Palm Beach Symphony announces its Golden Anniversary season in which Maestro Gerard Schwarz will be joined by pianists Yefim Bronfman, Vladimir Feltsman, Emanuel Ax and Ignat Solzhenitsyn and violinists Akiko Suwanai and Pinchas Zukerman in the six-concert Masterworks Series to be performed November 2023 – April 2024 at the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach, Florida. The Dale A. McNulty Children’s Concert Series also returns this fall to the Eissey Campus Theater with The Carnival of “More” Animals.
The season includes four world premieres that are among the five works the Symphony commissioned for its Golden Anniversary and follow the March 2023 world premiere of Joseph Schwantner’s Sojourn: Reflections on Thoreau. The world-premieres this season are composed by Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, the Miami native and South Florida resident who was first woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize in Music; Aaron Jay Kernis, another Pulitzer Prize winner and recipient of two GRAMMY® Awards; Bright Sheng, who received a MacArthur Fellowship, unofficially known as the “genius grant;” and Maestro Gerard Schwarz, who in addition to having his arrangements of orchestral works performed worldwide, has premiered and recorded his own works with leading orchestras.
Internationally recognized for his moving performances, innovative programming and extensive catalog of recordings, Maestro Schwarz is Music Director of Palm Beach Symphony, the All-Star Orchestra, Eastern Music Festival and Mozart Orchestra of New York as well as Conductor Laureate of the Seattle Symphony and Conductor Emeritus of the Mostly Mozart Festival. Also in South Florida, he serves as the Music Director of the Frost Symphony Orchestra and the Distinguished Professor of Music, Conducting and Orchestral Studies at University of Miami’s Frost School of Music. Schwarz’s extensive catalog of more than 350 recordings on 11 labels has garnered 14 GRAMMY Award nominations and includes the 30-CD box set “The Gerard Schwarz Collection.” In his five decades as a respected classical musician and conductor, Maestro Schwarz has received hundreds of honors and accolades including nine Emmy® Awards, eight ASCAP Awards and numerous “Stereo Review” and Ovation Awards. He holds the Ditson Conductor’s Award from Columbia University, was the first American named Conductor of the Year by Musical America and has received numerous honorary doctorates. His memoir, “Behind the Baton,” was released by Amadeus Press in March 2017.
Concert Listings and Briefs
Dale A. McNulty Children’s Concert Series at Eissey Campus Theater
Sunday, Oct. 7 at 3 p.m.; The Carnival of “More” Animals, conducted by Gerard Schwarz and narrated by Forrest Galante. Dale A. McNulty Children’s Concert Series at the Eissey Campus Theater on the Palm Beach State College campus at 11051 Campus Drive, Palm Beach Gardens, FL 33410. Tickets are $20 with a $10 student ticket.
The Dale A. McNulty Children’s Concert Series returns this fall with The Carnival of “More” Animals. With a new arrangement by Maestro Schwarz of Camille Saint-Saëns’ The Carnival of the Animals, the concert features animals found in Florida and integrates music with science topics related to conservation, the environment and the preservation of Florida’s indigenous animals. The multi-media presentation includes video and photos of animals filmed at Busch Wildlife Sanctuary and provided by Friends of Manatee Lagoon.
The Masterworks Series in Dreyfoos Concert Hall at the Kravis Center
Sunday, November 19 at 3 p.m.; Yefim Bronfman, piano, and conducted by Gerard Schwarz.
Masterworks Series at Dreyfoos Concert Hall, Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, 701 Okeechobee Blvd, West Palm Beach, FL 33401. Tickets are $25-$95.
