Glorias create Spokane Symphony's magnificent Season Finale

May 11, 2005

For Immediate Release

Contact: Annie Matlow 509-326-3136

Glorias create Spokane Symphony's magnificent Season Finale

SPOKANE: The Spokane Symphony will conclude Maestro Eckart Preu's first season with a spectacular performance featuring the Spokane Symphony Chorale and two outstanding soloists at the Spokane Opera House on Friday, May 20 at 8 p.m.

Spokane Symphony Chorale will join the orchestra in the performance of two magnificent Glorias. Maestro Preu has aptly named this concert Two Centuries, Two Countries, Two Voices. The Gloria has been one of the most inspiring texts in music history a joyful hymn of praise and prayer and a regular feature of the Roman Catholic mass. Vivaldi's Gloria, written in the 18th century, is his best-known piece of church music. Poulenc's Gloria, written 250 years later, has been called a mosaic of some of the most beautiful melodies of this history.

Soloists in the performance include Nathalie Paulin, soprano, and Lucille Beer, mezzo-soprano.
Canadian soprano Natalie Paulin made her European debut in Semele at the Opernhaus Halle. She has toured the Czech Republic, with international engagements in Germany, the United States and Japan. Last season she joined Herv Niquet and Le Concert Spirituel for Desmarest's Grands Motets with performances at Versailles, Metz and Luneville. With the Dallas Opera, she was featured in The Cunning Little Vixen and this season appears in the Dallas production of Manon.
As a concert artist, Paulin was featured by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra this season in Messiah and sings The Creation for the Thunder Bay Symphony. She has been featured by the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Hamilton Philharmonic, Regina Philharmonic, Chorus Niagara, Brott Music Festival and Toronto's Mendelssohn Choir among others, in works ranging from Mozart's Requiem and Orff's Carmina Burana, to Handel's Israel in Egypt, Bach's St. Matthew Passion and B minor Mass, and Les illuminations by Britten. An artist of extraordinary range, she has toured Europe as a recitalist and has been heard in programs of contemporary Canadian works in Calgary, Montreal and in New Brunswick.

American mezzo-soprano Lucille Beer is a graduate of the Mannes College of Music and received her Master of Music degree from the Julliard School as a student of Daniel Ferro. She won the Metropolitan Opera Auditions in 1982 and made her Metropolitan Opera debut in 1953 in Ravel's L'Enfant et les Sortileges followed by appearances in numerous other productions. She was recently heard at the Metropolitan in their production of Elektra under James Levine. She Beer has also appeared with the New York City Opera as Nancy in Martha, Prince Charming in Cedrillon, Suzuki in Madame Butterfly, Opera de Nice as Dorabella in Cosi fan Tutte,

Opera Theatre of St. Louis as Bradamante in Handel's Alcina and Opera de Nantes as Erda in Siegfried. She also embraces the contralto repertoire with ease and as a result sings a wide range of operatic and symphonic works.

In addition to opera, Beer regularly performs in Lieder recitals and oratorios. She has appeared with many of the world's leading symphony orchestras and conductors, including the New York Philharmonic under Erich Lelnsdorf in Debusy's La Demoiselle Elue, the St. Louis Symphony with Leonard Slatkin in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, the Houston Symphony conducted by Christoph Eschenbach in Mahler's Eighth Symphony, Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg In Mahler's Symphony No. 2 under Theodor Guschlbauer, and Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival in Mozart's Mass In c minor under Robert Shaw. She performed with Leonard Bernstein in his Songfest in Rome, Chicago, New York and Washington, D.C., where the performance was broadcast live on the PBS television network..

Rounding out the evening is Jennifer Higdon's blue cathedral, written in 1999 after the death of her brother. This piece depicts an enormous glass cathedral suspended from the sky. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution said, it's intriguing and serene, evoking the pastoral naivet of Copland and the crystalline harmonies of Ravel, while sounding utterly of our time.
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This performance not only is the finale of a magnificent season but is also the final Symphony Yes! concert -Youth Exploration Series. Youth are invited to arrive early for a backstage tour and a concert talk from Associate Conductor Morihiko Nakahara.

Eckart Preu will be featured on Classical Chat at 12:15 p.m. on Thursday, May 19, in the City Council Chambers at City Hall. The program will be broadcast on City Channel 5. The audience is encouraged to participate in a question and answer session at the conclusion of the program.

This concert has been underwritten by Kop and Maxine Kopczynski.

Tickets are available for $15 to $34 in advance without service charge at the Spokane Symphony ticket office, 818 W. Riverside, Suite 100, or by calling 509-624-1200. Tickets are also available at all TicketsWest outlets or by calling 1-800-325-SEAT or at spokanesympony.org.


CALENDAR LISTING:
Two Centuries, Two Countries, Two Voices, Friday, May 20, at 8 p.m. at the Spokane Opera House. Tickets are $15 to $34; Call the Spokane Symphony Ticket Office at (509) 624-1200; tickets are also available, with service charges, through TicketsWest at 325-SEAT, 1-800-325-SEAT and at www.spokanesymphony.org.