January 14, 2010

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

THE OREGON SYMPHONY IN FEBRUARY:
IT’S GOING TO BE ONE SIZZLING MONTH IN PORTLAND

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(PORTLAND, Ore.) – The skies may be dark and gray, the weather grim and Gothic, but the Oregon Symphony does its best to heat things up on the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall stage throughout February with seven different concerts that promise a little something for everybody: big-name headliners, major Classical masterworks, even one weird and wonderful evening amid the cabarets of Weimar Germany. Oh, yeah: and Storm Large, too, all glammed up for her symphony orchestra debut! How’s that for an eclectic lineup? Complete details follow:

FRIDAY, FEB. 5:
NATIVE SON CHRIS BOTTI RETURNS FOR ANOTHER NIGHT OF COOL JAZZ

• When and Where: One performance only, at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 5; Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall.

• The Performers: Globe-trotting jazz trumpeter Chris Botti returns home to Portland with his stellar ensemble of back-up musicians. Please note: The Oregon Symphony does not perform.

• The Program:
• A wide sampling of the jazz standards and pop tunes Botti’s fans have come to expect.

• More Background Info and Photos:

• On Chris Botti: http://www.chrisbotti.com/home.html 

• Tickets: $25 to $130; at the Oregon Symphony Ticket Office, 923 SW Washington St., in downtown Portland. Ticket office hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. Tickets may also be purchased by phone at (503) 228-1353 or (800) 228-7343 during the same hours, at the concert hall box office starting two hours before the performance, or online at any time from the orchestra’s web site, OrSymphony.org. Tickets are also available from Ticketmaster.com.

• What’s So Special About This Concert:

• This is another homecoming for Botti, who was born in Portland and raised in Corvallis and whose Oregon roots run deep: As a teen in Portland: he performed at Delevan’s, played in Ron Steen’s band and studied with former Oregon Symphony principal trumpeter Fred Sautter.
• Botti performed two holiday concerts with the Oregon Symphony in December 2008. This time it’s just Botti and his backup band; the Oregon Symphony does not perform.
• Since the release of his first solo album in 1995, Botti has built a sui generis career that seamlessly blends pop, the classics and contemporary jazz and has made him the best-selling American jazz instrumentalist.
• Over the past three decades, Botti has recorded and performed alongside many of the biggest names in music, including Frank Sinatra, Sting, Josh Groban, Paul Simon, John Mayer, Andrea Bocelli and Joshua Bell.
• Presenting sponsor for the concert is RBC Wealth Management.  

 

SATURDAY-MONDAY, FEB. 6-8:
THE SPOTLIGHT SHINES ON PROKOFIEV AND SIBELIUS 

• When and Where: Three performances, at 7:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 6 and 7, and 8 p.m. Monday, Feb. 8; Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall.

• The Performers: The Oregon Symphony, with Finnish guest conductor Pietari Inkinen on the podium, joined by violinist Karen Gomyo.

• The Program:
• Richard Wagner: Siegfried Idyll
• Sergei Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No. 1
• Jean Sibelius: Symphony No. 2

• More Background Info:
• On guest conductor Pietari Inkinen: http://www.pietariinkinen.com/index.php?js=1 
• On violinist Karen Gomyo: http://www.seldycramerartists.com/bio_gomyo.html

• Tickets: $15 to $100; at the Oregon Symphony Ticket Office, 923 SW Washington St., in downtown Portland. Ticket office hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. Tickets may also be purchased by phone at (503) 228-1353 or (800) 228-7343 during the same hours, at the concert hall box office starting two hours before the performance, or online at any time from the orchestra’s web site, OrSymphony.org.  

• What’s So Special About These Concerts:
• Canadian violinist Karen Gomyo – winner of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2008 – returns to the Oregon Symphony for the first time since 2003 to perform Sergei Prokofiev’s First Violin Concerto. The concerto itself is noteworthy for the way it combines the lyrical melodies of a traditional violin concerto with in-your-face, avant-garde techniques.
• The first piece on the program – Richard Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll – is one of the composer’s few non-operatic creations, a short chamber composition written as a birthday gift to his wife after the birth of their son. Think of it as Wagner Unplugged.
• The concert concludes with another masterpiece from the early years of the 20th century, the Sibelius Second Symphony – the Finnish composer’s most popular, and most frequently recorded, creation.

 

SATURDAY, FEB. 13:
ENFANT TERRIBLE STORM LARGE MAKES HER OREGON SYMPHONY DEBUT (!!!)

• When and Where: One performance only, at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 13; Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall.

