UTAH SYMPHONY TO PERFORM WITH WORLD RENOWNED GUEST CONDUCTOR, TEENAGE PIANO PRODIGY (SLC: Jan 5 - 7)

Media Contact:

Hilarie Ashton | Public Relations Manager

hashton@usuo.org | (801)869-9027

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 19, 2011

UTAH SYMPHONY TO PERFORM WITH WORLD RENOWNED GUEST CONDUCTOR, TEENAGE PIANO PRODIGY

Concert will feature a program of popular works by Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich

SALT LAKE CITY— World renowned guest conductor Andrey Boreyko and teenage piano prodigy Conrad Tao will join the Utah Symphony for a program featuring two of music history’s most famous and explosive Russian masterpieces.

17-year-old pianist Conrad Tao, hailed by Musical America as "the most exciting prodigy to ever come [our] way," will perform Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with Boreyko and the orchestra Thursday, January 5 at 7:30 p.m. in Brigham Young University’s deJong Concert Hall as well as Friday, January 6 and Saturday, January 7 at 8 p.m. in Abravanel Hall. The program will also include Shostakovich’s bold and heroic Symphony No. 5, one of the composer’s most popular and influential orchestral works, serving today as a telling snapshot of its place in Russia’s turbulent history.

Tickets for the evening performances range from $17 to $51 and can be purchased by calling (801) 355-ARTS (2787), in person at the Abravanel Hall ticket office or by visiting www.usuo.org. Students can purchase discounted tickets with a student ID. Season ticket holders and those desiring group discounts should call (801) 533-NOTE (6683). Ticket prices will increase $5 when purchased on the day of the performance.

Press photos available by logging in at http://www.utahsymphony.org/about/press-and-reviews/itemlist/category/35-media-kit. (Username: usuoimages, Password: media).

About Andrey Boreyko Conductor

Andrey Boreyko regularly conducts the leading European and American orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Russian National, Zürich Tonhalle, London Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia and Cleveland Orchestras. 

Boreyko serves as Music Director of the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, and also holds the positions of Principal Guest Conductor of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra (SWR) and the Orquesta Sinfónica de Euskadi San Sebastian in Spain. Maestro Boreyko signed a five-year contract with the Orchestre National de Belgique as Chief Conductor beginning in September, 2012. He was chief conductor of the Berner Symphonieorchester, the Poznan Philharmonic Orchestra, the Jenaer Philharmonie, the Hamburger Symphoniker and the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra as well as Principal Guest Conductor of the Vancouver Symphony. Andrey Boreyko is honorary conductor of the Jenaer Philharmonie and in the course of his five-year-work as chief conductor in Jena, the board of directors of the Deutscher Musikverleger-Verband/Germany awarded him and his orchestra the distinction for the best concert programmes for three seasons in succession.

Boreyko was born in St. Petersburg and graduated from the St. Petersburg Conservatory with a degree in conducting and composition.  His principal teachers were Elisaveta Kudriavzeva and Alexander Dmitriev.

About Conrad Tao, Piano

Hailed as "the most exciting prodigy to ever come my way" by Musical America, 17-year-old Chinese-American pianist Conrad Tao was found playing children’s songs on the piano at 18 months of age and has never looked back. The Utah Symphony is pleased to invite Conrad Tao back “by popular demand” after his dazzling Utah Symphony debut last October, 2010.

Born in Urbana, Illinois, he gave his first piano recital at age 4, and at age 8, made his concerto debut performing Mozart’s Piano Concerto in A major, K. 414. Conrad is currently a Gilmore Young Artist, an honor awarded every two years to single out the most promising of the new generation of U.S. pianists.

Conrad has appeared as soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Russian National Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony, and the Dallas and Baltimore Symphonies, among others. He has given solo recitals at the Louvre Museum in Paris, the Ravinia Festival, the Verbier Festival, UC Berkeley’s Cal Performance Series, the Gilmore Series, and has toured Italy, Mexico, Chile, Russia, China and Singapore.

Equally regarded as a composer, Conrad is an eight-time consecutive winner of the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer award, since 2004.   He is also an accomplished violinist, winning the 2003 Walgreens National Concerto Competition on that instrument.

In June, Conrad received a medal from President Obama at the White House, after being named a 2011 Presidential Scholar for the Arts in music.  His first recording for EMI, featuring solo piano works including three of his own compositions, will be released in early 2012.

Conrad resides in New York City with his parents and sister, where he just started the joint Columbia University/Juilliard college program.

Program

Anatoli Liadov	The Enchanted Lake, Opus 62
Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky	Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor for Piano and Orchestra, Opus 23 I.  Allegro non troppo e molto maestoso II.  Andantino semplice III.  Allegro con fuoco Conrad Tao, Piano
INTERMISSION
Dmitri Shostakovich	Symphony No. 5 in D minor, Opus 47 I. Moderato II. Allegretto III. Largo IV. Allegro non troppo

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Hilarie Ashton

Public Relations Manager
801.869.9027 office

801.335.9387 cell