January 14, 2005
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Portland, Ore. … Unforgettable romantic music from Broadway, movies and the pop charts will be highlighted on the annual Valentine’s Day “concert for lovers” presented by the Oregon Symphony on Feb. 12, 13 and 14 at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, with an added performance on Feb. 11 at Smith Auditorium in Salem. The Feb. 14 concert is sponsored by the Andrianoff Family. Media support for these concerts is provided by K103 and Oregon Business Magazine.
This special evening of romance has become an Oregon Symphony Pops Valentine’s Day tradition. This year, Principal Guest Conductor of the Boston Pops Bruce Hangen will lead the Symphony in instrumental arrangements from renowned Broadway shows. They will be joined by baritone Marc Kudisch, who was nominated for a Tony Award in 2002 for his performance as Trevor Graydon in “ Thoroughly Modern Millie,” and soprano Lisa Vroman, who starred for two years as Christine in “The Phantom of the Opera” on Broadway.
Hangen and the Symphony will present music from Broadway shows such as “South Pacific,” “Top Hat,” “Kiss Me Kate” and “Girl Crazy.” For fans of pure classical romance, Hangen and the orchestra will perform arrangements of Liszt’s “Liebestraum” and music of Prokofiev. Film buffs will recognize the theme music from the movie “Love Is a Many Splendored Thing.” The Symphony will also play an arrangement of the Bee Gees’ smash hit, “How Deep is Your Love?” from the 1977 blockbuster “Saturday Night Fever.”
Kudisch will sing classic romantic Broadway hits, including “Some Enchanted Evening” and “This Nearly Was Mine” from “South Pacific” and “Where is the Life That Late I Led?” from “Kiss Me Kate.” Vroman will sing “So in Love” from “Kiss Me Kate,” “If I Loved You” from “Carousel” and Irving Berlin’s “Blue Skies.”
Kudisch and Vroman also will team up for several duets, including “Almost Like Being in Love,” “Make Someone Happy,” “You’re Just in Love” from “Call Me Madame” and “Ah! Sweet Mystery of Life/I’m Falling in Love With Someone” from “Thoroughly Modern Millie.”
Performances are scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 12 at 8 p.m., Sunday, Feb. 13 at 3 p.m. and Monday, Feb. 14 at 8 p.m. in the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. An additional performance is scheduled for Friday, Feb. 11 at 8 p.m. in Willamette University’s Smith Auditorium in Salem. Tickets range in price from $26 to $72 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.Bruce Hangen is Music Director of The Orchestra of Indian Hill, north central New England’s outstanding professional orchestra. He began his Indian Hill Music affiliation in the fall 1997 season. He is also Principal Guest Conductor of the Boston Pops, Conductor of Youth & Family Concerts for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Director of Orchestral Activities at The Boston Conservatory and Principal Conductor of the Boston Conservatory Orchestra.
He is a frequent guest conductor of the country’s leading orchestras and has appeared with the Dallas Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony, Houston Symphony, St. Louis Symphony and the Baltimore Symphony. He has been associated with The Boston Pops and Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra since 1979. His ongoing Pops association has included everything from series programs to outdoor, touring and private concerts.
Hangen was affiliated with the Portland Opera Repertory Theatre (P.O.R.T.) in Maine, as its founder and Artistic/General Director from 1995-2003. Formerly Conductor Laureate of the Omaha Symphony (1995-96), Hangen served as that orchestra’s Music Director and Conductor from 1984-92, and Artistic Director from 1992-95.
Previously, Hangen served as Associate Conductor of the Utah Symphony (1997-99); Music Director and Conductor of the Portland (Maine) Symphony (1976-86); Music Director of Denver’s Arapahoe Chamber Orchestra (1975-79); Associate Conductor of the Denver Symphony (1973-1979) and Assistant Conductor of the Colorado Philharmonic, now the National Repertory Orchestra (1966-72).
Hangen was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from the University of New England in 1981, and in Omaha was the recipient of the ICAN Foundation’s 1990 Browning Award for Career Excellence and Vision. In 2003, Boston radio station WCRB awarded him its third annual Partner in The Arts Award. A graduate of the Eastman School of Music, Hangen was a conducting fellow for two summers at the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood, winning the conducting prize for Outstanding Conducting Fellow in 1973. He was born in Pottstown, Pa., and was raised in Great Falls, Mont.
