Features world premiere of The Hobbit, Four Movements for Symphony Orchestra
Academy Award-winning composer Howard Shore joins the Pittsburgh Symphony for PNC Pops: The Film Music of Howard Shore on June 24-26.
During this one-of-a-kind concert, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra celebrates the outstanding career and achievements of a true music icon with performances of Shore’s best known scores. From his legendary scores to “The Lord of the Rings” and the world premiere of music from “The Hobbit,” with film scores from his films “The Aviator,” “Mrs. Doubtfire,” “The Silence of the Lambs,” “Hugo” and many more, this epic evening will be filled with amazing music and the composer on stage with the orchestra! During the performance, acclaimed film music writer Jon Burlingame will talk with Shore from the stage, offering the audience rare insights into his work and career.
The concert begins at 8 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and 2:30 p.m. on Sunday. Tickets, ranging in price from $24 to $99, can be purchased by calling the Heinz Hall box office at 412-392-4900 or visiting pittsburghsymphony.org/shore.
The Pittsburgh Symphony would like to recognize and thank PNC for its 2015-2016 title sponsorship of PNC Pops. Fairmont Pittsburgh is the official hotel of the Pittsburgh Symphony. Radio station WQED-FM 89.3 and WQEJ-FM89.7 is the official voice of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.
About the Artists
HOWARD SHORE is one of today’s premier composers whose music is performed in concert halls around the world by the most prestigious orchestras and is heard in cinemas across the globe.
Shore’s musical interpretation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s imaginative world of “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit,” as portrayed in the films directed by Peter Jackson, have enthralled people of all generations for years. This work stands as his most acclaimed composition to date awarding him with three Academy Awards, four Grammy Awards, two Golden Globes as well as numerous critic’s and festival awards.
He is an Officier de l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres de la France and has also been recognized by Canada with the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award. The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures honored Howard Shore with an award for Career Achievement for Music Composition and the City of Vienna bestowed him with the Max Steiner Award. Shore has received numerous other awards for his career achievements.
Perhaps most notable from his early career, Shore was one of the creators of “Saturday Night Live” and served as musical director from 1975 to 1980. At the same time, he began collaborating with David Cronenberg and has since scored 15 of the director’s films, including “The Fly,” “Crash” and “Naked Lunch.” He was awarded Canadian Screen Awards for “Maps to the Stars” for score and “Cosmopolis” for both score and song. His original scores to “A Dangerous Method,” “Eastern Promises” and “Dead Ringers” were each honoured with a Genie Award. Shore continues to distinguish himself with a wide range of projects, from Martin Scorsese’s “Hugo,” “The Departed,” “The Aviator” (for which he won his third Golden Globe Award) and “Gangs of New York” to “Ed Wood,” “Se7en,” “The Silence of the Lambs,” “Philadelphia,” “Mrs. Doubtfire” and his most recent score for Tom McCarthy’s Academy Award-winning film “Spotlight.”
Other recent works include the piano concerto Ruin and Memory for Lang Lang (2010), the song cycle A Palace Upon the Ruins featuring mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano (2014), a cello concerto Mythic Gardens featuring Sophie Shao (2012), and Fanfare for the Wanamaker Organ in Philadelphia (2008).
His opera, The Fly (2008), which premiered at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris and at Los Angeles Opera, recently completed a successful run in Germany at Theatre Trier.
A native of Lucerne, Switzerland, LUDWIG WICKI grew up in a musical environment influenced by church and folk music. As a child and young adult, he studied trombone and became a member of the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, eventually expanding his studies to include orchestral and choral conducting. After several years at the music school in Bern, Wicki continued his education in Dresden with Cantor Martin Flämig and Pescara with Professor Donato Renzetti. During this period he also devoted much of his time to chamber music and founded the Lucerne Philharmonic Brass Quintet. Following the success of the ensemble’s recordings that were broadcast on radio and TV and released on CD, Wicki was invited to play with the Empire Brass Quintet at the Tanglewood Academy in Boston. As a baroque trombonist, he frequently performed with various period instrument orchestras and ensembles, which further informed his approach to conducting. Wicki was fortunate to collaborate with such luminaries as Andrew Parrott, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Jeremy West and Simon Standage.
As a conductor, Wicki enjoys working with a variety of musical genres. In his role as the chorus master of the Lucerne Abbey Court Church, he covers a wide range of repertoire from Gregorian chants to contemporary sacred music, with a primary focus on the classical choral masterworks of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and Mendelssohn, or the Baroque music of J. S. Bach or G.F. Händel, as well as the renaissance masters Palestrina, Monteverdi and Schütz. He also directs the Renaissance Ensemble “Il Dolcimelo,” which performs with period instruments.
Wicki’s long-time passion for film music was fulfilled in 1999 with the creation of the 21st Century Orchestra. This professional ensemble, led by Wicki as its sole artistic director, currently offers a series of more than 10 projects every season as well as guest appearances in London, Paris or New York. It has developed partnerships with renowned film composers, including Howard Shore, Michael Giacchino, James Horner, Patrick Doyle, Randy Newman, Martin Böttcher and George Fenton. The 21st Century Orchestra also accompanies silent classics of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, as well as cult films, such as “Nosferatu. “
Wicki teaches chamber music and conducting at the conservatories in Lucerne and Bern. In 2007 he was honored by the city of Lucerne for his accomplishments as a musician and educator. In 2013, he got an Award for Excellence in Cultural Creativity from the Global Thinkers Forum.
JON BURLINGAME is the nation’s leading writer on the subject of music for films and television. He writes regularly for Variety and has written on the topic for such other publications as The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, Newsday, Emmy, Premiere and The Hollywood Reporter.
He is the author of four books: the award-winning, best-selling “The Music of James Bond” (Oxford University Press, 2012), the film-composer encyclopedia “Sound and Vision: 60 Years of Motion Picture Soundtracks” (Billboard Books, 2000), the television-music history “TV’s Biggest Hits” (Schirmer Books, 1996) and the Hollywood studio-musician chronicle “For the Record” (Recording Musicians Association, 1997). He has recently launched a YouTube channel (“Reel Music”) and is also doing in-depth, online video composer interviews for SoundWorks Collection.
Burlingame teaches film-music history at the University of Southern California and has often served as host for programs of film music and television music, including evenings at the San Francisco Symphony and the American Youth Symphony, as well as on-stage discussions for the Los Angeles Philharmonic at Disney Hall, the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C., the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences in Beverly Hills, and the Television Academy in North Hollywood, California.
He has contributed program notes for film-music programs at Walt Disney Concert Hall, Carnegie Hall, the Hollywood Bowl, the Kennedy Center and London’s Royal Albert Hall. He has also written, produced and hosted a series of radio specials on great film composers for Classical KUSC in Los Angeles.
Russian-born and based in the United Kingdom, LYDIA KAVINA is currently one of the leading performing musicians on theremin. From the age of 9, she studied the theremin under the direction of her distant relative, the inventor Léon Theremin himself. Kavina also studied piano and holds a degree in music theory and composition from the Moscow Conservatory.
As a solo performer, Kavina appeared in such projects as The Sound of Hitchcock with the BBC SSO in Glasgow in 2015; Tim Burton and Danny Elfman’s Show with BBC Concert Orchestra and London Symphony at London Royal Albert Hall and in the 2013-2014 UK tour; Electronica concert with BBC Concert orchestra under Charley Hazlewood at London Southbank Centre in 2010; Testament by Nicolai Obouhov with Netherlands Radio Orchestra under Reinbert de Lewes in 2006; First Symphony by Lera Auerbach with Duesseldorf Philharminica in 2006; Jeanne d’Arc au Bucher by Arthur Honegger with National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia under Vladimir Spivakov in 2005; theremin concert with Orchestra SOSPESSO at New York’s Lincoln Center Festival in 2000; and Fourth Symphony by Charles Ives at Barbican Centre in 1996.
Kavina worked for many theatre productions, among them: The Little Mermaid ballet by Lera Auerbach and John Neumeier, in Copenhagen, Hamburg and Beijing (2005-2015); music drama The Tragedy of a Friendship by Moritz Eggert and Jan Fabre, dedicated to R. Wagner’s anniversary (Gent, 2013); opera Baehlamms Fest by Olga Neuwirth in Vienna, Hamburg and Lucerne (1999-2002); musicals Alice and Black Rider by Tom Waits and Robert Wilsonin Hamburg and Cologne (1992-1998).
Kavina recorded several CDs with original music for theremin with labels MODE records, WERGO, Solnze records and Teleura, and she played for a number of film soundtracks, including Ed Wood and eXistetnZ with music by Howard Shore and The Machinist by Roque Banos. She also played the role of the theremin performer in film Me and Kaminsky by Wolfgang Becker.
Kavina is an active promoter of new experimental music for the theremin and she is a composer herself. The contemporary music project, Nicht zu fassen, by Yusipey and Kavina for theremin and accordion was performed in Germany, Switzerland and Ukraine (2013-2015). Kavina’s concerto for theremin and symphony orchestra was first performed by the Boston Modern Orchestra, under Gil Rose in 1997.
