Opening Night Gala at Caramoor Center for Music & the Arts

April 19, 2010 - PRLog -- KATONAH, NY — Caramoor International Music Festival celebrates the opening of its 65th annual summer season on Saturday, June 26 with a gala evening in the “Garden of Great Music.” The Opening Night Gala honorees are long-time Caramoor supporters Judy and Tony Evnin of Greenwich, CT.  Mrs. Evnin has served on the Caramoor Board of Trustees since 1994 and has been the Board’s Chairman for the past seven years.  She is also a current Trustee of Carnegie Hall and former Trustee of The Katonah Museum of Art, among other organizations.  Mr. Evnin, a partner in Venrock – a venture capital firm that focuses on technology, heathcare, and energy companies – is a Trustee Emeritus of Princeton University and Trustee of The Rockefeller University.

The Gala begins promptly at 6:00pm with cocktails, followed by a seated dinner provided by Great Performances®.  At 8:30pm Caramoor kicks off the summer festival with an all-Mozart concert program in the Venetian Theater. The performance features the renowned Mitsuko Uchida conducting the Orchestra of St. Luke’s from the piano in Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 27, and Michael Barrett, Caramoor’s CEO and General Director, conducting the orchestra in two Mozart symphonies, Nos. 25 and 34. After the concert, Gala attendees are invited to stay for the “After Dark” party which includes dessert and dancing to Tiempo Libre, the nation’s top timba (Cuban Salsa) band.

Gala co-chairs are Susan W. Freund of Pound Ridge, NY and Gerry H. Hodes and Sandra S. Joys, both of Greenwich, CT.

Tickets to the Gala evening are $2,500, $1,250, and $600 and include pre-concert cocktails, dinner, priority seating at the Opening Night concert, and an invitation to the After Dark party. After Dark-only tickets, which also include the concert, are $250.

For gala information and reservations please contact events@caramoor.org, or call the Special Events office at 914.232.1492.

Tickets for the concert only are also available through Caramoor’s Box Office at 914.232.1252 or online at www.caramoor.org.

ABOUT THE CONCERT ARTISTS
Mitsuko Uchida is a performer who brings a deep insight into the music she plays through her own search for truth and beauty. She is renowned for her interpretations of Mozart and Schubert, both in the concert hall and on CD, but she has also illuminated the music of Berg, Schoenberg, Webern, and Boulez for a new generation of listeners Her recording of the Schoenberg Piano Concerto with Pierre Boulez and the Cleveland Orchestra won four awards, including The Gramophone Award for Best Concerto. During recent seasons she has been giving performances of Beethoven’s last three piano sonatas and Opus 101 and 106 (Hammerklavier). Her Royal Festival Hall performance of Op. 109, 110 and 111 was described by John Allison, The London Times critic, as “one of the most transporting concerts London has heard all year.” Her recording of Beethoven’s Op. 101 and Op. 106 was described by Michael Church in BBC Music Magazine as “Beethoven in all his grandeur and with all his capacity to express spiritual agony (the slow movement) and heroic struggle and triumph (the first and last movement) revealed with shattering directness ….This disc is of a calibre that I count myself lucky to encounter once in a decade.” Uchida recently won BBC Music Magazine’s award for Instrumentalist of the Year and Disc of the Year for this recording.

Michael Barrett, known as a champion of imaginative programming, is in his seventh season as Chief Executive and General Director of Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts, where he has programmed numerous new works, world premieres, American premieres, and Caramoor commissions.  Mr. Barrett assumed his position at Caramoor in 2003, building on a reputation established following more than twenty-five years of programming and performing experience in the arts. He is responsible for the administration and year-round programming at Caramoor, including the world-renowned Caramoor International Music Festival and acclaimed programs known for breaking down barriers between musical genres, reflecting today’s musical currents, and attracting the greatest musical talents from the U.S. and abroad to Caramoor.

The 2009–10 season marks the 35th year of America’s foremost chamber orchestra, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, which formed at the Caramoor International Music Festival in 1979 from the existing St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble (founded in 1974).  This unique musical organization comprises three divisions: the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble, and St. Luke’s Arts Education Program. St. Luke’s currently performs approximately 100 orchestral, chamber, and educational concerts throughout New York each year, all showcasing the hallmark collaborative spirit that has garnered consistent critical acclaim for vibrant music-making of the highest order. This summer will mark its 31st consecutive year as orchestra-in-residence at Caramoor.

ABOUT CARAMOOR
Caramoor is the legacy of Walter and Lucie Rosen, who built their summer home – now known as the historic Rosen House at Caramoor – and filled it with their treasures.  Walter Rosen was the master planner for the Caramoor estate, bringing to reality his dream of creating a place to entertain friends from around the world.  Their musical evenings were the seeds of today’s Caramoor International Music Festival. Realizing the pleasure their friends took in the beauty of Caramoor – the house with its art collection, the gardens, and the musical programs on summer evenings – in 1946 the Rosens established a public charity to open Caramoor to the community.  Lucie Rosen survived her husband by seventeen years.  During those years, she expanded the Music Festival: the Spanish Courtyard was used as a setting for musical events, as it is today, and, under her direction, the great stage of the Venetian Theater was built.

Caramoor is a performing arts center located on a unique 90-acre setting of Italianate architecture and gardens in Westchester County, NY.  It enriches the lives of its audiences through innovative and diverse musical performances of the highest quality.  Its mission also includes mentoring young professional musicians and providing educational programs for young children centered around music.  It is often described as “a Garden of Great Music” where audiences are invited to come early, explore the beautiful grounds, enjoy a pre-concert picnic, and discover beautiful music in the relaxed settings of the Venetian Theater, Spanish Courtyard, Music Room of the Rosen House, and the magnificent gardens.

With its unique heritage, Caramoor remains a place where magical summer days and nights are shared and enjoyed by thousands.  “Caramoor is the loveliest Festival of them all.” - The New York Times

For press tickets, artist bios and/or images, please contact Whitney Holden: 917.339.7188, wholden@cohndutcher.com

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With its outstanding summer music festival & indoors concerts, arts-in-education programming and beautiful grounds, Caramoor is a cornerstone of the cultural life of Westchester County, NY.