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  • BRAMWELL TOVEY OPENS THE LA PHIL’S 2008 HOLLYWOOD BOWL SEASON IN HIS DEBUT AS PRINCIPAL GUEST CONDUCTOR OF THE LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC AT THE HOLLYWOOD BOWL
  • Jul. 8, 2008
  • Orff’s Carmina Burana, Tovey’s New Work, Urban Runway, and Berlioz’ Symphonie fantastique Are Part of First Week Lineup

    TUESDAY AND THURSDAY, JULY 8 and 10, AT 8 PM

    July 8 Concert Sponsored by Fidelity Investments
    Time Warner Cable is the Media Sponsor for the July 8 and July 10 Concerts

    In his debut as Principal Guest Conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, Bramwell Tovey kicks off the LA PHIL’s 2008 Classical Tuesdays and Classical Thursdays series with his own new work, Urban Runway (co-commissioned by the LA PHIL and the New York Philharmonic), Strauss’ Don Juan and Orff’s Carmina Burana, Tuesday, July 8, at 8 p.m. Tovey concludes the classical week with Saint-Saëns’ Symphony No. 3, “Organ” and Berlioz’ brilliantly colorful and cinematic dream tale Symphonie fantastique, Thursday, July 10, at 8 p.m.

    The July 8 program opens with Tovey’s Urban Runway. Composed in March of 2008, the concept for the piece grew from an amusing conversation the composer had with friends about the colorful idiosyncrasies of those who patronize the fashion houses on Manhattan’s 5th Avenue or Beverly Hills’ Rodeo Drive. The new clothes, smartly tucked away in their designer shopping bags, appear to influence the gait of the shoppers as they stride along the sidewalk. The score is laced with jazz and minimalist flavors. A flugel horn and marimba introduce distinctive elements, and perhaps characteristically, the violas take a moment to remind us of the benefits of the ‘pre-owned’ grunge look. Also on the program is Strauss’ Don Juan, which is marked by vigorous motifs that are contrasted by several tender “love” themes, and then ends on a quietly dejected note. The performance of Orff’s Carmina Burana features soprano Cyndia Sieden, tenor Benjamin Butterfield and baritone Keith Phares, along with the Pacific Chorale, with Artistic Director John Alexander and prepared by Assistant Conductor Robert Istad, and the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus with Artistic Director Anne Tomlinson. The work was inspired by the composer’s discovery of a collection of poems titled, Carmina Burana: Latin and German Poems of a 13th-Century Manuscript from Benediktbeuern and is in three parts – “Primo Vere” (Spring), “In Taberna” (In the Tavern), and “Cour d’ Amours” (the Court of Love).

    The July 10 program opens with Saint-Saëns’ “Organ” Symphony No. 3 in C minor, a remarkable example of scoring for keyboard instruments and concludes with Berlioz’ Symphonie fantastique, a musical tale in which the composer is the central character.

    A musician of striking versatility, BRAMWELL TOVEY is acknowledged around the world for his artistic depth and his warm, charismatic personality on the podium. Tovey’s career as a conductor is uniquely enhanced by his work as a composer and pianist, lending him a remarkable musical perspective. His tenures as Music Director with the Vancouver Symphony, Luxembourg Philharmonic and Winnipeg Symphony Orchestras have been characterized by his expertise in operatic, choral, British and contemporary repertoire. The 2007/08 season held many highlights for Tovey. A recent recording with violinist James Ehnes brought a 2007 Grammy to the soloist, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and Tovey. In his eighth season with Vancouver, Tovey collaborated with guest artists Ben Heppner and Evelyn Glennie and led the orchestra through an in-depth six-concert Beethoven festival, featuring performances by Lang Lang and Anne-Sophie Mutter. He also appeared with orchestras across East Asia, in the spring of 2008, in advance of the orchestra’s fall 2008 tour of China. Prior to his music directorship in Vancouver, Tovey spent 12 years as music director of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, where he founded its highly regarded New Music Festival. A significant milestone in the ensemble’s exploration of new music, the festival premiered more than 250 works by diverse international and Canadian composers under Tovey’s leadership, with every performance broadcast on Canada’s CBC Radio. Additionally in 2004, he founded the New York Philharmonic’s Summertime Classics series at Avery Fisher Hall, and presides annually as its host and conductor. An esteemed guest conductor, Tovey has worked with orchestras in the UK and Europe including the London Philharmonic, London Symphony, Bournemouth, the Frankfurt Radio Orchestra and the North Netherlands Symphony in January, where he led the Dutch premiere of Penderecki’s 8th Symphony in 2008. With a profound commitment to new music, Tovey has established himself as a formidable composer. He has been commissioned by the Calgary Opera to compose the company’s third original full-length opera. An immense undertaking, the piece will premiere in Calgary in January of 2011. Tovey’s other accomplishments as a composer include receiving the Best Canadian Classical Composition 2003 Juno Award for his Requiem for a Charred Skull, performed and recorded by the Amadeus Choir and the Hannaford Band in Toronto. Tovey has also built a strong reputation as an accomplished jazz pianist, with two recordings to his name. Renowned as a choral conductor, Tovey has performed works ranging from Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 to Bach’s Mass in B minor. In opera, his repertoire includes works by Puccini, Strauss, Mozart, Menotti, Poulenc, Britten and Stravinsky. Awarded numerous honorary degrees, Tovey has received a Fellowship from the Royal Academy of Music in London, honorary Doctorates of Law from the University of Winnipeg, the University of Manitoba and Kwantlen University College, as well as a Fellowship from the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. In 1999, he received the M. Joan Chalmers National Award for Artistic Direction, a prestigious Canadian prize awarded to premier artists for outstanding contributions in professional performing arts organizations.

