The Juilliard School Announces Expanded Second Season of Historical Performance Concerts
Visiting Guest Conductors to Include Early Music Specialists Harry Bicket, William Christie, Nicholas McGegan, Jordi Savall, and Juilliard Historical Performance Artistic Director and Baroque Violinist, Monica Huggett
Juilliard's Historical Performance program enters its second year and presents an expanded schedule of performances in the 2010-2011 season featuring Juilliard415, the School's period-instrument group, in seven concerts, and Juilliard Baroque, the faculty ensemble, in two concerts - one at Juilliard and one presented on the Music Before 1800 series. Juilliard's Historical Performance program is led by Artistic Director and Baroque violinist Monica Huggett. Visiting guest conductors this season include early music specialists Harry Bicket, William Christie, Nicholas McGegan, and Jordi Savall. The program collaborates with Juilliard Opera on its first opera production, L'incoronazione di Poppea, conducted by Mr. Bicket and directed by Edward Berkeley and featuring singers from Juilliard Opera with Juilliard Historical Performance musicians on November 17, 19 and 21. Also this season, Juilliard Historical Performance partners with Yale Institute of Sacred Music and the Yale Schola Cantorum with conductor Masaaki Suzuki in Bach's St. Matthew Passion with performances in New Haven (May 6) at Woolsey Hall and in New York (May 7) (location to be announced).
The season opens with Monica Huggett leading Juilliard415 with singers from Juilliard's Vocal Arts program in an all-Bach concert on Thursday, October 7 at 8 PM in Juilliard's Peter Jay Sharp Theater. The program features J.S. Bach's Cantata BWV 151 ("Süsser Trost mein Jesus kommt"); Cantata BWV 82a ("Ich habe genug"); Orchestral Suite No. 1 in C Major, BWV 1066 and Orchestral Suite No. 4 in D Major, BWV 1069.
On Thursday, October 21 at 8 PM in Paul Hall, Juilliard Baroque performs quartets and quintets by Mozart, Giordani, Hoffmeister, and J.C. Bach. The program features Mozart's Quartet for Flute, Violin, Viola and Cello in D Major, K. 285; Giordani Quartet (to be decided); Hoffmeister's Double Bass Quartet No. 2 in D Minor; Mozart's Quartet for Oboe and Strings in F Major, K. 370; and J.C. Bach's Quintet for Flute, Oboe, Violin, Cello and Harpsichord, Op. 22, No. 1 in D Major.
In November, Juilliard Historical Performance collaborates with Juillard Opera on its first opera production, Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea (The Coronation of Poppea) featuring Juilliard Opera singers with Historical Performance musicians on Wednesday, November 17 and Friday, November 19 at 8 PM with a Sunday matinee at 2 PM on November 21 in Juilliard's Peter Jay Sharp Theater. Harry Bicket, artistic director of The English Concert, conducts and Juilliard faculty member, Edward Berkeley, directs the production. The opera, which had its premiere in 1643, is in three acts and set in ancient Rome. The characters include Nero, the Roman emperor; Poppea, his lover; Ottone, Poppea's fiancé; Drusilla, who is in love with Ottone; and Octavia, Nero's wife.
Internationally renowned as an opera and concert conductor of distinction, Harry Bicket is especially noted for his interpretation of the Baroque and Classical repertoire; in September 2007 he took up the position of artistic director of The English Concert, one of the U.K.'s finest period orchestras. Born in Liverpool, he studied at the Royal College of Music and Oxford University and is an accomplished harpsichordist. He made his Glyndebourne Festival debut in 1996 with Peter Sellars' landmark production of Theodora and returned in 1999 and 2003. In 2004, he began his relationship with the Metropolitan Opera with an acclaimed new production of Rodelinda that starred Renée Fleming and David Daniels, and was immediately re-engaged for Giulio Cesare (2006-07) and La clemenza di Tito (2008). Mr. Bicket has a strong following in Europe and North America, and has appeared widely with period orchestras and ensembles, including the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the Handel and Haydn Society, as well as festivals such as Glimmerglass, Spoleto, Aspen and Santa Fe. He also has recently enjoyed great success with leading mainstream symphonic orchestras.
Conductor Nicholas McGegan returns to Juilliard to lead Juilliard415 on Saturday, November 20 at 8 PM in Alice Tully Hall. The program will include a rare Handel cantata, Clori, Tirsi, e Fileno, HMV 96 and Vivaldi's Concerto for Two Flutes in C Major, RV 533. Mr. McGegan also conducts the Juilliard Orchestra on Monday, November 22 at 8 PM in Alice Tully Hall.
