September 12, 2003
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Portland, Ore. … Laureate Music Director James DePreist leads the Oregon Symphony in an evening of music dedicated to Tchaikovsky and featuring cellist Mark Kosower on Oct. 11, 12 and 13 at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, with an additional performance on Oct. 14 at Salem’s Smith Auditorium. Media is support provided by The Oregonian.
This season marks DePreist’s first as Laureate Music Director, and this concert is the first of four conducting appearances he will make with the Symphony this year. In subsequent seasons DePreist will continue to conduct the orchestra annually, as well as finish recordings made possible through the Gretchen Brooks Recording Fund.
Kosower is quickly emerging as one of the leading cellists of his generation. He has appeared twice before with the Symphony and has recorded the Walton Cello Concerto with DePreist and the Symphony for the Delos label. He received the 2002 Avery Fisher Career Grant awarded to young artists by Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, and has performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. During the 2003-04 season he will make his debut with Gerard Schwarz and the Hong Kong Philharmonic in China as well as the North Carolina Symphony, the Santa Barbara Symphony, and the Florida Orchestra. In summer 2003, Mr. Kosower made his South American and Asian debuts in recital and as a soloist with the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra in Rio de Janeiro and in recital at Kumho Art Hall in Seoul, South Korea.
DePreist, a perennial lover of late-Romantic music throughout his career, opens the concert with the “Capriccio italien,” a work of popular Italian melodies that was inspired by the composer’s visit to Rome during the carnival season of 1880. Kosower then follows with “Variations on a Rococo Theme for Cello and Orchestra,” written in 1876 for Wilhem Karl Friedrich Fitzenhagen, the then principal cellist of the Orchestra of the Imperial Russian Music Society in Moscow. Fitzenhagen played a major role in the creation of this work, especially with regard to the solo passages, and it is his “recomposed” version that is best known to audiences today.
After intermission, DePreist and the Symphony perform the powerful Symphony No. 5 in E minor, considered one of Tchaikovsky’s masterpieces. Most critics of the time hailed it as a great achievement, and even those who weren’t completely enamored of it acknowledged the overall craft and passion that infuse the work. A contemporary critic, no lover of new music, was forced to admit, “But in spite of the prevailing wild savagery of his music, its originality and the genuineness of its fire and sentiment are not to be denied.”
Oregon Symphony Classical concerts regularly include additional opportunities for listeners to learn more about the music and the orchestra. These activities include:
Pre-concert Talks: Ralph Nelson, executive director of Portland Symphonic Choir, will lead a discussion one hour before the concert of the works to be performed. Media support for “Pre-Concert Talks” is provided by Classical Millennium.
Saturday: Laureate Music Director James DePreist will speak briefly from the podium in “Saturday Interactive.” Media support for “Saturday Interactive” is provided by KINKfm102.
Performances are scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 11 and 12 at 7:30 p.m. and Monday, Oct. 13 at 8 p.m. at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, with an additional performance on Tuesday, October 14 at Salem’s Smith Auditorium. Tickets range in price from $17 to $76 and may be purchased at the Oregon Symphony Ticket Office (923 S.W. Washington), Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. or charged by phone at 503-228-1353 or (800) 228-7343. Tickets also may be purchased at all Ticketmaster outlets (503-790-ARTS) or through Ticketmaster Online, via the Symphony’s Web site at www.orsymphony.org. Service fees may apply.
Mark Kosower is quickly emerging as one of the leading cellists of his generation. He is the distinguished recipient of a 2002 Avery Fisher Career Grant awarded to young artists by Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. Having performed recent debut recitals at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington DC and at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York, some of his recent engagements as soloist with orchestras include performances and a Delos recording with James DePreist and the Oregon Symphony, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Florida Philharmonic, the Santa Rosa Symphony, and the Juilliard Orchestra. Highlights of the upcoming 2003-04 season include debut performances with Gerard Schwarz and the Hong Kong Philharmonic in China as well as appearances with the Oregon Symphony, the North Carolina Symphony, the Santa Barbara Symphony, and the Florida Orchestra. In summer 2003, Mr. Kosower will make his South American and Asian debuts in recital and as soloist with the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra in Rio de Janeiro and in recital at Kumho Art Hall in Seoul, Korea.
Mr. Kosower is a member of Chamber Music Society Two at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and is affiliated with ASTRAL Artistic Services in Philadelphia. He has performed frequently at such esteemed chamber music festivals as the Aspen Music Festival, the Sitka Summer Music Festival, the Park City International Music Festival, the Delaware Chamber Music Festival, and recently served on the faculty at the Northern Lights Chamber Music Institute in conjunction with the Chamber Music Society of Minnesota.
Past performances include solo appearances with the Detroit Symphony, the Houston Symphony, the Indianapolis Symphony, the Milwaukee Symphony, the Minnesota Orchestra, and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and recitals in Chicago, Cincinnati, Detroit, Milwaukee, New York, San Francisco, St. Paul, and on Ravinia’s “Rising Stars Series.” Mr. Kosower has performed in Europe and Mexico as well with performances at the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris, the Alte Oper in Frankfurt, the Komische Oper in Berlin, and at the Kronberg Cello Festival. He has soloed with several major European orchestras as well including the Orchestre de Paris.
Mr. Kosower has won many awards including Grand Prize in the Seventh Irving Klein International String Competition where he became the first winner in the competition’s history to gain a unanimous vote by the nine judges. In 1994 Kosower won the prestigious WAMSO Young Artist Competition where he was again the unanimous winner of the Grand Prize. Mr. Kosower was only the third person to have been chosen for this award by the Music Director of the Minnesota Orchestra in 38 years. Most recently, Mr. Kosower won the 2000 Juilliard Cello Concerto Competition and was a top prize winner in the 7th Concours Rostropovich where he also was awarded a special prize for best interpretation of the commissioned work.
Mr. Kosower holds a Bachelor’s Degree and an Artist Diploma from Indiana University and a Masters Degree and second Artist Diploma from the Juilliard School. He was a four-year scholarship student at both institutions. Mr. Kosower was Assistant to Janos Starker while studying at Indiana University and is currently Mr. Krosnick’s Assistant at the Juilliard School.
