February 11, 2005
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Portland, Ore. … American outlaw Billy the Kid and Reformation-era painter Mathis Grünewald are portrayed in music of Copland and Hindemith as guest conductor Michael Christie leads the Oregon Symphony on March 12, 13 and 14 at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. The concert, which also includes Sibelius’ Violin Concerto featuring violinist Nikolaj Znaider, will also be performed on March 15 at Salem’s Smith Auditorium. Media support is provided by The Oregonian. Lufthansa is the exclusive airline sponsor for the Symphony’s Classical series.
Christie, Music Director Designate of the Phoenix Symphony and Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Queensland Orchestra in Australia, leads the Symphony in Copland’s 1939 “Billy the Kid” suite. This energetic work captures the uniquely American personality of the infamous outlaw in a ballet, later arranged by Copland for orchestra, and incorporates several well-known cowboy songs, including “Git Along, Little Dogies,” “Goodbye, Old Paint,” “The Streets of Laredo” and “The Old Chisholm Trail.” In his 1934 symphony “Mathis der Maler,” Hindemith reflects the personality of 16 th century German painter Mathis Grünewald in a work that is called spiritual and inward, yet dramatic.
Znaider, described by Strad Magazine as having “an overwhelming command of the instrument and the courage to offer unconventional interpretations reminiscent of the grand old days of violin playing,” performs Sibelius’ Violin Concerto, which the composer wrote as a farewell to his own hopes of becoming a concert violinist. Sibelius’ concerto combines stunning violin technique and exciting virtuoso passages with masterful orchestral writing that later established him as one of the 20 th century’s great symphonic composers.
Oregon Symphony Classical concerts regularly include additional opportunities for listeners to learn more about the music and the orchestra. These activities include:
Concert Conversations: Orla McDonagh, Instructor in Music at Lewis & Clark College and Patrick McElroy of KBPS All Classical 89.9 will lead a discussion one hour before the concert of the works to be performed. Media support for “Concert Conversations” is provided by Classical Millennium.
Saturday: Guest conductor Michael Christie will speak briefly from the podium in “Saturday Interactive.” Media support for “Saturday Interactive” is provided by KINKfm102.
Performances are scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, March 12 and 13 at 7:30 p.m. and Monday, March 14 at 8 p.m. at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, with an added performance on Tuesday, March 15 at Willamette University’s Smith Auditorium. Tickets range in price from $18 to $80 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.
Born in Buffalo, N.Y. in 1974, American conductor Michael Christie has developed an exceptional career already spanning conducting posts on three continents. After gaining early international recognition in 1995, he has been consistently identified among the most talented and most closely watched conductors of his generation.
Michael Christie is the Music Director Designate of the Phoenix Symphony and was appointed Music Director of the Colorado Music Festival in 2000. During his first four seasons, he has brought increased festival audiences through his enthusiastic leadership, innovative programming and widely acclaimed audience building initiatives.
In September 2001, Christie was appointed Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Queensland Orchestra, the youngest person ever to hold a music director post with a major Australian symphony orchestra. In October 2004, he completed his third season with Queensland with a four-week series of concerts. Highlights of his tenure with the orchestra have included the orchestra's debut concerts in Japan in 2002 along with a variety of widely-praised performances spanning the entire repertoire and a recording nominated for an Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) award.
The 2004-05 season includes a wide variety of guest conducting engagements for Christie, across North America and in Europe. In the spring, he will appear with the Brooklyn Philharmonic, Vancouver Symphony, Calgary Philharmonic and Oregon Symphony before ending the season with a series of concerts with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the new Walt Disney Hall with percussion sensation Evelyn Glennie. In Europe, his upcoming engagements include concerts with the Orchestre de Bretagne and the Orchestre National de Lille, and performances with the Odense and Aarhus orchestras in Denmark. In April he will make his Berlin conducting debut with the German Symphony Orchestra Berlin in a program featuring works by Copland, Takemitsu, Bartók, and Ravel.
In addition to his concert work, Christie has also forged a growing reputation as an opera conductor. Most seasons he conducts both opera and ballet performances at the Zurich Opera, where he served during the 1997-98 season in a position especially created for him as Assistant Conductor to Franz Welser-Möst. Here he made his ballet and opera debut conducting performances of “Romeo and Juliet” and a new production of “Hansel and Gretel.” He has also worked with the Finnish National Opera, where he conducted “The Marriage of Figaro” in 1999-2000 and with the Queensland Opera where he made his debut conducting “Così Fan Tutte” the same season. In March 2004, he made his Netherlands opera debut conducting John Adams’ “The Death of Klinghoffer” with the Rotterdam Philharmonic.