Nicholas McGegan's 2009-2010 season included appearances with the St. Louis Symphony, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, and the Cincinnati Symphony. Active in opera, as well as the concert hall, Mr. McGegan was principal conductor of Sweden's 18th Century Theater Drottningholm from 1993-1996, running the annual festival there. He has been a pioneer in the process of exporting historically informed practice beyond the small world of period instruments to the wider one of conventional symphonic forces, guest conducting orchestras like the Concertgebouw, Suisse Romande, Halle, Chicago, Philadelphia, Toronto, and Sydney symphonies and the New York, Los Angeles, and Hong Kong Philharmonics, as well as opera companies such as Covent Garden, San Francisco, Santa Fe, and Washington. Through more than twenty years as its music director, Nicholas McGegan has established the San Francisco-based Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra (PBO) as one of the leading period performance ensembles in the United States. Born in England, Mr. McGegan was educated at Oxford and Cambridge. He was made an OBE (Officer of the British Empire) ‘for services to music overseas' in the Queen's Birthday Honours list published on June 12, 2010.
Early music specialist and founder of Les Arts Florissants, William Christie, returns to Juilliard to lead Juilliard415 on Friday, December 3 at 8 PM in Juilliard's Peter Jay Sharp Theater. (Program to be announced.)
Born in Buffalo, New York, William Christie studied at Harvard and Yale Universities and has lived in France since 1971. The major turning point in his career came in 1979 when he founded Les Arts Florissants. Major public recognition for Mr. Christie came in 1987 with the production of Atys by Lully at the Ópera Comique in Paris, which then went on to tour internationally with much success. His extensive discography (more than 70 recordings, many of which have won awards in France and abroad) with Harmonia Mundi and Warner Classics/Erato is proof of this versatility. Since November 2002, William Christie and Les Arts Florissants have recorded for Virgin Classics. Mr. Christie has an increasingly busy operatic career and his collaborations with renowned theater and opera directors, are always significant events in the musical calendar. He lectures on music and has recently established an academy for young singers called Le Jardin des Voix. Mr. Christie was the first American to become a professor at the Paris Conservatoire (1982), was awarded the French Légion d'Honneur in 1993, and is now a French citizen. He was elected a member of the French Académie des Beaux-Arts on November 12, 2008.
Juilliard's Historical Performance season continues with an evening of chamber music on Thursday, December 16 at 8 PM in Juilliard's Paul Hall. (Program to be announced.)
On Sunday, January 30 at 4 PM at Corpus Christi Church (529 West 121st Street, Manhattan), Juilliard Baroque performs on the Music Before 1800 series. The program, "The French Connection: Paris and the Symphonie Concertante," features an evening of sinfonia concertantes by Mozart, Haydn, and St. Georges. Mozart wrote his famous Sinfonia Concertante in 1779 after visiting Paris; and there are similarities between his work and the Symphonie Concertante of St. Georges. Composer St. George, of French and Senegalese nationality, was a dominant figure in French musical circles at the time. For further information on the Music Before 1800 series, call (212) 666-9266.
Monica Huggett leads Juilliard415 in "Music from the Time of Monteverdi" on Thursday, February 3 at 8 PM in Juilliard's new Willson Theater. The program includes music by Marco Antonio Ferro, Dario Castello, Biagio Marini, Salamone Rossi, Tarquinio Merula, Francesco Cavalli, Giovanni Battista Fontana, Fray Bartolomé de Selma y Salaverde, Giovanni Picchi, and Adam Jarzębski.
Viol master, conductor, and early music specialist Jordi Savall returns to lead Juilliard415 on Saturday, March 19 at 8 PM in Alice Tully Hall. (Program to be announced.)
Jordi Savall was educated at the Barcelona Conservatory of Music (1959-65); immediately afterwards he began training in ancient music, collaborating with Ars Musicae and studying at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Switzerland (1968-70). In 1974, with his wife, the soprano Montserrat Figueras, and other musicians from different countries, he created Hespèrion XX. He and the ensemble rapidly came to the forefront of the interpretation of medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque music, and created a new style of interpretation characterized by great musical vitality, and at the same time, maximum historical fidelity. After living in Switzerland for twenty years, he returned to Barcelona to found La Capella Reial de Catalunya, an ensemble dedicated to the interpretation of vocal music prior to the year 1800. Finally, in 1989, he created the Baroque and Classic orchestra, Le Concert des Nations. Unanimously recognized as one of the main present-day interpreters of the bass viol, during these last twenty years, Mr. Savall has maintained an intense schedule as concert performer and director, making more than 170 recordings and winning numerous distinctions, such as the Grand Prix de L'Académie du Disque Lyrique 1990. In 1988, Mr. Savall was designated Officer of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Minister of Culture. In 1990, the Generalitat of Catalunya awarded him the Creu de Saint Jordi. Since 1973, Mr. Savall has been a teacher at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. His work in teaching, research, and as a concert performer makes him one of the main figures in the process of revaluation of historical music which is now happening in Europe.
