HOUSTON (March 26, 2018) – The Houston Symphony welcomes famed conductor Bramwell Tovey, Grammy winner and Music Director of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, as he makes his Houston debut in Stravinsky’s Firebird on March 29-31 at 8 p.m. in Jones Hall.
French pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet joins the program in Leonard Bernstein’s The Age of Anxiety (Symphony No. 2), as part of the Symphony’s – and orchestras around the world – season-long celebration of Bernstein’s centennial birthday. The unconventional orchestral piece, featuring solo piano, is based on W.H. Auden’s Pulitzer Prize-winning poem, The Age of Anxiety: A Baroque Eclogue.
Under the direction of Dr. Betsy Cook Weber, the Houston Symphony Chorus is featured in Stravinsky’s neoclassical choral symphony, Symphony of Psalms. The program then concludes with Stravinsky’s fiery and bold masterpiece, Suite from L’oiseau de feu – commonly known as The Firebird.
The concert will take place at Jones Hall for the Performing Arts, 615 Louisiana Street, in Houston’s Theater District. For tickets and information, please call (713) 224-7575 or visit houstonsymphony.org. Tickets may also be purchased at the Houston Symphony Patron Services Center in Jones Hall (Monday–Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.). All programs and artists are subject to change.
STRAVINSKY’S FIREBIRD
Thursday, March 29, 2018, at 8 p.m.
Friday, March 30, 2018, at 8 p.m.
Saturday, March 31, 2018, at 8 p.m.
Bramwell Tovey, conductor
Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano
Houston Symphony Chorus
Betsy Cook Weber, director
Bernstein: The Age of Anxiety (Symphony No. 2)
Stravinsky: Symphony of Psalms
Stravinsky: Suite from L’oiseau de feu(The Firebird)
About Bramwell Tovey
GRAMMY and Juno award-winning conductor/composer Bramwell Tovey was appointed Music Director of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra in 2000. Under his leadership the VSO have toured to China, Korea, across Canada and the United States. Mr. Tovey is also the Artistic Adviser of the VSO School of Music, a state-of-the-art facility and recital hall which opened in downtown Vancouver in 2011, next to the Orpheum, the VSO’s historic home. His tenure has included complete symphony cycles of Beethoven, Mahler, Brahms as well as the establishment of an annual festival dedicated to contemporary music. In 2018, the VSO’s centenary year, he will become the orchestra’s Music Director Emeritus.
The 2017/18 season in Vancouver includes tours in the fall and spring showcasing the orchestra in their home state as well as key east coast Canadian cities. Other engagements will take him to the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Indianapolis, St. Louis, Houston, Toronto and Melbourne symphonies as well as returns to summer festivals in Vail, Tanglewood, and the Hollywood Bowl.
As guest conductor during the 2016/17 season he returned to the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Boston and Chicago Symphonies, the Philadelphia Orchestra (whose 2016-2017 New Year’s celebrations he also directed), the Melbourne and Sydney symphonies, as well as the Royal Conservatory Orchestra in Toronto.
An active composer, Bramwell Tovey won the 2003 Juno Award for Best Classical Composition for his choral and brass work Requiem for a Charred Skull. Past commissions include the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics, the Toronto Symphony and Calgary Opera who premiered his first full length opera The Inventor in 2011, a recording of which by the VSO with UBC Opera and the original cast has been released on the Naxos label. In 2014 his trumpet concerto, Songs of the Paradise Saloon, was performed by the LA Philharmonic with Alison Balsom as soloist, and was subsequently repeated by the same soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, in December 2014.
A talented pianist as well as conductor and composer, he has appeared as soloist with many major orchestras including the New York, Sydney, Melbourne, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, St Louis, Toronto, and Royal Scottish orchestras. In the summer of 2014 he played and conducted Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue at the Hollywood Bowl with the LA Phil and in Saratoga with the Philadelphia Orchestra. He has performed his own Pictures in the Smoke with the Melbourne and Helsingborg Symphonies and the Royal Philharmonic.
Maestro Tovey was Music Director of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra from 1989 to 2001 where he founded the WSO’s now celebrated New Music Festival. From 2002-2006 he was Music Director of Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, leading tours of Europe, the USA, China and Korea. He opened Luxembourg’s Salle Philharmonie with the world première of Penderecki’s 8th Symphony.
Mr. Tovey is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music in London, the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto and holds honorary degrees from the universities of British Columbia, Manitoba, Kwantlen and Winnipeg. In 2013 he was appointed an honorary Officer of the Order of Canada for services to music.
In August 2011 he was described by Musical America as “one of the most versatile and charismatic musicians in the world.”
About Jean-Yves Thibaudet
For more than three decades, Jean-Yves Thibaudet has performed world-wide, recorded over 50 albums, and built a reputation as one of today’s finest pianists. He plays a range of solo, chamber, and orchestral repertoire – from Beethoven through Liszt, Tchaikovsky, Grieg, and Saint-Saëns; to Ravel, Khachaturian and Gershwin; and to contemporary composers Qigang Chen and James MacMillan.
