American conductor James Conlon will be awarded the Galileo 2000 Prize from the Foundazione Premio Galileo 2000 in a ceremony to occur June 25, 2008 at the Scuderie Reali della Pace (Royal Stables of Peace) in Florence, Italy. Mr. Conlon will be the twelfth recipient bestowed the music prize titled the “Giglio d’Oro” (Golden Lily). Past winners include Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti and Daniel Barenboim. The Galileo 2000 Prize, founded in 1996 by Alfonso De Virgiliis with support from the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, one of Italy’s oldest and most prominent festivals, is awarded each year to an artist who has made a significant contribution to music, art and peace in Florence.

On May 30,2008 Mr. Conlon was awarded the Medal of the American Liszt Society given to an individual who has achieved international distinction in performance, writing, and/or scholarship particularly associated with Franz Liszt. In a ceremony held at the Library of Congress, Mr. Conlon accepted the award via video from Florence where he was rehearsing Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. Mr. Conlon is the only conductor to have received the award. Other past recipients include Claudio Arrau, Jorge Bolet, and Alfred Brendel.

Mr. Conlon is one of five first recipients of the Opera News Award given in 2005 in recognition for distinguished achievement in opera. For his efforts in championing the works of composers silenced by the Nazi regime, Mr. Conlon received the Crystal Globe Award from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) in 2007 and the Zemlinsky Prize in 1999. He was also awarded an Honorary Doctor of Music Degree by The Juilliard School in 2004. Mr. Conlon was named an Officier de L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government in 1996, and in 2004 was promoted to Commander. In 2002, James Conlon received France’s highest distinction from the President of the French Republic, Jacques Chirac—the Légion d’Honneur.

James Conlon is a world renowned conductor with a vast and diversified symphonic, operatic and choral repertoire. He has maintained long and lasting relationships with many of the world's most prestigious symphony orchestras and opera houses. Since his New York Philharmonic debut in 1974, he has appeared as guest conductor with virtually every major North American and European orchestra and has been a frequent guest conductor at the Metropolitan Opera for over thirty years. Mr. Conlon is Music Director of Los Angeles Opera, Music Director of the Ravinia Festival, summer residence of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and has been Music Director of the Cincinnati May Festival since 1979. He has recorded for EMI, Sony Classical, Erato, Capriccio, Telarc and Decca.

For further information or photos please contact Shuman Associates at 212-315-1300 or at shumanpr@shumanassociates.net.

The American Liszt Society has announced that acclaimed conductor James Conlon will be awarded the Medal of the American Liszt Society in a ceremony to occur Friday, May 30, 2008 at 5:00 pm at the Coolidge Auditorium in the Jefferson Building at the United States Library of Congress, completing the first day of the American Liszt Society’s three day annual festival. Mr. Conlon will be the first conductor to receive the award.

“The American Liszt Society is pleased to present this award to an individual whose interest in and commitment to the interaction and relationship of the arts so resembles the all embracing spirit of Liszt. The theme of this year's festival ‘Liszt, Literature and Painting’ is intended to explore this spirit,” states Thomas Mastroianni, president of the American Liszt Society. Upon learning of the award Mr. Conlon said he was extremely pleased and honored. At the time of the ceremony, Mr. Conlon will be in Florence Italy rehearsing Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, one of Italy’s oldest and most prominent festivals. Mr. Conlon will accept the award in a speech to be aired via video and Jennifer Ringo Conlon will receive the medal on his behalf.

James Conlon is a world renowned conductor with a vast and diversified symphonic, operatic and choral repertoire. He has maintained long and lasting relationships with many of the world's most prestigious symphony orchestras and opera houses. Since his New York Philharmonic debut in 1974, he has appeared as guest conductor with virtually every major North American and European orchestra and has been a frequent guest conductor at the Metropolitan Opera for over thirty years. Mr. Conlon is Music Director of Los Angeles Opera, Music Director of the Ravinia Festival, the summer home of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and has been Music Director of the Cincinnati May Festival since 1979. Mr. Conlon served as Principal Conductor of the Paris National Opera (1995-2004); General Music Director of the City of Cologne, Germany (1989-2002); and Music Director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic (1983-1991). Throughout his career he has been deeply committed to the music of Franz Liszt, and has consistently programmed and championed both Liszt’s orchestral and choral music. Mr. Conlon has recorded for EMI, Sony Classical, Erato, Capriccio, Telarc and Decca for which he has received numerous citations. Mr. Conlon has recorded much of Liszt’s symphonic repertory, as well as the oratorio “Christus.” He researched and performed Liszt’s “Dante” Symphony with a slide show projecting images of sketches commissioned by Liszt that were meant to be shown with contemporary technology during performances of the symphony. Liszt’s intentions were never realized until they were shown under Mr. Conlon’s direction with the Rotterdam Philharmonic in Rotterdam in 1984 and premiered in the U.S. with the San Francisco Symphony in 2006 to considerable acclaim. Mr. Conlon also conducted and recorded the 2004 world premiere of Liszt’s incomplete oratorio "St. Stanislaus" with the Cincinnati Symphony and May Festival Chorus for Telarc, for which Mr. Conlon was awarded the 39th International F. Liszt Record Grand Prix by the Liszt Society of Budapest, Hungary. Mr. Conlon is one of five first recipients of the Opera News Award given in 2005 in recognition for distinguished achievement in opera. He received the Zemlinsky Prize for his efforts in bringing the composer’s music to international attention, and in recognition for his efforts in championing the works of composers silenced by the Nazi regime Mr. Conlon received the Crystal Globe Award from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) in 2007. Mr. Conlon was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Music Degree by The Juilliard School in 2004. He was named an Officier de L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government in 1996, and in 2004 was promoted to Commander. In 2002, James Conlon received France’s highest distinction from the President of the French Republic, Jacques Chirac—the Légion d’Honneur.

