Queens Symphony Orchestra Brass Trumpet New Program

A piano trio from the Maspeth-based classical music troupe Musica Reginae performed the slow movement from Mendelssohn’s Second Piano Trio at a Friday, Oct. 2 press conference announcing the upcoming season of the Queens Symphony Orchestra. As shown above, the trio performed at London Lennie’s restaurant in Rego Park: (from left to right) violinist and artistic director for Musica Reginae, Caroline Chin, pianist and executive director Barbara Podgurski and cellist Robert Burkhart. Musica Reginae will be performing a world premiere with the Queens Symphony Orchestra in February 2010. Hard economic times have put a damper on nonprofit arts organizations across the land, but the leadership of the Queens Symphony Orchestra sounded an optimistic note at a Friday, Oct. 2 press conference to announce its 2009-10 season.

Unveiling a program that includes masterworks performances, young people’s concerts, free outdoor shows, a collaboration with the Queens Public Library and three world premieres of new composi tions, Executive Director Lynda Herndon and Music Director Con stantine Kitsopoulos insisted that Queens’ largest and oldest pro fessional arts organization is going strong.

“In a way, the economy has pre sented an opportunity,” Kitsopoulos said over breakfast at London Lennie’s restaurant in Rego Park, where the press conference was held. “We’ve had to find new ways to sur vive and thrive, and it’s forced us to innovate.”

A mandate for new music

Founded in 1953 by David Katz father of City Council Mem ber Melinda Katz with the mission of allowing Queens residents to ex perience professional quality classi cal music without having to travel into Manhattan, the Queens Sym phony Orchestra had long made its reputation performing the classics.

According to Marketing Manager Kate Oberjat, that has changed with the hiring of Kitsopoulos in 2006.

“People love the old war horses,” said Oberjat. “The Brahms, the Beethoven. But it’s important for us to perform new music. Our audience has grown by 300 percent since Con stantine came on board, and I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that he’s premiering new music.”

This year, Kitsopoulos’ orchestra will world premier three new compo sitions, including “Variation On A Theme By Sondheim” by the Broad way orchestrator Michael Staroben on Oct. 24, as well as “De Camera,” written by George Walker and “Dreams of Flying,” by Victoria Bond, both on Feb. 20, 2010.

“As an artist it’s what gets me ex cited,” said the maestro. “Part of it is that I get to be in on the composition. For example, Staroben has already sent some sketches from his compo sition, and while it’s his music, and I wouldn’t presume to tell him how to write it, I can give him my reactions as he goes along.”

“It’s very satisfying,” he added, “for me to see the music take body.”

New work with younger troupe

The Queens Symphony Orchestra has also placed an increased its focus on working with younger musicians in recent years. This impulse has led to a series of young people’s con certs, a lecture series hosted by the Queens Public Library and the resur rection of the orchestra’s long dor mant Young Soloists Competition.

In 2010, it will also mean a col laboration with a Maspeth based classical music troupe that is cele brating its 10th anniversary this year.

Joining Herndon and Kitsopoulos at the press conference was a trio of young musicians from Musica Regi nae pianist Barbara Podgurski, who doubles as Musica Reginae’s execu tive director; violinist and artistic di rector Caroline Chin; and cellist Robert Burkhart that performed the slow movement of Felix Mendelssohn’s Second Piano Trio for the assembled press.

When the three musicians join the Queens Symphony Orchestra in Feb ruary, they will be performing the new piece from Walker, who became the first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1996.

“It’s going to be a Triple Con certo,” said Burkhart, referring to a composition for a piano trio backed by a full orchestra. “There really aren’t a lot of these written, and they’re rarely performed, so it’s very exciting to be premiering a new one.”

Podgurski noted that she was thrilled to be working with the Queens Symphony Orchestra, and that her organization is also taking care to navigate difficult times.

“We’ve taken a lot of precaution ary steps to keep us going,” she said. “So far, things have been ok. We’ve managed to keep very busy.”

With a 2009 10 program that in cludes a jazz fusion collaboration with the acclaimed Wycliffe Gordon as well as a ragtime concert with the conductor Rick Benjamin, the com paratively new Musica Reginae hopes that it can continue to grow its audience.

“We still see people traveling into the city for music,” said board presi dent George Franke, “and they don’t have to. They can stay right here in Queens and hear great music.”

Symphony 101

In addition to touting the season’s musical performances, Herndon ex pressed a special enthusiasm for the orchestra’s Symphony 101 program, which will send Kitsopoulos and a re volving slate of the orchestra’s musi cians to lecture at the branches of the Queens Public Library with an eye to educating new audiences on the basic components of orchestral music.

Broken up into four parts, entitled “String Attached,” “World of Winds,” “Bring on the Bass,” and “Shake, Rattle and Roll,” the series will come to the Central Library in Jamaica and the Jackson Heights Li brary on Nov. 21, Dec. 12 and Jan. 23, and visit the Flushing Library on Feb. 6, Feb. 13, Mar. 6 and Apr. 3.

“This is something we’re hoping to expand in the future,” offered Herndon.

Upcoming performances

The orchestra’s first performance of the upcoming season is a Young People’s Concert of “Guachito and the Pony,” a piece about a boy and a horse that travel from South America to North America, and follows them as they experience the music of the countries that they pass through along the way.

The show includes singing by costumed characters and some audi ence participation. The 45 minute performance will take place on Thursday, Oct. 15 at the Kupferberg Center at Queens College, 65 30 Kissena Blvd. in Flushing, at 10 a.m. and again at 11:30 a.m.

The Queens Symphony Orches tra’s first Masterworks Concert of the season will be held on Saturday, Oct. 24 at 7:30 p.m. at the Queensborough Performing Arts Center, located at Queensborough Community College, 222 05 56th Ave. in Bayside.

Entitled “The New Salon Music,” the performance features a pre con cert lecture by Kitsopoulos, at 6:30 p.m., Bach’s “Symphony No. 1 in G Major,” the world premier of “Varia tion On A Theme by Sondheim,” by Michael Starobin, “Concerto for Clarinet,” by Aaron Copland, featur ing Andrew Lowy, the Queen Sym phony Orchestra’s 2009 Young Soloist Competition winner, and “Di vertimento in D Major, K. 136” by Mozart.

A glimpse of the future

Looking beyond the upcoming season, Kitsopoulos could barely re press his enthusiasm for a planned 2010 11 collaboration with Judith Sloan and Frank London, “1,001 Voices: A Symphony for Queens.”

“We’ve already been working on it for six months,” said Kitsopoulos. “We’ve got to figure out how to raise the money, but they’re going to write a symphony in three movements, with each movement getting it’s own separate concert.”

“We know that Queens is the most diverse county in America,” he con tinued. “I think it may even be the most diverse region in the world. I want our music to reflect that diver sity.”

For more information on the Queens Symphony Orchestra, visit www.queenssymphony.org. To learn more about Musica Reginae, visit www.musicareginae.org.