On Wednesday 7 August, Jonathon Heyward featured on ABC’s Good Morning America, discussing the Festival Orchestra of Lincoln Center’s closing concerts and Lincoln Center’s collaboration with the World Health Organization, which is shining a light on the transformative power of music on our mental health and well-being.
“For me, as an artist, it’s important for us to be able to respond to our community,” Heyward explained. “We’re doing just that at Lincoln Center by having this wonderful collaboration.” Expounding on when he realised music was a healing power, Heyward said, “Having a cello in my hand when I was in 5th grade, it changed my life, it changed my belief on what I felt music can do and should do. As a Music Director for both the Lincoln Center and Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, it’s my mission to be able to share that with all of our audience.”
This weekend, Heyward concludes his inaugural season as Renée and Robert Belfer Music Director of the Festival Orchestra of Lincoln Center, with two concerts on the 9 and 10 August at David Geffen Hall, New York. The evenings of interconnected narrative include the world premiere of Hannah Kendall’s He stretches out the north over the void and hangs the earth on nothing and Schumann’s Symphony No. 2. Learn about the ways Schumann relied on the music of Bach for uplift, through his Musical Offering and Keyboard Concerto in A Major, performed by pianist Conrad Tao. Finally, hear the Schumann Symphony itself, with its churning conflicts reflective of Schumann’s mental health challenges. The concerts are accompanied by panel sessions, presented with the Jameel Arts and Health Lab in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO). More information and tickets are available here.
Heyward and The Festival Orchestra of Lincoln Center have received unanimous praise for their Summer for the City performances. Zachary Woolfe from The New York Times wrote, “Under the tall and graceful Heyward, who is also the new music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and whose M.C. work got more relaxed as the performance went on, the ensemble sounded crisp and genial.”
George Grella from Financial Times wrote, “At a rehearsal, Heyward told the orchestra he wanted “the most organised and metronomically secure” performance of Beethoven’s “Pastoral” symphony, and the orchestra delivered that, and more. This was as well-formed, thrilling and glorious as one has heard this masterpiece … All the way through to the end the performance told Beethoven’s story.”
Photo credit: Laura Thiesbrummel
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