Press Release
For Immediate Release:
February 14, 2006
New England Conservatory’s Shostakovich 100 Concert Rescheduled for Saturday, February 18
Tickets for Snowed-Out Concert on February 12 will Be Honored on New Date
Benjamin Zander to Conduct Both Fifth Symphony and First Piano Concerto with NEC Youth Philharmonic Orchestra, Pianist Alexander Korsantia
New England Conservatory’s concert celebrating the 100th Birthday of Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich has been rescheduled for Saturday, February 18 at 8 p.m. in NEC’s Jordan Hall. Directed by Tatyana Dudochkin, NEC Preparatory School piano chair, the performance was originally scheduled for Sunday, February 12. It had to be postponed due to the blizzard.
Because of pre-existing commitments, special guests conductor Maxim Shostakovich and pianist Maria Shostakovich, son and grand-daughter respectively of the composer, will no longer be able to perform. They had flown to Boston at the personal invitation of Dudochkin to take part in the celebration. While they were here, the elder Shostakovich rehearsed with the NEC Youth Philharmonic Orchestra on Saturday. He also sat in on a Friday morning rehearsal by the NEC Sinfonietta and guest conductor John Page as that ensemble prepared for a separate concert this week featuring the Shostakovich Ninth Symphony.
Conductor Benjamin Zander, who was originally scheduled to conduct the Youth Philharmonic in the Shostakovich Fifth Symphony will direct both that work and the First Piano Concerto, Op. 35, which Maxim Shostakovich was to have conducted. Pianist Alexander Kosantia of the NEC faculty will perform the solo in the concerto as planned. Also on the program: the Concertino for Two Pianos, Op. 94, with Dudochkin and Jonathan Bass of the Prep piano faculty; and Dudochkin accompanying her daughter, soprano Yelena Dudochkin, in a rediscovered suite of songs, Pictures of the Past, Op. 109 (1960). The songs are based on satirical poems by Sasha Chorny and were forbidden from performance during Shostakovich's lifetime. Music from the film The Gadfly will be performed by a unison of violins, directed by NEC Preparatory School strings chair Magdalena Suchecka Richter.
Tickets for the February 12 concert will be honored at the rescheduled event. For more information, contact the Jordan Hall Box Office at 617-585-1260.
You may also call the NEC Concert Line at (617) 585-1122 or visit NEC on the web at www.newenglandconservatory.edu/concerts
ABOUT NEW ENGLAND CONSERVATORY
Recognized nationally and internationally as a leader among music schools, New England Conservatory offers rigorous training in an intimate, nurturing community to 750 undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral music students from around the world. Its faculty of 225 boasts internationally esteemed artist-teachers and scholars. Its alumni go on to fill orchestra chairs, concert hall stages, jazz clubs, recording studios, and arts management positions worldwide. Nearly half of the Boston Symphony Orchestra is composed of NEC trained musicians and faculty.
The oldest independent school of music in the United States, NEC was founded in 1867 by Eben Tourjee. Its curriculum is remarkable for its wide range of styles and traditions. On the college level, it features training in classical, jazz, Contemporary Improvisation, world and early music. Through its Preparatory School, School of Continuing Education, and Community Collaboration Programs, it provides training and performance opportunities for children, pre-college students, adults, and seniors. Through its outreach projects, it allows young musicians to engage with non-traditional audiences in schools, hospitals, and nursing homes—thereby bringing pleasure to new listeners and enlarging the universe for classical music and jazz.
NEC presents more than 600 free concerts each year, many of them in Jordan Hall, its world- renowned, 100-year old, beautifully restored concert hall. These programs range from solo recitals to chamber music to orchestral programs to jazz and opera scenes. Every year, NEC’s opera studies department also presents two fully staged opera productions at the Cutler Majestic Theatre in Boston.
NEC is co-founder and educational partner of “From the Top,” a weekly radio program that celebrates outstanding young classical musicians from the entire country. With its broadcast home in Jordan Hall, the show is now carried by National Public Radio and is heard on 250 stations throughout the United States.