September 17, 2004
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Portland, Ore. … Laureate Music Director James DePreist makes his only scheduled appearance with the Oregon Symphony this season with one of his signature works, Respighi’s “The Pines of Rome,” paired with Respighi’s “The Birds” and Barber’s Violin Concerto featuring violinist Elmar Oliveira on Oct. 16, 17 and 18 at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. Media support is provided by The Oregonian. Lufthansa is the exclusive airline sponsor for the Symphony’s Classical series.
DePreist, who served as the Symphony’s music director for 23 years, is now Principal Artistic Advisor of the Phoenix Symphony and Director of Conducting and Orchestral Studies at the Juilliard School. In April 2005 he also will become Permanent Conductor of the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra. In addition to his many conducting activities around the world, DePreist will continue to make annual concert appearances with the Symphony.
Symphony audiences will remember Oliveira from his appearance last season. He returns to perform Barber’s lush violin concerto, which has become the most performed concerto in the violin repertoire. Oliveira’s recording of the Barber Violin Concerto with Leonard Slatkin and the St. Louis Symphony earned him a Grammy nomination.
DePreist and the Symphony begin the concert with Delius’ “The Walk to the Paradise Garden,” an evocative orchestral interlude from his most famous opera, “A Village Romeo and Juliet.” Oliveira takes the stage to perform the Barber Violin Concerto, whose combination of lyricism and virtuosity has made it an audience favorite. After intermission DePreist and the Symphony continue with Respighi’s “The Birds,” a five movement tone poem that uses music from several Baroque composers to portray various birds. DePreist concludes the evening with one of his signature works, Respighi’s “The Pines of Rome.” Each movement of this brilliantly orchestrated four-part work represents a different Roman scene showcasing the dazzling colors and textures of the orchestra.
Oregon Symphony Classical concerts regularly include additional opportunities for listeners to learn more about the music and the orchestra. These activities include:
Pre-concert Talks: KBPS host Patrick McElroy and Principal Horn John Cox lead a discussion titled “A Concerto with the Birds in the Pines in the Garden,” which will explore the expansion of the orchestral sound in the 20 th century. The discussion will take place one hour before the concert. Media support for “Pre-Concert Talks” is provided by Classical Millennium.
Saturday: Laureate Music Director James DePreist 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, Oct. 16 and 17 at 7:30 p.m. and Monday, Oct. 18 at 8 p.m. at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. 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.
James DePreist is currently Laureate Music Director of the Oregon Symphony, Principal Artistic Advisor of the Phoenix Symphony and Director of Conducting and Orchestral Studies at the Juilliard School. Beginning in April 2005 he also will become Permanent Conductor of the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra. Widely esteemed as one of America’s finest conductors, James DePreist, during the past three decades has served as Music Director of L'Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, Sweden’s Malmö Symphony, L’Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo and the Oregon Symphony.
As a guest conductor he has appeared with every major North American orchestra, and internationally he has conducted in Amsterdam, Berlin, Budapest, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Manchester, Melbourne, Munich, Prague, Rome, Rotterdam, Seoul, Stockholm, Stuttgart, Sydney, Tel Aviv, Tokyo and Vienna. He will make his London debut with the London Symphony at the Barbican in April 2005.
James DePreist appears regularly at the Aspen Music Festival, with the Boston Symphony at Tanglewood, the Philadelphia Orchestra at the Mann Music Center, and the Juilliard orchestras at Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall.
With more than 50 recordings to his credit, James DePreist has a substantial presence in the recording arena. His varied recorded repertoire includes a celebrated Shostakovich series with the Helsinki Philharmonic and 15 recordings with the Oregon Symphony which have helped establish that orchestra as one of America’s finest.
Born in Philadelphia in 1936, he studied composition with Vincent Persichetti at the Philadelphia Conservatory of Music and earned bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Pennsylvania. In 1962, while on a State Department tour in Bangkok, he contracted polio but recovered sufficiently to win a first prize in the Dimitri Mitropoulous International Conducting Competition. He was selected by Leonard Bernstein to be an assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic for the 1965-66 season. DePreist made his highly acclaimed European debut with the Rotterdam Philharmonic in 1969. In 1971 Antal Dorati chose him to become his Associate Conductor with the National Symphony in Washington, D.C.
James DePreist has been awarded 13 honorary doctorates and is the author of two books of poetry. He is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Royal Swedish Academy of Music, and is a recipient of the Insignia of Commander of the Order of the Lion of Finland, the Medal of the City of Québec and is an Officer of the Order of Cultural Merit of Monaco. He is the nephew of the legendary contralto Marian Anderson.
