Contact:
Carl Herko
Vice President, Media & Public Relations
503-416-6347
cherko@orsymphony.org
August 29, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
THE OREGON SYMPHONY IN SEPTEMBER: THE TBA FESTIVAL,
TWO SPECIALS AND A STELLAR SEASON OPENER
(PORTLAND, Ore.) – The Oregon Symphony opens its 113th season in September with seven performances at downtown Portland’s Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, including an unforgettable start to its Classical series season Sept. 27-29, when Music Director Carlos Kalmar leads three performances of the work that always finishes atop audience-favorite lists of the greatest classical masterpieces of all time: Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. Sellout crowds are expected.
Before the Classical series opener, four other Oregon Symphony concerts are on the orchestra’s September calendar, including, for the first time ever, the opening performance of the Portland Institute of Contemporary Art’s Time-Based Art Festival, at which the orchestra will share the concert hall stage with the New York-based gender-bending pop group Antony and the Johnsons.
Complete details on all of the Oregon Symphony’s September concerts at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall follow:
FRIDAY, SEPT. 5:
TBA:08 DEBUTS WITH ANTONY AND THE JOHNSONS
- When and Where: 8:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 5; Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
- The Performers: The Oregon Symphony, with Resident Conductor Gregory Vajda on the podium, joined by the New York-based gender-bending pop group Antony and the Johnsons.
- Tickets: $20 to $75; NOTE: For this concert, tickets are only available from Ticketmaster and the Portland Center for the Performing Arts box office, (503) 248-4335.
- What’s So Special About This Concert:
- This is the first performance of the Portland Institute of Contemporary Art’s nationally-known Time-Based Art Festival, TBA:08, Portland’s premier cultural event of the fall season.
- It marks the first time the festival and the Oregon Symphony have ever collaborated on a project.
- The concert will feature original music by Antony and the Johnsons, all arranged by hot 26-year-old composer-of-the-moment Nico Muhly.
- The concert is the first of several performances with orchestras this fall for Antony and the Johnsons. After its Portland debut, the concert will be repeated with different orchestras in Milan, Italy; Zaragoza, Spain; London; New York; and Los Angeles.
- For the Oregon Symphony, oldest orchestra west of the Mississippi and one of the Pacific Northwest’s most highly regarded performing-arts groups – but one that spends most of its time focused on classical music -- the collaboration and the concert represents a totally outside-the-box way to launch its 113th season.
FRIDAY, SEPT. 12:
JOHNNY MATHIS RETURNS
- When and Where: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 13; Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
- The Performers: The Oregon Symphony, with Resident Conductor Gregory Vajda on the podium for the first half of the program, joined in the second half by the legendary pop balladeer Johnny Mathis and Conductor Scott Lavender.
- Tickets: $25 to $150; 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 and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday. Tickets may also be purchased by phone at (503) 228-1353 or (800) 228-7343 during the same hours, or online at any time from the orchestra’s web site, orsymphony.org. Tickets are also available through ticketmaster.com or by calling (503) 790-ARTS.
- What’s So Special About This Concert:
- Johnny Mathis last performed with the Oregon Symphony in February 2007 at a sold-out concert.
- Ticket availability is extremely limited again, and another sold-out performance is likely.
- Mathis, now 72 years old, is one of the legends from the early days of pop music. His first No. 1 hit, “Chances Are,” topped the charts more than a half-century ago, in 1956.
- After a meteoric rise, Mathis has had a singing career that never slowed down. His album Johnny’s Greatest Hits spent an unprecedented 490 weeks – nearly 10 years – on the Billboard Top Albums Chart, an accomplishment noted in the Guinness Book of World Records. His most recent Grammy nomination came in 2006.
SATURDAY, SEPT. 20:
MICHAEL ALLEN HARRISON’S 25TH ANNIVERSARY
- When and Where: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 20; Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
- The Performers: The Oregon Symphony, with Resident Conductor Gregory Vajda on the podium, joined by the prominent Portland-based composer, conductor and pianist Michael Allen Harrison and a host of Harrison’s friends and colleagues from the local music community.
- More Background Info and Photos:
- Tickets: $15 to $65; 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 and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday. Tickets may also be purchased by phone at (503) 228-1353 or (800) 228-7343 during the same hours, or online at any time from the orchestra’s web site, orsymphony.org. Tickets are also available through ticketmaster.com or by calling (503) 790-ARTS.
- What’s So Special About This Concert:
- The concert celebrates pianist Michael Allen Harrison’s 25th anniversary as one of Portland’s favorite performers.
- The entire program features music composed by Harrison, including his Mt. Hood Piano Concerto.
