Honeck, Yo-Yo Ma in PSO Concert

For Immediate Release
Aug. 12, 2013

MUSIC DIRECTOR MANFRED HONECK AND CELLIST YO-YO MA OPEN 2013-2014 PITTSBURGH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA SEASON WITH ‘ONCE UPON A TIME’ GALA

PITTSBURGH – Music will fill the air, beanstalks will reach to the sky and attendees will live “happily ever after” when legendary, award-winning cellist Yo-Yo Ma joins Music Director Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra to kick off the 2013-2014 season at a “Once Upon a Time” gala concert at 7:30 p.m., Friday, Sept. 27 at Heinz Hall.

The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Ma will transport audience members to the magical lands of childhood when they perform Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme, as well as Dvorak’s Carnival Overture and other works inspired by fairy tales. The concert is bookended by a Gala party and Soiree, which will be held at Heinz Hall and the Fairmont Hotel respectively.

Tickets, ranging from $40 to $110 for the gala concert only, went on sale today and can be purchased by calling the Heinz Hall box office at 412-392-4900, or by visiting www.pittsburghsymphony.org. Ticket prices are subject to change. There are a limited number of tickets for the concert available.

The Once Upon a Time Gala is chaired by the Tillotson Family—Carol Hefren Tillotson, Bob Gallagher and Sharon Tillotson Gallagher, Craig and Jill Tillotson, and Curt Fleming and Kim Tillotson Fleming—along with Honorary Chairs Ginny and Dick Simmons and the Walton Family. The gala, which includes a pre-concert cocktail hour, a silent auction, a post-concert formal dinner and a dessert reception with Maestro Honeck, is sold out.

The Once Upon a Time Soirée includes valet parking, pre-concert cocktail hour, preferred seating for the concert, and a post-concert celebration with symphony musicians at the Fairmont, including hors d’oeuvres, an open bar, live music and more. Tickets are $175 to $225 per person. The Once Upon a Time Soirée is chaired by Jensina A. Chutz, along with Honorary Chairs Margaret and Todd Izzo. The Soirée Silent Auction Chair is Erin Starzynski. Soiree tickets also are on sale now and going fast. Call the box office at 412-392-4900 or visit www.pittsburghsymphony.org to purchase soiree tickets.

All proceeds from the Gala concert and parties support the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s Education and Community Engagement programs.

Arguably one of the most famous classical musicians, Yo-Yo Ma is a best-selling classical recording artist with a discography of more than 75 albums, including 15 Grammy Award-winners. He has been awarded the Avery Fisher Prize, Glenn Gould Prize, National Medal of Arts, the World Economic Forum’s Crystal Award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and Kennedy Center Honors. In January 2009, at President Obama’s invitation, Ma played in the quartet performance of John Williams’ Air and Simple Gifts at the 56th Inaugural Ceremony. Ma plays two instruments, a 1733 Montagnana cello from Venice and the 1712 Davidoff Stradivarius.

Manfred Honeck was appointed the ninth Music Director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in January 2007, and began his tenure at the start of the 2008-2009 season. After a first extension in 2009, his contract was extended for the second time in February 2012, now through the 2019-2020 season. Following their successful European Tour in 2010, European Festival Tour 2011 and European Tour 2012, with a week-long residency at Musikverein in Vienna, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra triumphantly returns to Europe’s major music festivals in August and September 2013 with stops at Lucerne, Grafenegg, Musikfest Berlin, Beethovenfest Bonn and several others. Honeck's successful work in Pittsburgh is captured on CD by the Japanese label Exton. So far, Mahler's Symphonies Nos. 1, 3, 4 and 5, Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5 and Richard Strauss' Ein Heldenleben have been released to critical acclaim. Their recording of Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 won a 2012 International Classical Music Award (ICMA).  Honeck was born in Austria and studied music at the Academy of Music in Vienna. An accomplished violinist and violist, he spent more than 10 years as a member of the Vienna Philharmonic and the Vienna State Opera Orchestra.

Editors Please Note:

Saturday, Sept. 27 at 7:30 p.m.

ONCE UPON A TIME
Heinz Hall
PITTSBURGH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
MANFRED HONECK, conductor
YO-YO MA, cello

Antonin Dvorak                       Carnival Overture, Opus 92
Engelbert Humperdinck          “Dream Pantomime” from Hansel and Gretel
Sergei Prokofiev                      Suite No. 1 from Cinderella, Opus 107
1.      Quarrel
2.      Cinderella’s Waltz
3.      Midnight
Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky          Suite from The Sleeping Beauty, Opus 66a
1.      Valse
2.      Panorama
Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky          Andante Cantabile for Cello and String Orchestra
Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky          Variations on a Rococo Theme for Cello and Orchestra, Opus 33

-30-

Contact: Louise Sciannameo, Associate Vice President of Public Affairs
Phone: 412.392.4866 | email: lsciannameo@pittsburghsymphony.org
Contact: Joyce DeFrancesco, Director of Media Relations
Phone: 412.392.4827 | email: jdefrancesco@pittsburghsymphony.org