Monica Huggett leads Juilliard415 in their final appearance of the season on Thursday, April 21 at 8 PM in Alice Tully Hall. (Program to be announced.)
The Historical Performance season concludes in a collaboration with Yale Institute of Sacred Music and the Yale Schola Cantorum with performances in New Haven (May 6) at Woolsey Hall and in New York (May 7). Masaaki Suzuki conducts Juilliard415 with Robert Mealy, leader.
Conductor, organist and harpsichordist, Masaaki Suzuki, founded the Bach Collegium Japan in 1990 and has established himself as a leading authority on the works of Bach. He has remained the group's music director and takes the group to major venues and festivals in Europe and the United States. He has worked with renowned European soloists and groups such as Collegium Vocale Gent and the Freiburger Barockorchester, with whom he visited several European capitals. He recently appeared in London with the Britten Sinfonia in a program of Britten, Mozart, and Stravinsky. Upcoming engagements with other ensembles include the Hong Kong Philharmonic, the Nagoya Philharmonic, and the Netherlands Radio Chamber Philharmonic Orchestras. His impressive discography on the BIS label has brought him critical acclaim. Mr. Suzuki combines his conducting career with his work as an organist and harpsichordist. Born in Kobe, he graduated from Tokyo University of Fine Arts and Music with a degree in composition and organ performance and studied harpsichord and organ at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam under Ton Koopman and Piet Kee.
About Monica Huggett, Artistic Director of Juilliard's Historical Performance Program
Monica Huggett (violin, artistic director of Historical Performance at Juilliard) is world-renowned for her expressive and impassioned performances. She currently is artistic director of the Portland (Oregon) Baroque Orchestra and the Irish Baroque Orchestra based in Dublin. Ms. Huggett became artistic director of The Juilliard School's Historical Performance program on July 1, 2008. During the past four decades, she has co-founded, with Ton Koopman, the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra; founded her own London-based ensemble, Sonnerie; worked with Christopher Hogwood at the Academy of Ancient Music, and with Trevor Pinnock and the English Concert; and toured the United States in concert with James Galway. Ms. Huggett has served as guest director of the Arion Baroque Orchestra, Montreal; Tafelmusik, Toronto; the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra; Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, San Francisco; the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra; Orquestra Barroca de Sevilla; and Concerto Copenhagen. She also performs frequently as a solo violinist all over the world.
Education of young performers is important to Ms. Huggett, who has given master classes in Banff, Dartington, Vicenza, Dublin, The Hague, and Medellín; and has been professor of Baroque violin at the Hochschule für Künste, Bremen. Ms. Huggett holds an honorary fellowship in the Royal Academy of Music. Her expertise in the musical and social history of the Baroque Era is unparalleled among performing musicians. This huge body of knowledge and understanding, coupled with her unique interpretation of Baroque music, has made her an invaluable resource to students of the Baroque violin.
Ms. Huggett, along with Historical Performance faculty member Gonzalo Ruiz, was recently nominated for a Grammy award for their recording with Ensemble Sonnerie of J.S. Bach's Orchestral Suites. Among her prizes are Gramophone magazine's Editor's Choice Award, 1997, for J.S. Bach's Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin; the Vantaa Baroque Energy Prize (Finland), 2005; and Gramophone's Best Instrumental Recording Award for Heinrich Biber's Violin Sonatas, 2002.
Ms. Huggett's discography numbers in the hundreds and is on various labels - EMI, Harmonia Mundi, Philips Virgin, Erato, and Decca. She currently is working on reviving some of these recordings, which now are out of print. Her newest recording, Suites for a Young Prince with Ensemble Sonnerie and featuring Juilliard Baroque oboe faculty member Gonzalo Ruiz was nominated for a Grammy.
Born in London, Ms. Huggett began her violin studies at age six and entered the Royal Academy of Music in London at age sixteen, where she was a student of Manoug Parikian. It was there that she discovered her affinity for Baroque violin and the performance of period music.
About Juilliard's Historical Performance Program
Juilliard's Historical Performance program enters its second year and will welcome 11 new students this fall to the program, bringing the total number of students enrolled in the program to 24. The program is open to master of music degree and graduate diploma candidates and offers comprehensive study focusing on music from the High Baroque through the Early Classical eras. The performance-oriented curriculum fosters an informed, vital understanding of the many issues unique to period instrument performance with the level of technical excellence and musical integrity for which Juilliard is renowned. Joint projects and collaborations with the School's Dance and Drama Divisions and Vocal Arts program, and with modern instrument students outside of the Historical Performance program, will be encouraged.
