October 1, 2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PIANIST WILLIAM WOLFRAM SUBSTITUTES FOR JEFFREY KAHANE
AT OREGON SYMPHONY’S CONCERTS OCT. 9-11
(PORTLAND, Ore.) – Pianist Jeffrey Kahane has been forced to withdraw from the Oregon Symphony’s “Mendelssohn & Mozart” Classical series concerts Oct. 9-11 because of illness. Pianist William Wolfram will fill in, making his Oregon Symphony debut.
There is no change in the program. Wolfram will perform Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor, K. 491, the masterwork many rank among Mozart’s finest creations for piano. Also on the program: Richard Wagner’s Prelude to Parsifal, Felix Mendelssohn’s “Reformation” Symphony and Franz Liszt’s Mephisto Waltz No. 1.
Music Director Carlos Kalmar conducts the three performances, scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 9 and 10, and 8 p.m. Monday, Oct. 11, at downtown Portland’s Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. Tickets are available at OrSymphony.org.
Kahane’s management said in a statement: “It is with great regret that Jeffrey Kahane must withdraw from the Oct. 9-11 concerts with the Oregon Symphony. Mr. Kahane was diagnosed with mononucleosis in early July and ordered by his doctors not to work or travel throughout the summer. Upon further medical consultation, his doctors have advised him that he is not sufficiently recovered to resume his scheduled performance activities, but there is every expectation that he should be soon.”
Wolfram – a silver medalist at both the William Kapell and the Naumburg International Piano Competitions and a bronze medalist at the prestigious Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow – has made a name for himself in the piano world as a go-to guy when last-minute substitutions are needed.
"There's a little more pressure, and yet there's less pressure in a way," he told The Buffalo News when he was called upon to pinch-hit by the Buffalo Philharmonic. “You're kind of saving the day. Unless something goes horribly wrong, you kind of come off fairly well.”
That newspaper’s classical music critic, Mary Kunz Goldman, wrote of Wolfram: “He is famous for tackling knuckle-busting repertoire. … And he never fears to step in at the last minute.”
Wolfram has also performed with the San Francisco, Saint Louis and Seattle symphonies, among others, and enjoys regular and ongoing close associations with the Dallas and Milwaukee symphonies and the Minnesota Orchestra.
A Juilliard graduate who now lives in New York City, Wolfram was the focus of a chapter in Joseph Horowitz's book, The Ivory Trade: Music and the Business of Music at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. On television, he was a featured pianist in the documentary of the 1986 Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition.
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CONTACT:
Carl Herko
Vice President, Media & Public Relations
(503) 416-6347
cherko@orsymphony.org