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  • The Los Angeles Philharmonic Association Announces Conductors Selected for 2012/13 Dudamel Fellowship Program
  • Sep. 26, 2012
  • During the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s 2012/13 season, four conductors will participate in the Dudamel Fellowship Program - Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla, Christopher Lees, Dietrich Paredes and Rafael Payare. Music Director Gustavo Dudamel, together with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, created the Dudamel Fellowship Program in 2009 to provide a unique opportunity for promising young conductors from around the world to develop their craft and enrich their musical experience through personal mentorship and participation in the LA Phil’s orchestral, education and community programs.

     

    "Now in its 4th year, this program is a perfect fit with the goals of the Los Angeles Philharmonic - it's about cultivating the next generation, it's about excellence, and providing opportunity,” says Dudamel. “The hands-on learning which these young conductors receive during the season is unlike any other training program in the world. I'm proud of my orchestra for supporting this new class of young musicians."

     

    The fellows will work alongside Dudamel and musicians of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and will also work with students in key LA Phil education programs. The program for each of the fellows will run separately for approximately 4-6 weeks each. The fellows will hone their skills through observation and application, such as conducting Los Angeles Philharmonic youth concerts at Walt Disney Concert Hall, participating as a cover conductor, and serving as mentors themselves through participation in LA Phil education programs such as Youth Orchestra Los Angeles (YOLA).

     

    For the first time, the Dudamel Fellows will work with The Colburn School’s Academy Virtuosi, an ensemble comprising Academy students and featuring Academy student soloists. The Academy is the school’s comprehensive and vigorous pre-college music program which enters its third year this fall. Led by Dudamel Fellows, the ensemble launches its inaugural season with two concerts (November 14, 2012 and April 21, 2013) exploring exciting repertoire for chamber orchestra and large chamber ensembles.

     

    The 2012/13 participating fellows are:

    Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla

    January 18 – February 24, 2013

    Vilnius, Lithuania

     

    To Conduct:

    • Symphonies For Youth, The Composer is Dead, Jan. 26 & Feb. 2, 2013 at 11 a.m.
    • Symphonies For Schools, Firebird, Feb. 6 – 8, 2013

     

    Grazinyte-Tyla was discovered by the German Conducting Forum – Deutscher Dirigentenforum in April 2009 and has since benefitted from their conducting program and support. Starting with the 2011/2012 season, she became 2nd Kapellmeister of the Theater Heidelberg for two consecutive seasons, which enabled her to conduct many opera productions and symphonic concerts. In April 2012, Grazinyte-Tyla won the prestigious “Nestle and Salzburg Festival Young Conductors Award” selected from 91 applicants by a jury chaired by Maestro Ingo Metzmacher, giving her the opportunity to conduct the Mahler Chamber Orchestra at the Salzburg Festival in August 2012.

     

    Praised as a dynamic, profound and extremely talented young conductor, Grazinyte-Tyla was one of the revelations of the 2009 Kurt Masur Conducting Seminar in Bonn, Germany on “the Art of Conducting Beethoven.” As a result she was invited back to Bonn in December 2009 by the Beethoven Orchester and its music director Stefan Blunier to participate in the “Beethoven Night.” In addition, Maestro Kurt Masur invited her to share the podium with him and two other conductors for Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in December 2010. Grazinyte-Tyla conducted the second movement of the symphony.

     

    Highlights of Grazinyte-Tyla’s career include several productions at the Theater Heidelberg such as Aida and Carmen, a contemporary opera, Las Cartas de Frida by the renowned Mexican composer Marcela Rodriguez; La Traviata in Osnabrück; concerts with the MDR Orchestra Leipzig with Stravinsky’s “Firebird,” with the Philharmonie Südwestfalen, with the Kaunas Symphony Orchestra as well as a collaboration with the Camerata Salzburg and the Bergische Symphoniker, Remscheid, Germany.

     

    A native of Vilnius, Lithuania, Grazinyte-Tyla was born into a musical family. Before pursuing her studies at the Music Conservatory Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy in Leipzig in 2008, she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in choral and orchestral conducting from the University of Music and Fine Arts, Graz, Austria. From 2007 until 2008 she furthered her studies at the Music Conservatory in Bologna, Italy. She has participated in numerous master classes and conducting workshops and worked with many established conductors and professors such as Christian Ehwald, George Alexander Albrecht, Johannes Schlaefli, Collin Metters and Kurt Masur.

