December 22, 2005
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Portland, Ore. … Two unforgettable female characters from literature, Scheherazade and Medea, are brought to life in music of Rimsky-Korsakov, Ravel and Barber in an Oregon Symphony Classical series concert led by Guest Conductor Michael Stern with mezzo-soprano Michelle DeYoung on Jan. 22 and 23 at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, with an added performance on Jan. 24 in Salem’s Smith Auditorium. Media support is provided by The Oregonian. Lufthansa is the exclusive airline sponsor for the Symphony’s Classical series.
Stern, recently named Music Director of the Kansas City Symphony, has made several appearances with the Symphony in recent seasons. He leads the orchestra in “Scheherazade,” one of Rimsky-Korsakov’s best-known works. Concertmaster Amy Schwartz Moretti is featured as the solo voice of Scheherazade spinning out her ingenious stories like silken threads in this work, inspired from the “Tales of the 1,001 Arabian Nights.”
DeYoung, a rising star in the operatic world who recently appeared as Dido in the Metropolitan Opera’s production of “Les Troyens,” has sung with some of the world’s finest orchestras and opera companies. She makes her Symphony debut with Ravel’s homage to the exotic marvels of the Far East in his song cycle, “Shéhérazade,” which takes its original inspiration from Rimsky-Korsakov’s earlier work.
Barber’s ballet, originally written as a commission from Martha Graham and later re-orchestrated into an orchestral suite, features the stark and powerful Greek tragedy of Medea, who ultimately murders her own children.
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: Principal Horn John Cox and KBPS host Patrick McElroy 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: Guest Conductor Michael Stern will speak briefly from the podium in “Saturday Interactive.” Media support for “Saturday Interactive” is provided by KINK fm102.
Performances are scheduled for Sunday, Jan. 22 at 7:30 p.m. and Monday, Jan. 23 at 8 p.m. at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, with an added performance on Tuesday, Jan. 24 at Willamette University’s Smith Auditorium. 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 atwww.orsymphony.org. Service fees may apply.
Michelle DeYoung has established herself as one of the most exciting artists of her generation. In the past few seasons, DeYoung has been seen on the concert platforms of some of the world's most illustrious orchestras. She has been welcomed by the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, L.A. Philharmonic, Houston Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Bayerische Staatsoper Orchestra, Concertgebouworkest and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. She has worked with conductors such as Pierre Boulez, Sir Colin Davis, Stefan Deneve, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Christoph Eschenbach, Jesus Lopez Cobos, Bernard Haitink, James Levine, Zubin Mehta, Seiji Ozawa, Antonio Pappano, Esa‑Pekka Salonen, Leonard Slatkin, Mariss Jansons and Michael Tilson Thomas.
This past summer, DeYoung returned to the Concertgebouworkest for performances of Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 in Amsterdam, the BBC Proms in London and Lucerne. She toured Japan with Riccardo Chailly and the Concertgebouworkest this past fall. Other engagements this season include Dido in the Metropolitan Opera’s new production of “Les Troyens,” more performances of Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 with the San Francisco Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra and the L.A. Philharmonic. She will also return to the Minnesota Orchestra for performances of Bernstein’s Symphony No. 1, “Jeremiah” and a series of recitals in Pittsburgh, Calvin College (Grand Rapids, Mich.) and Berkeley.
Last season, DeYoung’s concert performances included Bartók’s “Bluebeard’s Castle” with Pierre Boulez and the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the Promenade Concerts in London and the Edinburgh Festival; returns to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony, the Concertgebouworkest and the Orchestra de la Monnaie and debuts with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the St. Louis Symphony.
Other past engagements include performances of “Dream of Gerontius” for her debut with the New York Philharmonic; the role of Dido in concert performances of “Les Troyens” with the London Symphony Orchestra; “Alexander Nevsky” in the televised 70th Birthday Concert of the BBC Symphony Orchestra; “La Mort de Cleopatre” with the Oslo Philharmonic in Oslo, Copenhagen and the BBC Proms; Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 with the Orchestra de Monnaie and at the Pacific Music Festival in Japan; Verdi’s “Requiem” with the Orchestra de Monnaie; “Oedipus Rex” with the National Symphony Orchestra, “Das Lied von der Erde” with the Rotterdam Philharmonic, Gurrelieder at the Ravinia Festival and a concert performance of Fauré’s “Penelope” at the Edinburgh Festival.
