PROGRAM UPDATE: Lintu Replaces LA PHIL Assistant Conductor Joana Carneiro For These Concerts
Ugorski Makes His Bowl Debut Performing Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto, in a Program That Also Features Polonaise from Eugene Onegin, Francesca da Rimini and 1812 Overture
FRIDAY AND SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 5 AND 6, 2008, AT 8:30 PM
The September 5 Concert is Generously Sponsored by Lexus; Media Sponsor for September 5: Gelson's; The September 6 Concert is Generously Sponsored by Gallo Family Vineyards; Media Sponsor for September 6: 89.3 KPCC
The annual Tchaikovsky Spectacular with Fireworks, a signature audience favorite, returns to the Hollywood Bowl with Finnish conductor Hannu Lintu leading the Los Angeles Philharmonic on Friday and Saturday, September 5 and 6, at 8:30 p.m. The concerts feature 18-year-old violinist Eugene Ugorski in his Bowl debut performing the great Russian composer’s beloved Violin Concerto. Also on the program are Polonaise from the lyric opera Eugene Onegin, the poignant Francesca da Rimini, and the glorious 1812 Overture featuring the USC Trojan Marching Band, directed by Dr. Arthur C. Bartner, and the Bowl's dramatic pyrotechnics. Lintu replaces Los Angeles Philharmonic Assistant Conductor Joana Carneiro, who had to cancel due to illness.
Lintu, who makes his Hollywood Bowl debut, was recently appointed Chief Conductor of Finland’s Tampere Philharmonic. He has held artistic director positions with the Helsingborg Symphony, Turku Philharmonic and the Bergen Collegium Musicum Chamber Orchestra. He is a regular guest conductor of the Avanti! Chamber Orchestra and was the artistic director of their 2005 Summer Sounds Festival, reflecting his strong commitment to contemporary music.
Ugorski has an extensive resume, despite his youth, having performed concerto with orchestras in Western Europe, Russia, Canada, the U.S. and South America. He has worked with conductors ranging from Valery Gergiev and Andrey Boreyko to Keith Lockhart and Roberto Minczuk.
The USC Trojan Marching Band, which first performed at the Hollywood Bowl in 1982 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, initially performed in the 1812 Overture's finale in 1987 and has continued to do so each summer the work has been presented at the Bowl. In its long history, the band has performed for seven U.S. Presidents, at four Super Bowls, and at two Summer Olympic Games.
A rising star in the constellation of brilliant young Finnish conductors, HANNU LINTU has been working extensively in Europe and the rest of the world, making guest appearances with the Bergen Philharmonic, Berlin Symphony, Danish Radio Symphony, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie, Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre National de Belgique, Orchestre National de Bordeaux, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Stavanger Symphony, Stuttgart Radio Symphony, and regularly conducts all the major orchestras in his native Finland. Outside Europe, he has recently worked with the Malaysian Philharmonic, Nagoya Philharmonic in Japan, New Zealand Symphony, Oregon Symphony, Sydney Symphony and Vancouver Symphony. Festival appearances include the Adelaide Festival, Berliner Festspiele, Flanders Festival, Grant Park Festival and the Golden Autumn Festival in Beijing. During the 2007/08 season, Lintu opened the season for the Copenhagen Philharmonic, and made his debuts with the symphonies of Houston, Indianapolis, New Jersey, Phoenix and San Antonio. He also appeared with the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire, Orquestra Nacional do Porto, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, and returned to the Finnish Radio Symphony, Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, Malaysian Philharmonic, Nagoya Philharmonic, Oregon Symphony and Sinfonia Lahti. Equally at home in opera, Lintu has conducted several productions for the Finnish National Opera including Bizet’s Carmen, Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Wagner’s Parsifal, Aulis Sallinen’s King Lear and Kalevi Aho’s Before We Are All Drowned. Future opera engagements include La Traviata and a new opera by Mikko Heiniö, The Snake’s Moment. For Ondine and Naxos, Lintu has released CDs of works by Rautavaara, Saariaho and Luca Francesconi with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Avanti! Chamber Orchestra, Finnish Radio Orchestra and the Danish National Radio Orchestra. He has made two recordings with the Helsingborg Symphony for Danacord: “The Sound of Shakespeare” and the two piano concertos of Shostakovich with pianist Oleg Marshev. Recent releases include works by the Finnish composer Jouni Kaipainen with the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra for Ondine and works by Schumann, Dietrich, Gernsheim and Volkmann on Hyperion with the Berlin Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester. Born in Finland, Lintu began his musical studies with the cello and piano at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. He continued there to study conducting with Eri Klas and Jorma Panula, and later at the Accademia Chigiana in Italy with Myung-Whun Chung. In 1994, Lintu was first-prize winner at the Nordic Conductor’s Competition in Bergen, Norway.
