LEGENDARY COMPOSER AND CONDUCTOR JOHN WILLIAMS WILL JOIN THE PROGRAM FOR PITTSBURGH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA'S SPECIAL CONCERT WITH ANNE-SOPHIE MUTTER
For Immediate Release
January 15, 2020
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PITTSBURGH, PA—The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra announced today that legendary composer and conductor John Williams will join the orchestra at its one-night-only Special Concert with Music Director Manfred Honeck and violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter on June 13, 2020.
The Special Concert features violin virtuoso Anne-Sophie Mutter and the Pittsburgh Symphony performing the Beethoven Violin Concerto under the baton of Honeck. Then, John Williams will take the podium to lead the orchestra and Mutter in selected works from Across the Stars, the highly-acclaimed recently released album collaboration by Williams and Mutter that includes many of his beloved movie themes in stunning new adaptations written especially for Mutter.
“I am looking forward to returning to the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra—my favorite American orchestra—this June for a very special concert,” said Anne-Sophie Mutter. “It has been a lifelong dream for me to perform with John Williams, and being able to do so in Pittsburgh and also celebrate Beethoven with Manfred Honeck and the orchestra is, indeed, a highlight of 2020. I can’t wait for it!”
In a career spanning more than five decades, John Williams has become one of America’s most accomplished and successful composers for film and for the concert stage. He has served as music director and laureate conductor of one of the country’s treasured musical institutions, the Boston Pops Orchestra, and he maintains thriving artistic relationships with many of the world’s great orchestras. Recipient of five Oscars, four Golden Globes, five Emmys and 24 GRAMMYs, Williams has said that for the new album, he revisited themes from many of his existing scores and completely transformed them. “Presented on the violin, they become a different emotional experience,” Williams said. He and Mutter, friends and collaborators, have described the newly arranged version of “Hedwig’s Theme” from the Harry Potter films as “Harry Potter meets Paginini.”
In 2018, Mutter premiered Williams’ new arrangement of Across the Stars during Deutsche Grammophon’s 120-year anniversary gala concert in Berlin with Manfred Honeck conducting the Staatskapelle Berlin. This is only the third time since the album was released that Mutter and Williams have appeared together in concert with an orchestra. This will be Williams’ fifth appearance with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the last taking place in June of 2011.
Ticket prices range from $35 to $125 and go on sale to the public on Friday, January 24, 2020 at 10:00am. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit pittsburghsymphony.org, or call the Heinz Hall Box Office at 412.392.4900.
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