Live and Learn at the Kimmel Center with Jeffrey Siegel’s Keyboard Conversations® and Organ Virtuoso Vincent Dubois this October
September 30, 2008
Vincent Dubois
Classical music aficionados are able to enjoy the best of both worlds at the Kimmel Center this October —from a classical concert-with-commentary to the season debut on The Fred J. Cooper Memorial Organ.
Click below on the name of the artist for more information on each Kimmel Center performance:
- Acclaimed pianist and host Jeffrey Siegel unearths the motivations behind one of classical music’s most prolific composers and his works in Basking in Beethoven!, the first of three Keyboard Conversations® this season. (October 20, 2008)
- French organ virtuoso Vincent Dubois performs on the majestic Fred J. Cooper Memorial Organ in Verizon Hall with a program of selections by Vierne, Duruflé and Franck, followed by his own impromptu creation. (October 25, 2008)
Tickets can be purchased by calling 215-893-1999, online at www.kimmelcenter.org, or at the Kimmel Center box office open daily from 10am to 6pm and later on performance evenings. (Additional fees may apply.) For group sales call 215-790-5883.
A limited number of $10 tickets are available for every Kimmel Center Presents performance at the Kimmel Center. Tickets go on sale the day of the event and can be purchased at the Kimmel Center box office beginning 2.5 hours prior to evening curtain time and 11:30am for matinees. Limit one ticket per person.
Jeffrey Siegel’s Keyboard Conversations®
Basking in Beethoven!
Monday, October 20, 2008 | 7:30pm
Perelman Theater
Price: $30
“Insightful and poetically interpreted”
World-class pianist Jeffrey Siegel returns to the Kimmel Center to host his educational concerts-with-commentary series, Keyboard Conversations® with Basking in Beethoven!, on Monday, October 20, 2008 at 7:30pm in Perelman Theater. Siegel explains the life behind Ludwig Van Beethoven, and what drove one of the greatest composers of all time to create such masterpieces as Variations in C Minor, The Bagatelles and the departure that so deeply affected the composer in "Farewell Sonata" in E-flat, Op. 81a.
An ongoing series for more than 25 years, Jeffrey Siegel's Keyboard Conversations® unique concert-plus-commentary format allows newcomers to classical concerts the opportunity to develop a richer understanding and appreciation for celebrated classical composers. Presented in over 25 cities from New York to Los Angeles, Keyboard Conversations® will be presented internationally for the first time at the prestigious Wigmore Hall in London in October 2008. Siegel has been a soloist with the world's great orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic, Moscow State Symphony, all the major London orchestras, the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, The Philadelphia Orchestra and many others.
As a conductor, he has collaborated with luminaries such as Claudio Abbado, Pierre Boulez, Charles Dutoit, Neeme Järvi, James Levine, Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta, Leonard Slatkin, Michael Tilson Thomas and David Zinman, among others. He has led the Pittsburgh, Milwaukee and Saint Louis Symphony Orchestras, The Minnesota Orchestra and The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, as well as orchestras in France, Scandinavia and South America.
In June 2006, he released four CDs of Keyboard Conversations®: Mozart and Friends, The Power and Passion of Beethoven, The Romanticism of the Russian Soul and The Romance of the Piano (Random House Audio Publishing Group).
Siegel Program:
BEETHOVEN: Variations in C Minor
BEETHOVEN: The Bagatelles
BEETHOVEN: Farewell Sonata, Op. 81a
This concert is the first of three concerts in the Keyboard Conversations® with Jeffrey Siegel Series scheduled for the Kimmel Center Presents 2008-09 season. The next concert in the series will be Longevity of the Short Piece on Monday, February 2, 2009 at 7:30pm in Perelman Theater.
Vincent Dubois, Organ
Saturday, October 25, 2008 | 3pm
Verizon Hall
Price: $19 and $28
One of the brightest young talents in the organ world, Vincent Dubois opens the Master Musicians Organ Series with a program of works by French composers followed by his own improvisations on Saturday, October 25, 2008 at 3pm in Verizon Hall. Dubois will begin with a transcription by Marcel Dupré of a Bach cantata orchestral overture, followed by some of the most colorful works by César Franck, Louise Vierne and Maurice Duruflé. Dubois also will creatively improvise on suggested themes, showcasing his virtuosity and spontaneity.
A graduate of the Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique in Paris, Dubois studied under organist Olivier Latry, who inaugurated the Kimmel Center organ in 2006. He earned first prizes in Organ, Harmony, Counterpoint, Fugue and 20th Century composition at the conservatory. After winning the gold medal at the 2002 Calgary International Organ Competition and the grand prize at the 2002 International Competition of Toulouse, France, Dubois toured throughout Europe, North America, Asia and the Pacific. He has since appeared as a guest soloist with The Philadelphia Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Hong Kong Philharmonic and the Orchestre National de France, among many others. He has performed at numerous international music festivals including Cambridge, Stuttgart, Dresden, Vancouver, Montreal, Chartres and Roskilde.
Currently, Dubois serves as the assistant manager of the Conservatorie National of Angers and is also the titular organist at the Cathedral of Soissons, France. His latest two CD recordings include a performance in St. Sulpice in Paris, and at St. Etienne de Caen featuring the complete 3rd Symphonie of Louis Vierne and the Op. 7 Preludes and Fugues of Marcel Dupré.
"Dubois possesses maturity far beyond his years. He plays with consummate passion and breathtaking virtuosity, yet with absolute technical control…Moments of delightful delicacy and poetic introspection."
Dubois Program:
BACH/DUPRÉ: Sinfonia from 146th Cantata, "Wir müssin durch viel Trübsal in das Reich Gottes eingehan"
FRANCK: Fantasie en le majeur
VIERNE: 2nd Symphony (Scherzo and Finale)
DURUFLÉ: Suite, Op. 5
Saturday, October 25, 2008 | Pre-show
Verizon Hall Stage | Artist Chat
The ticketed performance on the Fred J. Cooper Memorial Organ in Verizon Hall will be preceded by an Artist Chat with Vincent Dubois.
Saturday, October 25, 2008 | 1:30pm and 5pm
Commonwealth Plaza Stage | Free in the Plaza
Temple University Brass Quintet
A free musical performance by the Temple University Brass Quintet will take place on Commonwealth Plaza stage prior to and following the ticketed performance by Vincent Dubois on the Fred J. Cooper Memorial Organ in Verizon Hall.
Kimmel Center Presents’ 2008/2009 Season is sponsored by Citi. The Great Orchestra Series is supported by ARCWheeler. Additional support is provided by the University of Pennsylvania Health System, American Express, and Interpark. American Airlines is the Official Airline of Kimmel Center Presents. In-kind support is generously provided by Deloitte. NBC-10 is a media partner for Kimmel Center Presents.
Free in the Plaza programming and subsidized tickets offered to the community and social service groups for $10 are made possible through the Wachovia Gateway to the Arts Community Access Program, supported by a generous grant from the Wachovia Foundation.
The Kimmel Center is the recipient of partnership funding through the nationally recognized PNC "Grow Up Great" initiative, a ten-year, $100 million investment in preparing children for success in school and life. Funding gives support to the Kimmel Center’s early childhood program "Bop and Swing," an arts program for children 1-5 years old, designed to promote an appreciation for American culture.
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