North America Embraces Australian Spoken Word Tour

North America Embraces Australian Spoken Word Tour

On 4 February 2009, four acclaimed Australian poets and spoken word artists will land in Canada to start their North American tour.

Alicia Sometimes, Emilie Zoey Baker, Justin Ashworth and Sean M Whelan, (all hailing from UNESCO's recently announced City of Literature, Melbourne, Australia), have been invited to perform in Montrˆ©al at the 2009 Festival Voix d'Ameriques, and will deliver Australian showcase performances in Vancouver, Ottawa, New York and Chicago.

These are nationally renowned solo performers in Australia with years of publishing and performing experience at home and internationally.

The group of four have contributed much to the development of Melbourne's famously thriving spoken word culture, through organizing regular and special events, publishing, producing a literary radio show, and teaching in schools and the community.

As part of their travels, they will also be recording an audio documentary of American poets and performers for Australia's esteemed Radio National.

Tour Dates 2009:

4 February ’Äì Vancouver, Spillious Speak and Sing

Featuring; Emilie, Alicia & Sean

6 February ’Äì Ottawa, as part of the AB Series

Featuring; Justin, Emilie, Alicia & Sean

9’Äì14 February ’Äì Montrˆ©al, Festival Voix d'Amˆ©riques

Featuring; Justin, Emilie, Alicia, & Sean

11 February ’Äì Montrˆ©al, Vanier College (tbc)

Featuring; Justin & more TBA

15 February ’Äì New York City, The Bowery Club

Featuring; Emilie, Justin & Sean with special local guests Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz & Shappy

22 February ’Äì Chicago, The Green Mill Bar

Featuring; Sean & Emilie

The PR Contact regarding this Tour is Angela Gullace of Its Undefined in Melbourne, Australia

Justin, Alicia, Emily Zoey & Sean are all available for Interviews and Promo Appearances/Bookings

Promo CD's and Media Passes to selected shows are also available upon request

For any such related queries or for more information she is contactable via;

Ph: +61.3.9568.5102 | Mob: +61.400.171.196 | Email: itsundefined@gmail.com

(Note: If calling internationally please note that the Its Undefined office has a 24 hour manned phone line)

About The Artists:

Justin Ashworth has released two independent CDs and a book of poetry, composed music for several short films, dance works and visual art installations. His spoken word performance is a mix of dark ambient music, with haikus as a mantra, and a surrealist tendency. In 2005 Justin published his first book of poetry and CD of spoken word called Fleeting Poetry. It was a collection of short poems about love and death coffee and the laundromat. It came with a CD of spoken word set to dreamy ambient music.

Justin's work also appeared in local independent poetry magazine Mod_Piece, and on a compilation CD/DVD put out by Melbourne's Electundra Festival. In 2007, Justin released the CD, New Music to Fall Asleep to... An electro-acoustic music and poetry exploration of the surrealist state of mind, and the potential for lullabies to invoke more than just sleep. It combined ambient soundscapes, odd rhythms, and a poetic imagination. In March 2008 the project toured Australia nationally.

As a guest musician and/or poet, Justin has been Involved in acclaimed Melbourne Fringe Festival shows "Seamstress" (2008), "Kunst Ist Scheisse" (2006), "Extreme Spoken Word" (2005) and Conan the Bubbleman's "Ephemera" (2003).

http://www.myspace.com/fleetingpoetry

http://www.fleetingpoetry.blogspot.com

Alicia Sometimes is a poet, writer, broadcaster and musician. She has been published in Australia and overseas in such publications as Best Australian Poems 2006, Cordite, Verandah, Westerly, Heat, Poetrix, Short Fuse, Hecate, papertiger, Blue Dog, Overland, Meanjin, etc. She has performed spoken word over 400 times as a feature or guest at many venues, festivals and events in Australia, Berlin, London and New Zealand, including the Melbourne International Arts Festival, Melbourne Writers' Festival, Queensland Poetry Festival, Adelaide Fringe Festival, Melbourne Fringe Festival, Mildura Arts Festival, Tasmanian Poetry Festival, Sydney Writers' Festival, The Big Day Out and the Newcastle Writers' Festival.

