Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra Opens Season With CARMINA BURANA, Now thru 10/6

Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra opens 2013-2014 season tonight, Oct. 4 through the 6th, with a concert featuring one of the most recognizable works of all time, Carmina Burana, and a world premiere by Pittsburgh-based composer David Stock.

Based on 24 of the poems found in the medieval collection Carmina Burana, this 20th-century choral masterpiece has been heard countless times in film, television and even at professional sports events. This dynamic performance will include Lisette Oropesa, soprano; Andrey Nemzer, tenor; Hugh Russell, baritone; and the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh under the direction of Betsy Burleigh.

Acclaimed composer David Stock, one of the Pittsburgh Symphony's Pittsburgh Composers of the Year, wrote the new Sixth Symphony (world premiere and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra commission) specifically for his hometown orchestra. This symphony is influenced by Stock's Jewish heritage and includes hymns from the synagogue service.

The concerts will begin at 8 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday. Tickets, ranging in price from $30.75 to $124.75, can be purchased by calling the Heinz Hall box office at 412-392-4900 or visiting www.pittsburghsymphony.org.

Each BNY Mellon Grand Classics concert is part of the Explore & Engage program, which includes pre-concert talks, beginning one hour prior to performance, as well as exhibits, display boards and interactive activities that illuminate the music, composers and the time in which they created - enriching each concertgoer's understanding and enjoyment.

The Pittsburgh Symphony would like to recognize and thank BNY Mellon for its 2013-2014 title sponsorship of BNY Mellon Grand Classics. Fairmont Pittsburgh is the official hotel of the Pittsburgh Symphony. Delta Air Lines is the official airline of the Pittsburgh Symphony.

David Stock is professor emeritus at Duquesne University, where he conducted the Duquesne Contemporary Ensemble. He has been composer-in-residence of the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Seattle Symphony and the Pittsburgh Youth Symphony, and is conductor laureate of the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, which he founded in 1976. He retired as music director of PNME at the end of the 1998/99 season, after 23 years of dedication to new music and the living composer. His large catalog of works include symphonies, string quartets and concerti for various instruments; chamber, solo and orchestral music; and work for dance, theater, TV and film. Stock has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, five Fellowship Grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, five Fellowships from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, and grants and commissions from Ella Lyman Cabot Trust, the Paderewski Fund for Composers, the Koussevitzky Music Foundation, the Barlow Endowment, Boston Musica Viva, the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Cincinnati Symphony, the Seattle Symphony, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Richard Stoltzman, Duquesne University, the Erie Philharmonic, and many others.

The Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh (MCP), a chorus of 120 which includes a 20-voice professional core, is renowned for its versatility, singing oratorio, opera, Broadway, folk and symphonic repertoire. Founded in 1908, the MCP holds the distinction of being Pittsburgh's oldest continuously performing arts organization. The choir, in its 104th season and sixth under the direction of Betsy Burleigh, is known for its mastery of the great choral classics. The MCP is a Steinway Artist, the only chorus holding that designation.

Manfred Honeck was appointed the ninth Music Director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in January 2007, and began his tenure at the start of the 2008-2009 season. After a first extension in 2009, his contract was extended for the second time in February 2012, now through the 2019-2020 season. Honeck was born in Austria and studied music at the Academy of Music in Vienna. An accomplished violinist and violist, he spent more than 10 years as a member of the Vienna Philharmonic and the Vienna State Opera Orchestra. He began his career as conductor of Vienna's Jeunesse Orchestra, which he co-founded, and as assistant to Claudio Abbado at the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra in Vienna. In 2010, Honeck was awarded an honorary doctorate from St. Vincent College in Latrobe, Pa. Apart from his numerous tasks as conductor, he has been Artistic Director of the "International Concerts Wolfegg" in Germany for more than 15 years. Honeck served as Principal Guest Conductor of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra from 2008 to 2011, a position he has resumed from 2013 to 2016. As a guest conductor, Honeck has worked with major orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Staatskapelle Dresden, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and the Vienna Philharmonic and in the United States with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra Washington and Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Friday, Oct. 4 at 8 p.m.

Saturday, Oct. 5 at 8 p.m.

Sunday, Oct. 6 at 2:30 p.m.

Heinz Hall
PITTSBURGH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
MANFRED HONECK, conductor
Lisette Oropesa, soprano

ANDREY NEMZER, tenor

HUGH RUSSELL, baritone

MENDELSSOHN CHOIR OF PITTSBURGH (Betsy Burleigh, director)

John Stafford Smith The Star-Spangled Banner

Ludwig van Beethoven Overture to Fidelio, Opus 72

David Stock Sixth Symphony (World Premiere and PSO Commission)

Carl Orff Carmina burana

Fortuna imperatrix mundi [Fortune, Empress of the World]

I. Primo vere [In Springtime]

Uf dem Anger [On the Green]

II. In taberna [In the Tavern]

III. Cour d'amours [The Court of Love]

Blanziflor et Helena [Blanziflor and Helena]

Fortuna imperatrix mundi

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