“Poster girl of classical music” comes to NZ

Media Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
16 May 2006

“Poster girl of classical music” comes to NZ

“In her Royal Festival Hall performance of Mendelssohn’s E minor Violin Concerto with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Min Lee certainly communicated her passion and commitment… The freshness and energy she brought to the work was thoroughly appealing… she brought the cherished work to life.” [The Strad magazine]

There's something about MIN LEE… She started playing the violin at the age of two, gave her first public performance at five, and at the age of 14 became the youngest to be accepted into a master's degree programme at Yale University’s School of Music. She has a million-dollar violin, serious talent, good looks, and big plans – for herself and the various charities for which she has helped raise more than $5million through her performances.

On Thursday 15 June, Min Lee makes her New Zealand debut performing Samuel Barber’s rhapsodic and lyrical Violin Concerto with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra in the APN News & Media Premier Series. The concert, under dynamic conductor GIANCARLO GUERRERO who won over the audience last year in his debut with the APO, also features Gershwin’s buoyant and energetic, An American in Paris, and Rachmaninov’s tremendous Symphonic Dances, his last major work and one that many still consider his finest.

At just 23, Singaporean violin prodigy Min Lee is fulfilling her childhood dream of performing around the world, with appearances in the United States, United Kingdom, Europe and Asia with Orchestras such as the Philharmonia, Royal Philharmonic, Vienna Chamber, Prague Chamber, NHK, Singapore Symphony, Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields, Russian National and San Diego Symphony, under the baton of conductors such as Charles Dutoit, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Peter Oundjian, Mikhail Pletnev, Martyn Brabbins and Jahja Ling. She has also represented the dreams of her country of birth in becoming a poster girl for Singapore's ambition to become, in the government’s words, a “Renaissance City of the Arts”.

Nicaraguan born Giancarlo Guerrero is one of the highest regarded of the new generation of American conductors. He is in demand in both North and South America, and recently made very successful debuts with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra and Dallas Symphony. In 2002 he began his tenure as Music Director of the Eugene Symphony and in his first two seasons has undertaken a series of all nine Beethoven Symphonies. A champion of new music, he has also initiated an exciting guest composer series with the Eugene Symphony, hosting several of America’s most respected composers including John Adams, John Corigliano, Jennifer Higdon and Aaron Jay Kernis.

Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra APN News & Media Premier Series

Thursday 15 June – 8pm, Great Hall, Auckland Town Hall

BOOKINGS: phone the Ticketek Orchestra Hotline on (09) 307 5139 or visit www.ticketek.co.nz

The Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra receives major funding from Creative New Zealand and major grants from Auckland City and the ASB Charitable Trust.

ENDS

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