Her first collection of poetry, kissing the curve was released in 2003 through Five Islands Press. Alicia conducted many workshops in cities and regional areas working with communities to showcase poetry performances. She has also been awarded residencies at Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers' Centre, Varuna and the Melbourne Aquarium.

She has had work commissioned for State Library of Victoria, Victoria Museum, Art Gallery of Victoria, Writers' Radio and the Red Room Project. Her work has been on radio many times both in Australia and overseas. She is currently a presenter on 3RRR with a weekly show Aural Text dedicated to playing spoken word and was a monthly guest on JJJ's Artery showcasing the best in spoken word from around Australia. In 2004 she was co-organiser of the first national poetry radio slam on Radio National. She was co-editor of the literary journal Going Down Swinging for seven years.

http://www.myspace.com/aliciasometimes

http://www.aliciasometimes.com

Emilie Zoey Baker has been a professional artist, writer and performer for over fifteen years. She recently received a scholarship to PoetryLab at the University of Wollongong to work on her second collection of poetry. She was the winner of the Nimbin Performance Poetry World Cup in 2006, a member of the winning team for the 2004 Melbourne Writers' Festival poetry slam, and holds slam titles around the country, including 2002 Melbourne Erotic Slam champion. In 2009 will be State coordinater for the National Australian Slam run by The National State Library.

She has featured at many venues and festivals including the 2007 Melbourne International Arts Festival ('Voiceprints' at La Mama), the Sydney Opera House as part of the NightWords Festival and a recent tour of New Zealand. She has been published nationally and internationally and was the producer of You Talkin To Me?, a Melbourne spoken word and music compilation CD. Her first collection of poetry, She Wore The Sky On Her Shoulders, was published in 2003 by Hit and Miss Publications. She has appeared on international radio and television and is just downright fabulous.

"This is great material ’Äì find me one person who writes like Emilie and I will run naked through downtown San Diego ’Äì this is exactly what I am looking for ’Äì her work is fun to read and at the same time the content is very, very serious and makes for deep material to reflect upon. I have never seen such a perfect combination of these two elements in my life!" August Highland, Editor M.A.G (USA)

'Hilarious'-Australian Book Review

http://www.myspace.com/emiliezoeybaker

http://www.atomicladybomb.blogspot.com

Sean M Whelan has been a writer and performer of spoken word, poetry and short stories for almost ten years. His written work has been widely published both locally and overseas. His spoken word performances have been broadcast on radio RRR and JJJ, Australia's National Youth Radio Station. In 2003 he traveled to New York as part of an Australia Council grant to perform at the launch of Short Fuse, a global collection of Fusion Poetry.

Since 2005 Sean has worked extensively with Melbourne rock band The Mime Set. Their debut performance was for the 2005 Melbourne Fringe Festival with a show titled Death To Your Dreams. It was a collaboration of poetry and music. Since then they have written two more Fringe Festival shows together, LCUK: Falling In and Out of Luck in 2006 and Sweet Cowboy in 2007. Sweet Cowboy was also co-written by Emilie Zoey Baker. In 2007 Sean was invited to perform at the Utan Kayu International Literary Biennale in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Sean also co-ordinates one of Melbourne's most popular regular spoken word events called Babble, held at Bar Open, Brunswick Street, Fitzroy. His first collection of poetry was published in 2003 by Hit & Miss publications titled Love is the First Hate. In 2008 his second book of poetry titled Tattooing the Surface Of The Moon is published by Small Change Press.

http://www.myspace.com/seanmwhelan

http://www.loveisthenewhate.blogspot.com

Alicia Sometimes, Emilie Zoey Baker and Sean M Whelan received support for the North American tour from the state body Arts Victoria and from the national Copyright Agency Limited.

Sinfonia Toronto to Tour Germany

SINFONIA TORONTO TO TOUR GERMANY

Toronto - Sinfonia Toronto will take off for Germany next month for a five-city concert tour in the central German state of Hesse. The 'Heart of Germany' tour includes performances in Kassel, Fulda, Bensheim, Warburg and Florsheim. The Hessischer Rundfunk radio network is a co-sponsor of the tour and will record the orchestra's performance in Fulda for broadcast.

