Please join Lambuth University on Sunday, May 24, for a concert by the Eroica Ensemble, composed of musicians from New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Phoenix and Memphis, as they perform works by Beethoven, Vivaldi and Mozart. The performance will be held in the R.E. Womack Memorial Chapel at 3 p.m. Joining the ensemble for the first time at Lambuth is Alan Gilbert, who is currently the conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of Stockholm, Sweden, and in Sept. 2009, will take the baton as the conductor of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.

The Eroica Ensemble is composed of various world-class musicians. The conductor of the Eroica Ensemble, Michael Gilbert, Alan’s father, is an Emeritus member of the New York Philharmonic. Eroica Ensemble performers include Alan Gilbert, Yoko Takebe, Paul Robey, Marit Vliegenthart, Daniel Gilbert, Will Haapaniemi, Sun Young Lee, Lori Williams and Sharon Oh on violins; Anthony Gilbert, Beth Luscombe and Jay Pike on violas; Adrienne Taylor and Simona Barbu on violoncellos; Jeremy Upton on bass; Bruce Erskine on flute; Nathan Nix on oboe; James Gholson on clarinet; Lecolion Washington and Chris Jackson on bassoons; James Ross, Bob Gilbert, Robert Patterson and I. Balu on horns; Stan Friedman and Benny Lewis on trumpets; and Stan Head on timpani/percussion.

The concert program will begin with Vivaldi’s Bassoon Concerto in A minor, RV 497, featuring Lecolion Washington on bassoon. The Ensemble will perform two works by Mozart, Horn No. 3 in E-flat major, K. 447, featuring James Ross on French horn and Sinfonia concertante for violin and viola in E-flat major, K. 367, with Marit Vliegenthart on violin and Anthony Gilbert on viola. The concert will conclude with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1 in C major, op. 21.

Alan Gilbert was named Music Director Designate of the New York Philharmonic in June of 2007 for the 2009-2010 season. One of the youngest music directors in the orchestra’s history and the only native New Yorker to hold the post, Gilbert was named Conductor Laureate of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra in June 2008, following the last concert of his eight-and-a-half-year tenure as its Chief Conductor and Artistic Advisor. He has also been principal guest conductor of Hamburg’s NDR Symphony Orchestra since 2004.

Alan’s parents are Michael Gilbert and Yoko Takebe, who will both be involved in the May 24 concert at Lambuth.

Eroica Ensemble Conductor Michael Gilbert, a violinist emeritus of the New York Philharmonic, began his career as concertmaster of the American Symphony Orchestra with Leopold Stokowski, and later as concertmaster of the Santa Fe Opera Orchestra. A renowned violinist, with a career spanning 25 years with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, Gilbert played with Leonard Bernstein, Zubin Mehta, Kurt Masur and Pierre Boulez. Gilbert has conducted in New York, Boston, Spain, Tokyo and Kyoto, Japan, and at the Juilliard and Manhattan Schools of Music. In addition to being conductor of the Eroica Ensemble, Maestro Gilbert is the Music Director of the Music Masters Course in Kazusa, Japan. Furthermore, he has served on the faculties of the Juilliard School of Music and the Manhattan School of Music.

Gilbert grew up in Memphis, Tenn., influenced by his father Noel Gilbert, longtime and much-loved conductor of the Memphis Symphony. Michael Gilbert is married to Yoko Takebe, both of whom studied at the Juilliard School of Music. Yoko continues her career as violinist with the New York Philharmonic and accompanies her husband Michael in the Eroica Ensemble. Michael and Yoko have two children: Alan, and a daughter, Jennifer, who is concertmaster of the National Orchestra in Lyon, France.

Takebe is an esteemed New York Philharmonic violinist. Following early training in Tokyo in music and dance, she won the Japanese National Music Competition in violin at the age of 13 and continued her studies with Saburo Sumi and Hideo Saito. Takebe graduated from the prestigious Julliard School of Music in New York, where she was a pupil of famed teacher Ivan Galamian. She continued her studies in Switzerland with Joseph Szigeti. Takebe is a frequent participant in the New York philharmonic Ensemble and is a faculty member at the Manhattan School of Music.

The Memorial Day weekend concert is free and open to the public.

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