Bravo! Vail Music Festival Announces Its Thirtieth Season June 22-August 4, 2017

Concerts feature residencies by four returning ensembles: the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, The Philadelphia Orchestra, and the New York Philharmonic;

The 30th season includes five world premieres and seven different string quartets performing in chamber music programs;

Jaap van Zweden and Alan Gilbert make their final Bravo! Vail appearances as music directors of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and New York Philharmonic, respectively;

Vail, CO - The Bravo! Vail Music Festival announces its 30th season, which runs from June 22 to August 4, 2017. The season features the return of its longtime resident ensembles the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, The Philadelphia Orchestra, and the New York Philharmonic as well as the second-annual residency of the London-based chamber orchestra the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, led by violinist and Music Director Joshua Bell. The 30th season celebration includes five world premieres signifying the launch of a New Works Project, and seven string quartets performing in its various chamber music programs. Bravo! Vail’s historic 30th season also features Jaap van Zweden and Alan Gilbert in their final Bravo! Vail concerts as music directors of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and New York Philharmonic, respectively. “It is every classical music organization’s responsibility to contribute to the musical canon,” said Bravo! Vail Executive Director Jennifer Teisinger about the Festival’s new commissioning initiative, the New Works Project. “Bravo’s excellent relationship with each of the resident orchestras and its tradition of chamber music presentations make it the perfect organization to commission new works and give living composers a voice right here in the beautiful Rocky Mountains.” Bravo! Vail Artistic Director Anne-Marie McDermott said she is “particularly thrilled that over the course of six weeks, Bravo! Vail audiences will have the opportunity to hear seven string quartets, including three that are playing in Vail for the very first time, as well as the world renowned Emerson String Quartet. The string quartet is the heart and soul of the chamber music repertory, and includes some of the most profound music ever written.”

THIRTIETH SEASON HIGHLIGHTS In honor of its 30th season, Bravo! Vail presents its richest and most diverse array of programs to date.

New Works Project After introducing a fresh focus on chamber orchestra and international artistic partnerships last summer with London’s Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, Bravo now launches a brand new initiative in 2017, the New Works Project, marking the next step in the festival’s dedication to celebrating creativity in classical music. The initiative signals a new level of commitment to commissioning and supporting the artists who are the voices of classical music today. Each season, Bravo will premiere original works written by established and emerging composers from around the world. The Festival’s 2017 season features the world premieres of four orchestral works — the first orchestral commissions in the Festival’s history — which will be performed by each of the four resident orchestras as well as a commissioned a chamber piece. On June 22, the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, led from the concertmaster’s chair by Music Director Joshua Bell, performs the season’s first world premiere, a new work by American composer and bassist Edgar Meyer, co-commissioned by Bravo! Vail and the Academy and featuring Bell as soloist. The three other orchestral premieres include Dos piezas para orquesta by Puerto Rican composer Roberto Sierra, performed on June 30 by Jaap van Zweden and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra; a new work by French composer Guillaume Connesson, performed on July 9 by Principal Guest Conductor Stéphane Denève and The Philadelphia Orchestra; and a new work by American composer Julia Adolphe, performed by Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic. On August 3, Anne-Marie McDermott and the Aeolus, Calder, and Lyris quartets premiere American composer David Ludwig’s piece Pangea for Strings and Piano.

String Quartet Bravo! Vail welcomes seven string quartets — its largest lineup ever! The quartets include the Emerson String Quartet, the newly formed New York Philharmonic String Quartet (debut season and Bravo! Vail debut), and the Calder Quartet, Aeolus Quartet, Lyris Quartet, Danish String Quartet (Bravo! Vail debut), and Zorá String Quartet (Bravo! Vail debut).