Sinfonia Toronto's Music Director Nurhan Arman comments, "it will be a great honour to showcase Canadian music and culture in one of Europe's most historic and culturally significant regions." The tour repertoire includes compositions by Elgar, Janacek, Tchaikovsky, Dvorak and Canadian composer Sir Ernest MacMillan. The orchestra's concertmaster Mary-Elizabeth Brown will be the featured violin soloist in works by Schubert and Sarasate.

The 'Heart of Germany' tour is supported by an International Touring Assistance in Music Pilot Project Program grant from the Canada Council, the Hessischer Rundfunk radio network, Lufthansa, Deutsch-Kanadische Gesellschaft e.V., the Canadian Embassy in Berlin and the Kasseler Bank.

During the 2008-2009 Sinfonia Toronto will celebrate its 10th Anniversary concert season. The orchestra presents a seven-concert Masterpiece Series in Toronto's Grace Church on-the-Hill each season and a number of community/outreach performances. Marquis Records has just issued Sinfonia Toronto's new CD, Flanders Fields Reflections.

Before leaving for Germany the orchestra will perform in Sarnia on November 5 and will present the 'Violin Magic' concert in Toronto on November 14.

For further information on 'Heart of Germany' concert dates, locations and programs please refer to www.sinfoniatoronto.com or contact the orchestra by phone at 416-499-0403.

The VSO Announces Major International Tour

The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra Announces Major International Tour

Vancouver BC ’Äì The VSO announced today an Asian-Pacific tour that will see the orchestra perform in China, South Korea, and the Special Administrative Region of Macau, from October 10^th through the 20^th, 2008.

This major international tour represents an exciting bookend to an extraordinary year for the VSO, a year that featured GRAMMY and JUNO awards, record single ticket and subscription revenue, and record revenue from sponsorships and individual donors.

The VSO’Äôs Asia-Pacific Tour will include eight concerts in the following cities:

- Seongnam, South Korea

- Daejeon, South Korea

- Beijing, China

- Shanghai, China

- Guangzhou, China (Sister City to Vancouver, in the Sister Province to British Columbia)

- The Special Administrative Region of Macau

This tour will mark the first time a Canadian symphony orchestra will perform at the prestigious Beijing Music Festival. Past invitees to this festival include the New York Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, Orchestra de Paris, Kirov Orchestra, and the Tokyo Philharmonic. The VSO will also be the first Canadian symphony orchestra to perform in China in thirty years (the Toronto Symphony Orchestra toured China in 1978).

VSO Music Director Bramwell Tovey will conduct all concerts. The VSO is also very happy to have as its very special guest, internationally-renowned, GRAMMY Award-winning violinist Hilary Hahn. Concert repertoire will include Shostakovich Symphony No.5; Prokofiev Romeo and Juliet Suite; Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique; Tchaikovsky’Äôs Violin Concerto; and Canadian composer and former VSO Composer-in-Residence Jeffrey Ryan’Äôs The Linearity of Light. In addition to the main concert performances, the VSO will present numerous educational activities during the tour featuring members of the orchestra and Maestro Tovey. A highlight of these activities will be a concert for children and families in Beijing, featuring the entire orchestra in a performance of light and popular classics, conducted and hosted by Maestro Tovey, and preceded by the VSO’Äôs much-loved Instrument Fair, which allows children to play real orchestral instruments and compose music with the help of VSO musicians.

International orchestral tours are important for a variety of reasons. They bring significant attention to the orchestra’Äôs home city, province and country; assist in establishing long-lasting business relationships in each tour country for sponsors and funders; raise the civic, national and international profile of the orchestra and its city; raise the artistic level and capacity of the orchestra; and improve the orchestra’Äôs ability to attract and retain top talent.

