ASO will kick off season the first weekend of October

The Arkansas Symphony Orchestra begins the concert season with Respighi’s Pines of Rome on October 1 and 2, 2011. Music Director Philip Mann begins his second season with the ASO at the Robinson Center Music Hall – the first of the Stella Boyle Smith Masterworks Series. Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 4 “Italian,” Rossini’s Overture to The Italian Girl in Algiers, and Puccini’s Chrysanthemums. This concert is sponsored in part American Airlines.

Tickets range from $14-$48 and can be purchased online at www.ArkansasSymphony.org or over the phone at (501) 666-1761. All kids are free on Sundays with the purchase of an adult ticket. For more information, visit www.ArkansasSymphony.org.

ITALIAN VACATION
Saturday, October 1 at 8 p.m.
Sunday, October 2 at 3 p.m.
Robinson Center Music Hall

Featuring
Philip Mann, Music Director
Arkansas Symphony Orchestra

Program:
Mendelssohn, Symphony No. 4 “Italian”
Rossini, Overture to The Italian Girl in Algiers
Intermission
Puccini, Chrysanthemums
Respighi, Pines of Rome

Philip Mann, Music Director

Hailed by the BBC as a “talent to watch out for, who conveys a mature command of his forces,” American conductor Philip Mann is quickly gaining a reputation as a dynamic artist on three continents.

Currently, Mann is an American Conducting Fellow and the San Diego Symphony’s Assistant Conductor, where he has conducted over 150 performances of Jacobs Subscription Masterworks, Symphony Exposed, family, education, Kinder Konzert, pops, and other special programs. The winner of the Vienna Philharmonic’s Karajan Fellowship at the Salzburg Festival, Mann has also served as cover conductor for the Cleveland Orchestra and as the Schmidt Conducting Fellow of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra.

Active in both symphonic and operatic repertory, Mann has served as music director of the Oxford City Opera, Oxford Pro Musica Chamber Orchestra/Oxford Pops, principal guest conductor of the Arizona Camerata, and assistant conductor of the Indiana University Opera Theater. He maintains an active schedule as a guest conductor, with his New York debut at Avery Fischer Hall. As a proponent of new and American music, he has conducted numerous world premieres of prominent composers, including John Corigliano and worked with leading artists like Joshua Bell.

Elected a Rhodes Scholar, he taught at Oxford, and won the annual competition to become principal conductor of the Oxford University Philharmonia. Under his leadership, the Philharmonia received international attention, and the Swedish press acclaimed their Brahms Symphony No. 4 as “perfectly skillful…joyful… overwhelming.”

While in England, Mann studied with Alan Hazeldine of London’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Colin Metters at the Royal Academy of Music, and Marios Papadopolous of the Oxford Philomusica. He worked with Leonard Slatkin and the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center’s National Conducting Institute and Michael Tilson Thomas at the New World Symphony. Mentorship with Esa-Pekka Salonen and Jorma Panula followed at the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Conducting Masterclasses. He has also worked under Imre Pallo, David Effron, John Poole, and Thomas Baldner at Indiana University where he was appointed visiting lecturer in orchestral conducting. Additional studies came under the Bolshoi Theater’s music director, Alexander Vedernikov at the Moscow State Conservatory, Gustav Meir, Kenneth Keisler, and with Pulitzer Prize winning composer Robert Ward at the Conductor’s Institute at Spoleto.

Trained as a violinist, Mann has appeared as a soloist, concertmaster, and chamber player in the US and abroad. He is the recipient of numerous awards including a commendation from the Lieutenant Governor of California, ASU Herberger College of Fine Arts Outstanding Graduate Award, and a service award from the mayor of the city of Chandler, Arizona.

The Arkansas Symphony Orchestra celebrates its 46th season in 2011-2012 under the leadership of Music Director Philip Mann. ASO is the resident orchestra of Robinson Center Music Hall, and performs more than thirty concerts each year through its Stella Boyle Smith Masterworks Series, ACXIOM Pops LIVE! Series and River Rhapsodies Chamber Series, in addition to serving central Arkansas through numerous community outreach programs and bringing live symphonic music education to over 24,000 school children and over 200 schools.