Johannes Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-Flat Major, Op. 83
Bright Sheng: Black Swan (inspired by Intermezzo Op. 118, No. 2 by Johannes Brahms)
Bright Sheng: Triumph of Humanity, World Premiere
Richard Strauss: Suite from Der Rosenkavalier, Op. 59
Piano virtuoso Yefim Bronfman returns to open this Golden Anniversary Season performing Johannes Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 2, the last work that the great composer added to his repertoire as a pianist and one that is filled with technical challenges for the performer and rich rewards for the audience. The opulent splendor evoking Vienna’s Golden Age found in Richard Strauss’ Suite from Der Rosenkavalier gives the program a fitting start for this milestone season. The program also features Black Swan by Bright Sheng as well as the world premiere of his new composition, Triumph of Humanity, commissioned for the Palm Beach Symphony by Professor and Mrs. Paul de Quenoy, with support from The Common Sense Society and the Palm Beach Freedom Institute.
Internationally recognized as one of today’s most acclaimed and admired pianists, Yefim Bronfman stands among a handful of artists regularly sought by festivals, orchestras, conductors and recital series. His commanding technique, power and exceptional lyrical gifts are consistently acknowledged by the press and audiences alike. His performances this season include the opening week of the Chicago Symphony followed by return visits to New York Philharmonic, Pittsburgh, Houston, Philadelphia, New World, Pacific, Madison, New Jersey, Toronto and Montreal symphonies. In Europe he will tour with Rotterdam Philharmonic and can also be heard with Berlin Philharmonic, Bayerischer Rundfunk (Munich), Bamberg, Dresden Staatskapelle, Maggio Fiorentino and Zurich Opera orchestras. Reviewing a performance, The Washington Post reported, “His energy emanates from his fingers and swirls out of the piano with such perfection that every note grabs the ear with an expressive, singing quality. When his hands swept the full length of the keyboard in arpeggios and scales, Bronfman made it all look effortless.”
Proclaimed by the MacArthur Foundation as “an innovative composer who merges diverse musical customs in works that transcend conventional aesthetic boundaries,” Bright Sheng is respected as one of the foremost composers of our time. Sheng’s music has been widely commissioned and performed by many of the world’s most prestigious institutions including, among others: in North America by the San Francisco Opera, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, New York City Opera, New York City Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony and the Los Angeles Philharmonic; in Europe by the Orchestra de Paris, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Hamburg Radio Symphony, National Symphony of Russia, Warsaw Symphony, Copenhagen Philharmonic, National Symphony of Spain and Orchestra of National Opera of Greece; and in Asia by New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Sidney Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic, Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra and China National Symphony.
Wednesday, December 13 at 7:30 p.m.; Akiko Suwanai, violin, and conducted by Gerard Schwarz. Masterworks Series at Dreyfoos Concert Hall, Kravis Center for the Performing Arts 701 Okeechobee Blvd, West Palm Beach, FL Tickets are $25-$95.
Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto
World premiere of a composition by Gerard Schwarz
Dvořák: Symphony No. 9 “From the New World”
Palm Beach Symphony presents a concert that will transport audiences with works from great composers inspired by their travels and journey into the repertoire’s future with a world premiere. Acclaimed violinist Akiko Suwanai performs Tchaikovsky’s only Violin Concerto, a bravura and lyrical work inspired by that composer’s visit to Switzerland. Palm Beach Symphony accompanies Dvořák on his travel to the United States with Symphony No. 9 “From the New World,” a work filled with diversity that matches the nation itself and one of the greatest ever composed here. Maestro Schwarz will lead the Symphony in a world premiere of his own composition commissioned for the Palm Beach Symphony by Don and Mary Thompson in honor of the 50th Anniversary of Palm Beach Symphony.
Japanese violinist Akiko Suwanai has established herself as one of the most sought-after artists of her generation. Since winning the International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1990 she has enjoyed a flourishing career, performing chamber music worldwide and engaging at the highest-level with orchestras and conductors worldwide. In the 2022-23 season, Suwanai tours with the Rotterdam Philharmonic/Shani and performs with the BBC Symphony Orchestra/Bringuier, Sinfonieorchester Basel/Bolton, Duisberg Philharmoniker/Bellincampi, Hong Kong Symphony Orchestra/van Zweden and National Symphony Orchestra/Märkl, to name a few. Also a regular recitalist, performances in the current season include dates with Ilya Rashkovsky in Taiwan, Tomoki Sakata in Japan and Evgeny Bozhanov in Duisburg. The Washington Post reported, “Her big, focused, almost piercing tone took over, carving sonic space, a race car driver weaving in and out of (and even cutting off) traffic.”