’ÄúWe are delighted to be able to undertake this historic tour,’Äù said VSO President & CEO Jeff Alexander. ’ÄúI would like to applaud the Governments of Canada and British Columbia and our corporate sponsors for their vision and generosity in supporting this important cultural milestone.’Äù

One hundred percent of the tour’Äôs $1.2 million budget is covered by a combination of performance fees, government and private support. The Vancouver Symphony is grateful to the following funding agencies and corporate sponsors for their support of this tour:

- Government of Canada, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade

- Canada Council for the Arts

- Province of British Columbia

- Teck Cominco

- Longview Capital Partners/ Oriental Minerals

- Gateway Casinos

- Air Canada

BIOGRAPHIES

Bramwell Tovey, VSO Music Director

A musician of striking versatility, Bramwell Tovey is acknowledged around the world for his artistic depth and his warm, charismatic personality on the podium. Tovey’Äôs career as a conductor is uniquely enhanced by his work as a composer and pianist, lending him a remarkable musical perspective. His tenures as Music Director with the Vancouver Symphony, Luxembourg Philharmonic and Winnipeg Symphony Orchestras have been characterized by his expertise in operatic, choral, British and contemporary repertoire.

The 2007-08 season holds many highlights for Tovey. A recent recording with violinist James Ehnes brought a 2007 Grammy Award to the soloist, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, and Tovey. In his eighth season with Vancouver, Tovey collaborates with guest artists Ben Heppner and Evelyn Glennie and leads the orchestra through an in-depth six-concert Beethoven festival, featuring performances by Lang Lang and Anne-Sophie Mutter. He also appears with orchestras across East Asia, in the spring of 2008, in advance of the orchestra’Äôs fall 2008 tour of China. Highlights for 2008 in the United States include Tovey’Äôs appointment as Principal Guest Conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl. The post, last held by Leonard Slatkin, includes general programming and conducting of Los Angeles Philharmonic concerts in its famed summer venue. Tovey also has been commissioned to write a work for the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonic’Äôs respective 2008 summer seasons.

Prior to his music directorship in Vancouver, Tovey spent twelve years as music director of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, where he founded its highly regarded New Music Festival. A significant milestone in the ensemble’Äôs exploration of new music, the festival premiered more than 250 works by diverse international and Canadian composers under Tovey’Äôs leadership, with every performance broadcast on Canada’Äôs CBC Radio.

In 2004, he founded the New York Philharmonic’Äôs Summertime Classics series at Avery Fisher Hall, and presides annually as its host and conductor. Chief critic of The New York Times Anthony Tommassini has written, ’ÄúThe New York Philharmonic values the British conductor Bramwell Tovey as the host of its Summertime Classics series not only because he is a good musician, but also because he brings such a delightfully avuncular sense of humor to the job of introducing the pieces on the program.’Äù

During his four years as the music director of the Luxembourg Philharmonic, from 2002 to 2006, Tovey led three successful tours in Europe, the Far East and the eastern United States, traveling to China, Korea, Germany, Austria, Italy, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Holland and Belgium. In 2004, Tovey and the orchestra were awarded the ’ÄúOrphˆ©e d’ÄôOr’Äù of the Academie Lyrique Francaise, for their critically praised recording of Jean Cras’Äô opera, Polyphˆ®me. The following year, in celebration of the opening of Luxembourg’Äôs new Philharmonic Hall, Tovey conducted the Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra and the Europa Academie Choir in the world premiere of Penderecki’Äôs 8th Symphony, composed especially for the occasion.

An esteemed guest conductor, Tovey has worked with orchestras in the UK and Europe including the London Philharmonic, London Symphony, Bournemouth, the Frankfurt Radio Orchestra, and the North Netherlands Symphony where he will lead the Dutch premiere of Penderecki’Äôs 8th Symphony in 2008. In a review of a performance with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra the Scottish Herald wrote ’Äú’Ķ.he’Äôs a sophisticated entertainer, a refined malt whiskey of a man.’Ķ.(Tovey) produced polished playing’Ķthat is too rare in performances of this music.’Äù In North America, along with his work with the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics, Tovey has made guest appearances with the orchestras of St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Seattle, Toronto and Montreal. A recent review in The St. Louis Post Dispatch noted ’Äú’Ķthe orchestra played brilliantly, responding to Tovey’Äôs direction like a well-tuned race car.’Äù

