September 9, 2005
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Portland, Ore. … Grammy award-winning soul diva Roberta Flack will open the Oregon Symphony’s 2005-06 Pops season on Oct. 8, 9 and 10 at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, with an added performance on Oct. 11 at Salem’s Elsinore Theater. Media support is provided by K103fm and Oregon Business Magazine.
Flack, whose 1970s hits “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” and “Killing Me Softly with His Song” have won multiple Grammy awards, is known for her sophisticated and romantic style. She has continued to tour and promote her music, and has appeared in concert with younger soul singers Alicia Keyes and India Arie. On this concert, her Symphony debut, she will perform many of her signature hits, including “Tonight I Celebrate My Love” and “The Closer I Get to You.” The orchestra will be led by guest conductor John Morris Russell, currently serving as Associate Conductor for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Music Director of the Windsor Symphony Orchestra in Ontario, Canada.
The Oct. 8 concert is also the 2005-06 opening event for Soirée, the Symphony’s group for young professionals. Soirée events include a pre-concert 1970s-themed cocktail party, an intermission reception and a post-concert party with Symphony musicians.
Performances are scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 8 at 8 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 9 at 3 p.m. and Monday, Oct. 10 at 8 p.m. at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, with an additional performance on Tuesday, Oct. 11 at the Elsinore Theater in Salem. Tickets range in price from $27 to $76 and may be purchased at the Oregon Symphony Customer Service Office (923 S.W. Washington), Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. or charged by phone, Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. 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.
Roberta Flack, with her ability, heart, hard work and determination, is a gifted performer. Born in Asheville, N.C., to a family where music was a natural outlet for self-expression and entertainment, Flack’s earliest musical influences came from family and church and from hearing such luminaries as Mahalia Jackson and Sam Cooke.
Flack was admitted to Howard University on a full music scholarship at the age of fifteen and was trained in classical piano and voice. Her debut album, “First Take,” included the No. 1 hit “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” which was featured on the sound track for the movie “Play Misty for Me.” The album won the Grammy for Record of the Year in 1972.
Other classic Roberta Flack songs include “Killing Me Softly” (which won Grammys for Record of the Year and Best Pop Vocal - Female 1973), “Where is The Love” (Grammy for Best Pop Vocal by a Duo 1972 with Donny Hathaway), “Feel Like Making Love,” “The Closer I Get to You,” “Tonight I Celebrate My Love for You” and “Set the Night to Music.”
Throughout the eighties and nineties, Flack continued to record while maintaining a heavy schedule of concert-touring and appearances for charities and nonprofit organizations. Her international tour in early 2000 included Turkey, Argentina, Australia and Japan.
In 2002, “Roberta Flack In Concert” was released on DVD. She also took a leadership role in response to the aftermath of September 11 th by participating along with other celebrities in Nile Rogers’ “We Are Family,” directed by Spike Lee. Furthermore, she participated in the nationwide “Come Back to D.C.” television campaign, a joint collaboration between the federal government and the D.C. Tourism board.
Flack remains an inspiration to her fans, peers and younger musicians in the music industry. She has appeared with soul artists including Alicia Keyes, India Arie and Angie Stone and is an outspoken participant in the AEC (Artist Empowerment Coalition), whose primary goal is advocacy for artists’ rights and control of their creative properties.
John Morris Russell has consistently won international praise for his ability to make extraordinary music and to make a difference. Since joining the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in 1995, Associate Conductor John Morris Russell has made significant contributions to the life of the orchestra and the community. He regularly leads concerts of the CSO and Pops at Music Hall and Riverbend Music Center, as well as programs in Cincinnati’s urban neighborhoods and rural communities in southern Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky. Since 2001 he has created and conducted the “Classical Roots: Spiritual Heights” series, which has brought the CSO and music of African-American composers and performers to thousands of listeners in area churches. He is also the co-creator, conductor and host of “Home for the Holidays” with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, which enjoyed its eighth successful year in December 2003.
In September 2001, John Morris Russell began his tenure as Music Director of the Windsor Symphony Orchestra in Ontario, Canada. The Windsor Star hailed his inaugural season with the Windsor Symphony as “triumphant” and wrote, “…he has invigorated the entire organization with his boundless energy and enthusiasm.” In October 2003 he signed a second three-year contract extending his tenure with the WSO through 2007. Last season he conducted 14 weeks including symphonic and Pops subscription programs, a Baroque and Classical series and the prestigious Windsor Canadian Music Festival. He has conducted the WSO in four national broadcasts for CBC Radio and the orchestra’s first televised production on the CBC television series, “Opening Night.”
Committed to building a solid musical foundation for audiences of all ages, Mr. Russell develops and conducts educational programs for the Cincinnati Sym phony Orchestra enjoyed by more than 40,000 students annually. He has also taken a leadership role in the DSO’s “Sound Discoveries” program, a comprehensive education and outreach effort, and is frequently seen in classrooms across the Tri-state region sharing the joy of orchestral music with teachers and students. He also conducts the CSO’s Lollipop Family Concerts, and has been instrumental in building the popularity of “Classical Conversations,” a series of informal talks that precede CSO subscription concerts at Music Hall, of which he is a frequent and engaging host.
Among Mr. Russell’s recent guest conducting engagements have been appearances with the orchestras of Toronto, Detroit, Indianapolis, Minnesota, Louisville, Anchorage, New Mexico, Nashville and Winston-Salem, as well as Miami’s New World Symphony, the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra in New Orleans and the New York Philharmonic at Avery Fischer Hall. At Carnegie Hall he regularly leads the Orchestra of St. Luke’s and the American Composers Orchestra. For five years he served as conductor of “LinkUP!” concerts at Carnegie Hall for students from New York City Public Schools and since 1999 has conducted on Carnegie Hall’s family concert series. In October 2000, he conducted the Cincinnati Opera production of “Brundibar.”
As Associate Conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Mr. Russell has worked with CSO Music Director Paavo Järvi, Music Director Emeritus Jesús López-Cobos and Cincinnati Pops Conductor Erich Kunzel on hundreds of concerts and dozens of recordings and television productions. In September 1999, Mr. Russell replaced Erich Kunzel with an hour’s notice and conducted the Pops’ opening weekend concerts. The following week he substituted for Maestro Kunzel in concerts on the stage of the famed Musikverein in Vienna, featuring the Harlem Boychoir, the Vienna Choir Boys and actor Gregory Peck. The performance was televised throughout Europe, Japan and in the USA on PBS, and has been made into a compact disc, video and DVD.
Prior to his appointment with the CSO, Mr. Russell served as associate conductor of the Savannah Symphony Orchestra, director of the orchestral program and professor of conducting at Vanderbilt University, music director for the College Light Opera Company in Falmouth, Massachusetts and conducting assistant with the Akron Symphony Orchestra.
Mr. Russell received a master of music degree in conducting from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in music from Williams College in Massachusetts. He has also studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, the Cleveland Institute of Music, the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado and the Pierre Monteux School for Conductors in Hancock, Maine.