Kavina is strongly committed to the educational activities. She constantly integrates master classes, workshops and lectures in her concretising schedule. Her video tutorial “Mastering the Theremin,” recorded with Moog Music in 1994, is widely used among beginning therminists. Kavina led several international theremin festivals and is the regular master teacher at the Theremin Academy in Germany, Switzerland and England.
Originally from Sayville, Long Island, EVA RAINFORTH is no stranger to Pittsburgh audiences, having sung with the Mendelssohn Choir, The River City Brass Band, the Pittsburgh Concert Chorale and the Pittsburgh Opera Chorus. In 2004, she sang with The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in The Lord of the Rings concert and is delighted to return to the Pittsburgh Symphony to sing another concert of Howard Shore’s music.
She has sung leading roles with The New England Lyric Opera, Opera Northeast, the American Light Opera (co-founder), Opera Ignite and The Florida Studio Theatre. She can be seen in the PBS broadcast of Showboat, produced by The Papermill Playhouse, and has sung the role of Pitti-Sing at City Center in NYC.
Rainforth has a vocal performance degree from State University of New York (Fredonia) and has the highest certification in Somatic Voicework™, the LoVetri Method. She currently teaches voice in the conservatory at Point Park University.
Rainforth started her musical studies in composition, and has recently been accepted into the The Musical Theatre Artists of Pittsburgh’s (MTAP) incubator program to further develop her one woman musical Me, Myself, and Others.
MAKSIM SHCHERBATYUK is a 12-year-old singer from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His first public performance happened in September 2006 during a church service. He sang one-and-a-half verses of his favorite carol that he just learned and rendered the priest and parishioners speechless. Since then Shcherbatyuk has sung at many different concerts and festivals where he always has a warm reception. He likes to play piano, soccer, chess, judo and — like every kid — video games, which somehow does not prevent him from having all A grades on his report card. Shcherbatyuk attends South Fayette Middle School. In 2011, Shcherbatyuk joined the fabulous Pittsburgh Youth Chorus at Duquesne University where he has a chance to learn a beautiful art of music as well as perform with very talented group of children.
The PITTSBURGH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, celebrating 120 years of music in the 2015-2016 season, is credited with a rich history of the world’s finest conductors and musicians, and a strong commitment to the Pittsburgh region and its citizens. Past music directors have included Fritz Reiner (1938-1948), William Steinberg (1952-1976), Andre Previn (1976-1984), Lorin Maazel (1984-1996) and Mariss Jansons (1995-2004). This tradition of outstanding international music directors was furthered in fall 2008, when Austrian conductor Manfred Honeck became music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony. The orchestra has been at the forefront of championing new American works, and gave the first performance of Leonard Bernstein’s Symphony No. 1 “Jeremiah” in 1944 and John Adams’ Short Ride in a Fast Machine in 1986. The Pittsburgh Symphony has a long and illustrious history in the areas of recordings and radio concerts. As early as 1936, the Pittsburgh Symphony broadcast on the airwaves coast-to-coast and in the late 1970s it made the ground breaking PBS series “Previn and the Pittsburgh.” The orchestra has received increased national attention since 1982 through network radio broadcasts on Public Radio International, produced by Classical WQED-FM 89.3, made possible by the musicians of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. With a long and distinguished history of touring both domestically and overseas since 1900—including international tours to Europe, the Far East and South America—the Pittsburgh Symphony continues to be critically acclaimed as one of the world’s greatest orchestras.
HEINZ HALL FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS is owned and operated by Pittsburgh Symphony, Inc., a non-profit organization, and is the year-round home of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. The cornerstone of Pittsburgh’s Cultural District, Heinz Hall also hosts many other events that do not feature its world-renowned orchestra, including Broadway shows, comedians, speakers and much more. For a full calendar of upcoming non-symphony events at the hall, visit heinzhall.org.
Editors please note:
Friday, June 24 at 8 p.m.
Saturday, June 25 at 8 p.m.
Sunday, June 26 at 2:30 p.m.
Heinz Hall
PITTSBURGH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
PNC POPS: The Film Music of Howard Shore
LUDWIG WICKI, conductor
HOWARD SHORE, composer
JON BURLINGAME, interviewer
LYDIA KAVINA, theremin
EVA RAINFORTH, mezzo soprano
MAKSIM SHCHERBATYUK, boy soprano
TERRY STEELE, alto saxophone
