1. DEFIANT REQUIEM
4 solo singers, chorus, 3 actors, video, pianist. A concert drama about the prisoners of Terezin Concentration Camp and their 16 performances of the Verdi Requiem as a statement of Defiance and resistance against the Nazis. Subject of a PBS special.
Defiant Requiem Webpage

2. AARON COPLAND'S AMERICA
2 actors, video. Murry Sidlin performs folk music at the piano used in many compositions; Martha Graham dances on video to the final orchestra moments of Appalachian Spring; actors depict the appearance of Copland before the McCarthy hearings. From America's nature, to the nature of America: Copland's visions.  *

3. FROM LENNY TO MAESTRO
Begins with a Bernstein "rap", and covers the Waterfront, the Balcony Scene, a bad movie of some troubles in Tahiti, sections of Jeremiah Symphony, and excerpts from MASS.
2 solo singers, and 2 actors. Hot entertainment.  *
  Press Release

4. SIGMUND FREUD AND THE DREAMS OF GUSTAV MAHLER:
3 actors!  The intertwining neurosis' and music. Freud, Alma, and Gustav engage in intense revelations. The Mahler excerpts become clear to a lay audience!  *

5. DO THE TANGO AND GET ARRESTED
3 singers, one actor; a concert in thirds; Robert Rodriguez, Tango; excerpts of Maria de Benos Aires by Piazzolla, and the audience learns the tango with dance instructors. A concert of interactions and wild variety!!!  *

6. SHADOWS AND VOICES; THE LAST DAYS OF TCHAIKOWSKY; 3 actors; the story inside the 6th symphony; his poetic depth and masterful musical vision explored and exposed. A remarkable and dramatic event first half, followed by a complete 6th symphony. 

7. THE SOCIOLOGY OF OCTOBER 10, 1935
The African-American reaction to Porgy and Bess.
5 solo singers, and chorus. This event always brings down the house, and "illuminates" the many events surrounding the first year of Porgy, the exceptional episodes of the tours, and even what happened when it performed right in front of the Nazis. Entertainment, great music, and information new to almost everyone!!!  *

8. RUSSIAN DAVID, SOVIET GOLIATH
2 actors and video. When Shostakovich stood up to Stalin. The emotion and bravery behind the 5th symphony. The two enemies speak to the audience about each other, but never to each others. The double meaning of the symphony, and other pieces which explore the state or art and humanity in Russia in the 1930's. A breathtaking event. Coming to the Aspen Music Festival in Aug. 2004.  *

9. FLAMENCO: THE DARKNESS AND THE PASSION
Video, dancer, 1 singer, guitarist.  *

10. GYPSY FIRE
Video, Hungarian/Gypsy ensemble with the orchestra.  *

11. LE JAZZ HOT
Video, 17 member Jazz band; the Europeans explore Jazz from the 1920's through the 1950's. 
     Oregon Symphony Press Release

12. THE ANATOMY OF THE 5TH  *

13. THE ANATOMY OF THE 9TH  *

14. DID YOU HEAR THE ONE ABOUT........
in other words, can classical music be funny?  Video.  *

15. THE FANTASTIQUE M. BERLIOZ
Chorus, 1 actor, baritone, and tenor soloists.  *

16. POSTCARD FROM THE EARTH; VOYAGER REMEMBERED; The space ship voyager and the music from earth all recreated. Video of Carl Sagan explaining the mission. Conductor Sidlin served on the committee with Sagan to choose the music that is on the Voyager. What was selected, and why, and what was rejected? Sagan's mission as well as Nasa's.  *

17. FILM-HARMONIC
Music set to film; first the music alone, and then how it inspired the filmmaker. Some orchestras commission films specially for this concert.  *

18. BEWARE THE IVES OF MARCHES
America's musical enigma, and the culture he notated. His humor, his story telling, his sensitivity to all nature, and his high step marches, reels, hymn tunes, parlor songs, and musical games. The 2nd symphony is taken completely apart, and you won't believe what was found!!!! 
  Oregon Symphony Press Release

19. 6 WAYS TO MAKE IT UP AS YOU GO ALONG
A Jazz trio; all about improvisation, but not just Jazz; cadenzas, figured bass, and "chance' music.  *

20. CONDUCT BECOMING
Video. What does all that flapping mean? Dialogue with musicians in the orchestra. 

21. WAR AND THE 20TH CENTURY  *

22. THE 60'S; AMERICA PROTESTS  *

23. CAN A SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA EXPLODE?  *

24. I GOT THE BLUES, I GOT THE BLUES REAL BAD  *

25. HANDEL WITH CARE; THE INSIDER'S MESSIAH  *

Exclusive Representation by KMI
Hugh Kaylor President
130 West 57th Street
Suite 8G
New York, NY  10019
Tel 212/977-6779
Fax 212/977/6856
hughkaylor@msn.com
www.hughkaylor.com

* sponsored in part by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation for The Nerve Endings concert series for the Oregon Symphony originated by Murry Sidlin.