A gifted composer and arranger, Gerard Schwarz has expanded his compositional activities in recent years. He completed five new arrangements of holiday music that was recorded by the Palm Beach Symphony for CBS12 in 2022, and his latest version of In Memoriam for Euphonium and Orchestra was premiered at the Eastern Music Festival in 2022 with Demondrae Thurman as soloist. His Trio for Violin, Horn and Piano, released on Good Child Recordings, was called a work of “sophistication and intelligence” (Seattle Post-Intelligencer). Earlier works include In Memoriam and Rudolf and Jeanette (dedicated to the memory of his grandparents who perished in the Holocaust) – both recorded by Naxos; Human Spirit, a composition for choir and orchestra and his duos for violin and cello which were called “redolent of the gentle humanism central to much of the music Schwarz loves to conduct” by The Seattle Times. A Journey, a large scale orchestral tone poem, received its world premiere at the Eastern Music Festival in July 2012. Schwarz’s work for concert band Above and Beyond was premiered by The United States Marine Band in 2013 and is now available on Naxos, recorded by the Marine Band for broadcast on PBS in November 2018. His newest work for that ensemble, a new version of Rudolf and Jeannette was premiered in February 2016. His orchestral work, A Poem, was given its first performance by the Hartford Symphony. In 2018 his Triptych for violin and cello was premiered at Bargemusic and his work for euphonium and band, based on In Memoriam, was premiered in Korea, as was his Rhapsody for Cello and Orchestra. Adagio, based on Webern’s Langsamer Satz premiered at the Eastern Music Festival in July 2019.
Monday, January 15 at 7:30 p.m.; Pinchas Zukerman, violin, and conducted by Gerard Schwarz. Masterworks Series at Dreyfoos Concert Hall, Kravis Center for the Performing Arts 701 Okeechobee Blvd, West Palm Beach, FL Tickets are $25-$95.
Tchaikovsky: Sérénade mélancolique
Tchaikovsky: “Mélodie” from Souvenir d’un lieu cher
Mozart: Violin Concerto No. 3 “Strassburg”
Adolphus Hailstork: Four Hymns Without Words
Sibelius: Symphony No. 2
Following his performance with the Symphony that was livestreamed to remote viewers during the pandemic, violin virtuoso Pinchas Zuckerman returns to perform three lush and joyful works: Tchaikovsky’s melodic Sérénade mélancolique and that composer’s sentimental “Mélodie” from Souvenir d’un lieu cher paired with Mozart’s buoyant Violin Concerto No. 3 “Strassburg.” This uplifting concert on Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday opens with Hailstork’s inspirational Four Hymns Without Words featuring Palm Beach Symphony Principal Trumpet Craig Morris. The concert culminates with Sibelius’ majestic and powerful Symphony No. 2.
With a celebrated career encompassing five decades, Pinchas Zukerman reigns as one of today’s most sought after and versatile musicians – violin and viola soloist, conductor, and chamber musician. He is renowned as a virtuoso, admired for the expressive lyricism of his playing, singular beauty for which he gained two GRAMMY awards and 21 nominations of tone, and impeccable musicianship, which can be heard throughout his discography of over 100 albums. This season’s highlights include performances with Dallas Symphony Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, Deutche Radio Philharmonie, Mannheimer Philharmoniker, Adelaide Symphony, Orchestre National de Lyon and the Valencia, Sinfonia Varsovia and Castille y Leon orchestras of Spain. Chamber music concerts take place in Japan, Italy, France, Germany and the United States. He and cellist Amanda Forsyth collaborate with friends and colleagues the Jerusalem String Quartet in sextet programs offered in both Israel and the US. The Los Angeles Times reported, “Zukerman again seemed the forever-young virtuoso: expressively resourceful, infectiously musical, technically impeccable, effortless. As usual, it was a joy to be in his musical company.”
