December 22, 2005
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Portland, Ore. … Scheherazade and Carmen are two of the memorable women from literature whose characters are explored in the music of Rimsky-Korsakov, Bizet and others in an Oregon Symphony RBC Dain Rauscher Front Row Center concert led by Guest Conductor Michael Stern and featuring mezzo-soprano Michelle DeYoung on Friday, Jan. 20, at 7:30 p.m. at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. Further support is provided by American Airlines.
In “Women of Substance,” Stern and DeYoung present character studies of three indomitable women: Scheherazade, immortalized in Rimsky-Korsakov’s well-known orchestral work, who saves her own life with the quickness of her imagination; Carmen, whose fiery spirit leads to her downfall and the scheming manipulations of the Bible’s Delilah in Saint-Saëns’ grand opera, “Samson and Delilah.” Stern, recently named Music Director of the Kansas City Symphony, will discuss the literary and musical origins of these works, summarize their plotlines and explain how the music was created.
DeYoung, a rising star in the operatic world who recently appeared as Dido in the Metropolitan Opera’s production of “Les Troyens,” will sing Carmen’s signature aria, “Habañera,” along with the aria, “Mon coeur s’ouvre à ta voix,” (My heart opens to your voice) from Saint-Saëns’ epic tale of false love and betrayal. DeYoung will also perform Ravel’s orchestral song cycle “Shéhérazade,” whose title pays homage to Rimsky-Korsakov’s version. The three songs depict the exotic marvels of the Far East with vividly descriptive images, which Ravel emphasizes with his use of sensuous orchestral colors.
The RBC Dain Rauscher Front Row Center series is designed to introduce new audiences to symphonic music, utilizing dramatic and visual elements to make the story and the music come alive. Each of this season’s concerts focuses on the intersection of music and literature. The final concert, in March 2006, will take a closer look at several musical interpretations of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet.”
This performance is scheduled for Friday, Jan. 20, at 7:30 p.m. at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. Tickets range in price from $15 to $55 and may be purchased at the Oregon Symphony Customer Service Office (923 S.W. Washington), Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. or charged by phone at (503) 228-1353, (800) 228-7343 Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Discounted tickets for groups of eight or more are available through the Group Sales hotline at (503) 416-6380. Tickets also may be purchased at all Ticketmaster outlets (503-790-ARTS) or through Ticketmaster Online, via the Symphony’s Web site at www.orsymphony.org. Service fees may apply.
Michelle DeYoung has established herself as one of the most exciting artists of her generation. In the past few seasons, DeYoung has been seen on the concert platforms of some of the world's most illustrious orchestras. She has been welcomed by the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, L.A. Philharmonic, Houston Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Bayerische Staatsoper Orchestra, Concertgebouworkest and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. She has worked with conductors such as Pierre Boulez, Sir Colin Davis, Stefan Deneve, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Christoph Eschenbach, Jesus Lopez Cobos, Bernard Haitink, James Levine, Zubin Mehta, Seiji Ozawa, Antonio Pappano, Esa‑Pekka Salonen, Leonard Slatkin, Mariss Jansons and Michael Tilson Thomas.
This past summer, DeYoung returned to the Concertgebouworkest for performances of Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 in Amsterdam, the BBC Proms in London and Lucerne. She toured Japan with Riccardo Chailly and the Concertgebouworkest this past fall. Other engagements this season include Dido in the Metropolitan Opera’s new production of “Les Troyens,” more performances of Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 with the San Francisco Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra and the L.A. Philharmonic. She will also return to the Minnesota Orchestra for performances of Bernstein’s Symphony No. 1, “Jeremiah” and a series of recitals in Pittsburgh, Calvin College (Grand Rapids, Mich.) and Berkeley.
Last season, DeYoung’s concert performances included Bartók’s “Bluebeard’s Castle” with Pierre Boulez and the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the Promenade Concerts in London and the Edinburgh Festival; returns to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony, the Concertgebouworkest and the Orchestra de la Monnaie and debuts with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the St. Louis Symphony.
Other past engagements include performances of “Dream of Gerontius” for her debut with the New York Philharmonic; the role of Dido in concert performances of “Les Troyens” with the London Symphony Orchestra; “Alexander Nevsky” in the televised 70th Birthday Concert of the BBC Symphony Orchestra; “La Mort de Cleopatre” with the Oslo Philharmonic in Oslo, Copenhagen and the BBC Proms; Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 with the Orchestra de Monnaie and at the Pacific Music Festival in Japan; Verdi’s “Requiem” with the Orchestra de Monnaie; “Oedipus Rex” with the National Symphony Orchestra, “Das Lied von der Erde” with the Rotterdam Philharmonic, Gurrelieder at the Ravinia Festival and a concert performance of Fauré’s “Penelope” at the Edinburgh Festival.
