Manfred Honeck to Perform A WALTZ TRADITION with Pittsburgh Symphony, 11/27

By: Nov. 17, 2015
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PITTSBURGH - The annual tradition returns! The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Manfred Honeck perform waltzes and polkas from his home country of Austria on November 27 and 29 at Heinz Hall as part of the BNY Mellon Grand Classics season.

A toe-tapping kick-off to the holiday season, this weekend features some of the most popular works from Vienna, including the best pieces by the Strauss family, in a concert that is fun, festive and perfect for the whole family! As a special treat, dancers from the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School will dance on stage during several of the waltzes and polkas. The heart of the concert is Rossini's Theme and Variations for Clarinet and Orchestra and Weber's Clarinet Concerto No.1, featuring a virtuosic performance by the Pittsburgh Symphony's clarinet star Michael Rusinek. Each of these pieces showcases the clarinet's amazing, dynamic range of sound. This lively musical program will perfectly accompany your family's Thanksgiving celebrations!

A pre-concert talk, open to all ticket holders and led by Assistant Conductor Francesco Lecce-Chong, will occur on stage one hour before each concert. Program notes for the weekend are available online at pittsburghsymphony.org/waltz and on the PSO mobile app the day of the concert.

The concert begins at 8 p.m. on Friday and 2:30 p.m. on Sunday. Tickets, ranging in price from $20 to $94, can be purchased by calling the Heinz Hall box office at 412-392-4900 or visiting pittsburghsymphony.org/waltz. Families can buy one adult ticket and get one child ticket free by ordering their tickets in person at the box office or by phone. This offer is not valid online.

The Pittsburgh Symphony would like to recognize and thank BNY Mellon for its 2015-2016 title sponsorship of BNY Mellon Grand Classics. Fairmont Pittsburgh is the official hotel of the Pittsburgh Symphony. Delta Air Lines is the official airline of the Pittsburgh Symphony.

About the Artists

Manfred Honeck has served as music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra since the 2008-2009 season. Together with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Honeck's widely celebrated performances and distinctive interpretations continue to receive international recognition. To great acclaim, Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra regularly perform in major music capitals and festivals, among them the BBC Proms, Musikfest Berlin, Lucerne Festival, Rheingau Musik Festival, Beethovenfest Bonn, Grafenegg Festival, Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center. Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra have also built a close relationship with the Musikverein in Vienna. Following a week-long residency in 2012, they will return once again for three performances in the course of an extensive tour of Europe in spring 2016.

Honeck's successful work with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra has been extensively documented on recordings with the Reference and Exton labels. The first SACD released by Reference Records of Strauss tone poems, drew rave reviews. The second recording, of Dvo?ák's Symphony No. 8 and the Symphonic Suite from Janá?ek's opera Jen?fa, conceptualized by Honeck himself, was nominated for a Grammy Award. Bruckner's Symphony No. 4 was released in February 2015 to critical acclaim and Beethoven 5 & 7 was released on November 13, 2015. Several recordings, among them Mahler's Symphony No. 4, which won a 2012 International Classical Music Award, are also available on the Japanese label Exton.

As a guest conductor, Honeck has worked with the world's leading orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Staatskapelle Dresden, London Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris and Accademia di Santa Cecilia Rome. In the United States, Honeck has conducted the New York Philharmonic, The Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra and Boston Symphony Orchestra. He is also a regular guest at the Verbier Festival. In 2013, Honeck gave his successful debut with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, resulting in a CD recording of Dvo?ák together with Anne-Sophie Mutter for Deutsche Grammophon, which received an Echo Klassik award in 2014. The 2015-2016 season sees him return to Bamberg, Stuttgart, Rome, Stockholm and New York, as well as the Munich Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra and Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, among others.

Born in Austria, Honeck received his musical training at the Academy of Music in Vienna. Many years of experience as a member of the Vienna Philharmonic and the Vienna State Opera Orchestra and at the helm of the Vienna Jeunesse Orchestra have given his conducting a distinctive stamp. Honeck began his career as assistant to Claudio Abbado in Vienna. Subsequently, he was engaged by the Zurich Opera House, where he was bestowed the prestigious European Conductor's Award in 1993. Honeck was one of three main conductors of the MDR Symphony Orchestra in Leipzig and in Oslo, he assumed the post of music director at the Norwegian National Opera and was engaged as principal guest conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra. From 2000 to 2006, he was music director of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Stockholm and, from 2008 to 2011, principal guest conductor of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, a position he resumed for another three years at the beginning of the 2013-2014 season.

From 2007 to 2011, Honeck was music director of the Staatsoper Stuttgart where he conducted premieres including Berlioz's Les Troyens, Mozart's Idomeneo, Verdi's Aida, Richard Strauss's Rosenkavalier, Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmélites and Wagner's Lohengrin and Parsifal, as well as numerous symphonic concerts. His operatic guest appearances include Semperoper Dresden, Komische Oper Berlin, Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels, Royal Opera of Copenhagen, the White Nights Festival in St. Petersburg and the Salzburg Festival.

Honeck has received honorary doctorates from St. Vincent College in Latrobe, Pennsylvania and, most recently, from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. Moreover, he has been artistic director of the "International Concerts Wolfegg" in Germany for more than 20 years.

Michael Rusinek is currently the principal clarinetist of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, teaches clarinet and chamber music at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, and teaches clarinet at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. Starting in summer 2016, he joins the faculty of the Aspen Music Festival and School. Born in Toronto, Canada, his early studies were with Avrahm Galper at the Royal Conservatory of Music. He later attended the Curtis Institute of Music, studying with Donald Montanaro. Upon graduation, he served as assistant principal clarinet with the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C. In addition to his position in the Pittsburgh Symphony, he has performed as principal clarinet with the orchestras of Philadelphia, St. Louis, The Royal Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and National Arts Center in Ottawa, Canada.

