Salonen Leads Orchestra in Stravinsky's Rite, Sibelius' Pohjola's Daughter, and His Own Wing on Wing on May 31
Assistant Conductor Mickelthwate Conducts Philharmonic in Works by Milhaud, Poulenc and Rimsky-Korsakov on June 4
WEDNESDAY, MAY 31, AT 8 PM and SUNDAY, JUNE 4, AT 2 PM
The Los Angeles Philharmonic concludes its 2005/2006 season with two performances at Walt Disney Concert Hall, including a concert conducted by Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen on Wednesday, May 31, at 8 p.m., featuring Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring and Salonen's Wing on Wing, and a program led by Assistant Conductor Alexander Mickelthwate on Sunday, June 4, at 2 p.m., featuring Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade.
The May 31 concert program also includes Sibelius' Pohjola's Daughter. Wing on Wing, which was world premiered nearly two years ago, features sopranos Hila Plitmann and Cyndia Sieden. Plitmann has become one of the world's top headliners for new works, and Sieden is a coloratura soprano noted for her performances of repertoire ranging from the Baroque through works of the 21st century.
On June 4, Mickelthwate conducts Milhaud's Le Boeuf sur le Toit and Poulenc's Organ Concerto featuring Vincent Dubois, in addition to Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade. Mickelthwate is the newly appointed Music Director of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, and he will also serve as the Associate Conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic for the 2006/2007 season. French musician Dubois is organist at the Cathedral of Soissons.
On Wednesday, May 31 at 6:45 p.m., Upbeat Live, a free event open to all ticket holders, features a conversation with Philharmonic Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen and President Deborah Borda on stage.
On Sunday, June 4, at 1 PM, KUSC radio host Alan Chapman discusses the concert program at Upbeat Live, a free event in BP Hall open to all ticket holders.
ESA-PEKKA SALONEN, the tenth conductor to head the Los Angeles Philharmonic, is currently in his 14th season as Music Director. He made his American debut conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic in November 1984, and he has conducted the orchestra every season since. His current tenure is the second-longest in Philharmonic history, and he recently extended his contract through the 2007/08 season. Alongside his activities as a conductor, Salonen has also won acclaim for his work as a composer. Among the many highlights of Salonen's activities with the Philharmonic have been world premieres of works by composers John Adams, Franco Donatoni, William Kraft, Witold Lutoslawski, Magnus Lindberg, Bernard Rands, Rodion Shchedrin, Steven Stucky, Tan Dun, and Augusta Read Thomas, as well as his own works. He has led critically acclaimed festivals of music by Ligeti, Schoenberg, Shostakovich, Stravinsky, and Berlioz, and has served as Music Director of the Ojai Music Festival. He and the Philharmonic have toured extensively since 1992, including extended residencies at the Salzburg Festival and at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris. Salonen's latest orchestral work, Wing on Wing, received its world premiere in June 2004 as part of the Philharmonic's Building Music Festival. In March 2003 Salonen signed an exclusive four-year recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon; in February 2005, the label released Wing on Wing, a disc devoted to his recent works. Before signing with DG, Salonen recorded regularly with the Los Angeles Philharmonic for Sony Classical. A Sony disc of Salonen's compositions, including LA Variations, Five Images After Sappho, Giro, Gambit, and Mania, has garnered critical acclaim throughout the U.S. and in Europe. Salonen and the Philharmonic's discography also includes the debut recording of John Adams' Naive and Sentimental Music - a work that the orchestra premiered - for the Nonesuch label. Salonen was born in Helsinki in 1958, and after studies at the Sibelius Academy in Finland and with private teachers Franco Donatoni and Niccolò Castiglioni in Italy, he made his conducting debut with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra in 1979. He is the recipient of many major awards including the Siena Prize from the Accademia Chigiana in 1993, the first conductor ever to receive the prize; the Royal Philharmonic Society's Opera Award in 1995; and their Conductor Award in 1997. In 1998 he was awarded the rank of Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government; in 2003 he received an honorary doctorate from the Sibelius Academy in Finland.
As assistant conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic for the past two years, ALEXANDER MICKELTHWATE has led the orchestra in programs at Walt Disney Concert Hall, appearing on the Green Umbrella new music series, education and community concerts, and at the Hollywood Bowl. In January 2006, following a performance of Boulez's "Le Marteau Sans Maître " with the Philharmonic's New Music Group, Mark Swed of the LA Times wrote, "Alexander Mickelthwate has been a fearless assistant conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Mickelthwate conducted very much in the Boulez manner: calm under pressure, sure of ever-changing meters…" As a guest conductor, Mickelthwate has appeared with the symphony orchestras of Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Dallas, Honolulu, Houston, Indianapolis, Nashville, New Jersey, Oregon, and Toronto; the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the Chicago Civic Orchestra, the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, the Eos Orchestra, and the National Arts Centre Orchestra (Ottawa). Abroad, Mickelthwate made his European debut with the Hamburg Symphony in April 2006. During his tenure as assistant conductor with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, which he completed at the end of the 2003-04 season, he co-founded the new music ensemble, Bent Frequency, which was hailed by Gramophone Magazine as "one of the brightest ensembles on the scene." Always striving to engage young people in music, he conducted more than 60 Young People's Concerts with the Atlanta Symphony, and organized an exchange between the Atlanta Youth Symphony and Berlin Youth Orchestra during the summer of 2003, hosting concerts in both cities.
