The New Season: Seeing Stars

Dear Friends,

I’m sure you’ve heard by now about the amazing 2008-2009 concert season we’ve planned, but I wanted to let you in on some of my own personal highlights. Even as I was building the season with our expert Oregon Symphony team, I was worried that if anyone ever asked me to pick a few favorites I’d be in trouble – because it’s all specially selected for our wonderful audience.

A few thoughts nonetheless …

• Each of our two classical subscription series will have a huge kickoff: In the Classical “A” series, pairing the Beethoven Ninth Symphony with Vaughan Williams’ meaningful Serenade to Music is just a great way to open our season. Then, to have Valentina Lisitsa with us to start the “B” series in a program that features Latin American music on the second half – well, get ready!
• To say how special Lang Lang will be is not even necessary. He’s the hottest ticket among young pianists in the world today. Period.
• I love the fact that Jeff Tyzik is going to bring a great new twist to our Pops series. One of the very best specialists among pops conductors, he will bring a wonderful variety of fun music to the table.
• I’m really happy we will see Stephen Hough on our stage. And trust me: If you like the very famous Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No.1, you will be surprised by the quality of his second piano concerto as well. And it's an all Tchaikovsky program.
• With Eduardo Fernandez we are bringing a phenomenal guitar player to town. The 18 CDs he has recorded for EMI speak for themselves. And on the same program you will see James Gaffigan, the young and sparkling associate conductor of the San Francisco Symphony.
• Not to be missed is the pairing of Jimmy DePreist with pianist Garrick Ohlsson. And get your tickets for Joshua Bell now!
• One of my favorite programs is going to be the May concerts where we perform the Barber Knoxville, Summer of 1915 along with the Mahler Symphony No. 4. That’s what I would call a very rewarding, somewhat quiet and touching program. And Karina Gauvin, the creamy soprano from Canada who is with us then, is phenomenal.

And if I look at our list of “special” concerts, what's there that you need to see? The stunning Mariza … the fun Capitol Steps … Chris Botti … Dianne Reeves … this is really going to be a fun season. I hope we see you here often.

Warmly,

Carlos