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Orchestra Tours Europe for Juilliard Centennial By CHRISTOPHER MOSSEY
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| James DePreist will conduct the Juilliard Orchestra on its European tour in August. (Photo by Nan Melville) |
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The first major aspect of Juilliard's centennial celebration will unfold in August and September 2005, when the Juilliard Orchestra tours to Europe in a series of debut performances at several respected festivals.
Under the direction of Maestro James DePreist, the Juilliard Orchestra will perform at the Lucerne Festival on August 21; the Young Euro Classic in Berlin on August 22; in Helsinki, Finland, on August 23; and the Aldeburgh Festival on August 25. Violinists Sarah Chang and Tai Murray join the Juilliard Orchestra as soloists. The program in Lucerne and Berlin comprises John Adams's A Short Ride in a Fast Machine, Antonin Dvorak's Violin Concerto (performed by Ms. Chang in Lucerne and Ms. Murray in Berlin), and Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 2. At the Aldeburgh Festival, for which Ms. Chang will return as soloist, the Dvorak Concerto is replaced by Shostakovich's Violin Concerto.Following these performances, 60 members of the Juilliard Orchestra will combine with an equal number of musicians from the Royal Academy of Music for two performances related to the BBC Proms festival. Sir Colin Davis will conduct a program of Copland, Vaughn Williams, and Berlioz in a run-out concert to Leicester on September 1 and in Royal Albert Hall on September 3. The latter will be broadcast live on BBC television.
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| Violinist Sarah Chang will tour with James DePreist and the Juilliard Orchestra this summer. |
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This will be the third consecutive summer that the Juilliard Orchestra has a presence in Europe. In the summers of 2003 and '04 it was the resident orchestra of the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, Italy.
The Juilliard Orchestra will be the only conservatory orchestra presented at the 2005 Lucerne Festival. It joins such venerable orchestras as the Berlin Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, the New York Philharmonic, the Royal Concertgebau Orchestra, and the Vienna Philharmonic.Michael Haefliger, general director of the Lucerne Festival and a 1973 alumnus of Juilliard, visited Juilliard in January 2005 and spoke about the Juilliard Orchestra's appearance at the Lucerne Festival. In presenting "the leading conservatory orchestra," he said, the Lucerne Festival "wants to give Juilliard a platform for its anniversary in Europe and give the young artists of Juilliard more exposure and experience." When asked how often he programs non-professional orchestras at the festival, Mr. Haefliger replied, "I don't consider the Juilliard Orchestra non-professional."
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Room at the Inn?
Over the course of the next year, Juilliard will book more than 500 airline tickets and nearly 1,500 hotel nights for students and staff traveling on the international and domestic tours in August, September, December, and March. A former tour manager for the New York Philharmonic, Joanna Trebelhorn managed the Juilliard Orchestra's last two trips to Italy, and this year oversees the organization of seven different tours as part of Juilliard's centennial.What is the longest-lead item that needs to be booked?Flights are important to negotiate and lock in as soon as possible, especially when a group is touring to Europe during a peak tourist period.What do you look for in determining hotel accommodations for the tour party?I look at the quality of the hotel and its willingness to have groups, particularly musicians. The entrances of the hotels need to have areas for buses to pull up and special services (e.g., breakfast, Internet, room service, gym facilities) can also be helpful.What are some of the special considerations of bringing musical instruments on tour?When we travel with many instruments, we have to prepare special documents registering the value of instruments being taken out of one country and into another. These documents are important at border crossings. The safety of the instruments is also key. We rent the best possible trunks to provide the most protection, and make sure we have reputable transportation that is climate-controlled.What things typically don't go as planned on tour?A basic rule of touring is that no tour can be perfectly planned. The key is to be ready for anything and to address problems efficiently as they arise. A flight will be delayed when we have the tightest connection, a bus is bound not to show up or it will show up at the wrong place. I try to be as prepared as possible for everything and maintain a sense of humor. I have good contacts throughout the world in travel agencies and arts organizations whom I can call on in cases of emergencies.
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The orchestra makes its debut performance in the grand finale concert of Berlin's Young Euro Classic festival, performing in the Konzerthaus in East Berlin. This venue was previously called the Schauspielhaus, which saw the legendary premieres of Carl Maria von Weber's Der Freischütz and Richard Wagner's The Flying Dutchman; it was destroyed in World War II and rebuilt as a concert hall in 1984. In its fifth year, the Young Euro Classic presents youth orchestras from around Europe and the world. This year's festival includes orchestras from China, Italy, Estonia, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan; representing the United States for the first time in the festival is the Juilliard Orchestra.In between performances in Berlin and London, the orchestra stops in Helsinki to give a concert on August 23 at Temppeliaukio Church (or the "Rock Church"), one of Helsinki's most famous tourist attractions and a frequent site of concerts, thanks to its excellent acoustics. Sarah Chang will be the violin soloist for this performance.In England, the Juilliard Orchestra will be based in London for several performances. The orchestra makes its Aldeburgh Festival debut at Snape Maltings Concert Hall. Composer Benjamin Britten and singer Peter Pears founded this festival in 1948; today its artistic director is composer Thomas Adès.The climax of the European tour comes in early September, when the Juilliard Orchestra combines with the Royal Academy of Music Orchestra for a performance at Royal Albert Hall as part of the BBC Proms. Sir Colin Davis will lead the orchestra in a performance of Aaron Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man, Ralph Vaughan Williams's Symphony No. 6 and Hector Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique.The Juilliard Orchestra and the Royal Academy of Music Orchestra have collaborated once before. In July 2004, a combined orchestra of the two schools accompanied Sir Elton John in a series of performances at Radio City Music Hall, the opening night of which was a benefit for Juilliard and the Royal Academy.Christopher Mossey is director of centennial planning.
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