MUSIC DIRECTOR CARLOS KALMAR AND THE OREGON SYMPHONY ANNOUNCE GROUNDBREAKING 2017/18 SEASON
New season highlights social and environmental issues; continues multi-media concerts;
explores new territory with four commissions/world premieres
and 14 other Oregon Symphony premieres; and delivers another major recording.
(PORTLAND,
Ore.) – Music Director Carlos Kalmar and President Scott Showalter have
announced the details of the Symphony’s 2017/18 Season. In the new
season,
titled “A New Dimension,” the Oregon Symphony focuses on three social themes: immigration, environment, and homelessness.
Scott Showalter,
for whom the new season marks his fourth
as Symphony President and CEO, highlighted the importance of the
just-announced season: “Our SoundSights series in 2016/17 has received
international attention, but we aren’t stopping there. We’re building
our programs unlike any other orchestra – artistically
thrilling, yet unique to our region.”
The Sounds of Home Series
The groundbreaking
Sounds of Home series, like its predecessor SoundSights series, is comprised of three subscription concerts, each with a visual component. But
Sounds of Home goes further – into a new dimension – focusing the
power of music on the subject of home. The series explores three
specific issues critical to our home community and the wider world:
immigration, the search for a home; the environment, our collective home; and
homelessness, the need for a home.
The
series will feature collaborations with other arts organizations and
also with social service and environmental agencies, whose work
addresses one or
more of the series’ themes. The Oregon Symphony aims to create a
citywide conversation around such timely societal issues and to use its
concerts to highlight its partner organizations and their work.
“The
goal,” Showalter continued, “is for people not only to enjoy great
music, but also to cause them to reconsider classical music and our
greater world
in new ways. Why should an arts organization address social issues? I
say that we must – especially in these uncertain times. This is the
future.”
Mayor Ted Wheeler, the Honorary Chair of the Sounds of Home
series, said, “The Oregon
Symphony is taking an impressive civic leadership position, drawing
attention to issues that all of us in Portland care about. I encourage
organizations and individuals to get involved. Their work will help our
city, already strong in the arts, to become even
stronger.”
The three
Sounds of Homes concerts are:
Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue
[Immigration]
November 4, 5, 6, 2017
*Kirill Gerstein, piano
*Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue
*Schoenberg: Piano Concerto
Chris Rogerson: commissioned work
With a focus on immigration – the search for home – this program adds a powerful
theatrical element to the musical experience, with short plays by MacArthur
“Genius” Grant-winning playwright Luis Alfaro
and original, incidental music by Chris Rogerson. This concert
highlights the important role of immigrants in making the music we
enjoy today: Gershwin was a first-generation immigrant, and both
Schoenberg and Carlos Kalmar found new homes in America.
Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring
[Environment]
January 13, 14, 15, 2018
*Elina Vӓhӓlӓ, violin
Haydn: Symphony No. 70
*Bartók: Violin Concerto No. 2
Stravinsky:
Rite of Spring
There’s
no place like home, as the emphasis shifts to the environment – our
collective home – with a concert that features commissioned video work
by New York-based
stage and multimedia designer Matthew Haber to accompany Stravinsky’s
monumental
Rite of Spring.
Joshua Bell
[Homelessness]
*Joshua Bell, violin
**Measha Brueggergosman, soprano
Hindemith:
News of the Day Overture
*Bernstein: Serenade
**Gabriel Kahane: commissioned work
The
world’s most famous violinist once performed in the subway, where he
was largely ignored and virtually anonymous. His social experiment is a
fitting backdrop for
a concert that explores the idea of homelessness – the need for a home –
with a commission by Gabriel Kahane.
Other Season Highlights
With
its music being shared ever more widely around the world, thanks to
American Public Media’s SymphonyCast and Performance Today, as well as
broadcasts
by All Classical Portland, and with the current 2016/17 season poised
to set another all-time high in ticket sales and contributions, the
Symphony will maintain the 20% increase in the number of classical
concerts established last season.
During the newly announced season, the Symphony will
record another CD on the PentaTone label, following the success
of its recent CDs which have garnered three Grammy Award nominations in
the last five years. The CD will focus on winners of the Pulitzer Prize
for Music and include Gould’s Stringmusic,
Piston’s Symphony No. 7, and Hanson’s Symphony No. 4 (Requiem).
Music Director
Carlos Kalmar, commenting on the season, which marks his 15th
at the artistic helm, said: “This is the most ambitious season I’ve
ever done in my career, bar none! It will appeal to classical music
lovers and, no doubt, to new audiences as
well. And, with the Sounds of Home series, we will have a bigger impact on our community than ever before.”
The
subscription series begins on September 23, 2017 and closes on May 21,
2018. It includes 48 performances of 16 Classical subscription concerts
(up from
40 performances in 2015/16), 8 performances of 4 Pops subscription
concerts, and 3 performances of 3 Kids subscription concerts, for a
total of 59 performances of 23 different subscription concerts.
