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  • KIRILL PETRENKO LEADS LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC IN TWO PERFORMANCES OF A RUSSIAN PROGRAM FEATURING PIANIST NIKOLAI LUGANSKY
  • Aug. 28, 2007
  • Lugansky Plays Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3; Evening Also Includes Shostakovich's Symphony No. 1 and Stravinsky's Firebird Suite (1919)

    TUESDAY AND THURSDAY, AUGUST 28 and 30, 2007, AT 8 PM

    Russian conductor Kirill Petrenko leads the Los Angeles Philharmonic in two performances of a program featuring Russian pianist Nikolai Lugansky in Rachmaninoff's towering Piano Concerto No. 3 on Tuesday and Thursday, August 28 and 30, at 8 p.m. at the Hollywood Bowl. Also on the all-Russian program are Shostakovich's Symphony No. 1 and Stravinsky's Firebird Suite (1919). Petrenko, who is general music director of the Komische Oper Berlin, makes his Hollywood Bowl debut with this concert, and Lugansky, who won the Tenth International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1994, last appeared at the Bowl in 1999.

    Russian conductor KIRILL PETRENKO became general music director of the Komische Oper Berlin in 2002 after he had held the same position - as the youngest GMD in Germany until then - at the Theater Meiningen (1999 - 2002). Born in Omsk/Russia in 1972, he received his musical education at the College of Music in Omsk, moved to Austria, where he studied at the Music Conservatory in Feldkirch, graduated with outstanding honors, and began conducting at the Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. He made his operatic debut with Britten's "Let´s make an opera" in 1995, after having conducted many smaller orchestras. In 1997/ 98 Petrenko became Kapellmeister at the Vienna Volksoper where he later returned with the succesful productions of Boris Godunov and Così fan tutte. During his tenure with the Theater Meiningen, he conducted his first complete Ring des Nibelungen, which attracted the attention of the international press and audience alike. Petrenko has guest conducted international opera companies and orchestras, including the Maggio Musicale in Florence, the State Opera Dresden, the Vienna State Opera, the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, the Opera de Bastille in Paris, the Opera in Lyon, the Edinburgh Festival, the Munich State Opera, the KlangBogen Festival Vienna, the Opera Frankfurt and the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London. He made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera New York in 2004. He has also conducted concerts with the WDR-Symphony Orchestra at the Cologne Philharmonic, with RAI Torino, the Duisburg Philharmonic Orchestra, the RSO Vienna, the MDR Symphonic Orchestra, in Genoa, the Cleveland Orchestra at the Salzburg Festival and made his successful debut with the Berlin Philharmonic in 2006.

    Moscow-born pianist NIKOLAI LUGANSKY began to play the piano at the age of five and at 16 won a silver medal at the 8th International Bach Competition in Leipzig. Two years later, he won Second Prize at the second Rachmaninoff Competition in Moscow, and in 1992, at 20, was recognized as the best pianist at the International Summer Academy Mozarteum in Salzburg. In 1994, Lugansky won the Tenth International Tchaikovsky Competition. He has since performed worldwide in recital at celebrated concert halls around the world, and in concert with major orchestras including engagements with the San Francisco Symphony, and with Valery Gergiev and the Kirov Orchestra at the Hollywood Bowl, where he last appeared in 1999.

    One of the largest natural amphitheaters in the world, with a seating capacity of nearly 18,000, the HOLLYWOOD BOWL has been the summer home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic since its official opening in 1922, and in 1991 gave its name to the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, a resident ensemble that has filled a special niche in the musical life of Southern California. The 2004 season introduced audiences to a revitalized Hollywood Bowl, featuring a newly-constructed shell and stage and the addition of four stadium screens enhancing stage views in the venue. To this day, $1 buys a seat at the top of the Bowl for many of the Los Angeles Philharmonic's concerts. While the Bowl is best known for its sizzling summer nights, during the day California's youngest patrons enjoy "SummerSounds: Music for Kids at the Hollywood Bowl," the Southland's most popular summer arts festival for children, now in its 39th season. Attendance figures over the past several decades have soared: in 1980 the Bowl first topped the half-million mark and close to one million admissions have been recorded. In February 2007, the Hollywood Bowl was named Best Major Outdoor Concert Venue for the third year in a row at the 18th Annual Pollstar Concert Industry Awards; the Bowl's summer music festival has become as much a part of a Southern California summer as beaches and barbecues, the Dodgers, and Disneyland.

    EDITORS PLEASE NOTE:

    TUESDAY, AUGUST 28 AT 8 PM

    THURSDAY, AUGUST 30 AT 8 PM


    HOLLYWOOD BOWL, 2301 N. Highland Ave. in Hollywood

    LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC

    KIRILL PETRENKO, conductor

    NIKOLAI LUGANSKY, piano

    RACHMANINOFF Piano Concerto No. 3

    SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 1

    STRAVINSKY The Firebird, Suite (1919)

    Tickets ($1 - $93) are on sale now at HollywoodBowl.com, at the Hollywood Bowl Box Office (Tuesday - Saturday, 12 p.m. - 6 p.m.), or by calling Ticketmaster at 213.480.3232, and at all Ticketmaster outlets. Groups of 10 or more may be eligible for a 20% discount, subject to availability; call 323.850.2050 for further details. For general information or to request a brochure, call 323.850.2000.

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  • Contact:

    Adam Crane, acrane@laphil.org, 213.972.3034; Rachelle Roe, rroe@laphil.org, 213.972.7310; Laura Stegman, Laura_Stegman@hotmail.com; 310.470.6321; For photos: 213.972.3034