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By George, he’ll play at Carnegie

Kerala-born George Mathew is leading some of the world’s finest orchestra players to perform Symphony Number 9 at Carnegie Hall.

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NEW YORK: Renowned Indian-born conductor George Mathew is upbeat about raising half a million dollars for South Asian quake victims at an uber fashionable classical music concert at Carnegie Hall on January 23 which will draw some of the top pianists, violinists and musicians in the United States and Europe.
 
Kerala-born Mathew is leading some of the world’s finest orchestra players to perform Beethoven’s magical Symphony Number 9. The ticket sales from “Beethoven’s Ninth for South Asia” which is already shaping up to be a sold-out concert will go to Medecins San Frontieres which is working with victims of the October earthquake in Pakistan and India.
 
Mathew said he had a special reason for choosing to perform Beethoven who had his first piece of music published when he was 12 years old.
 
“What is heard may sound like the familiar tune of the Ode to Joy from the Ninth Symphony. It is that and much more. The percussion instruments come to us from the Turkish Military bands of that time. What Beethoven is saying here, is no longer the utterance of an individual, but that of a civilisation reaching out to fellow civilisations,” said Mathew.
 
“What we hear is a German drinking song, embellished and elevated by Turkish music, music of the Islamic world. This sums up the possibility that stands before us today of artists, listeners, nations and civilisations embracing each other and being embraced by art. There has perhaps never been a moment when it was more appropriate or more urgent to send out Beethoven’s and Schiller’s cry of Seid Umschlungen, Millionen (Be Embraced, You Millions),” he added.
 
Mathew will lead musicians from the New York Philharmonic, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, Albany Symphony Orchestra, Pennsylvania Ballet Orchestra, Amsterdam Sinfonietta, Brentano and Emerson Quartets and students and faculty members from top American music schools like Juilliard, the Manhattan School of Music and Mannes College of Music.
 
“The performance will feature a quartet of both renowned veterans and rising stars and a chorus of 150 to 200 assembled from the major choral ensembles in New York City,” said concert publicist Bob Gallo.
 
According to the Carnegie Hall box office, Mathew has reason to be upbeat about the South Asia benefit concert as even pricey tickets for $175 are being snapped up by New Yorkers.
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