Thursday, September 5, 2024 (Ann Arbor, MI) — The Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra is set to open their 96th concert season in style, with a little help from a gold medal-winning pianist.
Yekwon Sunwoo, winner of the 15th Van Cliburn International Competition in 2017 and the first Korean pianist ever to do so, will step into the spotlight at Ann Arbor’s Hill Auditorium on the evening of Friday, September 27th, 2024. Sunwoo will join A2SO Music Director Earl Lee and the orchestra to perform Sergei Rachmaninoff’s famous Piano Concerto No. 2, recently voted the most popular classical music work of all time by Classic FM.
Hosted every four years in Fort Worth, Texas, the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition (also known as The Cliburn) is named after Harvey Lavan “Van” Cliburn Jr, the American pianist who achieved global fame in 1958 when he won the inaugural International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow during the height of the Cold War. Winners of The Cliburn receive substantial cash prizes and concert opportunities at famous venues around the world.
“We’re immensely excited to welcome Yekwon Sunwoo to the stage as we kick off our 24-25 concert season,” says A2SO Music Director Earl Lee. “Our goal when designing our concerts was simple: celebrate music that champions the heartbeat of this remarkable city. What music resonates with Ann Arbor? What melodies form deep and lasting connections? What art strikes a chord deep inside us that makes us say, “that speaks to me”?”
The season-opening concert on September 27th is made possible with support from Michigan Medicine, and will feature two works that highlight specific attributes of Ann Arbor. First on the program will be William Bolcom’s Ann Arbor Saturday, a work commissioned and premiered by the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra in 2018 in honor of the orchestra’s 90th anniversary. Concluding the concert is the French composer Camille Saint-Saëns’s Symphony No. 3, a gargantuan work that features prominent writing for organ. As organist for the University of Michigan, Nicole Keller will perform on the magnificent instrument at Hill Auditorium, one of the largest of its kind in the country with nearly 7,600 speaking pipes.
Doors open at 6:30 PM and a pre-concert talk begins at 7 PM (supported by Exchange Capital Management). The concert will start at 8 PM and last approximately 2 hours, including a 20-minute intermission. Discounts are available for kids, students, and groups, and reservations can be made by visiting a2so.org/24-25-season-opener or calling (734) 994-4801.
###
Launching their 96th concert season, the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra (A2SO) is one of the Midwest’s premier regional orchestras, creating live, orchestral music for 70,000 listeners each year. They engage with the community through innovative and imaginative concert programming, educational programs, radio broadcasts, recordings, and online streaming. To find out more about the orchestra’s events and initiatives, visit www.a2so.org.