BSO to offer afternoon of romantic interludes

ORONO – Join Music Director and Conductor Xiao-Lu Li as he leads the Bangor Symphony Orchestra through an afternoon of romantic interludes in the 110th season opening concert at 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 2, at the Maine Center for the Arts.

The oldest continuously operating community orchestra in the United States, the Bangor Symphony Orchestra opens the season with Antonin Dvorak’s “Carnival overture.” James Giles, piano, joins the orchestra during Sergei Rachmaninoff’s moving “Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini.” The BSO closes the afternoon with Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s “Symphony no. 4.”

Giles has earned a reputation as one of the most versatile pianists of his generation, acclaimed for the dynamic brilliance and communicative power of his playing.

In an eclectic repertoire encompassing the solo and chamber music literatures, Giles is equally at home in the standard repertoire as in the music of our time. He has commissioned and premiered works by William Bolcom, C. Curtis-Smith, Stephen Hough, Lowell Liebermann, Ned Rorem, Augusta Read Thomas, Earl Wild, and James Wintle.

His Paris recital last season was hailed as “a true revelation, due equally to the pianist’s artistry as to his choice of program.” The critic for Helsinki’s Helsingin Sanomat wrote that “Giles is a technically polished, elegant pianist.” And a London critic called his recent Wigmore Hall recital “one of the most sheerly inspired piano recitals I can remember hearing for some time” and added that “with a riveting intelligence given to everything he played, it was the kind of recital you never really forget.”

He has written for Piano and Keyboard magazine and has presented lecture recitals at the national conventions of the Music Teachers National Association, the College Music Society and Pi Kappa Lambda.

He has served on the juries of several international piano competitions.

In other news of the symphony, violinist and conductor Trond Saeverud has recently joined the orchestra as concertmaster. He joins the co-concertmaster, Lynn Brubaker, for the BSO’s 110th season.

Saeverud has been a frequent soloist with orchestras in Norway and Denmark, has produced CD’s with orchestras in both countries, and regularly premieres and records new works dedicated to him. Concert tours in Japan, the United States and Europe have been combined with positions as concertmaster of several Scandinavian orchestras.

Saeverud had a very successful London debut in 1992 with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. His New York debut was as soloist with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at the Lincoln Center. The New York Times described his playing as “a warm-toned affectionate account.”

Saeverud has produced nine CDs. His last release, “HIKA,” was chosen as Strad Selection in the May 2002 issue of The Strad.

The new concertmaster said he is “looking forward to meeting new colleagues and audiences” in the coming season.

Saeverud and his artist wife, Joan, live in Robbinston, where she exhibits in her own art gallery and he is the artistic director of an international music camp and festival. This summer, students came from Japan, Ireland, Norway, Canada and the United States.

Saeverud also is active as a conductor. He recently returned from two weeks of conducting and instructing at music camps in Colorado, and next year he plans to bring a Norwegian student symphony orchestra on tour in the United States, including Maine.

Tickets to the BSO range from $13 to 38 and can be reserved online at www.bangorsymphony.com or by calling 942-5555, or (800) 639-3221.