NYC Ballet, Philadelphia Orchestra will return
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. >> Saratoga Performing Arts Center is giving future event-goers a sneak peek at its 2019 Classical Season.
At a board meeting on Thursday, SPAC announced programming highlights for its upcoming season, featuring the return of beloved resident companies New York City Ballet, The Philadelphia Orchestra and Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, as a preview to the complete 2019 season announcement.
“While we plan to share our full schedule in the New Year, we are eager to announce a few programmatic highlights to give our audiences a taste of the 2019 sea-
son,” said Elizabeth Sobol, president and CEO of SPAC, in a press release.
The New York City Ballet will return to its summer home for four distinct programs over seven performances July 16 to 20 highlighted by story ballet Coppélia. Considered one of the greatest comic ballets of the 19th Century, Coppélia first premiered at and was partially commissioned by SPAC in 1974.
Choreographed by George Balanchine and Alexandra Danilova, the theatrical story ballet has remained one of the bestloved classical works in NYCB’s repertory.
For the first time, The Philadelphia Orchestra’s three-week residency, from July 31 to Aug. 17, will showcase Wynton Marsalis playing in his Swing Symphony with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra performing side-by-side with the full force of The Philadelphia Orchestra.
Sobol also announced that Yannick Nézet-Séguin, music director of The Philadelphia Orchestra and the new music director of the Metropolitan Opera, will return to SPAC for two weeks as part of the residency. The charismatic, internationally acclaimed conductor will lead the orchestra in Mozart’s Requiem featuring renowned vocalists and the Albany Pro Musica as the finale to the classical season on the amphitheater stage.
“The repertory for the entire classical season is rich and varied. It will culminate with Mozart’s Requiem, which despite being one the great works of all time, has never before been performed at SPAC,” Sobol said in the release
Other 2019 season dates announced Thursday were the Freihofer’s Saratoga Jazz Festival on June 29 and 30, along with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center performing shows from Aug. 4 to 20. The popular SPAC on Stage is also expected to return in Summer 2019
As part of SPAC’s continued commitment to presenting programming that extends beyond the traditional summer months, several events are slated for the winter months as well, including Live at the Jazz Bar Swing Night on Dec. 13, SPAC @ Bethesda Church featuring the Orchestra of St. Luke on Dec. 15, and SPAC’s Winter Ball: Into the Pines, a fundraiser for SPAC’s education programming, presented by the Junior Committee, on March 9.