Columbus Symphony to Present Shakespeare-Inspired Concert, 3/30-4/1

Joined by guest vocalists Michèle Losier, mezzo-soprano, and Alisa Suzanne Jordheim, soprano, CSO Music Director Jean-Marie Zeitouni and the Columbus Symphony will perform works inspired by Shakespeare's Hamlet and A Midsummer's Night Dream.

The women of the Columbus Symphony Chorus and actors from CATCO-Phoenix will also join the CSO for a staged version of The Bard's beloved comedy. The program includes Berlioz's "Death of Ophelia" from Tristia and Les Nuits d'été, as well as Mendelssohn's Incidental Music to A Midsummer Night's Dream.

WOSU's Christopher Purdy will hold a free, pre-concert lecture about the program for ticket holders one hour prior to each performance.

The Columbus Symphony presents Inspired by the Bard at the Southern Theatre (21 E. Main St.) on Friday, March 30, at 8pm; Saturday, March 31, at 8pm; and Sunday, April 1, at 3pm. Tickets are $28-$68 and can be purchased at the Ohio Theatre Ticket Office (39 E. State St.), all Ticketmaster outlets, and www.ticketmaster.com. To purchase tickets by phone, please call (614) 228-8600 or (800) 745-3000.

College students with a valid ID can purchase $15 tickets the week of the performance. Students between the ages of 13-19 may purchase $5 PNC Arts Alive All Access tickets while available. The Southern Theatre Ticket Office will also be open two hours prior to each concert.

The 2010-11 Masterworks Series is made possible through the generous support of season sponsor Battelle.

About CSO Music Director Jean-Marie Zeitouni
A graduate of the Montreal Conservatory, Jean-Marie Zeitouni has emerged as one of Canada's brightest young conductors with an eloquent yet fiery style in repertoire ranging from Baroque to contemporary music. He was installed as Music Director of the Columbus Symphony in October 2010, and also serves as principal conductor and artistic director designate of I Musici de Montréal, a prestigious Canadian chamber orchestra. Jean-Marie also enjoys a long association with Les Violons du Roy, a celebrated chamber orchestra based in Quebec City, first as conductor-in-residence, then as associate conductor, and since 2008, as principal guest conductor. Over the years, he has led the ensemble in more than 200 performances in the province of Québec, across Canada, and in Mexico. In 2006, he recorded his first CD with Les Violons du Roy entitled Piazzolla which received a 2007 JUNO Award for Classical Album of the Year in the category of Solo or Chamber Ensemble. They also recorded two subsequent CDs-Bartok (2008) and Britten (2010).

About guest vocalist Michèle Losier, mezzo-soprano
Critically acclaimed mezzo-soprano Michèle Losier distinguishes herself on international opera stages with her rich voice, masterful musicality and stupendous stage presence. Since her debuts in Sydney where her Charlotte (Werther) was hailed as "a magnificent performance, emotionally mature and vocally virtuosic" (The Australian), she has appeared in the world's greatest opera houses. An alumnus of McGill University, Losier was also a member of the San Francisco Opera's Merola Program, the Opéra de Montréal's Atelier Lyrique, and the Juilliard Opera Center in New York. She has been the recipient of a number of grants and scholarships, including those from the Jacqueline Desmarais Foundation, the Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Québec, the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Sylva-Gelber Foundation. She is a first prize winner at the 2000 Journées de la Musique Française, the Vocal Division of the 2001 Canadian Music Competition, and of the Mélodie Française category of the Chant de Marmande International Competition in France. www.michelelosier.com.

About guest vocalist Alisa Suzanne Jordheim, soprano
A native of Appleton, Wisconsin, Alisa Suzanne Jordheim's lyric soprano "has that measure of quick spin that keeps it rock steady in all registers" (Northeast Wisconsin Music Review). She is the recipient of a Central City Opera Bonfils-Stanton Foundation Artists Training Program Award, Audience Favorite Award in the Tri-State College Vocal Competition, NFAA Level I Arts Award, Sigma Alpha Iota Career Performance Grant, and teaching assistantship at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM). She was also a recipient of the Nell M. Menn scholarship for music, the Wyman and Ethel Ward Boeckh scholarships at CCM, the Trustee Performance Scholarship at Lawrence University, and was offered the Juilliard Alumni Scholarship in 2006. Jordheim was the only singer to win the Midwest Young Artists National Concerto Competition, resulting in a performance with the MYA Alumni Orchestra at Chicago's Orchestra Hall, and a performance of Signor Deluso with the Midwest Young Artists Opera, in which she sang the role of Célie. She performed as soloist for two seasons with the International Young Artists Music Festival in Hilton Head, South Carolina with renowned pianist Christopher O'Riley, and was invited three times to sing on Public Radio International's From the Top, singing two duets with Bobby McFerrin, and, in her most recent appearance, as a guest alumna.

About composer Hector Berlioz (1803–1869)
Berlioz was a French Romantic composer, best known for his compositions Symphonie fantastique and Grande messe des morts (Requiem). His influence was critical for the further development of Romanticism, especially in composers like Richard Wagner, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Franz Liszt, Richard Strauss, Gustav Mahler and many others. Tristia is a musical work consisting of three short pieces for orchestra and chorus composed at different times and published together in 1852. Berlioz associated them with Shakespeare's Hamlet, one of his favorite plays, but they were never performed in Berlioz's lifetime. The "Death of Ophelia" is the second movement and was originally composed for solo voice and piano in 1842, but Berlioz revised it for female choir and orchestra in 1848. Les nuits d'été (Summer Nights) is a setting of six poems by Théophile Gautier. Berlioz completed the collection in 1841, and initially composed for baritone, contralto, or mezzo-soprano and piano. In 1856, he adapted the work for soprano and gave it full orchestral accompaniment in 1856. The title is a nod to the French title of A Midsummer Night's Dream by Berlioz's beloved Shakespeare.

About composer Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1809–)
Mendelssohn was a German composer, pianist, organist, and conductor of the early Romantic period. Early in his life, he was recognized as a musical prodigy, but his parents were cautious and did not seek to capitalize on his talent. His essentially conservative musical tastes set him apart from many of his more adventurous musical contemporaries, and the Leipzig Conservatoire (now the University of Music and Theatre Leipzig) founded by Mendelssohn became a bastion of this anti-radical outlook. At separate times, Mendelssohn composed music for Shakespeare's play, A Midsummer Night's Dream. In 1826, near the start of his career, he wrote a concert overture (Op. 21). In 1842, only a few years before his death, he wrote incidental music (Op. 61) for a production of the play, into which he incorporated the existing overture. The incidental music includes the world-famous Wedding March.

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