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  • LEONARD SLATKIN LEADS THE LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC IN TWO CONCERTS TO CLOSE THE CLASSICAL SEASON AT THE HOLLYWOOD BOWL
  • Sep. 11, 2007
  • TUESDAY AND THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 11 and 13, 2007, AT 8 PM

    Tuesday's All-American Program Features Bassist Edgar Meyer and Pianist Michel Camilo

    Cellist Lynn Harrell Performs Dvorák's Cello Concerto on Thursday

    September 11 is a Fidelity Investments Inspire the Future Concert

    Media partner: Time Warner Cable

    Leonard Slatkin, leading the Los Angeles Philharmonic, concludes the Hollywood Bowl's 2007 classical season - and his tenure as Principal Guest Conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl - with two concerts, an all-American program with bassist Edgar Meyer and pianist Michel Camilo on Tuesday, September 11 at 8 p.m. and an evening featuring cellist Lynn Harrell on Thursday, September 13 at 8 p.m. Slatkin, music director of the National Symphony Orchestra, is in his third and final year as Principal Guest Conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, the first person to hold this post. This summer, Slatkin led three weeks of concerts with the Los Angles Philharmonic at the Bowl.

    On September 11, Meyer and Camilo join Slatkin and the Philharmonic in a program of Copland's Appalachian Spring Suite, Meyer's Double Bass Concerto No. 1, Schuller's Seven Studies on Themes of Paul Klee and Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. The September 13 evening, the final Thursday concert of the summer, features Harrell performing Dvorák's Cello Concerto on a program that also includes Smetana's The Moldau and Copland's Symphony No. 3, one of Slatkin's signature works.

    Meyer, a unique and masterful instrumentalist and composer, is known for developing award-winning collaborative projects with such diverse artists as violinist Joshua Bell, dobro player Jerry Douglas, pianist Amy Dorfman (his longtime accompanist), and legendary bluegrass musicians Sam Bush and Mike Marshall. His vast musical interests have made him a widely sought-after guest bassist for an assortment of recording artists, such as Garth Brooks, Bruce Cockburn, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Hank Williams, Jr., Emmylou Harris, James Taylor, Lyle Lovett, T-Bone Burnett, Reba McEntyre, the Indigo Girls, Travis Tritt, and the Chieftains.

    Camilo, a pianist with brilliant technique and a composer who flavors his tunes with Caribbean rhythms and jazz harmonies, has appeared as soloist with the Atlanta Symphony; Cleveland Orchestra; National Symphony Orchestra; Copenhagen Philharmonic; BBC Symphony Orchestra; National Symphony Orchestra (Dominican Republic), the Puerto Rico, Queens; Gran Canaria Philharmonic, Murcia, Málaga, RTVE, and Barcelona (Spain) symphonies; and the Carnegie Hall Big Band. The National Symphony Orchestra selected him as co-artistic director (with Leonard Slatkin) of the first Latin-Caribbean Music Festival at the Kennedy Center, where he also performed with his trio and his big band. The world premiere of his Concerto for Piano and Orchestra was commissioned by the NSO and conducted by Leonard Slatkin.

    Harrell is a consummate soloist, chamber musician, recitalist, conductor, and teacher whose presence is felt throughout the music world. He performs regularly with the orchestras of Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, Berlin, London, and Israel, among others, collaborating with such noted conductors as James Levine, Kurt Masur, Zubin Mehta, André Previn, Leonard Slatkin, and Yuri Temirkanov.

    Internationally recognized American conductor LEONARD SLATKIN is Music Director of the National Symphony Orchestra, Principal Guest Conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and Principal Guest Conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl. His performances throughout North America, Europe and the Far East have been distinguished by imaginative programming and highly-praised interpretations of both the standard and contemporary symphonic repertoire. Additionally, he is well-known for his arts advocacy work on behalf of music education. Following a successful tenure as Music Director of the Saint Louis Symphony from 1979 until 1996, Slatkin was named Conductor Laureate. He also has served as Festival Director of the Cleveland Orchestra's Blossom Festival (1990-99), Principal Guest Conductor of the Philharmonia Orchestra (1997-2000), and Chief Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra (2000-2004). Slatkin has made regular appearances with virtually every major international orchestra, including the New York Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, Boston Symphony Orchestra, and many others. His performances of opera have taken him to leading opera companies in the U.S. and around the world, including the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Washington National Opera and Vienna State Opera. Slatkin's more than 100 recordings have been recognized with five Grammy awards and more than 50 other Grammy nominations. He has recorded with the National Symphony Orchestra, Saint Louis Symphony, Philharmonia Orchestra, London Philharmonic, BBC Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony and Bayerischer Rundfunk Orchestra. Slatkin has received many honors and awards, including the 2003 National Medal of Arts (the highest award given to artists by the United States Government), the Chavalier of the Legion of Honor, ASCAP awards with both the National and Saint Louis Symphonies, an honorary doctorate from his alma mater The Juilliard School, the Lifetime Achievement Award at the DC Mayor's Arts Awards, and the prestigious Declaration of Honor in Silver from the Austrian ambassador to the United States for outstanding contributions to cultural relations.

