Contact:
Carl Herko
Vice President, Media & Public Relations
503-416-6347
cherko@orsymphony.org

October 3, 2008

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

THE OREGON SYMPHONY IN NOVEMBER:
FROM ELECTION NIGHT TO HOLIDAY POPS

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(PORTLAND, Ore.) – The Oregon Symphony ‘s 2008/09 season roars full speed ahead in November with three Classical series programs, an election night special and a detailed look “Inside the Score” of a Brahms masterpiece. The month wraps up with a Thanksgiving weekend holiday Pops concert featuring the von Trapp family children. Complete details on all of the Oregon Symphony’s November concerts follow:

 

SATURDAY-MONDAY, NOV. 1-3:
RISING STAR VIOLINIST BAIBA SKRIDE MAKES HER OREGON SYMPHONY DEBUT

• When and Where: Three performances, at 7:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 1 and 2, and 8 p.m. Nov. 3; Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall.

• The Performers: The Oregon Symphony, with Music Director Carlos Kalmar on the podium, joined by Baiba Skride, the young violinist from Latvia recently singled out by Musical America as one of a handful of rising stars especially worth watching this year.

• The Program:
• Jean Sibelius: Scene With Cranes
• Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto
• William Walton: Symphony No. 1

• Tickets: $15 to $98; 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:
• These concerts mark the first Oregon Symphony appearance of Baiba Skride, the 27-year-old violin phenom from Latvia who won the 2001 Queen Elisabeth Competition in Belgium.
• Skride will perform the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto – the same work she performed to win the competition. This will be one of her first public performances of the Tchaikovsky since that competition.
• Skride is one of the few young classical performers with a major-label recording contract (with Sony Classical, for which she has recorded five albums).
• Skride performs on a 1725 Stradivarius violin known as the Wilhelmj, on loan from the Nippon Music Foundation.
• The program opens with the Oregon Symphony premiere of Jean Sibelius’ short work, Scene With Cranes. (Of the 14 concerts on the Oregon Symphony’s Classical series this season, 12 feature at least one work never before performed by the Oregon Symphony in its 113-year history.)
• The presenting sponsor of these concerts is Integra Telecom.

 

TUESDAY, NOV. 4:
ELECTION NIGHT WITH THE CAPITOL STEPS

• When and Where: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 4; Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall.

• The Performers: The Capitol Steps, the Washington-based political comedy and satire troupe composed largely of former Capitol Hill staffers. (NOTE: The Oregon Symphony does not perform.)

• The Program:
• A variety of politically inspired routines based on current events.

• Tickets: $20 to $90; 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 Performance:
• This event may be the perfect alternative for Portlanders who don’t want to stay home all alone to watch election results on TV.
• The performance will last 90 minutes, without intermission, after which the audience is invited to join the Capitol Steps in the lobby of the Schnitz, where the bars will be open and big-screen TVs will feature live network election-night coverage.
• The Oregon Symphony also presented the Capitol Steps at the Schnitz on election night in 2006.
• Presenting sponsor is The Oregonian.

 

SUNDAY, NOV. 9:
“INSIDE THE SCORE” EXPLORES THE BRAHMS FIRST SYMPHONY

• When and Where: 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 9; Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall

• The Performers: The Oregon Symphony, led by Guest Conductor William Eddins

• 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.

• The Program:
• Johannes Brahms: Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Opus 68

• What’s So Special About This Concert:
• William Eddins, music director of Canada’s Edmonton Symphony, makes his Oregon Symphony debut.
• Eddins is a prominent and engaging blogger who co-authors the blog “Sticks and Drones” on the world of music and conducting.
• The focus of this concert, the Brahms First Symphony, is sometimes referred to as “Beethoven’s Tenth” because it pays homage to the “Ode to Joy” in Beethoven’s monumental Ninth Symphony.
•  “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. Eddins will first discuss the work, setting it in context and illustrating his points with other musical examples. The Oregon Symphony will then perform the symphony in its entirety.
• “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, NOV. 15-17:
PINK MARTINI’S THOMAS LAUDERDALE PERFORMS GERSHWIN

• When and Where: Three performances, at 7:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 15 and 16, and 8 p.m. Monday, Nov. 17; Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall.