  PRESS RELEASES

LE JAZZ HOT

January 10, 2003

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
OREGON SYMPHONY
MURRY SIDLIN’S “LE JAZZ HOT” TO EXPLORE
INFLUENCE OF AMERICAN JAZZ ON CLASSICAL MUSIC
IN SECOND NERVE ENDINGS CONCERT

Portland, Ore. … Guest Conductor Murry Sidlin will explore how the innovative sounds of American Jazz influenced and excited 20th century European composers in the Oregon Symphony’s second Nerve Endings concert of the 2002-2003 season, “Le Jazz Hot,” on Friday, Jan. 24, at 7:30pm at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. The Nerve Endings series is sponsored by the BridgePort Brewing Company.

Sidlin’s goal is to let the audience hear the moment when the American jazz sound reached European ears. “When European cafe musicians and composers got wind of an American collision of harmonies and heart-skipping rhythms they thought we had become mutants of some sort; but they had to try it, square as most of them were, and grow into it somehow,” Sidlin explained. In August of 2002, after eight seasons as Oregon Symphony Resident Conductor, Sidlin became Dean of Music at Catholic University in Washington D.C.

The first half of this concert will feature music by 20th century composers Aaron Copland, Claude Debussy, Igor Stravinsky and Constant Lambert. Pianist Michael Chertok, mezzo-soprano Elizabeth Madsen, and the Portland Symphonic Choir will be featured in Lambert’s “Rio Grande.” In the second half audiences will hear works by Milhaud and Liebermann’s concerto for Jazz Band and Symphony Orchestra featuring the Carlton Jackson/Dave Mills Big Band.

“Le Jazz Hot” will be performed Friday, Jan. 24, at 7:30pm at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in the Portland Center for the Performing Arts. Tickets range from $10 to $51 and may be purchased at the Oregon Symphony Ticket Office (923 SW Washington) Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., or charged by phone at (503)228-1353 or (800)228-7343. Tickets may also be purchased at all Ticketmaster outlets, by phone (790-ARTS), through Ticketmaster Online, or via the Symphony’s Web site at www.orsymphony.org . Service fees may apply.

BEWARE THE IVES OF MARCHES

February 10, 2003

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
OREGON SYMPHONY
CHARLES IVES’ UNANSWERABLE QUESTION
POSED IN FINAL NERVE ENDINGS CONCERT WITH MURRY SIDLIN

Portland, Ore. … Guest Conductor Murry Sidlin will ask several “unanswerable” questions regarding the iconoclastic and uniquely American composer Charles Ives in the Oregon Symphony’s final Nerve Endings concert of the 2002-2003 season: “Beware the Ives of March and Beware the Marches of Ives” on Friday, March 7, at 7:30 p.m. at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. The Nerve Endings series is sponsored by the BridgePort Brewing Company.

The concert will open with a romp of dissonance as Sidlin sets two Sousa marches against each other on stage, recreating an important moment from Charles Ives childhood. The composer’s father, a bandmaster whose libertarian and experimental ideas about music influenced Ives immensely, wanted to hear what it would sound like to play two marches at once and in opposite directions.

The first half also will feature Ives’ transcendental work, “The Unanswered Question,” and his songs for baritone and piano. The concert will conclude with a full performance of Ives’ Second Symphony.

“Charles Ives as an American composer stands on a pedestal of uniqueness of spirit and musical language,” said Sidlin. “He is always reminiscing, thinking back to childhood, boyhood, young adulthood, whatever era he thinks best represents, in any given composition, the better old days. In this concert, the songs are a kaleidoscope of poetic recollections and dreams, full of marches, hymns, reels, country tunes and pop tunes of the day,” Sidlin said. Sidlin served as the Symphony’s Resident Conductor for eight seasons, resigning in August of 2002 to become dean of the School of Music at Catholic University in Washington D.C.

“Beware the Ives of March and Beware the Marches of Ives” will be performed Friday, March 7, at 7:30 p.m. at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in the Portland Center for the Performing Arts. Tickets range from $10 to $51 and may be purchased at the Oregon Symphony Ticket Office (923 SW Washington) Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., or charged by phone at (503)228-1353 or (800)228-7343. Tickets may also be purchased at all Ticketmaster outlets, by phone (790-ARTS), through Ticketmaster Online, or via the Symphony’s Web site at www.orsymphony.org .

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