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Home , BBC Symphony Orchestra, Ben Heppner, Billy Budd (opera), Christine Brewer, Christof Loy, David Alden

For Immediate Release: Press Contacts: April 29, 2016 Eileen Chambers, 312-294-3092

Photos Available By Request [email protected]

DONALD RUNNICLES LEADS CSO IN PROGRAM OF WORKS BY ELGAR, STRAUSS, AND BRITTEN

May 5, 7 and 10, 2016

CHICAGO—Conductor leads the Chicago Orchestra (CSO) in concerts on Thursday, May 5, at 8:00 p.m., Saturday, May 7, at 8:00 p.m., and Tuesday, May 10, at 7:30 p.m. The program includes ’s da , ’ gripping tone poem Death and Transfiguration, and ’s Enigma Variations.

Britten’s , opens the program. Written in 1940 as a commission for the 2600th anniversary celebrations of the Japanese emperor Hirohito’s ruling dynasty, the piece went unused for the occasion due to its notably mournful tone. Britten’s beautifully orchestrated and strikingly powerful work was later premiered by the in in 1941. The program continues with one of Richard Strauss’ early tone poems, Death and Transfiguration, which traces a man’s journey through the pain of death to his eventual redemption. Concluding the evening’s program is Elgar’s Variations on an Original Theme, Op. 36 (Enigma) which contains 14 charming and witty musical portraits of the composer’s circle of acquaintances and one of Elgar himself. Arguably one of the most popular English classical works of the 20th century, the Enigma Variations was given its U.S. premiere by the CSO in 1902.

Internationally renowned conductor Donald Runnicles serves as General Music Director of the , Chief Conductor of BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, and Music Director of the Grand Teton Music Festival, as well as Principal Guest Conductor with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Runnicles, who is considered a leading Wagnerian, was conductor of the San Francisco for 17 seasons. Runnicles has a wealth of both audio and video recordings to his name, his 2013 recording of Wagner arias with and the Deutsche Oper Berlin winning the 2013 Gramophone prize for best vocal recording. His latest release is a DVD of Janáček’s Jenůfa with the Deutsche Oper Berlin. Runnicles’ history with the CSO goes back to his subscription debut in 1995, with his most recent CSO concerts taking place in October of 2014.

The Thursday, May 5 concert is part of CSO’s Classic Encounter series that includes a lively preconcert scene complete with food and drinks, as well as a multimedia presentation and

conversation with a CSO musician hosted by WXRT and Radio Hall of Fame DJ Terri Hemmert. For the May 5 Classic Encounter, Hemmert welcomes CSO Viola Catherine Brubaker for the preconcert conversation. Single tickets for the Classic Encounter preconcert reception at 6:30 p.m. can be added to any concert ticket order for May 5. More information is here. Information on the full Classic Encounter series is available at cso.org/classicencounter.

Tickets for all CSOA-presented concerts can be purchased by phone at 800-223-7114 or 312- 294-3000; online at cso.org, or at the box office: 220 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60604.

Discounted student tickets for select concerts can be purchased, subject to availability, online in advance or at the box office on the day of the concert. For group rates, please call 312-294- 3040.

Artists, programs and prices are subject to change.

Bank of America is the Global Sponsor of the CSO.

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Chicago Symphony Orchestra Thursday, May 5, 2016, 8:00 p.m. Saturday, May 7, 2016, 8:00 p.m. Tuesday, May 10, 2016, 7:30 p.m. Chicago Symphony Orchestra Donald Runnicles, conductor

BRITTEN Sinfonia da requiem, Op. 20 STRAUSS, R. Death and Transfiguration, Op. 24 ELGAR Variations on an Original Theme, Op. 36 (Enigma)

Tickets: $30-$217

Classic Encounter Thursday, May 5, 2016, 6:30 p.m. Preconcert Reception Terri Hemmert, guest speaker Catherine Brubaker, CSO viola

Tickets: $15

Donald Runnicles Donald Runnicles is concurrently the General Music Director (GMD) of the Deutsche Oper Berlin (DOB), Chief Conductor of BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (BBC SSO), and Music Director of the Grand Teton Music Festival in Jackson, Wyoming. Mr. Runnicles is also Principal Guest Conductor of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (ASO). His career can be characterized by close, enduring and extensive relationships with a number of opera companies and orchestras; and his musical identity is defined by performances which are strongly centered in grand romantic opera and symphonic repertory of the late 19th and 20th centuries and the traditions from which the current opera and symphony institutions arose.