With a profound commitment to new music, Tovey has established himself as a formidable composer. He has been commissioned by the Calgary Opera to compose the company’Äôs third original full-length opera. Written with librettist John Murrell, this work is based on the extraordinary life of Alexander ’ÄúSandy’Äù Keith, a notorious 19th century con artist and criminal from Halifax, Nova Scotia. An immense undertaking, the piece will premiere in Calgary in January of 2011. Tovey’Äôs other accomplishments as a composer include receiving the Best Canadian Classical Composition 2003 Juno Award for his Requiem for a Charred Skull, performed and recorded by the Amadeus Choir and the Hannaford Band in Toronto. Tovey has also built a strong reputation as an accomplished jazz pianist with two recordings to his name.

Renowned as a choral conductor, Tovey has performed works ranging from Mahler’Äôs Symphony No. 8 to Bach’Äôs Mass in B Minor. In opera, his repertoire includes works by Puccini, Strauss, Mozart, Menotti, Poulenc, Britten and Stravinsky. In 2004, he premiered a new opera by John Estacio, jointly commissioned by the Banff Centre and the Calgary Opera, which he reprised for the National Arts Centre in Ottawa in 2005.

Tovey has made memorable appearances on television, including two documentaries with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and a 1996 CBC TV broadcast of Victor Davies’Äô Revelation, a full-length oratorio based on the Book of Revelation, with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. He has also recorded several DVDs, of works including Holst’Äôs The Planets Suite with distinguished guests such as percussionist Evelyn Glennie, among many others.

Awarded numerous honorary degrees, Tovey has received a Fellowship from the Royal Academy of Music in London, honorary Doctorates of Law from the University of Winnipeg, the University of Manitoba and Kwantlen University College, as well as a Fellowship from the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. In 1999, he received the M. Joan Chalmers National Award for Artistic Direction, a prestigious Canadian prize awarded to premier artists for outstanding contributions in professional performing arts organizations.

Hilary Hahn, violin

At the age of 28, Grammy Award-winning violinist Hilary Hahn is one of the most compelling artists on the international concert circuit. Renowned for her intellectual and emotional maturity, she was named "America's Best" young classical musician by Time Magazine in 2001, and appears on a regular basis with the world's great orchestras in Europe, Asia, and North America.

Hilary Hahn records exclusively for Deutsche Grammophon. Her most recent album, released in October 2006, is an unusual pairing of Paganini's Concerto No.1 and Spohr's Concerto No.8, with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Eiji Oue. Deutsche Grammophon released her recording of four Mozart sonatas played with her longtime recital partner Natalie Zhu. Her first two albums on the label were the Elgar Violin Concerto and Vaughan Williams' The Lark Ascending with the London Symphony Orchestra and Sir Colin Davis, which won the "Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik"; and four violin concertos by Bach with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and Jeffrey Kahane.

Prior to signing with Deutsche Grammophon, Ms. Hahn made five recordings for Sony Classical. Her first album, featuring Solo Sonatas and Partitas of J.S. Bach, won Diapason's 1997 "d'Or of the Year" and spent weeks as a bestseller on the Billboard classical charts. Her next recording, concertos by Beethoven and Bernstein, brought her first Grammy nomination, as well as a second Diapason "d'Or," the Echo Klassik award for 1999, and Gramophone Magazine's "CD of the Month"; and her third release - American concertos by Samuel Barber and Edgar Meyer - won the Deutsche Schallplattenpreis and the Cannes Classical Award. Her 2001 recording of the concertos of Brahms and Stravinsky won her a Grammy Award in addition to Gramophone "Editor's Choice and Monde de la Musique's "Choc". It also became Ms. Hahn's fourth consecutive classical bestseller. In the autumn of 2002, Sony released her fifth album, concertos of Felix Mendelssohn and Dmitri Shostakovich.