Born in Jerusalem, HILA PLITMANN is quickly becoming a cherished soprano voice on the international music scene. Her professional career began in 1998, when she premiered David Del Tredici's The Spider and the Fly with the New York Philharmonic under the baton of Kurt Masur. Plitmann has performed as a featured soloist with the New York Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the New Israeli Opera, and numerous other orchestras and ensembles. Among the world premieres she has performed are Del Tredici's Paul Revere's Ride with the Atlanta Symphony under Robert Spano; Esa-Pekka Salonen's Wing on Wing with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at Walt Disney Concert Hall; the orchestrated Mr. Tambourine Man by John Corigliano, with the Minnesota Orchestra (also under Robert Spano); and Eric Whitacre and David Noroña's groundbreaking opera electronica, Paradise Lost. Plitmann is accumulating an impressive catalogue of recordings, beginning with Del Tredici's virtuosic song cycle Ms. Inez Sez; the song cycle Lament for the Death of a Bullfighter, also by Del Tredici, with the composer at the piano; and two additional recordings to be released in 2006: Paul Revere's Ride with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Robert Spano conducting, on the Telarc label; and Bob Beaser's Emily Dickinson Songs with the American Academy in Rome label.
CYNDIA SIEDEN's purity of tone lends itself to the exactness required by both early and contemporary music. She performed the title role of Rodelinda at the Halle Handel Festival and with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood; her recording of Amor in Gluck's Orfeo with John Eliot Gardiner (Archiv, 1994) established her authority in Baroque music. In the contemporary realm, notable roles include Ariel in Thomas Adès' The Tempest at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and the title role of Lulu in her Metropolitan Opera debut. Sieden is also a preeminent interpreter of Mozart and Strauss. She has performed the Queen of the Night in the world's greatest opera houses, including the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, the Opéra Bastille in Paris, and the English National Opera, and she has appeared in many of Mozart's earlier works, such as La finta giardiniera (Serpetta) at the Welsh National Opera, Mitridate (Sifare) at the Wexford Festival, and Il re pastore (Aminta and Elisa). Her Strauss roles include Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos at the Vienna Staatsoper, Oper der Stadt Bonn, the Seattle Opera, the New Japan Theater, and the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich; Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier at the Théâtre du Châtelet; Fiakermilli in Arabella at the Bayerische Staatsoper; and Aminta in Die schweigsame Frau at the Teatro Massimo di Palermo. Sieden appears on the EMI recording of Die Frau ohne Schatten conducted by Wolfgang Sawallisch.
Born in 1980, VINCENT DUBOIS began organ studies at age 11 in the organ school of the Cathedral of St. Brieuc, France, then studied at the National Conservatory of Angers. Dubois has performed in many countries throughout Europe as well as the United States, Russia, Canada, and the Far East. He has won a number of prizes, among them the Gold Medal and First Prize of the National Conservatory of Angers, and first prizes in 20th-century composition, organ improvisation, harmony, counterpoint, fugue, and organ interpretation at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris. He won the Recital Gold Medal at the 2002 Royal Bank Calgary International Organ Festival and Competition, and most recently, the 1st Grand Prix in the 2002 International Competition of Toulouse. Dubois has also appeared with many orchestras and ensembles including the Orchestre Philharmonique of Radio France, the French National Orchestra, the Orquesta Filarmonica del Gran Canaria, the Orchestre de Picardie, the Orchestre de Bretagne, Le Madrigal de Paris, and the Ensemble Vocal Michel Piquemal. At age 16, Dubois was named organist of the Cavaillé-Coll organ at the Cathedral of St. Brieuc. He currently teaches harmony and counterpoint at Angers National Conservatory, where in 2005 he was appointed assistant manager of the conservatory.
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
WEDNESDAY, MAY 31 AT 8 PM
LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC
ESA-PEKKA SALONEN, conductor
HILA PLITMANN, soprano
CYNDIA SIEDEN, soprano
SIBELIUS Pohjola's Daughter
SALONEN Wing On Wing
STRAVINSKY The Rite of Spring
On Wednesday, May 31 at 6:45 p.m., Upbeat Live, a free event open to all ticket holders, features a conversation with Philharmonic Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen and President Deborah Borda on stage.
SUNDAY, JUNE 4, AT 2 PM
LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC
ALEXANDER MICKELTHWATE, conductor
VINCENT DUBOIS, organ
MILHAUD Le Boeuf sur le Toit
POULENC Organ Concerto
RIMSKY-KORSAKOV Scheherazade
On Sunday, June 4, at 1 p.m., KUSC radio host Alan Chapman discusses the concert program at Upbeat Live, a free event in BP Hall open to all ticket holders.
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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Adam Crane, 213.972.3422, Rachelle Roe, 213 972-7310, Photos: 213.972.3034