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  • WDCH
  • “YOUNG PERSON’S GUIDE TO THE ORCHESTRA”
  • Dec. 8, 2001
  • SATURDAY, DECEMBER 8 AT 11 AM

    TOYOTA SYMPHONIES FOR YOUTH
    WITH ASSISTANT CONDUCTOR YASUO SHINOZAKI AND HOST JOHN DE LANCIE

    Pre-concert Activities start at 10 AM

    Toyota Symphonies for Youth are made possible by a generous grant from Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc.

    The Toyota Symphonies for Youth 2001/2002 concert series, with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, continues with Benjamin Britten’s ”Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra” and selections from Carl Nielsen’s “Aladdin,” conducted by Assistant Conductor Yasuo Shinozaki and Host John de Lancie on Saturday, December 8. Pre-concert activities including arts, crafts, dance and storytelling, start at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion at 10 AM, with the one-hour concert following at 11 AM.

    TICKETS ($10-12) are extremely limited for all performances and are on sale 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. For further information, please call 323/850-2000.

    The concert celebrates British composer Benjamin Britten’s “Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra.” Composed following World War II, the piece uses variations on a musical theme by Henry Purcell to illustrate how the various musical instruments in an orchestra combine to form one unit. Selections from Danish composer Carl Nielsen’s incidental music for “Aladdin”, Op. 34, orchestrated in 1940, will also be performed.

    Toyota Symphonies for Youth are entertaining concerts designed for children ages 5-11 and their families that are held on Saturday mornings. Families should plan to arrive early and spend the morning making music, meeting musicians, listening to stories, learning to sing and creating art projects --- all activities that introduce the day’s featured musical work. Actor John de Lancie, best known as “Q” on Star Trek, The Next Generation, returns for a fourth season as host. The concerts feature close-up images of the musicians projected on a screen above the orchestra.

    The 2001/2002 season, which is the 7th year that Toyota has sponsored the series, includes three more Toyota Symphonies for Youth with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. The upcoming concerts are “The Evolution of the Orchestra”, February 9, 2002, “Bam!” focusing on percussion, March 30, 2002 and “Shall We Dance?” on May 11, 2002.

    Toyota Symphonies for Youth receive additional support from the following: Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation, The William Randolph Hearst Foundations, Morgan Stanley, the Los Angeles County Arts Commission, the City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department and the California Arts Council, a State agency. Toyota Symphonies for Youth are supported, in part, by the Los Angeles County Arts Commission.

    Assistant Conductor YASUO SHINOZAKI was appointed this summer and took up his duties at the start of the 2001/2002 season. This year, he will conduct several community concerts as well as a Green Umbrella concert and two Toyota Symphonies for Youth. Shinozaki was born in Kyoto, Japan in February 1968. He studied in Vienna with Leopold Hager. He has worked extensively with orchestras throughout Japan in a wide range of repertoire. This season, he returns there to conduct the Kansai Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestra Musica Celeste and the Osaka Symphony Orchestra and will make his debut with the Fukuoka City Philharmonic Orchestra. He made his opera conducting debut with Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro in Tokyo in 1993 and since then has conducted at many opera houses in Japan, including the Tokyo Nikikai Opera and the Japan National Opera Theatre. Shinozaki has worked with Bernard Haitink, Myung-Whun Chung, the Santa Cecilia Orchestra (Rome), and with Seiji Ozawa at Tanglewood.

    Host JOHN DE LANCIE’s career spans the areas of stage, movies and television where he has proven himself to be an actor, director and producer of note. He has appeared in nearly 100 TV shows, including his best-known role as Picard’s bothersome adversary “Q” on Star Trek, The Next Generation. He co-owns a production company with Leonard Nimoy, Alien Voices, which has produced projects for Simon & Schuster, TNT, New Line, The Sci-Fi Channel, California School Systems. Mr. de Lancie’s love of music began as a child in Philadelphia, where he listened to Saturday night concerts at Philadelphia’s Academy of Music. He has performed as a speaker and narrator with the New York Philharmonic, The Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Milwaukee Symphony.

    EDITORS - PLEASE NOTE:

    Toyota Symphonies for Youth

    Saturday, December 8, 2001 at 11AM (pre-concert activities begin at 10AM)


    Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave (at First), Los Angeles

    Los Angeles Philharmonic

    Yasuo Shinozaki, conductor

    John de Lancie, host

    BENJAMIN BRITTEN: Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra


    CARL NIELSEN: Selections from Aladdin

    TICKETS ($10-12) are extremely limited for all performances and are on sale 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. For further information, please call 323/850-2000.

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  • Contact:

    Elizabeth Hinckley, 323/850-2047; David Barber, 323/850-2023