Juilliard School. Carnegie Hall members are also invited to attend an open working rehearsal prior to this performance on Wednesday, November 8 at 10:00 a.m.
As part of the seventh annual Carnegie Hall Live broadcast and digital series, the November 8performance will be broadcast live on WQXR 105.9 FM in New York and streamed online at wqxr.org and carnegiehall.org/wqxr. Produced by WQXR and Carnegie Hall, and hosted by WQXR’s Jeff Spurgeon, select Carnegie Hall Live broadcasts throughout the season feature live web chats, including Twitter commentary from the broadcast team backstage and in the control room, connecting national and international fans to the music and to each other.
Violinist Gil Shaham joins Mr. Mehta and the IPO for the final Carnegie Hall performance on Thursday, November 9 at 8:00 p.m., performing Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 35. The concert also includes Weber’s Overture to Oberon and Schubert’s Symphony No. 9 in C Major, D. 944, “Great.”
These three performances conclude a seven-city North American tour with Mr. Mehta and the IPO, which kicks off with a benefit gala at Carnegie Hall on Wednesday, October 25 at 7:00 p.m., hosted by the American Friends of the Israel Philharmonic. The October 25 gala, which will be streamed live on medici.tv, features an all-Mozart program including his Overture to The Marriage of Figaro, Symphony No. 36 in C Major, K. 425, “Linz,” and Sinfonia concertante in E-flat Major, K. 364, featuring violinist Itzhak Perlman and violist Pinchas Zukerman as guest soloists. The orchestra then travels to Toronto, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, West Palm Beach, and Miami before returning to New York for its three November performances at Carnegie Hall.
About The Artists
Zubin Mehta was born in 1936 in Bombay and received his first musical education under his father, Mehli Mehta, who was a noted concert violinist and the founder of the Bombay Symphony Orchestra. After a short period of pre-medical studies in Bombay, he left for Vienna in 1954 where he eventually entered the conducting program under Hans Swarowsky at the Akademie für Musik. Zubin Mehta won the Liverpool International Conducting Competition in 1958 and was also a prize winner of the summer academy at Tanglewood. By 1961, he had already conducted the Vienna, Berlin, and Israel Philharmonic Orchestras and he has recently celebrated 50 years of musical collaboration with all three ensembles.
In 1969, he was appointed Music Advisor to the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and was made Music Director of that Orchestra in 1977. In 1981, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra awarded him the title of Music Director for Life. Zubin Mehta has conducted over 3,000 concerts with this extraordinary ensemble, including tours spanning five continents. Zubin Mehta will end his tenure with the IPO 50 years after his debut, in October 2019.
In 1978, the maestro took over the post as Music Director of the New York Philharmonic, commencing a tenure that lasted 13 years, the longest in the orchestra’s history. Since 1985, he has been Chief Conductor of the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence.
Internationally recognized as one of today’s most acclaimed and admired pianists, Yefim Bronfmanstands among a handful of artists regularly sought by festivals, orchestras, conductors, and recital series. His commanding technique, power, and exceptional lyrical gifts are consistently acknowledged by the press and audiences alike.
In recognition of a relationship of more than 30 years, Mr. Bronfman will join the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Zubin Mehta, for concerts during the Orchestra’s US tour in the fall, followed by concerts in Munich, London, and Vienna with the Bayerischer Rundfunk Orchestra and Mariss Jansons, another frequent partner and collaborator. In addition to returning to the orchestras of New York, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Washington, Indianapolis, and Toronto, he will tour with the Vienna Philharmonic and Andrés Orozco-Estrada in a special program celebrating his 60th birthday in the spring.
Mihoko Fujimura was born in Japan and studied at both Tokyo University and the Münchner Hochschule für Musik. She won numerous international singing competitions before joining the ensemble of the Oper Graz from 1995 to 2000, where she sang many of her signature roles for the first time. She came to international attention in her performances at the 2002 Bayerische Staatsoper festival and the Bayreuther Festspiele and has since become a regular guest at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Teatro alla Scala, Bayerische Staatsoper, Wiener Staatsoper, Théâtre du Châtelet, Teatro Real, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Bayreuther Festspiele, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and the Aix-en-Provence Festival. In concert she appears with the world’s leading orchestras and is a regular guest artist in Japan. She has appeared at the Bayreuth Festival for nine consecutive seasons, singing Kundry, Brangäne, Fricka, Waltraute and Erda. In 2014, she was awarded the Purple Ribbon Medal of Honour by the Japanese Government for her contribution to academic and artistic developments, improvements, and accomplishments.
Undeniably the reigning virtuoso of the violin, Itzhak Perlman enjoys superstar status rarely afforded a classical musician. Beloved for his charm and humanity as well as his talent, he is treasured by audiences throughout the world who respond not only to his remarkable artistry, but also to his irrepressible joy for making music.
Having performed with every major orchestra and at venerable concert halls around the globe, Itzhak Perlman was awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Nation’s highest civilian honor, in November 2015 by President Obama for his meritorious contributions to cultural endeavors of the United States and for being a powerful advocate for people of disabilities. In June 2016, he received the 2016 Genesis Prize in recognition for his exceptional contributions as a musician, teacher, advocate for individuals with special needs and dedication to Jewish values. In 2003, he was granted a Kennedy Center Honor by The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in celebration of his distinguished achievements and contributions to the cultural and educational life of the United States. President Clinton awarded him the National Medal of Arts in 2000 and President Reagan honored him with a Medal of Liberty in 1986.