Elmar Oliveira has taken his place as one of the most commanding violinists of our time, with his unsurpassed combination of impeccable artistry and old-world elegance. Mr. Oliveira is one of the few major artists committed to the entire spectrum of the violin world – constantly expanding traditional repertoire boundaries as a champion of contemporary music and rarely-heard works of the past, devoting energy to the development of the young artists of tomorrow, and enthusiastically supporting the art of modern violin and bow makers.
Among his generation’s most honored artists, Elmar Oliveira remains the first and only American violinist to win the Gold Medal at Moscow’s Tchaikovsky International Competition. He is also the first violinist to receive the coveted Avery Fisher Prize, in addition to capturing first prizes at the Naumburg international Competition and the G.B. Dealey Competition.
Mr. Oliveira has become a familiar and much-admired figure at the world’s foremost concert venues. His rigorous international itinerary includes appearances in recital and with many of the world’s greatest orchestras, including the Zurich Tonhalle, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Leipzig, Gewandhaus Orchestras; the New York, Helsinki, Los Angeles and London Philharmonic Orchestras and the San Francisco, Saint Louis, Boston and Chicago Symphony Orchestras. He has also extensively toured the Far East, South America, Australia and New Zealand. Mr. Oliveira’s upcoming engagements include performances with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony, the Montréal Symphony, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, the Hong Kong Philharmonic, the Moscow State Academic Symphony and many more. Recent and upcoming recitals include National Gallery in Washington DC, Alice Tully Hall in New York, Sanibel ( Florida), Kansas City, Johns Hopkins University and Caramoor.
Mr. Oliveira’s repertoire is among the most diverse of any of today’s preeminent artists. While he has been hailed for his performances of the standard violin literature, he is also a much sought-after interpreter of the music of our time. He has premiered works by such distinguished composers as Morton Gould, Ezra Laderman, Charles Wuorinen, Joan Tower, Andrzej Panufnik, Benjamin Lees, Nicholas Flagello, Leonard Rosenman, Hugh Aitken and Richard Yardumian. He has also performed seldom-heard concerti by Alberto Ginastera, Einoujuhani Rautavaara, Joseph Achron, Joseph Joachim and many others. He recently gave the Spanish premiere of Krzysztof Penderecki’s Second Violin Concerto, conducted by the celebrated composer.
A prodigious recording artist, Elmar Oliveira is a two-time Grammy nominee for his CD of the Barber Concerto with Leonard Slatkin and the Saint Louis Symphony. His discography on Artek, Angel, SONY Masterworks, Vox, Delos, IMP, Ondine and Melodiya ranges widely from works by Bach and Vivaldi to the present. His best-selling recording of the Rautavaara Violin Concerto with the Helsinki Philharmonic (Ondine) recently won a Cannes Classical Award and has appeared on Gramophone’s “Editor’s Choice” and other Best Recordings lists around the world. Other recordings include the Brahms and Saint-Saëns B minor Concerti with Gerard Schwarz and the Seattle Symphony (Artek), the Respighi B minor and Pizzeti A Major Violin Sonatas (Artek), “Favorite Encores” with pianist Robert Koenig (Artek), the Three Brahms Sonatas with pianist Jorge Osorio (Artek), the Joachim Concerto “in the Hungarian Manner” with the London Philharmonic (IMP) and the Tower Concerto (written for him) with the Louisville Orchestra (d’Note), the Chausson Concerto for Violin, Piano and String Quartet and the Lekeu Sonata (Biddulph). Of great historical significance are two unique projects: a CD released by Bein & Fushi of Chicago, featuring Mr. Oliveira performing on some of the world’s greatest violins (fifteen Stradivaris and fifteen Guarneri del Gesus), and a recording of short pieces highlighting the rare violins from the collection of the Library of Congress.
The son of Portuguese immigrants, Mr. Oliveira was nine when he began studying the violin with his brother John. He later continued his studies with Ariana Bronne and Raphael Bronstein at the Hartt College of Music and the Manhattan School of Music, where Mr. Oliveira also received an honorary doctorate. Other honors include the Portuguese Order of Santiago. He has served on the juries of some of the most prestigious violin competitions, including the Montréal, Indianapolis, Naumburg and Vianna da Motta. Elmar Oliveira performs exclusively on an instrument known as the “Stretton”, made ca. 1729-31 by Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesu, and on an exact copy of that violin made by Curtin and Alf in 1993.