Since its founding in 1964 the American Liszt Society has been faithful in presenting its festival each year to promote the music and the ideals of Franz Liszt. The 2008 Festival will be hosted by Catholic University of America, The Library of Congress, The National Gallery of Art, and the Baltimore/Washington chapter of the American Liszt Society. For information and registration for the May 30 to June 1 Festival in Washington, DC visit www.americanlisztsociety.org.

The Medal of the American Liszt Society (engraved and die struck in solid silver) is awarded to an individual who has achieved international distinction in performance, writing, and/or scholarship. Outstanding administrators and teachers are also considered. Recipients must be particularly associated with Franz Liszt. Some past recipients include Claudio Arrau, Jorge Bolet, Alfred Brendel, Maria Eckhardt, Klara Hamburger, Maurice Hinson, Fernando Laires, and Alan Walker. The Society boasts a membership of some 600 members from 27 different countries. The Journal of the American Liszt Society is highly regarded by scholars and institutions world-wide and is indexed in 125 prestigious colleges and universities throughout the world. Thirteen local chapters reside in the United States. Application for membership to the Society is accessible at www.americanlisztsociety.org.

(LOS ANGELES, CA) September 5, 2007 – “It is with great pleasure that I announce that our distinguished Music Director James Conlon has extended his contract with LA Opera through the Company’s 2010/11 Season,” announced Plácido Domingo, the Eli and Edythe Broad General Director of LA Opera. “After his outstanding successes here during the 2006/07 Season, his debut Season as Music Director of the Company, I am proud that LA Opera’s musical excellence will remain under the exceptional guidance of this world-class artist and I am delighted that Mr. Conlon’s first operatic music directorship in the United States, after his many successes in important European positions, has proven a triumph. I am honored that he will continue to play a vital role in the Company’s strategy for continued growth in artistic distinction, and thrilled to continue working with him as we approach LA Opera’s 25th Anniversary Celebration.”

James Conlon’s initial contract as Music Director of LA Opera, which became effective on July 1, 2006, extended through June 30, 2009. With his new contract, he will remain Music Director through June 30, 2011, the year that LA Opera will celebrate its 25th Anniversary. By that time, he will have conducted numerous landmark productions for the Company, including three complete Ring cycles scheduled for 2010, the signature David Hockney production of Tristan und Isolde in 2008, and several fully-staged productions in the multi-year Recovered Voices project, devoted to presenting the works of early 20th-Century composers suppressed by the Nazis. He conducted five productions during the 2006/07 Season and will conduct five productions during the current 2007/08 Season, and is expected to continue along that line for the remaining three Seasons of his contract.

“I am very happy to be continuing with LA Opera,” said James Conlon. “I am extremely gratified by the support and enthusiasm that I have enjoyed in the past year, and have interpreted it as a sign of things to come in the future. The spirit of the company, embodied by my great friend and colleague Plácido Domingo, by the orchestra and chorus, the entire musical, theatrical and administrative staff, and the Board of Directors, has led me to conclude that this still young company will grow into one of the most important in the world in the coming decades. The ever increasing allure of Los Angeles as one of the cultural capitals of the world augurs well. I am proud to be a part of that future.”

This announcement is the latest step in the continuing evolution of one of America’s most ambitious and fastest-growing opera companies. Most recently, Los Angeles Master Chorale Director Grant Gershon was named LA Opera’s new Associate Conductor / Chorus Master in May. Mr. Gershon, in collaboration with Mr. Domingo and Mr. Conlon, will be responsible for building and shaping the Los Angeles Opera Chorus into a choral ensemble with a distinctive musical identity and aesthetic.

“Mr. Conlon’s talent and experience have added immeasurably to LA Opera’s prestige,” said Chairman and CEO Marc I. Stern. “Under the distinctive leadership of Plácido Domingo, our reputation has never been higher, and James Conlon’s tenure as Music Director has been an essential element of the Company’s current success. With Mr. Conlon leading so many landmark profile productions in the coming years, our potential for further creative and artistic expansion is extraordinary, and I am absolutely delighted that his involvement here will ensure our continued growth.”

