Columbus Symphony to Feature Guest Pianist Katherine Chi in the BOLERO Program

Led by Music Director Jean-Marie Zeitouni, the Columbus Symphony will feature celebrated pianist Katherine Chi in the "Bolero" program which includes Stravinsky's Jeu de cartes, Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 1, Messiaen's Oiseaux exotiques, and Ravel's Bolero. WOSU's Christopher Purdy will hold a free, pre-concert lecture about the program for ticket holders one hour prior to each performance on the fourth floor of the Ohio Theatre's Galbreath Pavilion.

The Columbus Symphony presents Bolero! at the Ohio Theatre (39 E. State St.) on Saturday, March 26, at 8pm, and Sunday, March 27, at 3pm. Tickets are $20.50-$66.50 for adults and $11.50-$34.50 for children, and can be purchased at the Ohio Theatre Ticket Office (39 E. State St.), all Ticketmaster outlets, and www.ticketmaster.com. To purchase tickets by phone, please call (614) 228-8600 or (800) 745-3000. The Ohio Theatre Ticket Office will also be open two hours prior to each performance. Students between the ages of 13-19 may purchase $5 High Five tickets while available. The 2010-11 Classical Series is made possible through the generous support of series sponsor Battelle.

About CSO Music Director Jean-Marie Zeitouni
Jean-Marie has emerged as one of Canada's brightest young conductors with an eloquent yet fiery style, in repertoire ranging from Baroque to contemporary music. On October 5, 2010, he was installed as the Columbus Symphony's music director, and will lead the artistic direction of the organization for the next four years.

A graduate of the Montreal Conservatory, Jean-Marie earned three master's degrees in conducting, percussion, and theory. He made his US orchestra debut with the Oregon Symphony in the spring of 2005, and has since conducted and often made repeat appearances with the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Quebec City, Edmonton, Calgary, and Winnipeg Symphonies in Canada, and the Houston, Oregon, Honolulu, Columbus, Huntsville, San Antonio, and Omaha Symphonies in the US. Very active as an opera conductor, Jean-Marie led numerous productions with the Cincinnati Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Opéra de Montreal, l'Opéra de Quebec, Glimmerglass Opera, Calgary Opera, Edmonton Opera, l'Opéra de Marseille, and at the Banff Centre Festival.

Jean-Marie's association with Les Violons du Roy, a celebrated chamber orchestra based in Québec City, goes back 10 years, first as conductor-in-residence, then as associate conductor, and since 2008, as principal guest conductor. In 2006, he recorded his first CD with Les Violons du Roy entitled Piazzolla which received a 2007 JUNO Award for Classical Album of the Year in the category Solo or Chamber Ensemble. They have also recorded two subsequent CDs-Bartok (2008) and Britten (2010).

About guest pianist Katherine Chi
Pianist Katherine Chi, firmly established as one of Canada's fastest-rising stars, has performed throughout Europe and North America to great acclaim. "Ms Chi displayed a keen musical intelligence and a powerful arsenal of technique," wrote The New York Times about her New York recital debut. Sought after as a concerto soloist of musical and technical distinction, Chi is noted for the breadth of her repertoire. While hailed for her interpretations of Mozart, she is also acclaimed for performances of major romantic and twentieth century concertos. Chi was a prizewinner at the 1998 Busoni International Piano Competition and was the first Canadian and the first woman to win Canada's Honens International Piano Competition.

About Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (1882-1971)
Stravinsky was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor widely acknowledged as one of the most important and influential composers of 20th century music. In addition to the recognition he received for his compositions, he also achieved fame as a pianist and a conductor, often at the premieres of his own works. He first achieved international fame with three ballets commissioned by the impresario Sergei Diaghilev and performed by Diaghilev's Ballets Russes (Russian Ballets)-The Firebird (1910), Petrushka (1911/1947), and The Rite of Spring (1913). The premiere of Rite transformed the way subsequent composers thought about rhythmic structure, and was largely responsible for Stravinsky's enduring reputation as a musical revolutionary, pushing the boundaries of musical design.

About Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev (1891-1953)
Prokofiev was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor who mastered numerous musical genres and is generally regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century. With the exception of Richard Strauss, Prokofiev's orchestral music is played more frequently in the US than that of any other composer of the last hundred years, and his operas, ballets, chamber works, and piano music are performed regularly worldwide.

About Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992)
Messiaen was a French composer, organist, and ornithologist, widely regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century. His music is rhythmically complex. Harmonically and melodically, it is based on modes of limited transposition which he abstracted from his early compositions and improvisations. Many of his compositions depict what he termed "the marvelous aspects of the faith," drawing deeply on his Roman Catholic background. His innovative use of color, his conception of the relationship between time and music, his use of birdsong, and his desire to express religious ideas are what make Messiaen's music distinctive.

About Joseph-Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)
Ravel was a French composer of Impressionist music known especially for his melodies, orchestral, and instrumental textures and effects. Much of his piano music, chamber music, vocal music, and orchestral music has become standard concert repertoire. Ravel's piano compositions demand considerable virtuosity from the performer, while his orchestral music uses a variety of sound and instrumentation. Ravel is perhaps best known for his orchestral work Boléro (1928), much to the surprise of the composer who had predicted most orchestras would refuse to play it.

www.columbussymphony.com

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