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  • PIANIST GARRICK OHLSSON JOINS LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC CONDUCTED BY HERBERT BLOMSTEDT AND ALSO PERFORMS ON CHAMBER MUSIC PROGRAM
  • Apr. 11, 2006
  • TUESDAY, APRIL 11 AT 8 PM - Chamber Music Society

    THURSDAY, APRIL 13 AT 8 PM

    FRIDAY, APRIL 14 AT 11 AM

    SATURDAY, APRIL 15, 2006, AT 8 PM

    with the Philharmonic

    The April 13 performance is sponsored by the Korea Times

    Garrick Ohlsson, one of the finest pianists of his generation, makes his Walt Disney Concert Hall debut with a chamber music performance on Tuesday, April 11 at 8 p.m. and three performances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic conducted by Herbert Blomstedt on Thursday, April 13 at 8 p.m., Friday, April 14 at 11 a.m., and Saturday, April 15, at 8 p.m.

    Blomstedt, who recently ended his tenure as music director of the Gewandhaus Orchestra of Leipzig after seven seasons, leads the Philharmonic in Mendelssohn's Piano Concerto No. 1 with Ohlsson as soloist, and Bruckner's Symphony No. 4. He is in constant demand as a guest conductor and has led many of the world's greatest orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic, Amsterdam's Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Boston Symphony, the Chicago Symphony, the New York Philharmonic, and The Philadelphia Orchestra. Ohlsson, since his triumph as winner of the 1970 Chopin International Piano Competition, has established himself worldwide as a musician of magisterial interpretive and technical prowess.

    The April 11 concert, part of the Los Angeles Philharmonic's Chamber Music Society series, features members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic performing Mozart's Adagio and Fugue in C minor, K. 546, Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 13 in B-flat minor, Op. 138, and - with Ohlsson at the keyboard - Brahms' Piano Quartet No. 3 in C minor, Op. 60. The musicians are Elizabeth Baker, Johnny Lee, and Varty Manouelian, violins; John Hayhurst and Ingrid Hutman, violas; and David Garrett and Jonathan Karoly, cellos.

    Musicologist and author Michael Steinberg discusses the April 13, 14 and 15 concert program at Upbeat Live, a free pre-concert event open to all ticket holders, at 7 p.m. in BP Hall prior to the Thursday and Saturday performances and at 9:45 a.m. on stage prior to the Friday performance.

    HERBERT BLOMSTEDT, conductor, was music director of the Gewandhaus Orchestra of Leipzig for seven seasons during which time his collaboration with the orchestra produced a number of important and highly praised recordings. Born in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1927, Blomstedt moved with his family to Sweden in 1929. He studied conducting with the legendary Igor Markevitch, with Jean Morel at the Juilliard School, and with Leonard Bernstein at Tanglewood's Berkshire Music Center. He received the Koussevitzky Conducting Prize in 1953 and made his conducting debut the following year with the Stockholm Philharmonic. That same year, he was appointed music director of the Norrköping (Sweden) Symphony. Blomstedt has held positions as music director of the Oslo Philharmonic, the Danish Radio Symphony, and the Swedish Radio Symphony, and chief conductor of Hamburg's North German Radio Symphony Orchestra. In 1975, the musicians of the Dresden Staatskapelle invited him to become music director, and during the ten years he held this position, he led the ensemble on major international tours including their first visit to the United States. After making his debut with the San Francisco Symphony in 1984, he was immediately appointed music director. In his decade at the orchestra's helm through the end of the 1994/95 season, he led the San Francisco Symphony to worldwide recognition. Together, they toured Europe, Asia, and the United States and presented concerts at major festivals including Salzburg, Edinburgh, and Lucerne. Their recordings on the London Decca label have received some of the world's most important awards. Their recording of Mahler's Symphony No. 2 was nominated for a Grammy as Best Classical Recording of 1994, and it received the Prize of the German Record Critics for Best Recording in 1995. He currently serves as conductor laureate of the orchestra. Blomstedt received Columbia University's Ditson Award for distinguished service to American music, the Anton Bruckner Prize in Linz, and the Carl-Nielsen-Prize in Copenhagen. His numerous distinctions include membership in the Royal Musical Academy of Stockholm. He is a Knight of the North Star, Stockholm, and a Knight of the Dannebrogen Copenhagen.