One of the world’s preeminent conductors, James Conlon has cultivated a vast symphonic, operatic and choral repertoire, and has conducted virtually every prestigious symphony orchestra in the U.S. and Europe. In addition to his position as Music Director of LA Opera, he became Music Director of the Ravinia Festival (summer home of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra) in 2005, and has been Music Director of the Cincinnati May Festival, America’s oldest choral festival, since 1979. Among more than 600 operatic performances in his years as music director in European opera houses are a complete Wagner cycle at the Cologne Opera and five Wagner operas at the Paris Opera. He has conducted more than 250 performances in over three decades at the Metropolitan Opera. Through worldwide touring, an extensive discography, and frequent television appearances, he is one of today’s most recognized conductors. He is widely known as an educator and for his work with young musicians. This season he begins a two-year special artist residency with his alma mater, The Juilliard School, an educational project consisting of performances, symposia, master classes, and coaching across genres, meant to promote growth and historical curiosity in students and audience members. He has made a significant effort to increase awareness of a lost generation of 20th-century composers whose works were suppressed for political reasons during the Nazi regime, and was recently honored by the Anti-Defamation League for his work in this area. Along with Plácido Domingo, he received one of the five inaugural Opera News Awards, given in recognition of distinguished contributions to the world of opera. In 1999, he received the Zemlinsky Prize for his efforts in bringing that composer’s music to international attention. In 2002, he was awarded France’s highest distinction, the Légion d’Honneur, by the President of France.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) will honor conductor James Conlon with its Crystal Globe Award at Ravinia Festival in Highland Park on Sunday, August 12, 2007, for his efforts in championing the works of composers silenced under the Third Reich. As Music Director of the Ravinia Festival, Mr. Conlon launched the Breaking the Silence during his inaugural season in 2005. Each season the ongoing series focuses on the music of a different composer suppressed during the Holocaust, providing an opportunity to experience music that was once quarantined and subsequently forgotten. He has highlighted composers Viktor Ullmann and Erwin Schulhoff thus far, and this summer will feature the works of Viennese composer/conductor Alexander von Zemlinsky. The series is part of Mr. Conlon's ongoing work to promote the repertoire of these composers throughout North America and Europe. He will receive the award at a dinner in Ravinia Festival's new Park View Private Dining in the Dirk Lohan designed pavilion following the 5:00 PM Chicago Symphony Orchestra performance of Zemlinsky's The Mermaid, which Mr. Conlon conducts.

"With its systematic suppression of Jewish musicians, artists and writers, the Third Reich silenced two generations of composers and, with them, an entire musical landscape. Alexander von Zemlinsky, whose music was banned and buried by the Nazi regime in the 1930's, today is in the course of rediscovery, along with many other victims of that tyranny. I am pleased to be able to bring this music to Ravinia audiences, who I think will be surprised and delighted by what they hear," Mr. Conlon said.

The Anti-Defamation League is delighted to present James Conlon with the Crystal Globe Award. "This award given to individuals in the arts who illuminate aspects of the human condition and teach us that history must neither be forgotten nor revised," said Lonnie Nasatir, ADL's Regional Director. Prior recipients include Danny Glover and Robert Benigni.

Currently Music Director of LA Opera and the Cincinnati May Festival as well as Ravinia, Mr. Conlon has made a significant ongoing effort to raise public consciousness to the significance of works of composers whose lives and compositions were affected by the Holocaust by programming this music throughout North America and Europe. This includes the works of such composers as Zemlinsky, Ullmann, Pavel Haas, Kurt Weill, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Karl-Amadeus Hartmann, Erwin Schulhoff, and Ernest Krenek. In addition to Breaking The Silence at Ravinia, Mr. Conlon helped launch the Recovered Voices series at LA Opera, a multi-year project during which he will bring the music of composers affected by the Holocaust to the LA Opera stage. The series begins this season with a double-bill of Alexander Zemlinsky's Der Zwerg and Viktor Ullmann's Der Krug, and will include operas by composers such as Schreker and Braunfels, among others, in future seasons. Mr. Conlon also begins a two-year artist residency with his alma mater, The Juilliard School, beginning in Fall 2007 which will highlight the repertoire of composers affected by the rise of Nazism and the events of WWII in a cross-genre project consisting of performances, symposia, master classes, and coaching. A production conceived by Mr. Conlon of Ullmann's The Kaiser From Atlantis (written while interned in the concentration camp of Terezin) has traveled extensively since its first showing in New York. Produced in cooperation with The Juilliard School, it has since been reprised at the Spoleto Festival in Italy, the Ravinia Festival, in cooperation with the New World Symphony, The Houston Grand Opera and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, where it was performed in 2004 at the Wilshire Boulevard Temple.

General Chairs for the dinner are Audrey and Michael Rubinstein of Highland Park. Audrey is currently the Chairman of the Ravinia Women's Board and Michael is ADL's Board Chair-Elect. Corporate sponsors for this event are Lifeway Kefir and MB Financial Bank. Seating for the event on August 12 is limited. Tickets start at $500. For more information, contact Karen Dillon at 312-782-5080 ext. 251.

The Anti-Defamation League, founded in Chicago in 1913, is leading the fight against racism, bigotry, intolerance and anti-Semitism. Today ADL is the nation's premier human relations and civil rights organization. Through our A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE® Institute, ADL has become the leader in providing education and programs that address diversity in schools, communities and workplaces.

Mr. Conlon leads a study of the relationship between the classical arts and their societies —
"What happens when Art collides with its socio-political environment"
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Renowned Conductor and Juilliard Alumnus to Spend Extended Periods at Juilliard From 2007 - 2009 for Performances, Symposia, Master Classes, Coaching, and Lectures in an Exceptional Collaboration with Young Artists in all Three Juilliard Divisions of Dance, Drama and Music
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MR. CONLON CONDUCTS:
Three Dance Premieres of Newly-Commissioned Choreography Set to Music of Recovered Voices in December 2007, Three Chamber Ensemble Performances of Generative and Degenerate Music in April 2008, Trilogy Conceived by Mr. Conlon of Rarely-Heard One-Act Operas in November 2008 Directed By Darko Tresnjak, World-Premiere of Juilliard Commissioned Ellen Taaffe Zwilich Work as Highlight of Spring 2009 Orchestra Concert ―
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CONLON RESIDENCY TO HAVE DOUBLE FOCUS:
Performance and Study of the Recovered Voices: the Musicians and Music Suppressed by Nazi Germany, and the Examination of Classical Artists’ Role in Contemporary Society: with a Concentration on Europe Between 1910 – 1945 and the United States in 2007, Including Symposia Moderated by Mr. Conlon
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Conductor James Conlon and The Juilliard School will collaborate for two years during alumnus Conlon’s special artist residency at the School, to begin in the fall of 2007. Mr. Conlon will work with the School’s young artists in its three divisions – dance, drama, music – in an exceptional educational project meant to promote growth and historical curiosity in students and audience members alike. Mr. Conlon will lead an extensive project initiating inquiry and study of Europe in the first half of the 20^th Century and of the United States at the start of the 21^st Century.

