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Marin Alsop Leads the BSO in Concerts Previewing the 2011-2012 Season, September 8-9
Tickets available for $10
Baltimore, Md. (August 3, 2011)—Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) Music Director Marin Alsop leads the BSO in a 2011-2012 Season Preview Concert on Thursday, September 8 at 8 p.m. at the Music Center at Strathmore and on Friday, September 9 at 8 p.m. at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. The concert features excerpts from the highly anticipated programs of the 2011-2012 season, such as Strauss’ Also sprach Zarathustra, Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite and a performance of the third movement of Dvořák’s Cello Concerto, featuring the BSO’s newly appointed Principal Cellist Dariusz Skoraczewski. Please see below for complete program details.
The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
The Grammy Award-winning Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) is internationally recognized as having achieved a preeminent place among the world's most important orchestras. Acclaimed for its enduring pursuit of artistic excellence, the BSO has attracted a devoted national and international following while maintaining deep bonds throughout Maryland with innovative education and community outreach initiatives. The BSO made musical history in September 2007, when Maestra Marin Alsop led her inaugural concerts as the Orchestra's 12th music director, making her the first woman to head a major American orchestra. With her highly praised artistic vision, her dynamic musicianship and her commitment to accessibility in classical music, Maestra Alsop's leadership has ushered in a new era for the BSO and its audiences. Under Music Director Marin Alsop's leadership, the BSO has rapidly added several critically acclaimed albums to its already impressive discography. The BSO recently released Dvořák's Symphonies Nos. 6, 7 and 8, the final two discs in its three-disc Dvořák cycle. In August 2009, the BSO and Marin Alsop released Bernstein's Mass featuring baritone Jubilant Sykes, the Morgan State University Choir and the Peabody Children's Chorus. The album rose to number six on the Classical Billboard Charts and received a 2009 Grammy nomination for Best Classical Album. The Orchestra made its foray into online distribution in April 2007 with the release of a live-concert recording of Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring on iTunes, which quickly become the site's number one classical music download.
In addition to the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, where the orchestra has performed for 28 years, the BSO is a founding partner and the resident orchestra at the new state-of-the-art Music Center at Strathmore, just outside Washington, D.C. With the opening of Strathmore in Fe uary 2005, the BSO became the nation's only major orchestra with year-round venues in two metropolitan areas.
Marin Alsop, conductor
Hailed as one of the world's leading conductors for her artistic vision and commitment to accessibility in classical music, Marin Alsop made history with her appointment as the 12th music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. With her inaugural concerts in September 2007, she became the first woman to head a major American orchestra. She also holds the title of conductor emeritus at the Bournemouth Symphony in the United Kingdom, where she served as the principal conductor from 2002-2008, and is music director of the Ca illo Festival of Contemporary Music in California.
In 2005, Ms. Alsop was named a MacArthur Fellow, the first conductor ever to receive this prestigious award. In 2007, she was honored with a European Women of Achievement Award, in 2008 she was inducted as a fellow into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and in 2009 Musical America named her “Conductor of the Year.” In November 2010, she was inducted into the Classical Music Hall of Fame. In Fe uary 2011, Marin Alsop was named the music director of the Orquestra Sinfônica do estado de São Paulo (OSESP), or the São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra, effective for the 2012-13 season. Ms. Alsop was named to Guardian's Top 100 Women list in March 2011. This spring Marin Alsop was named an Artist in Residence at the Southbank Centre in London, England.
A regular guest conductor with the New York Philharmonic, The Philadelphia Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra and Los Angeles Philharmonic, Ms. Alsop appears frequently as a guest conductor with the most distinguished orchestras around the world. In addition to her performance activities, she is also an active recording artist with award-winning cycles of Brahms, Barber and Dvořák.
Marin Alsop attended Yale University and received her master's degree from The Juilliard School. In 1989, her conducting career was launched when she won the Koussevitzky Conducting Prize at Tanglewood where she studied with Leonard Bernstein.
Darius Skoraczewski, cellist
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Principal Cellist Dariusz Skoraczewski has delighted audiences throughout the United States and Europe with his exceptional artistic and technical command of the instrument. As a soloist, he has performed with numerous orchestras including the Montgomery Symphony, Alexandria Symphony, Arlington Philharmonic, Lancaster Symphony and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. As a chamber musician, Dariusz appeared in several chamber music concert series including the Candlelight Series, Music at the Great Hall in Baltimore and the Barge Music Festival in New York City. In November 2005, he performed his Carnegie Hall debut, which was sponsored by the La Gesse Foundation. The cellist is also a member of critically acclaimed ensemble the Monument Piano Trio.
Dariusz is a laureate of various international competitions such as the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, the Leonard Rose Competition in Washington D.C. and the Rostropovich Competition in Paris. Dariusz began his musical education at the age of six and spent his school years in Warsaw, Poland where his teachers were Professor Z. Liebig and Professor A. Zielinski. He completed his higher education as a scholarship recipient at The Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and perfected his art under the supervision of world-renowned cellist Stephen Kates.
The soloist's diverse repertoire includes compositions from early Baroque to the present. His debut CD Cello Populus (released in 2010 on the Analog Arts label) is a collection of solo pieces from the 20th and 21st centuries and includes works of Hindemith, Ligeti, Crumb, Penderecki and others.
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COMPLETE PROGRAM DETAILS
2011-2012 Season Preview Concert
Thursday, September 8, 2011 at 8 p.m. – Music Center at Strathmore
Friday, September 9, 2011 at 8 p.m. – Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall
Marin Alsop, conductor
Dariusz Skoraczewski, cello
Copland: Fanfare for the Common Man
Tower: Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman
Debussy: Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun
Prokofiev: Symphony No. 5 in B-Flat Major
II. Allegro moderato
Dvořák: Concerto in B Minor
III. Allegro moderato
Dariusz Skoraczewski, cello
Strauss: Opening from Also sprach Zarathustra
Wagner: Overture to “The Flying Dutchman”
Stravinsky: Infernal Dance of King Kastchei from “The Firebird Suite”
Copland: Variations on a Shaker Melody from Appalachian Spring
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 in B Minor, “Pathétique”
III. Allegro molto vivace
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Tickets cost $10 and are available now through the BSO Ticket Office, 410.783.8000 or BSOmusic.org.
