November 8, 2002
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Portland, Ore. … Carlos Kalmar makes his first Oregon Symphony Classical Concert appearance since being named Music Director Designate conducting Schumann’s Symphony No. 1, “Spring,” and Richard Strauss’ “Death and Transfiguration” on Dec. 7 and 8 at 7:30 p.m. and Dec. 9 at 8 p.m. at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. This concert series also features German cellist Alban Gerhardt, who makes his Symphony debut with Samuel Barber’s Cello Concerto. Media support is provided by The Oregonian.
Symphony musicians, board members, staff and audiences are delighted to welcome Kalmar back to the podium for his second group of performances as Music Director Designate, following on the heels of his performance with the annual “Best of the Baroque” concerts on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1. Kalmar is currently Music Director of Vienna’s Tonkünstlerorchester and Principal Conductor of Chicago’s Grant Park Music Festival; he will begin his new appointment as the Oregon Symphony’s 10th music director in 2003. Kalmar has served as the music director for several of Germany’s finest orchestras, including the Hamburg Symphony, Stuttgart Philharmonic and Anhaltisches Theater in Dessau. His guest conducting engagements for both symphony and opera include appearances with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Radio Symphony, National Orchestra of Spain, ORT Orchestra of Florence, Hamburg State Opera, Vienna State Opera, Zurich Opera House and the National Opera of Brussels, among others.
Earlier this year, Kalmar and Gerhardt recorded the Barber Cello Concerto with the Jeunesses Musicales World Orchestra. Both artists will be signing copies of their newly released CD, which will be available for purchase during intermission.
At age 33, Alban Gerhardt has already made a name for himself with some of the world’s most renowned orchestras. In the past year he has performed with the Rotterdam Philharmonic, Baltimore Symphony, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo, the Halle Philharmonic (at the Great Festspielhaus Salzburg), and at the Festival Pablo Casals with the Chinca Philharmonic under Krzysztof Penderecki, among others. In addition to his orchestral repertoire, Gerhardt maintains an active recital schedule. This past season he has given recitals at London’s Wigmore Hall, Paris’ Theatre de la Ville, New York’s Frick Collection and the Grant Park Festival in Chicago. The next two seasons will introduce Gerhardt to more American audiences with scheduled debuts in Seattle, Utah and Detroit.
Kalmar opens the concert with Schumann’s Spring Symphony in B-flat major, written a few months after the composer’s long-awaited marriage to Clara Wieck. In writing this symphony, Schumann’s musical imagination was fired, as he told a fellow composer, “…with a vernal passion…that always sways men even into old age and surprises them anew each year.” Gerhardt then joins Kalmar and the orchestra for the Symphony’s first performance of Barber’s mercurial and technically demanding Cello Concerto. Barber’s music has undergone something of a renaissance in the last 20 years; during his lifetime many critics derided his music as reactionary, but Barber insisted on writing music that spoke to him, rather than conform to the prevailing atonal musical aesthetic of his time. In a 1979 interview two years before his death, Barber stated, “I write for myself…I think that most music that is really good will be appreciated by the audience, ultimately.”
The second half of the concert features Strauss’ monumental tone poem “Death and Transfiguration,” which was strongly influenced by Wagner’s groundbreaking music drama “Tristan und Isolde.” In this one-movement work Strauss musically describes the final hours of one man’s life in four distinct stages, and uses a poem written by Alexander von Ritter to provide an underlying literary narrative.
Oregon Symphony Classical concerts regularly include additional opportunities for listeners to learn more about the music and the orchestra. These activities include:
Music Director Designate Carlos Kalmar will lead a discussion of the works to be performed one hour before the concert. Media support for “Pre-Concert Talks” is provided by Classical Millennium.
Conductor Carlos Kalmar will speak briefly from the podium in “Saturday Interactive.” Media support for “Saturday Interactive” is provided by KINKfm102.
