The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra Presents THE SOUND OF A MODERN SYMPHONY, 5/15-17

BNY Mellon Grand Classics: The Sound of a Modern Symphony highlights the power and range of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra on May 15-17 under the baton of British conductor Michael Francis. This program features the Pittsburgh Symphony premiere of Mason Bates' Alternative Energy and the orchestral world premiere of Jake Heggie's The Work at Hand, a Pittsburgh Symphony co-commission for principal cellist Anne Martindale Williams.

When the Pittsburgh Symphony offered to commission a new cello concerto for its principal cellist, she requested that it be a concerto for cello, voice and orchestra written by American composer Heggie. The text used is from a poem by Laura Morefield, written during her struggle with cancer, which eventually claimed her life. It is a poignant reflection on the unknown that lies ahead and will feature mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton, who recently won the prestigious Richard Tucker Foundation Award, in her debut with the orchestra.

The Heggie co-commission saw its world premiere on February 17 in a chamber version with Barton, Williams and Bradley Moore on piano. Broadway Worldwrites that the "centerpiece of the evening was the world premiere of Jake Heggie's three-song cycle, 'The Work at Hand,' ...Barton's measured lyricism and adept phrasing - and winning manner - were well served by the piece...Williams' muscular playing during the introduction to 'Individual Origami' (the first of the songs) was outstanding."

Maestro Francis opens the program with the premiere of Alternative Energy by Composer of the Year Mason Bates and closes it with Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra, an expressive piece that presents each section of the orchestra as a collective of virtuosic concerto soloists.

The concert on Saturday, May 16 is a "Behind the Notes" performance. The Saturday concert will include Mason Bates' Alternative Energy in the first half and Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra in the second half. Maestro Francis will present a talk on Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra, identifying excerpts and explaining the story behind its composition with the audience. Subscribers who wish to move to or from the Saturday performance should contact their Patron Services Representative (PSR).

Each BNY Mellon Grand Classics concert is part of the Explore & Engage program, which includes pre-concert talks, exhibits, display boards and interactive activities that illuminate the music, composers and the time in which they were created. A pre-concert talk, open to all ticket holders, led by Resident Conductor Fawzi Haimor will occur on stage one hour before each concert. He will be joined by composer Jake Heggie on Friday evening.

The concert begins at 7:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday. Tickets, ranging in price from $25.75 to $105.75, can be purchased by calling the Heinz Hall box office at 412-392-4900 or visiting pittsburghsymphony.org/modernsymphony.

The Pittsburgh Symphony would like to recognize and thank BNY Mellon for its 2014-2015 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.

British conductor Michael Francis continues to make an impact on the world stage receiving countless accolades resulting in invitations to direct some of the finest orchestras. Building upon successful debuts with prestigious American and European orchestras, Francis is being sought after for his musicality and ability to elicit orchestral tone and shape suitable to the style of each composer. Francis has catapulted far beyond his impressive last minute "step-in" engagements with the London Symphony where he replaced Valery Gergiev and later John Adams in 2007. Recently appointed chief conductor and artistic advisor to Sweden's Norrköping Symphony Orchestra, Francis follows in the footsteps of Herbert Blomstedt and Franz Welser-Möst each of whom were chief conductor with the orchestra in the early stages of their careers. His successful 2010 "step-in" debut with the San Francisco Symphony has led to his conducting that orchestra's New Year's Concerts in 2011 and 2012 and to conduct its 2011 and 2012 summer seasons of nine classical concerts each. Other acclaimed debut concerts included the New York Philharmonic, Houston, Cincinnati, Seattle, Indianapolis and Oregon Symphonies as well as with Mariinsky Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and Münchner Symphoniker. Most recent and upcoming debuts include those with the Pittsburgh, Vancouver, Bournemouth, Toronto, Milwaukee, New World, Ottawa and Quebec Symphonies, as well as the Dresden, Lausanne, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Japan Philharmonics, while making return visits to Stuttgart, Indianapolis, San Francisco, Oregon, Seattle and BBC Wales. Musical collaborations with Anne-Sophie Mutter began in January 2009 when Francis made "step-in" performances for André Previn in four German cities conducting Mozart and Gubaidulina concerti plus major works of Hindemith. He also appeared with Mutter in the 2010 world premiere of Wolfgang Rihm's Lichtes Spiel with the New York Philharmonic and on a 2012 European tour conducting Sebastian Currier's Violin Concerto Time Machine with the RSO Stuttgart. In May 2012, they collaborated again on a tour of seven European cities with an orchestra of musicians from the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonics. Francis returned to Asia with Mutter in November 2012 for concerts in Taiwan and Hong Kong having earlier conducted a series of concerts for Mutter in 2010 with the National Taipei Symphony Orchestra and the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra. While on this tour, Francis again "stepped-in" to conduct the Tokyo City Philharmonic Orchestra to great triumph.

