August 5, 2010

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

THE OREGON SYMPHONY IN SEPTEMBER:
A BIG OPENING FOR A MEMORABLE SEASON

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(PORTLAND, Ore.) – Back from its summer hiatus, the Oregon Symphony kicks off its 2010/11 concert season in a way only Portland’s largest performing-arts organization could: With a free outdoor community celebration and concert expected to draw more than 15,000 listeners. The orchestra then moves a few blocks to its usual home, the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, for four more spectacular September concerts, including the opening event of the 2010 Time-Based Art Festival, an appearance by violin star Joshua Bell and a special benefit concert to raise money for the orchestra’s historic trip to New York next spring, where it will make its long-awaited debut at music’s most prestigious venue, Carnegie Hall. Complete details follow:

THURSDAY, SEPT. 2 [RAIN DATE: FRIDAY, SEPT. 3]:
THE ANNUAL AL FRESCO CONCERT AT TOM McCALL WATERFRONT PARK

• When and Where: One performance only, at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 2; Tom McCall Waterfront Park on Southwest Naito Parkway, just south of the Hawthorne Bridge. (Rain date is Friday, Sept. 3, same time and location.) The Oregon Symphony’s performance will be preceded by a one-hour Portland Youth Philharmonic concert from 5 to 6 p.m.

• The Performers: The Oregon Symphony, with Music Director Carlos Kalmar and Resident Conductor Gregory Vajda sharing the podium, joined by dancers from Oregon Ballet Theatre. (The Portland Youth Philharmonic also performs prior to the Oregon Symphony concert.)

• The Program: To mark the start of a historic season that will culminate in the Oregon Symphony’s first-ever concert at Carnegie Hall next May, Music Director Carlos Kalmar has put together a unique program with a trip-around-the-world theme, including musical stops in Vienna, Paris, Rome, St. Petersburg … and, of course, New York (the last one represented by an audience sing-along of – what else? – the Kander and Ebb anthem, “New York, New York.”) The program’s grand finale, as always, will be one of everyone’s favorite Russian hits: Tchaikovsky’s perennially popular 1812 Overture with cannons and fireworks. 

• Tickets: Admission is free, and no tickets are required. Bring chairs or blankets for lawn seating. Concertgoers are also invited to bring school supplies to donate for use in Portland public schools. Volunteers from the Portland non-profit group Schoolhouse Supplies will be on hand with collection barrels to receive the donations.

• What’s So Special About This Concert:
• A popular Portland end-of-summer tradition now in its 15th year, the waterfront concert is the Oregon Symphony’s only free performance of the year and annually draws its biggest audience. A crowd of 15,000 or more is expected.
• Music Director Carlos Kalmar and Resident Conductor Gregory Vajda share the conducting duties.
• Dancers from Oregon Ballet Theatre will also take part, performing excerpts from the company’s fall production of Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty.
• The traditional grand finale – and everyone’s favorite outdoor show-stopper, the Tchaikovsky 1812 Overture – will herald an elaborate fireworks show, complete with military cannons from the Oregon Army National Guard 218th Field Artillery.
• Before the Oregon Symphony takes the stage, the Portland Youth Philharmonic, led by Music Director David Hattner, will perform an hour-long concert of its own from 5 to 6 p.m. PYP musicians also join the Oregon Symphony for the 1812 Overture.
• The concert is funded by the Regional Arts & Culture Council, including support from the City of Portland, Metro, and Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington counties. Additional support is provided by Portland Parks & Recreation. Presenting sponsors of the concert are NW Natural and KOIN-TV. 

 
THURSDAY, SEPT. 9:
OREGON SYMPHONY AND RUFUS WAINWRIGHT OPEN THE 2010 TBA FESTIVAL

• When and Where: One performance only, at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 9; Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall.

• The Performers: Music Director Carlos Kalmar and the Oregon Symphony share their home stage at the Schnitz with composer-singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright and sopranos Janis Kelly and Megan Hart.

• The Program:
• The first half features excerpts from Wainwright’s controversial new opera Prima Donna, performed by British soprano Janis Kelly, who sang the title role at the opera’s 2009 British premiere, and soprano Megan Hart.
• The second half is “Classical Rufus,” at which Wainwright will take the stage to perform selections from Hector Berlioz’s song cycle Les Nuits d’été, tunes from his widely celebrated recent re-creation of Judy Garland’s legendary 1961 Carnegie Hall concert – an event that’s been called “the greatest night in show business history” – and his own compositions.

• Tickets: $20 to $120; 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:

• The collaboration marks the second time the Oregon Symphony has joined forces with the Portland Institute of Contemporary Art to present a blockbuster opening for Portland’s annual Time-Based Art Festival. (The orchestra also shared its stage with gender-bending pop stars Antony and the Johnsons on the opening night of the 2008 festival.).
• Canadian-American singer-composer Rufus Wainwright – whom Elton John once called “the greatest songwriter on the planet” – comes from a family steeped in folk music: father Loudon Wainwright III, mother Kate McGarrigle, sister Martha Wainwright.
• Prima Donna has had a controversial birth: Wainwright started writing it for New York’s Metropolitan Opera, but those plans collapsed in a dispute over the language of the libretto. (The Met wanted English; Wainwright insisted on French.) The opera premiered instead in July 2009 in Manchester, England, and has since been produced twice more, earlier this year in London and Toronto. It tells the story of an aging opera singer planning a comeback in 1970s Paris. British soprano Janis Kelly, who originated the lead role, will perform.  
• After intermission, Wainwright takes the stage himself to perform excepts from composer Hector Berlioz’s song cycle Les Nuits d’été, along with his own compositions and classic hits from the widely celebrated recent show at which he presented a song-by-song re-creation of the legendary 1961 Carnegie Hall concert of Judy Garland. It’s safe to say loyal Rufus fans can expect some surprises on stage, too.

