Week Also Includes Violinist Gil Shaham Performing Beethoven’s Violin Concerto with the Los Angeles Philharmonic

TUESDAY, JULY 28, 2009, AT 8 PM

THURSDAY, JULY 30, 2009, AT 8 PM

July 28 Media Sponsor: KUSC

July 30 Media Sponsors: Univision/Telefutura

With summer well underway, Hollywood Bowl audiences are treated to Israeli percussion duo PercaDu with the Los Angeles Philharmonic performing the West Coast premiere of acclaimed Israeli composer Avner Dorman’s Spices, Perfumes, Toxins!, Tuesday, July 28, at 8 p.m. That same week, Bowl favorite Gil Shaham plays Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, Thursday, July 30, at 8 p.m. Both concerts feature conductor Marin Alsop leading the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

The Tuesday concert begins with the Dorman double percussion concerto, which received its world premiere under the baton of Zubin Mehta with the Israel Philharmonic. Mehta also presented the much-anticipated U.S. premiere of the piece in March of 2009, with the New York Philharmonic and PercaDu.

"The inspiration for the piece came from ancient Israel,” said Dorman. “The Silk Road, which was used for the trade of spices, perfumes, and toxins, stops at one of my favorite places, near the Dead Sea in Israel. I wanted the piece to be uniquely Israeli and to be about seduction and its dangers, and this was simply a natural choice."

The concert closes with Mahler’s Symphony No. 5, the composer’s first purely instrumental symphony since the First.

Thursday’s concert opens with Alsop leading the Philharmonic in Dvorák’s Slavonic Dance, Op. 46, No. 1and concludes with the composer’s Symphony No. 8. Between the Dvorák pieces is Beethoven’s popular Violin Concerto, performed by Gil Shaham.

Music Director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra since 2007, Marin Alsop is the first woman to head a major American orchestra. Alsop debuted with the LA Phil in 1992 and has appeared in numerous seasons since. She most recently appeared with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at Walt Disney Concert Hall in December of 2008.

Gil Shaham is a frequent guest soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He last performed with the orchestra at Walt Disney Concert Hall in January of this year.

Internationally acclaimed for her creative programming and interpretations of repertoire from the mainstream to the contemporary, MARIN ALSOP is a music director who inspires orchestras with dynamism and deepens their interaction with audiences and the wider community. Her relationship with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra has been extended to 2015. Currently Conductor Emeritus of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Laureate of the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, since 1992 Alsop has also been Music Director of California's prizewinning Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music. She appears regularly with the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra and Los Angeles Philharmonic. In addition to engagements with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Zurich Tonhalle, Orchestre de Paris, Munich Philharmonic and La Scala Milan, she performs each season with both the London Symphony Orchestra and the London Philharmonic and is Artistic Director of The Bernstein Project, scheduled for 2009/10 at London’s Southbank Centre. Among the educational programs spearheaded by Alsop is OrchKids, which provides musical opportunities to Baltimore’s neediest young people. Further transcending traditional barriers, she attended the 2006 World Economic Forum in Davos and in 2008 made a televised speech to the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Her many media appearances include profiles in Time and Newsweek, and on NBC and ABC News. She is Musical America’s 2009 Conductor of the Year, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the recipient of numerous awards in the US and Europe. Her extensive discography on Naxos includes Brahms with the London Philharmonic, Bartók, Takemitsu, Weill and Orff with the Bournemouth Symphony, and a series of American music. A Dvorák symphony cycle with the Baltimore Symphony launched in 2008 with the New World, immediately an international bestseller. Born in New York City, Marin Alsop attended Yale and the Juilliard School. After winning the Koussevitzky Conducting Prize from the Tanglewood Music Center she became a protégée of Leonard Bernstein.