     

    In 2007 she was the recipient of the First Prize of the International Competition for Young Choral Conductors in Budapest, Hungary and in 2008 she won the third prize at the International Conducting Competition in Stavanger, Norway.

     

    Christopher Lees

    April 1 – May 12, 2013

    Washington, D.C.

     

    To Conduct:

    • Symphonies for Youth, Pictures at an Exhibition, Apr. 13 & 20, 2013 at 11 a.m.
    • The Colburn School’s Academy Virtuosi concert at The Colburn School, Apr. 21, 2013

     

    Christopher James Lees is a promising young American conductor becoming increasingly recognized for his energized and nuanced performances of both standard and adventurous repertoire.

     

    In 2011/2012, Lees made debuts with the Detroit, Toledo, and Portland (Maine) Symphonies and served as an assistant conductor for multiple concert programs with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony, and Atlanta Symphony for Robert Spano, Leonard Slatkin, Stéphane Denève, Bramwell Tovey, and many others.  He has also previously appeared in performance with the National Arts Centre Orchestra, Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, and at the Festival Internacional de Inverno de Campos do Jordao in Brazil, among others. 

     

    After two summers of study with Robert Spano at the Aspen Music Festival, Lees was named winner of both the 2011 James Conlon Conducting Prize and the 2012 Aspen Conducting Prizes, respectively.  In 2013, Lees will return for a third summer as Assistant Conductor for the Aspen Music Festival.

     

    Lees was honored as one of only six conductors selected for the 2011 Bruno Walter Memorial Foundation National Conductor Preview, hosted by the League of American Orchestras and the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra. 

     

    Trained as a pianist and equally comfortable in the opera pit, Lees has been music director for full productions of Don Giovanni and Little Women, and was assistant conductor for The Great Gatsby by John Harbison with the Aspen Opera Theater Center.

     

    A passionate advocate for music of our time, Lees has given numerous performances of contemporary orchestral and chamber repertoire, and has collaborated closely with Pulitzer Prize winning composers William Bolcom, Joseph Schwantner, Jennifer Higdon, and Roger Reynolds, among others.  As Music Director for the Contemporary Directions Ensemble, Lees gained a reputation for conducting premiere performances, many in alternative concert formats, and curating innovative programs that connect contemporary chamber music with diverse art forms.

     

    Lees holds a master’s degree in conducting from the University of Michigan, where he studied with Kenneth Kiesler. He received a Zander Conducting Fellowship from the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra and, in 2008, was awarded a Bruno Walter Memorial Foundation Career Development Grant with the Akron Symphony Orchestra.

     

    Dietrich Paredes

    November 19 – December 9, 2012 and February 11 – March 28, 2013

    Caracas, Venezuela

     

    To Conduct:

    • Symphonies For Youth, The Firebird, Dec. 1 & 8, 2012
    • Sounds About Town, Colburn Orchestra, Feb. 19, 2013 at 8 p.m. (conducting first half only)

     

    His elegant technique and great communication skills as conductor put the Venezuelan musician Dietrich Paredes in the vanguard of music in Latin American. As chief conductor of the Youth Orchestra of Caracas (YOC), Paredes has carried out valuable and fruitful work that has helped the orchestra improve and develop. Between 2009 and 2010 Paredes and the Caracas Symphony Youth Orchestra performed at the most prestigious venues in Venezuela, such as the Ríos Reyna Hall of the Teresa Carreño Theater and the Simón Bolívar Hall of the Center for Social Action through Music.

     

    Paredes led the YOC on its first international tours: in Norway, at the Bergen International Festival, as well as at many prestigious concert halls in Oslo; and in China and Korea, both in 2011. In February 2012, he was invited to guest conduct the Bergen Youth Orchestra in Oslo, and in April, the Central American Youth Orchestra in El Salvador.

     

    In May 2012, he led the YOC in Lisbon and Oporto, and after the success in Portugal, he led his orchestra again in Norway, conducting six consecutive concerts in Oslo, Hokksund, Drammen, Moss, Hamar, and Lillehammer. In June he led the Jalisco Symphony Orchestra in Mexico and in August, he was invited to conduct the Sodre Youth Orchestra in Montevideo, Uruguay.

