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PRESS CONTACTS: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: CHARLES DUTOIT TO LEAD BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA ON TOUR TOUR PROGRAMS TO FEATURE JANINE JANSEN IN TCHAIKOVSKY’S VIOLIN CONCERTO AND PIANIST BEHZOD ABDURAIMOV IN RACHMANINOFF’S RHAPSODY ON A THEME OF PAGANINI; TOUR REPERTOIRE TO INCLUDE MAHLER’S AND TCHAIKOVSKY’S FIFTH SYMPHONIES, THE 2014 BSO ASIA TOUR IS SPONSORED BY EMC CORPORATION, LEAD SPONSOR, AND STATE STREET CORPORATION, SUPPORTING SPONSOR Eminent Swiss conductor Charles Dutoit has graciously offered to lead the Boston Symphony Orchestra on its upcoming tour to Japan and China, May 1-10, stepping in for Lorin Maazel who has been obliged to interrupt his conducting activities until the third week of May due to an accident and on the advice of his doctors. Maestro Maazel had been particularly looking forward to his concerts and tour with the Boston Symphony to celebrate more than 50 years with the orchestra, having made his conducting debut in 1960 at the invitation of Charles Munch (BSO Music Director 1949-62). The BSO’s long-awaited return to China will include performances in Beijing’s National Centre for the Performing Arts (5/1&2), the Shanghai Oriental Art Center, (5/4), and the Guangzhou Opera House (5/6), marking the BSO’s first performances in China since its historic 1979 tour there as the first U.S. orchestra to visit China after the establishment of diplomatic relations. The Boston Symphony Orchestra will follow these performances with three concerts in Tokyo—the first BSO concerts in Japan since the orchestra’s last tour there with Seiji Ozawa in 1999—with performances in the Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre (5/8) and Suntory Hall (5/9 & 10).
Maestro Dutoit will make no changes to the originally scheduled tour programs. Those programs will feature violinist Janine Jansen performing Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in Tokyo on May 8 and 9 and pianist Behzod Abduraimov performing Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini in Beijing on May 1, Shanghai on May 4, and Guangzhou on May 6. Tour repertoire will also include symphonies of Mahler (No. 5), Tchaikovsky (No. 5), and Mozart (No. 38, Prague), and a BSO signature work, Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique, as well as Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain and Glinka’s Overture to Russlan and Ludmila. Click here for complete programs (full concert programs listed at end of release). Click here for a press kit for the BSO’s concerts in Japan, and here for a press kit for the BSO’s concerts in China. For further information about the Boston Symphony Orchestra, visit www.bso.org. QUOTE FROM MARK VOLPE, BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA “The Boston Symphony Orchestra has had the privilege of working regularly with Maestro Dutoit ever since Seiji Ozawa first invited him to conduct the orchestra 33 years ago. His outstanding rapport with the orchestra and undeniable engagement with our audiences have made him one of the orchestra’s most popular guest conductors, so we are certain that the BSO is in good hands to bring its tour audiences the very best of what it has to offer. “I’d like to express my most sincere appreciation to everyone involved in finding a solution to maintaining the BSO’s tour schedule under some challenging circumstances. In particular I would like to thank the managements of the NCPA in Beijing, Oriental Arts Center in Shanghai, and Guangzhou Opera House, as well as Tomin Gekijo and AMATI (tour agent in Japan) and Harrison Parrott (over all tour agent)—for their sympathetic understanding and fine cooperation in helping us resolve this difficult situation. From Maestro Dutoit, to the musicians of the BSO, the leadership at all the wonderful concert venues, our agents and presenters, and our incredibly generous tour sponsors—EMC Corporation and State Street Corporation—I thank you all on behalf of the entire BSO organization. On an important final note, we want to wish Lorin Maazel a speedy recovery and look forward to having him back on the BSO podium in the not-so-distant future.” QUOTE FROM JOE TUCCI, EMC CORPORATION QUOTE FROM JACK KLINCK, STATE STREET CORPORATION PREVIOUS BOSTON SYMPHONY TOURS TO JAPAN AND CHINA The BSO and Japan The BSO’s 2014 tour to China and Japan has been organized by Harrison Parrott, Ltd. (www.harrisonparrott.com); HarrisonParrott has been very active in China since the late 1990s and in Japan since the 1970s arranging in both countries an ever growing program of artists and orchestra tours. AMATI Inc. (www.amati-tokyo.com) has been an organizational partner for the BSO concerts in Tokyo. The Boston Symphony Orchestra’s website is www.bso.org. Charles Dutoit In 2010-11, the Philadelphia Orchestra celebrated its thirty-year artistic collaboration with Mr. Dutoit, who made his debut with that orchestra in 1980 and who became chief conductor there in 2008. Last season he became the Philadelphia Orchestra’s conductor laureate. Also artistic director and principal conductor of London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Mr. Dutoit collaborates regularly with the world’s leading orchestras, including the Chicago Symphony, Boston Symphony, Berlin Philharmonic, and Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, as well as the Israel Philharmonic and the major orchestras of Japan, South