The 2014-2015 season marks Canadian violinist Jonathan Crow's fourth season as concertmaster of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. A native of Prince George, British Columbia, Crow earned his Bachelor of Music in honors performance from McGill University in 1998, at which time he joined the Montreal Symphony Orchestra as associate principal second violin. Between 2002 and 2006, Crow was the concertmaster of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra; during this time he was the youngest concertmaster of any major North American orchestra. Crow continues to perform as guest concertmaster with orchestras around the world, including the National Arts Centre Orchestra, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Filarmonia de Lanaudiere and Pernambuco Festival Orchestra (Brazil). Crow has performed as a soloist with most major Canadian orchestras including the Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver Symphony Orchestras; the National Arts Centre and Calgary Philharmonic Orchestras; the Victoria and Kingston Symphonies; and Orchestra London, under the baton of such conductors as Charles Dutoit, Sir Yehudi Menuhin, Sir Andrew Davis, Peter Oundjian, Kent Nagano, Mario Bernardi and João Carlos Martins. In 2005, Crow joined the Schulich School of Music at McGill University as an assistant professor of violin and was appointed associate professor of violin in 2010. Current and former students of Crow have received prizes at competitions around the world, including the Menuhin International Violin Competition, Montreal Symphony Orchestra Competition, Shean Competition, CBC Radio's NEXT competition, Eckhardt-Grammatte Competition, Canadian Music Competition and Stulberg International String Competition, and work regularly with orchestras such as the National Arts Centre Orchestra, Camerata Salzburg, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Verbier Chamber Orchestra, Vienna Kammerphilharmonie and Vienna Symphony Orchestra. Crow is currently associate professor of violin at the University of Toronto. An avid chamber musician, Crow has performed at chamber music festivals throughout North America, South America and Europe, including the Banff, Ravinia, Orford, Domaine Forget, Seattle, Montreal, Ottawa, Incontri in Terra di Sienna, Alpenglow, Festival Vancouver, Pernambuco (Brazil) and Giverny (France) and Strings in the Mountains festivals. He is a founding member of the New Orford String Quartet, a project-based new ensemble dedicated to the promotion of standard and Canadian string quartet repertoire throughout North America. As an advocate of contemporary music, he has premiered works by Canadian composers Michael Conway Baker, Eldon Rathburn, Barrie Cabena, Ana Sokolovic, Marjan Mozetich, Christos Hatzis, Ernest MacMillan and Healey Willan. He also includes in his repertoire major concerti by such modern composers as Ligeti, Schnittke, Bernstein, Brian Cherney, Rodney Sharman and Cameron Wilson. Crow has recorded for ATMA, Bridge, CBC, Oxingale, Skylark and XXI-21 labels and is heard frequently on Chaîne Culturelle of Radio-Canada, CBC Radio Two and National Public Radio, along with Radio France, Deutsche Welle, Hessischer Rundfunk and the RAI in Europe. Crow performs on a Samuel Zygmuntowicz violin graciously on loan from the Banff Center for the Arts.