     

    Paredes – who is continuing his studies in orchestral conducting under the guidance of maestro José Antonio Abreu – has led many Venezuelan orchestras. The Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela, the Teresa Carreño Youth Orchestra, and the symphony orchestras of Bolívar, Mérida, Táchira, Monagas, and Falcón are among them. 

     

    In the past, he served as guest conductor of the Carlos Chávez Orchestra in Mexico (2005) and of the Sodre Youth Orchestra in Montevideo, Uruguay (2009). He also served as music director of the Jóvenes Arcos de Venezuela orchestra during its successful 2004 tour of Argentina.

     

    This young maestro started a successful career as violinist in 1989 under the guidance of Rubén Cova, Ulyses Ascanio, Santiago Garmendia, and José Francisco del Castillo. Paredes has also studied with renowned violinists such as Agustin Dumay, Olivier Charlier, Virginie Robilliard, Aaron Rosand, Maurice Hasson, Yossy Zivoni, Daniel Stabrawa, Eugene Fodor, and Igor Oistrakh, among others.

     

    As a violin player, he won first prize at the Third International Competition for young violinists held in Argentina in 1991, and was a member of the first violin section of the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela and the Mercosur Youth Symphony Orchestra, with which he performed in Brazil. In 2002 he entered the Youth Orchestra of the Americas by competitive audition to play as concertmaster at its debut concert.

     

    Rafael Payare

    October 8 – November 18, 2012 and January 2 – 15, 2013

    Caracas, Venezuela

     

    To Conduct:

    • Symphonies For Youth, Mother Goose, Oct. 27 and Nov. 3, 2012 at 11 a.m.
    • The Colburn School’s Academy Virtuosi concert at The Colburn School, Nov. 14, 2012

     

    Rafael Payare, winner of the 2012 Malko Conducting Competition, is one of the most exciting young conductors to emerge from the internationally renowned Venezuelan program, El Sistema. Since he began his formal conducting studies in 2004 with José Antonio Abreu, Rafael has developed a flourishing career, having conducted all the major orchestras in Venezuela including the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela both in Caracas and in Toronto as part of their 2009 Canadian tour. Maestro Abreu remains Rafael’s principal conducting mentor. As an assistant conductor, he has worked under Gustavo Dudamel, most notably for his co-production of Carmen with the Teatro alla Scala, as well as for the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra’s 2010 European tour. Rafael also served as assistant conductor to Claudio Abbado for his performance of Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony with the Simón Bolívar Smphony Orchestra.

     

    In August 2010, Daniel Barenboim personally invited Payare to observe his rehearsals with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra in preparation for their international tour, and Rafael was selected to participate in Bernard Haitink’s Lucerne master-classes in April 2011 and March 2012. Most recently he was selected to take part in the 2012 Tanglewood Music Center Conducting Fellowship Program. Rafael recently made his debut with the Copenhagen Philharmonic Orchestra at the Tivoli Festival, which resulted in an immediate re-invitation and, in July 2012, he debuted at Lorin Maazel’s Castleton Festival.

     

     

     

    The Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, under the vibrant leadership of Music Director Gustavo Dudamel, presents an inspiring array of music from all genres – orchestral, chamber and Baroque music, organ and celebrity recitals, new music, jazz, world music and pop – at two of L.A.’s iconic venues, Walt Disney Concert Hall (www.laphil.com) and the Hollywood Bowl (www.hollywoodbowl.com). The LA Phil’s season at Walt Disney Concert Hall extends from October through May, and throughout the summer at the Hollywood Bowl. With the preeminent Los Angeles Philharmonic at the foundation of its offerings, the LA Phil aims to enrich and transform lives through music, with a robust mix of artistic, education and community programs.

     

    Single tickets are available for purchase at LAPhil.com, the Walt Disney Concert Hall Box Office or any Ticketmaster outlet. To order by phone with credit card, please call the Walt Disney Concert Hall Box Office at 323.850.2000, or Ticketmaster at 800.745.3000. For more information, please call 323.850.2000.

     

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    9.24.12

  • Contact:

    Contacts: Sophie Jefferies, sjefferies@laphil.org, 213.972.3422

    Lisa Bellamore, lbellamore@laphil.org, 213.972.3689

    Photos: 213.972.3034