CSO To Celebrate Debussy In IMPRESSIONISTIC SCENES

In commemoration of Debussy in the centennial of his death, Music Director Rossen Milanov and the Columbus Symphony reveal a world of impressionistic wonder in this program that includes two of Debussy's most iconic works-Nocturnes featuring the Columbus Symphony Women's Chorus and La Mer. The program also includes Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 23 performed by special guest pianist Simone Dinnerstein, and the world premiere of a new commission by composer Saad Haddad titled Risala,

The Columbus Symphony presents Impressionistic Scenes at the Ohio Theatre (39 E. State St.) on Friday and Saturday, April 13 and 14, at 8pm. Tickets start at $10 and can be purchased at the CAPA Ticket Center (39 E. State St.), all Ticketmaster outlets, and www.ticketmaster.com. To purchase tickets by phone, please call (614) 469-0939 or (800) 745-3000. The CAPA Ticket Center will also be open two hours prior to each performance.

Prelude - As part of the CSO's Subject Matter lecture series, Dr. Lawrence Krissek from The Ohio State University's School of Earth Sciences, will preface the evening's program with a lecture titled "Moods and Views of the Ocean."

Postlude - Directly following the performance, patrons are invited to stay in the auditorium and enjoy a talk-back with the evening's artists.

In collaboration with the Columbus Museum of Art (CMA), this lecture will explore the perspectives of Monet, Manet, and Renoir-how each views the sea and the activities of those whose lives unfolded in or around the maritime environment. The event will conclude with a chamber music performance by CSO musicians. Tickets are $5 for CMA members or $20 for non-members (which also includes admission to the museum) and can be purchased by calling CMA at 614.629.0359.

Respected and admired by audiences and musicians alike, Rossen Milanov is currently the Music Director of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, Princeton Symphony Orchestra, and the Orquesta Sinfónica del Principado de Asturias in Spain.

Milanov has established himself as a conductor with considerable national and international presence. He has appeared with the symphonies of Colorado, Detroit, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Baltimore, Seattle, and Fort Worth, as well as the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall "Link Up" education projects with Chicago's Orchestra of St. Luke's and Civic Orchestra.

Internationally, Milanov has collaborated with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra de la Suisse Romand, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Aalborg, Latvian, and Hungarian National Symphony Orchestras. He has also conducted orchestras in Toronto, Vancouver, Mexico, Colombia, Sao Paolo, Belo Horizonte, New Zealand, and the KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic in South Africa. In the Far East, he has appeared with the symphonies of NHK, Sapporo, Tokyo, and Singapore, the Hyogo Performing Arts Center Orchestra, the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Hong Kong Philharmonic.

Noted for his versatility, Milanov is also a welcome presence in the worlds of opera and ballet. Most recently, he collaborated with Komische Oper Berlin (Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtzensk), Opera Oviedo (Spanish premiere of Tchaikovsky's Mazzepa and Bartok's Bluebeard's Castle that was awarded best Spanish production for 2015), and Opera Columbus (Verdi's La Traviata).

American pianist Simone Dinnerstein is a searching and inventive artist who is motivated by a desire to find the musical core of every work she approaches. The New York-based pianist gained an international following with the remarkable success of her recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations, which she independently raised the funds to record. Released in 2007 on Telarc, it ranked No. 1 on the US Billboard Classical Chart in its first week of sales and was named to many "Best of 2007" lists including those of The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and The New Yorker.

The most prolific and influential composer of the Classical era, Mozart composed more than 600 works in his lifetime, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, operatic, and choral music. He is among the most enduringly popular of classical composers, and his influence is profound on subsequent Western art music. According to Mozart's own catalogue, his Piano Concerto No. 23 was finished on March 2, 1786, two months prior to the premiere of his opera, Le nozze di Figaro, and three weeks prior to the completion of his next piano concerto, which would be completed on March 24. It was one of three subscription concerts given that spring and was probably played by Mozart himself at one of these.

Haddad is a composer of orchestral, chamber, vocal, and electroacoustic music who achieves a "remarkable fusion of idioms" (New York Times), most notably in his work exploring the disparate qualities inherent in Western art music and Middle Eastern musical tradition. His music delves into that relationship by transferring the performance techniques of traditional Arab instruments to Western symphonic instruments, while extending their capabilities through the advancement of technology. Commissioned by the Columbus Symphony and Music Director Rossen Milanov, Risala (pronounced ree-SA-leh), or "message" in Arabic, aims to convey how society portrays meaning through messages, and how they can change over time as they pass through the hands of different people.

Debussy was a French composer and one of the most prominent figures associated with Impressionist music. He was among the most influential composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and his use of non-traditional scales and chromaticism influenced many composers who followed. Completed on December 15, 1899, Nocturnes is an orchestral composition in three movements inspired by a series of impressionist paintings, also entitled Nocturnes, by James Abbott McNeill Whistler. La mer is an orchestral composition completed between 1903 and 1905. The piece was initially not well received, but soon became one of Debussy's most admired and frequently performed orchestral works.

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