PRESS RELEASE
SIMONE DINNERSTEIN and DAWN UPSHAW headline
2012 Terezín Music Foundation Gala at Symphony Hall Boston November 12
For release: Immediately
Contact: Lisa Pemstein, PR Director, tel. 857-222-8262, lpemstein@terezinmusic.org
Contact: Lisa Pemstein, PR Director, tel. 857-222-8262, lpemstein@terezinmusic.org
BOSTON – Pianist Simone Dinnerstein makes her Symphony Hall Boston debut this November 12 at the Terezin Music Foundation Gala, premiering a new TMF Commission by rising star composer Nico Muhly and performing works of Bach. Internationally acclaimed soprano Dawn Upshaw completes the program, accompanied by pianist Gilbert Kalish, performing songs by Charles Ives. At the post-concert Benefactors' Dinner, celebrated painter Samuel Bak receives the Terezín Legacy Award, a glass sculpture created for Terezín Music Foundation by internationally recognized glass artists Sharon Oleksiak Weinberg and Stephen Weinberg.
The event includes a 5:30 pm reception, the 6:30 pm concert, and the 8:00 pm Benefactor’s Dinner and Award Presentation with the Artists. Ticket purchases support Terezín Music Foundation and may be made at www.TMFgala.org, or via TMF at tel. 857-222-8262.
Proceeds from the Terezín Music Foundation 2012 Gala support the creation of TMF’s growing list of musical commissions. These Commissions stand as a living memorial to the lost artists, defy the evil that silenced them, and carry on the artists' unfulfilled roles as composers, performers, and mentors. TMF brings its Commissions (by André Previn, Miroslav Srnka, David Post, Thomas Oboe Lee, and others) with music rescued from the Nazi camps, to schools and performance halls internationally. These Commissions are premiered by artists of the highest caliber, including Garrick Ohlsson, Leon Fleisher, Alisa Weilerstein, Sir Simon Rattle, and other major artists who have headlined TMF's annual Gala benefit in recent years.
“It is very meaningful to work with these great talents to honor the legacy of Terezín,” says TMF Director Mark Ludwig. “This year’s Gala will be especially memorable, bringing together an exciting young composer, acclaimed musicians, and painter Samuel Bak, who survived the Holocaust and whose work—like our musical commissions—speaks to us as only art can.”
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The event includes a 5:30 pm reception, the 6:30 pm concert, and the 8:00 pm Benefactor’s Dinner and Award Presentation with the Artists. Ticket purchases support Terezín Music Foundation and may be made at www.TMFgala.org, or via TMF at tel. 857-222-8262.
Proceeds from the Terezín Music Foundation 2012 Gala support the creation of TMF’s growing list of musical commissions. These Commissions stand as a living memorial to the lost artists, defy the evil that silenced them, and carry on the artists' unfulfilled roles as composers, performers, and mentors. TMF brings its Commissions (by André Previn, Miroslav Srnka, David Post, Thomas Oboe Lee, and others) with music rescued from the Nazi camps, to schools and performance halls internationally. These Commissions are premiered by artists of the highest caliber, including Garrick Ohlsson, Leon Fleisher, Alisa Weilerstein, Sir Simon Rattle, and other major artists who have headlined TMF's annual Gala benefit in recent years.
“It is very meaningful to work with these great talents to honor the legacy of Terezín,” says TMF Director Mark Ludwig. “This year’s Gala will be especially memorable, bringing together an exciting young composer, acclaimed musicians, and painter Samuel Bak, who survived the Holocaust and whose work—like our musical commissions—speaks to us as only art can.”
- Simone Dinnerstein is an internationally celebrated pianist whose Sony recording of Bach and Schubert reached the tops of Billboard’s classical and multi-genre charts. The San Francisco Chronicle calls her interpretations “elegant and fine,” performed with a “stately beauty.”
- Soprano Dawn Ushaw, revered by critics and audiences worldwide, is the recipient of two TMF Commissions premiered in Carnegie Hall and Boston's Jordan Hall. Her “performances are the stuff of legend” (LA Times).
- Nico Muhly is a star of contemporary classical composition whose works include operas, ballet scores, and film scores; his opera “Two Boys” opened to raves in London and is on the program of the Metropolitan Opera next fall. Mr. Muhly has recorded with Decca and other major labels and worked with classical and pop/rock musicians including Philip Glass and Björk.
- Gilbert Kalish was pianist of the Boston Symphony Chamber Players and a faculty member of the Tanglewood Music Center for thirty years, and was for more than a decade chairman of the faculty at Tanglewood. He has collaborated with Ms. Upshaw for many years and has performed as soloist with the world’s major orchestras.
- Painter Samuel Bak, 2012 Terezín Legacy Award recipient, began painting as a child in the Vilna Ghetto and the Displaced Persons Camp in Landsberg, Germany. He studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris and in Jerusalem. His paintings have been exhibited in museums and galleries and hang in private collections throughout the world. Recent works are on view at the Pucker Gallery in Boston.
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