The New York Youth Symphony will open its 2009-10 season at Carnegie Hall with a November 22 program that mixes well-known works of Tchaikovsky and Ravel with a newly commissioned work. The concert, led by Music Director Ryan McAdams and Chris Winans, director of the NYYS’s Jazz Band Classic ensemble, features the world premiere of Kyle Blaha’s Filigree for clarinet and orchestra, with soloist Sarah Beaty; Blaha, a doctoral candidate at The Juilliard School, was commissioned to write the work at part of the orchestra’s First Music Series. Blaha is the 76th composer to be commissioned in that series. Also on the program are Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloé Suite No. 2 and Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker, interspersed with movements from Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn’s reinvention of the Tchaikovsky work. During the concert, actor Sigourney Weaver will present the 15th annual Theodore L. Kesselman Award for Arts Education to jazz saxophonist Jimmy Heath; WQXR announcer Elliott Forrest will host the onstage presentation.
Posted October 29, 2009
