The Philadelphia Orchestra launches 2011-12 season with spectacular Opening Night Concert and Gala on October 13

Chief Conductor Charles Dutoit returns to lead the Orchestra in the Opening Night concert of the Orchestra’s 112th season, joined by special guest soprano Dawn Upshaw performing timeless selections from the Great American Songbook

(Philadelphia, August 25, 2011)—Chief Conductor Charles Dutoit and The Philadelphia Orchestra return to the Verizon Hall stage with the Opening Night Concert and Gala of the Orchestra’s 112th season on Thursday, October 13, 2011, at The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts. A highlight of the fall social season, the Orchestra’s Opening Night features renowned soprano Dawn Upshaw joining Maestro Dutoit and the Orchestra to perform selections from the Great American Songbook, including Bernstein’s “Somewhere,” Gershwin’s “Someone to Watch Over Me,” and Sondheim’s “There Won’t Be Trumpets” and “What More Do I Need?” The evening’s program also includes Ravel’s Bolero and Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 1 (“Classical”).

The concert begins at 7:00 PM and is performed without intermission. Gala tickets, which are on sale now, are available by calling 215.893.1956. Concert-only tickets will be available to the general public beginning September 12 by calling 215.893.1999 or visiting www.philorch.org.

The Opening Gala begins with a private cocktail reception at 5:30 PM for benefactors in Perelman Theater. At 6:00 PM all who are attending the Opening Concert are invited to a champagne reception in the Kimmel Center’s Commonwealth Plaza. Following the concert, gala attendees will be served dinner in the Kimmel Center. Catered by Wolfgang Puck, the dinner includes Diamond Benefactors ($15,000 per table of 10), Platinum Benefactors ($10,000 per table of 10), Gold Patrons ($5,000 per table of 10), Benefactors ($1,000 per person), and Patrons ($500 per person).

All gala events surrounding the concert are organized by The Philadelphia Orchestra’s Volunteer Committees under the direction of Volunteer Committees President Sally S. Bullard, Sarah Miller Coulson and Robert H. Rock are co-chairs for the Opening Gala 2011.

This year marks the 25th season for which The Philadelphia Orchestra’s Volunteer Committees have presented the Opening Night festivities. The Volunteer Committees were formed in 1904, four years after the Orchestra’s first concerts. The Women’s Committee, as it was originally called, was the first permanent organization of its kind in the world, and has since come to serve as a model for similar groups in the United States and abroad. The current Volunteer Committees include nine committees: Central, Chestnut Hill, Chestnut Hill Musical Cocktails, Main Line and Delaware, Main Line Associates, New Jersey, Old York Road, Rittenhouse Square, and West Philadelphia. Through their endeavors over the past century, thousands of members of the Volunteer Committees have given countless hours and their innumerable talents in service to The Philadelphia Orchestra and the people of the greater Philadelphia region.

Dawn Upshaw

Joining a rare natural warmth with a fierce commitment to the transforming communicative power of music, Dawn Upshaw has achieved worldwide celebrity as a singer of opera and concert repertoire ranging from the sacred works of Bach to the freshest sounds of today. Her ability to reach to the heart of music and text has earned her both the devotion of an exceptionally diverse audience, and the awards and distinctions accorded to only the most distinguished of artists. In 2007 she was named a Fellow of the MacArthur Foundation, the first vocal artist to be awarded the five-year “genius” prize, and in 2008 she was named a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

Ms. Upshaw’s acclaimed performances on the opera stage comprise the great Mozart roles (Pamina, Ilia, Susanna, Despina) as well as modern works by Stravinsky, Poulenc, and Messiaen. From Salzburg, Paris, and Glyndebourne to the Metropolitan Opera, where she began her career in 1984 and has since made nearly 300 appearances, she has also championed numerous new works created for her, including The Great Gatsby by John Harbison; the Grawemeyer Award-winning opera L’Amour de Loin and oratorio La Passion de Simone by Kaija Saariaho; John Adams’s Nativity oratorio El Niño; and Osvaldo Golijov’s chamber opera Ainadamar and song cycle Ayre.

Ms. Upshaw’s 2010-11 season opened with the Boston Symphony in performances of works by Golijov and Canteloube at the Tanglewood Music Festival. She toured Europe in Peter Sellars’s acclaimed production of Kurtag’s Kafka Fragments, reprised her celebrated role in John Adams’s El Niño with the San Francisco Symphony, and began a second three-year term as artistic partner with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra (SPCO), with which she also appears at Carnegie Hall as part of the “Spring for Music” series. She gave the world premieres of five new works written for her, including a chamber piece by Donnacha Dennehy and the Crash Ensemble in Dublin, slated for release on Nonesuch Records; a new work by Joan Tower at the Morgan Library as part of a program by the Bard College Conservatory of Music Graduate Vocal Arts Program; a co-commission with the Terezin Foundation and the Prague Spring Festival by Pablo Ortiz; a vocal and chamber orchestra commission from Gabriela Frank for the SPCO; and a jazz-inflected score by Maria Schneider for the Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO), with first performances at the 2011 Ojai Festival, where Ms. Upshaw is the music director. At the Ojai Festival, she curates and performs a series of concerts with the ACO, as well as a new production by Peter Sellars that features Ms. Upshaw in selections from George Crumb’s American Songbooks. Co-produced by Cal Performances, this work is among the highlights of U.C. Berkeley’s Celebrity Series offering “Ojai North”.

