A Stellar Music Lineup of Tradition & Innovation: Carnegie Hall
By Joan Baum, Ph.D.

A week later than originally planned, Carnegie Hall announced its 2004--5 season, combining a well attended news conference about the spectacular events that will be seen and heard in Stern Auditorium, Weill Recital Hall and Zankel Hall with a memorial tribute to Carnegie’s young and dynamic executive director, Robert J. Harth, whose untimely death shocked the arts community. Speaker after speaker—Sanford I. Weill, chairman of Carnegie’s Board, Ara Guzelimian, the hall’s artistic administrator, the illustrious conductor Pierre Boulez, diva Marilyn Horne, and renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma—spoke warmly and admiringly of Harth’s vision and in effect dedicated the new season to realizing his hopes and goals. Surely he must have been a whirlwind of energy as well as an exemplar of wide and diverse tastes, for the upcoming year evidences a remarkable range and depth of offerings, international in scope and stunning in firsts, including South African jazz pianist and composer Abdulla Ibrahim, a recent Stephen Sondheim import from London (“Opening Doors”), the Soweto Gospel Choir, a flamenco festival, a special tribute to John Adams, and K.D. Lang with the Brooklyn Philharmonic. Not to mention something new for Renée Fleming and oh yes, a concert performance of South Pacific.

As if the richness of performers and performances were not enough, the education part of the Carnegie season, much of it centered at Weill Music Institute, is also being dramatically expanded, including distance learning rehearsals linking 250 high school students from four choirs in different states (the actual performance in Stern Auditorium will take place on May 6). Other distance learning projects include Yo-Yo Ma and musicians from the Silk Road Ensemble. New workshops for young singers will bring soprano Dawn Upshaw and composer John Harbison together with four young composers, and the season will also see the inauguration of a series of DVD and online performance guides, the first featuring the Emerson String Quartet on an interactive website analyzing Bartok. Younger children are hardly forgotten. “Listening Adventures” will focus on “theme and variation” by way of animated images, text, and interactive involvement with Ives, Beethoven and Haydn. And for audiences of all ages there will be an “affordable” chance to explore Stravinsky’s Le sacre du printemps with Maestro Boulez and the London Symphony Orchestra.

Even series coming to conclusion promise to be memorable. Michael Tilson Thomas, finishing a two-year Perspectives, will present Remembrances of Thomashefsky’s Yiddish Theatre, a cabaret tribute to the Lower East Side and to his famous grandparents—that is, when Maestro Thomas is not leading the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra with noted soprano Barbara Bonney and 33-year old pianist, Leif Ove Andsnes. The schedule is unbelievably dazzling. Preparing for what Yo-Yo Ma has called “this absolutely exhilarating season,” Ara Guzeliminan notes that “it doesn’t seem like work when you’re having so much fun.” He is sure that audiences will agree, no matter what they choose to hear of the 210 events and over 275 participating artists from around the world. As they say, check it out: www.carnegiehall.org.#