The master of music degree program requires a two-year residency; the graduate diploma program with a major in Historical Performance is a two-year, non-degree course of study. Along with weekly lessons and frequent performances, the curriculum also includes core classes covering a broad range of issues related directly to performance, including style and interpretation, historical and cultural contexts, analytical methods and treatises, historical dance, improvisation, continuo improvisation/figured bass reading, and ornamentation.
Guest residencies are an important part of the Historical Performance program's annual schedule, as are master classes with experts from around the world.
For further information on the Historical Performance program, contact Juilliard's Admissions Office at (212) 799-5000, ext. 223 or go to www.juilliard.edu.
Juilliard Historical Performance
2010-2011 Season
Calendar of Events
Thursday, October 7, 8 PM, Peter Jay Sharp Theater
Juilliard415
Monica Huggett, Conductor
All-Bach program
Cantata BWV 151 ("Süsser Trost mein Jesus kommt")
Cantata BWV 82a ("Ich habe genug")
Orchestral Suite No. 1 in C Major, BWV 1066
Orchestral Suite No. 4 in D Major, BWV 1069
Thursday, October 21, 8 PM, Paul Hall
Juilliard Baroque
Quartets and Quintets
Mozart - Quartet for Oboe and Strings in F Major, K. 370
Giordani - Quartet (to be decided)
Hoffmeister - Double Bass Quartet No. 2 in D Minor
J.C. Bach - Quintet for Flute, Oboe, Violin, Cello and Harpsichord, Op. 22, No. 1 in D Major
Wednesday, November 17 and Friday, November 19 at 8 PM and Sunday, November 21 at 2 PM
Peter Jay Sharp Theater
Juilliard Opera
Juilliard Historical Performance
Harry Bicket, Conductor
Edward Berkeley, Director
Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea (The Coronation of Poppea)
Saturday, November 20, 8 PM, Alice Tully Hall
Juilliard415
Nicholas McGegan, Conductor
Handel - Clori, Tirsi, e Fileno, HWV 96
Vivaldi - Concerto for Two Flutes in C Major, RV 533
Friday, December 3, 8 PM, Peter Jay Sharp Theater
Juilliard415
William Christie, Conductor
Program to be announced.
Thursday, December 16, 8 PM, Paul Hall
An Evening of Chamber Music
Program to be announced.
Sunday, January 30, 4 PM, Corpus Christi Church, 529 West 121st Street
Music Before 1800 series
Juilliard Baroque with members of Juilliard415
Monica Huggett, Conductor
"The French Connection: Paris and the Symphonie Concertante"
Sinfonia concertantes by Mozart, Haydn, and St. Georges
Thursday, February 3, 8 PM, Willson Theater
Juilliard415
Monica Huggett, Conductor
"Music From the Time of Monteverdi"
Works by Marco Antonio Ferro, Dario Castello, Biagio Marini, Salamone Rossi, Tarquinio Merula, Francesco Cavalli, Giovanni Battista Fontata, Fray Bartolomé de Selma y Salaverde, Giovanni Picchi, and Adam Jarzębski will be featured.
Saturday, March 19, 8 PM, Alice Tully Hall
Juilliard415
Jordi Savall, Conductor
Program to be announced.
Thursday, April 21, 8 PM, Alice Tully Hall
Juilliard415
Monica Huggett, Conductor
Program to be announced.
Friday, May 6 and Saturday, May 7
Juilliard415
Maasaki Suzuki, Conductor
Yale Schola Cantorum
Robert Mealy, Leader
J.S. Bach - St. Matthew Passion
Friday, May 6 - Performance in New Haven at Woolsey Hall
Saturday, May 7 - Performance in New York (location to be announced)
TICKET AND BOX OFFICE INFORMATION:
All events with the exception of the Music Before 1800 concert are FREE; tickets are required and available at the Janet and Leonard Kramer Box Office at Juilliard, two weeks before each event. For further information, call (212) 769-7406 or go to www.juilliard.edu.
For further information on the Music Before 1800 series, call (212) 666-9266 or go to www.musicbefore1800.org.
VENUES:
Morse Hall at Juilliard, 155 West 65th Street, Street Level, NYC
Rosemary and Meredith Willson Theater at Juilliard, 155 West 65th Street, 3rd Floor, NYC
Paul Hall at Juilliard, 155 West 65th Street, 1st Floor, NYC
Peter Jay Sharp Theater at Juilliard, 155 West 65th Street, Street Level, NYC
Corpus Christi Church, Music Before 1800, 529 West 121st Street, NYC
Woolsey Hall, Yale University, 470 College and Grove Streets, New Haven, CT
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