PSO New Castle Concert Highlights Matsuev, Honeck

For Immediate Release
Feb. 8, 2013

MUSIC DIRECTOR HONECK LEADS PSO IN NEW CASTLE CONCERT SHOWCASING RUSSIAN POWERHOUSE PIANIST MATSUEV

PITTSBURGH – Music Director Manfred Honeck will lead the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (PSO) next week in a concert at the Scottish Rite Cathedral in New Castle, showcasing Russian powerhouse pianist Denis Matsuev performing Rachmaninoff’s masterpiece, Piano Concerto No. 2.

The concert will begin at 8 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 16, at the Scottish Rite Cathedral.

Tickets, ranging from $16 to $59, can be purchased by calling the Heinz Hall box office toll-free at 1.800.743.8560, or by visiting the PSO online at www.pittsburghsymphony.org. Group tickets also are available. As part of an education program developed for the community, a special package for families with children up to high-school age is available. Children may get free tickets if accompanied by a parent. Both the free ticket and a discounted ticket for the parents are available by calling  412.392.4819. Also, pre-concert dinners at the Scottish Rite Cathedral begin at 6 p.m. before each concert. Call 724.654.6683 for reservations.

Manfred Honeck

There will be shuttle service in New Castle for the concert. The shuttle costs $1 for a round trip, and begins at 6:30 p.m. at the Downtown Parking Garage, before stopping at the Washington Center parking lot and Clen Moore Church.

The evening’s program features Mussorgsky's A Night on Bald Mountain, a well-known tone poem that tells the story of a witches' Sabbath near Kiev; the theme made more famous by being featured in Disney’s 1940 classic film, Fantasia. In addition to Matsuev playing Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2, the concert also includes Tchaikovsky's exciting Symphony No. 5.

Denis Matsuev

Since his triumphant victory at the 11th International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1998, Denis Matsuev has quickly become one of the most sought-after pianists of his generation. Laureate of prestigious Shostakovich Prize in Music and State Prize of Russian Federation in Literature and Arts, he has appeared in hundreds of recitals at the most prestigious and legendary concert halls worldwide. He collaborates with the world's best known orchestras, and is continually re-engaged with the legendary Russian orchestras such as the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Mariinsky Orchestra and Russian National Orchestra. He appears regularly with prominent conductors, including Lorin Maazel, Valery Gergiev, Zubin Mehta, Mariss Jansons, Yuri Temirkanov, Kurt Masur, Paavo Jarvi, Leonard Slatkin, Myung-Whun Chung, Antonio Pappano, Semyon Bychkov, Ivan Fischer and Adam Fisher, Gianandrea Noseda, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, James Conlon, Vladimir Spivakov, Mikhail Pletnev, and Vladimir Fedoseyev.

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 and the European Festival Tour 2011 with appearances at the major music festivals, such as BBC Proms, Lucerne, Grafenegg, Rheingau, Schleswig-Holstein or Musikfest Berlin, Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra returned to Europe in October-November 2012. The tour took them to Barcelona, Madrid, Paris, Luxembourg, and Cologne, Frankfurt and Stuttgart in Germany. During a week-long residency at the Musikverein in Vienna, the orchestra performed four concerts. 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.
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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

Classical Mystery Tour Brought to Scottish Rite Cathedral

For Immediate Release
Oct. 19, 2012

RELIVE MAGIC OF THE BEATLES AS PSO BRINGS

‘CLASSICAL MYSTERY TOUR’ TO SCOTTISH RITE CATHEDRAL 

PSO’s new Assistant Conductor Fawzi Haimor conducts

NEW CASTLE, Pa. – The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (PSO) begins its 12th year of performances at the Scottish Rite Cathedral with the Classical Mystery Tour, a special tribute to the Beatles’ acclaimed album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Clen Moore Church, Scottish Rite Cathedral, New Castle

The concert, led by the PSO’s newly appointed Assistant Conductor Fawzi Haimor, will begin at 8 p.m., Monday, Nov. 19, at the Scottish Rite Cathedral in New Castle.

Concert tickets, ranging from $16 to $59, can be purchased by calling the Heinz Hall box office toll-free at 1.800.743.8560, or by visiting the PSO online at www.pittsburghsymphony.org. Group tickets also are available. As part of an education program developed for the community, a special package for families with children up to high-school age is available. Children may get free tickets if accompanied by a parent. Both the free ticket and a discounted ticket for the parents are available by calling  412.392.4819. Also, pre-concert dinners at the Scottish Rite Cathedral begin at 6 p.m. before each concert. Call 724.654.6683 for reservations. Three-concert subscriptions, ranging from $33 to $150, as well as student subscription packages for $24, are also available.

There will be shuttle service in New Castle for all three PSO concerts. The shuttle costs $1 for a round trip, and begins at 6:30 p.m. at the Downtown Parking Garage, before stopping at the Washington Center parking lot and Clen Moore Church.