    Coloratura soprano CYNDIA SIEDEN moves between the Baroque, Classical and Contemporary repertoire with extraordinary accomplishment and considerable acclaim. Her purity of tone lends itself to the exactness required by the 18th-century composers Handel and Mozart and the demands of the 21st century’s Thomas Adès and Esa-Pekka Salonen. She has sung with many of the most prestigious symphony orchestras in the world, including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Atlanta Symphony, the St. Louis Symphony, the London Symphony Orchestra and at New York’s Mostly Mozart Festival. She was featured soloist in the Chicago Symphony’s gala opening concert of the 2006/07 season, singing a signature piece, the title role in Stravinsky’s Le Rossignol. Sieden is also much in demand for Carmina Burana, the oratorios of Handel, Mozart and Haydn, works of Bach, Mahler’s Symphony No. 8, and concert performances of operas, including most of Mozart’s oeuvre, Candide, and Ariadne auf Naxos. In conjunction with the Los Angeles Philharmonic she has sung Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Wing on Wing and introduced Thomas Adès’s Scenes from The Tempest (based on his opera The Tempest) to the orchestral world. The Tempest, with Sieden as the high-flying Ariel and with the composer at the podium, premiered at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in 2004, and has already gained a place in the repertoire, with subsequent productions in France, Denmark, the Santa Fe Opera, and more planned. She has garnered equally enthusiastic acclaim for her portrayal of The Queen of the Night in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte and as Blondchen in Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail. Her Archiv recordings of these two works, both conducted by John Eliot Gardiner, affirmed her status as one of the preeminent Mozart interpreters of her generation, which has subsequently been confirmed by performances at the world’s greatest opera houses, including Munich’s Bayerische Staatsoper, Paris’s Opera Bastille, Barcelona’s Gran Teatre de Liceu, Brussels’ La Monnaie, and London’s English National Opera as well as in Beijing and Australia. Her voice is ideal for Strauss: she frequently performs Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos (Munich, Japan, Vienna) as well as Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier (Paris’s Chatelet) and Aminta in Die Schweigsame Frau (Palermo). She is one of the few contemporary sopranos to have sung the original 1912 version of Ariadne, in which Zerbinetta’s aria is both expanded and a whole step higher than in the commonly heard 1916 revision. Sieden’s Metropolitan Opera debut was an acclaimed performance as Berg’s Lulu and she returns next season to sing Queen of the Night. An active recitalist and a frequent guest artist with the New York Festival of Song, Sieden gave the New York premiere of John Musto’s song cycle Dove sta amore in her debut at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. A native of California, Sieden now lives in Washington State.

