The 2019-20 Season
Westchester Philharmonic
2019-2020 Season
Oct. 27, 2019, 3:00 pm
Breaking New Ground
The Emily and Eugene Grant Series
Eric Jacobsen, conducting
Simone Porter, violin
Caroline Shaw: Entr’acte
Barber: Violin Concerto
Brahms: Symphony No. 2
Pre-concert discussion with the artists at 2 pm.
Read the October Program Notes
Ground-breaking musical moments arrive with conductor Eric Jacobsen (co-founder of The Knights; Music Director of Orlando Philharmonic and Bridgeport Symphony) and the astonishing young violinist Simone Porter in a program that seamlessly connects music from the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries.
“She reminded me most of all of the young Yehudi Menuhin…if you want to encounter someone who has all the potential to be one of the great violinists of her era, grab a ticket.” – Edmonton Journal
“Jacobsen is an interpretive dynamo.” – New York Times
“Worby’s multi-sensual vision of music commands the ear and the eye, the head and the heart.” – Pasadena Reporter
“HyeJin Kim’s hands appear to pirouette on the keys: she jumps over several octaves and then, in other passages, allows harmonies to dreamily flow.” – WAZ-Witten
Dec. 8, 2019, 3:00 pm
A Vision of Sound
Rachael Worby, conducting
HyeJin Kim, piano
Members of Ballet Hispanico, Eduardo Vilaro, Artistic Director
Ellington/Strayhorn: Take the A Train
Ellington: Excerpts from River Suite
Jed Feuer: 4 AM (world premiere)
Paquito D’Rivera: Danzón
Dave Brubeck: Kathy’s Waltz
Dizzy Gillespie: Manteca
Bernstein: Times Square (from “On the Town”)
Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue
This concert will be performed without intermission. Please note that there is no pre-concert talk before this performance.
Read the December Program Notes
Rachael Worby’s debut performances this past season imbued us with a fearlessness of the unexpected. December’s A Vision of Sound explores jazz and Latin jazz influences on American classical music, highlighted by HyeJin Kim and Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and a collaboration with members of Eduardo Vilaro’s Ballet Hispanico.
“Ogren possesses brilliant mastery of orchestral color.” – Spokesman Review
“Mr. Dank played brilliantly, giving a muscular and virtuosic performance.” – The New York Times
“Impeccable technical surety…explosive force and triumphant exultation.” – Washington Post
February 9, 2020, 3:00 pm
A Sound Vision
Rachael Worby, conducting
Gregg August, double bass
Simon Boyar, vibraphone
Ashley Faatoalia, tenor
Chad Smith, saxophone
Ray Ushikubo, violin
Bernstein: Mambo
Thelonious Monk: Misterioso
John Williams: Escapades for alto saxophone and orchestra (from "Catch Me If You Can")
Leigh Harline: When You Wish Upon a Star
Bernard Hermann: North by Northwest
Music of The Temptations, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, and Smokey Robinson
Bernstein: West Side Story Suite (violin concerto arrangement by David Newmann)
Pre-concert discussion with the artists at 2 pm.
Read the February Program Notes
Some artists have headlights that go further in the dark than everyone else’s. Filmdom’s Disney, Spielberg and Hitchcock, Motown’s Gordy Berry, and Leonard Bernstein are some who re-defined how we see things and how it could sound. Ray Ushikubo rocks West Side Story, Ashley Faatoalia summons the Motown spirt, and Rachael Worby and the Phil paint the essential sonic picture of the beating American heart.
April 19, 2020, 3:00 pm
Eternal Spring: Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day
Jayce Ogren, conducting
Ran Dank, piano
Mendelssohn: Hebrides Overture
Copland: Appalachian Spring (complete ballet)
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 4
Pre-concert discussion with the artists at 2 pm.
Conductor Jayce Ogren, who began his career on a high rung as the Cleveland Orchestra’s assistant conductor, has guest-conducted the major symphony orchestras of the world and regularly collaborates with Rufus Wainwright. He is joined by Israeli pianist Ran Dank for Beethoven’s most intimate Piano Concerto No. 4. And to honor the 50th anniversary of Earth Day on April 22nd, we’ve chosen two works composed as love letters to our planet.