Anne Martindale Williams has enjoyed a successful career as principal cellist of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra since 1979. Throughout her tenure with the orchestra, she has often been featured as soloist both in Pittsburgh and on tour in New York at Carnegie Hall and Avery Fisher Hall. Williams was soloist with the Pittsburgh Symphony in the Pittsburgh premier of The Giving Tree conducted by the composer, Lorin Maazel. She has also collaborated with guest artists such as Yehudi Menuhin, André Previn, the Emerson Quartet, Lynn Harrell, Joshua Bell, Gil Shaham and Pinchas Zukerman in numerous chamber music performances. She made her London debut performing Dvo?ák's Cello Concerto with the Royal Philharmonic, Andre Previn conducting. Her solo in The Swan on the Pittsburgh Symphony's recording of Carnival of the Animals by Saint-Saëns was described by Grammophon critic Edward Greenfield as "...the most memorable performance of all." Williams divides her time between the orchestra, teaching at Carnegie Mellon University, and solo and chamber music performances in America, Europe and the Far East. She has appeared in several nationally televised productions includingConcertos, produced by the BBC and Previn and the Pittsburgh, produced by WQED. She has given master classes at many universities and festivals throughout the country, including The Curtis Institute of Music, SUNY at Stony Brook, Manhattan School of Music, the New World Symphony in Miami, the National Orchestral Institute, Aspen, Credo at Oberlin College and the Masterworks Festival. She also has performed at many of America's prestigious summer music festivals including Aspen, Caramoor, Skaneateles, Maui, Rockport Festivals in Massachusetts and Maine, Grand Teton, Strings Festival in Steamboat Springs, Orcas Island, and Mainly Mozart in San Diego. For many years she has enjoyed performing throughout the country with her Piano Trio, which includes her good friends Andrés Cárdenes and David Deveau. Williams has performed numerous times as soloist with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, performing Schumann's Concerto in A minor, Tippett's Triple Concerto, Previn's Reflections, Bach's Brandenburg Concertos Nos. 3 and 6, Strauss's Don Quixote, Bloch's Schelomo, Dvo?ák's Cello Concerto, Dutilleux's Tout un monde lointain, Saint-Saëns' Concerto No. 1 and Brahms' Double Concerto, as well as Elgar's Introduction and Allegro for String Quartet. In recent seasons, she was featured in Haydn's Concerto in C, Tchaikovsky's Rococo Variations, Elgar's Cello Concerto, and Haydn's Sinfonia Concertante for Violin, Cello, Oboe, Bassoon and Orchestra, and Walton's Cello Concerto. This season, she will be featured in Honegger's Cello Concerto. Williams is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music where she studied with Orlando Cole. Her Tecchler cello was made in Rome in 1701. Her husband, Joe, is the director of student ministries at Beverly Heights Presbyterian Church in Mount Lebanon. They reside in Pittsburgh with their daughter, Claire.