Born in 1989 in St Petersburg, EUGENE UGORSKI is being hailed as one of the most exciting young violinists of today. Having made his orchestral debut with the San Diego Symphony Orchestra at just 8 years of age, Ugorski was launched onto the international scene following an invitation from Gergiev to perform at the Moscow Easter Festival in 2005. The concert was an enormous success and was broadcast around the world. As a result Gergiev immediately invited him to perform with the Rotterdam Philharmonic that season. In the 2007/08 season Ugorski returned to Rotterdam to perform in four special concerts celebrating the New Year. Other highlights of the season included debuts with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. He also made a trip to South Korea for his debut with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra. Highlights of the 2008/9 season include his Japanese debut with the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony where he will play Lalo’s Symphonie Espagnole, Paganini Violin Concerto No. 1 with the Houston Symphony Orchestra under Hans Graf and a tour of the Netherlands with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Vassily Petrenko playing the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto. Ugorski will also make his debut with the Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra. Future engagements include a debut with the DSO Berlin and in the Vienna Konzerthaus. As a recitalist Ugorski has recently collaborated with the pianist Konstantin Lifschitz at the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival in Germany to great acclaim. The duo will perform together again at the Enescu Festival in Romania in 2009. Ugorski began studying the violin at age 6 with Professor Vesna Gruppman. He continues to study with Vesna as well as with Igor Gruppman, one of the world’s most respected concertmasters.
In 1880, at a fledgling University of Southern California, a group of musicians first came together to form what would become the USC TROJAN MARCHING BAND. Now the largest spirit organization on campus, the band has developed into one of the most innovative collegiate marching bands in the country. Featuring over 275 passionate students from nearly every major at USC, the TMB is a prominent and visible representative of the University with over 400 engagements per year. It has truly earned its nickname, "The Spirit of Troy," for its commitment to 'SC and its tireless support of Trojan athletics. Over the course of a single football season, The Spirit of Troy entertains hundreds of thousands of fans in stadiums across the country and millions more on national television. In fact, the band has not missed a Trojan Football game, at home or on the road, since 1987. The Trojan Marching Band has tripled in size since Dr. Arthur C. Bartner became its director in 1970. With the assistance of long-time arranger Tony Fox, Dr. Bartner has built the band into a world-renowned performing group with frequent appearances on the small and silver screens. The Spirit of Troy can be seen in such films as The Naked Gun and the Academy Award-winning Forrest Gump. Indeed, the Academy Awards telecast itself has featured the band twice and in 2004, the band appeared at the 46th Annual Grammy telecast and performed the finale with Andre 3000 of the multi-platinum hip-hop group, OutKast. Dating back to John Phillip Sousa's appearance with the band in 1924, the band has continuously attracted famous guest artists. Henry Mancini, Diana Ross, and USC Alumnus Dexter Holland of The Offspring have all appeared with the marching band. The Spirit of Troy made its own guest appearances with the rock group Fleetwood Mac on its albums Tusk and The Dance. This association earned the band two platinum albums, a feat unmatched by any other collegiate band. During its summer vacations, the band travels the world as goodwill ambassadors of the University. The Spirit of Troy performed at the 50th Anniversary of D-Day in France, at four World Expositions, and in 2003 was the first American marching band invited to perform at Hong Kong's International New Year's Parade.
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 40th 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 2008, the Hollywood Bowl was named Best Major Outdoor Concert Venue for the fourth year in a row at the 19th 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:
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2008, AT 8:30 PM
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2008, AT 8:30 PM
HOLLYWOOD BOWL, 2301 N. Highland Ave. in Hollywood
TCHAIKOVSKY SPECTACULAR WITH FIREWORKS
LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC
HANNU LINTU, conductor
EUGENE UGORSKI, violin
USC TROJAN MARCHING BAND,
DR. ARTHUR C. BARTNER, director
TCHAIKOVSKY Polonaise from Eugene Onegin
TCHAIKOVSKY Violin Concerto
TCHAIKOVSKY Francesca da Rimini
TCHAIKOVSKY 1812 Overture
The September 5 Concert is generously sponsored by Lexus;
Media Sponsor for September 5: Gelson's;
The September 6 Concert is generously sponsored by Gallo Family Vineyards;
Media sponsor for September 6: 89.3 KPCC.
Tickets ($10 - $114) are on sale now at HollywoodBowl.com, at the Hollywood Bowl Box Office (Tuesday–Sunday, noon–6 p.m.), by phone 323.850.2000 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.
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Lisa White, 213.972.3408, lwhite@laphil.org; Leah Price, 213.972.3406, lprice@laphil.org; Laura Stegman, 310.470.6321, laura_stegman@hotmail.com; For photos: 213.972.3034