Bach Reinvented, February to March: Helmuth Rilling Leads Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia and Local Choirs, Absolute Ensemble, and Organist Cameron Carpenter Performances
FEBRUARY 3, 2010
Cameron Carpenter
Kimmel Center Presents celebrates composer Johann Sebastian Bach this February and March with multi-faceted performances onstage from a range of artists exploring this legendary conductor’s works.
The world's leading Bach scholar, Maestro Helmuth Rilling conducts the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia with the Westminster Choir, Temple University Concert Choir and organist Eric Plutz in Verizon Hall (Friday, February 12, 2010)
New music group Absolute Ensemble makes its Kimmel Center debut with a program entitled Absolute Bach Re-Invented with special guest pianist Simone Dinnerstein in Perelman Theater (Saturday, February 20, 2010)
"Maverick organist" (New York Times) Cameron Carpenter dazzles audiences with a performance of works by Bach, Schubert, and Chopin on the Fred J. Cooper Memorial Organ in Verizon Hall (Saturday, March 6, 2010)
Helmuth Rilling, conductor
Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia
Westminster Choir and Temple University Concert Choir
Eric Plutz, organ
Friday, February 12, 2010 at 8pm
Verizon Hall
Price: $36-60
“…Under Mr. Rilling’s eminent baton, the reduced forces of the Philharmonic produced an impressively taut, buoyant and sharply etched sound, playing with a vibrant pulse and almost no vibrato.” – New York Times
The world's leading Bach scholar, renowned conductor Helmuth Rilling joins the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, organist Eric Plutz, and the Westminster Choir and Temple University Concert Choir on Friday, February 12, 2010 to perform three powerful, sacred works by Johann Sebastian Bach. Rilling has twice recorded the complete Bach choral works, and is the co-founder and artistic director of the Oregon Bach Festival. The program includes the widely celebrated Magnificat in D Major, BWV 243; Cantata BWV 29 (We thank thee, oh Lord, we thank thee); and Cantata BWV 146 (We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God).
Born in 1933 in Stuttgart, Germany, Helmuth Rilling is an active conductor, pedagogue and ambassador for the music of Bach worldwide. From 1970 to 1984, Mr. Rilling was the first musician to record all of Bach's Cantatas, and was the guiding hand behind the Internationale Bachakademie's critically-acclaimed project to record the complete works of Bach (172 CDs), which was released in 2000 to coincide with the 250th Anniversary of Bach's death. Since 1970, he has been the Artistic Director of the Oregon Bach Festival. In 2003 he became an Honorary Member of the American Academy of the Arts and Sciences. He won a Grammy® Award in 2000 for his recording of Krzystof Penderecki's “Credo” and was again nominated in 2001 for his recording of Wolfgang Rihm's "Deus Passus." In 2008, he was honored with the Sanford Award by the Yale School of Music at Yale University.
A founding resident company of the Kimmel Center, the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia is a 33-member ensemble led by Ignat Solzhenitsyn, now in his sixth season as music director. Currently celebrating its 45th anniversary, the Chamber Orchestra was founded in 1964 by Marc Mostovoy, and is reputed for distinguished performances of repertoire ranging from the Baroque period through the 21st Century. The Orchestra has performed with such internationally acclaimed guest artists as Plácido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Mstislav Rostropovich, Issac Stern, Rudolph Serkin, The Eroica Trio, Jean-Pierre Rampal, The Romeros Guitar Quartet, Julie Andrews, Bernadette Peters, Ben Folds, Elvis Costello and Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg. The ensemble also travels regularly, and has performed throughout the United States, Europe and Israel.
Praised by the New York Times for its “full-bodied, incisive singing,” the Westminster Choir has set the standard for choral excellence for 88 years. The Westminster Choir is composed of students at Westminster Choir College, a division of Rider University’s Westminster College of the Arts, in Princeton, N.J. The choir has been the chorus-in-residence for the Spoleto Festival USA since 1977, performing both in concert and as the opera chorus. The ensemble’s 2009-2010 season with conductor Joe Miller includes a concert tour of California, performances at its home in Princeton, a recording project and a series of concerts at the Spoleto Festival USA. The Westminster Choir also forms the core of the Westminster Symphonic Choir, which has performed and recorded with the leading conductors and orchestras of our time.
Temple University Concert Choir is committed to the performance of new American choral music and has presented many Philadelphia premieres, including Robert Moran’s Hagoromo, Alfred Schnittke’s Requiem, Arvo Pärt’s Passio, Nostri Jesu Christi Secundum Joannem and music of Temple composers Jan Krzywicki, Cynthia Folio, Jay Krush, Richard Brodhead and Maurice Wright. In recent years, the choir has performed in major concert halls in the Republic of China, Hong Kong, Venezuela, Canada and Puerto Rico. The choir has been conducted for the past 27 years by Professor Alan Harler of the Laura H. Carnell School.
