March 4, 2005
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Portland, Ore. … Composers who drew their inspiration from the music of other composers are featured as guest conductor Tania Miller leads the Oregon Symphony in a Sundays at Two concert performing music of Hindemith, Henze and Telemann with Principal Viola Joël Belgique on Sunday, April 3. American Airlines is the airline sponsor for the Symphony’s Sundays at Two series. Media support is provided by Willamette Week.
The final Sundays at Two concert of the 2004-05 season features Belgique performing Telemann’s Concerto for Viola and Orchestra in G major, one of only a handful of Baroque concertos to feature the viola as a solo instrument.
Miller, Music Director of the Victoria Symphony in Vancouver, British Columbia, leads the Symphony in Hans Werner Henze’s tribute to Telemann, “Telemanniana for Large Orchestra,” a sumptuous and romantic modern orchestral arrangement of Telemann’s original music. Hindemith’s popular “Symphonic Metamorphosis on Themes by Carl Maria von Weber,” uses Weber’s piano music as a launching point for Hindemith’s own brilliantly orchestrated music, which is by turns humorous and tender, exuberant and contemplative. The concert also features Weber’s overture to his final opera “Oberon.” The music reflects the opera’s whimsical and fantastic plot, a mix of fairy characters and exotic Eastern locales.
The performance is scheduled for Sunday, April 3 at 2 p.m. at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. General admission tickets for the Sundays at Two series are $15 for students and seniors, $21 general public 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.
Tania Miller’s appointment as Music Director of the Victoria Symphony fortifies her reputation as a consummate musician and leader. At the age of thirty-five, Tania is the youngest current Music Director of a major Canadian orchestra and the first Canadian woman to be appointed to such a significant position in Canada. The 2004/2005 Season marks Tania’s first full year as Music Director of the Victoria Symphony Orchestra.
Originally from Foam Lake, Saskatchewan, Tania Miller received her D.M.A and Master’s degree in conducting from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She went on to complete four seasons with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra in 2000-2004; first as Assistant Conductor and finally as Associate Conductor. Tania is equally at home conducting opera and orchestra repertoire and has worked extensively in the areas of Baroque and contemporary music. In addition to her many conducting engagements across Canada and the United States (including the Toronto, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary, Oregon, Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand Montreal, Toledo, London, and Saskatoon Symphony Orchestras), she co-founded the Michigan Opera Works in 1997 with a mandate to provide performance opportunities for emerging young professional artists. Her work as the Assistant Conductor of the Carmel Bach Festival from 1997-2001 gave her a unique opportunity to work closely with the internationally renowned conductor Bruno Weil and many of the world’s leading Baroque artists.
She conducted Opera McGill’s productions in Montreal in 1999 and 2000 of Les Contes d'Hoffmann and Le Nozze di Figaro and has conducted the Toronto contemporary ensemble ERGO, with whom she premiered a number of compositions in Munich, Toronto and New York.
Joël Belgique has held the position of principal viola with the Oregon Symphony for 7 years. Prior to moving to Oregon, he was member of the San Diego Symphony. Raised in Salt Lake City, Utah, by French parents, Joël Belgique studied viola with Mikhail Boguslavsky before attending the Interlochen Arts Academy. His viola studies went on to include undergraduate work at the Eastman School of Music and the Cleveland Institute of Music with renowned viola pedagogue Heidi Castleman. He later continued with distinguished violists Clyn Barrus and David Dalton at Brigham Young University where he received his Masters Degree in Performance and Pedagogy.
Belgique has appeared as soloist with several orchestras including the National Repertory Orchestra, the Utah Symphony, the Portland Chamber Orchestra, Rose City Chamber Orchestra, the Newport Symphony, and the Oregon Symphony on several occasions. He is a frequent participant at the Grand Teton Music Festival, and has also performed at the Festival of the Lakes, the Mainly Mozart Festival, and the Spoleto Festival in Italy.
In Portland, he is an active member of the music community. He is on the faculty at Portland State University, and well as being a member of Oregon’s premier new music ensemble, Fear no Music (www.fearnomusic.org). He is also a member of the newly formed Oregon Symphony String Quartet, made up of the 4 string principal players of the orchestra.
He helped in establishing the comical viola ensemble, The 4 Violas, (www.thefourviolas.com) which performed several concerts at the International Viola Congress in Minnesota this past summer. His arrangements such as the “1812 Overture for Four Violas and Multitple-Sized-Pop-Guns,” and the Strauss mock tone poem “Also Sprach Sancho Panza” were huge hits. Other arrangements include, “The Hustle,” “Macarena” and “A Fifth of Beethoven -or- the four take the fifth.”
