May 2, 2006

CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA PARTNERS WITH CHICAGO DEPARTMENT OF CULTURAL AFFAIRS, THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO & YO-YO MA'S SILK ROAD PROJECT TO PRESENT SILK ROAD CHICAGO A YEARLONG, CITYWIDE CELEBRATION INSPIRED BY THE HISTORIC SILK ROAD

Dozens of Silk Road-themed 2006-2007 CSO and Symphony Center performances join hundreds of additional Silk Road Chicago concerts, exhibitions, and special events citywide

Chicago Symphony Orchestra season kicks off in September 2006 with three free CSO performances at Millennium Park and Symphony Center, plus festive Opening Night Gala with acclaimed cellist Yo-Yo Ma

Symphony Center Silk Road Chicago programming culminates with week-long residency with Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble in April 2007

Chicago, IL - More than 50 Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Symphony Center Presents classical, world music, family, and educational performances - all carrying the theme of Silk Road Chicago - will anchor Symphony Center's 2006-2007 season, in conjunction with an ambitious, yearlong, citywide celebration of the art and culture of the historic Silk Road.

Silk Road Chicago (http://www.silkroadchicago.org) is an unprecedented collaboration among the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, and Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Project, along with more than 70 Chicago cultural and community organizations. The Silk Road Chicago project was initiated by acclaimed cellist Ma, who dreamed of bringing the historic Silk Road, and the ideas that it represents, to life in Chicago, one of the most diverse cities in the world. Following a year of collaborative planning, Silk Road Chicago offers the rare opportunity for the city to celebrate the arts together-transforming Chicago through hundreds of performances, exhibitions, and special events citywide, exploring cross-cultural discovery and celebrating the rich artistic legacy of the Silk Road, in an extended schedule of events that stretches from June 2006 through June 2007.

“Planning for this collaboration has been many months in the making, and it gives us such great pleasure to share Symphony Center's collection of Silk Road Chicago concerts with you,” said CSO Association President Deborah R. Card. “We are honored that Yo-Yo Ma chose Chicago as the place to bring people together on a grand scale to explore both the musical traditions of the Silk Road and the idea of cultural exchange. He has inspired us with his vision of an engaging, multifaceted citywide celebration. Yo-Yo has been a wonderful and close musical friend of the CSO for so many years; Silk Road Chicago is an opportunity for our Orchestra to build on our relationship with him and his colleagues of the Silk Road Ensemble in a new and exciting way. It provides a unique thread through much of our programming next season, helping us to gain different perspectives on old and new repertoire and encouraging musical discovery. All of this, as we connect even more closely with our cultural partners, our community, and our audiences.”

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra will offer a preview of its year of Silk Road-inspired programming, launching its 2006-2007 season with three free events: two concerts at Millennium Park's Jay Pritzker Pavilion on September 13 and 14, and the tenth annual free Macy's Day of Music at Symphony Center on September 16. Symphony Center's Silk Road Chicago celebration officially kicks off on September 30, when Ma joins the CSO and conductor Miguel Harth-Bedoya for the Orchestra's festive Opening Night Gala. Throughout the year, many CSO subscription concerts will feature repertoire inspired by the Silk Road-historically, geographically, and metaphorically. The Silk Road theme will be further reflected in a unique selection of Symphony Center Presents, MusicNOW, and Kraft Family Matinee Series programs and special concert offerings. Silk Road Chicago at Symphony Center will culminate with a weeklong residency by Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble in April 2007, featuring collaborative concerts with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, family performances, and educational programs.

Silk Road Chicago at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra is generously supported by its lead sponsor, the McCormick Tribune Foundation, and its lead corporate sponsor, the Sara Lee Foundation. Ford Motor Company is continuing as a Global Corporate Partner to The Silk Road Project, as part of its longstanding tradition of arts education support.

