PRESS RELEASE
LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA & PATRICIA KOPATCHINSKAJA
OPEN PHILHARMONIC SOCIETY’S 2024-25 SEASON
(IRVINE, CA, AUGUST 1, 2024)— The Philharmonic Society of Orange County opens its 71st season with the London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) and world-renowned violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja (Koh-pah-cheen-skah-yah) under the baton of principal conductor Edward Gardner on Friday, October 11, 2024, at 8pm at the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, Segerstrom Center for the Arts.
Gardner leads the LPO in a program consisting of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Tania León’s Raices (Origins) commissioned by LPO, Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No. 1 with Moldovan-Austrian violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja, and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4.
This concert is part of the Donna L. Kendall Classical Series, with additional support from featured artist sponsors Don and Karen Evarts, and The Segerstrom Foundation.
Founded by Sir Thomas Beecham in 1932, the London Philharmonic Orchestra balances a long and distinguished history with its reputation as one of the UK’s most forward-looking ensembles. In addition to its concert performances, the Orchestra also records film soundtracks, has a thriving record label, and reaches thousands of people every year through activities for families, schools, and local communities.
The Grammy®-winning London Philharmonic Orchestra has recorded many blockbuster film scores, from The Lord of the Rings trilogy to Lawrence of Arabia, East is East, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and Thor: The Dark World. It is the world’s most-streamed orchestra, with 15 million plays of its content globally each month, and its innovative digital and social media content led to it being named runner-up in the 2020 Digital Classical Music Awards.
The Orchestra is a resident at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall in London. It also enjoys flourishing residencies in Brighton, Eastbourne and Saffron Walden, and performs regularly around the UK. Each summer the Orchestra takes up its annual residency at Glyndebourne Festival Opera, where it has been Resident Symphony Orchestra for over 50 years. The Orchestra also tours internationally, performing to sell-out audiences worldwide, with a new residency at the Concertgebouw in Bruges from the 2023-24 season.
Edward Gardner is Principal Conductor of the London Philharmonic and from August 2024, Gardner will undertake the Music Directorship of the Norwegian Opera and Ballet, having been their Artistic Advisor since February 2022.
During the 2023-24 season, Gardner conducted the London Philharmonic in 10 concerts at the Royal Festival Hall and toured the orchestra through Asia and many major European cities including Paris, Munich, Frankfurt and Hamburg.
In demand as a guest conductor, recent seasons saw Gardner debut with the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra, Staatskapelle Berlin Orchestra, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, and Wiener Symphoniker; while returns included engagements with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Montreal Symphony, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Philharmonia Orchestra and Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala di Milano. He also continued his longstanding collaborations with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, where he was Principal Guest Conductor from 2010-16, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, whom he has conducted at both the First and Last Night of the BBC Proms.
With a combination of depth, brilliance and humor, Patricia Kopatchinskaja brings a unique sense of theatrics to her music. Described by The New York Times as “a player of rare expressive energy and disarming informality, of whimsy and theatrical ambition,” Kopatchinskaja’s distinctive approach always conveys the core of the work, whether it is with an out-of-the-box performance of a traditional violin repertoire classic or with an original staged project she presents as experimental performance dramaturge.
Her absolute priority is music of the 20th and 21st century and the collaboration with living composers such as Luca Francesconi, Michael Hersch, György Kurtág, Márton Illés, and Esa-Pekka Salonen. Kopatchinskaja directs staged concerts at venues on both sides of the Atlantic and collaborates with leading orchestras, conductors, and festivals worldwide.
Kopatchinskaja’s discography includes over 30 recordings, among them Grammy® Award-winning Death and the Maiden with Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, a project which was also re-created as a semi-staged filmed performance with Camerata Bern, premiered on Harrison Parrott’s digital platform Virtual Circle. Recent CD releases include Les Plaisirs Illuminés with Sol Gabetta and Camerata Bern, which was saluted with a BBC Music Magazine award and Le monde selon George Antheil with Joonas Ahonen (both on Alpha Classics).
LPO Composer-in-Residence Tania León’s 2023 work, Raíces (Origins), is inspired by the Cuban-born León’s own roots, including a mix of Spanish, Cuban, Chinese, and French heritage. Reflecting on her ancestry, and on her mixed identity as a Cuban-born woman who found a home in the United States, León guides this piece through a range of genres and moods, from contemplative to jovial, infusing elements of jazz, Cuban-style syncopation and a vibrant blend of dance rhythms, reflecting the importance of dance to her own heritage and upbringing.
León is widely acclaimed for her compositions. León’s orchestral work Stride, commissioned by the New York Philharmonic in celebration of the centennial of the 19th Amendment, was awarded the 2021 Pulitzer Prize in Music. In July 2022, she was named a recipient of the 45th Annual Kennedy Center Honors for lifetime artistic achievements, along with George Clooney, Amy Grant, Gladys Knight, and U2. In 2023, she was awarded the Michael Ludwig Nemmers Prize in Music Composition from Northwestern University. Most recently, León was appointed as the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s Composer-in-Residence, a position she began in September 2023 and will hold for two seasons.
Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall is located at 615 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa, CA 92626. Ticket prices start at $41 and are available at the Philharmonic Society box office at (949) 553-2422, or online at www.philharmonicsociety.org.
ABOUT THE PHILHARMONIC SOCIETY:
Founded in 1954 as Orange County’s first music organization, the Philharmonic Society of Orange County presents national and international performances of the highest quality and provides dynamic and innovative music education programs for individuals of all ages to enhance the lives of Orange County audiences through music.
Since its inception, the Philharmonic Society has evolved and grown with the county’s changing landscape, presenting artists and orchestras who set the standard for artistic achievement from Itzhak Perlman, Gustavo Dudamel, Yo-Yo Ma, and Renée Fleming to the Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and many others. In addition, the Philharmonic Society celebrates multi-disciplinary performances under its Eclectic Orange brand and embraces music from a wide range of countries with its World Music performances. Its celebrated concerts introduce children to classical music with creative and inspiring performances, instilling music appreciation for future generations.
The Philharmonic Society’s nationally recognized Youth Music Education Programs, offered free of charge, engage more than 100,000 students annually through curriculum-based music education programs that aim to inspire, expand imaginations, and encourage learning at all levels. These programs are made possible by the Committees of the Philharmonic Society comprised of 500 volunteer members who provide more than 90,000 hours of in-kind service each year. As a key youth program, the exceptional Orange County Youth Symphony and String Ensemble provide top-tier training to the area’s most talented young musicians through multi-level ensemble instruction, leadership training, touring opportunities, challenging professional repertoire, and performances in world-class venues. The Philharmonic Society also promotes life-long learning by connecting with colleges and universities to conduct masterclasses and workshops and providing pre-concert lectures to introduce audiences to program selections.
MEDIA CONTACTS :
Adaora Onyebeke
adaora@philharmonicsociety.org
Marie-Songco Torres