Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Announces 2019 New Music Festival

Baltimore (April 18, 2019) Under the leadership of Music Director Marin Alsop, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) announces the 2019 New Music Festival. Launched by Alsop and the BSO in 2017, the New Music Festival brings contemporary classical music to Baltimore from June 19-22.
The 2019 New Music Festival celebrates women composers ahead of the BSO’s 2019-20 season, which highlights women in music in conjunction with the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage in the U.S. Performances include the Baltimore premiere of Jennifer Higdon’s Low Brass Concerto, a BSO co-commission, as well as the world premiere of Anna Clyne’s cello concerto, Dance, with Inbal Segev.
“I’m thrilled that this year’s New Music Festival features such an outstanding group of contemporary composers, who happen to be women!” said Alsop. “Each piece of music that we’ve programmed tells a unique and compelling story, and we are proud to present a range of voices and perspectives that showcases some of the most inspired work happening in classical composition today.”

The 2019 New Music Festival kicks off on Wednesday, June 19 when composer Sarah Kirkland Snider participates in a discussion on her composition process at Red Emma’s Bookstore Café. On Thursday, June 20, Associate Conductor Nicholas Hersh leads members of the BSO and Shara Nova, also known as My Brightest Diamond, in a free concert at the Ottobar. They perform Kirkland Snider’s Penelope, a song cycle inspired by Homer’s epic The Odyssey that reflects on memory, identity and what it means to return home.
The festival continues with a concert of chamber music at Peabody Conservatory’s Griswold Hall on June 21 with Alsop and cellist Inbal Segev, co-curators of the New Music Festival, as well as members of the BSO. The concert features works by Clyne and Missy Mazzoli, winner of the 2017 Music Critics Association of North America Award. The concert also includes Joan Tower’s Petroushskates, Higdon’s Dark Wood and pieces by Jessie Montgomery, Julia Wolfe and Ellen Reid, who won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in Music.

On June 22, the New Music Festival concludes with a free orchestral performance at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. Alsop leads the BSO in Tower’s Tambor, Mazzoli’s Violent, Violent Sea and a piece by Montgomery for string orchestra. Higdon’s Low Brass Concerto, co-commissioned by the BSO, and the world premiere of Clyne’s Dance, a new concerto for cello and orchestra written for Segev, anchor the program. The concert is preceded by a block party outside of the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall with live entertainment and local food trucks as well as a roundtable composer discussion inside the lobby led by Alsop.

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FESTIVAL SCHEDULE
Composer Talk with Sarah Kirkland Snider
Wed, Jun 19, 7 pm – Red Emma’s Bookstore Café
Join Sarah Kirkland Snider, described by Pitchfork as “one of the decade’s more gifted, up-and-coming modern classical composers,” and whose music has been hailed as “rapturous” by The New York Times, for a conversation on her composition process, her song cycle Penelope and co-founding New Amsterdam Records, one of the most cutting-edge record labels in the industry.

Late Set at the Ottobar
Thu, Jun 20, 9 pm – Ottobar
BSO Associate Conductor Nicholas Hersh leads members of the BSO and genre-fusing Shara Nova in Penelope, an art-pop song sycle inspired by Homer’s The Odyssey.

Chamber Music at Peabody
Fri, Jun 21, 8 pm – Griswold Hall, Peabody Institute

Marin Alsop, conductor
Inbal Segev, cello
JOAN TOWER Petroushskates
ANNA CLYNE Fits and Starts
JENNIFER HIGDON Dark Wood
MISSY MAZZOLI A Thousand Tongues
ELLEN REID Push/Pull
JESSIE MONTGOMERY Voodoo Dolls
JULIA WOLFE Blue Dress
Music Director Marin Alsop, Inbal Segev and members of the BSO perform chamber pieces by leading women voices in contemporary music at Peabody’s Griswold Hall.

Orchestra Concert and Block Party at the Meyerhoff
Sat, Jun 22, 8 pm – Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall
Marin Alsop, conductor
Inbal Segev, cello
Aaron LaVere, trombone
Daniel Cloutier, trombone
Randall S. Campora, bass trombone
Aubrey Foard, tuba
JESSIE MONTGOMERY Starburst
MISSY MAZZOLI Violent, Violent Sea
JENNIFER HIGDON Low Brass Concerto
ANNA CLYNE Dance for Cello and Orchestra
JOAN TOWER Tambor
Marin Alsop conducts the world premiere of Anna Clyne’s cello concerto Dance, written for and performed by Inbal Segev. Pre-concert party with live entertainment and food trucks outside the Meyerhoff begins at 6 pm. Join Maestra Alsop and several of the evening’s composers at 7 pm for a roundtable discussion inside the lobby.

