Columbus Symphony to Open 2011-12 Season with Carmina Burana

Guest vocalists Aline Kutan, Frédéric Antoun, and Keith Phares join the Columbus Symphony Chorus, Columbus Children's Choir, Columbus Symphony, and Music Director Jean-Marie Zeitouni for a one-night-only season opening performance of Carmina Burana, Carl Orff's brazen, evocative, and explosive musical showcase. The evening's program will also include Jennifer Higdon's colorful, accessible, and ethereal blue cathedral, one of the most-performed contemporary orchestral works of our time, written by America's most-performed living composer.

The Columbus Symphony presents Carmina Burana in a special season opening event at the Ohio Theatre (39 E. State St.) on Thursday, October 13, at 8pm. Tickets are $24.75-$68 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.

In celebration of opening night, the Women's Association of the Columbus Symphony and the Columbus Symphony Orchestra League will host a pre-concert reception and dinner at the Ohio Theatre beginning at 5:30pm. Admission to the dinner is $100 per person (price does not include concert tickets) and all funds raised will benefit the CSO. Contact the CSO Ticket Office for details and registration at 614-228-8600.

The 2011-12 Masterworks Series is made possible through the generous support of season sponsor Battelle.

About CSO Music Director Jean-Marie Zeitouni
A graduate of the Montreal Conservatory, Jean-Marie Zeitouni has emerged as one of Canada's brightest young conductors with an eloquent yet fiery style in repertoire ranging from Baroque to contemporary music. He was installed as Music Director of the Columbus Symphony in October 2010, and also serves as principal conductor and artistic director designate of I Musici de Montréal, a prestigious Canadian chamber orchestra. Jean-Marie also enjoys a long association with Les Violons du Roy, a celebrated chamber orchestra based in Quebec City, first as conductor-in-residence, then as associate conductor, and since 2008, as principal guest conductor. Over the years, he has led the ensemble in more than 200 performances in the province of Québec, across Canada, and in Mexico. 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 of Solo or Chamber Ensemble. They also recorded two subsequent CDs-Bartok (2008) and Britten (2010).

About guest soprano Aline Kutan
This young Canadian soprano of Armenian origins made her debut at the age of 18 in the role of Flora (The Turn of the Screw by Benjamin Britten) with the Vancouver Opera. She studied at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver and the Laval University of Quebec. Before starting her operatic career, Kutan toured for two years with in a Canadian production of Andrew Lloyd Weber's The Phantom of the Opera. In 1995, Kutan won the Metropolitan Opera Competition in New York.

About guest tenor Frédéric Antoun
Montreal-based tenor Frédéric Antoun has sung leading roles with the Montreal Opera, Mexico's Bellas Artes, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, the Opera Company of Philadelphia, and at the Spoleto Festival USA. His repertory includes Romeo in Gounod's Romeo and Juliet, Alfredo in Verdi's La Traviata, Rodolfo in Puccini's La Boheme, and Nemorino in Donizetti's The Elixir of Love, among many other roles.
He has also specialized in concert works and oratorios, including Handel's Messiah, Bach's St. John Passion and St. Matthew Passion, Mozart's Requiem and Haydn's The Creation. Antoun is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and has won awards from the Oratorio Society of New York, the George London Foundation, the Debut Young Concert Artist Series, and the Licia-Albanese Puccini Competition.

About guest baritone Keith Phares
Acclaimed both on the opera and concert stage, baritone Keith Phares is emerging as one of today's most versatile artists. A graduate of the Juilliard Opera Center, he was a national winner of the 1998 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and a finalist in the 1999 Eleanor McCollum Competition of the Houston Grand Opera. He also has been recognized with a Richard Gaddes Grant from the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis and the 2000 Richard F. Gold Career Grant from the Juilliard School of Music.

About composer Jennifer Higdon (born 1962)
Pulitzer-prize winner Jennifer Higdon is one of the most-performed living American composers working today. Her list of commissioners range from the Cleveland Orchestra to the Philadelphia Orchestra; from eighth blackbird to the Tokyo String Quartet; and from The President's Own Marine Band to such artists as Hilary Hahn. Higdon received the 2010 Pulitzer Prize in Music for her Violin Concerto, with the committee citing Higdon's work as a "deeply engaging piece that combines flowing lyricism with dazzling virtuosity." She has also received awards from the Guggenheim Foundation, the American Academy of Arts & Letters (two awards), the Pew Fellowship in the Arts, Meet-the-Composer, the National Endowment for the Arts, and ASCAP. In 2010, Higdon received a Grammy for Best Contemporary Classical Composition for her Percussion Concerto. She holds the Rock Chair in Composition at The Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. She also served as Composer-in-Residence for the OSU School of Music's 2009 Contemporary Music Festival.

About composer Carl Orff (1895(1895-07-10)-1982(1982-03-29))
Carl Orff was a 20th-century German composer best known for his "scenic cantata," Carmina Burana (1937). It is the first of a trilogy called Trionfi (or Triumphs) that also includes Catulli Carmina and Trionfo di Afrodite. The work was based on thirteenth-century poetry found in the Benedictine monastery of Benediktbeuern in 1803. While "modern" in some of his compositional techniques, Orff was able to capture the spirit of the medieval period in this trilogy with infectious rhythms and easy tonalities. The medieval poems, written in Latin and an early form of German, are often racy without descending into smut. "Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi," commonly known as "O Fortuna," from Carmina Burana is often used to denote primal forces, for example in the Oliver Stone movie The Doors.

www.columbussymphony.com

CALENDAR LISTING
The Columbus Symphony presents CARMINA BURANA
Thursday, October 13, 8pm
Ohio Theatre (39 E. State St.)
Guest vocalists Aline Kutan, Frédéric Antoun, and Keith Phares join the Columbus Symphony Chorus, Columbus Children's Choir, Columbus Symphony, and Music Director Jean-Marie Zeitouni for a one-night-only season opening performance of Carmina Burana, Carl Orff's brazen, evocative, and explosive musical showcase. Tickets are $24.75-$68 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. www.columbussymphony.com

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