ARTISTS:       

Honolulu Symphony: “Carmina Burana”
Honolulu Symphony Orchestra and Chorus
         
Hawaii Youth Opera Chorus,
               
         Scelto and Na Leo Kuho‘okahi ensembles
University of Hawaii Chamber Singers
           
Jean-Marie Zeitouni, conductor
Sumi Jo, soprano
           
Brian Stucki, tenor
           
David Adam Moore, baritone
                                                 

CONCERT:       

Saturday, April 11 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, April 12 at 4 p.m.
           
Blaisdell Concert Hall
   

PROGRAM:       

Arias with Sumi Jo
           
ORFF: Carmina Burana

TICKETS:       

$19, $26, $40, $52, $70 (including service fees)
Military & seniors receive 20% discount. Student tickets are $10.
Tickets sold at Ticketmaster outlets (1-800-745-3000), 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 – Music lovers can expect fireworks, racy medieval poetry and a springtime experience like none other as the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra and Chorus present Carl Orff’s theatrical masterpiece Carmina Burana. Korean superstar soprano Sumi Jo joins the Orchestra and Chorus for this grand concert at the Blaisdell Concert Hall on Saturday, April 11 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, April 12 at 4 p.m. As an added delight, Sumi Jo will open the concerts with a selection of beautiful opera arias from works such as Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette, Massenet’s Thaïs, Lehar’s The Merry Widow, and Offenbach’s Tales of Hoffman.

Guest conductor Jean-Marie Zeitouni also welcomes tenor Brian Stucki and baritone David Adam Moore for this magnificent concert. More than 35 children from the Hawaii Youth Opera Chorus, as well as members of the University of Hawaii Chamber Singers, will join the Honolulu Symphony Chorus on stage to complete this event. Tickets start from $19 and are on sale now. Student/children’s tickets are only $10.

“Carmina Burana is simply exhilarating and is a blast for performers and listeners alike,” said Dr. Esther Yoo, Honolulu Symphony Chorus artistic director. “Each movement is a vignette filled with music to please the senses. It is grand, raunchy, enticing, and intimate, evoking every mood and embracing some rather x-rated poetry from the medieval times – sung mostly in Latin, of course.”

Orff based the text of Carmina Burana on ancient texts found in a Bavarian monastery. He transformed them into a large choral work for a full orchestra, large chorus and soloists. The primal rhythms and catchy melodies of Carmina Burana form a work that resonates with audiences worldwide as a true dramatic experience.

“Sumi Jo’s glorious appearance will create the magic that Orff envisioned in his tale of springtime, which is fundamentally about love, lust, and the pleasures of drinking,” continued Yoo.

Praised for the remarkable agility, precision and warmth of her voice, and for her outstanding musicianship, Sumi Jo has established herself as one of her generation’s most sought-after sopranos. She has been consistently greeted with exceptional accolades, by public and press alike, for her performances in the most important opera houses and concert halls throughout the world. Sumi Jo is also in constant demand as a concert artist for special events such as the World Cup, an Asian tour of gala concerts with Andrea Bocelli, and a gala concert with Jonas Kaufmann, Renée Fleming and Dmitri Hvorostovsky as part of the Olympic games in Beijng.

Sumi Jo currently has more than 50 recordings to her credit, which include ten solo albums. Among them are the Grammy-winning Die Frau ohne Schatten with Sir Georg Solti and Un Ballo in Maschera under Herbert von Karajan. She has also recorded The Magic Flute and an album of arias under the baton of Maestro Solti. Her crossover album of Broadway songs, “Only Love,” has sold more than 1,200,000 copies worldwide. 



About Sumi Jo
This past season, Sumi Jo was Marie in La Fille du Regiment in Santiago, Chile, and Elvira in I Puritani in concert with the Monnaie in Brussels and in Amsterdam. New additions to her repertoire in recent years have been Delibes’ Lakeme, Meyerbeer’s Dinorah  and Giulietta in I Capuleti ed i Montecchi, which she sang for the Minnesota Opera. In 2007-08 she made her role debut as Violetta in La traviata in Toulon. Her 2008 season featuress Bellini’s I puritani in Bergamo, and Fra Diavolo at the Opéra Comique and Opera Royal de Wallonie in Liege. 