SYMPHONY CENTER'S 2006-2007 SILK ROAD CHICAGO CELEBRATION

Free CSO Concerts at Millennium Park: The Chicago Symphony Orchestra will offer a preview of its year of Silk Road-inspired programming, launching its 2006-2007 season with two free concerts at Millennium Park's Jay Pritzker Pavilion on Wednesday, September 13 and Thursday, September 14, 2006. Led by conductor David Alan Miller, these colorful performances kick off the CSO's calendar of special events presented as part of Silk Road Chicago. The Orchestra's September 13 program will include He/Chen's The Butterfly Lovers, with special guest Betti Xiang, erhu soloist, as well as music by Tchaikovsky and Berlioz. World Music Festival: Chicago 2006 opens with the September 14 program, a unique collaboration featuring the CSO, Chicago-based Radio Maqam Ensemble and other world music artists, including Yang Wei, pipa, who will perform Tan Dun's Concerto for Pipa and Orchestra. This concert is made possible through a gift from Anne and Ken Griffin/Citadel Group Foundation.

Tenth Annual Free Macy's Day of Music: In what has now become an eagerly anticipated yearly tradition, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra will herald the start of its 2006-2007 downtown season by throwing open the doors of Symphony Center for Macy's Day of Music on Saturday, September 16, 2006 from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. This annual free music marathon, which celebrates its tenth anniversary this year, showcases the artistry of the CSO and Chicago's best musicians representing an incredible range of genres-including classical, jazz, folk, world music, and family entertainment-with dozens of performances presented on multiple stages throughout Symphony Center. Previewing this season's Silk Road Chicago programming, this year's eight-hour event will pay tribute to the cultures and traditions of the historic Silk Road. A complete event schedule, including a performance by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by David Alan Miller, will be announced in late summer 2006. Macy's (formerly Marshall Field's) returns as sponsor of Symphony Center's music marathon for the tenth consecutive year.

CSO's Opening Night Gala with Yo-Yo Ma: The Chicago Symphony Orchestra officially kicks off its Silk Road Chicago celebration on Saturday, September 30, 2006 when Ma joins conductor Miguel Harth-Bedoya, soprano Cyndia Sieden, and the Orchestra for a festive Silk Road-inspired Opening Night Gala, launching the start of the Orchestra's 116th downtown season. Ma appears as soloist in Dvozák's Cello Concerto, a piece that incorporates melodies from the traditional folk songs of the composer's native Czechoslovakia. The CSO's Opening Night Gala performance will also include Rossini's Overture to The Italian Girl in Algiers and Stravinsky's The Song of the Nightingale. Completing the program is Night Music: Voices in the Leaves by Uzbekistani composer Dmitri Yanov-Yanovsky, a work commissioned by the Silk Road Project that uses Western instruments to evoke the timbres and textures of instruments from the East. This celebratory musical evening is completed with cocktails, dinner, and dancing into the night. The CSO's Opening Night Gala benefits the Musicians' Pension Fund and is generously sponsored by Morgan Stanley.

Chicago Symphony Orchestra subscription concerts: Repertoire inspired by the Silk Road-historically, geographically, and metaphorically-will be featured on a dozen different subscription programs presented throughout the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's 2006-2007 season. Musical selections offered as part of next year's concerts will include: Béla Bartók's The Miraculous Mandarin and Violin Concerto No. 2; Ernst Bloch's Schelomo; Georges Enescu's Romanian Rhapsody No. 1; Osvaldo Golijov's Last Round and The Night of the Flying Horses; Lou Harrison's Pipa Concerto; Chen Gang and He Zhanhao's The Butterfly Lovers; Colin McPhee's Tabuh-tabuhan; Maurice Ravel's Mother Goose and Shéhérazade; Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's Sheherazade; Sergei Prokofiev's Scythian Suite; Alexander Scriabin's The Poem of Ecstasy; Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring and The Song of the Nightingale; Toru Takemitsu's Requiem; Ambush from Ten Sides, a traditional song arranged by Wu Tong; and Dmitri Yanov-Yanovsky's Night Music: Voices in the Leaves.