A graduate of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artists Development Program, DeYoung made debuts with the Houston Grand Opera as Venus in “Tannhäuser” in the fall of 2001 and at the Glimmerglass Opera during the summer of 2001 as the title role in Christopher Alden’s critically acclaimed new production of “Rape of Lucretia.”
DeYoung’s most recent recording, “Les Troyens” (the role of Dido), with Sir Colin Davis and the London Symphony Orchestra won the 2001 Grammys for Best Classical Album and Best Opera Recording.
Recognized as one of the most dynamic American conductors of his generation, Michael Stern was recently named Music Director of the Kansas City Symphony. Stern is also the founding Music Director of The IRIS Chamber Orchestra, which is presently in its fifth season. Under Stern's direction the orchestra has been unanimously heralded for its varied programming, with special emphasis on American contemporary music, and for its acclaimed recordings on the Naxos and Arabesque labels. Dedicated to revitalizing all aspects of the concert experience, IRIS has embraced as a central part of its mission a deep commitment to furthering American composers, and has commissioned works by Stephen Hartke, Richard Danielpour, Edgar Meyer, Jonathan Leshnoff and Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, among others.
In 2000 Mr. Stern concluded his tenure as chief conductor of Germany’s Saarbrücken Radio Symphony Orchestra. The first American Chief Conductor in the orchestra’s history, he was offered the post almost immediately after making his debut with them in March 1996. In addition to their work in concert, for broadcast and on tour, he and the orchestra made recordings which include a disc of Henry Cowell’s works as well as a series devoted to the music of Charles Ives, including a live recorded performance of the “Universe” Symphony and the first recording of the reconstructed “Emerson” piano concerto.
In September 1991, he was appointed Permanent Guest Conductor of the Orchestre National de Lyon in France, a position which he held for four years. He has also appeared with the national orchestras of Paris, Bordeaux, Lille and Toulouse. Elsewhere, Mr. Stern has led such orchestras as the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, the Oslo Philharmonic, the Bergen Symphony, the Beethovenhalle Orchestra in Bonn, the Deutsche Symphoniker (DSO) in Berlin, the Budapest Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic, the Moscow Philharmonic, the Helsinki Philharmonic, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in Munich and the Chamber Orchestra of Lausanne. In the United Kingdom he has appeared with the London Symphony, the London Philharmonic, the BBC Symphony (London) and the English Chamber Orchestra. In the Far East, Mr. Stern has appeared with such orchestras as the National Symphony of Taiwan, the Singapore Symphony and Tokyo’s NHK Symphony, and in September 2001 he led the Vienna Radio Symphony on a tour of China. He has also been a frequent guest conductor of the Tonhalle Orchestra in Zurich, with which he has recorded for Denon Records, including a disc of orchestral works by Stravinsky and Prokofiev’s Violin Concertos Nos. 1 and 2 with Boris Belkin. He and Mr. Belkin have also recorded works by Tchaikovsky and Dvorák with the London Philharmonic.
In North America, he has conducted the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Saint Louis Symphony, the Atlanta Symphony, the Houston Symphony, the Baltimore Symphony, the Toronto Symphony, the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, the Indianapolis Symphony and the National Symphony in Washington, D.C., among many others. He also appears regularly at the Aspen Music Festival, and has served on the faculty of the American Academy of Conducting at Aspen. From 1986 to 1991, Mr. Stern was the Assistant Conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra. In September 1986, he made his New York Philharmonic debut as one of three young conductors invited by Leonard Bernstein to participate in a conducting workshop that culminated in two concerts at Avery Fisher Hall.
Mr. Stern received his degree from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where his major teacher was the noted conductor and scholar Max Rudolf (whose famous textbook, “The Grammar of Conducting,” Mr. Stern co-edited for its third edition.) He has also edited a new volume of Rudolf’s collected writings and correspondence, published in January 2002 by Pendragon Press. His studies have included two summers at the Pierre Monteux Memorial School in Hancock, Maine, under the tutelage of Charles Bruck. Born in 1959, Mr. Stern is a graduate of Harvard University, where he earned a degree in American History in 1981.