THE ACADEMY OF ST MARTIN IN THE FIELDS After its history-making debut last season, the Academy of St Martin in the Fields — the first chamber orchestra and the first internationally based ensemble to perform at Bravo! Vail — returns for a three-concert residency June 22–25, 2017. Music Director and Grammy Award– winning violinist Joshua Bell leads the orchestra from the concertmaster’s chair in works that span the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic eras as well as in the world premiere of a newly commissioned piece. On June 22, the Academy begins its residency with Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 3 (“Scottish”) and Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 1, featuring Bell as soloist. The program also features Bell in a world premiere of a new work by Edgar Meyer co- commissioned by Bravo! Vail and the Academy. For the orchestra’s second concert, on June 24, Bell performs a rarely heard arrangement of the second movement of Schumann’s Violin Concerto and also partners with longtime collaborator Steven Isserlis, in his Bravo! Vail debut, for Brahms’s last orchestral composition, the Double Concerto for Violin and Cello. Isserlis performs Dvorák’s Silent Woods, the fifth movement of the evocative suite From the Bohemian Forest, originally written for piano four-hands. The concert also includes one of Beethoven’s final pieces from his early period, Symphony No. 1. To conclude its residency on June 25, the Academy performs Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings, and Bell again solos in J. S. Bach’s Violin Concerto in A minor. Isserlis returns to perform the Cello Concerto in B major by C. P. E. Bach.

THE DALLAS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA From June 28 through July 5, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra returns for a six- concert residency. This is the final summer the Dallas Symphony will be led by Music Director Jaap van Zweden. The Dallas Symphony begins its residency on June 28 with an all-Tchaikovsky program, led by van Zweden, which features pianist Garrick Ohlsson performing Piano Concerto No. 1. The concert also includes Symphony No. 4. For the orchestra’s second program, on June 30, van Zweden conducts Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5 as well as the world premiere of a newly commissioned work from Puerto Rican composer Roberto Sierra, Dos piezas para orquesta, which Sierra described as a diptych “containing two contrasting pieces that are generated by the same musical material and creative impulse. The contrast is established by the lyrical and introspective nature of the first piece and the jubilant and energetic character of the second.” Dutch violinist Simone Lamsma makes her festival debut in Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto. On July 1, van Zweden, in his last appearance at Bravo! Vail as music director of the Dallas Symphony, leads the orchestra in Haydn’s Sinfonia Concertante for oboe, bassoon, violin, cello, and orchestra, Prelude to Wagner’s Lohengrin, and Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. Jeff Tyzik, the Dallas Symphony’s principal pops conductor, leads the next concert on July 2, John Williams: Music from the Movies. The orchestra performs selections from twelve of Williams’s acclaimed scores — which span four decades — including The Cowboys, Jaws, Star Wars, Superman, The Witches of Eastwick, Born on the Fourth of July, Hook, Jurassic Park, Schindler’s List, Angela’s Ashes, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, and Catch Me If You Can. On July 4, Tyzik returns to conduct the orchestra’s annual Patriotic Concert, which features trumpeter and vocalist Byron Stripling. To conclude its residency on July 5, the orchestra, again led by Tyzik, presents Return to the Cotton Club, a music-and-dance show featuring vocalist and tap dancer Ted Louis Levy, vocalist Miche Braden, trumpeter and vocalist Byron Stripling in a swingin’ program of old-time jazz, blues, and big band music, with favorites by Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, and more.

THE PHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA Under the leadership of Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin, The Philadelphia Orchestra returns for a six-concert residency July 7–15. Principal Guest Conductor Stéphane Denève kicks off the residency on July 7 performing Sibelius’s Symphony No. 2 and Tchaikovsky’s folk-song-infused Andante Cantabile from the String Quartet No. 1, Op. 11 (arranged by former Philadelphia Orchestra Music Director Leopold Stokowski) and the composer’s Violin Concerto, featuring James Ehnes. For its second program, on July 8, the orchestra presents a screening of the 1982 Steven Spielberg–directed film E. T. The Extra Terrestrial, set to a live performance of John Williams’s Academy Award–winning score, conducted by Denève. On July 9, Denève leads the world premiere of Les Regrets, a newly commissioned work by French composer Guillaume Connesson whom Denève regularly champions. The program also includes Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 and Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 4, featuring Haochen Zhang in his Bravo! Vail debut. Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin leads the July 13 concert, which features Brahms’s Eleven Chorale Preludes, beautifully transcribed from their original organ setting by contemporary German composer Detlev Glanert and commissioned by The Philadelphia Orchestra. Next are famous and popular orchestrations by Stokowski of organ works by Bach: the Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor and the Toccata and Fugue in D minor. The program concludes with Brahms’s Symphony No. 2. For the concert on July 14, violinist Gil Shaham joins Nézet-Séguin and the orchestra for a performance of Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 3. The orchestra also performs Tchaikovsky’s Francesca da Rimini and music from Stravinsky’s Petrushka. The orchestra’s residency concludes on July 15 with Nézet-Séguin conducting selections from Beethoven’s only ballet, The Creatures of Prometheus, Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture and Mason Bates’s 2012 symphony for orchestra and electronica, Alternative Energy. The program also includes Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 2, performed by Yefim Bronfman.

