October 3, 2003
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Portland, Ore. … Guest conductor Scott Yoo and the Oregon Symphony will have you perched on the edge of your seat for this hair-raising Bank of America Pops concert featuring excerpts of movies by “The Master of Suspense,” Alfred Hitchcock, and the memorable music composed for them on Nov. 1, 2 and 3 at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. Media support provided by KEX Radio.
Narrator John Goberman, the executive producer of “Live from Lincoln Center,” will set the scene as famous excerpts from several of Hitchcock’s greatest films are displayed on a screen above the stage while the orchestra performs the music written for them. Featured films and scores include “To Catch a Thief,” “Strangers on a Train,” “Dial M for Murder” and “North by Northwest.” Yoo and the Symphony open the evening with “The Man Who Knew Too Much” Overture by composer Bernard Herrmann, followed by clips and Lyn Murray’s music from “To Catch a Thief” and “Strangers on a Train,” featuring the music of Dmitri Tiomkin. After intermission Yoo and the Symphony will raise the hairs on the back of your neck with selections and scenes from Hitchcock’s most frightening film, “Psycho,” followed by music and scenes from “Dial M for Murder,” with more music by Tiomkin and Hermann’s score for “North by Northwest.” “To Catch A Thief” clips are courtesy of Paramount Pictures; “Strangers on a Train” and “Dial M for Murder” are courtesy of Warner Bros.; and “North by Northwest” is courtesy Turner Entertainment.
Yoo, who makes his debut with the Symphony, is in his 10th year as the music director of the Metamorphosen Chamber Orchestra, an ensemble he co-founded in 1993. He was the Dallas Symphony’s Associate Conductor in the 1999-2000 season and has also appeared with the American Composers Orchestra, the Charlotte Symphony, the Tulsa Philharmonic and the Delaware Symphony Orchestra. Upcoming appearances include performances with the Utah Symphony and the Honolulu Symphony.
Performances are scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 1 at 8 p.m., Sunday, Nov. 2 at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. and Monday, Nov. 3 at 8 p.m. at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, with an additional concert on Tuesday, Sept. 30 at Salem’s Smith Auditorium. Tickets range in price from $25 to $68 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.
Scott Yoo is currently in his tenth season as Music Director of the Metamorphosen Chamber Orchestra, an ensemble he co-founded in 1993. In addition to leading the orchestra in its subscription series at Jordan Hall in Boston, he has conducted the ensemble in debut performances in New York and Washington D.C. Highlights of the 2001-2002 season for Mr. Yoo and Metamorphosen included a 26-city U.S. tour and a CD release with violinist Mark O’Connor for Sony Classical. Mr. Yoo served as Associate Conductor of the Dallas Symphony for the 1999-2000 season, after serving one season as the orchestra’s Assistant Conductor. He made his Dallas Symphony subscription debut in November 2000 with bassist Edgar Meyer, and made his first appearances with the Indianapolis Symphony in August 2001.
An exponent of new music, Mr. Yoo has introduced a newly-commissioned work on each of Metamorphosen’s subscription concerts. In the last eight seasons, Mr. Yoo has premiered 42 works by 20 composers. CD releases with Metamorphosen include vocal works of Earl Kim with soprano Benita Valente for New World Records and a disc of English works for Bose. Scott Yoo and Metamorphosen have also recorded three discs for Archetype Records, including the Serenades of Tchaikovsky, Dvorak and Grieg (September 1997); premiere recordings of John Harbison’s chamber orchestra works with soprano Dawn Upshaw and oboist Peggy Pearson (September 1998); and the Eighth and Eleventh Sinfonias of Mendelssohn (August 1999).
The 2002-03 season includes appearances as conductor with the American Composers Orchestra, the Charlotte Symphony, the Tulsa Philharmonic, the Delaware Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre de Bretagne (France), and the Wheeling Symphony in addition to his ongoing series with the Metamorphosen Chamber Orchestra in Boston.
Yoo makes his conducting debuts with the Utah Symphony, the Oregon Symphony and the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra in the fall of 2003.
A recording of the complete orchestral works of Earl Kim under the baton of Mr. Yoo is scheduled for the 2003-04 season for release on the Naxos “American Classics” label; and a cycle of Mozart symphonies is slated for recording under the Arabesque label in the coming year.
An active chamber musician, Mr. Yoo has made frequent appearances with chamber music festivals throughout the United States, including Bargemusic, Boston Chamber Music Society, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Kingston Chamber Music Festival, Las Vegas Music Festival, Laurel Music Festival, New Hampshire Music Festival, Seattle Chamber Music Festival and Strings in the Mountains.
Scott Yoo began his musical studies with the violin at the age of three and performed the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with the Boston Symphony at the age of twelve. He studied the violin with Roman Totenberg, Albert Markov, Paul Kantor and Dorothy DeLay, and conducting with Michael Gilbert and Michael Tilson-Thomas. After winning first prize in the 1988 Josef Gingold International Violin Competition, he won the 1989 Young Concert Artists International Auditions. In 1994, he was the recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant. A year later, Mr. Yoo was named Young Artist-in-Residence of National Public Radio’s “Performance Today.”
Mr. Yoo graduated with honors and a B.A. in Physics from Harvard University in 1993.
John Goberman is probably best known as the originator of the series of television specials that have brought the best of the performing arts to American audiences. As executive producer of the “Live from Lincoln Center” series, Goberman developed the techniques and technology by which concerts, operas, ballets and plays can be telecast during live performances without disruption to the performers and audiences. Together with the constituent performing organizations of Lincoln Center, he has selected and developed the events that have made the series the preeminent performing arts television series in the United States. He has produced a companion series, “Backstage/Lincoln Center,” as an introduction to the performing arts.
He is also the producer of a new form of film presentation, Symphonic Cinema/Films with Orchestras, consisting of the classics “Alexander Nevsky,” “Scenes from Ivan the Terrible” and “A Symphonic Night at the Movies.” He co-produced the theatrical film “Distant Harmony: Pavarotti in China” and has made films for museums across the country, ranging from the Metropolitan Museum of Art to the Ringling Museum of Art. He has produced numerous opera, ballet and concert telecasts from the major performing arts institutions, both here and abroad.
For his work on public and commercial television, Goberman has received nine Emmy Awards, three Peabody Awards, six Sigma Alpha Iota Awards, the first Television Critics Circle Award for Achievement in Music, and has been nominated for an Emmy more than 35 times. He received an honorary doctorate from the University of Bridgeport and was cited by Symphony Magazine as one of the 50 most important people who have made a difference in the history of American music.