The 2015 recipient of the Richard Tucker Music Foundation Award as well as the winner of both the Main and the Song Prizes at the 2013 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition, a winner of the 2007 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and a Grammy nominee, American mezzo-sopranoJamie Barton has been described by The Guardian as "a great artist, no question, with an imperturbable steadiness of tone, and a nobility of utterance that invites comparison not so much with her contemporaries as with mid-20th century greats such as Kirsten Flagstad." Barton's 2014-2015 season begins with a debut at the San Francisco Opera as Adalgisa in Norma. This will be followed by a return to Atlanta for Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with Donald Runnicles. Other concert engagements include the world premiere of Jake Heggie's The Work at Hand with the Pittsburgh Symphony and the Verdi Requiem with the Toronto Symphony and Sir Andrew Davis. As the latest recipient of the Marian Anderson Award, Barton will appear in Recital at the Kennedy Center. Further Recital dates include Carnegie's Zankel Hall, Worcester, Massachusetts, Frankfurt, Germany and a benefit for the Wolf Trap Foundation. In opera, Barton will return to the Lyric Opera of Chicago in a new role, Giovanna Seymour in Anna Bolena, followed by her return to the Houston Grand Opera as Fricka in Die Walküre. Later in the season, Barton will debut the role of Azucena in Il Trovatore with the Cincinnati Opera and will make a company debut with the Seattle Opera, also in a leading role. Future projects include returns to the Metropolitan Opera and the Houston Grand Opera and debuts at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, the Oper Frankfurt, the Deutsche Oper, Berlin, the Los Angeles Opera and the Washington National Opera, all in leading roles. In recent seasons, she has performed Second Lady in The Magic Flute with the Metropolitan Opera, Mère Marie in Dialogues des Carmélites with the Bayerische Staatsoper, and appeared in productions of Faust and Gian Carlo Menotti's The Last Savage with Santa Fe Opera, and Emilia in Otello with the Canadian Opera Company. Concert appearances include: Bernstein's Opening Prayerand Jeremiah Symphony with the Colorado Symphony under Marin Alsop, Domenico Scarlatti's rarely performed comic intermezzo La Dirindina with Ars Lyrica (Music of the Baroque), Mozart's Requiem with Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra under Edo de Waart, Schubert's Mass No. 6 with San Diego Symphony and Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with the Omaha Symphony. In recital she appeared with the Vocal Arts Society at the Kennedy Center, under the auspices of the Marilyn Horne Foundation, as well as Carnegie Hall as part of their Great Singers III: Evenings of Song series. She also appeared as a guest soloist in the Marilyn Horne Foundation Gala at Carnegie Hall. A former member of the Houston Grand Opera Studio, Barton appeared as Ursula in Béatrice et Bénédict, Giovanna in Rigoletto and Mary Norton in the world premiere of André Previn's Brief Encounter. With the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis she performed Suzuki in Madama Butterfly and Marcellina in Le nozze di Figaro. With the Wolf Trap Opera Company, she performed the role of Penelope in Monteverdi's Il ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria, as well as a series of recitals with pianist Steve Blier. With the Aspen Music Festival, Barton appeared as the Witch in Hansel and Gretel as well as a recital with bass-baritone Ryan McKinny, and a concert of Bernstein/Bruce Coughlin: Arias and Barcarolles with the Aspen Chamber Symphony. An avid recitalist, Barton has appeared with the Marilyn Horne Foundation at Weill Hall with tenor Russell Thomas as well as a solo recital with On Wings of Song. She made her Spivey Hall debut singing Brahms' Alto Rhapsody, which was also broadcast on NPR. Barton has received extensive training as a recitalist at the Tanglewood Music Center, where she was a fellow in Vocal Studies for summer 2006 and 2007. At the Tanglewood Music Center, she worked with such artists and coaches as James Levine, Dawn Upshaw, Phyllis Curtin, Kayo Iwama, Ira Siff, Lucy Shelton, Alan Smith and Olly Wilson. As a member of the Houston Grand Opera Studio, she participated in several recital series including the popular "Recital at Rienzi."A graduate of the Houston Grand Opera Studio, Barton attended Indiana University in Bloomington, where she performed roles such as Tisbe in La Cenerentola, Buttercup in HMS Pinafore and Mrs. Soames in the 2006 world premiere of Ned Rorem's Our Town.

The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, known for its artistic excellence for more than 119 years, is credited with a rich history of the world's finest conductors and musicians, and a strong commitment to the Pittsburgh region and its citizens. Past music directors have included Fritz Reiner (1938-1948), William Steinberg (1952-1976), Andre Previn (1976-1984), Lorin Maazel (1984-1996) and Mariss Jansons (1995-2004). This tradition of outstanding international music directors was furthered in fall 2008, when Austrian conductor Manfred Honeck became music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony. The orchestra has been at the forefront of championing new American works, and gave the first performance of Leonard Bernstein's Symphony No. 1 "Jeremiah" in 1944 and John Adams' "Short Ride in a Fast Machine" in 1986. The Pittsburgh Symphony has a long and illustrious history in the areas of recordings and radio concerts. As early as 1936, the Pittsburgh Symphony broadcast on the airwaves coast-to-coast and in the late 1970s it made the ground breaking PBS series Previn and the Pittsburgh. The orchestra has received increased national attention since 1982 through network radio broadcasts on Public Radio International, produced by Classical WQED-FM 89.3, made possible by the musicians of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. With a long and distinguished history of touring both domestically and overseas since 1900-including 36 international tours to Europe, the Far East and South America-the Pittsburgh Symphony continues to be critically acclaimed as one of the world's greatest orchestras.

Heinz Hall for the Performing Arts is owned and operated by Pittsburgh Symphony, Inc., a non-profit organization, and is the year-round home of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. The cornerstone of Pittsburgh's Cultural District, Heinz Hall also hosts many other events that do not feature its world-renowned orchestra, including Broadway shows, comedians, speakers and much more. For a full calendar of upcoming non-symphony events at the hall, visit heinzhall.org

Photo Credit: Marco Borggvere

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