Michael Christie first came to international attention in 1995 when he was awarded a special prize for “Outstanding Potential” at the First International Sibelius Conductor’s Competition in Helsinki. The competition judges included Paavo Berglund, Sir Edward Downes, Henry Fogel, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Jukka-Pekka Saraste and Franz Welser-Möst. Following the competition, Christie was invited to become an apprentice conductor with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and subsequently worked with Daniel Barenboim in Chicago and at the Berlin State Opera during the 1996-97 season. Invited to work with all the major Finnish orchestras following the competition in 1995, Michael Christie also served as Associate Conductor of the Helsinki Philharmonic 1996-98.
Christie’s subsequent guest conducting engagements have included orchestras in Europe, North America, Asia and Australia. In the United States, he has appeared with the symphony orchestras of Atlanta, Cincinnati, Dallas, Indianapolis, Los Angeles and Seattle, as well as the Florida Philharmonic and Minnesota Orchestra, among others. His European concerts have included engagements with the Swedish Radio Symphony, Czech Philharmonic, Netherlands Radio Symphony, City of Birmingham Symphony, NDR Hannover Orchestra, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse and the Bergen Philharmonic.
Michael Christie graduated from the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music with a bachelor’s degree in trumpet performance. His principal conducting mentors are Franz Welser-Möst and Robert Spano, with early instruction from Eiji Oue and Peter Jaffe.
Since winning the First Prize at the 1997 Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels, Nikolaj Znaider has established himself as one of the world’s most sought-after virtuoso violinists. His rare ability to combine technical wizardry with poetic lyricism has won the hearts of audiences the world over.
Born to Polish-Israeli parents in Denmark in 1975, Nikolaj Znaider began his formal musical training with Milan Vitek at the Royal Danish Academy of Music. Znaider reaped the benefits of early success with concerts throughout Scandinavia after winning the First Prize at the 1992 Carl Nielsen International Violin Competition. Seeking broader horizons, he set out for the Juilliard School where he studied with the late Dorothy Delay for several semesters. Znaider credits his ongoing quest for musical challenges to the inspiration provided by his musical mentor since 1994, the Vienna-based Russian pedagogue Boris Kuschnir.
Znaider’s success at the Queen Elisabeth Competition was sweetened by accolades from Yehudi Menuhin who heralded Znaider as the direct successor to Ysaÿe and kudos from the press echoed by Strad Magazine, “Znaider is blessed with an overwhelming command of the instrument and the courage to offer unconventional interpretations reminiscent of the grand old days of violin playing.”
Nikolaj Znaider’s burgeoning career in North America has taken him cross-country from New York to Los Angeles. Since the millennium, he has been a frequent guest with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, National Symphony, New York Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra.
No stranger to leading orchestras throughout the rest of the world, Znaider’s recent engagements include orchestral appearances and tours with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic, Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Kirov Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra.
He enjoys artistic collaboration with highly acclaimed conductors including Daniel Barenboim, Herbert Blomstedt, Myung Whun Chung, Sir Colin Davis, Charles Dutoit, Valery Gergiev, Mariss Jansons, Neeme Jarvi, Lorin Maazel, Kurt Masur, Zubin Mehta, Mstislav Rostropovich, Leonard Slatkin and Yuri Temirkanov.
Nikolaj Znaider has signed an exclusive contract with RCA Victor Group/RCA Red Seal. His April 2002 release of Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto no. 2, the Glazunov Violin Concerto and Tchaikovsky’s “Meditation” with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Mariss Jansons met with extraordinary critical acclaim: “What really lifts this newcomer to special heights is the chamber-like rapport and sinewy concentration Znaider generates with Mariss Jansons…time and time again, these intelligent artists had me gasping anew at the giddy beauty and wondrous fantasy of Prokofiev’s stunningly inventive inspiration…theirs is a strongly communicative performance which grips from first measure to last.” ( Gramophone, June 2002).
In March 2003 Nikolaj Znaider’s newest CD for the RCA Victor Group/RCA Red Seal was released. This CD, which he recorded with pianist Daniel Gortler, contains virtuoso and romantic encores for solo violin and for violin and piano.
Nikolaj Znaider plays the Antonio Stradivarius “ex-Liebig” 1704 on extended loan to him by The Royal Danish Theater through the generosity of the Velux Foundations and the Knud Hojgaard Foundation.