In 2016/17 Thibaudet is Artist-in-Residence with Orchestre National de France, Wiener Symphoniker and the Colburn School in Los Angeles. As part of his residency in Paris, he performs Saint-Saëns’s Piano Concerto No. 5 with Stéphane Denève and Khachaturian’s Concerto for Piano with Semyon Bychkov; he also curates a special performance with selected students for Radio France. The Vienna residency sees a chamber music programme with principals from the orchestra, performances of Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy under Music Director Philippe Jordan, as well as concerts featuring the Grieg and Gershwin concertos – the latter televised by Austrian broadcaster ORF. At Colburn he enters the third year of a residency – the first of its kind – where his passion for education and fostering young musical talent is invested through individual lessons, masterclasses and performances with students.
Other season highlights include performances of Messiaen’s Turangalîla-Symphonie with Gustavo Dudamel and Orquesta Sinfónica Simón Bolívar de Venezuela as part of the season-opening concerts at Carnegie Hall and on tour in Europe. He tours China with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, opens the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra season under Music Director Marin Alsop and performs James MacMillan’s Concerto for Piano No.3 – a piece he premiered in 2011 – with the Brussels and Los Angeles philharmonic orchestras under Stéphane Denève.
Thibaudet’s recording catalogue of more than 50 albums has received two Grammy nominations, Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik, the Diapason d’Or, the Choc du Monde de la Musique, the Edison Prize, as well as Gramophone and Echo awards. This season he releases Bernstein’s Age of Anxiety with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Marin Alsop, with whom he previously recorded Gershwin (2010), which featured big jazz band orchestrations of Rhapsody in Blue, variations on “I Got Rhythm” and the Concerto in F. In 2016, on the 150th anniversary of Erik Satie’s birth, Decca released a box set of Satie’s complete solo piano music performed by Thibaudet – one of the foremost interpreters and champions of the composer’s works. On his Grammy-nominated recording Saint-Saëns, Piano Concerti Nos. 2&5, released in 2007, he is joined by long-standing collaborator Charles Dutoit and Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. Thibaudet’s Aria–Opera Without Words, which was released the same year, features aria transcriptions, some of which are Thibaudet’s own. His other recordings include the jazz albums Reflections on Duke: Jean-Yves Thibaudet Plays the Music of Duke Ellington and Conversations With Bill Evans.
Thibaudet has also had an impact on the world of fashion, film and philanthropy. This season he features Aaron Zigman’s soundtrack for Wakefield, a drama by Robin Swicord released in September 2016. He was soloist in Dario Marianelli’s award-winning scores for the films Atonement (which won an Oscar for Best Original Music Score) and Pride and Prejudice, and recorded Alexandre Desplat’s soundtrack for the 2012 film Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. He had a cameo in Bruce Beresford’s film on Alma Mahler, Bride of the Wind, and his playing is showcased throughout. In 2004 he served as president of the prestigious charity auction Hospices de Beaune. His concert wardrobe is designed by Dame Vivienne Westwood.
Jean-Yves Thibaudet was born in Lyon, France, where he began his piano studies at age five and made his first public appearance at age seven. At twelve, he entered the Paris Conservatory to study with Aldo Ciccolini and Lucette Descaves, a friend and collaborator of Ravel. At age fifteen, he won the Premier Prix du Conservatoire and, three years later, the Young Concert Artists Auditions in New York City. Among his numerous commendations is the Victoire d’Honneur, a lifetime career achievement award and the highest honour given by France’s Victoires de la Musique. In 2010 the Hollywood Bowl honored Thibaudet for his musical achievements by inducting him into its Hall of Fame. Previously a Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, Thibaudet was awarded the title Officier by the French Ministry of Culture in 2012.
About the Houston Symphony
During the 2017-18 season, the Houston Symphony celebrates its fourth season with Music Director Andrés Orozco- Estrada and continues its second century as one of America’s leading orchestras with a full complement of concert, community, education, touring and recording activities. The Houston Symphony, one of the oldest performing arts organizations in Texas, held its inaugural performance at The Majestic Theater in downtown Houston June 21, 1913. Today, with an annual operating budget of $33.9 million, the full-time ensemble of 88 professional musicians presents nearly 170 concerts annually, making it the largest performing arts organization in Houston. Additionally, musicians of the orchestra and the Symphony’s four Community-Embedded Musicians offer over 900 community-based performances each year, reaching thousands of people in Greater Houston.
The Grammy Award-winning Houston Symphony has recorded under various prestigious labels, including Naxos, Koch International Classics, Telarc, RCA Red Seal, Virgin Classics and, most recently, Dutch recording label Pentatone. In 2017, the Houston Symphony was awarded an ECHO Klassik award for the live recording of Alban Berg’s Wozzeck under the direction of former Music Director Hans Graf. The orchestra earned its first Grammy nomination and Grammy Award at the 60th annual ceremony for the same recording in the Best Opera Recording category.
For tickets and more information, please visit houstonsymphony.org or call 713-224-7575.
MEDIA CONTACT:
Vanessa Astros: (713) 337-8560, vanessa.astros@houstonsymphony.org
Mireya Reyna: (713) 337-8557, mireya.reyna@houstonsymphony.org
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