Rusinek has performed as a soloist with many orchestras and as a recitalist across Canada, on CBC Radio and throughout the United States and Israel, including appearances with the Czech Philharmonic, Concerto Classic Wien, Toronto Symphony, Belgrade Philharmonic, Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra, Aspen Chamber Symphony and the Symphony Orchestra of the Curtis Institute of Music. He has been heard as a soloist with the Pittsburgh Symphony many times and, in May 2008, he premiered a new concerto by composer Alan Fletcher, a concerto commissioned for him by the Pittsburgh Symphony. That performance was recorded and is available on the Exton label.

Rusinek was awarded the grand prize in the International Clarinet Society competition, and was a prize winner in the Belgrade International clarinet competition. He has participated in numerous music festivals, including the Salt Bay and Portland Chamber Music Festivals, and Music In the Vineyards in Napa Valley. He returns regularly to the Grand Teton, Santa Fe Chamber and Marlboro music festivals. He has toured with the acclaimed "Musicians from Marlboro," and was featured on the Sony label celebrating Marlboro's 50th anniversary. In summer 2000, he performed as principal clarinet in the Super World Orchestra, an ensemble comprised of musicians from orchestras around the world. Dedicated to teaching, he has led master classes at some of the leading institutions around the world, including the Royal Conservatory of Music of Toronto, the Colburn Music School, the Manhattan School of Music and the New World Symphony. He served on the faculty of the Canton International Summer Music Academy in Canton, China for its inaugural season, and returns often to play and teach in Tianjin and Beijing. He also returns frequently to conduct master classes and perform recitals in Mexico City. He served on the jury for the inaugural Jacques Lancelot International Clarinet Competition in Rouen, France. Rusinek is proud of his association with Selmer Clarinets and Rico Reeds.

As the official training institution of Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School is recognized as one of the nation's finest schools for dance education and training. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Terrence S. Orr and School Co-Directors Marjorie Grundvig and Dennis Marshall, PBT School offers classical ballet training and a diverse dance curriculum to more than 1000 students of all ages, levels and degrees of interest taught by faculty and guest teachers of international acclaim. Strengthened by daily exposure to PBT's professional company of dancers, PBT School students experience training that extends from the studio to the main stage. PBT School provides classical ballet training through four divisions: Children's, Student, Pre-Professional (High School & Graduate) and Adult. The Children's Division introduces very young children to dance through Pre-Ballet, Ballet Foundations and Preparatory Ballet classes. As students move into the Student Division, they begin studying classical technique. Many students in this division have the opportunity to audition for and perform in Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre's annual presentation of The Nutcracker and other repertoire productions. The Pre-Professional Division is the keystone of the School, training the next generation of professional dancers, including more than 50 percent of PBT's current company roster. Students hail from places across the Americas, Canada, Europe and Asia. Admission to this program is by audition and invitation only. The Adult Division's Open Ballet classes are offered for adults in beginning through advanced level ballet, contemporary dance and Pilates Mat. PBT's Pilates Program combines classical Pilates training with professional dance experience resulting in a unique cross-training method preferred by many PBT Company Dancers and is open to the public. Each year, PBT School embarks on an audition tour, traveling across the United States auditioning students for its summer programs. Approximately 275 students attend the summer programs. From this group, select students are invited to attend the school-year Pre-Professional program each year. The School's modern and air-conditioned facility is conveniently located in Pittsburgh's famed Strip District, just 1.5 miles from the heart of downtown Pittsburgh. It features five spacious studios with sprung Harlequin floors. Free parking is available. Live music accompanies most classes. For more information: 412-281-6727, PBTSchool@pittsburghballet.org or www.pbt.org/school.

The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, known for its artistic excellence for more than 120 years, is credited with a rich history of the world's finest conductors and musicians, and a strong commitment to the Pittsburgh region and its citizens. Past music directors have included Fritz Reiner (1938-1948), William Steinberg (1952-1976), Andre Previn (1976-1984), Lorin Maazel (1984-1996) and Mariss Jansons (1995-2004). This tradition of outstanding international music directors was furthered in fall 2008, when Austrian conductor Manfred Honeck became music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony. The orchestra has been at the forefront of championing new American works, and gave the first performance of Leonard Bernstein's Symphony No. 1 "Jeremiah" in 1944 and John Adams' Short Ride in a Fast Machine in 1986. The Pittsburgh Symphony has a long and illustrious history in the areas of recordings and radio concerts. As early as 1936, the Pittsburgh Symphony broadcast on the airwaves coast-to-coast and in the late 1970s it made the ground breaking PBS series "Previn and the Pittsburgh." The orchestra has received increased national attention since 1982 through network radio broadcasts on Public Radio International, produced by Classical WQED-FM 89.3, made possible by the musicians of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. With a long and distinguished history of touring both domestically and overseas since 1900-including 36 international tours to Europe, the Far East and South America-the Pittsburgh Symphony continues to be critically acclaimed as one of the world's greatest orchestras.

Heinz Hall for the Performing Arts is owned and operated by Pittsburgh Symphony, Inc., a non-profit organization, and is the year-round home of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. The cornerstone of Pittsburgh's Cultural District, Heinz Hall also hosts many other events that do not feature its world-renowned orchestra, including Broadway shows, comedians, speakers and much more. For a full calendar of upcoming non-symphony events at the hall, visit heinzhall.org



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