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  • GREEN UMBRELLA PROGRAM - "UK THREADS" - INCLUDES PREMIERES OF WORKS BY BRITISH COMPOSERS LED BY JAMES MACMILLAN
  • Feb. 24, 2003
  • FEBRUARY 24 IN ZIPPER HALL AT 8 PM

    Los Angeles New Music Group, Soprano Elizabeth Keusch,
    Baritone Troy Cook, and Actress Tara Platt perform

    On Monday, February 24 at 8 p.m. in Zipper Hall, the Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group, led by James MacMillan, presents three premieres of British compositions. MacMillan conducts the U.S. premiere of his Parthenogenesis and Thomas Adès' Cardiac Arrest, along with the West Coast premiere of Judith Weir's Thread! With the Philharmonic giving the first U.S. performances of Mark-Anthony Turnage's Your Rockaby in the days just before this program, the Philharmonic focuses on contemporary British music in a mini-festival. This event is the third in the Philharmonic's 2002/2003 Green Umbrella series.

    Scottish composer and conductor MacMillan leads the New Music Group in English composer Adès' Cardiac Arrest, a 1996 arrangement for seven players of an eponymous song by the British band Madness. Adès made his successful Green Umbrella debut in 1997. The program continues with Weir's 1981 composition, Thread!, a work for narrator and ensemble that tells the story of the Norman invasion of England with a text drawn from the Bayeux tapestry.

    MacMillan's own work, Parthenogenesis, ends the program and complements Weir's warfare piece. With libretto by Michael Symmons Roberts, Parthenogenesis was inspired by the story of a young German woman who, after an Allied bombing raid in 1944, finds herself pregnant even though she is a virgin. Macmillan's work, which is for soprano, baritone, and speaking actress, delves into the troubling moral ambiguities surrounding genetics and cloning.

    The Los Angeles Philharmonic's Green Umbrella Series features new music performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

    JAMES MACMILLAN was born in Scotland in 1959 and is among today's successful living composers. This season, MacMillan continues in his role of composer-conductor with the BBC Philharmonic (a post he has held since 2000), including conducting at the Huddersfield Festival, Bridgewater Hall and St. Paul's Cathedral for the City of London Festival, as well as recording for Chandos. In the summer of 2002, MacMillan was in residence at the Saratoga Festival, which involved coaching, talks and discussion about and performances of his music. Future conducting highlights include the NHK Symphony, the Sydney Symphony, and the Philadelphia Orchestra players, as well as a developing relationship with the Hague Residentie Orkest.

    ELIZABETH KEUSCH holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of North Texas, and a Master of Music Degree and an Artist Diploma from New England Conservatory. While at New England Conservatory she was named the 2001 Presidential Scholar for the Conservatory. The soprano was a Tanglewood Fellow in summers 1997 and 1999, where she performed a wide range of repertoire ranging from Schumann to Harbison. At Tanglewood, she gave the world premiere of Andrew Stewart's The Art of Japanese Bed Fighting and the American premiere of Robert Zuidam's Address to the New Tay Bridge.

    TROY COOK holds a master's degree from the University of Rochester's Eastman School of Music. He made his New York City Opera debut during the 1999/2000 season in the trilogy Central Park. The following season he debuted with the Metropolitan Opera as Schaunard in La bohème and Morales in Carmen. Cook has been a member of the Glimmerglass Opera Young American Artists Program, the Apprentice Artist Program of the Santa Fe Opera, the Florida Grand Opera Studio, and the Spectrum Artist Program of Virginia Opera.

    EDITORS - PLEASE NOTE:

    Monday, February 24, 8 PM


    -GREEN UMBRELLA -

    Zipper Hall, Colburn School

    LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC NEW MUSIC GROUP

    JAMES MACMILLAN, conductor

    ELIZABETH KEUSCH, soprano

    TROY COOK, baritone

    TARA PLATT, actress

    THOMAS ADÈS: Cardiac Arrest (U.S. Premiere)

    JUDITH WEIR: Thread! (West Coast Premiere)

    JAMES MACMILLAN: Parthenogenesis (U.S. Premiere)

    Tickets ($26) are on sale now at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion box office, all Ticketmaster outlets (Robinsons-May, Tower Records, Ritmo Latino, and selected Wherehouse locations), and by credit card phone order at 323.850.2000. Tickets are also available on-line at laphil.com. For further information, please call 323.850.2000.

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  • Contact:

    Elizabeth Hinckley, 323.850.2047