CSO's Beyond the Score discovery series: Beyond the Score, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's new, critically acclaimed Sunday afternoon discovery series, inviting concertgoers to take a more in-depth look “behind the music” using visual imagery, narration, and a multimedia format, will present programs focusing on two orchestral masterworks with Silk Road ties next season. On Sunday, December 3, 2006, program host Gerard McBurney, conductor Pierre Boulez, and the CSO lead an exploration of Bartók's The Miraculous Mandarin, a riveting folk-music infused ballet score, telling a tale filled with lust and desire. Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring, a breathtaking work whose vivid depiction of ritual and sacrifice in pagan Russia caused a full-scale audience riot at its 1913 Paris premiere, will also be in the spotlight at Beyond the Score with McBurney, conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen, and the CSO coming together on Sunday, January 27, 2007.

April 2007 residency with Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble: Symphony Center's Silk Road Chicago programming will culminate with a weeklong residency with Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble from April 12 through April 21, 2007. Ma and the Ensemble will appear with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and conductor Miguel Harth-Bedoya for three colorful and cross-cultural subscription concerts, performing works by Lou Harrison, Ernst Bloch, and Georges Enescu (April 12, 13, and 17). The April residency will also include performances with Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble on the Symphony Center Presents LaSalle Bank Chamber Music Series on Sunday, April 15, and a non-subscription concert on Friday, April 20, two different and fascinating programs of distinct classical and traditional compositions, influenced by the East and the West. The final day of the Symphony Center residency with Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble-April 21-holds a special Saturday morning family performance, designed for concertgoers of all ages. In addition to their busy performance schedule, Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble will also reach out to Chicago-area students, offering educational programs for local school groups at Orchestra Hall throughout their residency week.

Symphony Center Presents performances & special concerts: The Silk Road Chicago theme will be further reflected in a unique selection of 2006-2007 Symphony Center Presents programs and special concert offerings, including performances by violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg with Brazilian brothers/guitarists Sérgio and Odair Assad (LaSalle Bank Chamber Music Series, February 14, 2007) in a program intertwining classical music styles with gypsy and folk song influences; the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France with conductor Myung-Whun Chung (LaSalle Bank Orchestra Series, March 21, 2007) performing Ravel's Orient-inspired Mother Goose Suite; as well as appearances by the Bayanihan Philippine National Dance Company (October 8, 2006) and internationally recognized sitar master Ravi Shankar with his daughter, virtuoso sitarist Anoushka Shankar (April 14, 2007), both dates part of Symphony Center's special concert programming.

MusicNOW new music series: Two concerts presented as part of Symphony Center's 2006-2007 MusicNOW new music series will carry the season's Silk Road thread, with both programs curated by new CSO Mead Composer-in-Residence Osvaldo Golijov, a leading international artist and frequent Silk Road Ensemble collaborator. Featured on MusicNOW's program on April 23, 2007 will be Indian composer Shirish Korde's Nesting Cranes for flute and strings, a work whose musical influences suggest far-flung locales from Indonesia to Japan. A sure highlight of the 2006-2007 MusicNOW season will be a performance of Golijov's own Ayre on June 4, 2007. An arrangement of 11 songs written especially for the evening's soloist, soprano Dawn Upshaw, Ayre's musical influences range from Sephardic folk tunes to Semitic electronica to Arabic poetry. MusicNOW leadership funding provided by IRVING HARRIS FOUNDATION, Joan W. Harris; major support provided by Cindy Sargent and Sally Hands with additional support provided by Judy and Scott McCue and Joel and Carol Honigberg.