Monday, February 5 at 7:30 p.m.; Vladimir Feltsman, piano, and conducted by Gerard Schwarz.
Masterworks Series at Dreyfoos Concert Hall, Kravis Center for the Performing Arts 701 Okeechobee Blvd, West Palm Beach, FL 33401. Tickets are $25-$95.
Grieg: Piano Concerto in A Minor
World premiere of a composition by Ellen Taaffe Zwilich
Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade
In a program that celebrates the enduring power and unending promise of orchestral music, Palm Beach Symphony presents two of the repertoire’s most popular works and a world premiere. Acclaimed pianist Vladimir Feltzman returns after performing a livestream concert with the Symphony in 2021 to deliver before a live audience the exhilarating passion and power contained in Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A Minor. Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade weaves an entrancing, musical spell that has proven worthy of the hypnotic power of its literary namesake. Audiences will be treated to a world premiere composition by Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, which is inspired by the artworks of Gil Maurer whom the work honors. This world premiere is commissioned for Palm Beach Symphony by Ambassador Bonnie McElveen-Hunter.
Pianist, conductor, and educator Vladimir Feltsman is one of the most versatile and consistently interesting musicians of our time. Born in Moscow in 1952, Mr. Feltsman debuted with the Moscow Philharmonic at the age of 11. In 1971, Mr. Feltsman won the Grand Prix at the Marguerite Long International Piano Competition in Paris; extensive tours throughout the former Soviet Union, Europe, and Japan followed. Upon his arrival in the United States in 1987 after being granted permission to leave the Soviet Union, Mr. Feltsman was warmly greeted at the White House, where he performed his first recital in North America. That same year, his debut at Carnegie Hall established him as a major pianist on the American and international scene. Since then, Mr. Feltsman has performed with major American and European orchestras and appeared at the most prestigious concert venues and music festivals worldwide. Released on the Sony Classical and Nimbus labels, Mr. Feltsman’s extensive discography includes more than 60 CDs and is still growing. In a review of a performance, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported, “…he delivers moments that border on genius, when his technique, temperament and insight converge to give you a peak musical experience.”
A prolific composer in virtually all media, Ellen Taaffe Zwilich’s works have been performed by most of the leading American orchestras and by major ensembles abroad. Her works include five symphonies and a string of concertos commissioned and performed over the past two decades by the nation’s top orchestras. Zwilich is the recipient of numerous prizes and honors, including the 1983 Pulitzer Prize in Music (the first woman ever to receive this coveted award), the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Chamber Music Prize, the Arturo Toscanini Music Critics Award, the Ernst von Dohnányi Citation, an Academy Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Guggenheim Fellowship, four GRAMMY nominations, the Alfred I. Dupont Award, Miami Performing Arts Center Award, the Medaglia d’oro in the G.B. Viotti Competition, and the NPR and WNYC Gotham Award for her contributions to the musical life of New York City. Among other distinctions, She has been elected to the American Classical Music Hall of Fame, the Florida Artists Hall of Fame, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 1995, she was named to the first Composer’s Chair in the history of Carnegie Hall, and she was designated Musical America’s Composer of the Year for 1999.
Wednesday, March 6 at 7 p.m.; Emanuel Ax, piano, and conducted by Gerard Schwarz.
Masterworks Series at Dreyfoos Concert Hall, Kravis Center for the Performing Arts 701 Okeechobee Blvd, West Palm Beach, FL 33401. Tickets are $25-$95.