    Regarded as a "musically arresting presence" by the San Francisco Chronicle, BENJAMIN BUTTERFIELD is in demand for concert, opera and recital. His stage repertoire has encompassed roles in the Barber of Seville, Don Giovanni, Die Zauberflöte, Rake's Progress, Persephone, Cunning Little Vixen and Tamerlano with performances in Naples at Il Teatro di San Carlo, Theatre du Capitole in Toulouse, Welsh National Opera, the Canadian Opera Company, L'Opera Nationale de Montpellier and Arizona Opera, as well as New York City Opera, L'Opera de Montreal, Vancouver Opera, Glimmerglass Opera Festival and Canterbury Opera in New Zealand. In concert he has appeared in Britten's War Requiem with the London Symphony Chorus and the State Orchestra of Thessaloniki, the St. Matthew Passion and St. John Passion with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra under Nicholas McGegan and Das Buch mit sieben Siegeln at the Toronto International Choral Festival. He has toured throughout Europe with Trevor Pinnock and the English Concert, the RIAS Kammerchor of Berlin and with Marc Minkowski and Les Musiciens du Louvre. Butterfield has also performed with the Symphony Orchestras of Detroit, San Francisco, New Jersey and Chicago. Other appearances have included the Saito Kinen Festival with Seiji Ozawa, Festival Vancouver performing the Mad Woman in Britten's Curlew River and in recital with Graham Johnson for VISI. Butterfield's wide range of engagements for the 2007/08 season included the Mozart Requiem with the Pacific Symphony and Handel's Messiah with the San Antonio, North Carolina and National Symphonies. He also appeared with the Vancouver Symphony, Bethlehem Bach Festival and the Residentie Orkest in the Netherlands as well as in recitals for the Wyatt Artist in Residence at Mount Royal College, Calgary and in the Gulf Islands of B.C. featuring the music of Schumann, Ireland and Randy Newman. In France he debuted with L'Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg singing L'enfance du Christ, sang in Berlioz's Romeo and Juliet with the Toronto Symphony under Sir Andrew Davis, and performed Bach Cantatas at the BBC Proms with the Bach Choir of Bethlehem. Other orchestral engagements have included performances with the Oregon Symphony and the National Arts Center with Pinchas Zuckerman. Of his many recordings, the Britten Serenade (CBC/Streatfeild) and Canticles (Marquis/Aldeburgh Connection) have been recognized by the Canadian Juno Awards. He has also recorded Brahms and Schumann Liebeslieder (CBC/ Aldeburgh Connection), music of Bach, Schutz and Haydn (Koch International/ Thomas), Opera Encores (CBC/ Bradshaw), Psalm 80 of Roussel (Timpani/ Tovey) and Weinachts Oratorium (Dorion/ Funfgeld). Film and TV credits include Dido and Aeneas with the Mark Morris Dance Company and Tafelmusik, L'enfant et les sortileges with the Montreal Symphony and Charles Dutoit, Messiah for ZDF in Halle with the English Concert and Trevor Pinnock, and Bach's B minor Mass with the Bach Choir of Bethlehem for PBS. He is also heard regularly on CBC Radio.

    Noted by the press for his dashingly attractive stage presence, commanding vocal authority, and creamy, warm baritone voice, KEITH PHARES is acclaimed both on the opera and concert stage as one of today’s most versatile artists. During the 2007/08 season Phares made his Houston Grand Opera debut under the direction of Patrick Summers in the world premiere of Jake Heggie’s Last Acts, singing opposite Frederica von Stade, and returned to the stage of the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis in a new production of Martín y Soler’s Una Cosa Rara. Continuing his fervent commitment to bringing the works of living composers to the stage, the artist sang the title role of Elmer Gantry, by Robert Aldridge, in a co-production with Nashville Opera and Montclair State University (NJ). The artist sang Five Movements for My Father in a program of chamber music by Susan Kander at Weill Hall in New York: his performance coincided with the commercial release of this work on the Loosecans Music label. Phares returned to the roster of the Metropolitan Opera to cover the role of Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro and to cover Mercutio in Roméo et Juliette. His concert schedule brought him to the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra for performances of the Fauré Requiem under the baton of Bernard Labadie and, for performances of Carmina Burana, to the Reno Philharmonic and the California Symphony. Operatic highlights of recent seasons include a Metropolitan Opera debut, under the baton of James Levine, in the French triple-bill Parade, performances of The Pilot in the Francesca Zambello production of The Little Prince at New York City Opera and Boston Lyric Opera, Harlequin in Ariadne auf Naxos at the Dallas Opera, Chou-En Lai in Portland Opera’s presentation of Nixon in China, Danilo in The Merry Widow in a return engagement at the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Masetto in the acclaimed Günter Krämer production of Don Giovanni at the Spoletto Festival USA, and Sebastian in the North American premiere of Thomas Adès’ The Tempest presented by the Santa Fe Opera in a new production by Jonathan Kent and conducted by Alan Gilbert. Concert highlights include Béatrice et Bénédict with the New York Philharmonic under the baton of Sir Colin Davis, Candide with the San Francisco Symphony and Patrick Summers, and a program of Rogers and Hammerstein songs with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra. He also has been honored to be affiliated for many seasons with the Marilyn Horne Foundation, under whose auspices he has appeared in numerous recitals and master classes throughout the United States. A graduate of the Juilliard Opera Center, Phares was a national winner of the 1998 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and a finalist in the 1999 Eleanor McCollum Competition of the Houston Grand Opera. He also has been recognized with a Richard Gaddes Grant from the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis and the 2000 Richard F. Gold Career Grant from the Juilliard School of Music.