 

THURSDAY, SEPT. 16:
VIRTUOSO JOSHUA BELL IS BACK FOR A NIGHT OF VIOLIN PYROTECHNICS

• When and Where: One performance only, at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 16; Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall.

• The Performers: The Oregon Symphony, with Music Director Carlos Kalmar on the podium, joined by violin superstar Joshua Bell.  

• The Program:
• Carl Nielsen: Overture to Maskarade
• Aaron Copland: Suite from The Tender Land
• Edouard Lalo: Symphonie espagnole for Violin and Orchestra
• George Enescu: Rumanian Rhapsody No. 1

• Tickets: $43 to $203; 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:

• How’s this for international: a program consisting of three short works by Danish composer Carl Nielsen, American Aaron Copland and Romanian George Enescu, sandwiched around the concert’s centerpiece – French composer Edouard Lalo’s only big hit, the Symphonie espagnole, his homage to the Spanish violin virtuoso Pablo de Sarasate.
• Violinist Joshua Bell, a one-time teen-age prodigy, is now 40-something and the closest thing classical music has to a rock star. He has collaborated with the Oregon Symphony several times throughout his stellar career, most recently in May 2008, when he performed the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto before sell-out crowds. This time Bell is the soloist in another violin showpiece, the Symphonie espagnole.
• Bell performs on a violin made in 1713 by Antonio Stradivari that is known as the Gibson Stradivarius, which is infamous for having been stolen in 1936 from the Carnegie Hall dressing room of violinist Bronislaw Huberman while Huberman was on stage playing another instrument. After the theft, the Gibson Stradivarius disappeared without a trace for more than a half-century, until it was offered for sale in London in 1987. Bell acquired it in 2001.
• Ticket availability for the one-night-only special event is limited; for the best remaining seats, concertgoers are advised to buy early.
• Presenting sponsor of the concert is Umpqua Private Bank.

 

SATURDAY, SEPT. 18:
‘COUNTDOWN TO CARNEGIE’ BENEFIT WILL RAISE MONEY FOR NY DEBUT

• When and Where: One performance only, at 8 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 18; Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall.

• The Performers: The Oregon Symphony, with Music Director Carlos Kalmar on the podium, and an only-in-PDX array of special guests, including Concertmaster Jun Iwasaki, Pink Martini’s Thomas Lauderdale, rocker Storm Large, Portland-based twin-brother poets Matthew and Michael Dickman … and local drag club legend Darcelle XV.

• The Program:
• Think fun and eclectic. Among the highlights: The orchestra will perform Ravel’s Bolero and Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue (the latter with Pink Martini front man Thomas Lauderdale as piano soloist); Portland twin poets Matthew and Michael Dickman will read an original poem written specially for the occasion, with orchestral accompaniment; Storm Large will sing New York-related songs – and be joined by Portland drag icon Darcelle XV for what promises to be an unforgettable interpretation of Kander and Ebb’s “New York, New York.” 

• Tickets: $20 to $140; 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:

• The concert will help raise money for the Oregon Symphony’s May trip to New York, where it will perform for the first time ever at music’s most prestigious venue, Carnegie Hall, on May 12, 2011. $10 from each ticket sold will go toward defraying the costs of sending the orchestra’s 76 musicians to New York.
• The Oregon Symphony is one of seven regional orchestras from across North America invited to perform in New York as part of Carnegie Hall’s first Spring for Music Festival. All seven were selected for the week-long festival based on their innovative programming. The others include the Orpheus and St. Paul chamber orchestras as well as the Albany, Dallas, Montreal and Toledo symphonies.

 

SATURDAY, SEPT. 25:
PORTLAND SYMPHONIC CHOIR PRESENTS MOZART’S GRAND MASS

• When and Where: One performance only, at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 25; Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall.

• The Performers: The Oregon Symphony shares its stage with the Portland Symphonic Choir, led by its director, Steven Zopfi, and vocal soloists Gwen Detwiler, soprano; Dawn Padula, mezzo soprano; Ross Hauck, tenor; and Charles R. Stephens, bass.

• The Program:
• Richard Wagner: Prelude to Act I of Lohengrin
• Richard Wagner: Prelude to Act III of Lohengrin
• Richard Wagner: “Elsa’s Procession to the Cathedral”from Lohengrin
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Mass in C minor

• Tickets: $23 to $88; 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:

• The program begins with three excerpts from Richard Wagner’s opera Lohengrin before turning to the evening’s centerpiece, the 80-minute Mass in C minor of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, sometimes known as “The Great” or the Mozart Grand Mass.
• At the 1783 Salzburg premiere of the Mass, Mozart’s wife Constanze sang the soprano solos.
• For reasons that scholars and musicologists still debate, Mozart actually left some parts of his Mass unfinished. The version being performed here was completed by composer-conductor Robert Levin in 2005, on a commission from Carnegie Hall; Levin used music from other Mozart compositions to fill in the missing sections.

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