- Guests invited by Harrison to share the stage with him include violinist Aaron Meyer, jazz saxophonist and vocalist Patrick Lamb, and soprano Katie Harman.
- Presenting sponsor of the concert is The Standard.
SUNDAY, SEPT. 21:
“INSIDE THE SCORE” KICKS OFF WITH TCHAIKOVSKY
- When and Where: 2 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 21; Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
- The Performers: The Oregon Symphony, conducted by Music Director Carlos Kalmar, with tenor Brendan Tuohy.
- Tickets: $15 to $80; 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 and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday. Tickets may also be purchased by phone at (503) 228-1353 or (800) 228-7343 during the same hours, or online at any time from the orchestra’s web site, orsymphony.org. Tickets are also available through ticketmaster.com or by calling (503) 790-ARTS.
- What’s So Special About This Concert:
- Music Director Carlos Kalmar makes his first Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall appearance of the season to kick off the orchestra’s “Inside the Score” series of Sunday matinee performances that offer an in-depth exploration of a single major work.
- The focus of this concert, Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4, is now a staple of the orchestral repertoire and among the most frequently performed symphonic works across the globe, famous for its mighty blasts of sound from the brass and the bassoons at its opening and close. However, at its New York premiere in 1890, the New York Post called it “one of the most thoroughly Russian, i.e., semi-barbaric, compositions ever heard in this city.”
- “Inside the Score” concerts feature short musical programs – about an hour and a half in length, with no intermission – aimed at giving audience members a unique insight into the music. Kalmar will first discuss the work, setting it in context and illustrating his points with other musical examples – including, at this concert, Mily Balakirev’s Overture on Three Russian Folk Songs and Lensky’s Aria from Tchaikovsky’s opera Eurgene Onegin, sung by tenor Brendan Tuohy. The Oregon Symphony will then perform the symphony in its entirety.
- Tenor Brendan Tuohy, who performs Lensky’s Aria, is a Portland Opera Studio Artist. Last season he was a national semi-finalist in the Metropolitan Opera’s prestigious National Council Auditions competition.
- “Inside the Score” concerts are among the most popular events on the Oregon Symphony’s season-long calendar and an ideal way to introduce both children and new concertgoers to the world of orchestral music.
- The presenting sponsor of “Inside the Score” concert is the Friends of the Oregon Symphony.
SATURDAY-MONDAY, SEPT. 27-29:
THE CLASSICAL SERIES OPENS WITH BEETHOVEN’S NINTH
- When and Where: Three performances, at 7:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 27 and 28, and 8 p.m. Monday, Sept. 29; Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
- The Performers: The Oregon Symphony, conducted by Music Director Carlos Kalmar, with the Portland Symphonic Choir and soloists Kelley Nassief, soprano; Hannah Penn, mezzo soprano; Brendan Tuohy, tenor; and Philip Cutlip, baritone.
- More Background Info and Photos:
http://www.portlandopera.org/studio-program#posa_artists
- Tickets: $15 to $125; 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 and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday. Tickets may also be purchased by phone at (503) 228-1353 or (800) 228-7343 during the same hours, or online at any time from the orchestra’s web site, orsymphony.org. Tickets are also available through ticketmaster.com or by calling (503) 790-ARTS.
- What’s So Special About This These Concerts:
- This concert opens the Oregon Symphony’s main Classical concert series, so its first performance is eagerly awaited as the de facto premiere of the concert season. Opening night is always a festive event and a highlight of the Portland cultural calendar.
- The season opens this year with the orchestra reaching for the pinnacle: Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony – nothing less than the greatest masterwork by the greatest composer in the Western Canon (and the one work that perennially shows up atop virtually every listener list that ranks all-time favorite classical compositions).
- This is the Oregon Symphony’s first performance of the Beethoven Ninth since the winter of 2004.
- Exemplifying Kalmar’s goal of combining a proven audience favorite with something surprising at each concert, the Beethoven Ninth is paired here with another choral work, Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music, a piece composed in 1938 but receiving its Oregon Symphony premiere at these concerts. It is one of 16 never-before-performed works on the Oregon Symphony’s calendar this season. In fact, of the 14 concerts in the orchestra’s Classical series this season, 12 will feature at least one work the orchestra has never performed before in its 113-year history.
- The unusually large number of performers on stage at these concerts necessitates a stage extension that eliminates several rows of seats. Ticket availability for Saturday’s opening night performance is extremely limited, and a sold-out performance is likely. The Sunday and Monday performances currently have somewhat better availability but could also sell out as the concert dates approach.
- Presenting sponsor for the opening concert of the Classical series is Tektronix.
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