Fresh from his first Grammy win and riding a wave of critical acclaim for his recent recording of music by Leonard Bernstein with conductor David Zinman, American violinist Joshua Bell comes to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion to join the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Zinman for three concerts, on December 6 and 8 at 8 p.m. and December 9 at 2:30 p.m. Upbeat Live, a free pre-concert discussion with Nancy Fierro, takes place one hour before each performance in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion’s Grand Hall.

The concert opens with Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis, a popular favorite since its 1910 premiere. The work uses a theme by Tudor-era composer Thomas Tallis (1505-85), and it established Vaughan Williams as an individual voice in English music. Bell will then play one of the works featured on his Bernstein recording, the Serenade after Plato’s Symposium, in which the composer shows his knack for breaking down the barriers between serious and popular music. The music of each section of the Serenade distills thematic material from the previous movements in a process of musical evolution that unfolds as the work progresses. Edward Elgar’s Symphony No. 1 closes the program, a fitting make-weight for the opening Vaughan Williams. The symphony relies on the recurrence of its majestic opening for just the sort of nobility and grandeur expected from the composer of Pomp and Circumstance.

Tickets ($12-$78) are available at the Philharmonic’s Music Center box office, all Ticketmaster outlets (Robinsons-May, Tower Records, Ritmo Latino, Tu Música, and selected Wherehouse locations), and by credit card phone order at 213/365-3500. Tickets are also available on-line at laphil.com. Groups of 10 or more may be eligible for a 20% discount; call 323/850-2050. A limited number of $10 rush tickets for seniors and full time students may be available 2 hours prior to the performance at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion box office. Valid identification is required; one ticket per person. Groups of 10 or more may be eligible for special discounts. For further information, please call 323/850-2000.

Born in Bloomington, Indiana, violinist JOSHUA BELL received his first violin at age four. He was committed to the violin by age twelve, when he met renowned violinist and pedagogue Josef Gingold, who became his teacher and mentor. In 1981, Bell made his orchestral debut with Riccardo Muti and the Philadelphia Orchestra, and soon after debuted at Carnegie Hall, won an Avery Fisher Career Grant, and made his first recordings. Since then, the violinist has performed with the world's leading symphony orchestras, and with such conductors as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Riccardo Chailly, Christoph von Dohnányi, Charles Dutoit, Christoph Eschenbach, John Eliot Gardiner, Roger Norrington, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Leonard Slatkin, Yuri Temirkanov, Franz Welser-Möst and David Zinman. A chamber music enthusiast, Bell initiated an annual series of chamber music concerts at London's Wigmore Hall in 1997. This year, by invitation of the Auditorium du Louvre, he will take the series to Paris. In addition to master classes, Bell teaches at London’s Royal Academy of Music and serves as an Adjunct Professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has made a number of recordings, including his recent Grammy-award winning disc of Nicholas Maw’s concerto and an all-Bernstein release. Bell resides in New York City and plays an Antonio Stradivari violin dated 1732, known as the "Tom Taylor."

DAVID ZINMAN took up his post as Music Director and Chief Conductor of the Tonhalle Orchestra, Zurich at the start of the 1995/96 season, having conducted the Orchestra regularly as a guest since 1983. Since 1985 he has been Music Director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. He is also Music Director of the Aspen Music Festival and School. Born in 1936, Zinman graduated from Oberlin College Conservatory of Music, Ohio and pursued advanced work in composition at the University of Minnesota where he was recently awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters. Conducting studies at Boston Symphony's Tanglewood Music Centre brought him to the attention of Pierre Monteux, who guided his musical development and gave him his first important conducting opportunities with the London Symphony Orchestra and at the 1963 Holland Festival. Since his American conducting debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1967, Zinman has conducted many of the world's leading orchestras including the Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, and St. Louis Symphonies; the Royal Concertgebouw and Paris Orchestras; and the Los Angeles, New York, and Berlin Philharmonics. He has made more than 50 recordings, including a recent Beethoven symphony cycle and an unfolding series of Richard Strauss’

EDITORS - PLEASE NOTE:

Thursday, December 6, 8 PM

Saturday, December 8, 8 PM

Sunday, December 9, 2:30 p.m.

Dorothy Chandler Pavilion

Los Angeles Philharmonic

DAVID ZINMAN, conductor

JOSHUA BELL, violin

VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis

BERNSTEIN: Serenade after Plato’s Symposium

ELGAR: Symphony No. 1 in A-flat major, Op. 55

Upbeat Live, a free pre-concert discussion with Nancy Fierro, takes place one hour prior to performances.

Single tickets ($12-$78) are available at the Philharmonic’s Music Center box office, all Ticketmaster outlets (Robinsons-May, Tower Records, Ritmo Latino, Tu Música, and selected Wherehouse locations), and by credit card phone order at 213/365-3500. Tickets are also available on-line at laphil.com. A limited number of $10 rush tickets for seniors and full time students may be available 2 hours prior to the performance at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion box office. Valid identification is required; one ticket per person. Groups of 10 or more may be eligible for special discounts. For further information, please call 323/850-2000.