Virtuoso Violinist Joshua Bell Plays Brahms Violin Concerto on August 17

Conductor Marin Alsop leads the Los Angeles Philharmonic in two diverse performances. On August 17, at 8 p.m., Alsop conducts world-renowned violinist Joshua Bellin the Brahms Violin Concerto. On August 19, at 8 p.m., Alsop leads baritone Jubilant Sykes along with the Pacific Chorale and Los Angeles Children's Chorus in Leonard Bernstein's rarely-performed Mass, the Los Angeles Philharmonic's first complete performance of the work. Director Gordon Hunt stages Mass with sets and costumes on the newly-renovated Hollywood Bowl stage. This production presents the world premiere of Stephen Schwartz's extensively re-written text with Bernstein's original music.

Joshua Bell opens Tuesday night's concert with the Brahms Violin Concerto, an intensely symphonic work that Bell has recorded with Christoph von Dohnanyi and the Cleveland Orchestra. On the second half of the program, Alsop conducts Dmitri Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5. Though much of Shostakovich's work elicits immediate political contextualization, international audiences have long praised the Fifth Symphony for the way it musically depicts the quintessential Romantic theme of triumph over adversity.

Leonard Bernstein wrote Mass in 1971, one of the most turbulent years of the last century. Amidst war and worldwide political upheaval, Washington D.C. opened the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in September of that year and had commissioned Bernstein to write a piece for its inaugural. The work is known for yoking together an aesthetic mélange of musical styles, incorporating rock and blues bands, adult and children's choirs, and a large group of singer/dancer "street" characters. The team of actors, dancers, and musicians required to mount a full production of Mass is so massive, that a staging would not have been previously possible without the larger Bowl stage and expanded backstage facilities.

MARIN ALSOP began her tenure as principal conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in Britain in the fall of 2002, becoming the first woman ever to head a major British orchestra. She subsequently received the Royal Philharmonic Society's conductor's award and was voted Gramophone's "Artist of the Year 2003." Music Director Laureate of the Colorado Symphony until 2004, Alsop has been rewarded for her innovative programming and continues to make guest appearances with the major orchestras of the United States. Alsop also continues in her post of Principal Guest Conductor of the Scottish National Orchestra, a position she has held since 1999. A violinist initially, Alsop is a native of New York City, where she attended the Juilliard School after receiving her degree from Yale University.

Born in Bloomington, Indiana, violinist JOSHUA BELL received his first violin at age four. After studying with renowned violinist and pedagogue Josef Gingold, Bell made his orchestral debut with Riccardo Muti and the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1981. Soon after he 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. 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.

American singer JUBILANT SYKES has appeared at venues ranging from the Metropolitan Opera to the New Orleans Jazz Festival. Jubilant, his first recording for Sony Classical, brought him together with jazz trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard in arrangements of spirituals and hymns. His latest recording for Sony Classical, Wait For Me, features classic contemporary pop songs by Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, Brian Wilson and others. Sykes' notable recent performances have included appearances with guitarist Christopher Parkening in the program "Braziliana," a debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and his New York Philharmonic debut in the world premiere of Michael Torke's Four Seasons conducted by Kurt Masur. Sykes last appeared at the Hollywood Bowl in 2001.

GORDON HUNT was nominated twice for the Directors Guild of America Award for best director of a TV comedy, and won the award for "The Alan Brady Show" episode of Mad About You. He has directed over 50 episodes of various half-hour shows. Hunt has directed world premieres of a number of plays, including Black by Joyce Carol Oates with Anthony Edwards and Felicity Huffman at the Williamstown Theater Festival and The Middle Ages by A. R. Gurney, Jr. He was nominated twice for an Ovation Award for his work on Stand Up Opera. He is the author of the best-selling theater book How to Audition, and as a lyricist he won the MAC award for best new song of the year for Errol Flynn, which he wrote with Amanda McBroom.

Choreographer KAY COLE has numerous credits in theater and film, including last summer's production of The Music Man at the Hollywood Bowl. She directed Judy's Scary Little Christmas for Victory Theatre and was director/ choreographer for Coconut Grove Playhouse's production of Boulevard of Broken Dreams and McCoy-Rigby's production of A Chorus Line. She also directed the feature film Country. Her extensive credits as a choreographer include Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks (Geffen Playhouse); Do I Hear a Waltz? (Pasadena Playhouse); Grave White Way (Hudson Theatre); 20th Century, Follies, The Most Happy Fella, Sweeney Todd, and 1776 (all for Reprise!); Actor, Lawyer, Indian Chief (Goodspeed); and Songs of the Tall Grass (Ford's Theatre).

Under the leadership of acclaimed Artistic Director John Alexander, PACIFIC CHORALE has become one of America's most respected and accomplished professional choruses. Pacific Chorale is an Artistic Partner of the Orange County Performing Arts Center, presenting its 160-voice ensemble in Segerstrom Hall and its professional chamber ensemble, the John Alexander Singers, in the intimate setting of Founders Hall. Since taking the helm of the organization in 1972, John Alexander has consistently rewarded Pacific Chorale audiences with innovative programming that has included numerous World, U.S., and West Coast premieres. Today, Pacific Chorale is the "choir of choice" for Southern California's finest orchestras, frequently collaborating with Pacific Symphony and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, and occasionally with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Pasadena Symphony, and Long Beach Symphony.

The LOS ANGELES CHILDREN'S CHORUS is a community chorus made up of 180 children from throughout Los Angeles County, ranging in ages from eight to sixteen years. The chorus includes members from over 35 separate communities and represents the diverse ethnic composition of Southern California. The chorus is carefully structured to place children into one of its four divisions, according to vocal and musical ability and experience. Its season includes community outreach activities to performances at local, regional and national venues, as well as international concert tours. The chorus frequently collaborates with musical organizations including the Los Angeles Opera, Los Angeles Master Chorale, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Cambridge Singers, and Pasadena Pops Orchestra.

EDITORS PLEASE NOTE:

Tuesday, August 17, 2004 at 8 PM

HOLLYWOOD BOWL, 2301 N. Highland Ave. in Hollywood

LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC

MARIN ALSOP, conductor

JOSHUA BELL, violin

BRAHMS Violin Concerto

SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 5

EDITORS PLEASE NOTE:

Thursday, August 19, 2004 at 8 PM

HOLLYWOOD BOWL, 2301 N. Highland Ave. in Hollywood

LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC

MARIN ALSOP, conductor

JUBILANT SYKES, baritone

PACIFIC CHORALE

JOHN ALEXANDER, artistic director

LOS ANGELES CHILDREN'S CHORUS

ANNE TOMLINSON, director

GORDON HUNT, director

KAY COLE, choreographer

BERNSTEIN Mass

August 17 media support provided by K-MOZART 105.1 FM

August 19 generously sponsored by United Airlines; media support provided by K-MOZART 105.1 FM

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