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VENUE INFORMATION
Red Emma’s Bookstore Café
1225 Cathedral Street, Baltimore, MD 21201
The Ottobar
2549 N Howard Street, Baltimore, MD 21218
The Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University – Griswold Hall
1 E Mount Vernon Place, Baltimore, MD 21202
Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall
1212 Cathedral Street, Baltimore, MD 21201
TICKETS
Tickets on sale through the BSO Ticket Office at 410.783.8000 or BSOmusic.org. Tickets for the Chamber Music concert at the Peabody Institute are $15. The Composer Talk, Late Set at the Ottobar and the Orchestra Concert at the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall are free of charge. For press tickets, additional artist bios or media materials, please contact the PR Department at tkopasek@BSOmusic.org.
SPONSORSHIP
The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra gratefully acknowledges the generosity of Thomas Brener and Inbal Segev, the Presenting Sponsors of the 2019 New Music Festival and the Founding Sponsors of the New Music Festival.

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ARTIST BIOS
About the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra For over a century, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) has been recognized as one of America’s leading orchestras and one of Maryland’s most significant cultural institutions. Under the direction of Music Director Marin Alsop, the orchestra is internationally renowned and locally admired for its innovation, performances, recordings and educational outreach initiatives including OrchKids. Launched by Marin Alsop and the BSO in 2008, OrchKids provides children with educational resources and fosters social change through the power of music in some of Baltimore’s most underserved communities.

The BSO is widely recognized for its highly acclaimed recordings, including a 2010 disc on the Decca label featuring Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F and Rhapsody in Blue, as well as the 2017 Naxos release of Bernstein’s Symphonies Nos. 1 and 2. Both recordings were led by Alsop and feature pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet. Alsop also led the BSO in its 2009 Naxos recording of Leonard Bernstein’s MASS. Recent releases include Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet with Alsop and Handel’s Messiah with conductor Edward Polochick and the Concert Artists of Baltimore Symphonic Chorale.

The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra performs annually for more than 350,000 people throughout the State of Maryland. Since 1982, the BSO has performed at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall in Baltimore. In 2005, with the opening of The Music Center at Strathmore in North Bethesda, MD, the BSO became the nation’s first orchestra with year-round venues in two metropolitan areas. More information about the BSO can be found at BSOmusic.org.

About Marin Alsop
Marin Alsop is an inspiring and powerful voice who passionately believes that “music has the power to change lives.” She is recognized for her innovative programming and for her deep commitment to education and to the development of audiences of all ages.

Her success as Music Director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) has been recognized by the extension of her tenure until 2021. In Baltimore, Alsop launched OrchKids, for the city’s underserved youth, and the BSO Academy and Rusty Musicians programs for adult amateur musicians. She became
Music Director of the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra in 2012 and becomes Conductor of Honor in 2019. Alsop becomes Chief Conductor of the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra in September 2019.
Alsop conducts the world’s major orchestras, including the Leipzig Gewandhaus, Royal Concertgebouw and the London Philharmonic orchestras. In September 2013, she made history as the first female conductor of the BBC’s Last Night of the Proms.

As a protégé of Leonard Bernstein, Alsop is central to his 100th-anniversary celebrations, having conducted Bernstein’s Mass at the Ravinia Festival, where she served as Musical Curator for 2018. Her extensive discography has led to multiple awards and includes a highly praised Naxos cycle of Dvorák with the BSO. Her dedication to new music is demonstrated by her 25-year tenure as Music Director of the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music and her launching the BSO’s New Music Festival in 2017.

Alsop is the only conductor to receive the MacArthur Fellowship, and she was recently appointed Director of Graduate Conducting at the Peabody Institute. She attended the Juilliard School and Yale University, which awarded her an Honorary Doctorate in 2017.

About Inbal Segev

Cellist Inbal Segev’s playing has been described as “characterized by a strong and warm tone…delivered with impressive fluency and style” and with “luscious phrasing” by The Strad. Equally committed to new repertoire and masterworks, Segev brings interpretations that are both unreservedly natural and insightful to the vast range of music she performs.

Segev has performed as soloist with acclaimed orchestras internationally and made debuts with the Berlin Philharmonic and Israel Philharmonic, led by Zubin Mehta, at age 17. She has commissioned new works by Avner Dorman, Timo Andres, Gity Razaz, Dan Visconti and more. In 2018, Segev was the first cellist to perform Christopher Rouse’s Violoncello Concerto since Yo-Yo Ma premiered it in the 1990s. She is also a founding member of the Amerigo Trio with former New York Philharmonic concertmaster Glenn Dicterow and violist Karen Dreyfus and has co-curated the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra New Music Festival with Marin Alsop since its inception in 2017.

Segev’s discography includes Romantic cello works with pianist Juho Pohjonen (AVIE); Bach’s Cello Suites (Vox), works by Lucas Richman with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (Albany), Sonatas by Beethoven and Boccherini (Opus One) and Nigun (Vox). With the Amerigo Trio she has recorded serenades by Dohnányi (Navona).

Segev's YouTube channel, featuring music videos and her popular masterclass series Musings with Inbal Segev has thousands of subscribers across continents and close to one million views. Her many honors include top prizes at the Pablo Casals, Paulo and Washington International Competitions.
Segev began playing the cello in Israel at age five and at 16 was invited by Isaac Stern to come to the U.S. to continue her studies. She holds degrees from The Juilliard School and Yale University. Segev lives in New York with her husband and three children. Her cello was made by Francesco Ruggieri in 1673.

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