Tchaikovsky: Mad But for Music

PRESS CONTACTS:
Eileen Andrews
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410.783.8020
Marin Alsop Collaborates with Playwright in Residence
Didi Balle in New Symphonic Play,
Tchaikovsky: Mad But for Music, April 10 and 11
Maestra Alsop leads Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony and flutist Adam Walker in the East
Coast premiere of Kevin Puts’ Flute Concerto, April 9 and 12
Baltimore, Md. (April 6, 2015) — Music Director Marin Alsop leads her final Off the Cuff concert of the
2014-2015 season in collaboration with playwright in residence and director Didi Balle for a symphonic
play exploring the life of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky as he wrote his Fifth Symphony. The semi-staged
production, taking place on Friday, April 10, at 8:15 p.m. at The Music Center at Strathmore and
Saturday, April 11, at 7 p.m. at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, will take audiences into the
mind of Tchaikovsky as he expresses his thoughts and feelings on fate, death, sexuality, money,
madness and love.
“Audiences will see the composer come to life,” said Didi Balle. “We will see and hear this symphony
through Tchaikovsky’s lens at a time when he acknowledged that he must ‘surrender and submit to fate’
in order to reconcile himself with his own life, so when the time comes, he will die a peaceful death.”
Maestra Alsop also leads the BSO for a classical program of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 on
Thursday, April 9, at 8 p.m. at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall and Sunday, April 12, at 3 p.m.
at The Music Center at Strathmore. These concerts also include Shostakovich’s Festive Overture and
feature the debut of guest flute soloist Adam Walker in the East Coast premiere of Kevin Puts’ Flute
Concerto.
Tchaikovsky’s most beloved Symphony No. 5 delivers an achingly beautiful, graceful movement leading
into a melancholic waltz. The menacing theme of Fate haunts throughout the piece before it is
triumphantly overcome in the finale. Composed in the stroke of inspiration by Shostakovich, Festive
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Overture reflects the energetic imagination of the composer and the exuberance of the 37 anniversary of
the Bolshevik Revolution for which it was written.
Flutist Adam Walker and composer Kevin Puts will each make their BSO debut in a performance of Puts’
Flute Concerto. The concerto opens with a lyrically themed movement built on a three-note motif that
gives way to a Mozart-inspired environment before culminating in a spirited close.
COMPLETE PROGRAM DETAILS
Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony
Thursday, April 9, 2015 at 8 p.m. – Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall
Sunday, April 12, 2015 at 3 p.m. – The Music Center at Strathmore
Marin Alsop, conductor
Adam Walker, flute
Shostakovich: Festive Overture
Kevin Puts: Flute Concerto (East Coast Premiere)
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5
Off the Cuff
Tchaikovsky: Mad But for Music
Friday, April 10, 2015 at 8:15 p.m. – The Music Center at Strathmore
Saturday, April 11, 2015 at 7 p.m. – Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall
Marin Alsop, conductor
Didi Balle, writer and director
Peter Bradbury, actor
Steve Tague, actor
Katie DeBuys, actor
Laureen Smith, actor
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5
Marin Alsop, conductor
Marin Alsop is an inspiring and powerful voice in the international music scene, a music director of vision
and distinction who passionately believes that “music has the power to change lives.” She is recognized
across the world for her innovative approach to programming and for her deep commitment to education
and to the development of audiences of all ages.
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Marin Alsop made history with her appointment as the 12 music director of the Baltimore Symphony
Orchestra (BSO). With her inaugural concerts in September 2007, she became the first woman to head a
major American orchestra. Her success as the BSO’s music director has garnered national and
international attention for her innovative programming and artistry. Her success was recognized when, in
2013, her tenure was extended to the 2020-2021 season.
Alsop took up the post of principal conductor of the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra in 2012, and became
music director in July 2013. There, she steers the orchestra in its artistic and creative programming,
recording ventures and its education and outreach activities. She also holds the title of conductor
emeritus at the Bournemouth Symphony in the United Kingdom, where she served as the principal
conductor from 2002-2008.
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In the summer of 2013, Maestra Alsop served her 22 season as music director of the acclaimed Cabrillo
Festival of Contemporary Music in California. In September 2013, she made history as the first female
conductor of the BBC’s Last Night of the Proms in London. When Musical America named Maestra Alsop
the 2009 Conductor of the Year, they commented, “[Marin Alsop] connects to the public as few
conductors today can.”
Adam Walker, flute
Described by Classic FM radio as “one of the top 5 international flautists,” in 2009, at the age of 21, Adam
Walker was appointed principal flute of the London Symphony Orchestra and received the Outstanding
Young Artist Award at MIDEM Classique in Cannes.
An ambassador for the flute with a ferocious appetite for repertoire, Adam’s interests range from the less
well-known French Baroque through to newly commissioned works. As a soloist Walker has performed
with the Vienna Chamber Orchestra at the Konzerthaus, the Solistes Européens, Luxembourg, Academy
of St. Martin in the Fields at the Barbican, Hallé Orchestra at Bridgewater Hall and with the Royal
Philharmonic Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony, Northern Sinfonia and City of Birmingham Symphony
Orchestras. Concert appearances include LSO St. Luke’s (broadcast by BBC Radio 3), City of London
Festival,Varese (Italy) and Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
Didi Balle, director and playwright in residence
In the spring of 2013, Marin Alsop and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) announced the
appointment of Didi Balle as the organization’s first-ever playwright in residence. Tchaikovsky: Mad But
for Music (April 2015) marks the fifth successful Symphonic Play™ collaboration and world premiere with
Alsop and the BSO. Other commissioned works with Alsop include: CSI: Mozart, A Composer Fit for a
King: Wagner & Ludwig II, Analyze This: Mahler & Freud and CSI: Beethoven. Symphonic Plays
commissioned and premiered by The Philadelphia Orchestra include Shostakovich: Notes For Stalin and
The Secret Life of Isaac Newton.
