FOR RELEASE ON:
October 5, 2009

CONDUCTOR YAN PASCAL TORTELIER REPLACES ROBERTO ABBADO FOR CSO CONCERTS OCTOBER 7-10

Conductor Yan Pascal Tortelier will lead the Chicago Symphony Orchestra subscription concerts this week, on October 7, 8, 9 and 10.  Tortelier replaces guest conductor Roberto Abbado, who has withdrawn from these concerts due to a post-surgical infection arising from surgery to repair a damaged Achilles tendon. 

For the programs on October 8, 9 and 10, Fauré’s Pelléas et Mélisande Suite replaces the previously announced Horace victorieux by Honegger.  The remainder of the program remains the same: Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1 and Saint-Saëns’ Introduction and Rondo capriccioso, both with Joshua Bell as soloist, and Saint-Saëns’ Symphony No. 3 (Organ) with Henry McDowell as soloist.  The Afterwork Masterworks program on October 7 remains unchanged.

Born into an intensely musical family, son of the late Paul Tortelier, YAN PASCAL TORTELIER studied piano and violin from the age of 4 and at 14 won first prize for violin at the Paris Conservatoire.  Since then, his career has included engagements with leading orchestras throughout Europe, North America, Japan and Australia.  In recognition of his outstanding work as chief conductor of the BBC Philharmonic between 1992 and 2003, Tortelier was given the title of conductor laureate and continues working with the orchestra regularly.  During recent seasons, Tortelier has worked with such orchestras as the London Symphony, Philharmonia, London Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Oslo Philharmonic, Filarmonica della Scala Milan, and Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.  In North America, he has conducted the Los Angeles Philharmonic; the San Francisco, Baltimore, St. Louis, Dallas and Pittsburgh symphony orchestras; the Philadelphia Orchestra; and the Montreal Symphony.  In March 2009 he began a three-year term as principal conductor of the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra.

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