Richmond Symphony and Anne Akiko Meyers Perform Mason Bates' Violin Concerto This Weekend

Richmond, Virginia The Richmond Symphony and Guest Artist Anne Akiko Meyers will perform the Virginia debut of contemporary composer Mason Bates' Violin Concerto during the weekend of Shostakovich Symphony No. 10 concerts tonight, March 1st at 8pm and March 2nd at 3pm.

Anne Akiko Meyers is one of the world's premier concert violinists and has performed around the globe. From commissioning Mason Bates' Violin Concerto to having a #1 selling album, she is constantly "charting her own course." The American Record Guide is quoted as saying, "through her peerless mastery and vivid imagination, there seems to be no limit to the colors she draws from her instrument."

Mason Bates is both a composer and DJ. Teresa Heinz remarked that "his music has moved the orchestra into the digital age and dissolved the boundaries of classical music." Mason Bates grew up in Richmond, VA and attended St. Christopher's School.

Along with Mason Bates' Violin Concerto, the Richmond Symphony will also perform Liadov's The Enchanted Lake and Shostakovich's 10th Symphony under the baton of Maestro Steven Smith.

Tickets start at just $10 online at richmondsymphony.com or 1.800.514 ETIX.

Steven Smith will lead a pre-concert talk one-hour before the concerts on both March 1st and 2nd.

$7 college student tickets available at the Richmond CenterStage box office with valid student ID. Altria Masterworks concerts are FREE for children 18 and under with a paid adult (ticket required).

Enjoy 10% off at 525 at the Berry Burk or Bistro 27 with your ticket stub.

This concert is sponsored by Altria Group (series sponsor), The E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation (concert sponsor), The Richmond Symphony Orchestra League (concert sponsor), the Richmond Times Dispatch (media sponsor), and McGuire Woods (guest artist sponsor).

About the Richmond Symphony

Founded in 1957, the Richmond Symphony is the largest performing arts organization in Central Virginia. The organization includes an orchestra of more than 70 professional musicians, the 150-voice Richmond Symphony Chorus and more than 200 students in the Richmond Symphony Youth Orchestra programs. Each season, more than 250,000 members of the community enjoy concerts, radio broadcasts, and educational outreach programs. The Richmond Symphony is partially funded by the Virginia Commission for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.

About Anne Akiko Meyers

Anne Akiko Meyers is celebrated as one of the world's premier concert violinists. Meyers is constantly 'charting her own course' and the American Record Guide is quoted as saying, 'through her peerless mastery and vivid imagination there seems to be no limit to the colors she can draw from her instrument.'

She regularly performs as featured soloist with orchestras around the world, including the Boston Symphony, London's Philharmonia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Minnesota Orchestra, Montreal Symphony, Moscow Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic, Swedish Radio Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo's NHK Symphony, Toronto Symphony, Vienna Symphony and the Warsaw Philharmonic.

On Valentine's Day, 2012, Meyers' eagerly anticipated 'Air-The Bach Album', on eOne, debuted at #1 on Billboard charts and has been a bestseller at iTunes and Amazon. It features Bach's solo violin concerti as well as the double concerto where Meyers played both solo parts on the 1697 ex-'Napoleon/Molitor' and the 1730 'Royal Spanish' Stradivari violins with the English Chamber Orchestra. Also featured, are Bach's 'Air', 'Largo' and and Bach-Gounod's 'Ave Maria'. eOne Records previously released 'Seasons...dreams', featuring music with harp and piano and includes several world premieres in 2010 and and 'Smile', released in 2009. Both recordings topped the Billboard charts.

This season, Meyers commissioned Mason Bates, to write his first violin concerto. Meyers will

premiere it with Leonard Slatkin and the Pittsburgh Symphony and Giancarlo Guerrero and the Nashville Symphony. Other highlights include a performance of the Barber Violin Concerto with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra at Carnegie Hall and many other orchestral, recital, and chamber music appearances.

Recently, Meyers performed across North America, Europe, Korea, and Japan, working with the Saint Louis Symphony, Dusseldorf Symphoniker, Korean Broadcasting Symphony and the Tokyo Philharmonic and many other orchestras. Anne performed a special benefit recital for Play For Japan in San Francisco, which was broadcast around the world on the Internet and was featured with Ryuichi Sakamoto at New York's Japan Society, raising funds for the Japan Earthquake Fund.

Over the years, Meyers has collaborated with pop singing sensation, Il Divo, top jazz artists such as Chris Botti, and Wynton Marsalis, who composed cadenzas for her in Mozart's G Major Violin Concerto, and performed the National Anthem to 42,000 fans at Safeco Field before the Mariners-Red Sox game in Seattle.

Meyers' has recorded extensively for labels including Avie, Camerata, eOne/Koch, Hyperion, Naxos, RCA Victor Red Seal, RPO, Sony and Warner Classics. View her discography on Amazon and iTunes.

Ms. Meyers has regularly performed and commissioned new compositions, premiering works by composers such as David Baker, Mason Bates, Jakub Ciupinski, John Corigliano, Roddy Ellias, Karl Amadeus Hartmann, Jennifer Higdon, Wynton Marsalis, Olivier Messiaen, Akira Miyoshi, Arvo Part, Manuel Ponce, Gene Pritsker, Somei Satoh, and Joseph Schwantner

Meyers' television credits include a feature on MSNBC's 'Countdown with Keith Olbermann', a segment that was so popular it was named the #3 story of 2010. An A&E Network telecast from the Casals Festival with the Montreal Symphony, a PBS broadcast with the Boston Pops Orchestra and John Williams and her appearances on "The Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson and the "Emmy Award Show" attracted national attention. She was also featured in a performance with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Holland that attracted an audience of 10,000 and was globally broadcast live on the Internet. Meyers also performed in front of 750,000 people in Sydney, Australia's Harbour, celebrating their 200th Bicentennial and has performed for dignitaries including the Emperor and Empress of Japan. Meyers has been featured in numerous print and television commercials including Anne Klein's "Women of Substance" fashion campaign that appeared in magazines around the world and was photographed by Annie Leibovitz and recently starred in ads for Tourneau.

Starting her studies at age 4, she first performed with a local orchestra at the age of 7, then burst into prominence at age 11, when she twice performed on "The Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson and appeared with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. The following year she made her New York Philharmonic debut with Zubin Mehta conducting, and was soon performing throughout the United States, Japan, Australia and Europe. By the time her debut disc of the

Barber and Bruch violin concertos with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra was released at age 18, she was recognized as one of the stars of her generation.

Meyers was born in San Diego, California and grew up in Southern California. She studied with Alice and Eleonore Schoenfeld at the Colburn School of Performing Arts, Josef Gingold at Indiana University, and Felix Galimir, Masao Kawasaki and Dorothy DeLay at the Juilliard School. At age 23, she was awarded the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, the only artist to be the sole recipient of this annual prize.

Anne performs on the 'Ex-Napoleon/Molitor' Stradivarius violin from 1697 and the 'Royal Spanish' Stradivarius violin dated 1730.