Marin Alsop Leads Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in 2010-2011 Season Highlights, Sept. 10

17-year-old BSO-Peabody Bruno Walter Assistant Conductor Ilyich Rivas leads BSO in debut

Baltimore, Md. (July 27, 2010)—The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra will perform highlights from the upcoming 2010-2011 season at the Music Center at Strathmore on September 10, 2010 at 8 p.m. Music Director Marin Alsop will lead the BSO in excerpts from the wide variety of classical programs featured throughout the 2010-2011 season. This season celebrates the dual themes of youth and beauty in music represented by the young guest artists destined to become leading stars in the field. This season also celebrates the 2010-2011 Gustav Mahler double jubilee, marking the 150th anniversary of his birth and the centennial of his death. Seventeen-year-old BSO-Peabody Bruno Walter Assistant Conductor Ilyich Rivas will conduct the BSO for the first time in public in "Blumine" from Mahler's original Symphony No. 1. Please see below for complete concert details.

This concert is intended to give the audience a taste of the BSO's offerings this coming season. Performances include selections from John William's Star Wars Suite, Mozart's The Magic Flute and Prokofiev's Cinderella, among others. Ten seperate excerpts will be performed, each lasting no more than 11 minutes each with a 20-minute intermission. The concert will end at approximately 9:45 p.m.

Before his official BSO conducting debut in October 2010, patrons have a chance to observe Ilyich Rivas as he leads the BSO in an excerpt from Mahler's original First Symphony, rarely heard in performance. Maestra Marin Alsop and Peabody Professor Gustav Meier awarded the 17-year-old Venezuelan native the position of BSO-Peabody Bruno Walter Assistant Conductor in the fall of 2009. This fellowship allows him to study at the Peabody Institute with Gustav Meier while working under Marin Alsop at the BSO. Music critic for The Baltimore Sun, Tim Smith, commented, "When he stands before an orchestra, his cues are precise, his tempos clear; his face takes on a wide variety of expressions, from fierce to cherubic, as he shapes the melodic phrases." Rivas will make his BSO subscription concert debut on October 16, 2010, conducting a program of Brahms, Beethoven, Mahler and Shostakovich.

Marin Alsop, conductor
Hailed as one of the world's leading conductors for her artistic vision and commitment to accessibility in classical music, Marin Alsop made history with her appointment as the 12th music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. With her inaugural concerts in September 2007, she became the first woman to head a major American orchestra. She also holds the title of conductor emeritus at the Bournemouth Symphony in the United Kingdom, where she served as the principal conductor from 2002-2008, and is music director of the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music in California.

In 2005, Ms. Alsop was named a MacArthur Fellow, the first conductor ever to receive this prestigious award. In 2007, she was honored with a European Women of Achievement Award; in 2008; she was inducted as a fellow into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; and in 2009, Musical America named her "Conductor of the Year."

A regular guest conductor with the New York Philharmonic, The Philadelphia Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra and Los Angeles Philharmonic, Ms. Alsop appears frequently as a guest conductor with the most distinguished orchestras around the world. In addition to her performance activities, she is also an active recording artist with award-winning cycles of Brahms and Barber orchestral works.

Marin Alsop attended Yale University and received her master's degree from The Juilliard School. In 1989, her conducting career was launched when she won the Koussevitzky Conducting Prize at Tanglewood where she studied with Leonard Bernstein.

Ilyich Rivas, BSO-Peabody Bruno Walter Assistant Conductor
Ilyich Rivas was born in Venezuela in 1993 into a distinguished musical family. His father, Alejandro Rivas, is also a conductor, and for a number of seasons was music director of the Metro State Symphony Orchestra in Denver. From the time Ilyich Rivas was a very young boy, it was clear he had a natural talent for conducting, and he started studying with his father when he was just 6 years of age.

Last year, he was selected as one of seven young conductors from around the world to participate in the prestigious Cabrillo Festival Conductors Workshop in California with Marin Alsop and Gustav Meier. During the course, he made a very significant impression on both Marin Alsop and Gustav Meier and this resulted in him being awarded, after an audition in front of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the position of BSO-Peabody Bruno Walter Assistant Conductor fellowship, beginning in September 2009. This position permits him to study conducting at the Peabody Institute under Gustav Meier's guidance and to work closely with the BSO alongside Marin Alsop and conduct the BSO on certain occasions.

Each summer during the last few years, Ilyich Rivas has returned to Venezuela to conduct one of the youth orchestras in his own city, the Orquesta Simón Bolívar del Táchira. Last summer he was invited by Glyndebourne Opera to attend rehearsals and performances at this year's festival and to be mentored by Vladimir Jurowski. Following Glyndebourne he attended the first Verbier Festival Conducting Academy in Switzerland. Last summer he also made his professional conducting debut with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in one of their summer festival concerts.

COMPLETE CONCERT DETAILS
2010-2011 Season Preview
Friday September 10, 2010 at 8 p.m.—The Music Center at Strathmore

Marin Alsop, conductor
Ilyich Rivas, guest conductor

Prokofiev: "Allegro con brio" from "Classical" Symphony
Mahler: "Blumine" from Symphony No. 1 in D Major
J.S. Bach (Arr. Mahler): "Air" from Suite
Schumann: "Allergro molto vivace" from Symphony No. 2 in C Major
John Williams: Main Title from Star Wars
Mozart: Overture to The Magic Flute
Barber: Essay No. 2
Prokofiev: "Quarrel" and "Amoroso" from Cinderella
Shostakovich: "Allegro non troppo" from Symphony No. 5 in D Minor

Tickets for this performance are $10 in advance through the BSO Ticket Office, 877.BSO.1444, 410.783.8000 or BSOmusic.org or $15 at the door.