Charles Dutoit

In the 2010-11 season The Philadelphia Orchestra celebrates its 30-year artistic collaboration with Charles Dutoit, who made his debut with that ensemble in 1980, and who has held the title of chief conductor since 2008. With the 2012-13 season, the Orchestra will honor Mr. Dutoit by bestowing upon him the title of conductor laureate. Also artistic director and principal conductor of the Royal Philharmonic, Mr. Dutoit regularly collaborates with the world’s pre-eminent orchestras and soloists. He has recorded extensively for Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, EMI, Philips, CBS, and Erato, and his more than 200 recordings have garnered over 40 awards and distinctions around the world.

For 25 years (1977 to 2002), Mr. Dutoit was artistic director of the Montreal Symphony, a dynamic musical partnership recognized the world over. Between 1990 and 2010 he was artistic director and principal conductor of The Philadelphia Orchestra's summer festival at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in upstate New York. From 1991 to 2001 he was music director of the Orchestre National de France, with which he toured extensively on the five continents. In 1996 he was appointed music director of the NHK Symphony in Tokyo, with which he toured Europe, the United States, China, and Southeast Asia. He is today music director emeritus of that orchestra. Mr. Dutoit has been artistic director of both the Sapporo Pacific Music Festival and the Miyazaki International Music Festival in Japan, as well as the Canton International Summer Music Academy in Guangzhou, China, which he founded in 2005. In summer 2009 he became music director of the Verbier Festival Orchestra. While still in his early 20s, Mr. Dutoit was invited by Herbert von Karajan to conduct the Vienna State Opera. Mr. Dutoit has since conducted at Covent Garden, the Metropolitan Opera, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, and the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires.

In 1991 Mr. Dutoit was made an Honorary Citizen of the City of Philadelphia. In 1995 he was named Grand Officier de l’Ordre National du Québec, and in 1996 Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the government of France. In 1998 he was invested as an Honorary Officer of the Order of Canada, the country’s highest award of merit. He was also the recipient of the 2010 Governor’s Distinguished Arts Award, which recognizes a Pennsylvania artist of international fame, leadership, or renown whose creations or contributions enrich the state. Most recently, this past May Mr. Dutoit was awarded an honorary Doctor of Music degree from the Curtis Institute of Music.

Mr. Dutoit was born in Lausanne, Switzerland, and his extensive musical training included violin, viola, piano, percussion, music history, and composition at the conservatories and music academies of Geneva, Siena, Venice, and Boston. A globetrotter motivated by his passion for history and archaeology, political science, art, and architecture, Mr. Dutoit has traveled all the nations of the world.

The Philadelphia Orchestra

The Philadelphia Orchestra is among the world’s leading orchestras. Renowned for its artistic excellence since its founding in 1900, the Orchestra has excited audiences with thousands of concerts in Philadelphia and around the world.

With only seven music directors throughout more than a century of unswerving orchestral distinction, the artistic heritage of The Philadelphia Orchestra is attributed to extraordinary musicianship under the leadership and innovation of Fritz Scheel (1900-07), Carl Pohlig (1907-12), Leopold Stokowski (1912-41), Eugene Ormandy (1936-80), Riccardo Muti (1980-92), Wolfgang Sawallisch (1993-2003), and Christoph Eschenbach (2003-08). After 30 years of a celebrated association with The Philadelphia Orchestra, Charles Dutoit continues the tradition as chief conductor.

Since Mr. Dutoit’s debut with the Orchestra in July 1980 he has led hundreds of concerts in Philadelphia, at Carnegie Hall, and on tour, as artistic director of the Orchestra’s summer concerts at the Mann Center, artistic director and principal conductor of the Orchestra’s summer residency at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, and now as chief conductor. With the 2012-13 season, the Orchestra honors Mr. Dutoit by bestowing upon him the title conductor laureate. Yannick Nézet-Séguin assumed the title of music director designate in June 2010, immediately joining the Orchestra’s leadership team. He takes up the baton as The Philadelphia Orchestra’s next music director in 2012.

The Philadelphia Orchestra annually touches the lives of countless music lovers worldwide, through concerts, presentations, and recordings. Each year the Orchestra presents a subscription season at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, education and community partnership programs, and annual appearances at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center; it also regularly tours throughout the world. Its summer schedule includes performances at the Mann Center, free Neighborhood Concerts throughout Greater Philadelphia, and residencies at the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival and the Saratoga Performing Arts Center.

For more information on The Philadelphia Orchestra, please visit www.philorch.org.

OPENING GALA

October 13 at 7:00 PM – Thursday evening – Verizon Hall at The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts

The Philadelphia Orchestra
Charles Dutoit Conductor
Dawn Upshaw Soprano

Prokofiev Symphony No. 1 (“Classical”)
Bernstein “Somewhere,” from West Side Story
Duke  “April in Paris” 
Duke “Not a Care in the World,” from Banjo Eyes
Gershwin “Someone to Watch Over Me,” from Oh, Kay! 
Rodgers  “A Twinkle in Your Eye,” from I Married an Angel 
Sondheim “There Won’t Be Trumpets,” from Anyone Can Whistle
Sondheim “What More Do I Need?” from Saturday Night 
Ravel  Bolero

The concert is performed without intermission.

For gala information and tickets, please call 215.893.1956.

Concert-only tickets (available September 12): $39-$144, 215.893.1999 or www.philorch.org.