She has also recently collaborated on several albums with non-classical musicians, appearing on Worlds Apart by Austin alt-rockers ...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead and on Tom Brosseau's upcoming album to be released in January 2007. She can be heard as featured soloist on the Oscar-nominated soundtrack to M. Night Shyamalan's film The Village.

Admitted to Philadelphia's Curtis Institute of Music in 1990 at the age of ten, Hilary Hahn made her major orchestra debut a year and a half later with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. In March 1995, at age 15, Ms. Hahn made her German debut playing the Beethoven concerto with Lorin Maazel and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in a concert broadcast on radio and television throughout Europe. Two months later she received the Avery Fisher Career Grant. In 1996 Ms. Hahn signed an exclusive recording contract with Sony Classical, and made her Carnegie Hall debut in New York as soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Alongside her solo work, Ms. Hahn has long been interested in chamber music. Nearly every summer since 1992 she has appeared at the Skaneateles Chamber Music Festival, performing both as chamber musician and as soloist with the festival orchestra. Between 1995 and 2000, she spent four summers studying and performing chamber music at the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont. From 1996 to 1998 she was an artist-member of the chamber music mentoring program of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, with whom she subsequently appeared as a frequent guest artist.

Hilary Hahn was born in Lexington, Virginia. At the age of three she moved to Baltimore, where she began playing the violin one month before her fourth birthday in a local children's program. From age five to ten, she studied in Baltimore with Klara Berkovich, a native of Odessa who taught for 25 years at the Leningrad School for the Musically Gifted. From ten to seventeen she studied at Curtis with the legendary Jascha Brodsky - the last surviving student of the great Belgian violinist Eugene Ysaˆøe - working closely with him until his death at the age of 89. Though she completed the Curtis Institute's university requirements at age 16, Ms. Hahn deferred graduation and remained at the school for several more years, taking additional elective courses in languages and literature, coaching regularly with Jaime Laredo, and studying chamber music with Felix Galimir and Gary Graffman. In May of 1999, at the age of 19, Ms. Hahn graduated from Curtis with a bachelor of music degree

The National Parcs excite the senses with new live show

THE NATIONAL PARCS EXCITE THE SENSES WITH NEW LIVE SHOW

National Tour To Kick off June 12th, 2008

Toronto, ON ’Äì Hot on the heels of the successful release of their debut album Timbervision, Montreal based band The National Parcs are gearing up for their first national tour. The tour will kick off in Ottawa on June 12th, 2008 with a performance at the Mercury Lounge, and take the band west. The tour will end in their hometown of Montreal with a performance on August 3rd at the Osheaga Music & Arts Festival. As part of their tour, fans can also look forward to seeing The National Parcs when they perform at the TD Canada Trust Toronto Jazz Festival and the Calgary Jazz Festival.

"This is the first national tour for us as a band and we are so excited. We spent two years recording the album out in nature, and this is the result of our culminated efforts," says Vincent Letellier.

Recognized for their unique sound and audiovisual experience, The National Parcs received a Montreal Independent Music Initiative (MIMI) award in March of this year for the "Montreal Band Most Deserving of National Tour Support". Their debut album Timbervision was an audio/visual collaboration, as band member Ian Cameron videotaped the creation and audio recording of the natural symphony created by Quebec's wilderness. Back in the studio, the audio/video samples were the building blocks of the album, laying down the sounds with the tracks to produce a richly textured multi-layered album of high-energy beats and intense spoken verse, integrated with the natural sounds of the great outdoors. The visual recordings were edited to create videos for select tracks and these were packaged with the album to create a CD/DVD set like nothing else in the market.

Their first tour as a band, the live performance will feature video footage from the DVD choreographed with the live stage performance and synchronized lighting with the audio and video samples. Music lovers will be thrilled as The National Parcs combine these elements into a live show experience for the eyes, ears and soul.