This cross-genre project consisting of performances, symposia, master classes, and coaching, has a double focus. In addition to study and performance of the lesser-known repertoire of composers affected by the rise of Nazism and the events of WWII, of which he is an ardent champion, Mr. Conlon will moderate symposia and speak about the role of the artist in current times. Common to both topics is the question about what happens when art collides with society. The project is designed to invigorate and encourage young classical artists to examine the challenges to them in contemporary times, connect with an historical perspective, and discover their own role in fostering art, be it dance, drama, or music.

The collaboration is ripe with meaning for both Mr. Conlon and Juilliard, whose students and alumni in recent seasons have worked with Mr. Conlon in a series of orchestral, chamber, and opera performances in , Miami, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Spoleto, Italy, and as part of the project to Recover a Musical Heritage. More students will have the opportunity to discover the importance of personal advocacy, the role of art, and their role as artists in contemporary society via this expanded relationship, while allowing them to work on their performance technique and musicianship with a world-renowned visiting artist of Mr. Conlon’s stature. With Juilliard’s young artists Mr. Conlon will examine the legacy of the Recovered Voices of the time, and broaden understanding of that era and its music for both the students and public through creative programming, teaching, and lecturing.

Mr. Conlon’s ongoing commitment at Juilliard for the next two seasons is a reflection of his effort to serve as “collaborator-in-chief,” through involvement in all aspects of his projects, productions and performances. Since returning to the U.S following several decades in Europe where he served as Principal Conductor of the Paris Opera among other posts, Mr. Conlon has established a multifaceted career in the U.S. as Music Director of the Ravinia Festival and Music Director of Los Angeles Opera, in addition to continuing his position as Music Director of the Cincinnati May Festival and guest-conducting major orchestras throughout the country.

In addition to conducting, James Conlon is a community leader and educator promoting classical music via radio, television, and public speaking. He has become an outspoken advocate for the lesser known works of two generations of composers who were suppressed, forced to emigrate, or were executed by the Nazi regime. By continually programming and speaking about this music Mr. Conlon hopes to raise public consciousness to the significance of this important, yet largely overlooked, repertoire.

In making the announcement, Juilliard’s President, Joseph W. Polisi, said, “It is a privilege and a great opportunity for Juilliard to have James Conlon working with our dancers, actors, and musicians during this two-year period. Mr. Conlon’s fertile artistic imagination and his vast experience in the field provide a unique foundation upon which to base this special series of concerts and related events. It is rare to see an artist of Mr. Conlon’s stature dedicate himself to such a profoundly moving and historic series of artistic presentations that address both a horrific and forgotten period in our recent history, as well as addressing contemporary challenges to artistic life. The entire Juilliard community looks forward with great expectation to the artistic, educational, and socially relevant experiences that this residency will create.”

Mr. Conlon described his residency at Juilliard by saying, “Part of the programming will focus on the first half of the 20^th Century, at times showing in stark relief both the parallels and dissimilarities of music composed in and outside the sphere of Nazi influence. We will examine our inherited attitudes about the 20^th Century and how those attitudes were shaped, more than is commonly acknowledged, by the damage caused by the Third Reich. It will put the lost music in its context as an integral and logical development of two previous centuries of German classical music. Using this as a starting point, we will address the contemporary challenges to the classical arts in the United States.”

Three Dance Premieres of Newly-Commissioned Choreography Set to Music of Recovered Voices – December 2007

Five Juilliard Dance performances December 13 – 16, 2007, feature newly-commissioned, world-premiere choreography by Juilliard alumni Adam Hougland and Robert Battle, and Nicolo Fonte, set to the music of three Recovered Voices, (in order) Franz Schreker, Alexander Zemlinsky, and Erwin Schulhoff, all born just prior to the turn of the 20^th century. These performances are part of Juilliard’s annual presentation of new choreography in the fall, called December Dance Creations by division director Lawrence Rhodes, who programs from the repertory for Juilliard’s spring dance series. (Highlights of Juilliard’s complete season of more than 700 dance, drama, and music performances will be released in coming days.)

Adam Hougland sets his dance to Franz Schreker’s Prelude to a Drama: The Stigmatized (Die Gezeichneten), composed in 1913. Sometimes interpreted as The Marked Ones, or The Branded, none of the English translations has the uncomfortable connotation of the German phrase. So successful an opera composer that he was considered heir to Wagner and Strauss, Schreker composed music that collided with changing modern styles. The Stigmatized enjoyed many performances despite its shocking content. In 1932, Schreker was removed from his post as director of the Berlin Hochschule – the highest academic position in all Germany – his position there a measure of the esteem he had enjoyed from the time of the first performances of The Stigmatized. Schreker died in 1933 after suffering a stroke while fighting Nazi authorities to regain his pension. His music subsequently was banned.

