Michael Christie to Lead Minnesota Orchestra's Classical Series Opening Concerts, 2/20-22

Conductor Michael Christie will lead the opening concerts of the Minnesota Orchestra's classical season subscription series on Thursday, February 20 at 11am; Friday, February 21 at 8pm; and Saturday, February 22 at 8pm as the orchestra returns to the renovated Orchestra Hall (1111 Nicollet Mall) for its homecoming subscription series, which runs from February through July 2014.

Christie, who is the Music Director of the Minnesota Opera, conducts the Minnesota Orchestra for the first time in 15 years, leading three of the most popular works of the 20th century's early decades: Rachmaninoff's virtuosic Piano Concerto No. 2, Stravinsky's colorful Firebird Suite and Ravel's mesmerizing Boléro. Young Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov, among the brightest stars in the next generation of pianists, performs the Rachmaninoff concerto.

"I am deeply honored to have been asked to lead these series opening performances," Christie says. "As a resident and artistic leader in the Twin Cities, this is also a fabulous opportunity to build bridges between organizations like the Minnesota Orchestra and Minnesota Opera."

Michael Christie continues as Music Director of Minnesota Opera, a post he began in fall 2012, leading three productions during the 2013-2014 season - Puccini's Manon Lescaut in September 2013, Richard Strauss' Arabella in November 2013, and Verdi's Macbeth from January 25-February 1, 2014 at Ordway Center for the Performing Arts (345 Washington Street).

Michael Christie is a thoughtfully innovative conductor, equally at home in the symphonic and opera worlds, who is focused on making the audience experience at his performances entertaining, enlightening, and enriching. The New York Times reports, "Michael Christie is a director open to adventure and challenge," and the Cincinnati Enquirer declares, "If Michael Christie represents the future of music in this country, the future looks promising indeed."

Christie, who was featured in Opera News in August 2012 as one of 25 people believed to "to break out and become major forces in the field in the coming decade," began his tenure as the first-ever Music Director of the Minnesota Opera with the 2012-13 season. His 16-year symphonic conducting career has included serving as Music Director of the Phoenix Symphony (2005-2013) and Brooklyn Philharmonic (2005-2010), and as Chief Conductor of the Queensland Orchestra (2001-2004) in Australia, as well as guest appearances leading the Los Angeles Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra, the Symphonies of Dallas, St. Louis, Atlanta, Houston, Minnesota, Oregon, Indianapolis, and Cincinnati. His New York Philharmonic debut came in March 2007 when he stepped in on short notice for an ailing Riccardo Muti.

Christie has also served as the Music Director of the Colorado Music Festival since 2000, where he has been highly praised for his innovative programming and where audiences are now at an all time high, resulting in him being named "Musician of the Year" by The Denver Post in 2010.

Over the course of his career, Christie has embarked on a series of intriguing and ambitious projects focused on growing and nurturing audiences. These include his Intermission Insights, designed to offer compelling engagement with the audience during one of the most fertile and underutilized moments during the concert, the intermission; Clef Notes, a short "real time" guide to a concert as it is being performed; Click! The Community Commissioning Club, a program in which audiences can vote on composers to be commissioned. In addition, Christie has developed initiatives around introducing audience members to music outside the standard repertoire - from Baroque to contemporary - as well as interdisciplinary collaborations with visual artists, dance companies, and theater groups, and contemporary composers such as Gorecki, Ligeti, Adams, Golijov, and Tan Dun.

Christie is also committed to bringing new works to life. During his tenure with the Phoenix Symphony, he premiered works by 16 living composers, and has championed commissions by leading and emerging composers alike, including Osvaldo Golijov, Matthew Hindson, Marjan Mozetich, Stephen Paulus, Michael Daugherty, Mason Bates, Mark Grey, and more.

During the 2012-13 season, as Minnesota Opera's Music Director, Christie helmed productions of Verdi's Nabucco, Donizetti's Anna Bolena, and Puccini's Turandot. In 2011, also with the Minnesota Opera, he led the world premiere performances of Kevin Puts' Silent Night, which was awarded the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Music and was broadcast nationally on PBS in December 2013. Anthony Tommasini praised his "supple pacing and vitality" in The New York Times, when Christie led the work in 2013 with Opera Company of Philadelphia.

In June 2013, Christie made his San Francisco Opera debut, with the world premiere performances of Mark Adamo's The Gospel of Mary Magdalene. His upcoming 2013-14 season highlights include the world premiere of Twenty-Seven, a new opera by Ricky Ian Gordon commissioned by Opera Theatre of St. Louis starring Stephanie Blythe as Gertrude Stein; the world premiere of a new work by Matthew Hindson with the Phoenix Symphony; productions of Puccini's Manon Lescaut, Richard Strauss' Arabella, and Verdi's Macbeth with the Minnesota Opera; and leading the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra at Carnegie Hall as part of Spring for Music in 2014.

Notable past engagements include highly praised productions of Corigliano's The Ghosts of Versailles and John Adams's The Death of Klinghoffer, and the North American premiere of Unsuk Chin's Alice in Wonderland, all with Opera Theatre of St. Louis; the European premiere of The Ghosts of Versailles at the Wexford Festival Opera; Minnesota Opera performances of Verdi's La traviata, Bernard Herrmann's Wuthering Heights, Puccini's Madame Butterfly; as well as various performances at Opernhaus Zürich and Finnish National Opera.

Christie's many European engagements have included leading the Rotterdam Philharmonic, DSO Berlin, Orchestre National de Lille, Swedish and Netherlands Radio Symphony, City of Birmingham Symphony, NDR Hannover Orchestra and the Czech Philharmonic. In addition, Christie enjoys a strong profile in Australia, where he has conducted the Sydney Symphony, Tasmanian Symphony, Opera Queensland, and the Western Australian Symphony in Perth.

Michael Christie first came to international attention in 1995 when he was awarded a special prize for "Outstanding Potential" at the First International Sibelius Conductors' Competition in Helsinki. Following the competition, he was invited to become an apprentice conductor with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra where he subsequently worked with Daniel Barenboim as well as at the Berlin State Opera during the 1996-1997 season. Christie graduated from the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music with a bachelor's degree in trumpet performance. He is married to Alexis, a physician, and they have a daughter, Sinclair, born in 2008.

For more information, visit www.michaelchristieonline.com. Michael can be found on Facebook at www.facebook.com/michaelchristieonline and on Twitter as @MC_Conductor.

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