New York City’s American Classical Orchestra (ACO) has announced its 2021-2022 season of all-live performances, beginning with a full orchestra Reunion program of Baroque music in Damrosch Park on September 22.
Founded in 1984 as the Orchestra of the Old Fairfield Academy, the ensemble was renamed American Classical Orchestra in 1999. ACO settled in New York City as a permanent home in 2005. It is now the city’s only full-scale orchestra dedicated solely to performing 17th, 18th, and 19th-century music on true-to-period instruments.
Reunion is the title of the 2021 season’s opening event, marking the joyous reunion of the ACO’s musicians, audience, and patrons after over 17 months without concerts. The program presents a selection of popular Baroque music at the newly renovated bandshell of Lincoln Center’s Damrosch Park. The rest of the season’s concerts follow suit with meaningful titles, “Restore,” “Revisit,” “Remember” and “Renew” to commemorate the challenges of the past two years as life returns to normalcy.
Our reuniting onstage should reveal artists who have further honed their craft and intensified their passion for music. We chose timeless masterpieces as a way to celebrate our return to live performance through much-loved works that continue to comfort even after difficult times, to showcase our talented members and soloists, and also to underscore the soothing balm that great music provides to musicians and audiences alike.
Thomas Crawford (ACO’s Artistic Director and Founder)
This season also includes the Orchestra’s new collaboration with public media producer WNET, featuring a filmed performance of Prokofiev’s symphonic children’s tale, Peter and the Wolf. As a part of ACO’s “Classical Music for Kids” program, the film aims to enrich the cultural life of children by introducing them to classical music history at a young age. American Classical Orchestra’s performance of Peter and the Wolf will be available to watch for free on the PBS LearningMedia platform beginning this fall.
American Classical Orchestra offers subscription packages for their upcoming season that are on sale now. Tickets for individual performances will go on sale later this summer. For more information, visit aconyc.org. Visit lincolncenter.org for ACO programs hosted by Lincoln Center.
Read the full 2021-2022 American Classical Orchestra schedule below:
Reunion – Wednesday, September 22 at 7 pm, Damrosch Park at Lincoln Center:
Rachell Ellen Wong, violin
Part of the Restart Stages at Lincoln Center
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
Restore – Tuesday, December 14 at 8 pm, Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center:
All-Mozart Program:
Symphony No. 29 in A Major, K. 201
Concerto for Flute, Harp, and Orchestra in C Major, K. 299
Sinfonia Concertante for Violin and Viola in E-flat Major, K. 364 (320d)
Revisit – Thursday, February 3 at 7 pm, Harlem Parish, 258 W 118th St.:
Karen Dekker and Chloe Fedor, Baroque violin
Maureen Murchie, viola
Arnie Tanimoto, viola da gamba and cello
Charles Weaver, theorbo and Baroque guitar
Guadalupe Peraza, mezzo soprano
Thomas Crawford, harpsichord
Juan Arañés: Chacona a la vida bona
Nicola Francesco Haym: Ciaccona in E Major
Barbara Strozzi: L’Eraclito amoroso
Marin Marais: Chaconne in A Major, from Pièces de Viole, Book 4
Santiago de Murcia: Marionas
Arcangelo Corelli: Trio Sonata, Op. 2, No. 12
Johann Sebastian Bach: Chaconne from Partita for Solo Violin, BWV 1004
François Couperin: La Favorite
Claudio Monteverdi: Lamento della Ninfa
Henry Purcell: Chaconne from King Arthur
Remember – Saturday, February 26 at 8 pm, Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center:
Mozart: Requiem in D Minor, K. 626
Crawford: Elegy for Strings (World Premiere) In Memoriam Judson Griffin
Renew – Tuesday, April 5 at 8 pm, Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center :
All J.S. Bach Program
Easter Oratorio, BWV 249
Mass in G Minor, BWV 235
Overture to Orchestral Suite No. 4 in D Major, BWV 1069
Digital Production of Peter and the Wolf on PBS LearningMedia (Planned for Fall 2021)
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