Nicolo Fonte, whose choreography has been performed by an eclectic group of companies, and most recently was performed in New York by Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, will set his Juilliard premiere to Alexander Zemlinsky’s Sinfonietta (composed 1934; US premiere -- New York Philharmonic/Dimitri Mitropoulos, December 1940). Zemlinsky was the only formal music teacher (of counterpoint) of Arnold Schoenberg. However, Zemlinsky was adamantly opposed to serialism. A highly-respected conductor throughout the German-speaking world, he was forced to flee the Nazis twice, leaving Berlin in 1934, and then Vienna in 1938, eventually settling in New York. He lived his remaining years in virtual isolation on Manhattan’s West Side, dying in 1942. The Sinfonietta was his only work he heard in live performance in this country.

Robert Battle, whose own company Battleworks has received critical praise, will set choreography to Erwin Schulhoff’s Ogelala, that will be seen for the first time in New York at Juilliard. Composed between1922-24, Ogelala tells the story of a pre-Columbian Mexican warrior. It was premiered in Dessau, Germany in 1925 and had two additional performances soon after; Mr. Conlon conducted the US premiere of the music at Aspen in 2006. A radical from the beginning, Schulhoff entered the ranks of Europe’s left-wing avant-garde at the end of World War I. His outspoken Marxist beliefs led him to take Soviet citizenship. First arrested as a prisoner of war the day after Hitler’s invasion of Russia, being Jewish, he was sent to a concentration camp. Schulhoff died of tuberculosis in Wülzburg camp in 1942.

Generative and Degenerate Music—Three Chamber Concerts, April 2008

In 1937, the Nazis formalized their policy against what they called Entartete Kunst, degenerate art, and in 1938 they turned on Entartete Musik – marking the start of their effective campaign to wipe out those musicians and other artists so accused. The banning of new music blotted out many creations from the previous three decades as well. Meanwhile elsewhere, especially in Paris between the world wars, music and art thrived, the composers generating new rhythms, harmonies, new ideas, and a legacy reaching to our times. In German-occupied Europe, tradition was uprooted and innovation suppressed. The coined the phrase generative denotes music that was written in an open society, and was able to generate further development.

A forum is planned on Generative and Degenerate Music as part of Mr. Conlon’s residency, so that the entire Juilliard community can better understand the contrasting worlds and contrasting fates of these musicians and other artists – the creative freedom of Paris and beyond vs. the repressive environment of Nazi Germany.

In April 2008 Mr. Conlon conducts a series of three chamber ensemble concerts juxtaposing such Generative and Degenerate Music (exact dates pending hall availability). Presented in chronological order, beginning with Franz Schreker’s Kammersymphonie (1916) and ending with Poulenc’s 1931 Concerto Choreographique, the series also includes works by George Antheil, Hanns Eisler, Pavel Haas, Paul Hindemith, Hans Krása, Bohuslav Martinů, Darius Milhaud, Igor Stravinsky, Erwin Schulhoff, and Edgar Varèse. (complete programs listed at end of release)

The first Generative and Degenerate Music chamber ensemble performance features the young professional musicians (called Fellows) of The Academy—A Program of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, and The Weill Music Institute — a new partnership program focusing on both performance and music education that is sending some of the finest musicians from across the country back into the New York City schools to teach. The next two chamber ensemble concerts feature AXIOM, Juilliard’s newest new music group, who gave their debut performance led by Mr. Conlon in 2006.

Three Rarely Performed One-Act Operas, Conceived by Mr. Conlon as a Trilogy – November 2008

Mr. Conlon conducts three opera performances November 12 – 14 – 16, 2008, featuring three diverse musical portraits of marriage,. These one-act operas are all performed together without pause. They are Modest Mussorgsky’s comic opera The Marriage (Zhenit’ba); Ernst Krenek’s, Heavyweight, or The Pride of the Nation, Op. 55 (Schwergewicht oder Die Ehre der Nation); and Veniamin Fleischmann’s Rothschild’s Violin (Skripka Rotshil’da). Darko Tresnjak, known for his productions of Shakespeare, particularly for the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, and for innovative opera direction worldwide – including productions with Mr. Conlon at Los Angeles Opera – will direct these operas for the Juilliard Opera Center.

Mr. Conlon gave details of the trilogy, explaining, ”Many short operas (whether intended or left incomplete) remain unknown because they can’t stand by themselves. Just as miniatures and short stories are vital art forms, these one-act operas are compact but dense in their substance. Every opera house, symphony orchestra, and educational institution should have the courage to find and present works that are atypical, and to visualize the potential chemistry amongst them. The dramaturgical theme is marriage (in three stages) and the music is not without its hidden links.”

The composers are linked in other rather remarkable ways as well. Mussorgsky’s work is the oldest of the three (1868). A sketch for what is presumed a planned full-length opera based on a Nikolai Gogol play, The Marriage (Zhenit’ba), just pre-dates the creation of his masterwork, Boris Godunov, and is the seminal work representing the composer’s radical new approach to setting the Russian language to music. It’s subtitled by Mussorgsky, “an experiment in dramatic music in prose.”