Mr. Runnicles' 2009 appointment to the DOB connected one of today's leading Wagner interpreters with a premiere German repertory opera company with a grand, century-long Wagnerian history. As its GMD, Mr. Runnicles has primary responsibility for the musical forces of this historic company which produces each season an average of twenty-five productions and more than two hundred performances. This season, Mr. Runnicles himself will lead forty performances spread over eleven titles as well as symphonic concerts, including new productions of Verdi's by the esteemed German director Christof Loy, and Benjamin Britten's by David Alden (co-produced with the ). Completing his season are revival performances of Verdi's Don Carlo and , Janáček’s Jenůfa, Berlioz's , Wagner's , and a complete , which has become a destination Ring cycle.

Born and raised in , Mr. Runnicles returned home to take up post as Chief Conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (BBC SSO). He conducts five of the BBC SSO's main series programs in the orchestra's Glasgow home, City Halls Concert Hall, and leads concerts throughout Scotland and northern , and each summer, also conducts two programs at the Proms and for the Edinburgh International Festival. Through its BBC Radio 3 broadcasts, commercially released recordings on the Hyperion label, and acclaimed concerts at home and on tour, "the BBC SSO/Runnicles" has become one of the best known and most successful conductor/orchestra partnerships in the .

His Atlanta Symphony association began with a 1999 guest engagement and quickly matured into an abiding musical relationship of ever-increasing depth and accomplishment. The ASO named him Principal Guest Conductor in 2001 at the same time as the appointment of current ASO music director Robert Spano. Together, they have shaped an era for the ASO defined by a rare symbiotic partnership and musical growth that the ASO has not seen since the time of Robert Shaw. He spends two to three weeks each season in Atlanta, and after a dozen years of making music together, has explored all corners of symphonic and choral repertory.

He has been music director since 2005 of the Grand Teton Music Festival, which draws its musicians from many of North America's top orchestras who come to play, listen to and enjoy classical symphonic and chamber music amidst the natural beauty of the Grand Tetons. He leads four of the festival's seven orchestra weeks, and directs and participates as pianist in the many chamber concerts, recitals and other activities the festival offers to its local public and visitors who flock to Jackson and nearby Yellowstone Park in the summer.

Beyond his annual commitments, Mr. Runnicles is active in symphonic repertoire and guest conducts some of the world's finest symphony orchestras. Though fully engaged with four titled positions, he finds time to maintain regular guest relationships with the , London Symphony Orchestra, and Philadelphia Orchestra, with whom he led the Orchestra’s 40th anniversary tour to China in June 2013. This season he returns in subscription to Philadelphia orchestra, leads the Pittsburgh Symphony, and returns to the Dresden Staatskapelle for a special concert with iconic pianist .

For seventeen seasons Mr. Runnicles was Music Director of the (1992-2008), having unexpectedly won the job after conducting two Wagner Ring cycles due to the withdrawal of a conducting colleague in 1990. During his long tenure, he led more than sixty productions which included company, national and indeed international highlights such as the world premieres of ' Dr. Atomic and Conrad Sousa's Les Liaisons dangereuses, as well as the U.S. premieres of 's Saint François d'Assise and Aribert Reimann's Lear. Mr. Runnicles and the SFO made several commercial CD and DVD recordings and were seen often on national and international television. At the close of his tenure, he was given the San Francisco Opera Medal, the company's highest honor, previously given to luminaries such as , , Plácido Domingo and Sir . Mr. Runnicles last returned to the SFO in June 2011 to lead 's new production of Der Ring des Nibelungen, returning to the work and circumstance in which launched his relationship to the company two decades earlier. He next returns to San Francisco in June 2015 for a new Berlioz .

