VIRTUOSO PIANIST GARRICK OHLSSON TO JOIN SYMPHONY
IN PERFORMANCE OF BRAHMS' PIANO CONCERTO NO. 2
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Portland, Ore. … Pianist Garrick Ohlsson, a favorite of Portland audiences, will perform Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 2 when he joins Music Director and Conductor James DePreist and the Oregon Symphony in a Classical ODS Bravo concert Sept. 22 to 24 at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. Tickets range from $16 to $70. Classical Bravo concerts are sponsored by ODS Health Plans. Media support is provided by The Oregonian.

The first half of the concert will feature William Walton's First Symphony. The 2001-2002 season also marks the Walton centennial, and he is also one of several notable 20th century English composers presented by the Symphony this season (others include Vaughn Williams and Maxwell Davies).

Ohlsson has been called "a genuine giant of the keyboard…utter technical assurance, keen musical intelligence…" (The New Yorker, 1999). His concerto repertoire is unusually wide and eclectic - ranging from Haydn and Mozart to 20th century masters - and he has at his command some 80 works for piano and orchestra. Le Monde of Paris lauded him as "one of the last known … pianists who know all the expressive and technical resources of the keyboard" (November 8, 1997).

In addition to pre-concert talks one hour before the concert, Oregon Symphony Classical concerts regularly include additional opportunities for listeners to learn more about the music and the orchestra. These activities include:
Saturday: The conductor of each series will discuss the program from the podium in "Symphony Interactive." Media support for "Symphony Interactive" is provided by KINKfm102.
Sunday: Audience members will be invited to stay for a 15-20 minute panel discussion with musicians and/or the conductor. Media support for "Sunday Night Post-Concert Discussion" is provided by KBPS.

Performances are scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 22 and 23, at 7:30 p.m. and Monday, Sept. 24, at 8 p.m. Tickets range in price from $15 to $70 and may be purchased at the Oregon Symphony Ticket Office (923 S.W. Washington), Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. (and on Saturdays beginning Sept. 11) or charged by phone at 503-228-1353 or (800) 228-7343. Tickets also may be purchased at all Ticketmaster outlets (790-ARTS) or through Ticketmaster Online, via the Symphony's Web site at www.orsymphony.org. Service fees may apply.

GARRICK OHLSSON

Since his triumph as winner of the 1970 Chopin International Piano Competition, American pianist Garrick Ohlsson has established himself worldwide as a musician of extraordinary interpretive power and prodigious technical facility. Although he has long been regarded as one of the world's leading exponents of the music of Chopin, he commands an enormous repertoire which encompasses virtually the entire piano literature. A student of the late Claudio Arrau, Mr. Ohlsson has come to be noted for his masterly performances of the works of Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert, as well as the Romantic repertoire.

In January 1999 Mr. Ohlsson launched a series entitled "Franz Liszt and the Art of the Piano" as part of Lincoln Center's Great Performers. He was heard at Alice Tully Hall in three recitals devoted to the music of Liszt and the composers who most influenced Liszt (Bach, Beethoven, Schubert). Also as part of the Great Performers series, Mr. Ohlsson was featured in a Liszt workshop with piano authority David Dubal at Lincoln Center's Walter Reade Theatre.

During the 1997-98 season Mr. Ohlsson launched a recital cycle in London, Paris, and Warsaw of the complete solo works of Chopin - a historic feat that he performed to critical acclaim in New York and other North American cities during the 1994-95 and 1995-96 seasons. In characterizing Mr. Ohlsson as "a smiling giant in the service of Chopin," Le Monde of Paris lauded him as "one of the last known avatars in a tradition of pianists who know all the expressive and technical resources of the keyboard" (November 8, 1997). He continues to give all-Chopin recitals in the United States and Europe.

Mr. Ohlsson is an avid chamber musician and has collaborated with the Cleveland, Emerson, Takcs and Tokyo string quartets, among other ensembles. Together with violinist Jorja Fleezanis and cellist Michael Grebanier, he is a founding member of the San Francisco-based FOG Trio. A prolific recording artist, Mr. Ohlsson can be heard on the Arabesque, RCA Victor Red Seal, Angel, Bridge, BMG, Delos, Hänssler, Nonesuch, Telarc and Virgin Classics labels. He has recorded the complete solo works of Chopin for Arabesque.

Mr. Ohlsson has also recorded the Copland Piano Concerto with Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony for the RCA Victor Red Seal label, which was hailed by the San Francisco Examiner as "terrific" and "vibrant." Other releases include Mr. Ohlsson's recordings of Beethoven sonatas, Haydn's three "London" Sonatas and the Debussy Etudes, all for Arabesque; and Grieg's Piano Concerto, Tchaikovsky's Concerto No. 1 and the Rachmaninoff Concerto No. 2 with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields under Sir Neville Marriner for the Hänssler label.

Mr. Ohlsson was born in White Plains, N.Y., where he began his piano studies at the age of eight. He attended the Westchester Conservatory of Music and at 13 entered the Juilliard School in New York City. In high school Mr. Ohlsson demonstrated an extraordinary aptitude for mathematics and languages, but the concert stage remained his true career objective. Mr. Ohlsson's musical development has been influenced in completely different ways by a succession of distinguished teachers, most notably Claudio Arrau, Olga Barabini, Tom Lishman, Sascha Gorodnitzki, Rosina Lhévinne and Irma Wolpe. Although he won First Prizes at the 1966 Busoni Competition in Italy and 1968 Montreal Piano Competition, it was his 1970 triumph at the Chopin Competition in Warsaw, where he won the Gold Medal, that brought him worldwide recognition as one of the finest pianists of his generation. Since that time, he has made nearly a dozen tours of Poland, where to this day he remains virtually a national hero. Mr. Ohlsson was awarded the Avery Fisher Prize in 1994 and received the 1998 University Musical Society Distinguished Artist Award in Ann Arbor, Mich. He makes his home in San Francisco.