Ernst Krenek’s 1927 work, Heavyweight or The Pride of the Nation, for which he also is librettist, is a satire that plays on the sports-hero worship of the day (in this case a brutish, hulking boxer). It was composed in the rush of popularity Krenek experienced after his exposure to Paris, the Les Six, and the opening of the greatly popular Jonny spielt auf. An admirer of expressionist, abstract, and radical work including contemporary social ideas, Krenek broke away from the traditional style he’d learned as a student of Schreker. All of the decadent characters surrounding Heavyweight are presented as farce and set to an exuberant score.

Mussorgsky had a profound influence on Veniamin Fleischmann, whose Rothschild’s Violin constitutes the finale of the November 2008 Juilliard Opera Center trilogy. A student of Shostakovich from 1939–41, Fleischmann set Chekhov’s story – about a misanthrope who finds grace when he passes on his instrument to one who sees beauty and life in music. When Fleischmann died during the siege of Leningrad, Shostakovich saved his student’s almost-completed work, finished the vocal score, and created the orchestral score. First heard in 1960 at Moscow’s Central House of Composers, its first staging took place in 1968 at Leningrad Conservatory, where Fleischmann and Shostakovich had worked. Although performances of Rothschild’s Violin are rare, the November 2008 presentation marks its second performance by the Juilliard Opera Center, whose singers performed the American Premiere in February 1990.

Darko Tresnjak has been director of the Shakespeare Festival at San Diego’s Old Globe Theatre for the past four seasons. He has directed theatrical productions and operas across the United States and in Europe. This coming season he joins Mr. Conlon at LA Opera, directing a double bill conceived by Mr. Conlon, of operas composed by Alexander Zemlinsky and Viktor Ullmann.

World Premiere of Juilliard-Commissioned Orchestral work by Ellen Taaf0fe Zwilich– Spring 2009 (date TBA)

Mr. Conlon leads the Juilliard Orchestra in the world-premiere performance of a Juilliard-commissioned work by alumna Ellen Taaffe Zwilich as the finale of Mr. Conlon’s two-season special residency at Juilliard. Additional repertoire and the date will be announced at a later time.

James Conlon – Biography

One of today’s preeminent conductors, James Conlon has cultivated a vast symphonic, operatic and choral repertoire, and developed enduring relationships with the world's most prestigious symphony orchestras and opera houses. He became Music Director of Los Angeles Opera beginning with the 2006-07 season, and is also currently Music Director of the Ravinia Festival, the summer home of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He has been Music Director of the Cincinnati May Festival since 1979. Mr. Conlon served as Principal Conductor of the Paris National Opera (1995-2004); General Music Director of the City of Cologne, Germany (1989-2002); and Music Director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic (1983-1991). Since his New York Philharmonic debut in 1974, Mr. Conlon has appeared as guest conductor with many of the world’s most prestigious orchestras.

This coming season, Mr. Conlon is guest conductor with the New York Philharmonic, The Philadelphia and Cleveland orchestras, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, as well as the Dresden Staatskapelle, Wiener Symphoniker, L’Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Orchestre National de France, Münchner Philharmoniker, and the Russian National Philharmonic.

It was while still a student at Juilliard in 1972 that Mr. Conlon came to national attention after Maria Callas recommended that he step in for an ailing Thomas Schippers, leading Juilliard’s production of La bohème. He has led Juilliard chamber musicians and actors in a previous performance (also while still a student in 1972) of Stravinsky’s l’histoire du soldat. The actors for that performance were Kevin Kline and David Odgen Stiers.

During his inaugural season at the LA Opera, Mr. Conlon conducted Tannhäuser, Don Carlo, Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, La traviata and a special free community performance of Britten’s chamber opera Noye’s Fludde.. He will conduct seven Wagnerian works at the LA Opera over the next four years, including the first ever performance in LA of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen. During the 2007-08 season Mr. Conlon conducts five productions at LA Opera: Fidelio, Jenufa, Tristan und Isolde, Otello, and a double bill of Viktor Ullmann’s The Broken Jug (Der zerbrochene Krug), an American premiere, and Alexander Zemlinsky’s The Dwarf (Der Zwerg). This double bill is the first of a series of annual productions of music entitled Recovered Voices.

In an effort to raise public consciousness to the significance of works of composers whose lives and compositions were affected by the Nazi regime, Mr. Conlon has devoted himself to extensive programming of this music in North America and Europe, including the works of such composers as Alexander von Zemlinsky, Viktor Ullmann, Pavel Haas, Kurt Weill, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Karl-Amadeus Hartmann, Erwin Schulhoff, and Ernest Krenek. In Los Angeles, Mr. Conlon has inaugurated a multi-year project entitled Recovered Voices, during which he will bring the music of composers affected by the Nazi regime to the LA Opera stage. The series began with two concerts of operatic excerpts last season, and subsequently will include full-scale productions of complete operas by Zemlinsky, Ullmann, Schreker and Braunfels in future seasons, conducted by Mr. Conlon. As Music Director of the Ravinia Festival, each summer Mr. Conlon presents a different composer from this group with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He has already highlighted works of Viktor Ullman and Erwin Schulhoff, and will focus on Alexander Zemlinsky during the summer of 2007. A production conceived by Mr. Conlon of Ullman's The Kaiser From Atlantis (written while interned in the concentration camp of Terezin) has traveled extensively since its first showing in New York. Produced in cooperation with The Juilliard School, it has since been reprised at the Spoleto Festival in Italy, the Ravinia Festival, in cooperation with the New World Symphony, The Houston Grand Opera and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Mr. Conlon is committed to working with young pre-professional musicians and, in addition to his continual work with Juilliard ensembles, has devoted time to teaching and conducting at the Aspen Music Festival and School, Tanglewood Music Center, the New World Symphony, and the European Community Youth Orchestra. He is actively involved in the Ravinia Festival’s Steans Institute for Young Artists as well as Ravinia’s model community outreach and education programs, and plans to help lead and expand educational projects during his tenure at Los Angeles Opera. Mr. Conlon has been active with the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition since 1997, where he not only conducts the final round of the competition, but also initiated a program in which he leads master classes and coaches finalists.

