Celebrity Series of Boston will present the Orchestre National de France with music director Daniele Gatti and piano soloist Alexandre Tharaud on Sunday, January 24, 2016 at 3pm at Symphony Hall, 301 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston

(Boston) Celebrity Series of Boston will present the Orchestre National de France with music director Daniele Gatti and piano soloist Alexandre Tharaud on Sunday, January 24, 2016 at 3pm at Symphony Hall, 301 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston. Sponsored by Eleanor & Frank Pao and Henri & Belinda Termeer; Media partner 99.5 WCRB. Support provided by the French Cultural Center and the Cultural Service of the French Consulate in Boston.

Tickets for the Orchestre National de France start at $55, and are available online at www.celebrityseries.org, by calling CelebrityCharge at (617) 482-6661 Monday-Friday 10:00 a.m.- 4:00 p.m., or at the Symphony Hall Box Office, 301 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston.

This appearance will mark the seventh performance with the Celebrity Series for the Orchestre National de France, and Daniele Gatti’s Celebrity Series debut with the ensemble. Celebrity Series first presented Mr. Gatti in October 1997 when he conducted the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. This performance marks Alexandre Tharaud’s Celebrity Series debut.

The Orchestre National de France (ONF), a Radio France formation (since 1975), was the first permanent symphony orchestra to be established in France in 1934. The Orchestre National de France has made a habit of cooperating with the most prestigious artists in the world since its inception. The ONF performs an average of seventy concerts a year at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, its home in Paris, and at various venues around France and throughout the world while on tour.

Désiré-Emile Inghelbrecht, first conductor of the ONF, established the Orchestra’s musical tradition as the pride of the French music world. After the war, Manuel Rosenthal, André Cluytens, Roger Désormière, Charles Munch, Maurice Le Roux and Jean Martinon perpetuated this tradition. Sergiu Celibidache, who was the Orchestra’s first Guest Conductor from 1973 to 1975, was succeeded by Lorin Maazel who became the ONF’s Music Director. From 1989 to 1998, Jeffrey Tate served as Principal Guest Conductor, while Charles Dutoit was Music Director from 1991 to 2001. Starting in September 2002, Kurt Masur took over the Orchestra’s musical direction for six seasons until Daniele Gatti assumed the position in September 2008. In 2008, Masur became the orchestra’s lifelong Honorary Music Director.

Conductor Daniele Gatti was born in Milan, where at the city’s Verdi Conservatory he studied piano and graduated in composition and conducting. He has recently been appointed the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra’s new chief conductor, a post he will assume in 2016. Daniele Gatti has been the music director of the Orchestre National de France since September 2008. With the Orchestre National de France, he conducted the Mahler Cycle at the Théâtre du Châtelet, Parsifal in concert version at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, the Beethoven Cycle in combination with five new commissions of French contemporary composers, completed a Tchaikovsky Cycle and celebrated the 80th anniversary of the Orchestre (founded in 1934). He has toured with the Orchestre National de France in North America, Spain, Italy, Austria, England, as well as Germany.

An artist of unique vision and originality, Alexandre Tharaud is heralded for his brilliantly-conceived programs and bestselling recordings that range from Bach, Chopin, Rameau, and Ravel to music inspired by Paris cabaret of the 1920’s. This season he returns to Carnegie Hall after a successful debut in 2012-13 where he played Scarlatti and Liszt, the night after a mixed program of jazz and classical at New York’s famous night-club, Le Poisson Rouge.

In 2015-2016 Tharaud makes his Chicago Symphony recital debut and plays Ravel left hand with the Atlanta and Philadelphia Orchestras. His 2011 disc of Bach Concerti with Bernard Labadie and Les Violons du Roy, will be followed up with a 2015-2016 tour and recording of Mozart Concerti.

Program:

DEBUSSY: Prélude à l’après midi d’un faune

MOZART: Piano Concerto No.23 in A Major, K.488

TCHAIKOVSKY: Symphony No. 5

About Celebrity Series of Boston
Celebrity Series of Boston was founded in 1938 by pianist and impresario Aaron Richmond. Over the course of its 77-year history, Celebrity Series has presented an array of the world’s greatest performing artists, including Sergei Rachmaninoff, Arturo Toscanini, Ignace Paderewski, Artur Rubenstein, Vladimir Horowitz, Glenn Gould, Fritz Kreisler, Jascha Heifetz, Isaac Stern, Andrés Segovia, Kirsten Flagstad, Marian Anderson, Luciano Pavarotti, Béla Bartók, Igor Stravinsky, Martha Graham, Ballet Russe De Monte Carlo, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Mstislav Rostropovich, and the New York City Opera Company.

The Celebrity Series has been bringing the very best performers–from orchestras and chamber ensembles, vocal and piano music, to dance companies, jazz, and more–to Boston’s major concert halls for 77 years. The Celebrity Series of Boston believes in the power of excellence and innovation in the performing arts to enrich life experiences, transform lives and build better communities. Through its education initiatives, the Celebrity Series seeks to build a community of Greater Boston where the performing arts are a valued, lifelong, shared experience–on stages, in schools, at home– everywhere. For more information on Celebrity Series of Boston, call (617) 482-2595 or visit us online at www.celebrityseries.org.

The Celebrity Series of Boston, Inc. receives generous support from Amy & Joshua Boger, Leslie & Howard Appleby, The Garbis & Arminé Barsoumian Charitable Foundation, the Boston Cultural Council, the Stephanie L. Brown Foundation, Charlesbank Capital Partners LLC, the Susanne Marcus Collins Foundation, Deloitte LLP, Donna & Mike Egan, EMC, Foley & Lardner LLP, Gabor Garai & Susan Pravda, David & Harriet Griesinger, the Charles and Cerise Jacobs Charitable Foundation, Paul L. King, The Royal Little Family Foundation, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, Joseph McNay, Stewart Myers, the National Endowment for the Arts, Eleanor & Frank Pao, The Peabody Foundation, PTC, The John S. and Cynthia Reed Foundation, The D.L. Saunders Real Estate Corp., the Stifler Family Foundation, Mr. and Mrs. Henri A. Termeer, Michael and Susan Thonis, Tufts Health Plan, Sanjay & Sangeeta Verma, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Nancy Richmond Winsten, Anonymous, and many others.