Alan Gilbert Directs NY Phil in Walt Disney Concert Hall Debut, Featuring Yefim Bronfman, 5/9

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Music Director Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic, America's oldest orchestra, come to Walt Disney Concert Hall in the final event of the LA Phil's 2011/12 Visiting Orchestras series, Wednesday, May 9, at 8 pm. Virtuoso pianist Yefim Bronfman joins the program, performing the West Coast premiere of Piano Concerto No. 2, by New York Philharmonic Composer-in-Residence Magnus Lindberg. Also on the program are Dvorák's Carnival Overture and Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4. Though Gilbert has previously appeared at Walt Disney Concert Hall (WDCH), most recently during the 2006/07 season, the performance will be the New York Philharmonic's WDCH debut.

The concert is the second stop of the New York Philharmonic's CALIFORNIA 2012 TOUR, featuring seven concerts in six cities, beginning May 8 in Costa Mesa and ending May 15, in San Diego. This is the orchestra's first U.S. tour with Gilbert as Music Director, and the first extensive visit to California since 1999.

Founded in 1842, the New York Philharmonic is the oldest symphony orchestra in the United States and one of the oldest in the world; on May 5, 2010, it performed its 15,000th concert. Music Director Alan Gilbert succeeds a distinguished line of 20th-century musical giants that goes back to Gustav Mahler and Arturo Toscanini. The orchestra has always played a leading role in American musical life, commissioning and/or premiering works by each era's leading composers, some of which have won the Pulitzer Prize. Renowned around the globe, the Philharmonic has appeared in 430 cities in 63 countries – including the February 2008 historic visit to Pyongyang, DPRK, for which the Philharmonic earned the 2008 Common Ground Award for Cultural Diplomacy. Credit Suisse is the exclusive Global Sponsor of the New York Philharmonic.

Music Director Alan Gilbert, The Yoko Nagae Ceschina Chair, began his tenure at the New York Philharmonic in September 2009, launching what New York Magazine called "a fresh future for the Philharmonic." The first native New Yorker in the post, he has introduced the positions of The Marie-Josée Kravis Composer-in-Residence and The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence, an annual three-week festival, and CONTACT!, the new-music series, and has sought to make the orchestra a point of civic pride for the city as well as for the country. Mr. Gilbert's 2011/12 Philharmonic season comprises world premieres and pillars of the repertoire to shed fresh perspectives on both the new and the established. It also includes tours to Europe and California, appearances at Carnegie Hall, and a program at the Park Avenue Armory featuring Stockhausen's Gruppen. Mr. Gilbert also made his Philharmonic debut as soloist when he joined Frank Peter Zimmermann in J.S. Bach's Concerto for Two Violins in October 2011.

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