The New York Philharmonic will embark on an eleven-concert tour of Asia this October that marks the orchestra’s first performances in Hanoi, Vietnam, and Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Details of the tour were announced at a June 2 press conference in Tokyo given by Music Director Designate Alan Gilbert and President and Executive Director Zarin Mehta. The October 8-24 tour, “Asian Horizons: Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic,” also encompasses performances in Tokyo, Japan; Seoul, Korea; and Singapore. The orchestra’s two performances in Vietnam will take place at the Hanoi Opera House; plans are underway for a large-screen simulcast of the concerts on the plaza adjacent to the opera house. The two concerts in Abu Dhabi, at the Emirates Palace Auditorium, will mark the opening of the 2009-10 season of Abu Dhabi Classics, described as the first year-round performing arts series in the Arab world. During the tour the orchestra will perform works of Barber, Beethoven, Berlioz, Mahler, Mendelssohn, and Mozart, as well as a new commission by Magnus Lindberg, the Philharmonic’s composer-in-residence beginning in September 2009. The Lindberg piece will have its world premiere in New York at the Philharmonic’s opening-night gala in September, prior to the tour.
Posted June 5, 2009