Gerard Schwarz, Music Director/Conductor
Emanuel Ax, piano, and conducted by Gerard Schwarz
Aaron Jay Kernis, composer
Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 25 in C Major. K. 503
World Premiere of a composition by Aaron Kernis
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4
Piano virtuoso Emanuel Ax joins Palm Beach Symphony in a program of treasured masterworks and new discoveries. The acclaimed pianist performs Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 25 in C Major. K. 503, composed the same year as The Marriage of Figaro and displaying the same melodic genius and magnificent breadth. The Symphony will join Tchaikovsky on his exploration of fate, melancholy, whimsy and joy in that composer’s Symphony No. 4. The program features the world premiere of a composition by Aaron Jay Kernis commissioned for the Palm Beach Symphony by Ambassador Bonnie McElveen-Hunter in honor of Leonard and Judy Lauder.
Emanuel Ax made his New York debut in the Young Concert Artists Series, and in 1974 won the first Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Competition in Tel Aviv. In 1975 he won the Michaels Award of Young Concert Artists, followed four years later by the Avery Fisher Prize. The current season will include a tour with Itzhak Perlman “and Friends” and a continuation of the “Beethoven For 3” touring and recording project with partners Leonidas Kavakos and Yo-Yo Ma, this year on the west coast. In recital he can be heard in Palm Beach, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Chicago, Washington D.C., Houston, Las Vegas and New York and with orchestras in Atlanta, Detroit, Boston, San Francisco, San Diego, New York, Naples, Portland Oregon, Toronto, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Cleveland. Touring in Europe in the fall and spring includes concerts in Germany, UK, Switzerland and France. Ax has been a Sony Classical exclusive recording artist since 1987. He has received GRAMMY Awards for the second and third volumes of his cycle of Haydn’s piano sonatas. He has also made a series of GRAMMY-winning recordings with cellist Yo-Yo Ma of the Beethoven and Brahms sonatas for cello and piano. The Los Angeles Times reported, “His greatness, his overwhelming authority as musician, technician and probing intellect emerges quickly as he plays. Within minutes, we are totally captured by his intensity and pianistic achievement.”
Winner of two 2019 Grammy Awards (including “Best Contemporary Classical Composition” for his violin concerto for James Ehnes), a Pulitzer Prize, Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition, and Nemmers Award, Aaron Jay Kernis is one of America’s most performed and honored composers. His music appears prominently on concert programs worldwide, and he has been commissioned by America’s preeminent performing organizations and artists, including the New York and Royal Liverpool Philharmonics, San Francisco, Toronto, and Melbourne (AU) Symphonies, Los Angeles and Saint Paul Chamber and Minnesota Orchestras, Walt Disney Company, The Knights, San Francisco Girls and Brooklyn Youth Choruses, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Renee Fleming, Dawn Upshaw, Joshua Bell, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, and Sharon Isbin to name a few. His works have been recorded on Nonesuch, Naxos, Phoenix, Onyx, Signum, Virgin Cedille, and Argo, with which Mr. Kernis had an exclusive recording contract, and many other labels. Kernis teaches composition at Yale School of Music and was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the Classical Music Hall of Fame.
Thursday, April 25 at 7:30 p.m.; Ignat Solzhenitsyn, piano, and conducted by Gerard Schwarz, with the Frost Chorale, Frost Bella Voce, Frost Symphonic Choir, Frost Chamber Singers, and Dr. Amanda Quist, Director of Choral Activities at Frost School of Music, University of Miami. Masterworks Series at Dreyfoos Concert Hall, Kravis Center for the Performing Arts 701 Okeechobee Blvd, West Palm Beach, FL 33401. Tickets are $25-$95.
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 2
Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 “Choral”
Palm Beach Symphony’s 50th Anniversary Season culminates with an apt program that celebrates Beethoven’s early work followed by one of his greatest. Acclaimed pianist Ignat Solzhenitsyn uncovers the genius of the composer’s first full-length orchestral piece, Piano Concerto No. 2. The finale of this historic season soars to the rafters as the Symphony is joined by Frost Chorale, Frost Bella Voce, Frost Symphonic Choir and Frost Chamber Singers under the direction of Dr. Amanda Quist to perform Beethoven’s groundbreaking Symphony No. 9 “Choral” with its “Ode to Joy.” The performance comes nearly 200 years after Beethoven’s 9th Symphony was premiered in May 1824.
