VIOLINIST/COMPOSER MARK O'CONNOR RETURNS WITH SOUNDS OF SEASONS

O'Connor Performs Own American Seasons;

Soloists from Philharmonic Take the Stage for Vivaldi's Four Seasons

TUESDAY AND THURSDAY, AUGUST 19 & 21, AT 8 PM

August 21 sponsored by United Airlines

Media Sponsors: K-MOZART 105.1 Official Radio Station of the Los Angeles Philharmonic

Celebrate not just summer, but autumn, winter, and spring as well, when the Los Angeles Philharmonic's Tuesday and Thursday subscription programming continues on August 19 and 21, at 8 p.m. JoAnn Falletta makes her Bowl debut as she leads the Philharmonic in Antonio Vivaldi's bracing Baroque favorite, The Four Seasons, and Mark O'Connor's The American Seasons: Seasons of an American Life.

Violinists from the Philharmonic appear as soloists in each of Vivaldi's Seasons: Michele Bovyer (Spring), Akiko Tarumoto (Summer), Stacy Wetzel (Autumn), and Jonathan Wei (Winter). O'Connor appears as soloist in his American Seasons, a concerto for solo violin and chamber orchestra. In the words of the composer, the work "celebrates the various stages of an American life at the waking of the 21st century." O'Connor's Seasons, inspired by Vivaldi's, is in four movements - Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter - which represent four stages of life - birth, adolescence, maturity, and old age.

JOANN FALLETTA currently holds the position of Music Director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and the Virginia Symphony Orchestra. She is the recipient of eight consecutive awards from ASCAP for creative programming, as well as the American Symphony Orchestra League's coveted John S. Edwards Award for programming. Falletta is also a champion of contemporary music, having performed nearly 300 works by American composers, including more than 60 world premieres. Falletta has held the positions of Music Director of the Long Beach Symphony Orchestra, Associate Conductor of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Music Director of the Denver Chamber Orchestra, the Queens Philharmonic, and the Women's Philharmonic. She makes her Hollywood Bowl debut with these concerts.

Violinist/composer/fiddler MARK O'CONNOR has melded a multitude of musical styles and genres that have influenced his sound of new American classical music. His first recording for the Sony Classical record label, Appalachia Waltz, was a collaboration with Yo-Yo Ma and double bassist Edgar Meyer. The successful follow-up release, Appalachian Journey, received a Grammy Award in February 2001. O'Connor regularly teaches master classes and has conducted symposia at many schools of music including The Juilliard School of Music, Tanglewood, Aspen, the Berklee College of Music, UCLA, the Eastman School of Music, and the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University. Mr. O'Connor last appeared at the Hollywood Bowl in 1998.

Violinist MICHELE BOVYER joined the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 1981. In October 2000, she was appointed to the 6th chair of the first violin section. She has appeared as soloist with the Orchestra at the Hollywood Bowl (in 1983 and 1991), Symphonies for Youth in 1995 (Beethoven Concerto), and has been featured in several Philharmonic Chamber Music Society programs. Ms. Bovyer began studying the violin at the age of eight; she is a graduate of the Juilliard School of Music, where her teachers were Ivan Galamian, Sally Thomas, and Ruggiero Ricci. In 1977, she and her husband, clarinetist Gary Bovyer, moved to Israel where the young violinist served as principal second violin with the Jerusalem Symphony, and as a member of the first violin section of the Israel Philharmonic. She has appeared as soloist with the Jerusalem Symphony and with the Israel Philharmonic in Israel and South America under the direction of Zubin Mehta. Ms. Bovyer has also participated in the Aspen Music Festival, the Spoleto Festival, the Juneau Jazz and Classics Festival and the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival. Ms. Bovyer and her husband are founders of the Aryeh Ensemble, which has given a number of performances throughout California.

AKIKO TARUMOTO, born in 1976, began her violin studies when she was five and later attended the Juilliard School Pre-College division as a student of Dorothy DeLay and Masao Kawasaki. She hails from New York, where she has been heard in a number of concert venues including Merkin Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Walter Reade Theater, and at the Museum of Modern Art. Also active as a chamber musician, Ms. Tarumoto was a featured performer on the Great Performers series at Lincoln Center this past spring. She has also participated in festivals in Aspen, Taos, and Spoleto, Italy. Her academic credentials include a 1994 National Merit Scholarship and a Bachelor of Arts cum laude in English and American Literature from Harvard University in 1998. While in Boston, Ms. Tarumoto continued her musical studies with Lynn Chang and Robert Levin. This past May, she received her Master of Music degree from the Juilliard School, where she was a student of Glenn Dicterow. In August, 2000 she joined the Los Angeles Philharmonic's second-violin section.

JONATHAN WEI joined the Los Angeles Philharmonic's second violins in March, 2000 after serving as a member of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. Previously, he held the position of Associate Principal Violinist in the San Diego Symphony. Mr. Wei is also active in both solo and chamber music. He plays chamber music regularly with other members of the San Francisco Symphony as well as giving solo recitals. He was the co-founder and concertmaster of the Chinese-musician-based South Bay Chamber Ensemble in San Jose, California. A native of China, Wei began his violin studies with his father at the age of five. He was invited to study at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing at age 13. While he was in China, he made numerous concert appearances with various orchestras, such as the Wu Han Symphony Orchestra. In 1987, Mr. Wei was awarded a full scholarship to study with Dr. Eduard Schmieder (a pupil of the legendary Russian violinist David Oistrakh) at the University of Southern California. Since then, he has won several competitions in California, including the Napa Symphony and the Pasadena Symphony's Young Artist Competition. He has appeared frequently in concerts throughout California.

Violinist STACY WETZEL attended the Juilliard School and the San Francisco Conservatory. She studied at the Banff Centre and received her Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Washington and her Master of Music degree from the University of Michigan. She was the first place winner in the Washington International Competition and the Buffalo Young Artists competition, and won the Swiss Radio Prize in the Tibor Varga Competition in Switzerland. Mrs. Wetzel has been a soloist with the Los Angeles chamber symphony and Buffalo Philharmonic. For two years she was the concertmaster of the Ann Arbor Chamber Orchestra, and she has performed with ensembles including the soviet émigré chamber Orchestra, Chamber Music West, and the Michigan Chamber Players. She was on the Faculty of the University of Michigan and now serves on the faculty of the San Francisco conservatory of Music. She joined the San Francisco Symphony in 1987. In the fall of 1995, she followed her husband (who joined the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 1994) to Southern California and won the audition for position in the second violin section of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Stacy is a regular performer with the Los Angeles Philharmonic's chamber music series at Gindi Auditorium.

EDITORS PLEASE NOTE

Tuesday, August 19, 8 PM

Thursday, August 21, 8 PM

LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC

JOANN FALLETTA, conductor

MARK O'CONNOR, violin

MICHELE BOVYER, AKIKO TARUMOTO, STACY WETZEL, JONATHAN WEI, violins

Vivaldi: The Four Seasons

O'Connor: The American Seasons

Media Sponsors: K-MOZART 105.1 Official Radio Station of the Los Angeles Philharmonic

Tickets ($1 - $77) are on sale now at the Hollywood Bowl box office, by calling Ticketmaster at 213.480.3232, at all Ticketmaster outlets (Robinsons May, Tower Records and Ritmo Latino locations), or online at hollywoodbowl.com. Groups of 12 or more may be eligible for a 20% discount, subject to availability; call 323.850.2050 for further details. For general information or to request a brochure, call 323.850.2000.

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