Music Director Junichi Hirokami will conduct the Columbus Symphony Orchestra on Friday and Saturday, March 23 and 24 at 8 p.m. in the Ohio Theatre. Maestro Hirokami will lead the Symphony in a performance of Haydn’s The Seasons, featuring the Columbus Symphony Orchestra Chorus and Soloists, Hanan Alattar, Daniel Weeks, and Stephen Bryant. This will be the first time that the Columbus Symphony has performed this great work.

The Seasons is a romantic depiction of peasant labors, loves, hardships and celebrations. This wonderfully entertaining piece will be sung in German and celebrates a year in the life of a rural Austrian community from planting time to the celebration of the new harvest—almost mimicking any small town in America.

Soprano Hanan Alattar is a 2004 Artist Diploma from The Juilliard School and has performed with the LA Opera, New York City Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis and Austin Lyric Opera. Festival participation includes the Spoleto Festival in Italy and the Aspen Music Festival. Concert appearances include Rossini’s Petite Messe at Alice Tully Hall, and Barber’s Prayers of Kierkegaard and Stravinsky’s Les Noces at Aspen Music Festival.

Daniel Weeks returns to perform with the Columbus Symphony, past concerts include the Bach Magnificat, Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass, and the Mozart Requiem. The
Marilyn Horne Foundation presented Weeks in his New York recital debut, and in subsequent recitals at Michigan State University, St. Mary’s College in Notre Dame (Ind.), at South East Louisiana University, and through Central Florida Cultural Endeavors at Stetson University (Fla). Weeks made his Carnegie Hall debut in the 2001-2002 season with the Oratorio Society of New York.

Bass-baritone Stephen Bryant’s distinguishing career in concert and opera has taken him around the world, with acclaimed performances in the United States, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Bryant has sung with the New York City Opera, the San Francisco Opera, the Sante Fe Opera, the Indianapolis Opera, and other companies of renown. In performances with major orchestras from The New York Philharmonic and The Philadelphia Orchestra, to the Israel Philharmonic and Japan Philharmonic, Bryant has delighted audiences with a repertoire spanning from Mozart and Verdi to Virgil Thomson and Stewart Wallace.

Born in Tokyo in 1958, Music Director Junichi Hirokami studied conducting, piano, musicology and viola at the prestigious Tokyo College of Music. He began his conducting career at age 26, after winning the first Kondrashin International Conducting Competition in Amsterdam. Since 1990, he has conducted major orchestras in Europe, including the Concertgebouw, the Oslo and Stockholm Philharmonics, the Vienna Symphony, Barcelona Symphony Orchestra, and the Madrid Symphony Orchestra. Hirokami launched his North American career in 1996 with the Toronto Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic and Dallas Symphony. Maestro Hirokami is also a favorite at the Japan Philharmonic, where he served as Principal Guest Conductor. Maestro Hirokami is looking forward to conducting nine programs in the Symphony’s upcoming 2007-2008 season.

Tickets for this performance range in price from $15.50 to $57.50, and may be purchased by calling the Columbus Symphony Customer Service Center at 614-228-8600. Tickets may also be purchased online at www.ColumbusSymphony.com or at the symphony’s Customer Service Center, located in the Capitol Square Walkway between the Hyatt and City Center. College student tickets are $9 on week of show with a valid student ID. For group sales, call 614-228-9600 ext. 1214