New York Philharmonic Young People’s Concerts Conclude in March

By SBO+ Staff

The 94th season of the New York Philharmonic Young People’s Concerts (YPCs) will conclude on Saturday, March 11, 2017, at 2:00 p.m. with “Modern,” the final program in this season’s series, The Ages of Music — each program exploring the sound, composers, and culture of the Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and Modern eras, respectively.

The concert will feature selections from John Adams’s The Chairman Dances (Foxtrot for Orchestra); Absolute Jest, with the New York Philharmonic String Quartet as the solo ensemble; and Harmonielehre. Music Director Alan Gilbert will conduct the program; Vice President, Education, Theodore Wiprud will host the event. John Adams will appear in conversation with Alan Gilbert and Theodore Wiprud, introducing each work.

The performances are part of Alan Gilbert and the Philharmonic’s celebrations of Pulitzer Prize–winning composer John Adams’s 70th birthday year. That week, March 9–11, 2017, Alan Gilbert will lead the Orchestra in an all–John Adams program featuring his Harmonielehre and Absolute Jest, with the New York Philharmonic String Quartet as solo ensemble in its debut. The following week, March 15–18, 2017, Alan Gilbert will lead the Orchestra in a program that includes The Chairman Dances (Foxtrot for Orchestra). They will perform The Chairman Dances (Foxtrot for Orchestra), Absolute Jest, and Harmonielehre on the EUROPE / SPRING 2017 tour, March 23–April 7, 2017.

Attendees are invited to come early to take part in YPC Overtures, at which children meet Philharmonic musicians and try out orchestral instruments on the Grand Promenade and upper tiers of David Geffen Hall, starting at 12:45 p.m. Pre-concert activities inside the hall include live performances by ensembles of Philharmonic musicians of works by Very Young Composers inspired by the YPC’s thematic content.