Guitar Master Pablo Villegas Performs GRAND CLASSICS with Pittsburgh Symphony This Weekend

PITTSBURGH - The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra presents a weekend of music that paints a picture - of lovers reunited, fortunes won (and lost) and times forgotten - with the BNY Mellon Grand Classics: Classical Guitar Master Pablo Villegas this weekend, October 9 & 11 at Heinz Hall.

The program opens with Academy Award-nominated music from the film "There Will Be Blood," written by Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood who has gained fame in recent years for his concert works and film scores. Guest conductor Gustavo Gimeno, who makes his debut in Pittsburgh during this weekend, leads his fellow country man Pablo Villegas in Joaquín Rodrigo's Fantasía Para un Gentilhombre, a piece rich in haunting melodies and exhilarating Spanish folk dances. The concert comes to a tender end with music from two ballets - Stravinsky's Jeu de cartes, a ballet that imagines the dancers as cards locked in the battle of a poker game, and a suite from Ravel's great love story, Daphnis et Chloé.

A pre-concert talk, open to all ticket holders, led by Assistant Conductor Andrés Franco will occur on stage one hour before each concert. On October 9, the Center for Young Musicians will be performing in the Grand Lobby one hour prior to the concert start. Program notes for the weekend are available online at pittsburghsymphony.org/villegas 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/villegas.

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

From the 2015-2016 season, Gustavo Gimeno takes up his post as music director of the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg. He begins his partnership with a focus on the first symphonies of Beethoven, Mahler, Bruckner, Schumann and Shostakovich and with singers from the Wiener Singverein he will conduct Verdi's Requiem. At the contemporary end of the spectrum he is conducting works of Rihm, Berg and Berio. His soloists in his first season include Isabelle Faust, Frank Peter Zimmermann, Leonidas Kavakos, Anja Harteros and Stefan Dohr.

After a sensational debut with Concertgebouw Orchestra in 2014 and return concerts in Amsterdam, he will tour with the orchestra to Taiwan and Japan. He also returns to the Munich Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and the Verdi Orchestra, Milan. He will make debuts on the podiums of the Orchestra National de France, Orchestra National de Capitol du Toulouse, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Dresden Staatskapelle and the Philharmonia Zurich.

Alongside his U.S. debut with Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Cleveland Orchestra's Blossom Festival, Gimeno will also make his debut with Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the 2016 Ravinia Festival. In Japan, he will also be on the podiums of the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra and Osaka Philharmonic.

Recent highlights included debuts in 2014-2015 season with the Leipzig Gewandhaus, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Danish National Symphony Orchestra. In spring 2015, Gimeno made his debut at the Palau de les Arts in Valencia conducting Bellini's "Norma" in a new Davide Livermore production. In February 2014, on the occasion of his sensational Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra debut Gimeno conducted the European debut of Magnus Lindberg's second Piano Concerto with the Concertgebouw Orchestra and Yefim Bronfman, (its dedicatee). Gimeno has worked closely with many composers including Theo Loevendie, Jacob ter Veldhuis, Pierre Boulez, Peter Eötvös, George Benjamin and the young Spanish composer Francisco Coll.

Gimeno's international conducting career began in 2012 as assistant to Mariss Jansons with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. He spent several insightful years assisting the late Claudio Abbado with the Orchestra Mozart, Bologna, the Lucerne Festival Orchestra and Mahler Chamber Orchestra. In 2013 he also assisted Bernard Haitink with the Orchestra Mozart. Working closely with such mentors has had a profound impact on the formative years of his conducting career.

Gimeno was born in Valencia, Spain, and lives with his family in Amsterdam. Between 2001 and 2013 he was principal percussionist of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.

The soul of the Spanish guitar runs in Pablo Villegas's blood. Born and raised in La Rioja, Spain - the country with unique and deep ties to his chosen instrument - Villegas is distinguished by performances as charismatic as they are intimate. With his singing tone and consummate technique, his interpretations conjure the passion, playfulness and drama of his homeland's rich musical heritage, routinely drawing comparisons with such legendary exponents of his instrument as Andrés Segovia.

Indeed, at just 15 he won the Andrés Segovia Award, launching a succession of international wins that include Gold Medal at the inaugural Christopher Parkening International Guitar Competition. The first guitarist to win El Ojo Crítico, Spain's top classical music honor, Villegas also became the youngest of his generation to appear with the New York Philharmonic, in an auspicious debut under the late Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos at Avery Fisher Hall. He has since performed for both the Dalai Lama and the Spanish royal family, and it was he who gave the world premiere of Rounds, the first composition for guitar by five-time Academy Award-winner John Williams.

Known for sound so rich and full that it does not need amplification, Villegas's concerto collaborations regularly inspire immediate reengagements. Since making his international breakthrough after his triumphs at the 2005 Tárrega Competition and 2006 Parkening Competition, he has appeared with orchestras in more than 30 countries, including the New York, Los Angeles and Israel Philharmonics, and the Boston, San Francisco, Houston and Toronto Symphonies. He made a series of important debuts under the baton of the late Frühbeck de Burgos, and has enjoyed fruitful collaborations with conductors including George Crumb, Giancarlo Guerrero, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Carlos Kalmar, Jean-Jacques Kantorow, Helmut Lachenmann, Juanjo Mena and Alondra de la Parra.

In 2007 Villegas founded the Music Without Borders Legacy (MWBL), a non-profit organization that seeks to bridge cultural, social, and political boundaries through classical music. Since its inception, the foundation has reached more than 15,000 at-risk children and youth around the world, through music programs in the United States, Mexico and Spain, and is now supported by La Caixa Bank. Villegas also serves as cultural ambassador to La Rioja's Vivanco Foundation and its Museum of Wine Culture, considered the most prestigious wine museum in the world.

Born in 1977 in La Rioja in Northern Spain, Villegas was inspired to take guitar lessons after seeing Segovia on television. He gave his first public performance at just seven years old, and went on to graduate at the top of his class at the Royal Conservatoire in Madrid. After several years in Germany, in 2001 he relocated to New York City, where he studied for his master's and doctorate with David Starobin at the Manhattan School of Music, and where he lives to this day.

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.