BSO Assistant Conductor Nicholas Hersh Replaces Yan Pascal Tortelier for 2/27-28 Concerts

The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) regrets to announce that due to illness, guest conductor Yan Pascal Tortelier is unable to conduct this week's performances of Stravinsky's Firebird Suite, February 27 (Meyerhoff) and 28 (Strathmore). Replacing Maestro Tortelier, will be BSO Assistant Conductor Nicholas Hersh. The program will otherwise remain as scheduled with no changes.

The program also features Berlioz's Le Corsaire Overture ("The Pirate"), Ravel's Trio for Piano, Violin and Cello and Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 23, performed by pianist Louis Lortie. Please see below for complete program details.

Nicholas Hersh, conductor

Recently appointed Assistant Conductor with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, conductor Nicholas Hersh has served as Music Director of the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra in Indiana and Assistant Conductor with the National Repertory Orchestra in Colorado. He has appeared in concert with the New World Symphony in Miami and the Southern Great Lakes Symphony in Detroit, and he has served as cover conductor with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra and the Aspen Music Festival. In 2011 and 2012, he was a Conducting Fellow at the American Academy of Conducting at Aspen, and he is a recipient of the Solti Foundation US Career Assistance Award.

Nicholas grew up in Evanston, Illinois and started his musical training with the cello. He earned a bachelor's degree in music from Stanford University and a master's degree in conducting from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, studying with David Effron and Arthur Fagen. He also counts Robert Spano, Hugh Wolff and Larry Rachleff among his conducting mentors, and has participated in master classes with Bernard Haitink and Michael Tilson Thomas.

Hersh's performance credits span a diverse range of genres beyond the traditional concert canon, including opera, Broadway, pops, choral, Viennese dance, ballet, and film music. An avid performer of new music, he has conducted world premieres of two silent film scores live with pit orchestra and projection, as well as an opera, a symphony and numerous concert pieces. He also continues to earn acclaim for his skill as an arranger and orchestrator: his arrangements include commissions from the Cleveland Pops, the National Repertory Orchestra and the Jackson Symphony, and in 2013 his orchestral arrangement of Queen's famous "Bohemian Rhapsody" saw worldwide success after the video of its premiere went viral on the Internet.

COMPLETE PROGRAM DETAILS

The Firebird Suite

Friday, February 27, 2015 at 8 p.m. - Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall
Saturday, February 28, 2015 at 8 p.m. - The Music Center at Strathmore

Nicholas Hersh, conductor
Louis Lortie, piano

Berlioz: Le corsaire
Ravel (orch. Tortelier): Trio for Piano, Violin and Cello
Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 23
Stravinsky: The Firebird Suite

Tickets start at $40 and are available through the BSO Ticket Office, 410.783.8000 or BSOmusic.org.

Photo Courtesy of the BSO

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