Jan. 27-31: Michael Christie and New West Symphony present Holocaust Remembrance

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Press Contacts: Maggie Stapleton, Jensen Artists (Christie)
646.536.7864 x2 | maggie@jensenartists.com
Ross Goldberg (New West Symphony)
818.597.8453, x1 | ross@kevinross.net

Cost for each virtual concert is $15 per household; an All-Access Passport for each mini festival is $25 per household. Patrons may also select a digital membership for the full season for $160 for all mini-festivals. Tickets and memberships may be purchased online at www.newwestsymphony.org or by phone at (805) 497-5880 or (866) 776-8400.

Community partners and advisors who have collaborated with New West Symphony on the development on the 2020-21 season include Ronald Reagan Presidential Library; Hirokazu Kosaka, Japanese American Cultural Community Center; Composer Reena Esmail; and Mark Kligman and Supeena Adler from UCLA’s Department of Ethnomusicology. Season sponsors are Home Helpers Home Care, Karen and Dr. Paul Finkel, Susan Burgos, and Fern & Dr. Arnold Heyman. New West Symphony has received grants to support this season from the Colburn Foundation, California Arts Council, Edison Foundation, The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation, Neiman Marcus Foundation, TOArts, City of Thousand Oaks, Westlake Women’s Club, Meadowlark Service League, City of Agoura Hills, Bank of America Foundation, and others.

About Michael Christie: Grammy award-winning conductor Michael Christie is a thoughtfully innovative conductor, equally at home in the symphonic and opera worlds, who is focused on making the audience experience at his performances entertaining, enlightening, and enriching. The New York Times reports, “Michael Christie is a director open to adventure and challenge,” and the Cincinnati Enquirer declares, “If Michael Christie represents the future of music in this country, the future looks promising indeed.”

Christie won a 2019 Grammy Award (Best Opera Recording) for the world premiere recording of Mason Bates’ The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs with The Santa Fe Opera (PENTATONE). In 2017, he led the world premiere performances at The Santa Fe Opera, “with suave assurance” (San Francisco Chronicle), with “precision and pizzazz” (Santa Fe New Mexican), and “preside[d] over an expertly executed performance” (The Financial Times). He was featured in Opera News in August 2012 as one of 25 people believed to “break out and become major forces in the field in the coming decade.” At Minnesota Opera, Christie led 24 productions over eight years, six seasons as its first-ever Music Director (2012-2018). Other recent highlights include leading performances with Washington National Opera, Opéra de Montréal, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Des Moines Metro Opera, and Michigan Opera Theatre. Deeply committed to bringing new works to life, Michael Christie has championed commissions by leading and emerging composers alike, including Mark Adamo, Mason Bates, Unsuk Chin, Michael Daugherty, Osvaldo Golijov, Mark Grey, Daron Hagen, Jennifer Higdon, Matthew Hindson, Huang Ruo, Marjan Mozetich, Stephen Paulus, Kevin Puts, and more.

Michael Christie has been a strong proponent of multicultural programming throughout his career. He created a World Music Festival at the Phoenix Symphony and a World Music Series at the Colorado Music Festival. As Chief Conductor of the Queensland Orchestra in Australia, he toured Japan and recorded his debut album with didgeridoo player William Barton. With the Phoenix Symphony, he premiered and recorded Mark Grey’s Enemy Slayer: A Navajo Oratorio, libretto by Navajo poet Laura Tohe. While Music Director of the Brooklyn Philharmonic, he led performances of Tan Dun’s The Gate and created the orchestra’s Nuevo Latino Festival.

Christie’s conducting career, spanning more than 20 years, has included serving as Music Director of the Phoenix Symphony (2005-2013) and Brooklyn Philharmonic (2005-2010), and as Chief Conductor of the Queensland Orchestra (2001-2004) in Australia, as well as guest appearances leading the Los Angeles Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra, Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Rhode Island Philharmonic, and the Symphonies of Dallas, St. Louis, Atlanta, Houston, Minnesota, Oregon, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, and Santa Rosa. Christie’s many European engagements have included leading the Rotterdam Philharmonic, DSO Berlin, Orchestre National de Lille, Swedish and Netherlands Radio Symphony, City of Birmingham Symphony, NDR Hannover Orchestra and the Czech Philharmonic. In addition, Christie enjoys a strong profile in Australia, where he has conducted the Sydney Symphony, Tasmanian Symphony, Opera Queensland, and the Western Australian Symphony in Perth.

Michael Christie first came to international attention in 1995 when he was awarded a special prize for “Outstanding Potential” at the First International Sibelius Conductors’ Competition in Helsinki. Following the competition, he was invited to become an apprentice conductor with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra where he subsequently worked with Daniel Barenboim as well as at the Berlin State Opera during the 1996-1997 season. For more information, visit www.michaelchristieonline.com.

About the Jerusalem String Quartet

“Passion, precision, warmth, a gold blend: these are the trademarks of this excellent Israeli string quartet.” Such was The New York Times’ impression of the Jerusalem Quartet. Since the ensemble’s founding in 1993 and subsequent 1996 debut, the four Israeli musicians have embarked on a journey of growth and maturation. This journey has resulted in a wide repertoire and stunning depth of expression, which carries on the string quartet tradition in a unique manner. The ensemble has found its core in a warm, full, human sound and an egalitarian balance between high and low voices. This approach allows the quartet to maintain a healthy relationship between individual expression and a transparent and respectful presentation of the composer’s work. It is also the drive and motivation for the continuing refinement of its interpretations of the classical repertoire as well as exploration of new epochs.

The Jerusalem Quartet is a regular and beloved guest on the world’s great concert stages. With regular bi-annual visits to North America, the quartet has performed in cities such as New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Washington, and Cleveland as well as in the Ravinia Festival. In Europe, the quartet enjoys an enthusiastic reception with regular appearances in London’s Wigmore hall, Tonhalle Zürich, Munich Herkulessaal, Theatre des Champs-Elysées, as well as special guest performances at the Auditorium du Louvre Paris, the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg and festivals such as Salzburg, Verbier, Schleswig-Holstein, Schubertiade Schwarzenberg, Rheingau, Saint Petersburg white Nights and many others.

The Jerusalem Quartet records exclusively for Harmonia Mundi. The quartet’s recordings, particularly the albums featuring Haydn’s string quartets and Schubert’s “Death and the Maiden,” have been honored with numerous awards such as the Diapason d’Or and the BBC Music Magazine Award for chamber music. In 2018, the quartet released two albums – an album of Dvorak’s String Quintet Op. 97 and Sextet Op. 48, and a much-awaited recording of the celebrated quartets by Ravel and Debussy. In the spring of 2019, the quartet released a unique album exploring Jewish music in Central Europe between the wars and its far-reaching influence. Israeli Soprano Hila Baggio joined the quartet to perform a collection of Yiddish Cabaret songs from Warsaw in the 1920s. The quartet has commissioned composer Leonid Desyatnikov to arrange these songs, which were sung in Yiddish. Schulhoff’s Five Pieces (1924), a collection of short and light cabaret-like pieces, and Korngold’s Quartet No. 2 (1937) complete the program.

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