Conductor Simone Menezes Debuts With LA Philharmonic At Hollywood Bowl And Releases Amazonia On Alpha Classics

Esteemed Brazilian conductor Simone Menezes, praised throughout Europe and Latin America, makes her North American conducting debut leading the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the legendary Hollywood Bowl on Tuesday, August 29, 2023 at 8:00pm. Menezes leads the LA Phil in an all-Beethoven program featuring his Symphony No. 3, “Eroica” and his Violin Concerto in D Major, Op.61 with critically-acclaimed violinist Clara-Jumi Kang, praised for her “muscular, dynamic playing” (The Strad). 

Among her other 2023/24 season highlights, Menezes appears as a guest conductor with the BBC Scottish Symphony, Philharmonia Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, Colburn School LA, Brussels Philharmonic, Zurich Opera alongside Paavo Järvi, Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre National de Bordeaux, Tampere Philharmonic, Estonian National Orchestra, Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National España, and Concert Orquestra Sinfonica Brasileira, among others. 

On September 22, 2023, Alpha Classics releases Menezes' new album Amazônia, the capstone to a project celebrating the music of Philip Glass and the great Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos. Pairing musical selections with striking images by Brazilian social documentary photographer and photojournalist Sebastião Salgado, the broader Amazônia project is a meditation on the beauty and fragility of the Amazon Rainforest.  

Menezes shares, “Heitor Villa-Lobos's tone poem A Floresta do Amazonas has fascinated me for years. Having made a 45-minute suite of the work for soprano and symphony orchestra, I then sent it to Sebastião Salgado. He immediately linked each of its musical sequences to some of his extraordinary photos. The resulting concert and exhibition in tandem has been presented with great success in Paris, Zürich, Rome, London, and Rio de Janeiro – and will be traveling through many other cities around the world. Our Amazônia project, both on stage and on this recording, is meant to be art that goes straight to the heart. Through the music of the ingenious Brazilian composer Villa-Lobos, Sebastião and I aim to make people even more conscious of the beauty of the Amazon Rainforest.” 

On the album, works by Villa-Lobos and Glass are juxtaposed to offer two complementary visions of the rainforest, both breathtaking. Over the album's first several tracks, Philharmonia Zürich and soprano Camila Provenzale perform Villa-Lobos' large-scale Floresta Do Amazonas (1958), wherein the composer captures the magic of the Amazonian jungle with constantly inventive and surprising orchestral colors. Menezes describes the piece as having “epic moments comparable to the Carmina Burana, with lyrical influences that remind me of Fado, rhythmic patterns that could have been written by Bartók, and with a Messiaen-like approach to sounds of nature.” For the second portion of the album, Menezes has selected a movement from Glass's Aguas da Amazonia, a poetic vision of a journey by boat along the waters of the Amazon, marked by diverse rhythmical pulses. Ten arresting photos by Salgado are included in the album's accompanying booklet.

Program Information
The Los Angeles Philharmonic Association presents Beethoven at the Bowl, led by Simone Menezes
Tuesday, August 29, 2023 at 8:00pm
The Hollywood Bowl | Los Angeles, CA
Link: www.hollywoodbowl.com/events/performances/2346/2023-08-29/beethoven-at-the-bowl

Program:
Beethoven – Violin Concerto in D Major, Op.61
Beethoven – Symphony No. 3, “Eroica”

Los Angeles Philharmonic
Simone Menezes, conductor
Clara-Jumi Kang, violin

Amazônia Tracklist
Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959) – Floresta Do Amazonas, Suite by Simone Menezes
     1. A floresta [8:40]
     2 Em plena floresta [2:38]
     3 Pássaro da floresta – Canto I [5:23]
     4 Dança da natureza [3:19]
     5 Conspiração e dança guerreira [2:52]
     6 Veleiros [3:44]
     7 Em caminhos para a caçada [5:54]
     8 Canção do amor [5:06]
     9 Melodia sentimental [3:25]
     10 O fogo na floresta [4:17]
     11 Epilogo [2:53]
12. Philip Glass (b. 1937) – “Metamorphosis 1” (from Aguas da Amazonia) [12:55]

Total Time: 61:13

Recorded in October 2022 at Zurich Opera Hall 

Alpha Classics – Alpha 990
Didier Martin, Director
Louise Burel, Production
Amélie Boccon-Gibod, Editorial Coordinator
Cover & Photos: Sebastião Salgado

Admired as “a deep and free artist and thinker” by Classical Music Magazine, Brazilian conductor Simone Menezes is known for her creative vision and innovative spirit, insightfully combining classical and contemporary repertoire. Based in France, she is founder and director of Ensemble K, a chamber music orchestra known for its cosmopolitan vision of classical music and high-level creative collaborations across music and the arts. Also a coveted guest conductor among many of the world's most respected orchestras, Menezes has established herself as a one-of-a-kind artist with a still-rising international profile.

In a high point of her upcoming appearances, Menezes makes her U.S. debut at the Hollywood Bowl on August 29, 2023, conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic in “Beethoven at the Bowl.” Among her 2023/24 season highlights, Menezes appears as a guest conductor with the BBC Scottish Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Colburn School LA, Brussels Philharmonic, Zurich Opera, Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre National de Bordeaux, Tampere Philharmonic, Estonian National Orchestra, Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, and The Philharmonia, among others.

In Fall 2023, Alpha Classics releases Menezes' collaborative album Amazônia, the capstone to a project celebrating the music of Philip Glass and the great Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos. In a second upcoming release, Menezes collaborates with acclaimed pianist François-Xavier Poizat and London's Philharmonia Orchestra on an album of Ravel's piano concertos. 

Among several previous acclaimed recordings, Menezes' audiovisual documentary Metanoia earned the award for best video in the “Performance & Documentaries” category at the 2023 International Classical Music Awards.

Over the course of her career, Menezes has been invited to conduct ensembles including the Radio Berlin Symphony Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Santa Cecilia, Osaka Symphony Orchestra and Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra. She has premiered more than 20 works. From 2008 to 2012, Menezes was Music Director of the São Paulo-based Unicamp Symphony Orchestra, becoming only the second woman to hold a titled conducting position with a major orchestra in Brazil.

Menezes first studied conducting in her native São Paulo, going on to found her first orchestra, the Camerata Latino Americana, at the age of 20. She continued her conducting studies at the Ecole Normale de Musique in Paris, where she graduated after only one year. Her mentors include the Estonian-American conductor Paavo Järvi and Brazilian violinist and conductor Claudio Cruz. Learn more at www.simonemenezes.com 

Under the leadership of Music & Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel, the LA Phil offers live performances, media initiatives and learning programs that inspire and strengthen communities in Los Angeles and beyond. The Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestra is the foundation of the LA Phil's offerings, which also include a multigenre, multidisciplinary presenting program and such youth development programs as YOLA (Youth Orchestra Los Angeles). Performances are offered on three historic stages—Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Hollywood Bowl and The Ford—as well as through a variety of media platforms. In all its endeavors, the LA Phil seeks to enrich the lives of individuals and communities through musical, artistic and learning experiences that resonate in our world today.

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