Actor Marc Kudisch grew up in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. After graduating from Florida Atlantic University in 1988, Kudisch moved to New York City, where he landed the role of Mario in the off-Broadway play “Tamara: The Living Movie” before landing the role of Conrad Birdie in the 1992 national tour of “Bye Bye Birdie.”
He made his Broadway debut and began his string of musicals as Reuben in the “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” revival at the Minskoff Theatre in November 1993. His next Broadway role was Gaston in “Beauty & the Beast.” He portrayed Gaston for two years, taking hiatuses to perform regionally in the premiere of “Jekyll & Hyde” at Kansas City Starlight and in the September 1997 ACT premiere of Cole Porter’s “High Society” as George Kittredge. Kudisch also appeared in a guest spot in an episode of “Sex & the City” in the spring of 1999, performed the role of Chauvelin in “The Scarlet Pimpernel 3.0” and became universally known as Toyota’s “TV Guy.”
In 2000, Kudisch played Jackie in Michael John LaChuisa’s musical adaptation of “The Wild Party” and Trevor Graydon the Third in the Jeanine Tesori-Dick Scanlan musical “Thoroughly Modern Millie.” In 2001, Kudisch starred in the Broadway revival of the 1956 Jule Styne musical “Bells Are Ringing” and as Miles Hendon in a musical adaptation of Mark Twain’s “The Prince and the Pauper” in Seattle and St. Paul. In 2002, Kudisch was nominated for the Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Awards for his performance as Trevor Graydon in “ Thoroughly Modern Millie” on Broadway.
In 2003, Kudisch stared as Tom Ambrose in Joe DiPietro and Jimmy Roberts’ new off-Broadway musical “The Thing About Men.” In early 2004, he began rehearsals for the Tony-winning revival of Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman’s musical “Assassins,” in which he played the role of the Proprietor. His work earned him a 2004 Drama Desk Award nomination for Most Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical.
In addition to returning to the role of Daniel Dravot in the New York Musical Theatre Festival production of “The Man Who Would Be King,” Kudisch is also working on his directorial debut, the Dan Lipton and David Rossmer musical “Joe!”
Acclaimed soprano Lisa Vroman starred for two years as Christine in “The Phantom of the Opera” on Broadway. She recently returned to the West Coast for engagements in San Francisco, Seattle and Los Angeles, already having garnered theater critics’ awards for “Phantom”’s record-setting run in San Francisco.
For the BBC Proms Festival 2002 at the Royal Albert Hall in London, Vroman sang the role of Laurey in “ Oklahoma!” She also recently starred on PBS as Johanna in Stephen Sondheim’s Emmy Award-winning “Sweeney Todd in Concert.” PBS featured Vroman as Christine alongside Colm Wilkinson and Michael Ball in “Hey, Mr. Producer!,” the London Royal Gala Benefit honoring Sir Cameron Mackintosh.
Vroman made her Hollywood Bowl debut for conductor John Mauceri last August, singing and dancing with legend Dick Van Dyke in a medley from “Mary Poppins.” Vroman’s Broadway debut was in “Aspects of Love” and she was the first to play both Fantine and Cosette in “Les Misérables.” At the American Conservatory Theater (ACT), she appeared as Lucy Brown in “The Threepenny Opera” with Bebe Neuwirth and Nancy Dussault. She also starred as Laurie Moss in Aaron Copland’s “The Tender Land” at the Cabrillo Music Festival. In the summer of 2004, she starred as Josephine in “HMS Pinafore” with Utah Opera and Maria in “The Sound of Music” with Tulsa Opera. Other regional roles include Eliza Doolittle in “My Fair Lady,” Guenevere in “Camelot” and Maria in “West Side Story.”
Vroman has had numerous guest soloist appearances with orchestras across North America, including the San Francisco, Chicago, Utah, Dallas, Phoenix, Syracuse, Vancouver, Pacific, Portland, Detroit, San Diego and National Symphony orchestras. She has, on separate occasions, had the honor of singing for Great Britain’s Queen Elizabeth, former President Clinton, and former Vice President Gore, among others.