A "spirited and virtuosic organist" (Washington Post), Eric Plutz currently serves as university organist at Princeton University, where he recorded his first solo CD recording, Musique Héroïque (2007), with the Washington Symphonic Brass. Plutz has performed at distinguished venues across the United States and abroad including Salzburg, Austria’s Franziskanerkirche, New York City’s Avery Fisher Hall and Washington, D.C.’s Washington National Cathedral, among other locales. Plutz has served as organist and director of music at the Church of Epiphany in Washington, D.C., since 1995, as well as organist at Temple Sinai in Washington and accompanist of the Cantate Chamber Singers. His recent release, Carnival (2008), contains organ transcriptions of orchestral works, including Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint-Saëns.
Program:
BACH: Cantata BWV 29 (We thank thee, oh Lord, we thank thee)
BACH: Cantata BWV 146 (We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God)
BACH: Magnificat in D Major, BWV 243
Friday, February 12, 2010 | 5:30pm
Commonwealth Plaza | Friday LIVE
TBD
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Absolute Ensemble
Absolute Bach Re-Invented
Special Guest Simone Dinnerstein, piano
Saturday, February 20, 2010 at 7:30pm
Perelman Theater
Price: $19-32
“Musicians who are equally comfortable with classical music, jazz and rock and who have the techniques to address those styles on their own terms.” – New York Times
"An utterly distinctive voice in the forest of Bach interpretation, Ms. Dinnerstein brings her own pianistic expressivity to the Goldberg Variations, probing each variation as if it were something completely new.” – New York Times
“Part rock band, part jazz ensemble—all bristling energy” (New York Post), Absolute Ensemble delivers Absolute Bach Re-Invented, a new program that reimagines Bach’s compositions on Saturday, February 20, 2010 at 7:30pm in the Kimmel Center’s Perelman Theater. Charismatic pianist Simone Dinnerstein, “a phenomenon in the world of classical music” (Washington Post), will join the ensemble as guest soloist. Under the direction of Estonian-born conductor Kristjan Järvi, Absolute Ensemble improvises, arranges and composes original music, fusing classical music with jazz, rock, world and hip-hop elements. In Absolute Bach Re-Invented, the ensemble performs inventive Bach-based works by Gene Pritsker, Charles Coleman, Daniel Schnyder, Mike Block and Matt Herskowitz.
Absolute Bach Re-Invented premiered at Musikfest Bremen in Germany in 2008 with Dinnerstein as the featured soloist. Other signature thematic programs include Absolute Zawinul, which features music by the late Austrian jazz legend Joe Zawinul (an album version will be released in the U.S. in March 2010); Absolute Arabian Nights; Absolute Electronica; Absolute Zappa; and Absolute Tango, among others.
Founded in New York in 1993, Absolute Ensemble lends itself to the kind of performance usually foreign to the classical breed. By defying categorization and creating a totally new sound, Absolute is a refreshing guide to the future of music. Absolute has released eight albums, receiving accolades such as the German Record Critics Prize and a Grammy® Award nomination for “Best Small Ensemble Classical Recording” in 2002. In 2007, Järvi and the ensemble were awarded the Deutsche Bank Prize at Musikfest Bremen for outstanding musical achievement. Absolute Ensemble has toured the globe with concerts in Vienna, Zürich, London, Hamburg, Cologne, Bremen, Weimar, Stockholm, Umeå, Bolzano, Milan, Torino, Catania, Tallinn, Pärnu, Monterey, Bergen, New York, West Palm Beach, Los Angeles, Sacramento, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Detroit, Washington DC, New Orleans, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Perth and Oulu.
New York-based pianist Simone Dinnerstein made her New York recital debut at Weill Recital Hall in 2005, where she performed Bach's Goldberg Variations. Her debut release of Goldberg Variations in August 2007 earned the number one spot on the Billboard Classical Chart during its first week, and was named on many “Best of 2007” lists, including those of the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and The New Yorker. Her follow-up album, The Berlin Concert (2008), also earned Billboard’s number one spot. In 2009, she released Beethoven Complete Works for Piano & Cello with cellist Zuill Bailey. In July 2009, she made her debut with the New York Philharmonic at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall, playing Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 2. Dinnerstein last performed at the Kimmel Center in 2003, as part of the first season of the Fresh Ink Series in a co-presentation with Astral Arts.