Didi Balle’s work as a writer and director includes commissions, broadcasts, and stage productions of her
work from Symphonic Plays, radio musicals, musical theater, song cycles, and opera. She’s created a
new genre called Symphonic Plays borne out of a friendship and dynamic collaboration with Marin Alsop.
Founding director of Symphonic Stage Shows, Balle received her MFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the
Arts, where she was awarded the Oscar Hammerstein Scholarship as a playwright-lyricist. Didi Balle is
also a published writer and journalist and worked as an editor for The New York Times for 13 years.
Peter Bradbury, actor
Peter’s credits include the Broadway productions of The Elephant Man (West End production beginning in
May), Casa Valentina, Cyrano De Bergerac, Picnic, That Championship Season, A Man for All Seasons,
The Norman Conquests, Heda Gabler, Present Laughter, Mrs. Warren’s Profession, The Caine Mutiny
Court Martial, and The Herbal Bed as well as the acclaimed Roundabout Theater Co.’s production of The
Overwhelming (directed by Max Stafford-Clark).
Other off Broadway productions include Patrick Barlow’s adaptation of A Christmas Carol, The City Club
and Tricks the Devil Taught Me, Neil LaBute’s Break of Noon at MCC, Bulrusher (Pulitzer finalist), Milk,
Back From the Front, Snakebit, Passion Play, Surviving Grace, and A Late Supper. Television credits
include Sally Hemings (CBS miniseries) and feature roles on Homeland, House of Cards, Boardwalk
Empire, White Collar, Unforgettable, Law and Order, Law and Order: Criminal Intent, Rubicon, Rescue
Me, Another World, One Life to Live, The Guiding Light, As the World Turns among others, as well as a
co-starring role in the upcoming Darwin, a new web series.
Steve Tague, actor
Steve has performed in theaters from Seattle to Philadelphia but it was here in Baltimore where he got his
first professional job at Center Stage many years ago. He has performed the title role in Titus Andronicus
for Bart Sher at the Intiman Theater and Hamlet for Charlie Fee at The Great Lakes Theater Festival as
well as Tartuffe, King Lear, Richard the Third and Macbeth, among many others. He was a member of the
acting company at The Resident Ensemble Players in Delaware for five years where he played in Noises
Off, Little Foxes and the world premiere of two Theresa Rebeck plays, Fever and O Beautiful. At the REP
he has directed Angels in America, Mousetrap, Anything to Declare and next fall will be directing the
world premiere of The Patsy, a new adaptation of Feydeau’s Le Dindon by Greg Leaming. His only brush
with classical music greatness was sharing the stage with Dawn Upshaw in Gianni Schicchi and HMS
Pinafore. He is on the faculty at the University of Delaware.
Katie DeBuys, actor
Katie has previously acted at the Folger Theatre as Princess Katherine and the Boy in Henry V, The Duck
in The Conference of the Birds, and Lady Lucy in The Gaming Table. Other D.C.-area theatre credits
include Seminar at Round House Theatre; Measure for Measure at Shakespeare Theatre Company; and
the world premiere production of Aaron Posner’s Stupid Fucking Bird, directed by Howard Shalwitz at
Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, where she also starred in In the Next Room or the vibrator play.
Regional credits include Bug (B. Iden Payne Award: Best Actress) and Killer Joe at Capital T Theatre in
Austin, Texas, and Twelfth Night and Julius Caesar at the Texas Shakespeare Festival. Ms. DeBuys
received a B.S. degree in Theatre from Northwestern University and an MFA in Acting from The
University of Texas at Austin. She is a native of Santa Fe, New Mexico, and came to reside in
Washington, D.C. via Chicago and Austin.
Laureen Smith, actor
Laureen is pleased to again be working with the talented cast and musicians of the BSO, and director Didi
Balle on this world premiere. Previously, Laureen appeared with the BSO in CSI: Beethoven.She was
seen by Washington audiences as Mrs. K in Rep Stage’s The Piano Teacher. Recently returned from
Vancouver, British Columbia. Laureen was seen in John Patrick Shanley’s Beggars in the House of
Plenty (Beaumont Stage), You Can't Take It With You, and Shadowlands (Pacific Theatre), Itsazoo’s sitespecific Debts, Andromache, (Jericho Arts Centre), as well as in the Canadian feature film, Rain Down,
and the Cannes Festival Short invitee, Tell Me. Laureen also premiered D.C. playwright Kerric Harvey’s
Palace of Weariness at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, reprised at Vancouver’s Fringe.Laureen is a
member of Directors Lab North and her directing credits include productions both in Canada and the U.S.
She has taught at both the University of British Columbia, as well as the George Washington University,
where she also received her PhD. Laureen originally hails from the Napa Valley in California.
Tickets start at $50 and are available through the BSO Ticket Office, 410.783.8000 or
BSOmusic.org.
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The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra is funded by an operating grant from the Maryland State Arts
Council, an agency dedicated to cultivating a vibrant cultural community where the arts thrive.
The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra is supported in part by funding from the Montgomery County
government and the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County.
The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra is also supported by the Citizens of Baltimore County and Baltimore
City.
The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Presenting Sponsors include Alena and David M. Schwaber.
The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Supporting Sponsors include Zuckerman Spaeder, LLP and The
Governing Members of the BSO.
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