Let your mind dance and your heart swell with symphonic suites from two of the world’s most famous ballet scores during “Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev,” the final concert of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s Canady Symphony Series season at the West Virginia University Creative Arts Center, March 2.

Music director Manfred Honeck weaves tales of love and loss, triumph and defeat with suites distilled from the scores of “Swan Lake” and “Romeo and Juliet.” Today, Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake” is universally celebrated as a triumph of the form, but the composer died believing it was a failure. Presented later as a tribute to Tchaikovsky after his death, it finally received the recognition it deserved, becoming instantly recognizable to music and dance lovers everywhere. Prokofiev’s magnificent “Romeo and Juliet” was five years in the creation, but the final product is the musical equal of Shakespeare’s literary masterpiece.

Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama students Nicholas Sacks and Carolina Pluta will join Honeck and the orchestra on stage, presenting a staged reading and illustrating the towering emotions behind these famous works.

The concert will begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Lyell B. Clay Concert Theatre at the WVU Creative Arts Center. Tickets are $27 and $45 and can be purchased by calling the Heinz Hall box office at 412-392-4900 or by visiting http://pittsburghsymphony.org/wvu.

Student tickets are $13 per concert and can be purchased at http://pittsburghsymphony.org/wvustudent.

Beginning at 5:30 p.m., tickets also may be purchased the evening of the performance in the Creative Arts Center lobby.

A pre-concert talk led by Jim Cunningham, artistic director of WQED-FM and host of the station’s “Morning Show,” will begin at 6:30 p.m. Program notes for the evening’s concert are available online at http://pittsburghsymphony.org or on the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra mobile app, which is available on both Android and Apple platforms.

The 2014-15 title sponsors of the Canady Symphony Series at WVU are William and Loulie Canady in memory of Valerie. Music Director Manfred Honeck’s performance on March 2 also has been made possible, in part, through the generosity of Mylan Pharmaceuticals.

Honeck has served as music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra since the 2008-09 season. To great acclaim, Honeck and his orchestra perform regularly for European audiences. Since 2010, annual tour performances have led them to numerous European music capitals and major music festivals, including Rheingau Musik Festival, Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, Beethovenfest Bonn, Musikfest Berlin, Grafenegg Festival, Lucerne Festival and the BBC Proms. Born in Austria, Honeck received his musical training at the Academy of Music in Vienna. Many years of experience as a member of the Vienna Philharmonic and the Vienna State Opera Orchestra and at the helm of the Vienna Jeunesse Orchestra have given his conducting a distinctive stamp. He began his career as assistant to Claudio Abbado in Vienna. Subsequently, he was engaged by the Zurich Opera House where he was bestowed the prestigious European Conductor’s Award in 1993.

From 2000 to 2006, he was music director of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Stockholm and, from 2008 to 2011, principal guest conductor of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, a position he has resumed for another three years at the beginning of the 2013-14 season. As a guest conductor, Honeck has worked with leading international orchestras such as the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Staatskapelle Dresden, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Accademia di Santa Cecilia Rome and the Vienna Philharmonic. Orchestras he conducted in the United States include New York Philharmonic, The Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra and Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Caroline Pluta is currently a junior studying acting at Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Drama. Recent roles have included Adriana in “Comedy of Errors” and Madame in Carnegie Mellon’s production of “The Maids.”

Nicholas Sacks is currently a third-year musical theater student at Carnegie Mellon University. He was most recently seen in his university’s production of “Fool for Love” in fall 2014 and will be seen in their upcoming Festival of New Works.

The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, known for its artistic excellence for more than 119 years, is credited with a rich history of the world’s finest conductors and musicians, and a strong commitment to the Pittsburgh region and its citizens. The orchestra has been at the forefront of championing new American works. It has a long and illustrious history in the areas of recordings and radio concerts. The orchestra has received increased national attention since 1982 through network radio broadcasts on Public Radio International, produced by Classical WQED-FM 89.3, made possible by the musicians of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. With a long and distinguished history of touring both domestically and overseas since 1900 – including 36 international tours to Europe, the Far East and South America – the Pittsburgh Symphony continues to be critically acclaimed as one of the world’s greatest orchestras.

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CONTACT: Joyce DeFrancesco, Director of Media Relations, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Phone: 412.392.4827, jdefrancesco@pittsburghsymphony.org

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