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CONTACT: Katherine Blodgett phone : 215.893.1939 e-mail: [email protected]
Vincent Geels phone: 215.893.3140 e-mail: [email protected]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Date: June 6, 2012
Chief Conductor Charles Dutoit and The Philadelphia Orchestra to perform at Davies Symphony Hall
(Philadelphia , June 6, 2012)– The Philadelphia Orchestra travels with Chief Conductor Charles Dutoit to perform two concerts on June 9 and 10 at San Francisco’s Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall in honor of the San Francisco Symphony’s centennial anniversary. These two concerts immediately follow the Orchestra’s historic 2012 Residency and Tour of China. One of six orchestras invited by the San Francisco Symphony to perform during its 2011-12 centennial season on the Davies Symphony Hall stage, Maestro Dutoit and the Philadelphians’ performances conclude San Francisco’s year-long American Orchestra Series, a feat that brings together six great major symphony orchestras on the same stage, presented by a seventh. Along with the San Francisco Symphony and The Philadelphia Orchestra, the other ensembles are the Boston and Chicago symphonies, the Los Angeles and New York philharmonics, and the Cleveland Orchestra.
The San Francisco Symphony’s 2011-12 centennial season also features an American Orchestra Forum, dedicated to exploring the 21st-century American orchestra by bringing together voices from diverse communities and the public. The Philadelphia Orchestra will participate in the forum in several ways, including a behind-the-scenes roundtable discussion with Orchestra President and CEO Allison Vulgamore, Vice President for Artistic Planning Jeremy Rothman, Assistant Principal Bass Joseph Conyers, and Play On, Philly! CEO Stanford Thompson; podcasts; and web video segments featuring both Chief Conductor Charles Dutoit and Music Director Designate Yannick Nézet-Séguin.
Program highlights for the Orchestra’s June 9 and 10 concerts include Iranian composer Behzad Ranjbaran’s Saratoga, a work premiered by the Philadelphians in 2005 and composed during Ranjbaran’s tenure as Saratoga Performing Arts Center composer-in-residence; Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances, written for and dedicated to the Orchestra; and Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G major, featuring distinguished soloist Louis Lortie. These concerts are the capstone not just to the San Francisco Symphony’s centennial celebration, but to an incredible season and 32-year relationship between Chief Conductor Charles Dutoit and The Philadelphia Orchestra.
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The Philadelphia Orchestra
The Philadelphia Orchestra is among the world’s leading orchestras. Renowned for its artistic excellence since its founding in 1900, the Orchestra has excited audiences with thousands of concerts in Philadelphia and around the world.
With only seven music directors throughout more than a century of unswerving orchestral distinction, the artistic heritage of The Philadelphia Orchestra is attributed to extraordinary musicianship under the leadership and innovation of Fritz Scheel (1900-07), Carl Pohlig (1907-12), Leopold Stokowski (1912-41), Eugene Ormandy (1936-80), Riccardo Muti (1980-92), Wolfgang Sawallisch (1993-2003), and Christoph Eschenbach (2003-08). After 30 years of a celebrated association with The Philadelphia Orchestra, Charles Dutoit finishes his tenure as chief conductor.
Since Mr. Dutoit’s debut with the Orchestra in July 1980 he led hundreds of concerts in Philadelphia, at Carnegie Hall, and on tour, as artistic director of the Orchestra’s summer concerts at the Mann Center, artistic director and principal conductor of the Orchestra’s summer residency at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, and now as chief conductor. With the 2012-13 season, the Orchestra honors Mr. Dutoit by bestowing upon him the title conductor laureate. Yannick Nézet-Séguin assumed the title of music director designate in June 2010, immediately joining the Orchestra’s leadership team. He takes up the baton as The Philadelphia Orchestra’s next music director for the 2012-2013 season.
The Philadelphia Orchestra annually touches the lives of countless music lovers worldwide, through concerts, presentations, and recordings. Each year the Orchestra presents a subscription season at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, education and community partnership programs, and annual appearances at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center; it also regularly tours throughout the world. Its summer schedule includes performances at the Mann Center, free Neighborhood Concerts throughout Greater Philadelphia, and residencies at the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival and the Saratoga Performing Arts Center. For more information on The Philadelphia Orchestra, please visit www.philorch.org .
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