America, and Australia. His more than 170 recordings for Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, EMI, Philips, and Erato have garnered more than forty awards and distinctions. For twenty-five years, from 1977 to 2002, Charles Dutoit was artistic director of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, a dynamic musical partnership recognized the world over. Between 1990 and 2010, he was artistic director and principal conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra’s summer festival at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in upstate New York. From 1991 to 2001, he was music director of the Orchestre National de France, with which he has toured extensively on five continents. In 1996 he was appointed music director of the NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo, with which he has toured Europe, the United States, China, and Southeast Asia; he is now music director emeritus of that orchestra. Charles Dutoit has also been artistic director of both the Sapporo Pacific Music Festival and the Miyazaki International Music Festival in Japan, as well as the Canton International Summer Music Academy in Guangzhou, China, which he founded in 2005. In summer 2009 he became music director of the Verbier Festival Orchestra. When still in his early twenties, Charles Dutoit was invited by Herbert von Karajan to lead the Vienna State Opera. He has since conducted regularly at the Royal Opera House–Covent Garden, the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and Deutsche Oper in Berlin, and has also led productions at the Los Angeles Music Center Opera and Teatro Coln in Buenos Aires. He is an Honorary Citizen of the City of Philadelphia, a Grand Officier de l’Ordre National du Qubec, a Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France, and an Honorary Officer of the Order of Canada, the country’s highest award of merit. The recipient of the 2010 Governor’s Distinguished Arts Award, which recognizes a Pennsylvania artist of international fame, he recently received an honorary doctorate from the Curtis Institute of Music. He also holds honorary doctorates from McGill University, the University of Montral, and Universit Laval. Charles Dutoit was born in Lausanne, Switzerland; his extensive musical training included violin, viola, piano, percussion, the history of music, and composition at the conservatoires and music academies of Geneva, Siena, Venice, and Boston. Maestro Dutoit was a conducting Fellow in the 1959 class of the Tanglewood Music Center, the BSO’s prestigious summer music academy, one year before Seiji Ozawa, BSO Music Director 1973-2002, attended in 1960. A globetrotter motivated by his passion for history and archaeology, political science, art, and architecture, Charles Dutoit has traveled in all the nations of the world. Janine Jansen Particularly renowned for her success in the digital music charts, Ms. Jansen records exclusively for Decca (Universal Music). Future releases include an album of J.S. Bach concertos and sonatas. Past recordings include Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2 with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Vladimir Jurowski; the Beethoven and Britten concertos with Paavo Jrvi; Mendelssohn and Bruch concertos with Riccardo Chailly, and Tchaikovsky’s concerto with Daniel Harding. Janine has also recently released a chamber project disc, including Schubert’s String Quintet and Schoenberg’s Verklrte Nacht, in celebration of the tenth anniversary of her International Chamber Music Festival Utrecht. Janine Jansen’s numerous awards include four Edison Klassiek Awards, three Echo Klassik awards, the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik, the NDR Musikpreis for outstanding artistic achievement, and, most recently, the Concertgebouw Prize. She has been given the VSCD Klassieke Muziekprijs for individual achievement and the RPS Instrumentalist Award for performances in the United Kingdom. She studied with Coosje Wijzenbeek, Philipp Hirshhorn, and Boris Belkin. The outstanding instrument she plays is the “Barrere” by Antonio Stradivari (1727), on extended loan from the Elise Mathilde Foundation. Behzod Abduraimov An exclusive Decca artist, Behzod Abduraimov released his debut recital CD on Decca Classics in 2012, earning both the Choc de Classica and the Diapason Dcouverte. At age eighteen, with a notable performance of Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3, he won first prize in the 2009 London International Piano Competition. Born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, in 1990, Behzod Abduraimov began to play the piano at the age of five. He was a pupil of Tamara Popovich at the Uspensky State Central Lyceum in Tashkent, and is currently at the International Center for Music at Park University, Kansas City, studying with Stanislav Ioudenitch. A Brief History of the Boston Symphony Orchestra Today the BSO reaches millions of listeners, not only through its concert performances in Boston and at Tanglewood, but also via the internet, radio, television, educational programs, recordings, and tours. It commissions works from today’s most important composers; its summer season at Tanglewood in the Berkshire hills of Western Massachusetts is among the world’s most important music festivals; it helps develop future audiences through BSO Youth Concerts and educational outreach programs involving the entire Boston community; and, during the Tanglewood season, it