Described by the Los Angeles Times as providing “a high goose-bump quotient,” the Classical Mystery Tour concert features four musicians who look and sound just like The Beatles. A tribute to Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, the first rock album to ever win a Grammy for Album of the Year, this show is more than a rock concert. It presents more than two dozen Beatles tunes transcribed note-for-note and performed exactly as they were originally recorded.

Classical Mystery Tour features Jim Owen (John Lennon) on rhythm guitar, piano, and vocals; Tony Kishman (Paul McCartney) on bass guitar, piano, and vocals; John Brosnan (George Harrison) on lead guitar and vocals; and Chris Camilleri (Ringo Starr) on drums and vocals.

Fawzi Haimor

Fawzi Haimor is the newly appointed Assistant Conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra beginning in the 2012-2013 season. Prior to his Pittsburgh appointment, he was the Assistant Conductor of the Alabama Symphony for two seasons. In Alabama, he conducted a variety of concerts including subscription, pops, education, and outreach.  Additionally, Mr. Haimor had the pleasure to work with numerous orchestras including the Amman Symphony, Jacksonville Symphony, Kansas City Symphony, and Orquestra Sinfonico do Porto and has collaborated with famous artists such as Bela Fleck, Bobby Horton, Diane Schuur, and Luciana Souza.  He has also served as a cover conductor to esteemed conductors including Justin Brown, Marvin Hamlisch, Grant Llewellyn, Michael Morgan, Robert Spano, Stefan Sanderling, and Michael Stern.

A resident of London, John Brosnan is a songwriter and musician who grew up in Melbourne, Australia. He studied classical piano performance and theory at the Conservatorium of Music before switching to guitar, which has since become his main instrument. His first professional job came at 18, when he played in an orchestra that accompanied a musical theater production. He then spent the next decade playing in original bands and achieved some minor chart successes in Australia, UK, and the United States. Brosnan first began performing the role of George Harrison in 2000. Since then, he has toured extensively throughout the U.S., Europe, Scandinavia, the Middle East, and Asia with various Beatles productions. In addition to performing with Classical Mystery Tour, he runs a music and film production company in the UK.

Born and raised on Long Island, New York, Chris Camilleri had a convenient drum teacher; his dad. He started listening to Beatles records at a young age and, for many years, played drums and sang along to the recordings. Gradually, Chris gravitated to progressive rock bands, but retained a fondness for The Beatles and eventually formed the internationally-renowned Beatles cover band Liverpool, which still reunites to perform at the Fests For Beatles Fans (formerly Beatlefest). Camilleri has played drums for a variety of touring artists, including Peter Noone (of Herman’s Hermits fame), Badfinger, Micky Dolenz, Joe Walsh, and other Beatles-era bands. He became a good friend and musical associate to Harry Nilsson (who was a contemporary and close friend to all the individual Beatles). In addition to The Beatles, his musical influences include Jethro Tull, Genesis, ELP, and David Bowie. When not playing music, Chris has an active commercial and voice-over career.

Singer-songwriter Tony Kishman was born in Tucson, Ariz., where he began his musical career in the early 1970s.  Although he had been playing guitar for a number of years, it was not until age 19 that Kishman started performing seriously. Kishman's early influences included Wishbone Ash, Bad Company and Peter Frampton.  Between 1973 and 1978, he played guitar in the group Cheap Trix, a cover band performing Top 40 as well as originals. Starting in 1979, Kishman played bass and guitar for six years as Paul McCartney in both the national and international tours ofBeatlemania.  He then went on to perform in Legends in Concert and produced shows that ran in Las Vegas and Lake Tahoe.  He joined the classic group Wishbone Ash for a tour of Europe and the recording of the group's 18th album.

Jim Owen was born and raised in Huntington Beach, Calif. He gained rich musical experience from his father, who played music from the classics for him on the piano and from his extensive library of recordings by the great classical artists. Owen began studying the piano at 6, and won honors in various piano performance competitions through his teenage years. He was 8 years old when he first heard The Beatles, and promptly decided to take up the study of the guitar. His first professional performance as a Beatle was at 16.  Then, at 18, he began touring internationally with various Beatles tribute productions, visiting Japan, Korea, China, Canada, Mexico, and much of South America. In 1996, Owen began working on his idea for a new show with orchestra. It has long been his dream to share with the public live performances of some of the greatest music ever written and recorded.Classical Mystery Tour was the result. Most recently, Owen became associate producer of the dance musical Shag With a Twist, which premiered in Los Angeles in 2005, and debuted in Las Vegas July, 2006.

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Contact: James Barthen, Vice President of Public Affairs
Phone: 412.392.4835 | email: jbarthen@pittsburghsymphony.org

Contact: Ramesh Santanam, Director of Media Relations
Phone: 412.392.4827 | email: rsantanam@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