| New York, NY, August 24, 2021 — The American Classical Orchestra (ACO), New York City’s foremost period instrument orchestra, opens its 2021-22 season with a free concert at Lincoln Center ‘s Damrosch Park on Wednesday, September 22 at 7 pm. The event marks the joyous Reunion of the ACO’s musicians, audience, and patrons with the Orchestra’s first major concert in seventeen months. The program of popular Baroque music includes Vivaldi’s “Summer” and Handel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks with 2020 Avery Fisher Career Grant winner, violinist Rachell Ellen Wong, the only Baroque artist in the prestigious program’s history. Acclaimed for both historical and modern violin performance, Wong has been praised as an “artist to watch and seek out” by Early Music America. |
| Wednesday, September 22 at 7 pm Damrosch Park at Lincoln Center (Amsterdam Ave & W 62nd St) Reunion Rachell Ellen Wong, violin Vivaldi: Violin Concerto in G Minor, Op. 8, No. 2, RV 315, “L’Estate” (“Summer” from The Four Seasons) Handel: Music for the Royal Fireworks and excerpts from Water Music Tickets are free and walk ups are available, but reservations are strongly encouraged to guarantee entry. Tickets can be reserved at aconyc.org. Concertgoers will need to comply with the Lincoln Center’s visitor guidelines, which can be found here. American Classical Orchestra’s 2021-22 seasonSeason highlights include an all-Mozart program in Alice Tully Hall (December 14); a program of Baroque repertoire featuring selections from the ensemble’s highly-acclaimed 2020 film The Chaconne Project in the historic setting of Harlem Parish (February 3); Remember, a concert in tribute to those lost during the pandemic, featuring Mozart’s Requiem and the world premiere of ACO Founder and Artistic Director Thomas Crawford’s Elegy (February 26, Alice Tully Hall); and Renew, a concert marking the Orchestra’s debut performance of Bach’s Easter Oratorio (April 5, Alice Tully Hall). |
| About Thomas Crawford The American Classical Orchestra’s Artistic Director and Founder Thomas Crawford is a champion of historically accurate performance styles in Baroque, Classical, and Early Romantic music. He founded two Connecticut orchestras: the Fairfield Orchestra and the Orchestra of the Old Fairfield Academy, the period instrument offshoot of the Fairfield Orchestra that was renamed American Classical Orchestra in 1999. With the Fairfield Orchestra, Crawford commissioned numerous works by composers, including John Corigliano and William Thomas McKinley, and collaborated with artists such as Joshua Bell, John Corigliano, Vladimir Feltsman, Richard Goode, Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, André Watts, and Dawn Upshaw. He also conducted the world premiere of Keith Jarrett’s Bridge of Light at Alice Tully Hall, subsequently recorded on the ECM label. An accomplished composer, organist, and choirmaster, Crawford won the prestigious BMI composition award for his organ work Ashes of Rose, premiered at the American Guild of Organists. A passionate activist determined to bring the beauty of period music to a wider audience, Mr. Crawford’s educational activities with the Orchestra were recognized with a Learning in the Arts for Children and Youth award by the National Endowment for the Arts for the ACO’s dynamic music outreach to New York City schoolchildren. A Pennsylvania native, he holds degrees in organ performance and composition from the Eastman School of Music and Columbia University. About American Classical Orchestra Founded in 1984 as the Orchestra of the Old Fairfield Academy, the ensemble was renamed American Classical Orchestra in 1999. Founder and Artistic Director Thomas Crawford established its new and permanent home in New York City in 2005. It is now the City’s only full-scale orchestra dedicated solely to performing 17th, 18th, and 19th century music on period instruments. Described as “simply splendid” by The New York Times, ACO players are the foremost in their field, consisting of artists who also perform with such major New York ensembles as Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Handel and Haydn Society, and the New York Philharmonic. Its principal players are Faculty members at The Juilliard School, and the ACO works closely with students enrolled in the School’s Historical Performance Program. The American Classical Orchestra Chorus, comprised of professional vocalists from the New York metro area, joins ACO for larger productions. By playing music on original instruments and using historic performance technique, ACO strives to recreate the sounds an audience would have experienced when the music was originally written and performed. The Orchestra and its “supremely skilled musicians” (Theater Scene) has won critical praise for its recordings, educational programs, and concerts, including appearances at Alice Tully Hall and on Lincoln Center’s Great Performers series, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and for a sold-out 25th anniversary performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. For more information, visit aconyc.org. |