Audience members are invited to stay for a 15-20 minute panel discussion with Symphony staff and guest artists. Media support for "Sunday Post-Concert Discussion" is provided by KBPS Classical 89.9 FM.
Performances are scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 7 and 8 at 7:30 p.m. and Monday, Dec. 9 at 8 p.m. at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. Tickets range in price from $16 to $72 and may be purchased at the Oregon Symphony Ticket 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. Tickets also may be purchased at all Ticketmaster outlets (503-790-ARTS) or through Ticketmaster Online, via the Symphony's Web site at www.orsymphony.org. Service fees may apply.
Carlos Kalmar, the internationally acclaimed Music Director of Vienna’s Tonkünstlerorchester and Principal Conductor of Chicago’s Grant Park Music Festival, is the newly appointed Music Director Designate of the Oregon Symphony. Kalmar will serve as Music Director Designate for the 2002-2003 season and will succeed James DePreist as the orchestra’s 10th Music Director beginning with the 2003-2004 season.
Kalmar has been music director of the Hamburg Symphony (1987 to 1991), Stuttgart Philharmonic (1991 to 1995) and Anhaltisches Theater in Dessau, Germany (1996-2000). His guest conducting engagements of symphony and opera, throughout Europe and North America include appearances with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Radio Symphony, Philharmonische Staatsorchester of Bremen, Bochum Symphony, Dortmund Philharmonic, NDR Radio Orchestra of Hannover, National Orchestra of Spain, ORT Orchestra of Florence, Hamburg State Opera, Vienna State Opera, Zurich Opera House and the National Opera of Brussels, among others.
Kalmar made his German debut in April 1985 with the NDR Symphony Orchestra in Hamburg, which immediately invited him back for two more concerts. Further invitations to conduct in Germany followed, including the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonische Staatsorchester of Bremen, the Bochum Symphony Orchestra, Dortmund Philharmonic Orchestra, Essen Philharmonic Orchestra, the Frankfurt Museumsorchester and the NDR Radio Orchestra in Hannover.
In June 2000, Kalmar made his highly successful British orchestra debut with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra as part of their prestigious “Scottish Proms” series in Glasgow. July 2000 saw his first concerts with the Philadelphia Orchestra. Guest engagements during 2000-2001 include the Rio de Janeiro Opera House Orchestra, Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra, Mozarteumorchester- Salzburg, Jeunesse Musicales World Orchestra, Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, Denver Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Vancouver Symphony and Colorado Symphony Orchestra, among others.
In addition to his music directorship at Grant Park, Kalmar returns to North America for guest engagements every season, conducting such orchestras as the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center, Buffalo Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, Jacksonville (Florida) Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony and the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa. Many of the orchestras have invited him for second and third appearances.
John von Rhein of the Chicago Tribune writes of Kalmar, “In the Germanic works which rounded out the program, Beethoven’s ‘Creatures of Prometheus’ Overture and the Brahms Symphony No. 1, Kalmar impressed as a sensitive, probing and communicative young conductor the orchestra world should be paying serious attention to - and undoubtedly will before long.”
Carlos Kalmar was born in 1958 of Austrian parents in Montevideo, Uruguay. He began studying violin at age 6, and by age 15, his musical development led him to the Vienna Academy of Music where he studied conducting with Karl Österreicher.
Mr. Kalmar resides in Vienna with his wife and two daughters; he plans to establish a residence in Portland.
Having won several international competitions, including the prestigious Leonard Rose and ARD Competitions, Alban Gerhardt has established himself as one of the world’s leading cellists. His career-launching debut with the Berlin Philharmonic has led to performances as soloist with such orchestras as the NDR Hamburg, Leipzig and Frankfurt Radio Orchestras, Bamberg Symphony, Leipzig Gewandhaus, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Orchestre National de Belgique, Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Shinsei Symphony Orchestra Tokyo, Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra, and National Symphony Orchestra, as well as the Houston and Chicago Symphony Orchestras. Among the distinguished conductors with whom he has collaborated are Andrey Boreyko, Semyon Bychkov, Sir Colin Davis, Christoph Eschenbach, Paavo and Neeme Järvi, Yakov Kreizberg, Alexander Lazarev, Jesus Lopez-Cobos, Fabio Luisi, Sir Neville Mariner, Kurt Masur, Vassily Sinaisky, Jeffrey Tate and Osmo Vänskä.