Mr. Conlon has recorded for EMI, SONY Classical, ERATO, CAPRICCIO and TELARC and has won awards for his recordings of the works of Alexander Zemlinsky. PBS recently aired a series of six shows hosted by Mr. Conlon entitled “Encore”, part of an ongoing series of documentaries on his work with the finalists of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. Mr. Conlon recently collaborated with director Kenneth Branagh on a film adaptation of Mozart’s The Magic Flute, with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.

Mr. Conlon received one of five Opera News Awards given for the first time in recognition of distinguished contributions from leading figures in the world of opera. In 1999, he received the Zemlinsky Prize for his efforts in bringing the composer’s music to international attention. Mr. Conlon was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Music Degree by The Juilliard School in May 2004. He was named an Officier de L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government in 1996, and in September 2004 was promoted to Commander. In September 2002, James Conlon received France’s highest distinction from the President of the French Republic, Jacques Chirac—the Légion d’Honneur.

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Performances and Repertoire for James Conlon’s two-year Artist Residency at Juilliard, 2007 - 2009

December Dance Creations with James Conlon Conducting the Juilliard Orchestra
Dances Newly-Commissioned by Juilliard set to music of Recovered Voices
Five Performances, Thursday, December 13 – Sunday, December 16 in The Peter Jay Sharp Theater at Juilliard

New choreography by (alumnus) Adam Hougland/ Franz Schreker's Prelude to a Drama: The Stigmatized (Die Gezeichneten)
Performed by Juilliard’s second-year student dancers

New choreography by Nicolo Fonte/Alexander von Zemlinsky's Sinfonietta, Op. 23
Performed by Juilliard’s third-year student dancers

New choreography by (alumnus) Robert Battle/Erwin Schulhoff's Ogelala, Op. 53 "Ballettmysterium" (music is NY Premiere)
Performed by Juilliard’s fourth-year student dancers

Generative and Degenerate Music
James Conlon leads a series of 3 chamber ensemble performances in April 2008, locations tba

Music from 1915-1920
FRANZ SCHREKER Kammersymphonie (1916)
IGOR STRAVINSKY L'histoire du Soldat (1918)
performed by ENSEMBLE ACJW
(Fellows of The Academy—A Program of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, and The Weill Music Institute)
with actors and dancer from The Juilliard School

Music from 1920-1925
ERWIN SCHULHOFF Die Wolkenpumpe, Op. 40 (1922)
HANNS EISLER Palmström, Op. 5 (1924)
EDGARD VARÈSE Octandre (1923) and Intégrales (1925)
PAUL HINDEMITH Kammermusik No. 1, Op. 24 (1922)
DARIUS MILHAUD La Création du monde, Op. 81 (1923)
performed by AXIOM

Music from 1925-1935
PAVEL HAAS Vyvolená, Op.8 (1927)
HANS KRÁSA Kammermusik (1935)
BOHUSLAV MARTINU La Revue de Cuisine (1927)
GEORGE ANTHEIL A Jazz Symphony (1925)
FRANCIS POULENC Aubade: Concerto Choreographique (1931)
performed by AXIOM

Trilogy of Rarely Heard One-Act Operas
Wednesday-Friday-Sunday, November 12-14-16, 2008 in The Peter Jay Sharp Theater at Juilliard

MODEST MUSSORGSKY The Marriage (Zhenit’ba)
ERNST KRENEK Heavyweight, or The Pride of the Nation, Op. 55 (Schwergewicht oder Die Ehre der Nation)
VENIAMIN FLEISCHMANN Rothschild’s Violin (Skripka Rotshil’da)
performed by singers from the Juilliard Opera Center
James Conlon conducts the Juilliard Orchestra; Darko Tresnjak Directs

James Conlon conducts the Juilliard Orchestra, Spring 2009 (date TBA)
In the World-Premiere Performances of a Juilliard-Commissioned work by Ellen Taaffe Zwilich

Additional works TBA

Conlon will conclude Mahler Symphony cycle in 2011, commemorating the 100th anniversary of the composer's death

Ravinia Festival Chairman Michael E. Lavin and President and CEO Welz Kauffman announced today that James Conlon has agreed to a four-year extension of his contract as Ravinia Festival's music director. The internationally acclaimed conductor became the fourth music director of Ravinia, the oldest music festival in North America, in 2005 but has been a regular guest conductor for three decades. The new contract extends through the 2011 season when Conlon will complete his multi-year traversal of the Mahler symphony cycle with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Ravinia has hosted the CSO in its summer residency since 1936. "I am pleased to continue my long association with Ravinia and especially with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra," Conlon said. "For over three decades, I've become deeply connected to the festival, its supporters and its audiences who have been discerning and appreciative of all types of music. I look forward to future great seasons here, to maintaining high caliber performances and bringing great music making to a wide audience."

