The Juilliard Orchestra Makes a Special Carnegie Hall Appearance Performing
Mahler’s (“Resurrection”) Symphony on Monday, December 10 at 8 PM
Conductor Jahja Ling Leads the Orchestra With Soloists Soprano Melissa Kaye Shippen and
Mezzo-soprano Makiko Narumi and the Juilliard Choral Union, Judith Clurman, Director
Symphony was Premiered at Carnegie Hall, With Mahler Conducting 93 Years ago This Month
On Monday, December 10 at 8 PM in Carnegie Hall, the Juilliard Orchestra makes a special appearance with conductor Jahja Ling in a performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 in C Minor (“Resurrection”). Soloists are Juilliard singers, soprano Melissa Kaye Shippen and mezzo-soprano Makiko Narumi. The Orchestra is joined by the Juilliard Choral Union; Judith Clurman is their director. Tickets go on sale November 1. Prices for Carnegie Hall tickets are $40 for orchestra, 1st and 2nd tier; $15 for dress circle; $10 for balcony seats; half price tickets are available for students and senior citizens with valid ID. Tickets may be purchased at the Carnegie Hall Box Office or by calling CarnegieCharge at (212) 247-7800. Call the Juilliard Concerts Office, Monday-Friday, from 11 AM - 6 PM at 212-769-7406 for more information.
Juilliard's performance falls just two days after the ninety-third anniversary of the Second Symphony's U.S. premiere on December 8, 1908 at Carnegie Hall, with the composer leading the Symphony Society of New York. The soloists were soprano Laura L. Combs and alto Gertrude Stein Bailey, along with the Oratorio Society of New York. Gustav Mahler was the conductor of the Symphony Society of New York from 1909 - 1911. The Symphony Society of New York merged with the New York Philharmonic Society in 1928 to become the New York Philharmonic.
Conductor Jahja Ling currently serves as resident conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra, the music director of the Florida Orchestra and the artistic director of the National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan. During the 2001-02 season Mr. Ling appears with the Seattle Symphony as part of Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Project (May 2002), and returns to conduct the Indianapolis Symphony; he also will travel to Malaysia to conduct the Malaysia Philharmonic in March of 2002. In May 2000, he conducted the St. Louis Symphony in the world premiere performance of Hugh Downs' new composition featuring Yo-Yo Ma as soloist, a documentary of which was shown on ABC's 20/20. In September 2000 in Osaka and Tokyo, Mr. Ling conducted the Super World Orchestra in Japan, an ensemble comprised of players from major international orchestras such as the Leipzig Gewandhaus, Bayerischen Rundfunks, Berliner Sinfonie, Orchestre de Paris, Munich, Vienna, Dresden, and New York Philharmonics, the Boston Symphony, and Cleveland and Philadelphia Orchestras.
Born in Jakarta, Indonesia, of Chinese descent, and now a United States citizen, Jahja Ling began to play the piano at the age of four. At eighteen, he was awarded a Rockefeller grant to attend The Juilliard School where he studied piano with Mieczyslaw Munz and Beveridge Webster. In 1977, Mr. Ling won a bronze medal in the Artur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition and, a year later, was awarded a certificate of honor at Moscow's Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition. In the summer of 1980, Mr. Ling was awarded the Leonard Bernstein Conducting Fellowship at Tanglewood, and in 1982, he was selected by Mr. Bernstein to be a Conducting Fellow at the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute. After completing a master of music degree at Juilliard, he studied orchestral conducting at the Yale University School of Music under Otto-Werner Mueller and received a doctor of musical arts degree in 1985. In 1988, he was selected as a recipient of the Seaver/National Endowment for the Arts Conductor's Award, a career development grant made to American conductors judged to be of extraordinary promise.
Soprano Melissa Kaye Shippen graduated from Juilliard with a bachelor of music degree in Vocal Performance this May and is currently in the master of music program at the School. In 2000, she won first prize at the DiPanni Bel Canto Vocal Scholarship Competition and, while at the Salzburg Music Festival, won the Schloss Leopoldskron International Vocal Competition, and performed a winner’s recital. In 1997 she was a Level 1 winner of the National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts – ARTS Competition. She was named the United States Presidential Scholar the same year and performed a solo recital at The Kennedy Center for the President. She also won the National Donna Reed Scholarship Foundation vocal prize. Ms. Shippen has performed opera roles including Fiordiligi in Mozart’s Cosí fan tutte with the Berkshire Opera Young Artists Program, Laurie in Copland’s The Tenderlands at Juilliard, and Ino in Handel’s Semele at Columbia University. Ms. Shippen’s oratorio and sacred work performances include Handel’s Messiah, Schubert’s Mass in G, and Fauré’s Requiem. In April she sang Brahms selections at the Alice Tully Hall Vocal Honors Recital. Ms. Shippen has performed at the Tanglewood and Chautauqua music festivals, and was most recently seen in concerts and master classes at a vocal festival in Urbania, Italy. She will perform in the Juilliard production of Offenbach’s Orphée aux enfers as Minerve this Spring.
Mezzo-Soprano Makiko Narumi, from Aomori, Japan, has performed with notable conductors throughout the United States including Seiji Ozawa (Falstaff) and James Conlon (Mahler’s Eighth Symphony). She also has worked with Julius Rudel and David Zinman. Ms. Narumi sang the role of Agatha Liu in the world premiere performance of Bernard Rands’ Belladonna which was commissioned for the fiftieth anniversary of the Aspen Festival in 1999. At Juilliard, she sang the role of Lucretia in Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia, Madame de Croissy, in Poulenc’s Dialogues of the Carmelites and has been featured in a performance of Mahler’s Fünf Rückert Lieder, Gluck’s Armide, and Chabrier’s L’etoile. In Japan, Ms. Narumi has sung the St. John Passion, St. Matthew Passion, Messiah, Elijah, and the Verdi Requiem, and was a soloist in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in performances at Carnegie Hall and the Concertgebouw. A semi-finalist of the 2000 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, Ms. Narumi also was a prize winner of the Licia Albanese Puccini Foundation International Voice Competition, and winner of Juilliard’s vocal concerto competition. Current European performances include singing Arnalta in L’incoronazione di Poppea with Stuttgart Opera in Germany. Ms. Narumi holds a bachelor of arts degree in Music Education from Iwate University in Japan, and holds two degrees from Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music: a bachelor of art in music and a master of music degree. Ms. Narumi studied with the late Beverley Peck Johnson and now studies with Rita Shane and Robert White.
Founded by conductor and choral director Judith Clurman, the Juilliard Choral Union is a community-based symphonic chorus comprised of 100 volunteer singers from the metropolitan area who dedicate themselves to achieving the highest level of choral performance. Now in its second season, the Juilliard Choral Union includes singers from New York and New Jersey, as well as currently enrolled graduate and undergraduate Juilliard students, staff, and administrators. Conductor Judith Clurman is known predominantly for her vital role as a leader in the field of choral music, she is the founder and director of The New York Concert Singers, and director of choral activities for the TodiMusicFest. Ms. Clurman’s ensembles have appeared at Lincoln Center with the New York Philharmonic, Mostly Mozart, the Lincoln Center Festival, and Great Performers, and at Carnegie Hall with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the Boston Symphony, the American Composers Orchestra and the New York Pops. She serves as music director and conductor for Lincoln Center’s annual Tree Lighting. A strong supporter of American music, Ms. Clurman has commissioned and performed works by such major composers as Beaser, Bolcom, Diamond, León, Larsen, Paulus, and Rouse. New World Records has just released her Christmas CD, "A Season’s Promise". Ms. Clurman is a member of The Juilliard School faculty.
