Marin Alsop Leads the Juilliard Orchestra in Works by Barber, Brahms, and Shostakovich With a Tribute to Composer Christopher Rouse on January 25, 2020

NEW YORK –– Alumna Marin Alsop, music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, leads the Juilliard Orchestra in a program featuring Barber’s Toccata Festiva with Juilliard organist Daniel Ficarri, Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 2 in G Major, Op. 126, with Juilliard cellist Daniel Hass, and Brahms’ Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op 73, on Saturday, January 25, 2020, at 7:30pm in Alice Tully Hall. The program will also include a tribute to former Juilliard faculty member and close friend of Marin Alsop’s, Christopher Rouse (1949-2019) as the Juilliard Orchestra will perform his 2016 work, Processional.

Tickets at $30 ($15 for full-time students with a valid ID) are available at juilliard.edu/calendar.

About the Program

Samuel Barber’s Toccata Festiva was composed in 1960 for the inauguration of a new organ at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia. Mary Curtis Zimbalist, who was a friend and a patron of Barber’s since his days at the Curtis Institute, funded the organ and also commissioned the piece. Paul Callaway, the organist and music director at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., played the organ at the premiere in September 1960, with Eugene Ormandy conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 2 in G Major, Op. 126, was composed in spring 1966, and the first performance was given on September 25 of that year on the composer’s 60th birthday, by Mstislav Rostropovich, with the USSR Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Evgeny Svetlanov, in the Great Hall of the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow.

Christopher Rouse’s Processional was commissioned and premiered by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra during its centennial year in 2016. Rouse described Processional as a funeral march for Edgar Allan Poe, the writer of horror tales, who died in Baltimore. The work is in the form of a passacaglia, and its bass line is derived from the letters of Poe’s name.

Brahms composed his Symphony No. 2 during summer 1877, while on holiday in the picturesque village of Pörtschach am Wöthersee in Austria. Hans Richter conducted the first performance in Vienna on December 30, 1877. The work is often compared to Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony.

About Marin Alsop

Marin Alsop is an inspiring and powerful voice, a conductor of vision and distinction who passionately believes that “music has the power to change lives.” She is recognized internationally for her innovative approach to programming and audience development, for her deep commitment to education and advocating for music’s importance in the world. This season, Alsop became chief conductor of the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, performing in its main series at the Wiener Konzerthaus and Wiener Musikverein, and recording, broadcasting, and touring nationally and internationally. Her first season coincides with the orchestra’s 50th anniversary and will emphasize women in classical music. Her success as music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra since 2007 has resulted in two extensions in her tenure until 2021. Alsop has led the orchestra on its first European tour in 13 years and created several bold initiatives, including OrchKids, for the city’s most disadvantaged young people. At the end of 2019, following a seven-year tenure as music director, she becomes conductor of honor of the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra, where she will return to conduct major projects each season. Throughout 2020, Alsop launches a global project to mark Beethoven’s 250th anniversary, in collaboration with Carnegie Hall. Her goal is to bring the messages of tolerance, unity, and joy in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony to life for our 21st century.

About Daniel Ficarri

Daniel Ficarri (BM ’18, organ) is a graduate student of Paul Jacobs at Juilliard. He was recently named one of the top “20 under 30” organists by the Diapason magazine. He has given solo performances in concert halls and churches throughout the U.S., including the Cathedral of St. John the Divine and St. Patrick’s Cathedral. The New York Times listed his performance of John Cage’s Souvenir among the “week’s 8 best classical music moments,” and WQXR broadcast his live all-Bach performance as part of its “Bach organ marathon.” Also an active composer, Ficarri has been commissioned by Choir & Organ magazine in London, and his music is published by ECS Publishing Group. Ficarri works as organ scholar at the Church of St. Paul the Apostle in Manhattan, where he founded the organ concert series, Sacred Sounds at St. Paul’s.

About Daniel Hass

Israeli-Canadian cellist Daniel Hass is the first prize winner of the 2016 Stuhlbarg International String Competition as well as the 2016 winner of the Canadian Council for the Arts Michael Measures Prize. He made his solo orchestral debut with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra at age 15, performing the Lalo Cello Concerto. Hass has since performed as soloist with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, the Victoria Symphony Orchestra, the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, with whom he debuted Jonathan Leshnoff’s cello concerto, and others, and has performed as recitalist and chamber musician in Amsterdam, Lisbon, Tel Aviv, Budapest, and Montreal, and throughout the U.S. He has been featured several times on Canadian Broadcasting Corporation national radio and on NPR’s From the Top. As an alumnus of the Perlman Music Program, he has played numerous concerts under the baton of Itzhak Perlman and performed with various chamber music groups. Hass has participated in master classes with internationally renowned cellists, including Gary Hoffman, Frans Helmerson, Ralph Kirshbaum, Janos Starker, and Benjamin Zander. At Juilliard, he graduated as the proud recipient of a Kovner Fellowship and is pursuing his master’s degree. He performs on a 1914 Eugenio Degani Cello on loan by a private donor.

About the Juilliard Orchestra

Juilliard’s largest and most visible student performing ensemble, the Juilliard Orchestra, is known for delivering polished and passionate performances of works spanning the repertoire. Comprising more than 350 students in the bachelor’s and master’s degree programs, the orchestra appears throughout the season in concerts on the stages of Juilliard’s Peter Jay Sharp Theater, Alice Tully Hall, David Geffen Hall, and Carnegie Hall.

The orchestra is a strong partner to Juilliard’s other divisions, appearing in opera and dance productions as well as presenting an annual concert of world premieres by Juilliard student composers. The Juilliard Orchestra welcomes an impressive roster of world-renowned guest conductors this season including Elim Chan, Anne Manson, Nicholas McGegan, alumnus Jörg Widmann, and alumna Keri-Lynn Wilson as well as faculty conductor David Robertson.

The Juilliard Orchestra has toured across the U.S. and throughout Europe, South America, and Asia, where it was the first Western conservatory ensemble allowed to visit and perform following the opening of the People’s Republic of China in 1987, and also returning two decades later, in 2008.

Other ensembles under the Juilliard Orchestra umbrella include the conductorless Juilliard Chamber Orchestra, the Juilliard Wind Orchestra, and the new-music groups AXIOM and New Juilliard Ensemble.

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Program Listing:
Saturday, January 25, 2020, 7:30pm, Alice Tully Hall
Juilliard Orchestra
Marin Alsop, Conductor
Daniel Ficarri, Organ
Daniel Hass, Cello

Barber                          Toccata Festiva
Shostakovich                Cello Concerto No. 2 in G Major, Op. 126
Rouse                           Processional
Brahms                         Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 73

Tickets at $30 ($15 for full-time students with a valid ID) are available at juilliard.edu/calendar.