"Totally original, and thoroughly invigorating." ’Äì The Montreal Gazette

"The National Parcs keep their sound fun, funky and pop savvy." ’Äì Exclaim

Tour Dates:

June 12, 2008 Ottawa, ON The Mercury Lounge

June 20, 2008 Toronto, ON The Supermarket (Toronto Jazz Festival)

June 23, 2008 Winnipeg, MB Pyramid Cabaret (Winnipeg Jazz Festival)

June 24, 2008 Regina, SK The Exchange

June 25, 2008 Edmonton, AB Velvet Underground

June 26, 2008 Medicine Hat, AB The Dream Centre (Medicine Hat Jazz Festival)

June 27, 2008 Calgary, AB The Auburn (Calgary Jazz Festival)

June 29, 2008 Nelson, BC Spirit Bar, Hume Hotel

July 18, 2008 Big River, SK Ness Creek Music Festival

July 25, 2008 Easyford, AB Sasquatch Gathering

August 3, 2008 Montreal, QC Parc Jean Drapeau (Osheaga Music & Arts Festival)

Weblinks: www.thenationalparcs.com or www.myspace.com/thenationalparcs

OSM to make Japan and South Korea tour in April 2008

First OSM international tour with

its music director

Kent Nagano

8 concerts in Japan and South Korea

Montreal, February 26, 2008 - The Orchestre symphonique de Montrˆ©al will be undertaking an international tour for the first time with Kent Nagano, visiting Japan and South Korea from April 10 to 19, 2008. The Orchestra will present three different programs at eight concerts in the following five cities: Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya and Shizuoka in Japan, and Seoul in South Korea. In Tokyo, the OSM will give three concerts in three different halls.

These concerts are of very special importance, marking as they do the first international tour of the OSM under the direction of its new music director, Kent Nagano. After an acclaimed visit to Thˆ©ˆ¢tre du Chˆ¢telet in Paris in the spring of 2006, a Canadian tour in 2007 and an upcoming appearance at Carnegie Hall in New York (March 8, 2008), the OSM will be finding itself once again on familiar terrain, this being the ninth Asian tour in its history.

The Orchestra's first concert in Japan was held in Osaka, in 1970, with Franz-Paul Decker. In 1989, the OSM under the direction of Charles Dutoit performed for the first time in Seoul, South Korea. The last tour of Asia by the Orchestra took place in 1999, when the OSM and Charles Dutoit gave concerts in 10 Japanese cities. Since 1962 the Orchestre symphonique de Montrˆ©al has carried out 37 tours around the world.

This international tour of the OSM with Kent Nagano is sponsored by Air Canada. Air Canada is proud to be helping showcase Canadian talent abroad.

The tour is also made possible by support from Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, Quˆ©bec's Ministˆ®re des Affaires municipales et des Rˆ©gions and Conseil des arts et des lettres, and the City of Montreal. The year 2008 marks the 80th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Canada and Japan.

From Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier in Place des Arts, located in the very heart of the city, the OSM radiates outward across Quˆ©bec and Canada, bringing the world's repertoire of symphonic music to the widest possible audience. Through its international tours and its recordings, the Montreal orchestra is an ambassador for the city and for music, promoting the influence of culture as well as artistic exchanges.

The tour itinerary is reproduced below, preceded by details of the three scheduled programs.

Program 1: Berlioz, Symphonie Fantastique
Wagner, Tristan und Isolde, excerpts

Ravel, Bolˆ©ro

Program 2: Debussy, Prˆ©lude ˆÝ l'aprˆ®s-midi d'un faune

Debussy, La Mer

Strauss, Eine Alpensinfonie

Program 3: Debussy, La Mer

Mozart, Violin Concerto No. 3 (Ye-Eun Choi, violin)

Strauss, Eine Alpensinfonie

Itinˆ©rary :

April 10 :
Tokyo, Musashino Civic
Cultural Hall
Program 1

April 11:
Osaka, Festival Hall
Program 2

April 12:
Nagoya, Aichi Perfectural Art
Theatre
Program 1

April 13:
Tokyo, Suntory Hal
Programm 2

April 15:
Shizuoka, Granship
Program 1

April 16:
Tokyo, Tokyo Opera City
Program 1

April 18:
Sˆ©oul, Sejong Center for the Performing Arts
Program 1

April 19:
Sˆ©oul, Sejong Center for the Performing
Program 3

Source : Orchestre symphonique de Montrˆ©al
Information : Lucie Paquin, Head of Media Relations
(514) 840-7414 or (514) 608-7414
lpaquin@osm.ca