At New York’s Metropolitan Opera, Miss Jo has been heard in the title role of Lucia di Lammermoor, Gilda in Rigoletto, Olympia in Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia and Oscar in Un Ballo in maschera. At the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires she has appeared as Gilda, Zerbinetta and Queen of the Night, the latter role of which was the vehicle of her Vienna State Opera debut. Other operas in her extensive repertoire include Donizetti’s La Fille du Regiment and Don Pasquale, Rossini’s Il Turco in Italia and Elisabetta, Regina d’Inghilterra, Mozart’s Abduction from the Seraglio and Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos and Der Rosenkavalier. 



Born in Korea, Sumi Jo studied in her native country before enrolling in the Conservatory of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome. Her recital debut in Seoul was followed by concerts with the Korean Broadcasting Company Orchestra. Her first operatic role was Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro, which she also sang in Seoul. While studying in Italy, she was frequently heard in concert in Italian cities and also in radio broadcasts and telecasts on the RAI Italian National Network. 



Sumi Jo has won many prestigious awards including first prizes at international competitions in Seoul, Naples, Enna, Barcelona and Pretoria. In August 1986, she was unanimously awarded first prize in the Carlo Alberto Cappelli International Competition at Verona, one of the world’s most important contests, open only to first prize-winners of other major competitions. She was elected as “Artist for Peace” of UNESCO in 2003. Miss Jo makes her home in Rome. For more information, visit www.josumi.com.

About Brian Stucki
Quickly distinguishing himself with a voice that the Salt Lake Tribune declares is “heaven sent,” Brian Stucki’s performances in the 2008-09 season include his return to the roles of Nadir in Les Pêcheur de Perles with Seattle Opera, Almaviva in Il barbiere di Siviglia with Opera Pacific, and Ramiro in La cenerentola with the Opera Company of North Carolina.

Among his other recent engagements is his international debut as Ferrando in Così fan tutte with New Israeli Opera followed by performances of Mozart’s Mass in C, Requiem, and Mass in C minor with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra. He also joined the Compañía Nacional de Opera at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City and in Tijuana for Almaviva in Il barbiere di Siviglia after having previously sung the role with Dallas Opera in student performances.

An accomplished oratorio soloist as well, Mr. Stucki’s recent performances on the concert stage include the Mozart Requiem with both the Waukegan Symphony and Bach Chorale Singers; Evangelist in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, and Handel’s Utrecht Jubilate and Holst’s Psalm 86 with the Utah Symphony.

Mr. Stucki holds a Master of Music from Indiana University and a Bachelor of Music from Brigham Young University. Additionally, he is a former member of the Glimmerglass Opera Young American Artists Program. Also an accomplished cellist, he has released a recording of Rachmaninoff works. For more information, visit www.guybarzilayartists.com/artist.asp?ID=80.

About David Adam Moore
David Adam Moore recently made his Teatro alla Scala debut as Maximilian in Bernstein’s Candide, and will return there this season for Demetrius in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Cascada in Die lustige Witwe. This Texas native leapt into international acclaim for his portrayal of the title role in Francesca Zambello’s production of Billy Budd with the New Israeli Opera in Tel-Aviv.

He has since appeared in more than 40 principal roles with major opera companies and symphony orchestras worldwide, including Maximilian in Candide with Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, Don Giovanni with Staatsoper Hannover, Nationaltheater Mannheim, and Oper Kiel, Billy Budd at Pittsburgh Opera, Papageno in Die Zauberflöte with New York City Opera, Guglielmo in Così fan tutte for Seattle Opera, Belcore in L’elisir d’amore with Opera Pacific in Los Angeles, Prior Walter in Angels in America with Fort Worth Opera, and Mercutio in Roméo et Juliette with Opera Theatre of St. Louis and Utah Opera. Upcoming engagements include Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia and Zurga in Les Pêcheurs de Perles with Seattle Opera, Marcello in La bohème with Pittsburgh Opera, Prior Walter in Angels in America with the BBC Symphony at Barbican Hall in London, and Mercutio with San Diego Opera.

Moore has appeared as a soloist with the American Symphony Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Seville Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, Utah Symphony, Colorado Symphony, and the World Expo in Lisbon. His performances have been broadcast on BBC, Arte, France 2 television, Classic Arts Showcase, NPR, and Radio France. For more information, visit www.davidadammoore.com.