A graduate of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artists Development Program, DeYoung made debuts with the Houston Grand Opera as Venus in “Tannhäuser” in the fall of 2001 and at the Glimmerglass Opera during the summer of 2001 as the title role in Christopher Alden’s critically acclaimed new production of “Rape of Lucretia.”
DeYoung’s most recent recording, “Les Troyens” (the role of Dido), with Sir Colin Davis and the London Symphony Orchestra won the 2001 Grammys for Best Classical Album and Best Opera Recording.
Recognized as one of the most dynamic American conductors of his generation, Michael Stern was recently named Music Director of the Kansas City Symphony. Stern is also the founding Music Director of The IRIS Chamber Orchestra, which is presently in its fifth season. Under Stern's direction the orchestra has been unanimously heralded for its varied programming, with special emphasis on American contemporary music, and for its acclaimed recordings on the Naxos and Arabesque labels. Dedicated to revitalizing all aspects of the concert experience, IRIS has embraced as a central part of its mission a deep commitment to furthering American composers, and has commissioned works by Stephen Hartke, Richard Danielpour, Edgar Meyer, Jonathan Leshnoff and Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, among others.
In 2000 Mr. Stern concluded his tenure as chief conductor of Germany’s Saarbrücken Radio Symphony Orchestra. The first American Chief Conductor in the orchestra’s history, he was offered the post almost immediately after making his debut with them in March 1996. In addition to their work in concert, for broadcast and on tour, he and the orchestra made recordings which include a disc of Henry Cowell’s works as well as a series devoted to the music of Charles Ives, including a live recorded performance of the “Universe” Symphony and the first recording of the reconstructed “Emerson” piano concerto.
In September 1991, he was appointed Permanent Guest Conductor of the Orchestre National de Lyon in France, a position which he held for four years. He has also appeared with the national orchestras of Paris, Bordeaux, Lille and Toulouse. Elsewhere, Mr. Stern has led such orchestras as the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, the Oslo Philharmonic, the Bergen Symphony, the Beethovenhalle Orchestra in Bonn, the Deutsche Symphoniker (DSO) in Berlin, the Budapest Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic, the Moscow Philharmonic, the Helsinki Philharmonic, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in Munich and the Chamber Orchestra of Lausanne. In the United Kingdom he has appeared with the London Symphony, the London Philharmonic, the BBC Symphony (London) and the English Chamber Orchestra. In the Far East, Mr. Stern has appeared with such orchestras as the National Symphony of Taiwan, the Singapore Symphony and Tokyo’s NHK Symphony, and in September 2001 he led the Vienna Radio Symphony on a tour of China. He has also been a frequent guest conductor of the Tonhalle Orchestra in Zurich, with which he has recorded for Denon Records, including a disc of orchestral works by Stravinsky and Prokofiev’s Violin Concertos Nos. 1 and 2 with Boris Belkin. He and Mr. Belkin have also recorded works by Tchaikovsky and Dvorák with the London Philharmonic.
In North America, he has conducted the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Saint Louis Symphony, the Atlanta Symphony, the Houston Symphony, the Baltimore Symphony, the Toronto Symphony, the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, the Indianapolis Symphony and the National Symphony in Washington, D.C., among many others. He also appears regularly at the Aspen Music Festival, and has served on the faculty of the American Academy of Conducting at Aspen. From 1986 to 1991, Mr. Stern was the Assistant Conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra. In September 1986, he made his New York Philharmonic debut as one of three young conductors invited by Leonard Bernstein to participate in a conducting workshop that culminated in two concerts at Avery Fisher Hall.
Mr. Stern received his degree from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where his major teacher was the noted conductor and scholar Max Rudolf (whose famous textbook, “The Grammar of Conducting,” Mr. Stern co-edited for its third edition.) He has also edited a new volume of Rudolf’s collected writings and correspondence, published in January 2002 by Pendragon Press. His studies have included two summers at the Pierre Monteux Memorial School in Hancock, Maine, under the tutelage of Charles Bruck. Born in 1959, Mr. Stern is a graduate of Harvard University, where he earned a degree in American History in 1981.