    Founded in 1968, PACIFIC CHORALE is internationally recognized for exceptional artistic expression, stimulating American-focused programming, and influential education programs. Pacific Chorale presents a substantial performance season of its own at the Orange County Performing Artscenter and is sought regularly to perform with the nation’s leading symphonies. Under the inspired guidance of Artistic Director John Alexander, Pacific Chorale has infused an Old World art form with California’s hallmark innovation and cultural independence. Pacific Chorale is comprised of 140 professional and volunteer singers. In addition to its long-standing partnership with Pacific Symphony, the Chorale has performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at Walt Disney Concert Hall on numerous occasions. Other noted collaborations include the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, the Boston Symphony, the National Symphony, and the Long Beach, Pasadena, Riverside and San Diego symphonies. Alexander and the Chorale have toured extensively in Europe, South America and Asia, performing in London, Paris, Belgium, Germany, Estonia, Russia, Spain, Italy, Brazil, Argentina, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing and Hong Kong. Pacific Chorale, the seventh largest-budgeted chorus in the United States, has received numerous awards, including Chorus America’s prestigious “Margaret Hillis Achievement Award for Choral Excellence” and the first national “Educational Outreach Award.” Most recently, Pacific Chorale received the 2005 ASCAP Chorus America Alice Parker Award for adventurous programming. Pacific Chorale appears in an average of 30 performances annually, which are heard by nearly 40,000 audience members. The Chorale’s outstanding performances can be heard on seven compact discs.

    LOS ANGELES CHILDREN’S CHORUS, under Artistic Director Anne Tomlinson, has become recognized throughout the country for its exceptional artistic quality and technical ability. Founded in 1986, LACC currently performs with such leading musical ensembles as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, the Los Angeles Master Chorale, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and The Pasadena Symphony. LACC also assists the Los Angeles Opera by providing and training children for its opera productions that require a children’s chorus or child soloists. LACC’s 2007/08 roster included 260 choristers from 60 communities across Los Angeles in five choirs: Concert, Chamber Singers, Intermediate, Apprentice and Preparatory. The intensive training program includes weekly or twice weekly rehearsals, individual vocal coaching and comprehensive musicianship classes. LACC has toured Brazil, Great Britain, Italy, Australia, Germany, Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Poland, as well as many parts of the United States and Canada. In 2008, Concert Choir will for the first time tour China prior to the Beijing summer Olympics. LACC was featured in the Academy Award-nominated documentary, “Sing!” by Freida Lee Mock and Jessica Sanders. “Sing!” chronicles a year in the life of the choir and is shown frequently on PBS stations nationwide. LACC appears currently in the new Sanders/Mock documentary “Sing Opera,” released in May 2008.

    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 40th 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 2008, the Hollywood Bowl was named Best Major Outdoor Concert Venue for the fourth year in a row at the 19th 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:

    TUESDAY, JULY 8, at 8 p.m.


    HOLLYWOOD BOWL, 2301 N. Highland Ave. in Hollywood



    LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC

    BRAMWELL TOVEY, conductor

    CYNDIA SIEDEN, soprano

    BENJAMIN BUTTERFIELD, tenor

    KEITH PHARES, baritone

    PACIFIC CHORALE

    John Alexander, artistic director

    Robert Istad, chorus master

    LOS ANGELES CHILDREN’S CHORUS

    Anne Tomlinson, artistic director



    TOVEY Urban Runway

    STRAUSS Don Juan

    ORFF Carmina Burana



    Concert generously sponsored by Fidelity Investments



    THURSDAY, JULY 10, at 8 p.m.

    HOLLYWOOD BOWL, 2301 N. Highland Ave. in Hollywood



    LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC

    BRAMWELL TOVEY, conductor



    SAINT-SAËNS Symphony No. 3, “Organ”

    BERLIOZ Symphonie fantastique



    Time Warner Cable is the media sponsor for the July 8 and July 10 concerts.

    Tickets ($1 - $95) are on sale now at HollywoodBowl.com, at the Hollywood Bowl Box Office (Tuesday–Sunday, noon–6 p.m.), by phone 323.850.2000 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.

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  • Contact:

    Adam Crane, 213.972.3422, acrane@laphil.org; Lisa White, 213.972.3408, lwhite@laphil.org; For photos: 213.972.3034