BHS Students Attend Exclusive NY Philharmonic Performance

On Friday, February 10, 2023, the Baldwin High School orchestras took a trip to Manhattan to view a special performance from the New York Philharmonic – three pieces conducted by the Finnish conductor and composer Esa-Pekka Salonen. This limited-time only show ran from February 8-11, the piece composed by Salonen making its US debut that week. This piece, named “kinema for Solo Clarinet and String Orchestra”, consisted of 5 ranging movements, all inspired by his experiences in quarantine. The solo clarinetist for this performance, Anthony McGill, is a renowned musician and the New York Philharmonic’s first African-American Principal player. The other two pieces played were “Four Original Versions of Ritirata notturna di Madrid” by Luigi Boccherini and Beethoven’s iconic “Symphony No. 7 in A major”. Another special part of this trip were the seats our students sat in, which were part of the newly redesigned David Geffen Hall. Part of the audience can sit directly behind the orchestra and get a new perspective on the performance. I asked some of the students about their experience, and most stated that they enjoyed being able to see the conductor’s facial expressions, something the audience doesn’t typically see. “The seats we sat in allowed us to view his equally dynamic performance”, said Brendan Kaminski, a junior that plays viola in our school. This performance was not recorded, making it a shared memory for our orchestras to be able to witness this spectacle.