    GARRICK OHLSSON, piano, has established himself worldwide as a musician of magisterial interpretive and technical prowess. He commands an enormous repertoire, which ranges over the entire piano literature. To date he has at his command some 80 concertos. Ohlsson is also a consummate chamber pianist who performs regularly with the world's leading chamber groups. In recent seasons Ohlsson has performed with Orpheus at Carnegie Hall and with the Emerson String Quartet at Zankel Hall; toured North America with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra; and given recital series devoted to the original music and transcriptions of Liszt, Rachmaninoff, and Busoni. He has also commissioned and premiered a new work for solo piano, "American Berserk," by John Adams and a piano concerto by the noted young composer Michael Hersch. In 2005, he presented the complete cycle of Beethoven piano sonatas for the first time at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland, a project that he will repeat in summer of 2006 at both Tanglewood and Ravinia. Ohlsson has collaborated with the Cleveland, Emerson, Takács, and Tokyo string quartets, among other ensembles. Together with violinist Jorja Fleezanis and cellist Michael Grebanier, he is a founding member of the San Francisco-based FOG Trio. A prolific recording artist, Ohlsson can be heard on the Arabesque, RCA Victor Red Seal, Angel, Bridge, BMG, Delos, Hänssler, Nonesuch, Telarc, and Virgin Classics labels. For Arabesque he has recorded the complete solo works of Chopin and four volumes of Beethoven sonatas. A native of White Plains, N.Y., Ohlsson attended the Westchester Conservatory of Music and at 13 entered the Juilliard School in New York City. His musical development has been influenced in completely different ways by a succession of distinguished teachers, most notably Claudio Arrau, Olga Barabini, Tom Lishman, Sascha Gorodnitzki, Rosina Lhévinne, and Irma Wolpe. Although he won First Prizes at the 1966 Busoni Competition in Italy and 1968 Montréal Piano Competition, it was his 1970 triumph at the Chopin Competition in Warsaw, where he won the Gold Medal, that brought him worldwide recognition. Since then he has made nearly a dozen tours of Poland, where he retains immense personal popularity.

    The Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, under Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen, presents the finest in orchestral and chamber music, recitals, new music, jazz, world music and holiday concerts at two of the most remarkable places anywhere to experience music - Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Hollywood Bowl. In addition to a 30-week winter subscription season at Walt Disney Concert Hall, the LA Phil presents a 12-week summer festival at the legendary Hollywood Bowl, summer home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and home of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. In fulfilling its commitment to the community, the Association's involvement with Los Angeles extends to educational programs, community concerts and children's programming, ever seeking to provide inspiration and delight to the broadest possible audience.

    EDITORS PLEASE NOTE:

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

    TUESDAY, APRIL 11 AT 8 PM

    Chamber Music Society

    GARRICK OHLSSON, piano

    MEMBERS OF THE LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC

    MOZART Adagio and Fugue in C Minor, K. 546

    SHOSTAKOVICH String Quartet No. 13 in B-flat Minor, Op. 138

    BRAHMS Piano Quartet No. 3 in C Minor, Op. 60

    THURSDAY, APRIL 13 AT 8 PM

    FRIDAY, APRIL 14 AT 11 AM

    SATURDAY, APRIL 15, 2006, AT 8 PM


    LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC

    HERBERT BLOMSTEDT, conductor

    GARRICK OHLSSON, piano

    MENDELSSOHN Piano Concerto No. 1

    BRUCKNER Symphony No. 4

    Musicologist and author Michael Steinberg discusses the April 13, 14 and 15 concert program at Upbeat Live, a free pre-concert event open to all ticket holders, at 7 p.m. in BP Hall prior to the Thursday and Saturday performances and at 9:45 a.m. on stage prior to the Friday performance.

    The April 13 Performance is sponsored by the Korea Times

    Tickets ($16 -$129) are on sale now at the Walt Disney Concert Hall box office, online at LAPhil.com, or via credit card phone order at 323.850.2000. A limited number of $10 rush tickets for seniors and full time students may be available at the Walt Disney Concert Hall box office two hours prior to the performance. Valid identification is required; one ticket per person; cash only. Groups of 12 or more may be eligible for special discounts for selected concerts and seating areas. For all information, please call 323.850.2000.

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  • Contact:

    Adam Crane, 213.972.3422; Rachelle Roe, 213.972.7310; Photos: 213.972.3034