Berkeley Symphony Performs Beethoven's 'Emperor' With Soloist Conrad Tao Tonight

Music Director Joana Carneiro, Berkeley Symphony and composer and pianist Conrad Tao perform Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5, "Emperor," together tonight, February 4 at 8 pm at Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley. Carneiro also leads the Orchestra in Lutos?awski's Concerto for Orchestra, an orchestral showpiece.

Tickets are $15-$74 and are available at www.berkeleysymphony.org or by phone at (510) 841-2800, ext. 1. Berkeley Symphony offers a $7 Student Rush ticket one hour prior to each performance for those with a valid student ID.

Inspired by Bartók's monumental concerto for orchestra, Lutos?awski wrote his own concerto over a four-year period from 1950-1954, after his First Symphony was banned by the Polish government. The folkloric, nationalistic motifs of Concerto for Orchestra were building blocks in his exploration of what became his new musical language, as well as a rebuke to the government. After the widespread success of this work, he turned to a style that encompassed random passages juxtaposed with more structured music.

Conrad Tao, 21, has appeared worldwide as a pianist and composer, and has been dubbed a musician of "probing intellect and open-hearted vision" by The New York Times and a "thoughtful and mature composer" by NPR. He makes his debut with Berkeley Symphony in this concert. In 2011, the White House Commission on Presidential Scholars and the Department of Education named Tao a Presidential Scholar in the Arts, and the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts awarded him a YoungArts gold medal in music. Later that year, Tao was named a Gilmore Young Artist, and in 2012, he was awarded the Avery Fisher Career Grant. During the 2015-16 season, Tao performs with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Buffalo Philharmonic, Pacific Symphony, and in recital in Europe and throughout the United States with repertoire ranging from Bach to Frederic Rzewski to Rachmaninoff to Julia Wolfe. Past notable symphonic engagements have included the San Francisco Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Toronto Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Detroit Symphony, National Arts Centre Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony, and Nashville Symphony.

In 2013, Tao curated and produced the inaugural UNPLAY Festival in Brooklyn, encompassing electroacoustic music, performance art, and youth ensembles. UNPLAY explored the fleeting ephemera of the Internet, the possibility of a 21st-century canon, and music's role in social activism and critique. Of his first album, Voyages, NPR wrote: "Tao proves himself to be a musician of deep intellectual and emotional means - as the thoughtful programming on this album...proclaims." His new album, Pictures, with works by David Lang, Toru Takemitsu, Elliott Carter, and Tao himself, alongside Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, was released in October 2015. Tao's compositions have been recognized with eight consecutive ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Awards and the Carlos Surinach Prize from BMI. In the 2013-14 season, while serving as the Dallas Symphony Orchestra's artist-in-residence, Tao premiered his orchestral composition, The world is very different now, commissioned in observance of the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Most recently, the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia commissioned a new work for piano, orchestra, and electronics, An Adjustment, which received its premiere in September 2015 with Tao at the piano. Tao was born in Urbana, Illinois, in 1994. He has studied piano with Emilio del Rosario in Chicago and Yoheved Kaplinsky in New York, and composition with Christopher Theofanidis.

ABOUT BERKELEY SYMPHONY

Recognized nationally for its spirited programming, Berkeley Symphony has established a reputation for presenting major new works for orchestra alongside fresh interpretations of classic European and American repertoire. Berkeley Symphony continues its steadfast commitment to presenting original and unique programs, with a 2015-16 season that combines important contemporary works, U.S. and West Coast premieres, and commissioned work alongside classic masterworks. In addition to the October West Coast premiere of Kaija Saariaho's Laterna Magica and the West Coast premiere in May 2016 of Mark Grey's Frankenstein Symphony, a co-commission with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra performs Lutos?awski's Concerto for Orchestra and Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5 ("Emperor") in February, with Conrad Tao as soloist; and Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto in D major, featuring Simone Porter, in May.

Since the 1979-80 season, including the works planned for this season, Berkeley Symphony has performed 64 world premieres, 28 U.S. premieres, and 21 West Coast premieres. Berkeley Symphony has been recognized in 10 of the past 12 seasons with an Award for Adventurous Programming from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP). In addition to its concerts at Zellerbach Hall and its Berkeley Symphony & Friends Chamber Music Series, Berkeley Symphony regularly partners with Cal Performances, the performing arts presenter and producer of the University of California, Berkeley, to provide music for visiting artists. Berkeley Symphony's award-winning Music in the Schools program benefits over 4,600 elementary and middle school students in Berkeley each year. San Francisco public radio station KALW 91.7 FM is Berkeley Symphony's broadcast partner, airing all Berkeley Symphony subscription concerts.

ABOUT JOANA CARNEIRO

As Music Director, Joana Carneiro has captivated the public with her commanding stage presence and adventurous programming, which has highlighted the works of several prominent contemporary composers, including John Adams, Kaija Saariaho, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Brett Dean, and Gabriela Lena Frank. Carneiro is regarded as one of the most exciting and outstanding young conductors working today. During the 2015-16 season, her seventh leading Berkeley Symphony, she conducts the Orchestra in two West Coast premieres, Kaija Saariaho's Laterna Magica and Mark Grey's Frankenstein Symphony, as well the U.S. premiere of Sofia Gubaidulina's Fachwerk. Carneiro's commitment to expanding the community base of Berkeley Symphony and upholding the Orchestra's artistic excellence was recognized by the League of American Orchestras, which honored her with the Helen M. Thompson Award in 2010. She was appointed Music Director of Berkeley Symphony in 2009, succeeding Kent Nagano as only the third Music Director in the 40-year history of the Orchestra.

Named Principal Conductor of the Portuguese National Symphony at the Teatro de Sao Carlos in January 2014, Carneiro remains the Official Guest Conductor of the Gulbenkian Orchestra in her native Lisbon. She is also increasingly in demand throughout the world for guest conducting engagements, both for orchestras and opera companies. Prior to her Berkeley Symphony appointment, she served as Assistant Conductor with the Los Angeles Philharmonic from 2005 to 2008, where she worked closely with Esa-Pekka Salonen and led performances at Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Hollywood Bowl.

CALENDAR EDITORS, PLEASE NOTE:

Thursday, February 4, 2016 at 8 pm

Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley campus, Bancroft Way at Dana Street, Berkeley

Joana Carneiro, conductor

Conrad Tao, piano

Berkeley Symphony

Program III: Majestic

Lutos?awski: Concerto for Orchestra

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 73, "Emperor"

Tickets: $15-$74. Tickets are available at www.berkeleysymphony.org and by phone at (510) 841-2800, ext. 1. Berkeley Symphony offers a $7 Student Rush ticket one hour prior to each performance for those with a valid student ID.

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