This season, New York’s Orchestra of St. Luke’s “is welcoming a new principal conductor … Bernard Labadie … known for his detailed, nuanced accounts of the Baroque and Classical repertoire,” writes Michael Cooper in Thursday’s (9/13) New York Times. “The ensemble [will] present an ambitious three-week Bach festival in June, including concerts and the six dances that Paul Taylor … choreographed to Bach’s music. ‘What I would like people to realize is how modern this music still is,’ Mr. Labadie said…. A new conductor and festival are just two of the changes coming to St. Luke’s. The ensemble plans to look to music’s future …with a new initiative [that] will place four emerging composers under the tutelage of the composer Anna Clyne. The resulting pieces will be performed in July at the orchestra’s Manhattan home, the DiMenna Center for Classical Music…. The orchestra recently raised $18 million in a capital campaign that will enable it to pay off its mortgage on the center next June…. James Roe, the orchestra’s president and executive director, said that [being] on firmer financial ground … will help it pursue its artistic goals. ‘We can have a mortgage-burning party while we rehearse Bach cantatas,’ he said.”
Posted September 14, 2018
In photo: Bernard Labadie, the new principal conductor of the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, at home in Quebec City. Photo by Renaud Philippe
