ARTISTS:   

Halekulani MasterWorks: Barbarian Princess Suite
Gerard Schwarz, conductor
Arnaldo Cohen, piano
                                                 

CONCERT:   

Saturday, October 17 at 8 p.m. & Sunday, October 18 at 4 p.m.
       
Blaisdell Concert Hall
   

PROGRAM:   

WARBECK: Princess Ka‘iulani Suite 

LISZT: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 2 in A Major, S.125

TCHAIKOVSKY: Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Pathétique, Op. 74

TICKETS:   

$19, $26, $40, $52, $70 (including service fees)
Military & seniors receive 20% discount.
Student & children’s tickets are always $10.
Tickets sold at Ticketmaster outlets (1-800-745-3000), Macy’s and                www.ticketmaster.com and www.honolulusymphony.com.
       
Call the Box Office at (808) 792-2000 (weekdays) or (808) 524-0815 ext. 245 (evenings) for more information.
       
Honolulu – World-renowned conductor Gerard Schwarz will lead the Honolulu Symphony in the world premiere of the Princess Ka‘iulani Suite by Academy Award-winning English composer Stephen Warbeck on Saturday, October 17 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, October 18 at 4 p.m. at the Blaisdell Concert Hall. The Princess Ka‘iulani Suite is drawn from Warbeck’s music for the soon-to-be-released film Barbarian Princess, which will also receive its world premier at the 2009 Hawaii International Film Festival (HIFF) on Friday, October 16 in Honolulu. The Honolulu Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of principal conductor Andreas Delfs, recorded the soundtrack to Barbarian Princess.

“The Princess Ka‘iulani Suite was inspired by the light and beauty of the islands and by the powerful and moving story of Princess Ka‘iulani,” said Warbeck. “I would like to thank Andreas Delfs and the Honolulu Symphony, who first performed this music for the film recording in 2008. Their sensitivity and enthusiasm made the journey a great pleasure. Aloha.”

Warbeck, who is celebrated for his music for films such as Mrs. Brown, Shakespeare in Love, Billy Elliot, Captain Corelli’s Mandolin and Charlotte Gray, is also known for his music for the British television drama Prime Suspect.

This unique concert also features the opportunity to experience acclaimed pianist Arnaldo Cohen performing an audience favorite: Liszt’s Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 2 in A Major. Tchaikovsky’s final masterwork, his “Pathétique” Symphony, completes this wonderful concert program. The title, “Pathétique,” implies in the Russian language to be emotional and full of feeling, rather than the English “pathetic” that suggests pity.

Tickets for these concerts that celebrate Hawai‘i’s 50th Anniversary of Statehood are on sale now and start from $19. To help families attend the concert together, the Honolulu Symphony is offering children and teen tickets for only $10 when an adult/chaperone ticket is purchased.

About Gerard Schwarz
One of the leading conductors of his generation, Gerard Schwarz is credited with Seattle Symphony’s tremendous growth over the past 25 years. Schwarz has been Music Director of Seattle Symphony since 1985 and in 2009-2010, the Orchestra celebrates his Silver Anniversary season. Schwarz also serves as Music Director of the Eastern Music Festival in North Carolina. Previously, he has been Music Director of New York’s Mostly Mozart Festival, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and New York Chamber Symphony, and Artistic Advisor to the Tokyo Philharmonic and Orchard Hall.

Schwarz’s extensive discography of some 250 releases showcases his collaborations with some of the world’s most prestigious orchestras, including The Philadelphia and Juilliard orchestras; the Czech, Tokyo and Royal Liverpool philharmonics; the London Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra National de France and Berlin Radio Symphony; the Scottish, English and Los Angeles chamber orchestras; and the New York Chamber and Seattle symphonies.

Schwarz has received 13 Grammy nominations, six ASCAP awards, and numerous Stereo Review and Ovation awards, as well as a nomination for a primetime Emmy for his Live from Lincoln Center performance of Mozart’s Requiem. In January 2004, he was appointed to the NEA National Council on the Arts.

Schwarz began his conducting career in 1966, and within ten years he was appointed Music Director of the Waterloo Music Festival, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and New York Chamber Symphony. In 1981, he founded New York’s Music Today Contemporary Series and served as its Music Director through 1989. Schwarz co-founded the New York Chamber Symphony in 1977 and served as its Music Director through the ensemble’s 25th anniversary season in 2002.

Born to Viennese parents, Schwarz is a graduate of the High School of Performing Arts and The Juilliard School. He is a recipient of the Ditson Conductor’s Award from Columbia University and has honorary doctorates from The Juilliard School, Fairleigh Dickinson University, Seattle University, Cornish College of the Arts and the University of Puget Sound. In 2001, he was named Honorary Fellow of John Moores University, Liverpool.

About Arnaldo Cohen
The Brazilian-born pianist Arnaldo Cohen, now living in the United States, has long had a reputation for astonishing his audiences with the musical authority and blistering virtuosity of his performances. His graceful and unaffected platform manner belies playing of white-hot intensity, intellectual probity, and glittering bravura technique bordering on sheer wizardry.
 
Long in demand internationally, Cohen is regularly invited to appear as soloist with major orchestras, such as the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. His solo recitals everywhere draw enthusiastic crowds of cognoscenti. Critics, too, marvel at his mixture of musical complexity and élan.

Cohen began his musical studies at the age of five, graduating from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro with an honors degree in both piano and violin, while also studying for an engineering degree. He went on to become a professional violinist in the Rio de Janeiro Opera House Orchestra to earn a livelihood while continuing piano studies with Jacques Klein, a disciple of the legendary American pianist, William Kapell.

Cohen is the recipient of a fellowship awarded by the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, and until recently held a professorship at the Royal Academy of Music in London. In 2004, after living in London for 23 years, Cohen relocated to the United States and now holds a piano professorship with tenure at Indiana University in Bloomington where, upon his appointment, he was cited as “one of the world’s greatest living pianists.”