Two great masters & the Hong Kong Sinfonietta
performing classics by Haydn & Mendelssohn
Conductor-pianist Howard Shelley & trumpeter James Thompson
Acclaimed British conductor-pianist Howard Shelley will conduct the Hong Kong Sinfonietta and bring you an exciting Haydn-Mendelssohn programme to commemorate the 200th anniversary (death and birth respectively) of the two composers! He will be joined by James Thompson, Professor of Trumpet at Eastman School of Music, in the most famous trumpet concerto of all time.
The concert will be held on 10 July 2009 (Fri), 8pm. Hong Kong City Hall Concert Hall.
Tickets: $280, $200, $120
Anniversaries of Haydn and Mendelssohn
Being a very prominent figure in the Western Music history, Joseph Haydn established the form for symphonies, sonatas and string quartets, while also managed to compose 104 symphonies during his life. The great composer Haydn died in 1809, the year another great composer, Mendelssohn, was born. As 2009 will be the 200th anniversary of their death and birth respectively, the Hong Kong Sinfonietta is going to pay tribute to the composers by inviting Howard Shelley, an outstanding conductor-pianist, to conduct Mendelssohn’s “Italian” Symphony, Piano Concerto No 1 (performed by Howard Shelley himself) and Haydn’s Symphony No 37.
On the programme, the orchestra will also present Haydn’s popular Trumpet Concerto in E-flat, partner with James Thompson, Professor of Eastman School of Music, USA and former principal trumpet of Atlanta & Montreal Symphony Orchestra.
For further information, please contact Ms Amanda Mok, PR & Communications Manager:
Email：amanda.mok@hksinfonietta.org Tel: 2836 3336 / 9727 1808
For photos, please download from www.hksl.org/media_rooms/image_library.aspx or contact Ms Amanda Mok.
Howard Shelley & the Hong Kong Sinfonietta
Conductor/Pianist: Howard Shelley
Trumpet: James Thompson
10 July 2009 (Fri) 8pm
Hong Kong City Hall Concert Hall
Tickets：$280, $200, $120
Programme
| Haydn |
Symphony No 37 in C, Hob I:37 |
| Mendelssohn |
Piano Concerto No 1 in G minor, Op 25 |
| Haydn |
Trumpet Concerto in E-flat, Hob VIIe:1 |
| Mendelssohn |
Symphony No 4 in A, Op 90, “Italian” |
Howard Shelley Conductor/Piano
“Shelley is a superb musician: not only does he play with great taste and insight but his conducting is impeccable.” BBC Music Magazine
After winning the premier prize at the Royal College of Music at the end of his first year, Howard Shelley's career began with a highly successful London recital and a televised Promenade concert with the London Symphony Orchestra under Michael Tilson-Thomas in the same season. Since then he has performed regularly throughout the UK, Europe, Scandinavia, North America, Russia, Australia and Asia. He has also made over 100 highly acclaimed commercial recordings.
As pianist he has performed, broadcast and recorded around the world with leading orchestras and conductors including Ashkenazy, Boulez, Boult, Davis, Jansons, Rozhdestvensky and Sanderling. In a unique series of five London recitals, broadcast by the BBC, he played Rachmaninov's complete solo piano music. He has given complete cycles of Rachmaninov concertos with the Royal Scottish National, Beethoven concertos with the BBC Philharmonic and Mozart concerto series with the London Mozart Players, Camerata Salzburg and Munich Symphony.
As conductor he has performed with the London Philharmonic, London Symphony and Royal Philharmonic orchestras, the Philharmonia, Royal Scottish National and Ulster orchestras as well as the Hong Kong Philharmonic, Orquesta Filarmónica de la Ciudad de México, Munich Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Naples Philharmonic, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and West Australian Symphony Orchestra, amongst many others. He conducted and played with the Hong Kong Sinfonietta in 2006.
He has held positions of Associate and Principal Guest Conductor with the London Mozart Players in a close relationship of over 20 years. He has toured with them to Japan, Korea, Germany, Sweden, Italy, Holland, Ireland and to the Prague Autumn Festival. Their many recordings together have in every case received exceptional critical acclaim. Shelley has also been Principal Conductor of Sweden's Uppsala Chamber Orchestra and works regularly with the Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto in Italy, the Orchestra of Swiss-Italian Radio in Lugano and Australia’s Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra. He is involved in several recording projects in Lugano and Hobart. Other chamber orchestras with whom he has worked include the English Chamber Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Swedish Chamber, Zurich Chamber, Netherlands Chamber and Stuttgart Chamber orchestras, the Northern Sinfonia, Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, Leipzig Kammerphilharmonie and Camerata Salzburg.
