Colburn Orchestra Announces Ambassador Auditorium As 2011/12 Home

The Colburn School announced today (September 2, 2011) that Pasadena's Ambassador Auditorium is to be the new home of the Colburn Orchestra for the 2011/12 season. Music Director Yehuda Gilad and Colburn Conservatory of Music students will present five concerts of inspiring orchestral
repertoire with talented soloists and exciting guest artists as a gift to the community FOR FREE.

After leading the Colburn Orchestra last year, legendary conductor Sir Neville Marriner said:
"It is enormously refreshing to have such an enormously talented orchestra in front of you."

The Colburn School President and CEO Sel Kardan:
"The Colburn Orchestra under the baton of Maestro Yehuda Gilad is delighted to make Pasadena's Ambassador Auditorium it's home for the 2011-2012 season. As part of our mission to bring the highest quality free performances to the community, we look forward to presenting our gifted young musicians, guest artists, and distinguished conductors to the discerning and welcoming audiences of the greater Los Angeles area."

Colburn Orchestra Music Director and Conductor Yehuda Gilad said:
"The passion and virtuosity of the Colburn Orchestra is a perfect match for the culturally rich and vibrant Pasadena arts community. It is incredibly exciting to present this great season of orchestral repertoire and fantastic soloists."

Performances in Pasadena in 2011 inspired reviews including:
"Judging by The Colburn School students, the future of symphony orchestras is in fine hands, hearts and minds." (Pasadena Star - News)

To open the season on September 24th, Yehuda Gilad conducts the ensemble in Berlioz's Roman
Carnival Overture, and Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition (orch. Ravel). Conservatory violinist
Francesca dePaquale, winner of the 2010 Irving M. Klein String Competition, will join the ensemble to perform Dvorak's only violin concerto.Conservatory cellist Estelle Choi joins conductor Yehuda Gilad and the Colburn Orchestra for Shostakovich's Cello Concerto No. 1 on October 22, an evening that also includes Brahms's Symphony No. 3. Choi is part of the Calidore Quartet, which won the 2011 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition.

Gerard Schwarz, music director of the Seattle Symphony from 1985-2011, leads the Colburn
Orchestra in Mahler's fifth symphony on December 3. Percussion ensemble Smoke and Mirrors is
also featured for Takemitsu's From Me Flows What You Call Time.

On February 4, Mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke, hailed by the New Yorker as having "a luminous tone, a generously supported musical line, a keen sense of verbal nuance, and a flair for seduction" joins conductor Yehuda Gilad and the Colburn Orchestra for vocal works of John Adams ("Am I In Your Light?" from Dr. Atomic) and Gustav Mahler (Ruckert Lieder). The program concludes with Dvorak's Symphony No. 7.

The March 3 season finale features conductor Bramwell Tovey, music director of the Vancouver
Symphony and principal guest conductor of the LA Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl. Works
include Strauss's tone poem Ein Heldenleben and Brahms's Piano Concerto No. 2, with Conservatory pianist Sichen Ma, who has performed as soloist with the Toronto Symphony and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

All concerts are on Saturdays at 7:30pm in Ambassador Auditorium. Free tickets are available for
download at www.colburnschool.edu/colburnorchestra, by phone at 213.621.1050 and, subject to
availability, at the Ambassador Auditorium one hour prior to each concert.

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