On Wednesday, April 27, 2011 Orchestra of St.
Luke’s (OSL) honored
Mikhail
Baryshnikov,
John S. Tamagni, Hugh Hardy & H3 Hardy Collaboration
Architecture and The Goldman Sachs Urban Investment
Group at its annual gala at The Plaza Hotel. The
honorees were presented with OSL’s “Gift of Music“
award at the event for their role in the realization of The
DiMenna Center for Classical Music—OSL’s first official home
and a vital new resource for rehearsal, recording and
learning in New York City.
With the new DiMenna Center located in the
same building as The Baryshnikov Arts Center (BAC), the
partnership forged between Mikhail Baryshnikov and
BAC was essential to turn OSL’s home into a truly
multidisciplinary arts complex that meets the diverse needs
of New York City's artistic
community. The success of The DiMenna Center also would not
have been possible without the guidance of Jack
Tamagni, a longtime OSL board member who led the
Building Committee and successfully steered OSL through the
purchase, renovation and opening of its first home. Hugh
Hardy & H3 Hardy Collaboration Architecture’s visionary
design transformed The DiMenna Center from a concrete shell
into a state-of-the-art music facility. The Goldman Sachs
Urban Investment Group, a philanthropic supporter of
OSL’s Arts Education programs, helped OSL secure a New
Markets Tax Credit transaction resulting in a cash infusion
of $4.6 million for The DiMenna Center.
The
gala featured performances by guest artists soprano
Christine Brewer and Canadian conductor Julian
Kuerti. Renowned for her interpretations of aria and art
songs alike, the Grammy Award-winning American soprano
Christine Brewer performed a selection of music that
highlighted her wide-ranging repertoire. Kuerti, one of the
world’s top conducting talents to emerge in recent years,
led OSL in Mozart’s Overture to The Marriage of Figaro
and Symphony No. 32, along with a selection of Strauss
waltzes—a signature feature of OSL galas.
Gala décor was designed by OSL board member David Monn,
known for events such as The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s
annual Costume Institute gala.
Exceeding Orchestra of St. Luke’s goal, the
“Gift of Music” Gala raised $650,000 to help support St.
Luke’s performance and education programs and The DiMenna
Center for Classical Music.
About Orchestra of St. Luke’s
Now in its 36th year, Orchestra of St. Luke’s
(OSL) is one of America’s foremost and most versatile
ensembles. Dedicated to engaging audiences throughout New
York City and beyond, OSL performs approximately 75
orchestral, chamber and educational concerts each
year—including an annual chamber music series at The Morgan
Library & Museum, Brooklyn Museum and Dia:Beacon and an
orchestra series at Carnegie Hall. OSL is also
Orchestra-in-Residence at Caramoor International Music
Festival. OSL collaborates regularly with the world’s great
artists, such as Renée Fleming, Yo-Yo Ma, Jessye Norman,
Anna Netrebko, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Mark Morris Dance Group,
Peter Gabriel, Sting, Elton John and many more. In March
2011, OSL opened The DiMenna Center for Classical Music—its
first permanent home, and New York City’s first rehearsal
and recording facility dedicated to classical music.
Committed to community-building, OSL produces free concerts
in each of the five boroughs and has engaged more than one
million children through its arts education programs. OSL’s stellar
70+ discography includes four acclaimed releases on its own
label, St. Luke’s Collection, and four Grammy Award-winning
recordings. For OSL’s calendar of events, tickets and more
information, visit
www.OSLmusic.org .
About Christine Brewer, soprano
Grammy Award-winning American soprano
Christine Brewer's appearances in opera, concert and recital
are marked with her own unique timbre, at once warm and
brilliant, combined with a vibrant personality and emotional
honesty reminiscent of the great sopranos of the past.
Highlights of Christine Brewer's 2010-11 season include
performances with the Atlanta, San Francisco, Chicago,
Toronto, and St. Louis symphonies, the Royal Concertgebouw,
and the Cincinnati May Festival. In addition to her many
appearances at Carnegie and Wigmore Halls, Ms. Brewer has
graced Lincoln Center's "Art of the Song" series at Alice
Tully Hall and the stages of the Kennedy Center, Spivey
Hall, the Concertgebouw, and the Mondavi Center. Her unique
voice has been featured at the Gilmore, Ravinia, and
Cleveland Art Song festivals.
On the opera stage, Ms. Brewer is highly
regarded for her striking portrayal of the title role in
Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos, which she has performed with
the Metropolitan Opera, Opéra de Lyon, Théâtre du Châtelet,
Santa Fe Opera, English National Opera, and Opera Theater of
St. Louis. Additional roles, each garnering critical
acclaim, include Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, Gluck's
Alceste, the Dyer's Wife in Strauss's Die Frau
Ohne Schatten, and Lady Billows in Britten's Albert
Herring. Ms. Brewer has sung with the New York, Los
Angeles, London and Malaysia philharmonics; the orchestras
of Cleveland, Philadelphia, Boston, and Dallas; the
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Orchestre de Paris,
Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the Academy of St.
Martin-in-the-Fields, and many others. Her numerous
recordings include the Janáček Glagolitic Mass and Dvořák Te
Deum with Robert Shaw and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (Telarc);
two recital recordings entitled "Saint Louis Woman" and
"Music for a While,"; and a live recital disc from Wigmore
Hall (Koch).
About Julian Kuerti, conductor
One of the most significant conducting
talents to emerge in recent years, Canadian conductor Julian
Kuerti has quickly made a name for himself with his
confident style and passion for musical collaboration. He
has led numerous orchestras across North America including
the Boston, Houston, Montreal, Toronto, Colorado, Cincinnati
and Utah symphonies, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the
National Arts Centre Orchestra. In the 2010/11 season, Mr.
Kuerti debuts with the Atlanta, Seattle, New Jersey,
Vancouver, Rochester, Toledo and Quebec symphonies; the Los
Angeles and St. Paul chamber orchestras; and with New York
City Opera. Mr. Kuerti recently completed his post as
assistant conductor to James Levine at the Boston Symphony
and made his BSO subscription debut in 2008 with Leon
Fleischer as soloist. In 2009 Mr. Kuerti led a Tanglewood
performance with Yo-Yo Ma and returned to the BSO for an
all-Russian program and as substitute for part of James
Levine’s all-Beethoven cycle, leading the Third and Fourth
symphonies. Son of famed pianist Anton Kuerti, he began his
training on the violin and was later accepted to the
renowned Pierre Monteux School for Conductors in Maine. Mr.
Kuerti also studied with David Zinman at the American
Academy of Conducting at Aspen and with Jorma Panula at the
NAC Conductors Programme in Ottawa. In 2005, he was one of
two conducting fellows at Tanglewood, where he took
masterclasses with Mr. Levine, Kurt Masur, Stefan Asbury and
Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos. Mr. Kuerti served as assistant
conductor to Ivan Fischer and the Budapest Festival
Orchestra during the 2006/07 season. From 2005 to 2008, he
was founding artistic director and principal conductor of
Berlin’s Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop.