Oscar-winning composer Tan Dun joins Philadelphia Orchestra to conduct his acclaimed multimedia work The Map

(Philadelphia, November 2, 2004)

Oscar-winning composer Tan Dun makes his conducting debut with The Philadelphia Orchestra in concerts that feature his acclaimed multimedia work The Map, Concerto for Cello, Video, and Orchestra, November 11-16, 2004. Cellist Anssi Karttunen is the featured soloist in the first Philadelphia Orchestra performances of The Map, which draws on the indigenous music of Tan's homeland China. Tan won worldwide acclaim in 2000 with his Academy Award-winning score for Ang Lee's film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The Map shares a program with two other works that document composers' reflections on folk music traditions: Shostakovich's Overture on Russian and Kirghiz Folk Themes and Borodin's Polovtsian Dances. Although the three works on this program were written over a span of 128 years, each shows a composer drawing on the indigenous music of a specific region to shape his own musical work.

As a composer and conductor, Tan Dun focuses his energy on creating multicultural, multimedia programs that break the boundaries between classical and non-classical, East and West, avant-garde and indigenous art forms. The Map, Concerto for Cello, Video, and Orchestra, reflects a personal journey begun more than 20 years ago, when Tan traveled to his home province of Hunan to collect folk songs and encountered a "stone man" skilled in a very ancient art of stone drumming. As Tan describes it, "He talked to the wind, clouds, and leaves; he talked to the next life and the past one." Nearly two decades passed before a commission from the Boston Symphony gave Tan the opportunity to return to the "stone man" and study his music. When he returned, the Tujia villagers welcomed him with a warm tea ceremony and told him "one has left, tea is cold." The "stone man" had died, and with him died the old music that only he knew. Out of that loss and emptiness grew The Map.

Subscription performances of The Map on November 11, 12, and 16 will be preceded by a PreConcert Conversation that includes a 25-minute documentary film entitled "Rediscovering The Map." The film traces Tan Dun's journeys to rural Hunan in southwest China over a 20-year period in an attempt to rediscover, reconnect with, and revive ancient and disappearing musical cultures. "Rediscovering The Map" offers a first hand look at the basis of concepts behind Tan Dun's unique compositions, like The Map, that meld technology and tradition to draw attention to endangered musical cultures. The subscription performance on November 13 will be preceded by a performance by members of the Philadelphia-based Peter Tang Ensemble. This group of Chinese musicians will demonstrate different types of folk instruments to show the diversity within Chinese music traditions. In addition to four subscription concerts, excerpts from The Map will also be presented on a Family Concert on Saturday, November 13, and a Student Concert on Tuesday, November 16. Members of the Peter Tang Ensemble will also perform at the PreConcert Adventure that precedes the Family Concert.

The multifaceted composer and conductor Tan Dun has made an indelible mark on the world's music scene with a creative repertoire that spans the boundaries of classical, multimedia, Eastern, and Western musical traditions. He has won some of today's most prestigious honors - a Grawemeyer Award for classical composition, a Grammy Award, an Academy Award, and Musical America's "Composer of the Year." His latest work, Secret Land, was premiered in June 2004 with the Berlin Philharmonic.

Tan Dun has composed several distinct series of works. Among them are the Orchestral Theatre Series, bringing his childhood memories of shamanistic ritual into symphonic performances, from which The Gate was premiered by Tokyo's NHK Symphony; Organic Music, consisting of works that incorporate elements from the natural world, such as the Water Concerto, for Water Percussion and Orchestra, for the New York Philharmonic, and Paper Concerto, for Paper Instruments and Orchestra, for the Los Angeles Philharmonic; and Concerto Multimedia, including The Map, premiered by the Boston Symphony and Yo-Yo Ma in 2003. Tan Dun's creative output of the past decade has also included the operas Marco Polo, Peony Pavilion, and Tea.

A native of Simao, China, Tan Dun was a rice-planter and performer of Peking Opera during the Cultural Revolution and later studied at Beijing's Central Conservatory. He holds a doctoral degree in musical arts from Columbia University. He was music director of the Tanglewood Contemporary Music Festival in 1999 and is currently music director of a multimedia festival with the Orchestre de la Radio Flamande. He records for Sony Classical and Deutsche Grammophon. The Map is the second of Tan's works to be performed by The Philadelphia Orchestra; in 2001 the Orchestra presented his On Taoism at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center.

Finnish cellist Ansi Kartunnen is making his Philadelphia Orchestra debut with these performances of Tan Dun's The Map. A passionate advocate of contemporary music, he appears on the DVD of The Map, recently released by Deutsche Grammophon. Karttunen is principal cello of the London Sinfonietta and has performed with the orchestras of Los Angeles, Tokyo, Oslo, and Helsinki; London's Philharmonia; the Orchestre de Paris; the Orchestre National de France; and the Netherlands Radio and Avanti! chamber orchestras, among others. He was artistic director of the Avanti! Chamber Orchestra, the 1995 Helsinki Biennale, and the Suvisoitto Festival in Porvoo, Finland. His teachers have included William Pleeth, Jacqueline du Pré, and Tibor de Machula. Karttunen has recorded for Sony Classical and is a founding member of www.petals.org, a non-profit organization for the production and sale of CDs on the internet.

Founded in 1900, The Philadelphia Orchestra has distinguished itself as one of the leading orchestras in the world through a century of acclaimed performances, historic international tours, best-selling recordings, and its unprecedented record of innovation in recording technologies and outreach. With only six music directors
piloting The Philadelphia Orchestra through its first century, the ensemble has maintained an unparalleled cohesiveness and unity in artistic leadership.

This rich tradition is carried on by Christoph Eschenbach, who began his tenure as the Orchestra's seventh music director in September 2003. As Mr. Eschenbach and the Orchestra inaugurate a new era in the ensemble's esteemed history, the Orchestra has announced the launch of the public phase of a five-year, $125-million endowment campaign, entitled A Sound, A City, A Civilization. Commitments to the campaign include a lead gift of $50 million from the Annenberg Foundation, along with other major leadership gifts that have allowed the Orchestra to raise the original campaign goal from $75 million to $125 million.

In addition to Mr. Eschenbach's appointment as music director, the Orchestra has observed several important milestones in recent years. The Orchestra's 2002-2003 season celebrated Wolfgang Sawallisch's ten highly acclaimed years at the Orchestra's helm and paid tribute to his artistic achievements with the release of a Grammy-nominated three-disc set of Schumann recordings, the first recordings made in Verizon Hall at The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts. The Orchestra moved to its new home at the Kimmel Center in December 2001, after celebrating its 100th Anniversary through a series of activities surrounding the year 2000, including the internationally televised gala Birthday Concert on November 16, 2000, a tour of Europe in 2000, and tours of Asia and the United States in 2001. A tour in the spring of 2003 took the Orchestra to nine cities in the United States, Mexico, and South America. Christoph Eschenbach and the Orchestra capped their first full season together with a tour of the music capitals of Europe in the spring of 2004.

The Philadelphia Orchestra annually touches the lives of more than 1 million music lovers worldwide through its performances (more than 300 concerts and other presentations each year), publications, recordings, and broadcasts. A major winter subscription season is presented in Philadelphia each year from September to May, in addition to education and community partnership programs. The Orchestra presents a series of concerts each year at New York's Carnegie Hall, performing encores of some of its acclaimed concerts from Philadelphia. Its summer schedule includes a month-long outdoor season in Philadelphia at The Mann Center for the Performing Arts, free concerts in local neighborhoods, and a three-week residency each August at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in upstate New York.

The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts hosts the Orchestra's home subscription concerts. The Center includes two performance spaces, the 2500-seat Verizon Hall, designed and built especially for the Orchestra, and the 650-seat Perelman Theater for chamber music concerts. Designed by architect Rafael Viñoly along with acoustician Russell Johnson of Artec Consultants Inc., the Kimmel Center provides the Orchestra with a state-of-the-art facility for concerts, recordings, and education activities. The landmark building is named in honor of Philadelphia businessman and philanthropist Sidney Kimmel, who gave the largest individual gift toward its construction. Mr. Kimmel has served on the Board of Directors of The Philadelphia Orchestra since 1995.

The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts (KCPA) and the historic Academy of Music (where the Orchestra performed for 101 seasons) are operated together as a single cultural facility by Kimmel Center, Inc. (KCI). A variety of Philadelphia's other performing arts groups serve as resident companies for the two buildings. KCI owns, manages, supports, and maintains the KCPA. Kimmel Center, Inc., also manages the Academy of Music, owned by The Philadelphia Orchestra Association since 1957, and where the Orchestra continues to present the highly anticipated annual Academy Anniversary Concert and Ball.

SUBSCRIPTION CONCERT
Verizon Hall at The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts

The Philadelphia Orchestra
Tan Dun, conductor - PHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA DEBUT
Anssi Karttunen, cello - PHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA DEBUT

Free PreConcert Conversations: November 11, 12, and 16, documentary "Rediscovering The Map;" November 13, musicians from the Peter Tang Ensemble. PreConcert Conversations are held in Verizon Hall one hour and 15 minutes before each concert.

Lecture Luncheon: Robert Grossman, Philadelphia Orchestra principal librarian, and Lloyd Smith, retired Philadelphia Orchestra assistant principal cello, November 12 at 11:15 a.m., DoubleTree Hotel Philadelphia. For tickets, call 215.893.1956.

Tan Dun's appearance is made possible through the Margaret and Eugene Ormandy Guest Conductor Fund.

Tickets: $10-$84.50 (call for box seat prices), 215.893.1999 or www.philorch.org

FAMILY CONCERT (Ages 6-12)

The Philadelphia Orchestra
Tan Dun, conductor
Anssi Karttunen, cello

PreConcert Adventure: Musicians from the Peter Tang Ensemble. The PreConcert Adventure takes place from 10:00 to 11:00 a.m. in the Perelman Theater.

The Philadelphia Orchestra Family Concerts are sponsored by Independence Blue Cross and funded in part by the William M. and Nadine Gibson Family Foundation.

Tickets: $5-$35.50 (call for box seat prices), 215.893.1999 or www.philorch.org