PSO Presents Two Performances of Season Opening Celebration

PORTLAND, Maine – The Portland Symphony Orchestra (PSO) opens its 86th season with concerts on Sunday, October 3 and Tuesday, October 5 at Merrill Auditorium. Music Director Robert Moody leads the PSO and special guest bassist Edgar Meyer in works by Strauss, Bottesini, Meyer, and Tchaikovsky.

Edgar Meyer will perform Bottesini’s Concerto No. 2, followed by his own bluegrass-inspired Concerto No. 1. The powerfully passionate tone poem Don Juan by Richard Strauss opens the program, and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4, full of magnificent melodies and vibrant emotions, serves as a thrilling finale.

Called “the best bassist alive” by San Diego Magazine, Edgar Meyer has turned the double bass into a modern, virtuosic instrument, equally at home in classical music and in the American vernacular. His expressive style and unmatched bowing technique, combined with his gift for composition, has garnered him three Grammy awards, a MacArthur Award, and in 2000, Meyer became the first bassist to win the Avery Fisher Prize. He has collaborated with a wide range of musicians including Yo-Yo Ma, Bela Fleck, Joshua Bell, Garth Brooks, Mary Chapin Carpenter, James Taylor, Lyle Lovett, the Indigo Girls, the Chieftains, and others. He has also performed with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the Minnesota Orchestra, and the Boston Symphony, and is currently Visiting Professor of Double Bass at the Royal Academy of Music and the Curtis Institute of Music.

The Sunday, October 3 concert begins at 2:30 p.m. and is preceded by a Concert Conversation at 1:15 p.m. A PostConcert Q&A will follow the performance. The Tuesday, October 5 concert begins at 7:30 p.m. and is preceded by a Concert Conversation at 6:15 p.m. A PostConcert Q&A will follow the performance, and patrons are invited to Restaurant Grace after the concert for an Afterglow cocktail reception. The concerts are sponsored by Maine Medical Center and New England Rehabilitation Hospital of Portland, and will be broadcast statewide by MPBN on Wednesday, October 20 at 8:00 p.m.

Tickets range from $17-$70 and are available through PortTIX at (207) 842-0800 or www.porttix.com. Phone and internet orders are subject to per-ticket handling fees. Tickets may also be purchased in person at the box office at 20 Myrtle St., Monday through Saturday, noon to 6 p.m. Special pricing for students, seniors, and groups may be available. Subscriptions (up to 20% off single ticket prices) and Compose Your Own packages (10% off single ticket prices) are available all season long.

The PSO’s 2010-11 season is sponsored by IDEXX Laboratories and Wright Express. For complete season information , including artist biographies; program notes; and Online Insights, provided with support from Digital Enrichment Sponsor Fairpoint Communications; visit www.portlandsymphony.org.