Tickets Available for Purchase August 27, 2017

Monday, October 30, 2017, at 8 PM

Corporate Sponsor: American Friends of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra

WHAT:

Celebrated former LA Phil Music Director Zubin Mehta returns to Walt Disney Concert Hall with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Monday, October 30, at 8 pm. Joining them is one of today's most acclaimed and admired pianists, Yefim Bronfman, performing Beethoven's Third Piano Concerto. Bronfman and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra have a relationship of more than 30 years - he opened their 2016/17 season with Mehta and participated in the orchestra's 80th birthday celebrations in December of 2016. The program also features Amit Poznansky's Footnote Suite from the Motion Picture and Schubert's Ninth Symphony.

Mehta was appointed Music Adviser to the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in 1969, and was made Music Director in 1977. He'll retire from his role with the orchestra in 2019, 50 years after his debut.

The concert is part of the LA Phil's series of Visiting Orchestras for the 2017/18 season. Other concerts in the series include: Chicago Symphony Orchestra with Riccardo Muti, October 22, 2017; Mariinsky Orchestra led by Valery Gergiev and featuring pianist Denis Matsuev, November 1, 2017; and the San Francisco Symphony with Michael Tilson Thomas and soloist Gil Shaham, March 27, 2018.

Zubin Mehta was Music Director of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra from 1961 to 1967, and also assumed the Music Directorship of the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 1962, a post he retained until 1978. Over the span of his relationship with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Mehta has conducted over three thousand concerts with the extraordinary ensemble, including tours spanning five continents. In 1978, he took over the post of Music Director of the New York Philharmonic, commencing a tenure lasting 13 years, the longest in the orchestra's history. Since 1985, he has been chief conductor of the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence. This collaboration ends in 2017. Zubin Mehta's list of awards and honors is extensive. In March 2011, he received a special distinction, getting a star on Hollywood Boulevard. The Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany was bestowed on him in July 2012. The Indian Government honoured him in September 2013 with the "Tagore Award for cultural harmony" which a year earlier was awarded to Ravi Shankar.

The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra is one of Israel's oldest and most influential cultural institutions. Since its founding in 1936, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra has dedicated itself to presenting the world's greatest music to audiences in Israel and around the world. Founded by Polish violinist Bronislaw Huberman, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra represents the fulfillment of his dream "to unite the desire of the country for an orchestra with the desire of the Jewish musicians for a country." Huberman spent countless hours persuading first-chair musicians of Eastern European and German orchestras, who had lost their jobs as a result of Nazism, to immigrate to Palestine. In doing so, Huberman created an "orchestra of soloists" which, under the esteemed leadership of Zubin Mehta, continues to absorb new immigrants and serve as a gathering point for musicians from all over the world. The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra is Israel's premier cultural ambassador and travels extensively throughout the world, particularly to countries where there is little or no Israeli representation. The good-will created by these tours, which have included historic visits to Japan, Argentina, Poland, Hungary, Russia, China, and India is of enormous value to the State of Israel. In 2005, the Orchestra's international touring garnered rave reviews when they traveled to Berlin, Germany to commemorate 40 years of diplomatic relations between Israel and Germany, to London, Paris, and Geneva on a tour co-sponsored by the Weizmann and Pasteur Institutes, and to South America where the Orchestra visited eight cities in 20 days. This past December, world-renowned artists came to Israel to help celebrate the IPO's 70th Anniversary. The remarkable two-week festival of music and events marked the historic beginning of the Orchestra.

Yefim Bronfman stands among a handful of artists regularly sought by festivals, orchestras, conductors and recital series. His commanding technique, power and exceptional lyrical gifts are consistently acknowledged by the press and audiences alike. He works regularly with an illustrious group of conductors, and performs at the leading halls of North American, Europe and the Far East. Summer engagements have regularly taken him to the major festivals of Europe and the US. Widely praised for his solo, chamber and orchestral recordings, Bronfman was nominated for a Grammy® award in 2009 for his Deutsche Grammophon recording of Esa-Pekka Salonen's Piano Concerto with Salonen conducting, and in 1997 he won a Grammy® award, again with Salonen, for his recording of the three Bartók Piano Concertos with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. His prolific catalog of recordings includes works for two pianos by Rachmaninoff and Brahms with Emanuel Ax, the complete Prokofiev Piano Concertos with the Israel Philharmonic and Zubin Mehta, a Schubert/Mozart disc with the Zukerman Chamber Players and the soundtrack to Disney's Fantasia 2000. His most recent CD releases are the 2014 Grammy®-nominated Magnus Lindberg's Piano Concerto No. 2 commissioned for him and performed by the New York Philharmonic conducted by Alan Gilbert on the Da Capo label; Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No.1 with Mariss Jansons and the Bayerischer Rundfunk; a recital disc, Perspectives, complementing Mr. Bronfman's designation as a Carnegie Hall 'Perspectives' artist for the 2007/08 season; and recordings of all the Beethoven Piano Concertos as well as the Triple Concerto together with violinist Gil Shaham, cellist Truls Mørk, and the Tönhalle Orchestra Zürich under David Zinman for the Arte Nova/BMG label.

Complete program:

Amit POZNANSKY   Footnote Suite from the Motion Picture
BEETHOVEN           Piano Concerto No. 3
SCHUBERT             Symphony No. 9

For full artists' biographies, please visit: laphil.com

WHO:       

ISRAEL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA
ZUBIN MEHTA, conductor
YEFIM BRONFMAN, piano

WHEN:     

Monday, October 30, 2017, 8 PM

WHERE:   

WALT DISNEY CONCERT HALL
111 S. Grand Avenue, Los Angeles

HOW TO PURCHASE:     

Tickets for the performance are available to Walt Disney Concert Hall 2017/18 subscribers and create your own package buyers beginning April 4. Tickets will be available to the public beginning Sunday, August 27. To purchase, please visit LAPhil.com or the Walt Disney Concert Hall Box Office. To order by phone with credit card, please call the Walt Disney Concert Hall Box Office at 323.850.2000. For more information, please call 323.850.2000.

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