Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra & Esa-Pekka Salonen; Dawn Upshaw
Biography Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra & Esa-Pekka Salonen; Dawn Upshaw
The Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra
is the orchestra of the Finnish broadcasting company YLE. Founded as a ten-member ensemble in 1927, the Radio Orchestra became a full-sized symphony orchestra in the 1960s. The list of its Chief Conductors includes Toivo Haapanen, Nils-Eric Fougstedt, Paavo Berglund, Okko Kamu, Leif Segerstam, and Jukka-Pekka Saraste. After nine years as Associate Principal Conductor of the FRSO, Sakari Oramo assumed the position of Chief Conductor in 2003.
The FRSO focuses on contemporary Finnish music and premieres several works commissioned by the Finnish Broadcasting Company each year. It has cut over 80 recordings. Among these is a historical gem, a performance of Jean Sibelius's Andante festivo conducted by the composer himself, recorded in the concert hall of the Helsinki Conservatory (now the Sibelius Academy) on New Year's Day 1939 for a radio broadcast to America. This remained the only recording of Sibelius conducting (ODE 1037-2).
The FRSO is the resident orchestra of Finnish Broadcasting Company's YLE Radio 1, which broadcasts the Orchestra's concerts at home and abroad, usually live. It has given over 230 concerts abroad, including two tours of the Far East. The orchestra regularly visits Vienna, the Proms in London, and the Canary Islands Music festival.
The Tapiola Chamber Choir
was founded in 1984 by former singers of the world-famous Tapiola Choir and consists of 35 members. It frequently appears with leading Finnish professional orchestras such as the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra and the Avanti! Chamber Orchestra, among others, and conductors like Esa-Pekka Salonen, Sakari Oramo and Jukka-Pekka Saraste. The Choir also regularly gives a cappella concerts.
The Choir has performed major Baroque and Classical works with distinguished foreign guest conductors such as Peter Schreier, Harry Christophers, Roy Goodman and Paul Hillier, and has also actively collaborated with contemporary composers. Hannu Norjanen has been Artistic Director of the Choir since autumn 1998.
Esa-Pekka Salonen
studied at the Sibelius Academy and made his conducting début with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra in 1979. From 1985-1995 he was Music Director of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, and also in 1985 took up the post of Principal Guest Conductor of The Philharmonia which he held until 1994. He was Director of the Helsinki Festival in 1995 and 1996. Since 1992, he has been Music Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra.
Salonen is renowned for his interpretations of contemporary music. He is the recipient of many major awards including the Siena Prize by the Accademia Chigiana in 1993, the first conductor ever to receive the prize. In 1995 he was awarded the Royal Philharmonic Society's 'Opera Award' and in 1997 received their 'Conductor Award'. In 1998 he was awarded the rank of Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government.
Esa-Pekka Salonen is recognised as an accomplished composer. He studied with Niccolo Castiglioni and Franco Donatoni in Italy. In January 1997 he premièred LA Variations with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, by whom it was commissioned, followed by performances with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam. Foreign Bodies, for orchestra, was premièred at the 2001 Schleswig Holstein Festival followed by the UK première at the BBC Proms. He premièred his most recent work for orchestra, Insomnia (commissioned by Suntory Ltd and the NDR) with the NKH Symphony Orchestra at Suntory Hall, Tokyo in November, 2002. Written for the opening of Walt Disney Concert Hall in 2004 Salonen wrote Wing on Wing as a gift to the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. His latest orchestral work Helix was commissioned by the BBC Proms and received its première on 27 August 2005 by the World Orchestra for Peace under Valery Gergiev.
Dawn Upshaw
In 1984, already a winner of the Young Concert Artists International Auditions, Dawn Upshaw was invited by James Levine to join the studio of the Metropolitan Opera. From that time on, she has enjoyed a career focused equally on opera and concert repertoire. Her diverse musical tastes and versatility have enabled Dawn Upshaw to earn the respect and affection of an extraordinarily broad segment of music lovers throughout the world.
In Amsterdam, Hamburg and Vienna her début role was Pamina in Die Zauberflöte. She debuted at the Salzburg Festival in 1986 as Barbarina and later sang Susanna in Figaro conducted by Bernard Haitink. In 1992 she had one of Salzburg's greatest successes as the Angel in a triumphant Peter Sellars production of Messiaen's St. François d'Assise and triumphed in 1996 again in Salzburg in the Peter Sellars production of The Rake's Progress. In Aix-en-Provence she has enjoyed great success as Despina in Così fan tutte and as Anne Trulove in The Rake's Progress, a role which Dawn Upshaw has made her own and which she also sang in concert with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Seiji Ozawa, and at the Châtelet Theatre in Paris with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Esa-Pekka Salonen.
On the concert platform she has been invited by many of the world's leading conductors, among them Ashkenazy, Gardiner, Haitink, Harnoncourt, Marriner, Masur, Mehta, Norrington, Ozawa, Nagano, Salonen, Sawallisch and Sinopoli, to appear with many of the world's finest orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony, the Chicago Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic, The Philadelphia Orchestra and Concentus Musicus Wien. Her repertoire ranges from the sacred works of Bach and Haendel to the music of living composers such as Jacob Druckman and John Harbison. She frequently explores contemporary music in performances and recordings with a variety of colleagues, including the Kronos and the Arditti Quartets.
Since her first recital at Alice Tully Hall in 1986, Dawn Upshaw has been recognised as a recitalist of limitless potential. She has been invited repeatedly by the world's most respected recital presenters, including London's Wigmore Hall, the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Edinburgh Festival and literally dozens of North American venues. Her recital partners have included James Levine, Richard Goode, Malcolm Gibson, Gilbert Kalish and Margo Garrett.
