Westport, CT - The Westport Arts Center is excited to announce its new 2017-18 Concert Series led by esteemed curator Alexander Platt.
The Arts Center has combined its previously distinct Jazz and Chamber music programs into a singular stellar Concert Series, featuring the most engaging and renowned music performers from across the globe. The five concerts will be held on Friday and Saturday evenings between September 2017 and May 2018 at the Arts Center.
Alexander Platt has been named as curator for the Concert Series, and will serve as a guide for concert attendees, sharing his perspective and insights at each of the performances. A native Westporter, Platt has previously served as the Music Director of eminent orchestras around the country, and will now make Westport his primary residence and focus.
“Westport has always been a beacon for the best and most-sought after musicians, and I am thrilled to return home to my roots to present this amazing roster of performers,” stated Platt. “I look forward to reengaging with Westport’s enthusiastic performing arts audiences and to bringing my experiences back to the community.”
In addition to leading the Concert Series, Platt has created a consortium of local music organizations, including Beechwood Arts, Westport Library, and Suzuki School of Music, in order to collaborate during the season.
Season tickets for the 2017-18 Concert Series are available for purchase before September 23, 2017. Season ticket holders will receive two free companion tickets and exclusive access to special Concert Series events through the season. Free Companion Tickets are also available for Seniors ages 65+.
The 2017-18 Westport Arts Center Concert Series will include five performances at the Westport Arts Center as follows.
- Saturday, September 23 @ 7 p.m.: Anthony de Mare, the international pianist renowned for his explorations forging the worlds of Classical and Broadway, will make his Westport debut with his acclaimed program "LIAISONS: Re-Imagining Sondheim at the Piano."
- Friday, November 3 @ 7:30 p.m.: Igor Pikayzen, Westport resident and prize-winning young virtuoso violinist, will perform a program dedicated to the solo violin.
- Saturday, January 20, 2018 @ 8 p.m.: Julliard String Quartet, one of America’s pre-eminent string quartets, will perform a program centered on Beethoven masterworks and the modern Scottish composer James MacMillan.
- Friday, March 2, 2018 @ 7:30 p.m.: The Calidore String Quartet, one of the most exciting of the younger string quartets, will perform masterpieces of Mozart, Mendelssohn, Shostakovich, and the young Pulitzer-Prize winner Caroline Shaw.
- Friday, May 11, 2018 @ 7:30 p.m.: The acclaimed London/New York pianist Simon Mulligan, with The Simon Mulligan Trio, will end the season with a stunning program traversing the worlds of Jazz and Classical, ranging from classic repertoire of Mozart, Barber and Chopin to unique interpretations of The George Gershwin Songbook.
Ticket Information
Tickets for individual performances are $40 for WAC members and $50 for non-members if purchased in advance. All tickets purchased at door are $60/ticket.
Season tickets are available if purchased on or before September 23, 2017. Season ticket holders will receive two free companion tickets and exclusive access to special Concert Series events through the season. Free Companion Tickets are also available for Seniors ages 65+; each ticket purchase of $50 includes a free companion ticket (a two-for-one!).
Westport Arts Center 2017-18 Concert Series season tickets or individual concert tickets can be purchased atwww.westportartscenter.org or by calling 203/222-7070.
About Alexander Platt
Alexander Platt has built a unique career spanning the worlds of symphony, chamber music and opera. The Music Director of the La Crosse Symphony Orchestra and the Wisconsin Philharmonic, he is also in his fifteenth year as the Music Director of the Maverick Concerts, in Woodstock, New York, which recently celebrated its centennial as the oldest summer chamber music festival in America. The veteran music director of several Midwestern orchestras as well as the Boca Raton Symphonia, Alexander Platt has also guest conducted the Minnesota Orchestra, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Minnesota Opera, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the City of London Sinfonia, the Aalborg Symphony in Denmark and the Freiburg Philharmonic in Germany, as well as the Banff Festival, the Ravinia Festival, and the Houston, Charlotte, and Indianapolis Symphonies, among others. He spent twelve years as Resident Conductor of Chicago Opera Theater, where he led the Chicago premieres of Britten's Death in Venice, Shostakovich's Moscow Paradise and John Adams' Nixon in China, all to high praise from the major papers of Chicago, London and New York. Alexander Platt made his London debut at the Wigmore Hall in a concert broadcast by the BBC, and made his New York debut conducting the Brooklyn Philharmonic in Central Park.
A 1983 graduate of Staples High School, Alexander Platt spent a year as a Younger Scholars Fellow of the National Endowment for the Humanities and was then an undergraduate at Yale College, where he created his own acclaimed concert series at the Yale Center for British Art; he graduated winning the College's highest arts prize. Awarded a Marshall Scholarship, he spent three years at King's College Cambridge, during which time he made his professional debut at the Aldeburgh Festival and was the first American to hold the coveted post of Assistant Conductor of the Cambridge University Musical Society. He then was a Conducting Fellow at the Aspen Music School and finally at Tanglewood, where his principal teachers were Simon Rattle and Gustav Meier. He makes his home in Westport, Woodstock, Wisconsin and Chicago.
Platt is the former chief conductor of the Racine Symphony, the Boca Roton Symphonia, the Minnesota Philharmonic and the Marion, Indian Philharmonic. He is a graduate of Yale College, King’s College Cambridge, and conducting fellowships at both Aspen and Tanglewood.
About the Westport Arts Center
The Westport Arts Center, a nonprofit organization dedicated to connecting community through the arts, reaches more than 11,000 people annually through outstanding programs in visual arts, arts education, and the performance arts of Chamber music and jazz.
The Westport Arts Center also receives philanthropic support from the Katherine and Howard Aibel Foundation; Anthropologie & Co.; Artur and Heida Hermanns Holde Foundation, Inc.; Bernstein Private Wealth Management; Cohen and Wolf, P.C.; Connecticut Office of the Arts; Critical Mix; Delamar Southport; Design Within Reach; Dragone Motor Cars; Fairfield County Bank; Fairfield County's Community Foundation; Fairfield County Hunt Club; 4th Row Films; GWAY Print Solutions; Hal Prince Music; the Hall Art Foundation; The Hofstetter Baron Group; J.P. Morgan; Land Rover/Jaguar of Fairfield; Moffly Media; Newman’s Own Foundation; Northeast Tent; Random Acts; Rosenkranz Foundation; Serena & Lily; Shack Sackler Foundation; Sontag Advisory LLC; Steven Mancini Salon; Success Printing & Mailing; Teich Gardens; Tito's Handmade Vodka; Verde Energy USA, Inc.; Wells Fargo Advisors; Westport Now; Westport Resources, a division of United Capital; William J. Rosenbloom Charitable Trust; WPKN and WSHU Public Radio Group.
For more information, contact the Westport Arts Center at (203) 222-7070 or www.westportartscenter.org. The Westport Arts Center gallery is open Monday - Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 51 Riverside Avenue, Westport, CT.