March 3, 2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Portland, Ore. … Cervantes’ classic tale of chivalric heroism is brought to life through Strauss’ musical retelling of “Don Quixote” featuring Principal Cello Nancy Ives and Principal Viola Joël Belgique in an Oregon Symphony Classical concert led by Music Director Carlos Kalmar that also includes music of Britten and Henri Dutilleux on April 2 and 3 at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall.
The April 2 concert is sponsored by Wells Fargo Bank. Media support is provided by The Oregonian. Lufthansa is the exclusive airline sponsor for the Symphony’s Classical series. These performances of Dutilleux’s “Métaboles” are supported in part by a grant from the French-American Fund for Contemporary Music, a program of FACE with major support from SACEM and BMG Music Publishing.
Strauss’ episodic musical retelling of Cervantes’ classic hero and his colorful adventures brings the passionately unstable Don to life. The Don, represented by a solo cello, accompanied by his squire Sancho Panza, a solo viola, battles his way through a world inhabited by menacing evildoers, all the while seeking his unattainable lady love, Dulcinea, in a series of vivid variations. “This is a very difficult work to perform well,” says Kalmar, “but it’s also a really magnificent orchestral showpiece.”
Also featured on the concert is Britten’s “Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Purcell,” better known by its other title, “A Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra.” Originally written as the soundtrack for an educational film introducing children to the instruments of the orchestra, this work has become a favorite of audiences of all ages with its colorful writing for each section and its grand closing fugue.
In keeping with the idea of variations, the Symphony also presents its premiere of French composer Henri Dutilleux’s “Métaboles,” written in 1964. This music grows and changes throughout its five movements in a never-ending process that Dutilleux termed “Metabolism.” His distinctive writing showcases all the families of the orchestra and each movement segues seamlessly into the next in constantly shifting mood. Artistic Administrator Charles Calmer describes this music as “an ever-changing dream state.”
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: Music Director Carlos Kalmar and KBPS host Shaun Yu will lead a discussion one hour before the concert of the works to be performed. Media support for “Pre-Concert Talks” is provided by Classical Millennium.
Saturday: Music Director Carlos Kalmar will speak briefly from the podium in “Saturday Interactive.” Media support for “Saturday Interactive” is provided by KINK fm102.
Performances are scheduled for Sunday, April 2 at 7:30 p.m. and Monday, April 3 at 8 p.m. at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, with an added performance on Friday, April 1 at George Fox University in Newberg. Tickets range in price from $20 to $85 and may be purchased at the Oregon Symphony Customer Service 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 Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Discounted tickets for groups of eight or more are available through the Group Sales hotline at (503) 416-6380. 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.
Cellist Nancy Ives has been the Principal Cello of the Oregon Symphony since October 2000. Her concerto debut with the orchestra was in November 2002, performing the Kabalevsky Cello Concerto No. 2with James DePriest. She has joined the other string principals of the orchestra in forming the Oregon Symphony String Quartet, about whose local debut David Stabler of The Oregonian said, “The quartet’s exhilarating energy and rhythmic drive inspired images of a rich future for fans of chamber music.”
Nancy received her early training on the cello at the influential University of Texas String Project. She received a Bachelor of Music from the University of Kansas, where she was also an active composer, and her formal education culminated in both Masters and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in cello performance from the Manhattan School of Music.
As a New York-based freelancer, before moving to Portland, she was Principal Cello and a founding member of the Grammy-nominated Manhattan Chamber Orchestra and Principal Cello of the American Chamber Opera Company. She was a regular recitalist at the Friends of the Arts Beethoven Festival and the Apollo Muses Festival in New Jersey, and in addition to performing the standard concerto repertoire with orchestras in the Northeast and the Midwest, she played her own composition “Dialogue III for Cello and Orchestra” with the Danbury Community Orchestra. She appeared with many new music ensembles, notably North-South Consonance and Musicians’ Accord, playing over a hundred premieres by composers such as Milton Babbitt, Chen Yi and Bruce Adolphe. Her special interest in new music led to recordings on the Opus One and Koch labels and her versatility led to soundtrack recordings for PBS and the Smithsonian. She appeared with Laurie Anderson and Gal Costa at the Brooklyn Academy of Music Next Wave Festival, with Nana Vasconcelos at The Knitting Factory and Merkin Hall, and recorded with rock star Lenny Kravitz. Ives combined acting with cello playing in an Off-Broadway production of “Orpheus in Love” by Craig Lucas. During several years on tour with “Phantom of the Opera,” she performed a comedy routine about the cello in AIDS benefits across the country.
2005 marked Ives’ debut with Chamber Music Northwest, and in August of 2004, she joined Ron Blessinger and Stewart Goodyear in a performance of Beethoven’s Triple Concerto at he Cascade Festival of Music in Bend, Oregon. During the 2003-04 season, Ives was acting Artistic Director of the new music ensemble Fear No Music, and presented with that group a premiere by David Dzubay for the Continental Harmony Project of the American Composer’s Forum. She has been a frequent member of the resident ensemble of the Ernest Bloch Festival Composers’ Symposium, a guest artist with Fear No Music and with Third Angle Ensemble, has performed with jazz fiddler Hollis Taylor on several occasions, and had the privilege of performing with Janos Starker in Lincoln Hall in February of 2001.
Recent recording projects include “Openings: Music of Joan Szymko” with Veriditas; “Remember Me: Songs of Richard Faith” with Brenda Baker; recordings with Mythic Folk duo Dave Carter and Tracy Grammar, and recordings with jazz artists Gary Hobbs and Christopher Woitach. Ives is an active teacher, and is a past president of the Oregon Cello Society. She is currently serving on the Board of Directors of the Oregon Symphony.
Joël Belgique has been principal of the Oregon Symphony’s viola section since 1997. Raised in Salt Lake City, Utah, by French parents, Joël studied viola with Mikhail Boguslavsky before attending the Interlochen Arts Academy. His viola studies went on to include undergraduate work at the Eastman School of Music and the Cleveland Institute of Music with renowned viola pedagogue Heidi Castleman.
Joël’s other musical posts have included the Spoleto Festival in Italy, the Festival of the Lakes in Minnesota, the CrossSound Festival in Alaska, the Grand Teton Music Festival in Wyoming and Interlochen’s chamber music camp for adults in Michigan.
In Portland, Joël is a member of several chamber music ensembles with his colleagues in the Symphony including fEARnoMUSIC, the Four Violas and the Oregon Symphony String Quartet.
His recordings on the North Pacific Music label include Jack Gabel’s “Hellenic Triptych” for solo viola and electronics and Tomas Svoboda’s “Trio Chorales” for violin, viola and piano with Symphony Concertmaster Amy Schwartz Moretti and Svoboda.
Joël is currently working on his first recital recording, due to be released by the summer of 2006, which will include sonatas by Jacob Avshalomov, Rebecca Clarke and Marion Bauer, with pianist Cary Lewis, as well as the premiere recording of Tomas Svoboda’s sonata, with Svoboda on piano.
In addition, Joël teaches many of the state’s young violists including students at Portland State University.
