May 2, 2003
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Portland, Ore. … James DePreist ends his 23 years as music director of the Oregon Symphony with a special tribute concert featuring works of great personal meaning to him on Sunday, June 1 at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. The Tribute Concert is sponsored by ODS Health Plans.
During what Symphony President Tony Woodcock has described as a “transformational tenure,” DePreist established the Symphony’s reputation as a first-rate internationally known orchestra and also devoted himself to making the Symphony more accessible by taking it out of the concert hall and bringing it into neighborhoods and communities around the Portland metro area and throughout the state. After this season, DePreist will continue a relationship with the Symphony and the community as Laureate Music Director. Next season DePreist will conduct four classical subscription concerts, and will conduct at least once per season indefinitely thereafter. He will also continue making recordings with the Symphony through the Gretchen Brooks Recording Fund.
DePreist will share his reasons for programming each of the Tribute Concerts’ works from the podium. He will open with Berlioz’ overture from “Le Corsaire,” followed by Haydn’s humorous Symphony No. 45 in F-sharp minor, “Farewell.” During the fourth movement Finale, players perform farewell solos and then exit the stage one by one until only the conductor is left in silence and darkness. After intermission DePreist will lead the Symphony in Strauss’ groundbreaking tone poem “Don Juan,” which established the then-25-year-old composer as a master of that particular Romantic one-movement form. The concert will conclude with the serene and beautiful finale from Mahler’s colossal Symphony No. 3, which the composer himself described, half-affectionately, as a “monster.”
The performance is scheduled for Sunday, June 1 at 7:30 p.m. at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. Tickets range in price from $20 to $65 and may be purchased at the Oregon Symphony Ticket Office (923 S.W. Washington), Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. or charged by phone at 503-228-1353 or (800) 228-7343. Tickets also may be purchased at all Ticketmaster outlets (503-790-ARTS) or through Ticketmaster Online, via the Symphony’s Web site at www.orsymphony.org. Service fees may apply.