Recognized as one of today’s most gifted artists, and enjoying an active career as both conductor and pianist, Ignat Solzhenitsyn’s lyrical and poignant interpretations have won him critical acclaim throughout the world. His extensive touring schedule in the United States and Europe has included concerto performances with numerous major orchestras, including those of Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Seattle, Baltimore, Montreal, Toronto, London, Paris, Israel, and Sydney, and collaborations with such distinguished conductors as Herbert Blomstedt, James Conlon, Charles Dutoit, Valery Gergiev, André Previn, Gerard Schwarz, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Yuri Temirkanov and David Zinman. The New York Times reported, “Solzhenitsyn played the concerto’s solos with simple sincerity and a comfortable command of some monstrously difficult piano writing: never a false gesture, no theatrics. An apt and often-asked question goes: Does music need another young pianist? I think it can make use of this one.”
About Palm Beach Symphony
Palm Beach Symphony is South Florida’s premier orchestra known for its diverse repertoire and commitment to community. Founded in 1974, this 501(c)(3) nonprofit arts organization adheres to a mission of engaging, educating, and entertaining the greater community of the Palm Beaches through live performances of inspiring orchestral music. The orchestra is celebrated for delivering spirited performances by first-rate musicians and distinguished guest artists. Recognized by The Cultural Council for Palm Beach County with a 2020 Muse Award for Outstanding Community Engagement, Palm Beach Symphony continues to expand its education and community outreach programs with children’s concerts, student coaching sessions and master classes, instrument donations and free public concerts. For more information, visit www.palmbeachsymphony.org.
Proud sponsors of Palm Beach Symphony include Max and Christine Ansbacher, Mrs. James N. Bay, Alan Benaroya, JoAnne Berkow, David C. and Eunice Bigelow, Leslie Rogers Blum, James R. Borynack and Adolfo Zaralegui / FINDLAY Galleries, Braman Motorcars, Thomas and Carol Bruce, CIBC Private Wealth, The Colony Hotel, The David Minkin Foundation, The Frederick A. DeLuca Foundation, Echo Fine Properties, Bill and Kem Frick/The Frick Foundation, Inc., Morgan Glazar/Tom James Company, Paul and Sandra Goldner, Peter and Felicia Gottsegen/Gottsegen Family Foundation, Irwin and Janet Gusman, Thomas E. Harvey & Cathleen P. Black Foundation, Doris Hastings Foundation, John Herrick, Addison Hines Charitable Trust, George Hines, HSS Florida, IYC, Charles and Ann Johnson/The C and A Johnson Family Foundation, Barbara and William Karatz Fund/William Karatz and Joan G. Smith, Leonard and Norma Klorfine Foundation, The Kovner Foundation, Gary and Linda Lachman/The Lachman Family Foundation, Patricia Lambrecht, Tova Leidesdorf, Lugano Diamonds, The Honorable Bonnie McElveen-Hunter, The McNulty Charitable Foundation, David Moscow, NetJets, Palm Beach Design Masters, Patrick and Milly Park/Park Foundation, Nancy and Ellis J. Parker, III, PNC Private Bank, Lois Pope, Provident Jewelry, Ari Rifkin/The Len-Ari Foundation, Karen and Kenneth Rogers, Ronald Rosenfeld, David Schafer, Seth Sprague Foundation, Robin B. Smith, Kimberly Strauss, Dodie and Manley Thaler and the Thaler/Howell Foundation, Jerome and Carol Trautschold, Sieglinde Wikstrom/The Wikstrom Foundation, and The Ann Eden Woodward Foundation/James and Judy Woods. Programs are also sponsored in part by the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Arts and Culture, and the Florida Council on Arts and Culture.
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