Curtis marks the hundredth anniversary of one of the school’s most celebrated alumni, Samuel Barber (’34). Included are the world premiere of an unfinished violin sonata complemented by movements  by Curtis-connected composers, and Summer Music and Dover Beach, among other vocal and chamber works.

The Things They Carried “belongs high on the list of best fiction about any war....crystallizes the Vietnam experience for everyone [and] exposes the nature of all war stories.” (New York Times)

A winner of the Greenfield Young Artists Competition, Vicki Powell made her solo debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra last season and is principal violist of the Curtis Symphony Orchestra.

SpectiCast presents The Philadelphia Orchestra performing Dutoit Conducts Strauss Live from Verizon Hall at The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts on June 6th with Encore Performances the afternoon and evening of June 6th, 7th, and 8th.

A pair of off-the-hook noblemen and a Turkish rondo mark Maestro Dutoit's penultimate concert set of the season, as electric Munich-born violinist Arabella Steinbacher makes her Philadelphia Orchestra subscription debut. She'll play Mozart's Fifth Concerto, known for its torchy Turkish finale, and Philadelphia Orchestra Principal Viola Choong-Jin Chang will join cellist Arto Noras for Strauss's heart-on-the-sleeve musical retelling of Cervantes's Don Quixote--with Chang "playing" Sancho Panza to Noras's Quixote. Strauss's high-octane but ultimately tragic Don Juan opens the program with orchestral fireworks and virtuosic panache.

A physician and the former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Howard Dean served six terms as Governor of Vermont, during which time the state expanded its universal healthcare program for children and pregnant women, balanced its budget, and reduced income taxes. He led the Democratic National Committee from February 2005 to January 2009 and is widely credited with reviving the Democratic Party after the 2004 election. His new book argues that the key to health care reform is to offer citizens the option to participate in a public health insurance program.

Richard Russo's novels are distinguished by their true-to-life depictions of declining small towns in the United States. His novel Empire Falls won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize, and his other works, including Nobody's Fool and Bridge of Sighs, have enjoyed both critical and popular acclaim. His new novel, That Old Cape Magic, weaves the story of a middle-aged man confronting his parents' failed marriage, his own troubled one, and his daughter's new life.
 
An outspoken journalist in an outspoken city, Pete Dexter was a columnist for the Philadelphia Daily News for 12 years. He is the author of the National Book Award winner Paris Trout, the essay collection Paper Trails, and the novels Deadwood, God's Pocket, Brotherly Love, The Paperboy, and Train. His latest novel, Spooner, tells the story of the lifelong struggle between a father and his troubled stepson. 

Jonathan Safran Foer published his award-winning first novel, Everything Is Illuminated, at the age of 25. "Rarely does a writer as young as Foer display such virtuosity and wisdom," raved the Washington Post. His next novel, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, became a national bestseller. Synthesizing philosophy, literature, science, and Foer's own detective work, Eating Animals explores the fictions that we use to justify our eating habits--from folklore to family traditions--and reveals how such tales can justify an ignorance of the realities of the food industry.

Kate DiCamillo is a critically acclaimed, bestselling author of novels and stories for children. Her books include the Newbery Award winner The Tale of Despereaux and the Newbery Honor book Because of Winn-Dixie--both of which were adapted into successful feature films. She is also the author of The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane and The Tiger Rising, a National Book Award finalist. Her much-anticipated new novel, The Magician's Elephant, follows Peter Augustus Duchene's search for his missing sister on the advice of a mysterious fortune-teller.

A beloved film star of MGM's Golden Era, Leslie Caron has appeared in such classic movies as An American in Paris, Gigi, Daddy Long Legs, and Lili. More recently she acted in the film Chocolat and won an Emmy Award for her performance in an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Offering an intimate view of the characters and settings of old Hollywood, Thank Heaven is a candid account of Caron's life from her discovery in Paris by Gene Kelly to her successes in Hollywood and her personal struggles with alcoholism and depression.

Ms. Caron will be interviewed by Philadelphia Inquirer film critic Carrie Rickey.

Terry Teachout writes about literature and the arts for the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and the New York Times, among many other publications. The Washington Post described his biography, The Skeptic: A Life of H.L. Mencken, as "a balanced, judicious assessment, flecked with sharply critical insights." Drawing on several previously unavailable sources, including hundreds of hours of backstage recordings, Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong offers new insight into the life of the legendary jazz musician.

Julie Powell, tired of working dead-end jobs, decided to try something new. What she started was a year-long odyssey cooking every recipe in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking and blogging about it.The resultant book, Julie and Julia, spent weeks on the New York Times Best Sellers list, earned a 2006 Quill Award, and was adapted into a major motion picture starring Meryl Streep. Her new book, Cleaving, chronicles a new chapter in Powell's personal life and offers another facet of her fascination with food and a new fixation: butchery. Described as "hilarious and ferociously articulate" by Entertainment Weekly, Powell brings a fresh new voice to the art of biography and cooking.

