Tuesday, April 6, 2010 / 8 PM

Roy Thomson Hall
Toronto

Tickets: $169.50 to $49.50

Call RTH Box Office 416 872 4255
Online at www.roythomson.com or www.tso.ca

Toronto, ON – The Toronto Symphony Orchestra and Roy Thomson Hall are proud to present the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra led by the eminent German Maestro Christoph Eschenbach with piano sensation Lang Lang on Tuesday, April 6, 8 PM at Roy Thomson Hall. The Toronto performance marks the Canadian début of the world-renowned youth orchestra, the only Canadian stop on the orchestra’s first-ever North American tour. The delightful program of masterpieces features Mozart’s Piano Concert No. 17 in G Major, Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 1 (“Classical”), and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7.

The 22-city, month-long tour celebrates the decade-long artistic collaboration between Christoph Eschenbach and Lang Lang that began when the conductor invited the then-17-year-old Lang Lang to step in for an ailing André Watts at the Ravinia Festival. That now-legendary last-minute début performance launched Lang Lang’s international career as well as his artistic and personal friendship with Maestro Eschenbach. In deciding how to celebrate their unique collaboration, they looked to the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra.

The Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra, created by Leonard Bernstein in 1987, consists of the world’s finest young musicians under the age of 27. The orchestra is at the core of the educational mission of the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, one of Europe’s most important classical music festivals, held every summer in the north of Germany. Auditions are offered to 1,200 musicians each winter in 30 cities across North and South America, Asia, Europe and the Middle East, and approximately 100 are selected to join the Festival’s Orchestral Academy. The young musicians are given an extraordinary opportunity to grow together as an orchestra, work with teachers (from the Berlin Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic and the NDR Symphony Orchestra), collaborate with famous conductors, and study and perform great orchestral and chamber music at the Festival and on tour.

Christoph Eschenbach’s long-standing artistic friendship with Lang Lang has led to numerous memorable performances, most recently with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra in 2008, and a critically acclaimed recording of Beethoven’s Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 4 with Orchestre de Paris in 2007. Maestro Eschenbach is the Music Director Designate of the National Symphony and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., and is in his 10th and final season as Music Director of the Orchestre de Paris. From 1999 to 2002, he was Artistic Director of the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, and has continued a close relationship with the Festival over the years, regularly conducting the orchestra at home and on tour.

Lang Lang is described by the New York Times as the “hottest artist on the classical music planet.” His combined musicianship and showmanship have made him the darling of fans worldwide and one of the most famous and sought-after classical performers of his generation. The 27-year-old megastar has performed sold-out recitals and concerts in every major city in the world, and in 2008 more than five billion people viewed his performance in Beijing’s opening ceremony for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad. Most recently, Lang Lang has been chosen as an official worldwide ambassador to the 2010 Shanghai Expo.

Sponsored by RBC
Co-presented by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and Roy Thomson Hall