Conductor Jeffrey Milarsky Leads the Juilliard Orchestra in Works by Part and Bartok on Thursday, November 1 at 8 PM in Alice Tully Hall
Conductor Jeffrey Milarsky leads the Juilliard Orchestra in 20th century works by Arvo
Pärt and Béla Bartók on Thursday, November 1 at 8 PM in Alice Tully Hall. The program
features Arvo Pärt’s Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten, continuing Juilliard’s
celebration of the Britten centenary; Béla Bartók’s Music for Strings, Percussion and
Celesta; and Arvo Pärt’s Symphony No. 4, “Los Angeles”.
FREE Tickets will be available beginning October 18 at the Janet and Leonard Kramer Box Office at Juilliard, located in the lobby of the School at 155 West 65th Street. Box
Office hours are Monday through Friday from 11 AM – 6 PM. For further information, call
(212) 769-7406 or go to www.juilliard.edu.
The program opens with Arvo Pärt’s six-minute work, Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten, composed in 1977. Pärt never had the chance to meet Benjamin Britten, and when Britten passed away on December 4, 1976, he was moved to write the work in his memory.
Béla Bartók composed his Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta over the summer of
1936, and the work premiered the following January with conductor Paul Sacher (1909-1999) leading the Basel Chamber Orchestra. Sacher had asked the composer to write a new work for the Orchestra’s 10th anniversary. The Orchestra had a modest budget, so Sacher asked Bartók to write for a smaller ensemble. He asked that the wind players be replaced by “a piano or cembalo…or some kind of percussion instrument.” Bartók decided on an ensemble with two different string groups in five parts, arranged on either side of a percussion ensemble featuring celesta, piano (sometimes played four-hands), harp, xylophone, and a variety of drums.
Arvo Pärt’s Symphony No. 4, “Los Angeles” was written at the behest of the Los Angeles
Philharmonic, and conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen led the orchestra in the world premiere
performance on January 10, 2009. The work was dedicated to Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the
former oil magnate who was imprisoned in Russia. In the printed program for the Los
Angeles Philharmonic concert, an insert by Pärt stated that in this work he reaches out
to “all those imprisoned without rights in Russia.”
About Jeffrey Milarsky
American conductor Jeffrey Milarsky is music director of AXIOM. Known for his innovative
programming, and a command of wide-ranging repertoire, spanning from Bach to Xenakis, Mr. Milarsky has led such groups as the American Composers Orchestra, MET Chamber Ensemble, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Milwaukee Symphony, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, New World Symphony, New York Philharmonic chamber music series, and the San Francisco Symphony. In the United States and abroad, he has premiered and recorded works by groundbreaking contemporary composers, including Charles Wuorinen, Fred Lerdahl, Milton Babbitt, Elliott Carter, Gerard Grisey, Jonathan Dawe, Tristan Murail, Ralph Shapey, Luigi Nono, Mario Davidovsky and Wolfgang Rihm. In September of 2008, he was named to the conducting faculty of Juilliard. Mr. Milarsky is senior lecturer in music at Columbia University, where he is the music director and conductor of the Columbia University Orchestra.
Mr. Milarsky continues his relationship with the Los Angeles Philharmonic where he has
conducted for the last two seasons. He also is scheduled to conduct concerts with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at Walt Disney Concert Hall in 2013-2014. This past season Mr.
Milarsky conducted the San Francisco Symphony in San Francisco, Michigan, and at Carnegie Hall. In addition to Los Angeles and San Francisco, he will conduct in Norway, Italy, and Paris in the 2012-2013 season. Mr. Milarsky appears regularly at Carnegie Hall with the American Composers Orchestra, and also recently performed at IRCAM in Paris, conducting and recording compositions by Joshua Fineberg and Tristan Murail.
A highly sought-after timpanist and percussionist, Mr. Milarsky has performed and
recorded with the New York Philharmonic, The Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Pittsburgh
Symphony Orchestra, among other ensembles. In addition, Mr. Milarsky was named the
principal timpanist for the Santa Fe Opera beginning in the summer of 2005. He has
recorded extensively for Angel, Bridge, Teldec, Telarc, New World, CRI, MusicMasters,
EMI, Koch, and London records. Mr. Milarsky received his bachelor and master of music
degrees from The Juilliard School. Upon graduation, he was awarded the Peter Mennin Prize for outstanding leadership and achievement in the arts.
