CSO to Savor the Many Flavors of the Iberian Peninsula in the SPANISH FLAMENCO FESTIVAL

Grammy Award-winning guitarist Jason Vieaux and flamenco dancer Griset Damas join the Columbus Symphony and Music Director Rossen Milanov in an all-Spanish evening teeming with passion and exoticism. Spanning the genres of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain, Portugal, Andorra) from flamenco to zarzuela, the full program includes Falla's El Amor Brujo Suite, Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez for Guitar and Orchestra, Albéniz's Chants d'Espagne, and Chapi's La Revoltosa: Preludio.

The Columbus Symphony presents Spanish Flamenco Festival: Rodrigo's Guitar Concerto at the Ohio Theatre (39 E. State St.) on Friday and Saturday, November 3 and 4, 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 (Friday) - As part of the CSO's Subject Matter lecture series, Rebecca Haidt, Associate Professor of Spanish at The Ohio State University, will preface the evening's program with a talk on Casticismo and National Identity in Spanish Music, Art, and Culture (1800-1900).

Prelude (Saturday) - Patrons are invited to join Christopher Purdy in the theatre at 7pm for a 30-minute, pre-concert discussion about the works to be performed.

Postlude - After both performances, patrons are invited to stay for a lobby fiesta featuring Spanish dance and music.

Accompaniments:

Mozart to Matisse - Wednesday, November 1, 2pm, Columbus Museum of Art (480 E. Broad St.)

In this CSO collaboration with the Columbus Museum of Art (CMA), this event will include a lecture examining the art of two of Spain's great masters of modern art, Francisco Goya and Salvador Dali, and 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.

Friday Coffee Dress - Friday, November 3, 10am, Ohio Theatre (39 E. State St.)

Experience a working rehearsal prior to that evening's opening-night performance. Seating is general admission for this 2.5 hour, open rehearsal, offering a behind-the-scenes look at the fine tuning and preparation behind a Masterworks main stage performance. Tickets are $10 and include coffee and snacks.

About CSO Music Director Rossen Milanov

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.

Milanov has collaborated with some of the world's preeminent artists, including Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, Joshua Bell, Midori, Christian Tetzlaff, and André Watts. During his 11-year tenure with the Philadelphia Orchestra, he conducted more than 200 performances. In 2015, he completed a 15-year tenure as Music Director of the nationally recognized training orchestra Symphony in C in New Jersey. In 2013, he completed a 17-year tenure with the New Symphony Orchestra in his native city of Sofia, Bulgaria. His passion for new music has resulted in numerous world premieres of works by composers such as Derek Bermel, Richard Danielpour, Nicolas Maw, and Gabriel Prokofiev among others.

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).

An experienced ballet conductor, he has been seen at New York City Ballet and collaborated with some of the best-known choreographers of our time such as Mats Ek, Benjamin Millepied, and most recently, Alexei Ratmansky in the critically acclaimed revival of Swan Lake in Zurich with the Zurich Ballet and in Paris with the La Scala Ballet.

Milanov studied conducting at the Curtis Institute of Music and the Juilliard School where he received the Bruno Walter Memorial Scholarship.

About guest guitarist Jason Vieaux

Grammy-winner Jason Vieaux, "among the elite of today's classical guitarists" (Gramophone), is the guitarist that goes beyond the classical. NPR describes Vieaux as, "perhaps the most precise and soulful classical guitarist of his generation." His most recent solo album, Play, won the 2015 Grammy Award for Best Classical Instrumental Solo, and he also earned a place on NPR's "50 Favorite Songs of 2014 (So Far)" for "Zapateado." Vieaux has earned a reputation for putting his expressiveness and virtuosity at the service of a remarkably wide range of music, and his schedule of performing, teaching, and recording commitments is distinguished throughout the US and abroad. His solo recitals have been a feature at every major guitar series in North America, and at many of the important guitar festivals in Asia, Australia, Europe, and Mexico.

About guest flamenco dance artist Griset Damas

Griset Damas Roche was born in Havana, Cuba, and studied ballet from 6-18 years old. She then became a company member of the Spanish Ballet of Havana, achieving the position of soloist. In 1998, Roche moved to Colombia where she developed a prolific career, making her mark as a dancer and teacher of flamenco. In 2014, she came to Columbus and established UWILLDANCE, the only flamenco studio in the state of Ohio.

About composer Manuel Falla (1876-1946)

Falla was one of Spain's most important musicians of the first half of the 20th century with his image being portrayed on Spain's 1970, 100-pesetas banknote. El Amor Brujo ("The Bewitched Love") is a ballet composed by Falla in 1914-15. Over time, he arranged a rendition for sextet and small orchestra, a concert version for small orchestra, a piano suite, and finally, a second ballet version. El Amor Brujo is the story of a young Andalusian gypsy girl promised in marriage to one man but in love with another. After her husband dies many years later, his ghost continues to haunt the widow and she plots to set herself free of his obsession and unite with the man she truly loves.

About composer Joaquín Rodrigo (1901-99)

The music of Spanish composer and virtuoso pianist Joaquín Rodrigo is among the most popular music of the 20th century. His Concierto de Aranjuez is considered one of the pinnacles of Spanish music and the guitar concerto repertoire. It was inspired by the gardens at Palacio Real de Aranjuez (Madrid, Spain), the spring resort palace and gardens built by Philip II in the last half of the 16th century and rebuilt in the middle of the 18th century by Ferdinand VI. The work attempts to transport the listener to another place and time through the evocation of the sounds of nature.

About composer Isaac Albéniz (1860-1909)

Albéniz was a Spanish pianist and composer best known for his works for piano based on folk music idioms. His Chants d'Espagne ("Songs of Spain") suite was originally three pieces-Prélude, Orientale, and Sous le palmier published in 1892-but Córdoba and Seguidillas were added in the 1898 edition.

About composer Ruperto Chapí (1851-1909)

One of the most popular composers of his time, Ruperto Chapí wrote a large number of symphonic, band, choral, and chamber works, as well as operas and zarzuelas, a Spanish lyric-dramatic genre that alternates between spoken and sung scenes, incorporating dance and operatic and popular song. His most celebrated work, La Revoltosa ("The Troublemaker"), is a Spanish zarzuela that premiered on November 25, 1897, at the Apollo Theatre in Madrid.

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