    EDGAR MEYER delights his audiences as a solo classical bassist. He has released a concerto album with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra featuring Bottesini's Gran Duo with Joshua Bell, Meyer's Double Concerto for Bass and Cello with Yo-Yo Ma, Bottesini's Bass Concerto No. 2, and Meyer's Concerto in D for Bass along with an acclaimed album of Bach's Unaccompanied Suites for Cello. As a composer, Meyer has premiered his works for bass and orchestra with the Minnesota Orchestra and San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival Orchestra. Meyer performed the world premiere of his Double Concerto for Bass and Cello with Yo-Yo Ma and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and the concerto for Banjo and Double Bass with co-composer Béla Fleck and the Nashville Symphony Orchestra, and in 1995 he premiered his Quintet for Bass and String Quartet with the Emerson String Quartet. In 1999 Meyer's violin concerto was premiered and recorded by Hilary Hahn with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra led by Hugh Wolff. Collaborations are the cornerstone of Meyer's work. The recently released Music for Two is the latest of many collaborations with banjoist Béla Fleck. His collaboration, with classical cellist Yo-Yo Ma and bluegrass violinist/composer/fiddler Mark O'Connor, yielded the widely acclaimed Sony releases Appalachia Waltz (1996) and Appalachian Journey (2000), which won the Grammy Award for Best Classical Crossover Album. In 1994 Meyer became the only bassist to receive the Avery Fisher Career Grant and in 2000 became the only bassist to receive the Avery Fisher Prize. He was a recipient of a MacArthur Award in 2002.

    MICHEL CAMILO, a native of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, has been a featured soloist, arranger and composer with the Danish Radio Big Band, and he toured as part of a three-piano ensemble with the Labèque sisters. He made his Carnegie Hall debut in 1985. He was musical director of the Dominican Republic's Heineken Jazz Festival, a post he held until 1992. His composition "Why Not!" titled an album by Paquito D'Rivera, and the Manhattan Transfer won a Grammy Award (1983) with its vocal version of the piece. Camilo titled his own debut album Why Not! and followed it with Suntan/Michel Camilo In Trio. In Santo Domingo, he conducted the NSODR in a classical program that included his own Emmy Award-winning The Goodwill Games Theme. Since then his recordings on various labels have included Rendezvous, One More Once, Thru My Eyes, and Spain-Michel Camilo & Tomatito. Pianists Katia and Marielle Labèque and Dizzy Gillespie have recorded Camilo's "Caribe." Camilo composed the score for the award winning European film Amo Tu Cama Rica, Los Peores Años de Nuestra Vida and Two Much. His first three albums, Michel Camilo, On Fire, and On the Other Hand reached the top of the nationwide radio play charts. Camilo has also performed at the Royal Albert Hall (BBC Proms), Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall and has appeared elsewhere in New York at the Blue Note, Beacon Theater, Radio City Music Hall and Avery Fisher Hall. He performed at the White House in an all-star program celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Newport Jazz Festival, broadcast nationwide by PBS as part of In Performance At The White House, and on NPR's A Jazz Piano Christmas, hosted by Tony Bennett. Camilo regularly tours the Caribbean, Europe, South, Central and North America, Israel and Japan. He produced and arranged the award-winning album Lorquiana-Poemas for renowned Spanish singer Ana Belén and performed a series of solo piano recitals as part of Copenhagen's Cultural Capital of Europe festival. Camilo is featured among the artists in Calle 54, a film about Latin jazz by Academy Award winning director Fernando Trueba. His classical CD for Decca features him with the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Leonard Slatkin performing his Concerto for Piano & Orchestra and his Suite for Piano, Strings & Harp. In 2002, Telarc released Triangulo his Grammy nominated jazz trio recording. In 2003, Telarc released Michel Camilo - Live at the Blue Note, his first live album. Among his awards are the Knight of the Heraldic Order of Christopher Columbus and the Silver Cross of the Order of Duarte, Sanchez & Mella from the Dominican Government. The Duke Ellington School of the Arts created the Michel Camilo Piano Scholarship, which is offered to a piano student selected by the music faculty. Berklee College of Music awarded Camilo an Honorary Doctorate in Music.

