Young orchestra's high-tech recordings break new ground in classical music

A prodigy was born into the extended family of New York City orchestras about three years ago. Beginning this fall, that prodigy - The Lyric Orchestra - will reveal its brilliance to a larger audience of music lovers than ever before.

The young orchestra will premiere two groundbreaking new recordings, launch its third season of concerts at Stevens Institute of Technology's DeBaun Auditorium, and present national and international performances that promise to elevate its already mounting reputation.

The brainchild of former operatic voice teacher Franco Bertacci, the 45-member The Lyric Orchestra brings together extraordinarily talented young musicians (their average age is 25) from more than a dozen countries. Its players, selected by audition, include an impressive variety of top students and recent graduates from The Juilliard School and the Manhattan School of Music living in and around Manhattan. All are eager to demonstrate their skills under the baton of the inspired Maestro Bertacci - and for good reason.

Bertacci, described as an adventurous and passionate conductor, creates the equivalent of what athletes call "The Zone." The maestro is undeniably supercharged and animated when he conducts. He and the orchestra create a rich and precise dynamic that envelopes and involves audiences - a sound that is an exciting departure from the ordinary.

"I encourage the orchestra members to work as an ensemble, of course, but not to simply blend and become anonymous. I want the musicians to infuse the music with their individual sounds and to let their interpretive energies and ideas flow," explains Bertacci.

"This, I believe, is ensemble playing at its best, and it is what composers intend. It works particularly well with a young and very talented orchestra such as this one," he adds.

To use the words of a Classical New Jersey reviewer, the orchestra's performances are "vivid and exciting" and yet "crisp and well inflected," owing to the musical taste and high standards of both the conductor and players.

Bertacci says the group's signature sound bodes well for the orchestra's first recording projects, two groundbreaking efforts in Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound, a new DVD format expected to launch a new era for classical recordings.

The recordings are the first-ever classical discs to be produced in the format.

"Some conductors are not going to like this new format because it makes traditional orchestral blending less of an issue, and instead highlights the vibrancy of the orchestra's sections and individual players," he says.

"For us, it's perfect - it works very well for the Lyric's performance of Vivaldi's The Four Seasons, for example. All the inner voices of the ensemble are brought to the fore. The recording sounds as if the listener is right in the center of the ensemble - you hear everything." To experience the orchestra live, the best environment is an intimate hall with excellent acoustics, such as the 500-seat auditorium at Stevens Institute of Technology that The Lyric Orchestra calls home during its regular season.

The Lyric Orchestra has performed its first two regular seasons - and will perform this upcoming season - at Stevens' recently restored Grace E. and Kenneth W. DeBaun Auditorium.

"Once we saw the auditorium and played in it, we were hooked," says Bertacci.

This year, the auditorium, now nearly 130 years old, received one of the New Jersey Office of Historic Preservation's top awards. The restoration, completed in 1998, returned the centerpiece of Stevens' Edwin A. Stevens Hall to its former Victorian glory while adding a few high-tech touches such as a state-of-the-art audio system. Significantly, Edwin A. Stevens Hall is the institute's original academic building, designed in 1871 by Richard Upjohn, famous for the design of Trinity Church in New York City.

Fortunately for audiences, Stevens is easily reached by public transportation, located on the bank of the Hudson River directly across from Manhattan. DeBaun Auditorium is at Hudson and 5th streets in Hoboken, N.J., about six blocks from Hoboken's PATH terminal, with service from New York and New Jersey.

Besides its slate of concerts at DeBaun Auditorium, The Lyric Orchestra also will play concerts in New York and abroad in the coming year. Among them, a Sept. 27 concert at the Fashion Institute of Technology will premiere the group's two new CDs: Vivaldi, The Four Seasons; and Tchaikovsky, Serenade in C major for String Orchestra. The orchestra will perform an all-Vivaldi program, including The Four Seasons, in Blairtown, N.J., later that same week.

A concert featuring works by Mozart and Rachmaninoff is set for Feb. 17 in Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall - a first in that venue for The Lyric Orchestra. And an appearance in Barbados as part of the Virgin Atlantic Holder's Season festival follows in March. In addition, the orchestra has been invited to perform next August at the 2001 Edinburgh International Festival in Scotland.

For more information about Stevens, visit its web site at www.stevens.edu as well as the DeBaun Auditorium web site at www.debaun.org. For more information on The Lyric Orchestra, visit its web site at www.thelyrictheatre.org.

High-resolution photos of the orchestra, Maestro Bertacci, and Vivaldi cover respectively, are available for use by the press at: www.stevens.edu/press/lyric-image1.htm,  www.stevens.edu/press/lyric-image2.htm and www.stevens.edu/press/lyric-image3.htm

Click here for the Lyric Orchestra season schedule

Click here for information on The Lyric Orchestra's new recordings in 5.1 surround sound.

About Stevens Institute of Technology

Founded in 1870 and celebrating 140 Years of Innovation, Stevens Institute of Technology, The Innovation University TM , lives at the intersection of industry, academics and research.  The University's students, faculty and partners leverage their collective real-world experience and culture of innovation, research and entrepreneurship to confront global challenges in engineering, science, systems and technology management.

Based in Hoboken, N.J. and with a location in Washington, D.C., Stevens offers baccalaureate, master’s, certificates and doctoral degrees in engineering, the sciences and management, in addition to baccalaureate degrees in business and liberal arts.  Stevens has been recognized by both the US Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security as a National Center of Excellence in the areas of systems engineering and port security research. The University has a total enrollment of more than 2,200 undergraduate and 3,700 graduate students with almost 450 faculty. Stevens’ graduate programs have attracted international participation from China, India, Southeast Asia, Europe and Latin America as well as strategic partnerships with industry leaders, governments and other universities around the world.  Additional information may be obtained at www.stevens.edu and www.stevens.edu/press.