He has appeared regularly on television since the age of ten when he gave a recital of Bach and Chopin. He was soloist at the 100th anniversary of the Promenade Concerts, a concert which was televised worldwide. A documentary on Ravel made in 1998 by the Australian Broadcasting Commission, featuring Shelley as conductor, pianist and presenter won the Gold Medal for the best arts biography of the year at the New York Festivals Awards.
Currently recording for the top two British independent labels, Chandos and Hyperion, Shelley's discography now numbers 100 recordings and includes award-winning sets of Rachmaninov's complete piano music and concertos, series of Mozart, Hummel, Mendelssohn, Moscheles, Cramer and Herz concertos as well as all Gershwin's works for piano and orchestra and a series of British concertos including Alwyn, Bridge, Howells, Rubbra, Scott, Tippett and Vaughan Williams.
Howard Shelley is married to fellow pianist Hilary Macnamara, with whom he has performed and recorded in a two-piano partnership, and they have two sons. In 1994 an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal College of Music was conferred on him by HRH The Prince of Wales.
James Thompson Trumpet
James Thompson is currently Professor of Trumpet at the renowned Eastman School of Music. He came to this position having played Principal Trumpet in the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra since September 1990. He has held corresponding positions with the Phoenix Symphony, the Orchestra of the State of Mexico, the National Symphony of Mexico, and for 14 years, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra.
Born in Frankfurt, Germany, he was raised in Phoenix, Arizona where he began trumpet studies at the age of ten. His principal teachers included Richard Longfield and Roger Voisin.
Thompson has been active both as a soloist and a teacher. He has taught trumpet and brass ensemble at Northern Arizona University, the National Conservatory of Music in Mexico City and McGill University in Montreal, Canada. He has also performed as a soloist with orchestras in North and South America as well as in Europe. In 1979 he was a prize winner of the First Maurice André International Trumpet Competition.
He has made recital tours to China, Japan, Canada, Spain, Germany, Sweden, Norway and Latin America. He has also been a guest artist with the Summit Brass and Chicago’s Music of the Baroque. At the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Opening Ceremonies he performed a jazz/gospel trumpet solo and was seen on television by more than three billion people. He has performed as guest Principal Trumpet with the New York Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, as well as the other orchestras in the United States, Canada and Europe. Currently he is solo trumpet of the Symphonica Toscanini under the baton of Lorin Maazel.
Thompson has actively encouraged new compositions for the trumpet. In 1987 he performed the world première of Malcolm Forsyth’s Concerto for Trumpet, which was written for him and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. He has recorded this concerto with the Kitchener-Waterloo Orchestra for CBC Records in May 1992. In 1990 he performed the Quebec première of Jacques Hétu’s Trumpet Concerto and in March of 1992 he gave the world première of the Glenn Buhr Concerto for Trumpet, also written for him and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra.
Thompson can be heard on London Decca recordings with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra and Telarc’s Atlanta Symphony releases. He has also recorded on Chandos in performances which include Vivaldi’s Concerto for Two Trumpets and the critically acclaimed Shostakovich’s Concerto No 1 for Piano, Trumpet and Strings. Thompson is a Yamaha Performing Artist.
Tickets NOW available at all URBTIX outlets
Half-price tickets available for full-time students, senior citizens, people with disabilities and Comprehensive Social Security Assistance recipients
10% discount for group booking of 4 or more adult tickets
Ticketing Enquiries & Reservations：2734 9009
Credit Card Telephone Booking：2111 5999
URBTIX Internet Ticketing Service：www.URBTIX.hk
Programme Enquiries：2836 3336 / info@hksinfonietta.org
Website：www.HKSL.org
Hong Kong Sinfonietta is the Venue Partner of the Hong Kong City Hall
Hong Kong Sinfonietta is financially supported by the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative region
Hong Kong Sinfonietta reserves the right to change the programme and artists
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