    LYNN HARRELL has an extensive discography of more than 30 recordings including the Schubert Trios with Vladimir Ashkenazy and Pinchas Zukerman (with whom he also won two Grammy Awards, in 1981 and 1987) and Duos for Violin and Cello with Kennedy. Harrell's experience as an educator is wide and varied. From 1985 through 1993 he held the International Chair for Cello Studies at the Royal Academy in London. From 1988 through 1992 he was Artistic Director of the orchestra, chamber music, and conductor training programs at the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute, and from 1993 through 1995 he was head of the Royal Academy in London. He teaches at the Verbier Festival and the Aspen Music Festival (where he has spent his summers performing and teaching for nearly 50 years). Harrell has taught cello at Rice University's Shepherd School of Music since 2002. Harrell was born in New York to musician parents. He began his musical studies in Dallas and proceeded to the Juilliard School and the Curtis Institute. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the first Avery Fisher Award. Harrell, who plays a 1720 Montagnana cello, makes his home in Houston, Texas.

    One of the largest natural amphitheaters in the world, with a seating capacity of nearly 18,000, the HOLLYWOOD BOWL has been the summer home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic since its official opening in 1922, and in 1991 gave its name to the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, a resident ensemble that has filled a special niche in the musical life of Southern California. The 2004 season introduced audiences to a revitalized Hollywood Bowl, featuring a newly-constructed shell and stage and the addition of four stadium screens enhancing stage views in the venue. To this day, $1 buys a seat at the top of the Bowl for many of the Los Angeles Philharmonic's concerts. While the Bowl is best known for its sizzling summer nights, during the day California's youngest patrons enjoy "SummerSounds: Music for Kids at the Hollywood Bowl," the Southland's most popular summer arts festival for children, now in its 39th season. Attendance figures over the past several decades have soared: in 1980 the Bowl first topped the half-million mark and close to one million admissions have been recorded. In February 2007, the Hollywood Bowl was named Best Major Outdoor Concert Venue for the third year in a row at the 18th Annual Pollstar Concert Industry Awards; the Bowl's summer music festival has become as much a part of a Southern California summer as beaches and barbecues, the Dodgers, and Disneyland.

    EDITORS PLEASE NOTE:

    HOLLYWOOD BOWL, 2301 N. Highland Ave. in Hollywood

    TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11 AT 8 PM

    LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC

    LEONARD SLATKIN, conductor

    EDGAR MEYER, double bass

    MICHEL CAMILO, piano

    COPLAND Appalachian Spring, Suite

    MEYER Double Bass Concerto No. 1

    SCHULLER Seven Studies on Themes of Paul Klee

    GERSHWIN Rhapsody in Blue

    THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 13 AT 8 PM

    LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC

    LEONARD SLATKIN, conductor

    LYNN HARRELL, cello

    SMETANA The Moldau

    DVORÁK Cello Concerto

    COPLAND Symphony No. 3

    September 11 is A Fidelity Investments Inspire the Future Concert

    Media partner: Time Warner Cable

    Tickets ($1 - $93) are on sale now at HollywoodBowl.com, at the Hollywood Bowl Box Office (Tuesday - Saturday, 12 p.m. - 6 p.m.), or by calling Ticketmaster at 213.480.3232, and at all Ticketmaster outlets. Groups of 10 or more may be eligible for a 20% discount, subject to availability; call 323.850.2050 for further details. For general information or to request a brochure, call 323.850.2000.

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  • Contact:

    Adam Crane, acrane@laphil.org, 213.972.3034; Rachelle Roe, rroe@laphil.org, 213.972.7310; For photos: 213.972.3034