In 2000/01 Gerhardt had the honor to play three times at the London “Proms” with the City of Birmingham Symphony under Sakari Oramo. In the following season he gave his debuts with the Rotterdam Philharmonic, Baltimore Symphony, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo, Lahti Symphony, Czech, Stuttgart and Halle Philharmonic (at the Great Festspielhaus Salzburg), and at the Festival Pablo Casals with the Chinca Philharmonic under K. Penderecki. He gave recitals at London’s Wigmore Hall, Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall, Paris’ Theatre de la Ville, Eindhoven’s Philips Center, New York’s Frick Collection and the Grant Park Festival in Chicago.
The next two years will introduce Alban’s debut performances with the Nederland, Helsinki and Munich Philharmonic Orchestras, the Vancouver, Seattle (G. Schwarz), Utah (K. Lockheart), Oregon and Detroit symphonies, Philharmonia London, Trondheim Symphony and the Berlin Symphony (W. Weller), as well as two reinvitations with the Monte Carlo Philharmonic (L. Foster and M. Janowski), his fifth time at the Tonkünstler in the Vienna Musikverein and a tour with Birmingham Symphony including his debut at their Symphony Hall.
In collaboration with pianists such as Christoph Eschenbach, Markus Groh, Steven Osborne, Cecile Licad, Lars Vogt and Anne-Marie McDermott, Gerhardt has performed at distinguished venues including Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall (for his memorable United States debut), the Ravinia Festival in Chicago, Washington DC’s Kennedy Center and Phillips Collection, the Gardner Museum in Boston, the Musée d’Orsay, Théâtre Champs-Elysées and the Châtelet in Paris, Philharmonic Halls in Berlin and Cologne, Concertgebouw Amsterdam and Suntory Hall in Tokyo. Alban is a frequent guest at major chamber music festivals including both Spoleto Festivals (Italy and United States), Vancouver, New Hampshire, Newport, Bath, Edinburgh, Aldeburgh, Schubertiade Schwarzenberg, Schleswig-Holstein, Berliner Festwochen, Heidelberg Spring, Prage Autumn and others, playing with such musicians as Christian Tetzlaff, Lisa Batiashvili, Julia Fischer, Isabell van Keulen, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, Frank-Peter Zimmermann, Kyoko Takezawa, Tabea Zimmermann, Paul Neubauer, Michael Collins and Emanuel Pahud.
For the prestigious BBC Music Magazine, Gerhardt recorded the Dvorák Cello Concerto with the BBC Philharmonic, soon to be followed by the Brahms Double Concerto under Y.P. Tortelier, as well as Frank Bridge’s “Orations” and the Berkeley Concerto with Robert Hickox and Welsh BBC Symphony for Chandos. The Barber Concerto with the Jeunesse Musicales World Orchestra will be released this year after Gerhardt performed it at the New Year’s Concert in Berlin. He also has recorded the Brahms Sonatas for Harmonia Mundi, for which he won the ECHO Classics Prize, and a selection of Spanish encores for EMI. Television and radio stations in Europe and the United States have showcased Mr. Gerhardt numerous times.
Born in 1969 into a musical family, Alban Gerhardt started playing piano and cello at the age of eight, excelling in both instruments. His teachers included B. Pergamenchikov and F. Helmerson in Cologne. After having enjoyed life in New York for six years, last year he moved back to his hometown Berlin with his wife Katalina and son Janos Antonio. To find more about Alban as an artist and person, please visit his website at www.albangerhardt.com.