Brazilian Symphony Orchestra Performs with Noted Percussionist October 23
October 1, 2009
The Brazilian metropolis São Paulo—one of the largest population centers in the Americas and often likened to New York City—brims with cultural institutions and a diverse gathering of ethnic and racial groups. In the 21st century, Orquestra de São Paulo has become one of Brazil’s most celebrated classical music ensembles by reflecting the character of its cosmopolitan home.
The symphony orchestra makes its Penn State premiere in a concert conducted by American Kazem Abdullah and featuring Scottish percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 23, in Eisenhower Auditorium. The program includes two works by Brazilian composers—Alberto Nepomuceno’s O Garatuja and Heitor Villa-Lobos’ Bachianas Brasileiras No. 4—plus James MacMillan’s Veni, Veni Emmanuel and Béla Bartók’s The Miraculous Mandarin: Suite.
Tickets for the Center for the Performing Arts presentation are $53 for an adult, $20 for a University Park student and $35 for a person 18 and younger. Buy tickets online at www.cpa.psu.edu or by phone at 814-863-0255. Outside the local calling area, dial 1-800-ARTS-TIX. Tickets are also available at four State College locations: Eisenhower Auditorium (weekdays 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.), Penn State Tickets Downtown (weekdays 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturdays 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.), HUB-Robeson Center (weekdays 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.) and Bryce Jordan Center (weekdays 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.). A grant from the University Park Allocation Committee makes Penn State student prices possible.
Abdullah, who made his Metropolitan Opera conducting debut earlier this year, is a rising star in classical music. “He is a very young conductor …. Our orchestra is very young, as well,” says Marcelo Lopes, the orchestra’s executive director. “The average age in the orchestra is about 35, 36 years old, so I think it’s going to be a very energetic concert.”
Glennie, the first person to sustain a full-time career as a classical percussion soloist, gives more than 100 performances a year with cream-of-the-crop conductors, orchestras and artists. She performs as soloist for the MacMillan concerto. MacMillan, born in 1959, is considered the preeminent Scottish composer of his generation.
The major music media have praised the São Paulo’s efforts this decade in becoming an orchestra of international merit. “I think we have 14 to 15 different nationalities in the orchestra. And those musicians, they came from Eastern countries, they came from Latin American countries, they came from Germany, from Europe in general. And they get along very well here,” Lopes says. “… The cultural differences of the schools [and] differences of the backgrounds of the musicians have been a great asset for the development of a new sound, and I think this has made a great difference and has brought to the orchestra this consideration of being a new thing in the international scenery of symphony orchestras.”
Dotty and Paul Rigby sponsor the performance. Foxdale Village, a Quaker-Directed Continuing Care Retirement Community, underwrites classics presentations at the Center for the Performing Arts. WPSU-FM is the media sponsor. Artistic Viewpoints, an informal moderated discussion featuring a visiting artist or local expert, is offered in Eisenhower Auditorium one hour before the performance and is free for ticket holders.
Contact: Laura Sullivan, 814.863.6379