American Conservatory at Fontainebleau Celebrates 90th Anniversary with New York Concert on March 23

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On March 23, in anticipation of its 90th anniversary this summer, the American Conservatory will hold a public concert in New York. The event will feature the American Conservatory’s director – esteemed pianist-conductor Philippe Entremont – as well as distinguished alumni of the conservatory. It was at the American Conservatory at Fontainebleau, one of classical music’s most prestigious academies, that the great pedagogue Nadia Boulanger taught generations of American composers, from Aaron Copland and Virgil Thomson to Elliott Carter and Ned Rorem.

This 90th-anniversary concert, to be presented at 7:30pm on March 23 at Manhattan’s Kosciuszko Foundation (15 East 65th Street), will include the U.S. premiere of Tokyo-City by Allain Gaussin, of the American Conservatory’s composition faculty. The work’s soloist, pianist Natalia Kazaryan, is another alumnus of the academy. The program will also present works by Debussy, Poulenc, and Schubert, with violinist Dan Zhu among the alumni performers.

The American Conservatory at Fontainebleau’s 90th-anniversary summer program will be held on July 3-21, 2011. This summer’s guest composer is Richard Danielpour, who will also preside over the auditions jury. Along with director Philippe Entremont, who teaches piano and chamber music at the academy, the faculty includes such top artists as pianist Marie-Joseph Jude and violist Bruno Pasquier.

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