• The Performers: Singer Storm Large, joined by the Oregon Symphony with Resident Conductor Gregory Vajda on the podium.

• The Program:
• Some love songs appropriate for Valentine’s Day, some rock ‘n’ roll, and beyond that, who knows what might happen the first time Portland’s bad girl of music, Storm Large, bumps up against a full symphony orchestra?

• More Background Info and Photos:

• On Storm Large: http://stormlarge.com/

• Tickets: $25 to $130; at the Oregon Symphony Ticket Office, 923 SW Washington St., in downtown Portland. Ticket office hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. Tickets may also be purchased by phone at (503) 228-1353 or (800) 228-7343 during the same hours, at the concert hall box office starting two hours before the performance, or online at any time from the orchestra’s web site, OrSymphony.org. Tickets are also available from Ticketmaster.com.

• What’s So Special About This Concert:
• Storm Large is, by now, a household name among both rock and theater fans in Portland, but this performance marks her first collaboration ever with a symphony orchestra.
• Large’s most recent star turn in front of Portland audiences – her one-woman show Crazy Enough – ran for five months last year at Portland Center Stage. Its rumored next stop: New York.
• “If the symphony has deemed me appropriate and talented and disciplined enough to get up in front of their crew, then God bless it,” Large said in a recent interview. “But I’m not an educated musician. I’m a thug, a meat-throwing vocalist.”
• From the same interview, her description of what to expect at the concert: “It’s probably half standards and half rock ‘n’ roll, or augmented versions of my own music. And the theme is about the arc of love. It starts with infatuation, then attraction, sexual explosion, then obsession and then resentment.”

 

SUNDAY, FEB. 14:
KIDS’ CONCERT SERIES CONCLUDES WITH MUSICAL VALENTINES

• When and Where: One performance only, at 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 14; Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall.

• The Performers: The Oregon Symphony, with Resident Conductor Gregory Vajda on the podium, joined by narrator Pam Mahon, the Pacific Youth Choir and Dance West of Beaverton.

• The Program: It’s the music of love – all kinds of love – from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “My Favorite Things” to tunes from the video game series Kingdom Hearts. Along the way, young listeners will get to hear some Brahms, some Beethoven and plenty of other surprises – including the U.S. premiere of a work by contemporary Estonian composer Arvo Pärt.

• Tickets: $10 to $43; at the Oregon Symphony Ticket Office, 923 SW Washington St., in downtown Portland. Ticket office hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. Tickets may also be purchased by phone at (503) 228-1353 or (800) 228-7343 during the same hours, at the concert hall box office starting two hours before the performance, or online at any time from the orchestra’s web site, OrSymphony.org.  

• What’s So Special About This Concert:
• This is the final program in this season’s three-concert Pink Lemonade Kids Series. Each concert in the series has a special theme related to the season of the year, and what’s more appropriate for a Feb. 14 concert than “musical valentines”?
• Musical highlights include the American premiere of excerpts from Our Garden, Arvo Pärt’s choral work about gardening, sung by the Pacific Youth Choir, as well as a full pantomime ballet, The Three Bears, performed by Dance West of Beaverton.
• Kids Concerts are short performances – about an hour in length, without intermission – programmed specifically to appeal to young audiences ages 5-10. They’re an ideal way to introduce children to classical music.
• Local actress/singer Pam Mahon hosts all three concerts in the series, keeping things moving briskly along and making sure the young audience members are actively involved in what’s going on on-stage.
• Presenting sponsor of this concert is The Standard.

 

SATURDAY-SUNDAY, FEB. 20-21:
PIANIST ANGELA HEWITT TAKES ON THE SUBLIME MOZART 23RD CONCERTO

• When and Where: Two performances, at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 20, and a 2 p.m. matinee on Sunday, Feb. 21; Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. (NOTE: This concert will also be performed at 8 p.m. Monday, Feb. 22, at Willamette University’s Smith Hall in Salem.)

• The Performers: The Oregon Symphony, led by Resident Conductor Gregory Vajda, with pianist Angela Hewitt as soloist.

• The Program:
• Anton Webern: Passacaglia
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 23
• Hector Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique

• More Background Info and photos:
• On pianist Angela Hewitt: http://www.angelahewitt.com/

• Tickets: FOR THE PORTLAND PERFORMANCES: $15 to $100; at the Oregon Symphony Ticket Office, 923 SW Washington St., in downtown Portland. Ticket office hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. Tickets may also be purchased by phone at (503) 228-1353 or (800) 228-7343 during the same hours, at the concert hall box office starting two hours before the performance, or online at any time from the orchestra’s web site, OrSymphony.org.  