• The Performers: The Oregon Symphony, led by Guest Conductor Christoph Campestrini, with guest soloist Thomas Lauderdale, piano.

• The Program:
• Aaron Jay Kernis: Too Hot Toccata
• George Gershwin: Concerto in F
• Sergei Rachmaninoff: Symphony No. 3

• 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:
• Thomas Lauderdale, founder and front man for the Portland-based band Pink Martini, is a classically trained pianist who takes a solo turn in George Gershwin’s jazzy-bluesy 1925 Concerto in F.
• Christoph Campestrini is an Austrian-based conductor who has performed with more than 80 orchestras on all five continents. He studied at Juilliard and Columbia University in New York. Campestrini has led the Oregon Symphony once before, in January 2005.
• The program features three 20th-century works, ranging from the Gershwin (composed in 1925) to Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 3 (1935-36) to Aaron Jay Kernis’ Too Hot Toccata (1996). Two of them – the Kernis and the Rachmaninoff – will receive their Oregon Symphony premieres at these concerts.
• The presenting sponsor of these concerts is Washington Trust Bank.

 

SATURDAY-MONDAY, NOV. 22-24:
KOREAN-AMERICAN VIOLINIST JENNIFER KOH TAKES ON BRAHMS

• When and Where: Three performances, at 7:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 22 and 23, and 8 p.m. Monday, Nov. 24; Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. (NOTE: This concert will also be performed at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 25, at Willamette University’s Smith Hall in Salem.)

• The Performers: The Oregon Symphony, led by Guest Conductor Jean-Marie Zeitouni, with guest soloist Jennifer Koh, violin.

• The Program:
• Ludwig van Beethoven: Overture to Egmont
• Igor Stravinsky: Symphony in C
• Johannes Brahms: Violin Concerto

• Tickets: FOR THE PORTLAND PERFORMANCES: $15 to $98; 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.

FOR THE SALEM PERFORMANCE: $25 to $43, available from TicketsWest.

• What’s So Special About This These Concerts:
• The brilliant young Korean-American violinist Jennifer Koh performs a concerto that many consider to be one of the most important ever written.  But it’s hard to say what listeners should expect from the performance. The Washington Postdescribes Koh as a musician with “penetrating intelligence that drives her to find new approaches to familiar works.”
• Koh performs on a 1727 Stradivarius violin known as the Ex Grumiaux Ex General DuPont, on loan from a private sponsor.
• Koh’s most recent Oregon Symphony concerts were in October 2006, when she performed the Szymanowski First Violin Concerto.
• These performances mark the Oregon Symphony subscription concert debut of the Montreal-based Canadian Conductor Jean-Marie Zeitouni.
• The Stravinsky Symphony in C receives its Oregon Symphony premiere performances at these concerts.

 

SATURDAY-SUNDAY, NOV. 29-30:
THE POPS SERIES RETURNS WITH A VON TRAPP FAMILY CHRISTMAS

• When and Where: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 29, and 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 30; Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall.

• The Performers: The Oregon Symphony, with new Principal Pops Conductor Jeff Tyzik on the podium, joined by the von Trapp Family Children, vocals

• The Program:
• A traditional blend of holiday favorites.

• Tickets: $15 to $92; 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 These Concerts:
• This is the second of four concerts this year in the orchestra’s shorter and more focused Pops season. All four were planned and will be conducted by Pops specialist Jeff Tyzik, who takes on a new role this year as the Oregon Symphony’s principal Pops conductor.
• The von Trapp children – Sofia, Melanie, Amanda and Justin – are the great-grandchildren of Capt. von Trapp, father of the famous singing family whose story was immortalized in the musical The Sound of Music.
• The presenting sponsor of these concerts is Macy’s.