Posted on behalf of Dreamweaver Marketing Associates.  Joyce Kane is the owner of Cybertary Pittsburgh, a Virtual Administrative support company, providing virtual office support, personal and executive assistance, creative design services and light bookkeeping.  Cybertary works with businesses and busy individuals to help them work 'on' their business rather than 'in' their business.  www.Cybertary.com/Pittsburgh

Dindo, Noseda Perform with the PSO

For Immediate Release
Dec. 21, 2012

ITALIAN CELLIST ENRICO DINDO MAKES PSO DEBUT,
NOSEDA RETURNS TO CONDUCT DVOØÁK, SHOSTAKOVICH

 
PITTSBURGH – Italian cellist Enrico Dindo makes his Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra debut next month in a weekend of BNY Mellon Grand Classics concerts led by the PSO’s Victor de Sabata Guest Conductor Gianandrea Noseda.

The concerts will begin at 8 p.m., Friday, Jan. 11 and at 2:30 p.m., Sunday, Jan. 13, at Heinz Hall. Tickets, ranging from $20 to $35, can be purchased by calling the Heinz Hall box office at 412.392.4900, or by visiting the PSO online at www.pittsburghsymphony.org.

Enrico Dindo

Dindo, of whom the Cincinnati Enquirer wrote, “His face was as expressive as his sound, projecting pure, unmitigated joy,” will perform Dmitri Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 2, originally composed for famed cellist Mstislav Rostropovich.

Noseda, who was named the PSO’s Victor de Sabata Guest Conductor beginning in the 2010-11 season, will also lead the orchestra in performances of Dvoøák’s Seventh Symphony, a glorious hymn to the Czech nationalism that sings dramatically of the composer’s love for the Bohemian homeland.

Gianandrea Noseda (Photo Credit: Chris Christodoulou)

Noseda also will participate in a Music 101 session at 1 p.m., Friday, Jan. 11, in the Dorothy Porter Simmons Regency Rooms at Heinz Hall. Presented by the Pittsburgh Symphony Association, Music 101 is a lunchtime series of informal lecture/performances by musicians, conductors, composers and staff of the PSO. Discussions usually include short performances, as well as Q&A sessions. Admission is $2. Patrons can also call 412.392.3303 to pre-order a $12 gourmet picnic lunch from The Common Plea.

The PSO would like to recognize and thank BNY Mellon for its 2012-2013 season sponsorship of BNY Mellon Grand Classics concerts. Fairmont Pittsburgh is the official hotel of the PSO. Delta Air Lines is the official airline of the PSO.

Since becoming music director of the Teatro Regio Torino in 2007, Gianandrea Noseda has propelled it into the ranks of leading opera houses. He regularly conducts many of the leading international orchestras and is also Chief Guest Conductor of the Israel Philharmonic, Victor De Sabata Guest Conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony and Laureate Conductor of the BBC Philharmonic. He served as the first foreign principal guest conductor of the Mariinsky Theatre from 1997–2007. The 2011–2012 season was a seminal one for him and included celebrated performances of Britten’s War Requiem with the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in London and New York. The New York Timesselected the performance at Lincoln Center’s White Light Festival as one of the top ten performances of 2011, while Alex Ross of The New Yorker wrote, “Noseda marshalled the finest War Requiem I have heard.” LSO Live subsequently released a recording in 2012 to mark the 50th anniversary of the War Requiem’s premiere.

The first Italian to be awarded the First Prize at the International Cello Competition, “Mstislav Rostropovich,” Paris in 1997, Enrico Dindo has received international recognition for his exceptional and early talent. The great Russian maestro said about him: “He is a cellist of exceptional qualities, who has the gift of an incredible sound, which flows as a splendid Italian voice.” Born in Turin into a family of musicians, Dindo began studying cello at 6 at the Conservatorio “G. Verdi” in his native town. He attended post-graduate courses with Egidio Roveda and Antonio Janigro at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. In 1987, Dindo was invited by Riccardo Muti as first cello soloist to the Orchestra of the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, where he held the post for eleven years, until 1998. Dindo has performed alongside great orchestras such as Orchestre National de France, Filarmonica della Scala, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della Rai, Kirov Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, NHK Symphony Orchestra, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Goethemburg Symphoniker, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, BBC Philharmonic and Kirov Orchestra of St. Petersburg.

Editors Please Note:
Friday, Jan. 11 at 8 p.m.
Sunday, Jan. 13 at 2:30 p.m.

Posted on behalf of Dreamweaver Marketing Associates.  Joyce Kane is the owner of Cybertary Pittsburgh, a Virtual Administrative support company, providing virtual office support, personal and executive assistance, creative design services and light bookkeeping.  Cybertary works with businesses and busy individuals to help them work 'on' their business rather than 'in' their business.  www.Cybertary.com/Pittsburgh