"EXTRAORDINARY ENCORES" TO SPOTLIGHT ORCHESTRA TALENT
IN FIRST SYMPHONY SUNDAY CONCERT OF THE 2001-2002 SEASON
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Portland, Ore. … "Extraordinary Encores," conducted by Music Director James DePreist, will launch the 2001-2002 Symphony Sunday season with solo appearances by Oregon Symphony Violinist Denise Huizenga and Assistant Principal Violist Charles Noble Sept. 16 at 3 p.m. at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. General admission tickets range from $13 to $22. The Symphony Sunday series, founded by Associate Conductor Norman Leyden, includes popular, family-oriented programs, and features Oregon Symphony players and Northwest artists as soloists.

DePreist will conduct Glinka's Overture to "Ruslan and Ludmilla," Dvorak's "Carnival" Overture, Tchaikovsky's "Swan Lake" Suite and Dvorak's Romance for Violin and Orchestra featuring violinist Denise Huizenga. Following intermission, DePreist will conduct Copland's "Hoedown" from "Rodeo," excerpts from Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" and Glazunov's "The Seasons," Tchaikovsky's Scherzo from Symphony No. 4 and Bruch's Romance for Viola and Orchestra featuring viola soloist Charles Noble.

Denise Huizenga is in her fourth season as a violinist with the Oregon Symphony, and this is her second appearance as a soloist with the orchestra. She also is a member of Portland's premier new-music group, Third Angle, and recently co-founded the popular Ethos String Quartet with colleagues from the Oregon Symphony.

Charles Noble joined the Oregon Symphony as Assistant Principal Violist in 1995 and is the founding violist of the Ethos Quartet as well as co-founder and a member of the faculty of the Max Aronoff Viola Institute in Seattle, Wash. Noble has previously appeared as soloist with the Oregon Symphony in Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante, Joseph Castaldo's Viola Concerto and Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 6.

"Extraordinary Encores" is scheduled for Sunday, Sept. 16, at 3 p.m. in the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. General admission tickets are $22 for adults, $13 for students, seniors and children (12 and under) and may be purchased at the Oregon Symphony Ticket Office (923 S.W. Washington), Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. (and on Saturdays beginning Sept. 11). Tickets also may be purchased at all Ticketmaster outlets (790-ARTS) or through Ticketmaster Online, via the Symphony's Web site at www.orsymphony.org. Service fees may apply.

Denise Huizenga

Denise Huizenga is in her fourth season as a violinist with the Oregon Symphony. She is also a member of Portland's premier new-music group, Third Angle. Prior to her move west, she was the assistant concertmaster (second chair) of the Fort Wayne Philharmonic Orchestra in Indiana, and performed with the Freimann String Quartet.

Huizenga recently formed the Ethos Quartet (ethosquartet.com) with colleagues from the Oregon Symphony. The group has given many successful concerts in the Pacific Northwest, including live radio performances on Seattle's KING-FM 98.1 and Portland's KBPS, and masterclasses with the Takacs and Miro Quartets. Ethos also has coached with luminaries such as Philip Setzer, Peter Serkin and Portland's own Robert Sylvester. As a member of the Mendota Quartet in 1997, Denise was a semifinalist in the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, and performed at Minneapolis' Orchestra Hall for the Juilliard Quartet. The group was critically acclaimed for their "stimulating level of excitement and clarity of line." Mendota also performed in masterclasses for such reknowned artists as Janos Starker, Samuel Rhodes, the Lark Quartet, and the Artaria Quartet.

As a soloist, Huizenga has recorded a recital program for Georgia Public Radio, and has been a featured artist with orchestras across the country. She has also played in masterclasses for Joseph Silverstein, Elmar Oliveira, Mark Kaplan and Glenn Dicterow.

Denise holds a Bachelor of Music degree with academic honors from the New England Conservatory where she studied with James Buswell, and a Master of Music from the University of Minnesota. While at the University, she was Sally O'Reilly's teaching assistant and coached chamber music at the Bravo! Summer String Institute. She also studied orchestral leadership with Minnesota Orchestra concertmaster Jorja Fleezanis and chamber music with collaborative pianist Margo Garrett. She taught violin, string techniques classes and coached chamber music as a member of the faculty of Concordia University in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Last summer Denise was a dean at the Quartet Program at Bucknell University, and before that she was a fellow at the Aspen Music Festival and School. Her other summer festival performances include the Oregon Bach Festival, the Ernest Bloch Festival, the Chautauqua Music Institute, the Musicorda Festival, and the International Congress of Strings.

Charles Noble

Charles Noble joined the Oregon Symphony as Assistant Principal Violist in 1995. He is also the founding violist of the Ethos String Quartet, which has won both critical and audience acclaim at its performances throughout the Pacific Northwest.

Noble has previously performed the Mozart Sinfonia Concertante, the Joseph Castaldo Viola Concerto and the Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 with the Oregon Symphony. During the summer of 2000, he was one of three American violists invited to tour Japan with the Super World Orchestra, whose roster included members of the Vienna Philharmonic, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra and Cleveland Orchestra.

The recipient of numerous awards and honors, Noble was the winner of the 1993 Seattle Ladies Musical Club Competition, received the 1995 C.D. Jackson Award by a vote of the faculty at the Tanglewood Music Center, and was awarded the 1995 Israel Dorman String Prize at the Peabody Conservatory of Music.

Noble was a member of the faculty at the 1998 National Youth Orchestra Festival at the Interlochen Center for the Arts and is co-founder and a member of the faculty of the Max Aronoff Viola Institute in Seattle, Washington. In December of 2000, he led a master class in orchestral audition preparation at the University of Nevada at Reno.

Noble is also is a published author, with two articles on audition preparation appearing in the The Strad, a leading music periodical.

In June of 2002, he will appear in recital at the American Viola Congress in Seattle, Wash., in a performance of George Benjamin's "Viola, viola" with Oregon Symphony Principal Violist Joël Belgique.