PSO Enters 2011 with Outstanding Soloists and a World Premiere

PORTLAND, Maine – The Portland Symphony Orchestra (PSO) kicks off the New Year with concerts featuring a world premiere by a renowned local composer, a Baroque masterpiece, a celebration of Motown Records’ 50th anniversary, and one of the most popular works from the late Romantic era.

Tuesday Classical: “From Russia with Love” – January 25, 7:30 p.m.

This concert opens with the world premiere of Elliott Schwartz’s Diamond Jubilee, co-commissioned by the PSO for the composer’s 75th birthday. Guest pianist Andrew von Oeyen will then join the orchestra for Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3. The Los Angeles Times declared von Oeyen possessed of “indisputable gifts [and] an extravagantly thorough and effortless technique.” The evening will conclude with Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5, the politically-charged composition with hidden messages underneath the crowd-pleasing lyricism.

A Concert Conversation will be held at 6:15 p.m. Following the concert patrons are invited to a PostConcert Q&A with the artists and then to Restaurant Grace for an Afterglow cocktail reception.

Sunday Classical: “Bach’s St. John Passion” – January 30, 2:30 p.m.

The Choral Art Society’s Masterworks Chorus along with soloists Kendra Colton (soprano), Pamela Dellal (mezzo-soprano), John Aler (tenor), Laurence Albert (bass) and Troy Cook (bass) join Music Director Robert Moody and the PSO for a dramatic performance of Passion According to St. John by J.S. Bach. Passion is a sacred oratorio, composed by Bach for the Good Friday Vespers service of 1724. The work presents dramatic choruses, reflective arias, and is known as an extravagant composition, with an expressive, unbridled immediacy.

A Concert Conversation will be held at 1:15 p.m. and a PostConcert Q&A will follow the program.

PSO Pops!: “The Golden Age of Motown” – February 12, 7:30 p.m. and February 13, 2:30 p.m.

Marking the 50th anniversary of the Motown record label, Robert Moody and the PSO welcome vocalists Joy Lynn Matthews and Tituss Burgess for a musical celebration steeped in good old-fashioned soul and rhythm & blues, Joy Lynn Matthews is a veteran of musical theater, performing in such shows as Anything Goes, The King & I, West Side Story, The Music Man, Ragtime, Showboat, and the opera Carmen. Tituss Burgess made his Broadway debut in Good Vibrations and has gone on to appear in Jersey Boys, The Little Mermaid, and Guys and Dolls. Sponsored by MPX and the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram.

Tuesday Classical: “Preu Conducts Bruckner” – March 8, 7:30 p.m.

Guest conductor Eckart Preu leads the PSO in a program featuring Felix Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto (with soloist Tai Murray) and Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 4. Acclaimed as “superb” by The New York Times, Tai Murray is a rising star of her generation and was the recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2004. Eckart Preu, Music Director of the Spokane Symphony and the Stamford Symphony, has conducted at Carnegie Hall, the Sorbonne in Paris, and with the Jerusalem Symphony. Preu and Robert Moody have known each other since 1995 when they studied conducting together.

A Concert Conversation will be held at 6:15 p.m. Following the concert patrons are invited to a PostConcert Q&A with the artists and then to Restaurant Grace for an Afterglow cocktail reception.

The PSO’s 2010-2011 season is sponsored by IDEXX Laboratories and Wright Express. Subscriptions (up to 20% off single ticket prices) and Compose Your Own packages (10% off single ticket prices) are available all season long, with details at PortlandSymphony.org. Single ticket prices range from $17 – $70 and are available at porttix.com and by phone at (207) 842-0800 or in person at PortTIX (20 Myrtle St., Portland). Special pricing may be available for students, seniors, and groups of 10 or more.

 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.

Filed under: Press releases

Tags: choral, piano, Robert Moody