Wednesday, May 8, 2013
BUFFALO PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA
JoAnn Falletta, music director
Giya Kancheli: “Morning Prayers” from Life Without Christmas
*****
Reinhold Glière: Symphony No. 3, “Ilya Muromets”
About Buffalo
Population 261,310 (Metro area: 1.5 million)
Founded 1831
Orchestra Founded 1935
Buffalo earned a national reputation in the 19th and 20th centuries as home to the world’s busiest inland port and as an industrial powerhouse. Located at the western terminus of the Erie Canal on Lake Erie, today it is home to a vibrant cultural center, with more than 20 professional theaters, a rich variety of art and history museums, and an active cross-genre music scene.
Buffalo is equally proud of its sports teams, including the Bills (the only NFL team to win four consecutive conference championships); the Sabres hockey team, the Toronto Blue Jays AAA affiliate, the Bisons, and the indoor lacrosse team, the Bandits. The region is home to seventeen colleges, including two SUNY schools. An estimated 1.5 million people live and work in Buffalo and the surrounding region.
Buffalo’s rich architectural heritage includes buildings designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, HH Richardson, and Louis Sullivan, and a park system designed by Frederick Law Olmsted. The Buffalo Philharmonic’s home, Kleinhans Music Hall, is an integral part of this heritage. It was built between 1938 and 1940, through funds provided by clothing store magnates Edward and Mary Seaton Kleinhans, and by the Works Progress Administration. Designed by Eliel and Eero Saarinen, it has been designated a National Historic Landmark, one of nine in the region.
About the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra
As Buffalo’s cultural ambassador, the Grammy Award-winning Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra under Music Director JoAnn Falletta presents more than 120 concerts a year, from classics to rock, pops to family.
The BPO was founded in 1935 and since 1940 has made its home at Kleinhans Music Hall. Josef Krips, Lukas Foss, Michael Tilson Thomas and Semyon Bychkov are among the luminaries who have served as music directors of the BPO, which has also welcomed many distinguished guest performers and conductors, including Isaac Stern, Aaron Copland, Van Cliburn and Igor Stravinsky.
During the 2012-2013 season, the orchestra will present two world premieres—Eric Ewazen’s triple trombone concerto and Geoffrey Gordon’s flute concerto—and will perform with artists such as James Galway, Joyce Yang, Béla Fleck and Kathleen Battle. The orchestra continues to champion music education on all levels, offering programs for students aligned with the New York State educational standards, free lectures on music at local libraries, and a new “Know the Score” series. These casual evenings are designed to meld music and art and present the story behind a composition, with visual presentations and insights by the orchestra’s artistic leadership and a chance for the audience to meet the BPO musicians.
During the tenure of JoAnn Falletta, who has served as music director since 1999, the BPO has returned to making broadcasts and recordings. They have released 24 CDs on the NAXOS and Beau Fleuve labels and their NAXOS Naxos recording of John Corigliano’s Mr. Tambourine Man: Seven Poems of Bob Dylan won two Grammys. For more information, visit www.bpo.org.