The
season opens on September 16, 2017 with a Special Concert featuring
renowned social justice/media mega-star and former Star Trek castmember
George Takei, who will emcee the opening night concert and narrate Aaron Copland’s
Lincoln Portrait. The season also includes two other Special Concerts: the Oregon Symphony joins forces with
Pink Martini for a New Year’s Extravaganza, which includes the
final “Ode to Joy” movement of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony on December
30 and 31, 2017; and pianist
Yuja Wang returns for a recital performance on May 3, 2018. The
three Special Concerts are now available only to renewing and new
subscribers.
Every
season, the Oregon Symphony performs between 20 and 30 concerts beyond
its subscription series. These Special Concerts – under the
Oregon Symphony Presents banner – span a wide range of genres. Patrons can expect the full slate of these Special Concerts to be announced in May.
2017/18 Classical Concerts:
Percussionist
Colin Currie returns for his third year as the Oregon Symphony’s Artist in Residence,
a position that involves performing onstage as well as working
around the community. Currie is an extraordinary classical music
ambassador, deploying an array of percussion instruments, including his
own body, to perform and teach in venues throughout
the region.
Audience Favorites
The season includes many classical favorites like
Beethoven’s Violin
Concerto, Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony, Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue,
Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, Brahms’ First Symphony, Tchaikovsky’s
“Pathetique,” Verdi’s Requiem,
and Mahler’s Seventh Symphony, among many others.
Premieres
In addition to those favorites, the season enjoys four commissioned works and their associated world premieres from
Andy Akiho, Marc-Anthony Turnage, Chris Rogerson, and Gabriel Kahane. In addition to those, the season is spiced with 14 other
Oregon Symphony premieres, including Balakirev’s
Islamey, da Ponte’s The Rising Sea, Adams’ Absolute Jest, Kokkonen’s
Symphonic Sketches, Glanert’s Concertgeblaas, Piston’s Symphony No. 7,
Hanson’s Symphony No. 4, Connesson’s Supernova,
and Hindemith’s News of the Day Overture, among others.
Returning Soloists
2017/18
audiences will enjoy the return of some of the world’s best-known
classical artists, performers who have won audiences’ favor for previous
appearances, including
pianists André Watts, Garrick Ohlsson, Kirill Gerstein, Natasha Paremski, and
Francesco Piemontesi; violinists Joshua Bell, Augustin Hadelich, Elina Vӓhӓlӓ, Vadim Gluzman, and Oregon Symphony concertmaster
Sarah Kwak; percussionist Colin Currie; and cellist Johannes Moser.
Debuting Soloists
Guest artists making their Oregon Symphony debuts include the
St. Lawrence String Quartet; Benjamin Beilman, violin; Measha Brueggergosman, soprano;
Lilli Paasikivi, mezzo-soprano; Dimitri Pittas, tenor; and Raymond Aceto, bass.
Debuting Conductors
Leading the orchestra for the very first time are conductors
Baldur Brönnimann, Johannes Debus, Leo Hussain, David Danzmayr, and Jérémie Rhorer.
2017/18 Pops Concerts:
The popular
Jeff Tyzik continues his tenth year as Principal Pops Conductor,
curating and conducting the Pops Series. The 2017/18 Pops Season
includes eight performances of four separate Pops concerts, spanning the
musical spectrum.
The Pops Season gets off to an entertaining start in October with the Magic Circle Theatre Company and
Phantoms of the Orchestra; A Pops Holiday concert with the Pacific Youth Choir and vocalist
Ashley Brown (Broadway’s Mary Poppins) celebrates the festive
season in November; in February, just before the 2018 Oscars, we
celebrate the man with the greatest number of statues to his name with
John Williams at the Oscars; and the Pops season concludes with The Hot Sardines in April.
2017/18 Kids Concerts:
Young audiences are an important part of the Oregon Symphony family. This year’s Kids Concerts, conducted by Associate Conductor
Norman Huynh, feature kid-favorite Pam Mahon as narrator and performer in programs designed especially for the young and the young at heart:
Star Wars Spectacular in November with the Pacific Youth Choir and Dance West;
Dinosaurs! in January; and Along the Oregon Trail in March, again with the Pacific Youth Choir and Dance West.
Subscription Details
Oregon Symphony subscribers will receive their
renewal packets beginning today and have until March 31 to renew
their seats or request seating changes. New subscribers may purchase
their season tickets beginning immediately.
Tickets to the
George Takei, Pink Martini, and Yuja Wang Special Concerts are available at this time only to patrons renewing their subscriptions or purchasing new subscriptions.
Tickets to all Oregon Symphony series concerts will go on sale to the general public in August.
Classical Series subscriptions are priced as follows:
8-concert series, beginning at $168
16-concert series, beginning at $320
Pops Series subscriptions begin as low as $84 for all four concerts.
Kids Concert Series subscriptions begin as low as $27 for all three concerts.
Subscriptions
may be renewed or purchased online at OrSymphony.org; by phone at
503-228-1353; or in person/by mail at 909 SW Washington, Portland.
For more information, go to www.orsymphony.org or call the Ticket Office at 503-228-1353.
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