¬© 2003-2008 Orchestre symphonique de Montrˆ©al
260, boul. de Maisonneuve Ouest, Montrˆ©al (Quˆ©bec) H2X 1Y9
Service ˆÝ la clientˆ®le et billetterie - Tˆ©l.: (514) 842-9951

Administration - Tˆ©l.: (514) 842-3402

The VSO announces plans for two tours in the 2008/2009 Season

Vancouver, BC - The VSO is proud to announce plans for both an international tour and a domestic tour in the 2008/2009 Season. The international tour in October 2008 will take the orchestra to China, South Korea, and the Special Administrative Region of Macau. In April/May of 2009, the orchestra will travel to eastern Canada, with concerts in Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal, and Quebec City.

The VSO's planned tour to Asia in October of 2008 will showcase the orchestra in concerts conducted by Music Director Bramwell Tovey, and featuring internationally renowned violinist Hilary Hahn. The tour itinerary will see the orchestra performing concerts in Seoul/Seongnam, Macau, Guangzhou (Vancouver's Sister City in BC's Sister Province), Beijing, Shanghai, and Suzhou (Victoria's Sister City).

The Asia-Pacific Tour will mark two important milestones for the VSO and Canadian orchestras in general: the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra will be the first Canadian orchestra ever to perform at the prestigious Beijing Music Festival (past invitees include the New York Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, the Kirov Orchestra, and Orchestra de Paris), and the VSO will be the first Canadian orchestra to perform in China in thirty years (the Toronto Symphony toured China in 1978).

The Asia-Pacific Tour will include many educational activities by members of the orchestra, and Maestro Tovey, an important pillar of the VSO's mission. The tour is being planned around the invitation to the Beijing Music Festival, by International Management Group (IMG). The Beijing Music Festival will be the first major cultural event in China following the 2008 Olympic and Paralympic Summer Games - and of course, the Olympic torch will be handed by Beijing to Vancouver for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

Tour repertoire will include Canadian composer Jeffrey Ryan's The Linearity of Light; Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto (performed by Hilary Hahn); Berlioz's Symphony Fantastique; and Shostakovich's Symphony No.5.

The VSO gratefully acknowledges the Province of British Columbia through the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General for its recently announced community gaming grant of $250,000 supporting the Asia-Pacific Tour, as well as support received from the Canada Council for the Arts through its Supplemental Operating Funds Initiative.

The eastern Canadian Tour is planned around an invitation from the National Arts Centre in Ottawa as part of their BC Scene, a celebration of the arts and cultural scene in British Columbia. The tour will take the orchestra to Quebec City, Ottawa, Toronto and Montreal. Maestro Tovey will conduct all four concerts, which will also feature young Vancouver pianist Avan Yu.

In Montreal and Ottawa, the orchestra will perform Debussy's Prelude to The Afternoon of a Faun; Jeffrey Ryan's The Linearity of Light; Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini (performed by Avan Yu); Stravinsky's Petrouchka. In Toronto and Quebec City, the orchestra will perform Shostakovich's Symphony No.5 on the second half of the program, replacing the Stravinsky work.

"Tours are important to symphony orchestras for a variety of reasons," said VSO President & CEO Jeff Alexander. "They bring significant attention to the home country, province and city; they assist in establishing long-lasting business relationships in each tour country for tour sponsors and funders; they raise the artistic level and capacity of the orchestra, and of course the national and international profile of the orchestra as well. We are delighted to be able to plan these tours, and look forward to an exciting series of concerts for the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra on the national and international stage."

For further information, and to request interviews with Jeff Alexander or Bramwell Tovey, please contact Stephanie Fung as above.

-VSO-

Stephanie Fung
Public Relations Associate

Assistant to Jeff Alexander, President & CEO

Vancouver Symphony Orchestra

601 Smithe Street, Vancouver, V6B 5G1

Tel: 604.684.9100 x266; Fax: 604.684.9264