AMERICAN SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA PRESENTS WEBER & BERLIOZ: DER FREISCHÜTZ REIMAGINED AT CARNEGIE HALL, ON APRIL 16

 Soloists Include Sopranos Cadie Bryan and Nicole Chevalier, Tenor Freddie Ballentine, and Bass-Baritone Alfred Walker

New York, NY, March 19, 2026 —The American Symphony Orchestra (ASO) and the Bard Festival Chorale perform a seldom-heard presentation of Hector Berlioz’s 1841 version of Carl Maria von Weber’s Romantic opera Der Freischütz at Carnegie Hall on Thursday, April 16, at 8 PM. Led by Music Director Leon Botstein,  this final  program of the season includes an informative pre-concert talk about the work, which is widely considered an early masterpiece of German opera.

The performance features sopranos Nicole Chevalier, described by The Times as a “wonderfully focused performer,” and Cadie Bryan, recently praised by The New York Times for her “compelling vocal profile”; Grammy Award-winning tenor and the 2021 recipient of the Kennedy Center’s Marian Anderson Award, Freddie Ballentine; and bass-baritone Alfred Walker, who starred this season as Porgy in the Met’s Porgy and Bess.

Weber & Berlioz: Der Freischütz Reimagined
Thursday, April 16, 2026, at Carnegie Hall, Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage
Pre-concert Talk at 7 PM
Concert at 8 PM
American Symphony Orchestra
Leon Botstein, Conductor
Nicole Chevalier, Agathe
Freddie Ballentine, Max
Alfred Walker, Gaspard
Cadie Bryan, Annette
Philip Cokorinos, Kouno
Joo Won Kang, Prince Ottokar
Adam Partridge, Kilian
Jason Zacher, Un ermite
Jonathan Guss, Samiel
Bard Festival Chorale
James Bagwell, Music Director of the Bard Festival Chorale
Carl Maria von Weber (arr. Hector Berlioz): Le Freyschütz
2026 commemorates 200 years following the death of Carl Maria von Weber, a decisive figure in the development of German opera in the Romantic era. The American Symphony Orchestra performs the composer’s 1821 opera Der Freischütz with a twist: Hector Berlioz’s 1841 version (Le Freyschütz) of Weber’s seminal opera will be performed, sung in French, with Berlioz’s original recitatives replacing the work’s original spoken dialogue. Also included is his orchestration of Weber’s famous Invitation to the Dance, which Berlioz inserted as an obligatory ballet sequence for the Paris Opera production, and which subsequently took on a life of its own as a standout concert piece. Richly orchestrated, with a compelling exploration of good versus evil, Der Freischütz remains a source of fascination to the modern listener, much as it did to the young Frenchman Berlioz when he first heard it at the opera’s Parisian premiere at the Odéon in 1824.

Tickets, priced at $25–$65, are available at carnegiehall.org, by calling CarnegieCharge at 212.247.7800, or by visiting the box office at 57th St. & 7th Ave.

American Symphony Orchestra
The American Symphony Orchestra (ASO) was founded in 1962 by Leopold Stokowski with the mission of providing great music for everyone. Leon Botstein expanded that focus when he joined the ASO as Music Director in 1992 by creating concerts that explore music through the lens of the visual arts, literature, religion, and history, as well as by reviving rarely performed works that audiences would otherwise never hear performed live.

The ASO’s signature programming includes its Vanguard Series, which features concerts of seldom-performed orchestral repertoire presented at Carnegie Hall, Bryant Park, and other historic venues, and its Chamber Series—curated by ASO’s musicians—offering concert programs dedicated to reflecting the diverse perspectives of American culture. During the summer, the ASO is the orchestra-in-residence at Bard’s SummerScape and performs at the Bard Music Festival. All ASO presentations comprise a year-round series of vital and innovative programming for audiences of all backgrounds.

As part of its commitment to expanding the standard orchestral repertoire and ensuring accessibility to musical masterpieces, the ASO offers free streaming of exclusive live recordings on its digital platform, ASO Online. Content includes SummerScape operas, chamber performances, and short films. In many cases, these are the only existing recordings of some of the forgotten works that have been restored through ASO performances.

For more information, please visit americansymphony.org.

Leon Botstein

Leon Botstein has been music director and principal conductor of the American Symphony Orchestra since 1992. He is also music director of The Orchestra Now, an innovative training orchestra composed of top musicians from around the world. He is co-artistic director of Bard SummerScape and the Bard Music Festival, which take place at the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College, where he has been president since 1975. Mr. Botstein is also active as a guest conductor and can be heard on numerous recordings with the London Symphony (including a GRAMMY nominated recording of Popov’s First Symphony), the London Philharmonic, NDR-Hamburg, and the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Botstein has revived numerous neglected operas, creating once-in-a-lifetime experiences for concertgoers and global audiences. Including rare repertoire such as Schoenberg’s massive Gurre-Lieder and the accompanying short-film, which documented the monumental undertaking, Strauss’s first opera, Guntram, and the U.S. Premiere of Sergei Taneyev’s final work, At the Reading of a Psalm. His recording of Paul Hindemith’s The Long Christmas Dinner with the ASO was named one of the top recordings of 2015 by several publications, and his recent recording of Gershwin piano music with the Royal Philharmonic was hailed by The Guardian and called “something special…in a crowded field” by Musicweb International. He is a prolific author and music historian and the recipient of numerous honors for his contributions to the music industry. In 2019, The New York Times named Leon Botstein a “champion of overlooked works…who has tirelessly worked to bring to light worthy scores by neglected composers.”

More info at LeonBotstein.com.
 
The ASO’s Vanguard Series is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

Images from left to right: Cadie Bryan by Daniel Welch, Nicole Chevalier by Maurice Korbel, Freddie Ballentine by Daniel Welch, and Alfred Walker by Walter Hill.

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