PERCADU – Tomar Yariv and Adi Morag – is a young dynamic Israeli percussion duo that has already generated worldwide interest and enthusiasm through their unique style of virtuoso, energetic and intense playing. Their repertoire consists of compositions written by the duo, arrangements for percussion of classical pieces by Bach, Chopin, Ravel, Grieg, Tchaikovsky and others, and original contemporary music written by Israeli composers (Avner Dorman, Yaron Gottfried, Lior Nabok and others) and composers in the international music scene such as Per Norgard (Denmark), Nigel Westlake (Australia), Andres Kopel (Denmark) and Salvator Brotons (Spain). Since forming PercaDu in 1996, in collaboration with Alon Bor (Principal Percussionist in the Israel Philharmonic), the duo has won several prizes in international competitions, such as the first prize at the Percussive Arts Society International Competition in Columbus Ohio and the Jury Prize as well as the Audience Prize at the International Percussion Competition in Luxembourg. In 2001, PercaDu won first prize as "Best chamber music ensemble" at the Aviv Music Competitions and received Israel's Minister of Culture Prize for Excellency in Music. In 2001, the duo was brought under the wing of the Jerusalem Music Centre in the foundation of Maestro Isaac Stern. This collaboration led to the production of their debut CD PercaDu – Works for Marimba and Percussion and commissions of several pieces composed and dedicated especially for them. One of these pieces is Spices, Perfumes and Toxins !, a concerto written for PercaDu by Avner Dorman. Since their performance at the Verbier Festival 2007, under the baton of Zubin Mehta, PercaDu has been in great demand all over the world. In March 2009, they gave their debut with New York Philharmonic Orchestra, Zubin Mehta conducting, for which the duo received standing ovations during all four evenings.

Violinist GIL SHAHAM is internationally recognized by audiences and critics alike as one of today’s most virtuosic and engaging classical artists. He is sought after throughout the world for concerto appearances with celebrated orchestras and conductors, as well as for recital and ensemble appearances on the great concert stages and at the most prestigious festivals. A highly regarded soloist around the world, Shaham played nine violin concertos with top orchestras in the 2008/09 season. He began the season with the Brahms concerto at the Detroit Symphony Orchestra on September 11 and later with the Atlanta Symphony and the Montreal Symphony. Other highlights this season include the Stravinsky concerto with the Houston Symphony, Boston Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra and National Symphony Orchestra, the Khachaturian concerto with the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic and Philadelphia Orchestra, the Berg concerto with the San Francisco Symphony, and Bolcom’s concerto with the Toronto Symphony. In April, Shaham toured performances of two Haydn concertos with Sejong. In addition to his many orchestral engagements Shaham regularly tours in recital with pianist Akira Eguchi. He has the good fortune to enjoy musical collaboration with his family as well, including his wife, violinist Adele Anthony, his sister pianist Orli Shaham and his brother-in-law, conductor David Robertson. In spring 2007, his dream of bringing together friends and colleagues for chamber music came to fruition in a tour of Brahms programs, culminating in a series of three concerts at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall. An encore of this project took place during the spring of 2009. Another highly anticipated event this season was Gil Shaham’s concert marking the centenary after the death of the legendary Spanish violinist and composer Pablo Sarasate. Shaham played the Romantic-era composer’s music with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra in the Kaplan Penthouse at New York’s Lincoln Center. This program was broadcast nationally on PBS in its “Live from Lincoln Center” series. He then took this program on a tour of Spain where he visited several Spanish cities, including Sarasate’s hometown of Pamplona. Among his more than two dozen concerto and solo CDs, are a number of best sellers, appearing on record charts in the U..S. and abroad. These recordings have earned prestigious awards including multiple Grammys, a Grand Prix du Disque, Diaposon d’or and Gramophone Editor’s Choice. Shaham’s recent recordings have been produced for his own label “Canary Classics” – The Butterfly Lovers / Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with the Singapore Symphony, The Faure Album with Akira Eguchi, the Prokofiev Album with Orli Shaham, “Mozart in Paris,” a recording of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Trio in A major with Yefim Bronfman and cellist Truls Mørk, and most recently a recording of Elgar’s Violin Concerto with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and David Zinman released in November 2008. Shaham was born in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, in 1971. He moved with his parents to Israel where at the age of 7 he began violin studies with Samuel Bernstein of the Rubin Academy of Music and granted annual scholarships by the America-Israel Cultural Foundation. In 1981, while studying with Haim Taub in Jerusalem, he made debuts with the Jerusalem Symphony and the Israel Philharmonic. That same year he began his studies with Dorothy DeLay and Jens Ellerman at Aspen. In 1982, after taking first prize in Israel’s Claremont Competition, he became a scholarship student at Juilliard, where he has worked with Ms. DeLay and Hyo Kang. He has also studied at Columbia University. Gil Shaham was awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant in 1990 and, in 2008, he received the coveted Avery Fisher Award. He plays the 1699 “Countess Polignac” Stradivarius. He lives in New York City with his wife, violinist Adele Anthony and their two children.