Absolute Ensemble
Kristan Järvi, conductor
Simone Dinnerstein, piano
Adam Taubic, violin
Shalini Vijayan, violin
Edmundo Ramirez, viola
Mike Block, cello
Mat Fieldes, bass
Hayley Reid, flute
Keve Wilson, oboe
Michiyo Suzuki, clarinet
Damian Primis, bassoon
Wayne du Maine, trumpet
Mike Seltzer, trombone
Gene Pritsker, guitar
Matt Herskowitz, piano
Damian Bassman, drums and percussion
Holger Schwark, sound engineer
Program:
CHARLES COLEMAN: Innovation J.S. (Based on Bach’s Inventions No. 5 in Eb Major and No. 8 in F Major)
GENE PRITSKER: Reinventions
MATT HERSKOWITZ: Undertow (Based on Bach’s Invention No. 9 in F Minor)
MIKE BLOCK: Raga on a Theme by Bach
DANIEL SCHNYDER: toopART Reinventions
Saturday, February 20, 2010 | Post-Show
Perelman Theater
Artist Chat
The ticketed concert by Absolute Ensemble will be followed by a free Artist Chat with the band and Vice President of Programming Tom Warner.
The Fresh Ink series is funded by The Pew Center for Arts and Heritage, through the Philadelphia Music Project.
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Cameron Carpenter, organ
Saturday, March 6, 2010 at 3pm
Verizon Hall
Price: $19-28
“Mr. Carpenter defies tradition with his interpretations and personality. He has pushed the boundaries of organ technique to breathtaking heights, meshing virtuosity with musical intelligence.” – New York Times
“Masterly playing -- alternatingly dazzling and subtle, and always fired by a profound musical intelligence.” – Wall Street Journal
Noted for his intensely personal, often flamboyant performances, Grammy® Award-nominated organist Cameron Carpenter returns to the Kimmel Center with his signature showmanship in an organ recital performance on Saturday, March 6, 2010 at 3pm. Carpenter’s Kimmel Center program will be announced from stage, including works by Bach, Schubert, and Carpenter. Carpenter’s new double album with full-length DVD, Cameron Live! Volumes 1 & 2, is scheduled for release in spring 2010.
Under Carpenter, preconceptions of the organ as religious and esoteric are crumbling as he revitalizes the instrument with his unorthodox arrangements that range from Bob Dylan to John Williams. His repertoire spans the organ and piano literature; original compositions; film scores, especially from Japanese animé; and improvisations influenced by folk song, jazz, disco and pop. In early 2008, Cameron signed with TELARC® Records for his debut release Revolutionary, which included works by Bach, Demessieux, Dupré, Liszt, Ellington, and the world premiere of Carpenter's own Long Song No. 1 (2008). The album garnered Carpenter the distinction of being the first organist ever nominated for a Grammy® Award for a solo album. Carpenter’s forthcoming album, Cameron Live! Volumes 1 & 2, includes a live recording of his recent concert in New York, featuring six major works by Bach and the world premiere of his own Serenade and Fugue on the Name B-A-C-H, as well as a full-length DVD that features a wide range of music plus his opinions about the organ, popular culture, literature and fashion.
Born in Meadville, Pa., Cameron Carpenter was an acknowledged child prodigy who flourished under his parents home-schooling, and then, as a student at the American Boychoir School in Princeton, N.J. At age 11, he performed J. S. Bach’s complete Well-Tempered Clavier, and later gave his European debut as an organist at age 13. As a boy soprano, he was a soloist in such venues as the Metropolitan Opera and Carnegie Hall, and transcribed over two hundred musical works for organ, including Gustav Mahler’s complete Fifth Symphony. In 2006, Carpenter graduated from The Julliard School in New York City, where he completed undergraduate and post-graduate work. He served as Artist-In-Residence at Middle Collegiate Church in New York City's East Village from 2008-2009. Carpenter remains deeply committed to musical outreach to high school students, direct mentoring to talented younger organists, and UNAIDS events worldwide.
Program:
Program to be announced from stage, including works by Bach, Schubert, and Carpenter.
Saturday, March 6, 2010 | 2:15pm
Verizon Hall
Artist Chat
The ticketed concert by Cameron Carpenter will be preceded by a free Artist Chat with Mr. Latry and Michael Barone, host of American Public Media's "Pipedreams."
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Tickets can be purchased by calling 215-893-1999, online at www.kimmelcenter.org, or at the Kimmel Center box office open daily from 10am to 6pm and later on performance evenings. (Additional fees may apply.) For group sales call 215-790-5883.
A limited number of $10 tickets are available for these performances. Tickets go on sale the day of the event and can be purchased at the Kimmel Center box office at 5:30pm prior to evening curtain time and 11:30am for matinees. Limit one ticket per person.
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Kimmel Center Presents' 2009/10 Season is sponsored by Citi. American Airlines is
the Official Airline of Kimmel Center Presents.
Free at the Kimmel programming and subsidized tickets offered to the community and social service groups for $10 are made possible through the Wachovia Gateway to the Arts Community Access Program, supported by a generous grant from the Wachovia Foundation.
The Kimmel Center is the recipient of partnership funding through the nationally recognized PNC "Grow Up Great" initiative, a ten-year, $100 million investment in preparing children for success in school and life. Funding gives support to the Kimmel Center's early childhood program "Bop and Swing," an arts program for children 1-5 years old, designed to promote an appreciation for American culture.
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