FOR THE SALEM PERFORMANCE: $25 to $43, available from TicketsWest.

• What’s So Special About These Concerts:
• The program includes a couple of sure-fire crowd-pleasers: the piano concerto that many would argue is Mozart’s most gorgeous and the perennial favorite by composer Hector Berlioz, Symphonie fantastique. The concert opens with the first Oregon Symphony performance ever of Anton Webern’s Passacaglia.
• The piano soloist in the Mozart concerto – Canadian-British pianist Angela Hewitt – is a longtime Portland audience favorite as well. She has done several recitals for Portland Piano International in recent years, including a performance of the complete Bach Well-Tempered Clavier in March 2008; these are her first appearances with the Oregon Symphony since February 2001.
• Unlike most Oregon Symphony Classical concerts in Portland, this one has only two performances, the first on Saturday evening and the second a Sunday matinee.

 

WEDNESDAY, FEB. 24:
MAX RAABE AND THE PALAST ORCHESTER RECREATE A BYGONE ERA

• When and Where: One performance only, at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 24; Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall.

• The Performers: German crooner Max Raabe is joined by his 12-piece Palast Orchester in their first Portland concert ever. Please note: The Oregon Symphony does not perform.  

• The Program:
• Cabaret tunes from the Weimar Republic. Elegant American classics from the 1920s and ‘30s. Covers of ABBA hits? Quite literally, anything goes.

• More Background Info and Photos:

• On Max Raabe and the Palast Orchester: http://www.palastorchester.de/en/home/ 

• Tickets: $20 to $93; at the Oregon Symphony Ticket Office, 923 SW Washington St., in downtown Portland. Ticket office hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. Tickets may also be purchased by phone at (503) 228-1353 or (800) 228-7343 during the same hours, at the concert hall box office starting two hours before the performance, or online at any time from the orchestra’s web site, OrSymphony.org. Tickets are also available from Ticketmaster.com.

• What’s So Special About This Concert:
• This is an act that has to be seen to be appreciated: a 12-piece band that has mastered pitch-perfect yet mischievous interpretations of big band tunes from the 1920s and ’30s, when Germany’s Weimar Republic was in full hum and the likes of Cole Porter, Rudy Vallee, Fred Astaire and Irving Berlin ruled the day.
• The Daily Mirror once wrote of them: “When Max Raabe with his starched shirtfront and put-on seriousness takes the stage at the sold-out Carnegie Hall, it is as if the old days of the venerable concert halls light up and the New York of top hats silk scarves comes alive again.”
• But don’t think stodgy by any means. Heavy-metal rocker Marilyn Manson booked Raabe & Co. to entertain guests at his own wedding reception.
• Could they be Europe’s answer to Pink Martini? The band has a devoted cult following in major cities all over the world, but this is its first Portland concert ever.

 

SATURDAY-SUNDAY, FEB. 27-28:
THE POPS SEASON CONTINUES WITH MOTOWN’S GREATEST HITS

• When and Where: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 28, and 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 29; Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall.

• The Performers: The Oregon Symphony, with Principal Pops Conductor Jeff Tyzik on the podium, joined by the vocal quartet known as Spectrum.

• The Program:
• A wall-to-wall extravaganza of major hits from the heyday of Motown: “Under the Boardwalk,” “Up on the Roof,” “My Girl,” “Soul Man” and many others.

• More Background Info and Photos:
• On Principal Pops Conductor Jeff Tyzik: http://www.jefftyzik.com/
• On the Motown vocal group Spectrum: http://www.spectrumsings.com/home.htm

• Tickets: $15 to $95; at the Oregon Symphony Ticket Office, 923 SW Washington St., in downtown Portland. Ticket office hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. Tickets may also be purchased by phone at (503) 228-1353 or (800) 228-7343 during the same hours, at the concert hall box office starting two hours before the performance, or online at any time from the orchestra’s web site, OrSymphony.org.  

• What’s So Special About These Concerts:
• Principal Pops Conductor Jeff Tyzik is on the podium for the third program in this season’s Pops series.
• As always, Tyzik’s engaging Pops concert programs aim to offer an in-depth look at a specific theme. This time it’s the sweet, soulful sound of Motown
• Joining Tyzik is the quartet of singers called Spectrum – specialists in Motown and R&B and two-time honoree as best lounge performers in Las Vegas.

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CONTACT:
Carl Herko
Vice President, Media & Public Relations
(503) 416-6347
cherko@orsymphony.org