Praised as a “fresh, young voice, worth following” (Gramophone Magazine), AVNER DORMAN has quickly risen to become one of Israel’s most successful and renowned composers. At the age of 25, he became the youngest composer to win Israel's prestigious Prime Minister's Award for his Ellef Symphony, and that same year he was awarded the Golden Feather Award from ACUM (the Israeli Society of Composers and Publishers). Since coming to the U.S., Dorman received several international awards from ASCAP, ACUM, and the Asian Composers League. Dorman’s unique approach to rhythm and timbre has attracted some of the world’s leading conductors, including Zubin Mehta, Marin Alsop, Asher Fisch and Simone Young to bring his music to audiences of the Israel Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic, the Munich Philharmonic, the UBS Verbier Festival Orchestra, the Hong Kong Sinfonietta, the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, Nashville Symphony, the Hamburg Philharmonic and the Cabrillo Music Festival, among others. Dorman’s music achieves a rare combination of rigorous compositional construction while preserving the sense of excitement and spontaneity usually associated with jazz, rock, or ethnic music. Famous for his innovative use of percussion, Dorman’s two percussion concerti, Spices, Perfumes, Toxins! and Frozen in Time, are quickly becoming staples of the repertoire. His percussion concerto, Frozen in Time, tore audiences off their seats in an overwhelming standing ovation at Hamburg Philharmonic’s world premiere, with Martin Grubinger as percussion soloist. Dorman has made significant contributions to the repertoire of other unique instruments and ensembles in his Mandolin Concerto, Piccolo Concerto, Saxophone Concerto, Concerto for Violin and a Rock Band, and Boaz (for Soprano, Harp, and two pianos). A pianist himself and an avid devotee of chamber music, Dorman has composed two String Quartets, two Violin Sonatas (both premiered in New York City at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall), a piano and woodwind quintet titled Jerusalem Mix (commissioned by the Jerusalem International Music Festival and the Chicago Chamber Musicians), two Piano Trios, and numerous works for piano solo. In 2005, Naxos released a recording of Eliran Avni performing Dorman’s piano works to wide acclaim. Born in 1975, Avner Dorman completed his Doctoral degree as a C.V. Starr fellow at the Juilliard School where he studied with John Corigliano and his Master’s degree at Tel Aviv University where he majored in music, musicology, and physics and studied with former Soviet composer Josef Bardanashvili. Dorman is the lead faculty of composition at the 2009 Cabrillo Music Festival. He was a composition fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center and served as composer in residence for The Israel Camerata from 2001 through 2003. Dorman is an Israel Cultural Excellence Foundation (IcExcellence) chosen artist since 2008, one of Israel's highest recognition for excellence in the arts. His music is exclusively published by G. Schirmer.

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 is home to the best and brightest in all genres of music. 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 42nd season. In January 2009, the Hollywood Bowl was named Best Major Outdoor Concert Venue for the fifth year in a row at the 20th 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:

HOLLYWOOD BOWL, 2301 N. Highland Ave. in Hollywood



TUESDAY, JULY 28, 2009, AT 8 PM

LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC

MARIN ALSOP, conductor

PERCADU, percussion duo



DORMAN Spices, Perfumes, Toxins! (West coast premiere)

MAHLER Symphony No. 5





THURSDAY, JULY 30, 2009, AT 8 PM

LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC

MARIN ALSOP, conductor

GIL SHAHAM, violin



DVORÁK Slavonic Dance No. 1

BEETHOVEN Violin Concerto

DVORÁK Symphony No. 8





July 28 Media Sponsor: KUSC

July 30 Media Sponsors: Univision/Telefutura

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