THE NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC Returning to Bravo! Vail for its fifteenth annual residency, the New York Philharmonic presents six concerts July 21–28 that spotlight its illustrious history during its 175th anniversary season. The concerts also feature the world premiere of a work by American composer Julia Adolphe and performances by the Philharmonic’s Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence Leonidas Kavakos (who appears as both conductor and violin soloist) and its Artist-in-Association, pianist Inon Barnatan. The residency also honors the conclusion of Alan Gilbert’s eight-year tenure as music director and features major symphonies by Mahler, Dvorák, and Beethoven. On July 21, guest conductor Bramwell Tovey leads the orchestra from both the podium and the piano in an all-American celebration. The program begins with Charles Ives’s Variations on America (orchestrated by William Schuman), followed by Porgy and Bess: A Symphonic Picture performed by American mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges in her festival debut. The program also includes West Side Story Symphonic Dances by Leonard Bernstein and Gershwin’s An American in Paris. The following day, on July 22, Music Director Alan Gilbert conducts Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique and Brahms’s Violin Concerto, featuring violinist Leonidas Kavakos, in his Bravo! Vail debut. Kavakos made his Philharmonic conducting debut in October 2016, and on July 23, in a special Bravo! Vail concert, he leads the orchestra in Weber’s Overture to Oberon, Schumann’s Symphony No. 2, J. S. Bach’s Violin Concerto in D minor, for which he also appears as soloist. Alan Gilbert returns on July 26 to lead a program that showcases the Philharmonic’s history of premiering important and influential works. The orchestra performs Dvorák’s Symphony No. 9, From the New World and then Pianist and Bravo! Vail Artistic Director Anne-Marie McDermott joins the orchestra for Gershwin’s Concerto in F. Gilbert will conduct the world premiere of a newly commissioned work by American composer Julia Adolphe. On July 27, Alan Gilbert leads the orchestra in Mahler’s Symphony No. 7. The concert on July 28 marks a historic moment for both the Philharmonic and Bravo! Vail, as Alan Gilbert leads his final performance in Vail as the orchestra’s music director, a position he’s held since September 2009. The all-Beethoven program begins with Piano Concerto No. 2, featuring Inon Barnatan and concludes with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 featuring soprano Susanna Phillips, mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano, tenor Joseph Kaiser, and bass Morris Robinson. The orchestra will be joined by the Colorado Symphony Orchestra Chorus under the direction of Duain Wolfe.

CHAMBER MUSIC SERIES The series begins on June 27 with a performance by Anne-Marie McDermott and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields Chamber Ensemble. The repertoire for the evening is to be announced. On July 11 the Emerson String Quartet performs Henry Purcell’s Chacony in G (arranged by Britten) and Two Fantasies, Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 8 in C minor and Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 14 in C-sharp minor. For the concert on July 18, four pianists — Anne-Marie McDermott, Anton Nel, and Bravo! Vail’s 2017 Piano Fellows Jenny Chen and Chelsea Wang — join forces to collaborate on nine engaging works from the duo-piano repertoire. Nel and Wang perform Sonata for Two Pianos in D major, K. 448, by Mozart, followed by McDermott and Chen performing George Gershwin’s four-hands arrangement of An American in Paris. Following intermission, all four pianists take to the stage for eight-hand arrangements of classic works such as Rossini’s William Tell Overture, Gounod’s Waltz from the opera Faust, Chabrier’s España Rhapsody, Glinka’s Overture to his opera Ruslan and Ludmilla, Wilberg’s Fantasy on Themes of Bizet’s Carmen, and Joplin’s Rag Rhapsody. The recently created New York Philharmonic String Quartet, which debuted in New York City in March, concludes the series on July 25. Concertmaster Frank Huang, Principal Associate Concertmaster Sheryl Staples, Principal Viola Cynthia Phelps, and Principal Cello Carter Brey perform Mendelssohn’s String Quartet in F minor, Beethoven’s String Quartet in C minor, and Dvorák’s String Quartet No. 12 in F major (“American”).

