ASO’S CONCERT ANNOUNCES FIRST EVER LIVE RECORDING.
9/13/2008
For Immediate Release
October 13, 2008
Contact: William H. Martin
Phone: 410-269-1132
bmartin@annapolissymphony.org
www.annapolissymphony.org
ANNAPOLIS, MD – Under the title Three Symphonic Centuries, the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra will celebrate the signing of Annapolis’ historic city charter with dual concerts on November 7 and 8, the same weekend the charter was signed in 1708. The performances will take place at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts at 8 p.m. The concerts mark the conclusion of the “Annapolis Charter 300 Young Composers’ Competition” with an encore performance of the competition winner Tri-Sattawat by the young Thai composer Narong Prangcharoen.
In addition, Music Director José-Luis Novo will conduct the orchestra in Corelli’s Concerto Grosso Op. 6 No. 9 (1708), Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 in C minor (1808), and Ravel’s Rapsodie Espagnole (1908). To further commemorate the anniversary of the historic signing, the ASO will produce its first professional living recording. The design of the CD was donated by Judi Herrmann of Herrmann Designs, and the cover will feature a painting by local artist Lee Boynton entitled “Annapolis 1890.”
All ticket holders are invited to participate in ASO’s educational and entertaining Bank of America Pre-Concert Lecture Series which feature pianist and musicologist Dr. Rachel Franklin at 6:45 pm before every Lexus Classic Series performance. Tickets are $34-$44 with special $10 seats available for students ages 8 to 25. Flexible subscription packages are available for the season’s concerts by the ASO which extend through May 2009.
For tickets, subscriptions, or further information, call the ASO Box Office at 410-263-0907 or visit and order online at www.annapolissymphony.org.
Maryland's capital city orchestra continues its 48th season under the leadership of José-Luis Novo, who was appointed ASO's sixth Music Director in March 2005 following a two-year national search. He states, “Our November program is going to be a milestone in the history of the Annapolis Symphony. While the city of Annapolis celebrates the signing of the city's November 8, 1708 charter, the ASO will make a live recording of the November 7and 8 concerts. The program will include major works that were written or premiered in every centennial landmark (1708, 1808, and 1908) along with the winning composition from our Annapolis Charter 300 Young Composers Competition, which will represent 2008. The Charter 300 Commemorative Recording will be the first professional recording of the ASO, with music spanning three centuries. These concerts will bring an illuminating musical parallelism to the history of our own city from the Baroque freshness of Corelli’s masterful Concerto Grosso Op. 6, No. 9 to the exotic Thai spirituality of Narong Prangcharoen’s Tri-Sattawat. Along the way, we will have a chance to admire Ravel’s flair for orchestral color in his Rapsodie Espagnole and be humbled by the sheer musical power of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony.” One of Spain’s most promising young conductors, José-Luis Novo also holds the position of Music Director and Conductor of the Binghamton Philharmonic. Prior to his appointments with the Annapolis and Binghamton orchestras, Mr. Novo held the positions of Assistant Conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Music Director Emeritus Jesús López-Cobos, the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, Music Director of the Cincinnati Symphony Youth Orchestra, the Oxford (Ohio) Chamber Orchestra, and the Miami University Symphony Orchestra, Associate Conductor of the National Repertory Orchestra, Assistant Conductor of the National Youth Orchestra of Spain and of the Yale Symphony Orchestra. Since 1999, he has been a member of the conducting faculty at the Eastern Music Festival in Greensboro, North Carolina.
This Lexus Classic Series concert will feature an encore performance of the winner of The Annapolis Charter 300 Young Composers Competition, Tri-Sattawat by Narong Prangcharoen. The competition, an international cultural project produced by the ASO for the City of Annapolis' celebration of the 300th anniversary of its historic charter, was open only to composers 35 years of age or under. Four finalists were selected by the competition's professional first-round jury in April of 2006, and were commissioned to compose a 6 to 10-minute score for full orchestra. The works received World Premiere performances at each of the Lexus Classic Series concerts during the 2007-2008 season, with each composer participating in the rehearsal process locally. Audience members attending the concerts were invited to become part of the competition jury by completing response surveys to develop a final "audience vote" for a winner. The Charter 300 composer winner received a total of $10,000 in cash prize plus the opportunity to have his/her work included in the special commemorative live recording.
Thai composer Narong Prangcharoen has been called by the Los Angeles Times a "composer with a gift for creating orchestral color.” Mr. Prangcharoen's awards include the Alexander Zemlinsky International Composition Competition Prize, the 18th ACL Yoshiro IRINO Memorial Composition Award, the Pacific Symphony's American Composers Competition prize, and the Toru Takemitsu Composition Award. His music has been performed by well-known ensembles including; the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Pacific Symphony, the National Symphony Orchestra of Thailand, the Ensemble TIMF, the New York New Music Ensemble, and the Lyrique Quintette; as well as by pianist Bennett Lerner in Asia, America, and Europe. In addition his works have been broadcast on ABC Classic FM-Australia's classical music network.
Mr. Prangcharoen has received commissions from the Pacific Symphony Orchestra, the CCM Concert Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra of Thailand, the Lyrique Quintette, the TIMF Ensemble, and pianist Bennett Lerner. His recent orchestra piece, Sattha, for string orchestra, piano, and percussion, written in memory of the victims of the December 2004 tsunami, was premiered by the Pacific Symphony with Maestro Carl St. Clair in Orange County, California, on November 30, 2005. Commemoration, for cello and piano, also inspired by that tragic event, was premiered on May 7, 2006 in New York City by cellist Madeleine Shapiro and pianist Bennett Lerner. Mr. Prangcharoen's commission, Respiration of the Sun, for orchestra, was given its first performance by the CCM Concert Orchestra in 2007. Another orchestra work, Phenomenon, was presented at the Grant Park Music Festival in June 2007 by the Grant Park Orchestra under Maestro Carlos Kalmar and received a second Japanese performance at the Asia the 21st Century Orchestra Project in August 2007 by the Nagoya Philharmonic with the inaugural Maazel-Vilar International Conductors' Competition Winner, Bundit Ungrangsee. Sattha for String Orchestra will be performed by Melbourne Symphony with Maestro Carl St. Clair in Australia in August 2007. Three of his major orchestra works were presented at The Twelfth International Festival of New Music for Orchestra and Chorus in Czech Republic in July of 2007. Also, the Imani Winds presented a concert tour of his woodwind quintet, Shadow, at over 10 venues throughout the US.
Mr. Prangcharoen is the founder of the Thailand Composition Festival in Bangkok, Thailand, now in its second year. He is presently completing a recording project of his orchestra and wind symphony works, which will be released by Albany Records in the near future.
Single tickets to the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra Lexus Classic Series are $34-$44 for adults, and $10 for students ages 8 to 25. FlexPass packages are available, allowing music lovers to purchase three or four concerts at a discount but enjoying the flexibility to choose and attend concerts when it fits their schedule. For tickets, subscriptions, or further information, call the ASO Box Office at 410-263-0907 or visit and order online at www.annapolissymphony.org.
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Photos of José-Luis Novo and Narong Prangcharoen are available upon request.