Ray Chen is the top 2009 medal winner of the prestigious Queen Elisabeth Competition of Belgium, and also won the Young Concert Artists Auditions in 2009.

Curtis opera and voice students perform songs, arias, and opera ensembles.

An American filmmaker who revolutionized the documentary film genre, Ken Burns is the award-winning creator of the documentary series Baseball, Jazz, and Unforgivable Blackness. His landmark film, The Civil War, was the highest-rated series in public television history, boasting an audience of 40 million viewers when it first aired and going on to win more than 40 prizes, including two Emmy and two Grammy awards. Airing this fall on public television, Burns’s new work, The National Parks: America’s Best Idea, tells the story of the creation and evolution of the National Parks System using archival photographs, first-person accounts, and some of the most breathtaking new images of our national parks ever captured on film. In his review of the companion book to the series, historian Joseph J. Ellis writes, “the book permits the eye and mind to linger over the truly breathtaking pictures in a more meditative way that film does not allow. The result is almost elegiac, producing the same kind of goose bumps that Burns created in his early work on the Brooklyn Bridge and the Civil War.”

The National Book Award finalist contends that Anne Frank’s diary was a deliberate work of art—revised by the author many times and meant for publication—and tracks the book’s continuing influence in the world.

One of televisions most outspoken and respected journalists Mika Brzezinski is an msnbc anchor and co-host of Morning Joe with Joe Scarborougha program Time magazine calls revolutionary and the New York Times ranked as the top news show of 2008. She also appears on NBC Nightly News and Weekend Today. Prior to joining NBC Brzezinski worked at CBS where she anchored CBS Evening News Weekend Edition and later became the networks principal Ground Zero reporter following the September 11 2001 terrorist attacks. Her book All Things at Once is a motivational book geared toward helping women deal with the unique challenges they face in balancing personal life family life and career. Joe Scarborough is the host of Morning Joe. He served as a member of the United States Congress for seven years and is the author of The Last Best Hope which outlines a plan to guide conservatives back to a political majority after their defeats in the 2006 midterm and the 2008 Presidential elections. Along with Brzezinski Joe can be heard daily on the Joe Scarborough Show a syndicated talk-radio show on ABC Radio Networks.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Lincoln at Gettysburg reveals how the atomic bomb transformed our nation by dramatically increasing the power of the American president and redefining the government as a national security state.

The author of The Blind Side, Moneyball, and Liars Poker returns to his financial roots with The Big Short, a look at the 2008 crash of the United States economy.

From corned beef to knishes, Save the Deli is the story of David Sax's quest to observe and preserve a defining element of Jewish culture--and the sandwiches he loves. Diving deep into the world of the Jewish delicatessen, Sax explores the histories of immigrant countermen and kvetching customers, examines the trouble that many delis face today to stay in business, and, of course, delights in one-of-a-kind food. A freelance journalist, Sax is a frequent contributor to Toronto Life, New York magazine, and Portfolio

President Barack Obama's chief campaign manager David Plouffe is credited with crafting the strategy that helped secure Obama's win of the Democratic primary--and presidency--in 2008. In his acceptance speech on election night, Obama called Plouffe "the unsung hero of this campaign." A partner in the consulting firm AKP&D Message and Media, Plouffe also worked on Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick's successful campaign in 2006. Filled with stories from the campaign trail, The Audacity to Win explains the strategy of Obama's historic campaign.

The Alva O. Way Professor of History Emeritus at Brown University, Gordon S. Wood won the Pulitzer Prize for The Radicalism of the American Revolution and the Bancroft Prize for The Creation of the American Republic, 1776-1787. His other books include The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin and The Purpose of the Past: Reflections on the Uses of History. Empire of Liberty offers a comprehensive account of the pivotal era between 1789 and 1815 when the United States took its first shaky steps as a new and growing nation.

The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls's memoir of growing up in an impoverished and nomadic family, is one of the bestselling memoirs of all time. Half Broke Horses--the novelized prequel to The Glass Castle--recounts the story of the author's horse-breaking, poker-playing, airplane-flying grandmother, Lily Casey Smith, who left home at age 15 and survived tornadoes, droughts, and the Great Depression. This highly anticipated new release is a tribute to one remarkable woman--and to the many remarkable women--who lived and loved in the wild southwest.

A powerful voice for ecumenical understanding, Karen Armstrong is the author of many acclaimed books on religious affairs, including A History of God and The Battle for God. Recipient of the 2008 TED Prize, she has participated in the World Economic Forum, and is currently an ambassador for the U.N. Alliance of Civilizations. The Case for God examines the diminished impulse toward religion in modern society and the great lengths to which humankind has gone in order to experience a sacred reality.

Evolutionary biologist and unapologetic atheist Richard Dawkins taught for many years at Oxford University as the Charles Simonyi Professor of the Public Understanding of Science. The Economist called his international bestseller, The God Delusion, "a particularly comprehensive case against religion." His other works include The Selfish Gene and The Blind Watchmaker. A follow-up to The God Delusion, The Greatest Show on Earth uses scientific evidence to argue the case for evolution.