Gil Shaham is one of the foremost violinists of our time: his flawless technique combined with his inimitable warmth and generosity of spirit has solidified his renown as an American master. The Grammy Award winner, also named Musical America’s “Instrumentalist of the Year,” is sought after throughout the world for concerto appearances with leading orchestras and conductors, and regularly gives recitals and appears with ensembles on the world’s great concert stages and at the most prestigious festivals.
Mr. Shaham was born in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, in 1971. He moved with his parents to Israel, where he began violin studies with Samuel Bernstein of the Rubin Academy of Music at the age of 7, receiving annual scholarships from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation. In 1981, he made debuts with the Jerusalem Symphony and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, and the following year, he took first prize in Israel’s Claremont Competition. He then became a scholarship student at The Juilliard School, and also studied at Columbia University.
Pinchas Zukerman has remained a phenomenon in the world of classical music for over four decades. His musical genius, prodigious technique, and unwavering artistic standards are a marvel to audiences and critics. Devoted to the next generation of musicians, he has inspired younger artists with his magnetism and passion. His enthusiasm for teaching has resulted in innovative programs in London, New York, China, Israel and Ottawa. The name Pinchas Zukerman is equally respected as violinist, violist, conductor, pedagogue, and chamber musician.
Born in Tel Aviv in 1948, Pinchas Zukerman came to America in 1962 where he studied at The Juilliard School with Ivan Galamian as a recipient of the American Israel Cultural Federation scholarship. An alumnus of the Young Concert Artists program, Mr. Zukerman has also received honorary doctorates from Brown University, Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, and the University of Calgary. He has been awarded the Medal of Arts, the Isaac Stern Award for Artistic Excellence and was appointed as the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative’s first instrumentalist mentor in the music discipline. Pinchas Zukerman’s extensive discography contains over 100 titles, and has earned him two Grammy Awards and 21 Grammy nominations.
The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (IPO) was founded in 1936 by famed Polish violinist Bronislaw Huberman and its inaugural concert that year was conducted by Arturo Toscanini. Two years earlier, in an effort to help fellow Jewish musicians escape Nazi persecution, Huberman set out to create an all-Jewish orchestra in Palestine. Overcoming huge obstacles, Huberman recruited and arranged for 70 leading musicians, and their families, to immigrate to Palestine to form the Palestine Symphony Orchestra. Huberman’s extraordinary efforts ultimately saved hundreds of Jewish lives. In 1948, when the State of Israel was born, the Orchestra changed its name to the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, playing “Hatikvah” at the official ceremony of the Declaration of Independence.
Today, the IPO is the leading orchestra in Israel and globally recognized as a world-class symphonic ensemble. The Orchestra performs regularly in its home, the Charles Bronfman Auditorium in Tel Aviv, as well as throughout Israel, including Jerusalem and Haifa. Additionally, it frequently tours internationally, traveling around the world from Asia to America. Since its inception, the IPO has enjoyed long-lasting relationships with renowned soloists and conductors which have kept it at the forefront of the classical music world. The longest and closest such relationship has been with the current Music Director Maestro Zubin Mehta, who has been at the helm of the Orchestra for nearly 50 years.
For more than 80 years there has been a strong bond between North America and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. In fact, in 1936, legendary scientist Albert Einstein hosted one of the first major fundraisers at the Waldorf Astoria, securing the financial support needed to officially form the Orchestra. The IPO made its Carnegie Hall debut in 1951 under the baton of Serge Koussevitzky. The Orchestra has since performed at the Hall more than forty times.
The Manhattan Girls Chorus is a nurturing community of 50 young women, grades five through twelve, from all ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds seeking an extraordinary music education and opportunities for performing excellence. Founded in 2011, the Chorus made their Carnegie Hall debut just one year later in October 2012 performing the New York premiere of Noam Sheriff’sMechaye Hametim with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Thomas Hampson, and MasterVoices under the baton of Maestro Zubin Mehta. Most recently, they performed Leonard Bernstein’s Symphony No. 3, Kaddish, with the American Symphony Orchestra. The Chorus previously performed Richard Strauss’s Feuersnot, Osvaldo Golijov’s Oceana, and Arrigo Boito’s Mefistofele with the American Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall.
MasterVoices (formerly The Collegiate Chorale) was founded in 1941 by conductor Robert Shaw, the “dean of American choral singing,” who believed in the voice as the world’s most powerful instrument. Today the human voice remains at the heart of all MasterVoices concerts – featuring an acclaimed chorus of over 100 members and a dazzling array of world-class soloists.
Distinguished by their range of repertoire, MasterVoices performs choral classics, concert versions of musical theater and opera, and premieres of newly commissioned work. Landmark performances in the group’s history include the 1952 opening of the United Nations, concerts under the batons of Arturo Toscanini, Leonard Bernstein and Serge Koussevitzky, and world premieres of work by Aaron Copland, Paul Hindemith, Kurt Weill, Paul McCartney, and Philip Glass, among others. The group regularly appears with premiere orchestras in the U.S. and abroad, including a tour to Israel and The Salzburg Festival with the Israel Philharmonic in 2012, and presents its own annual season of concerts in New York City at venues ranging from Carnegie Hall and New York City Center to site-specific concerts at museums and outdoor parks.
Program Information
Wednesday, October 25, 2017 at 7:00 p.m.
Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage
Israel Philharmonic Orchestra
Zubin Mehta, Music Director and Conductor
Itzhak Perlman, Violin
Pinchas Zukerman, Viola
ALL-WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART PROGRAM
Overture to The Marriage of Figaro
Symphony No. 36 in C Major, K. 425, “Linz”
Sinfonia concertante in E-flat Major, K. 364