Mr. Runnicles was born in Edinburgh and was educated there and at Cambridge. Following a season with the London Opera Centre, he began his career in Mannheim, Germany as répétiteur, and spent summers assisting in Bayreuth to further immerse his Wagnerian disposition. He spent those early years guest conducting throughout the German repertory theaters and orchestras. In 1988, he made his North American debut conducting Berg's at the , jumping in for an indisposed ; in 1989 he became General Music Director in Freiburg, Germany where he remained for three seasons. In 1990, after two Ring cycles at San Francisco Opera, he was asked to be its Music Director, and began the appointment two years later. Over the past two decades he has conducted at leading international opera houses, orchestras, and summer festivals including Bayreuth, Salzburg, Glyndebourne, Tanglewood and Ravinia. Long associated with the city of Vienna, Mr. Runnicles has conducted many titles and performances for the city's famed theaters and orchestras, including Wiener Philharmoniker, Wiener Symphoniker, new productions of and at the Wiener Staatsoper, Vienna premieres of The Fiery Angel and Lady of Mtsensk at the Volksoper, and most recently a new and acclaimed Vienna premiere of Benjamin Britten's at the Theater-an-der-Wien.

His latest commercial recording of Wagner arias with Jonas Kaufmann and the Deutsche Oper Berlin orchestra for Decca Classics won the 2013 Gramophone prize for best vocal recording. Mr. Runnicles' recordings with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra include a critically acclaimed concert disc with soprano singing Strauss and Wagner, Mozart's Requiem, Orff's , and Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. His extensive discography also contains a live recording of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde released in 2007 by Warner Classics, with Christine Brewer and John Treleaven and the BBC Symphony Orchestra (London); Britten's Billy Budd with Bo Skovhus, and the ; a GRAMMY-nominated recital of German Romantic opera arias with ; and many discs for the label including Wagner Ring excerpts with the Dresden Staatskapelle; Humperdinck's Hänsel und Gretel; Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi; and for SONY, a disc with soprano of works by Strauss, Wagner and Berg.

Mr. Runnicles is a recipient of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) and holds honorary degrees from Edinburgh University, Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, and San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra: www.cso.org and www.csosoundsandstories.org Founded in 1891, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra is consistently hailed as one of the greatest orchestras in the world. Since 2010, the preeminent conductor has served as its 10th music director. Yo-Yo Ma is the CSO’s Judson and Joyce Green Creative Consultant, and Samuel Adams and Elizabeth Ogonek are its Mead Composers-in-Residence.

From baroque through contemporary music, the CSO commands a vast repertoire. Its renowned musicians annually perform more than 150 concerts, most at Symphony Center in Chicago and, each summer, at the suburban Ravinia Festival. They regularly tour nationally and internationally. Since 1892, the CSO has made 59 international tours, performing in 29 countries on five continents.

People around the globe listen to weekly radio broadcasts of CSO concerts and recordings on the WFMT radio network and online at cso.org/radio . Recordings by the CSO have earned 62 Grammy Awards, including two in 2011 for Muti’s recording with the CSO and Chorus of Verdi's Messa da Requiem (Muti’s first of four releases with the CSO to date). Find details on these and many other CSO recordings at www.cso.org/resound.

The CSO is part of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association, which also includes the Chicago Symphony Chorus (Duain Wolfe, Director and Conductor) and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, a training ensemble for emerging professionals. Through its prestigious Symphony Center Presents series, the CSOA presents guest artists and ensembles from a variety of genres—classical, jazz, world, and contemporary.

The Negaunee Music Institute at the CSO offers community and education programs that annually engage more than 200,000 people of diverse ages and backgrounds. Through the Institute and other activities, including a free annual concert with Muti and the CSO, the CSO is committed to using the power of music to create connections and build community.

The CSO is supported by thousands of patrons, volunteers and institutional and individual donors. Bank of America is the Global Sponsor of the CSO. The CSO’s music director position is endowed in perpetuity by a generous gift from the Zell Family Foundation. The Negaunee Foundation provides generous support in perpetuity for the work of the Negaunee Music Institute.