ARTISTS:      

 Honolulu Symphony Beethoven Festival: The Triple Concerto
 Honolulu Symphony Orchestra
 Andreas Delfs, conductor
 John O’Conor, piano
 Ignace Jang, violin
 Yehuda Hanani, cello
                                                 

CONCERT:       

ONE PERFORMANCE ONLY!
Saturday, April 4, 2009 at 8 p.m. at the Blaisdell Concert Hall
   

PROGRAM:       

BEETHOVEN: Egmont Overture
BEETHOVEN: Concerto in C major for Piano, Violin, Cello and Orchestra “Triple”
BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 5 in C Minor

TICKETS:       

$20, $34, $49, $59, $82 (including service fees)
Tickets sold at Ticketmaster outlets (1-877-750-4400), Macy’s and www.ticketmaster.com
Call the Box Office at (808) 792-2000 (weekdays) or (808) 524-0815 ext. 245 (evenings) for more information.
www.honolulusymphony.com

Honolulu – The Honolulu Symphony Beethoven Festival promises to dazzle concertgoers with the ingenious Triple Concerto and the magnificent Fifth Symphony in one performance only on Saturday, April 4, 2009. Acclaimed cellist Yehuda Hanani makes his Honolulu Symphony debut alongside pianist John O’Conor and violinist Ignace Jang in the Triple Concerto, a work that embodies great beauty and unique sonic colors. The concert also includes the Egmont Overture and the revolutionary Fifth Symphony, whose opening motif introduces a masterpiece that surpasses perfection. Tickets start from $20 and are on sale now at www.ticketmaster.com.

Guaranteed to set pulses racing, Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony is one of the most familiar works in the repertoire. The opening motif “ta-ta-ta-taaa” (short-short-short-long) has been mixed into pop and rock songs for generations, making it familiar to audiences young and old. The Fifth changed the way audiences at the time – circa 1808 – thought about music, and continues to fuel conversations today. Offering immense dramatic impact, you need no reason other than the Fifth to make this concert part of your plans.

The Honolulu Symphony Beethoven Festival concerts, conducted by Maestro Andreas Delfs, showcase the music of Beethoven in two back-to-back weekends in March and April 2009. The Festival gives local residents, as well as tourists, the rare opportunity to experience a cycle of masterworks performed live. Visit www.honolulusymphony.com for more information.

About Yehuda Hanani
Yehuda Hanani’s charismatic playing and profound interpretations bring him acclaim across the globe. An extraordinary recitalist, he is equally renowned for performances with orchestras such as the Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, BBC Welsh Symphony, Buenos Aires Philharmonic, and Taipei and Seoul symphonies, among others.

Hanani has been committed to extending the range of the cello repertoire and to collaborating with performers in many artistic realms, including choreographer David Parsons and actors Richard Chamberlain, Jane Alexander, and Sigourney Weaver. He has been a guest at festivals including Aspen and Chautauqua, as well as the Ottawa, Oslo, and Australia Chamber Music festivals. He has collaborated in performances with artists such as Leon Fleisher, Aaron Copland, Itzhak Perlman, Dawn Upshaw, Yefim Bronfman, and the Tokyo, Vermeer, Muir, Lark, Colorado, and Manhattan quartets.

Hanani’s recording of the monumental Alkan Cello Sonata —the first ever—received a Grand Prix du Disque nomination, and his other discs have won wide recognition. He has premiered works of Nicolai Miaskovsky, Lukas Foss, Leo Ornstein, Joan Tower, Paul Schoenfield, William Perry, and Bernard Rands, among other composers.

Hanani’s engaging chamber music with commentary series, Close Encounters With Music, has captivated audiences across North America. A recipient of three Martha Baird Rockefeller awards, Hanani’s studies were with Leonard Rose at the Juilliard School, and with Pablo Casals.

Hanani is a Professor of Cello at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. Visit http://www.cewm.org/bio_hanani.html for more information.

About John O’Conor
Following initial studies in his native Dublin, John O’Conor studied in Vienna with the renowned pedagogue Dieter Weber, won First Prize at the Beethoven International Piano Competition in Vienna in 1973 and made a special study of Beethoven with the legendary German pianist Wilhelm Kempff.

Since then, he has toured the world in recital and concerto appearances and makes regular visits to Europe, the USA, Japan, Korea and China. His recordings on the Telarc label have brought him particular renown. “CD Review” described his box set of the complete Beethoven Sonatas as “Beethoven playing at its best;” “The New York Times” named his recording of the Beethoven Bagatelles as the best available; and his recording of the John Field Nocturnes spent many weeks on the Billboard charts.

Last year, O’Conor recorded the complete Beethoven Piano Concertos with the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Andreas Delfs. The CD, released in September 2008, has garnered listener reviews of the highest praise for both artists.

For his services to music he has been decorated with “l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres” by the French Government, the “Ehrenkreuz fur Wissenschaft und Kunst” by the Austrian Government and has received many other awards. Visit www.johnoconor.com for more information.

About Ignace Jang
An active soloist, chamber and orchestral musician, Jang is the concertmaster of the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra. He has performed throughout the United States, Europe and Asia in concert halls such as the Théatre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, the Seoul Arts Center and the Sejong Cultural Arts Center in Korea. Recent guest solo appearances include the the Colorado Symphony with Marin Alsop, the Versailles Chamber Orchestra and L’ Orchestre Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’ Azur in France.

As a chamber musician, he has been invited to the Colorado Music Festival, the Jeju Isle Music Festival in South Korea, the Maui Chamber Music Festival, the 1992 Albertville Winter Olympics Music Festival, Harvard University, Merkin Hall NY, the Modern Music Festival in Boulder, Colorado, Britt Festival in Oregon, and the Berlioz, Trièves, Chirens Festivals in his native France.

Since 1991, he has also been performing as member of the Equinox violin and harp duo. He co-founded Trio Manoa, a group comprised of faculty members from the University of Hawai’i, where he teaches violin and chamber music.

Jang received the early part of his training from Professor Flora Elphège, before entering the class of Gérard Poulet at the Paris Conservatory. In 1985, he obtained the Premier Prix as the youngest laureate of that year.

Born to Korean parents in Grenoble, France, Jang met the violin at the age of five. In his playing, he strives to express a spectrum of emotions while unfolding a unique color and depth of sound for which he has seen praise in the American, European and Asian press.

HONOLULU SYMPHONY BEETHOVEN FESTIVAL ALSO INCLUDES:

THE PASTORAL SYMPHONY: Sunday, April 5, 2009 at 4 p.m.
Andreas Delfs, conductor and John O’Conor, piano
Program: Overture to The Creatures of Prometheus, Symphony No. 6 in F “Pastoral,” Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat “Emperor”

John O’Conor returns in performance of the delicate yet impassioned Fifth Piano Concerto, “Emperor.” One of music’s most popular masterworks, the “Emperor” Concerto is a spectacular triumph. Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony is a sweepingly romantic masterpiece brimming with splendid moments. One of only a handful of works that Beethoven named, he christened it the “Pastoral Symphony” or “Recollections of Country Life.” The Sixth not only expresses the beauty of the natural world, but also shares a tranquil vision of a day away from it all.
Generously sponsored by Commercial Data Systems.