Mission
The Mission of the New World Symphony is to prepare highly-gifted graduates of distinguished music programs for leadership roles in orchestras and ensembles around the world.
Statement of Purpose
The New World Symphony is dedicated to the artistic, personal and professional development of outstanding instrumentalists. The NWS fellowship program provides top graduates of music programs the opportunity to enhance their musical education with the finest professional training. A laboratory for musical education and expression, the New World Symphony, through a wide range of performance and instructional activities, seeks to develop in participants the full complement of skills and qualifications required of twenty-first century first class musicians. Under the artistic direction of Michael Tilson Thomas, the program offers in-depth exposure to traditional and modern repertoire, with the active involvement of leading guest conductors, soloists and coaches. The relationships with these artists are extended through NWS' pioneering experimentation with distance learning via Internet2.
History
The New World Symphony
Established in 1987 under the artistic direction of Michael Tilson Thomas, this unique educational environment prepares gifted graduates of distinguished music programs for leadership positions in orchestras and ensembles around the world.
The intensive, three-year fellowship program offers a wide range of performance and educational opportunities. At its home base in Miami Beach, the New World Symphony presents a full season of concerts from October to May. Performances include full-orchestra concerts, a chamber music series, a new music series, small ensemble concerts, a family series, mini-concerts, club concerts, and special festivals and recitals. The program offers opportunities for fellows to design and present their own concerts, which often feature seldom-heard works for unusual instrumentation. NWS Fellows are also encouraged to develop their entrepreneurial and community outreach skills. One outcome of this initiative was the creation of a "Music Mentor" program that pairs NWS Fellows with high school music students for private music lessons, culminating in an annual "Side-by-Side" spring concert showcasing the combined talents of the young students and their NWS mentors
Symphony History
Since its inaugural concert on February 4, 1988, the New World Symphony has been heard in such prestigious venues as New York's Carnegie Hall and Avery Fisher Hall, London's Barbican Centre, Paris's Bastille Opera and Argentina's Teatro Colon.
NWS has been televised on PBS, London Weekend Television and Univision. New World Symphony tours have included performances in Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, France, Great Britain, Israel, Japan, Monaco, and throughout the United States. The New World Symphony has worked with such internationally recognized conductors as Leonard Bernstein, Sir Georg Solti, Marek Janowski, David Robertson, Christoph Eschenbach and Stanislaw Skrowaczewski; violinists Anne-Sophie Mutter, Midori, Gil Shaham and Sarah Chang; and such other artists as Yo-Yo Ma, Renee Fleming, John Adams, Emanuel Ax, Yuri Bashmet, Barbara Hendricks and Gloria Estefan.
In 1991, Mr. Tilson Thomas and the New World Symphony were presented in a series of benefit concerts for UNICEF in the U.S. featuring Audrey Hepburn as narrator of From the Diary of Anne Frank, composed by Mr. Tilson Thomas and commissioned by UNICEF. In April 1995, Michael Tilson Thomas and the musicians performed with Debra Winger for the season finale concerts in Miami, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and New York's Avery Fisher Hall.
The New World Symphony has made seven recordings to date. In January 1997, BMG Classics eleased NWS' first recording on the RCA Red Seal label with Mr. Tilson Thomas leading the musicians in works by Heitor Villa-Lobos. A second disc for RCA Red Seal entitled New World Jazz was released in September 1998, and features Mr. Tilson Thomas and the orchestra in vibrant interpretations of jazz-inspired works by 20th-century composers. On Argo/Decca, the Grammy-nominated Tangazo, featuring Latin-American classics with Michael Tilson Thomas, was released in March 1993; Four Parables, with John Nelson conducting music of the American composer Paul Schoenfield, was released in June 1994. Defining Dahl: The Music of Ingolf Dahl, conducted by Mr. Tilson Thomas, was released in 1995, also on the Argo label. Other releases on Argo/Decca include Coptic Light, music of Morton Feldman led by Mr. Tilson Thomas, and Amy Beach's piano concerto with soloist Alan Feinberg and conductor John Nelson.
The New World Symphony has launched the careers of more than 630 young musicians now making a difference in the profession worldwide. In North America, they are members of such ensembles as the Boston Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, National Symphony in Washington, D.C., and the San Francisco Symphony. Their placement in foreign orchestras includes symphonies and chamber orchestras in Germany, China, Hong Kong, France and Spain. In addition, many New World Symphony musicians have chosen career paths in chamber music, music education and arts management.
