By April Isaacs
Commemorating what would have been Leonard Bernstein’s 90th birthday and his rich musical legacy to New York and indeed, the world, the Queens Symphony Orchestra is focusing its 56th season on Bernstein’s musical career. Concerts in the 2008−2009 season will run the gamut of Bernstein’s impact on classical music, from Bernstein’s own influences to current composers who cite him as a major influence on their work.
QSO is led by Music Director Constantine Kitsopolous, who is now in his third season with the orchestra. He also conducts orchestras for Broadway musicals and has guest conducted at orchestras all over the country.
QSO’s Masterworks Oct. 25 premiere, called “Lenny’s Beginnings,” includes Bernstein’s “Symphony No. 1 (Jeremiah),” as well as works that appeared on the program on Bernstein’s conducting debut with the New York Philharmonic in 1943: Schumann’s “Manfred Overture,” Wagner’s overture to “Die Meistersinger” and RÓzsa’s “Theme, Variation and Finale.”
The second concert in the Masterworks series, on Feb. 21, features work by Britten and Stravinsky, who were major influences on Bernstein’s work, followed by music by Spiros Exara, a classically trained guitarist whose jazz fusion style incorporates echoes of Bernstein. The series concludes May 9 with a full chorus production of Bernstein’s “Chichester Psalms.”
As classical music concert attendance throughout the world generally wanes, Kitsopolous strives to make QSO’s performances less formal and more accessible, and the orchestra has actually seen an increase in attendance since Kitsopolous signed on as music director in 2005.
In an effort to make classical music more approachable, Kitsopolous will be giving pre−concert lectures an hour before each Masterworks performance this season, where audience members can ask questions and meet the performers.
QSO will also be reviving their Young People’s lectures and concerts, beginning with “Why a Conductor?” on Oct. 21. In this first lecture, Kitsopolous will explain the role of the conductor and eventually bring a student from the audience on stage to practice conducting. In May, a lecture called “Let’s Make an Orchestra” will involve teaching kids how a musical ensemble is constructed.
Kitsopolous based his Young People’s series on Leonard Bernstein’s “Young People’s Concerts,” which were broadcast on CBS in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
“When the camera pans out into the audience, you see a group of kids just completely into what he was talking about,” Kitsopolous said of watching Bernstein’s lectures. “He had a way of presenting pretty complex material in such a way that kids could really understand, and a way of breaking down the wall between the stage and the auditorium that kind of drew you in.”
Kitsopolous considers youth outreach and education one of QSO’s most important ventures. As such, the orchestra puts a good deal of focus on teaching musical workshops in schools and will host a youth soloist competition in the spring, inviting the winner of the competition to perform with the orchestra in the following season.
“I want to show kids that they, too, can accomplish this. It’s a lot of hard work, obviously, to play a concerto, or to play an instrument well, but kids of that caliber of accomplishment performing for kids their own age is a very powerful, powerful thing, I think,” Kitsopolous said.
For tickets and concert information, visit queenssymphony.org or call 718−326−4455.