CLASSICALLY UNCORKED PRESENTED BY ARIETTA WINES Another uniquely intimate experience offered by Bravo! Vail, Classically Uncorked presented by Arietta Wines pairs great music with food & wine in a sophisticated, cabaret-style setting. Classically Uncorked begins August 1 with a nod to the musically named Napa Valley winery Arietta (“a short aria”), thanks to Anders Hillborg’s Kongsgaard Variations, performed by the Calder Quarter. Hillborg wrote this piece in 2006 and dedicated it to John Kongsgaard, who co- founded Arietta winery with his wife, Maggy, and Fritz and Caren Hatton. The Beethoven sonata at the heart of both the winery’s name and the variations composed by Hillborg, the Piano Sonata No. 32 in C minor, is also on the program and will be performed by Anne-Marie McDermott. Another work by Beethoven, the highly virtuosic String Quartet No. 9 in C major, Op. 59, No. 3, featuring the Calder Quartet, concludes the concert. American composer Philip Glass, who turned eighty years old on January 31, is celebrated in the second concert of the series, held on August 2, with a performance by the Aeolus Quartet of his String Quartet No. 3. The Quartet also performs String Quartet No. 2, and Schubert’s Quartettsatz. Next, the Calder Quartet performs György Kurtág’s 2005 suite Six Moments Musicaux and Schubert’s String Quartet No. 14 in D minor (“Death and the Maiden”). The final concert of the series, held on August 3, opens with Brahms’s Three Intermezzos for Solo Piano, performed by Anne-Marie McDermott . The Lyris Quartet joins McDermott for the world premiere of American composer David Ludwig’s Pangea for Strings and Piano, a Bravo! Vail Commission. The program also celebrates Philip Glass’s String Quartet No. 5, performed by the Lyris Quartet. The culmination of the Classically Uncorked series is a work that features three ensembles — the Aeolus, Calder, and Lyris quartets — performing Steve Reich’s cyclical Triple Quartet.

BRAVO VAIL AFTER DARK Putting an informal, unique, and highly accessible twist on the chamber music experience, Bravo! Vail After Dark presents three critically acclaimed quartets performing in a handful of the Vail Valley’s most popular bars and ale houses. The series features classical favorites to innovative contemporary works, performed by Ensemble Connect on July 21 at the Vail Ale House, the Danish String Quartet on July 29 at Crazy Mountain Brewing Company, and the Calder Quartet on August 4 at a down valley location to be announced.

TICKETS For tickets, please visit bravovail.org, or call the Box Office at 877.812.5700.

ABOUT BRAVO! VAIL MUSIC FESTIVAL The Bravo! Vail Music Festival brings world-renowned musicians to picturesque venues throughout the Vail Valley for nearly seven weeks, drawing music lovers from around the world. The only festival in North America to host four of the world’s finest orchestras in a single season, Bravo! Vail celebrates its 30th season from June 22 through August 4, 2017. The 2017 season features residencies with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, The Philadelphia Orchestra, and the New York Philharmonic — plus the London- based Academy of St Martin in the Fields, which, in 2016, became the first international orchestra to perform at the Festival. In addition, internationally acclaimed chamber artists and soloists perform a wide array of unique and carefully curated chamber music programs. For more information about Bravo! Vail, visit bravovail.org or call 970.827.5700.

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