operates the Tanglewood Music Center, one of the world’s most important training grounds for young professional-caliber musicians. The Boston Symphony Chamber Players, made up of BSO principals, are known worldwide, and the Boston Pops Orchestra—with its cabaret style festive atmosphere and food and drink served during the concerts—setsan international standard for performances of lighter music. The BSO’s winter season and the Boston Pops holiday and spring seasons take place in Boston’s Symphony Hall, widely acclaimed for its great acoustics and considered among the top concert halls in the world. Launched in 1996, the BSO’s website, bso.org, is the largest and most-visited orchestral website in the United States, receiving approximately 7 million visitors annually on its full site as well as its smart phone-/mobile device-friendly web format. The BSO is also on Facebook and Twitter, and video content from the BSO is available on YouTube. An expansion of the BSO’s educational activities has also played a key role in strengthening the orchestra’s commitment to, and presence within, its surrounding communities. Through its Education and Community Engagement programs, the BSO provides individuals of all backgrounds the opportunity to develop and build relationships with the BSO and orchestral music. In addition, the BSO offers a variety of free educational programs at Symphony Hall and Tanglewood, as well as special initiatives aimed at attracting young audience members. The Boston Symphony Orchestra gave its inaugural concert on October 22, 1881, under Georg Henschel, who remained as conductor until 1884. For nearly twenty years, BSO concerts were held in the old Boston Music Hall; Symphony Hall, one of the world’s most revered concert halls, opened on October 15, 1900. Henschel was succeeded by the German-born and -trained conductors Wilhelm Gericke, Arthur Nikisch, Emil Paur, and Max Fiedler, culminating in the appointment of the legendary Karl Muck, who served two tenures, 1906-08 and 1912-18. In 1915 the orchestra made its first transcontinental trip, playing thirteen concerts at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. Henri Rabaud, engaged as conductor in 1918, was succeeded a year later by Pierre Monteux. These appointments marked the beginning of a French tradition maintained, even during the Russian-born Serge Koussevitzky’s tenure (1924-49), with the employment of many French-trained musicians. It was in 1936 that Koussevitzky led the orchestra’s first concerts in the Berkshires; he and the players took up annual summer residence at Tanglewood a year later. Koussevitzky passionately shared Major Higginson’s dream of “a good honest school for musicians,” and in 1940 that dream was realized with the founding of the Berkshire Music Center (now called the Tanglewood Music Center). Koussevitzky was succeeded in 1949 by Charles Munch, who continued supporting contemporary composers, introduced much French music to the repertoire, and led the BSO on its first international tours. In 1956, the BSO, under the direction of Charles Munch, was the first American orchestra to tour the Soviet Union. Erich Leinsdorf began his term as music director in 1962, to be followed in 1969 by William Steinberg. Seiji Ozawa became the BSO’s thirteenth music director in 1973. His historic twenty-nine-year tenure extended until 2002, when he was named Music Director Laureate. In 1979, the BSO, under the direction of Seiji Ozawa, was the first American orchestra to tour mainland China after the normalization of relations. Bernard Haitink, named principal guest conductor in 1995 and Conductor Emeritus in 2004, has led the BSO in Boston, New York, at Tanglewood, and on tour in Europe, as well as recording with the orchestra. Previous principal guest conductors of the orchestra included Michael Tilson Thomas, from 1972 to 1974, and the late Sir Colin Davis, from 1972 to 1984. The first American-born conductor to hold the position, James Levine was the BSO’s music director from 2004 to 2011. Levine led the orchestra in wide-ranging programs that included works newly commissioned for the orchestra’s 125th anniversary, particularly from significant American composers; issued a number of live concert performances on the orchestra’s own label, BSO Classics; taught at the Tanglewood Music Center; and in 2007 led the BSO in an acclaimed tour of European music festivals. In May 2013, a new chapter in the history of the Boston Symphony Orchestra was initiated when the internationally acclaimed young Latvian conductor Andris Nelsons was announced as the BSO’s next music director, a position he takes up in the 2014-15 season, following a year as music director designate. Today, the Boston Symphony Orchestra continues to fulfill and expand upon the vision of its founder Henry Lee Higginson, not only through its concert performances, educational offerings, and internet presence, but also through its expanding use of virtual and electronic media in a manner reflecting the BSO’s continuing awareness of today’s modern, ever-changing, 21st-century world. For further information about the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s many activities, visit www.bso.org. EMC CORPORATION STATE STREET CORPORATION Boston Symphony Orchestra Tour Itinerary to China and Japan, May 1-10 Thursday, May 1 Friday, May 2 Sunday, May 4 Tuesday, May 6 Thursday, May 8 Friday, May 9 Saturday, May 10 |
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