Contacts:

Gloria Gottschalk, New School University
212-229-5667, ext. 239
[email protected]

Lauren Erlichman, New School University
212-229-5667, ext. 215
[email protected]

Patricia A. Neely, Mannes College of Music
212-580-0210, ext. 228
[email protected]

JOSEPH COLANERI TO CONDUCT THE MANNES ORCHESTRA
ON WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2002, 8 PM
AT ALICE TULLY HALL

PIANO SOLOIST WILL BE MARIKO FURUKAWA

(New York, NY –December 12, 2001) Joseph Colaneri will conduct The Mannes Orchestra in a concert on Wednesday, February 6, 2002 at 8 PM at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall. The program will feature Barber’s Adagio for Strings, Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man, Schumann’s Piano Concert in A Minor, Op. 54 with piano soloist Mariko Furukawa, and Respighi’s Ancient Airs and Dances and The Pines of Rome. Tickets are free and may be obtained at the Alice Tully Hall Box Office. For information on tickets, call (212) 875-5050. For further information on Mannes College of Music events, call (212) 496-8524.

Pianist Mariko Furukawa is the winner of Mannes’s Piano Concerto Competition. She began playing piano at the age of five and graduated high school from Toho Conservatory where her principal teacher was Yoriko Takahashi. Miss Furukawa won the Piano Teachers National Association Competition in Japan at the age of twelve, resulting in an invitation to perform in Salt Lake City. In 1998, she won the first prize in the All Japan Piano Competition, performing Chopin’s Ballade No. 1. Miss Furukawa was the fourth prizewinner at Mannes’s International Keyboard Institute and Festival both in 2000 and in 2001. Currently, Miss Furukawa studies with Jerome Rose.

Joseph Colaneri serves as Director of the Opera Program at Mannes College of Music and will be leading the Mannes Orchestra on the February 6 concert at Alice Tully Hall. He currently is in his fifth season as a member of the conducting roster of the Metropolitan Opera, where he led Verdi’s Luisa Miller this past November. As a guest conductor, Mr. Colaneri recently led a concert with Renee Fleming and the Tokyo Philharmonic, which was telecast by the NHK. Prior to joining the Metropolitan Opera, Mr. Colaneri was associated with the New York City Opera for fifteen years, culminating in his appointment in 1995 as Acting Music Director. At the New York City Opera, he led over 60 performances. Mr. Colaneri is also active as a conductor of the choral and symphonic repertoire. He conducted Verdi’s Requiem for the Berkshire Choral Festival in August 2001. He serves as a guest lecturer for the Metropolitan Opera Guild and the Los Angeles Opera League and leads an annual series of Saturday Opera Seminars at New York University. He is a graduate of New York University and holds a Master of Music degree from Westminster Choir College in Princeton. He resides in Millburn, New Jersey with his wife, Susan, and daughter, Catherine.

****

Mannes College of Music, founded in 1916, is one of the world’s major conservatories of music. A division of New School University, Mannes offers undergraduate and graduate degree programs, as well as a Professional Studies Diploma program. Joel Lester is Dean of the College. For further information on Mannes, call (212) 580-0210 or go to the Web site at www.mannes.edu.

New School University, with 7,000 matriculated students and 25,000 continuing education students, is comprised of seven academic divisions: The New School, the Graduate Faculty of Political and Social Science, Parsons School of Design, Eugene Lang College, Mannes College of Music, the Robert J. Milano Graduate School of Management and Urban Policy, and the Actors Studio Drama School, as well as the University's B.F.A. in Jazz and Contemporary Music. New School Online University offers one of the largest selections of online courses in the nation. For further information about admission to New School University, call 877-528-3321 or go to the Web site at www.newschool.edu