"James Conlon has impressed everyone with his dedication, his versatility and his musical vision," Lavin said. "We are proud of this consummate artist and look forward to more incredible music-making over the next four years." "We are so fortunate to have James Conlon at the helm. A superb musician, James understands every aspect of the festival from his personal 30-year experience here. He sees the very unique and special opportunity Ravinia has in bolstering classical music-especially its role in supporting and sustaining the incomparable Chicago Symphony Orchestra. In just two seasons, Ravinia has experienced a growth in pavilion audiences for CSO concerts while maintaining its strong commitment to the classics that attract new audiences and to more unusual and challenging repertoire, such as last summer's performances of Shostakovich's 13th, 14th and 15th symphonies and the music of Erwin Schulhoff. He enjoys hearing from CSO musicians who have an open line of communication with him, and he invites audiences into the music by speaking from the stage," Kauffman said. "He's also been very active in our education and community partnerships programs, giving high school master classes, meeting with teachers and narrating Ravinia's annual One Score, One Chicago project. He also enjoys collaborating with the young professionals in Ravinia's Steans Institute, not only as teacher but as conductor, as last summer he turned to participants as heroic last-minute replacements for an ailing pavilion artist. It's amazing how quickly and thoroughly James has taken the reins of the festival."

Conlon continues three ongoing projects at Ravinia in 2007, the Breaking the Silence series, the traversal of the Mahler Symphony cycle and the performance of all the Mozart Piano concertos. Season highlights include performances of Mahler's fifth and sixth symphonies. (Conlon will complete the Mahler Symphonies in the final year of this contract extension, 2011, in honor of the 100th anniversary of the composer's death.) Breaking the Silence, which each year focuses on a composer suppressed during the Holocaust, will focus on the music of Alexander von Zemlinsky, including the Ravinia premieres of The Mermaid and A Florentine Tragedy, a one-act opera based on a text of Oscar Wilde. He will also lead the CSO and Patricia Racette in a concert version of Madama Butterfly and conduct the legendary Plácido Domingo in a rare concert performance.

As one of classical music's pre-eminent conductors, Conlon has distinguished himself internationally in a highly diverse repertoire of symphonic, operatic and choral works and has developed enduring relationships with many of the most prestigious symphony orchestra and opera houses. In addition to his role as Music Director of the Ravinia Festival, he is also Music Director of Los Angeles Opera, a post he assumed in September, 2006. He continues to serve as Music Director of the Cincinnati May Festival, America's oldest choral festival, where he will mark his 28th season in May, 2007. Since his New York Philharmonic debut in 1974, Conlon has appeared with virtually every major North American and European orchestra.

Having spent the major part of the last two decades in Europe, Conlon served as Principal Conductor of the Paris National Opera (1995-2004); General Music Director of the City of Cologne, Germany (1989-2002), where he was simultaneously Music Director of the Gürzenich Orchestra and the Cologne Opera; and Music Director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic (1983-1991).

Conlon has worked regularly with the Metropolitan Opera for nearly three decades, conducting more than 250 performances there. He's also appeared with many of the world's major opera companies, including Teatro alla Scala (Milan), the Royal Opera at Covent Garden (London), the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (Florence).

In an effort to raise public consciousness to the significance of works of composers whose lives and compositions were affected by the political and religious oppression of the Third Reich, Conlon continues to champion this music with many American and European orchestras. This includes the works of such composers as Alexander von Zemlinsky, Viktor Ullmann, Pavel Haas, Kurt Weill, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Karl-Amadeus Hartmann, Erwin Schulhoff, and Ernest Krenek. At Ravinia, Conlon launched a multiyear exploration of this repertoire entitled Breaking the Silence, during which he presents a different composer from this group each summer. He has already highlighted works of Viktor Ullmann and Erwin Schulhoff, and will explore the music of Alexander von Zemlinsky as the subject of Ravinia's 2007 Breaking the Silence concerts. He has inaugurated a similar multi-year project entitled Recovered Voices at the LA Opera and is devoted to programming this music with top orchestras and opera houses worldwide. In 1999, Conlon received the Zemlinsky Prize, awarded only once before, for his efforts in bringing the composer's music to international attention.

Conlon is committed to working with young pre-professional musicians and has devoted his time to teaching at the Aspen Music Festival and School, The Juilliard School, the New World Symphony and Tanglewood Music Center. He has become active and influential in the Steans Institute for Young Artists, Ravinia's professional studies wing, and is generous in leading insightful master classes, which are open to the public. Since 1977 he has been active with the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, where he not only conducts the final round of the competition, but also initiated a program through which he leads master classes and coaches finalists. His work in the past three competitions was taped and aired in a special series on PBS.

Conlon has recorded for the EMI, SONY Classical, ERATO, CAPRICCIO and TELARC labels and has won awards for his recordings of the works of Zemlinsky. He has also inaugurated a new series of 20th century works with CAPRICCIO, which includes works by Erwin Schulhoff, Viktor Ullmann, Karl Amadeus Hartmann, Dmitri Shostakovich and Bohuslav Martinu.

He was named an Officier de L'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government in 1996, and in September 2004 he was promoted to Commander - the most prestigious honor awarded by the Ministry of Culture in France. In September 2002, Conlon received France's highest distinction - the Légion d'Honneur - from the President of the French Republic, Jacques Chirac.