Kraft Family Matinee Series: All three of this season's Saturday morning Kraft Family Matinee Series programs, featuring members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in programs designed for audiences of all ages, will take on the Silk Road Chicago theme in 2006-2007. “A World of Music, A World of Dance” on Saturday, November 18, 2006, explores how composers have been inspired by musical and cultural influences from around the world, in a program presented collaboration with Ensemble Español and Natya Dance Theatre, showcasing rich and dramatic dances from Spain, India, and the United States. “Orchestra from Planet X” on Saturday, February 10, 2007 asks what might happen when intergalactic musical worlds collide, in a highly imaginative sci-fi thriller featuring the Magic Circle Mime Company. Colorful, oversized Japanese bunraku puppets tell the story of “A Rabbit's Tale,” an original work written, directed, and designed by Chicago puppeteer Blair Thomas, on Saturday, April 28, 2007 set to the inspiring sounds of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. All three Kraft programs will also be presented at Orchestra Hall earlier in the week for school groups, age kindergarten through grade three. The Kraft Family Matinee Series is generously sponsored by Kraft Foods.

Education and Community Programs: Complementing a season full of performances on stage at Symphony Center will be a collection of Silk Road Chicago educational activities presented throughout the year, including: Very Special Promenades performances for students from kindergarten through grade three; Youth Concerts at Orchestra Hall for students in grades four through eight; and teacher training offered in a specially developed Silk Road curriculum. Members of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, the CSO's training orchestra for pre-professional musicians, will also participate in a collaborative chamber music workshop with Silk Road Ensemble members this fall. Planning for added Silk Road Chicago educational and community programs is currently underway. Additional details will be announced at a later date.

ABOUT YO-YO MA, THE SILK ROAD ENSEMBLE & SILK ROAD CHICAGO
Founded in 1998, the concept for the Silk Road Project originated with internationally renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma, who, through his many years of traveling around the world as a musician, became interested in the flow of ideas among different cultures along the Silk Road-a series of trade routes that crossed Europe and Asia from the first millennium B.C. through the middle of the second millennium A.D., allowing the first global exchange of culture, goods, and scientific knowledge between East and West.

Ma first brought together members of the Silk Road Ensemble in summer 2000 at a workshop held at the Tanglewood Music Center. Performing new commissions as well as indigenous music, this international collective of young musicians, who perform on Western instruments as well as instruments from their respective countries, has appeared around the globe in a variety of programs, intermingling Western classical music, non-Western classical music, folk, and popular music.

Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble made their Symphony Center debut in May 2002 and returned in October 2002 for a weeklong residency, including a highly popular series of concerts with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Since that time, the Ensemble has become a much-anticipated offering on the Symphony Center Presents special concerts series, regularly making Chicago an important part of the group's ongoing touring activities.

The Silk Road Project is best known for its series of interdisciplinary festivals and residencies in North America, Europe, Central Asia, China, and Japan that began in 2001. The 2006-2007 season of Silk Road Chicago-with events at Symphony Center, The Art Institute of Chicago, and at venues throughout the city of Chicago-marks the first time that the Silk Road Project has partnered with one city, undertaking such an extended presence and calendar of events in one location. Ensemble musicians will offer master classes, performances, and demonstrations in Chicago schools and cultural institutions throughout the year, concluding with lengthy residencies in April 2007 with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and The Art Institute.

Silk Road Chicago kicks off on June 1 with Silk Road Chicago: Summer 2006, a citywide celebration through September 30 of cultural discovery and exchange with more than 250 programs in music, theater, dance, and visual and culinary arts developed by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with over 70 cultural and community partners throughout the city. The Silk Road season at The Art Institute of Chicago begins on September 30 with the museum throwing wide its doors to showcase exhibitions and “new takes” on the permanent collection that embody the movement of ideas across time and place. Residencies by artists and musicians, lectures, gallery walks, seminars, performances, and programs will take place at the museum throughout the Silk Road Chicago year.

Visit http://www.silkroadchicago.org for a comprehensive schedule of Silk Road Chicago activities. Updated throughout the year, http://www.silkroadchicago.org is an invaluable guide to a diverse and colorful Chicago journey.

ABOUT THE CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Founded in 1891, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra is consistently hailed as one of the greatest orchestras in the world. In collaboration with the best conductors and guest artists on the international music scene, the CSO performs well over 100 concerts each year at its downtown home, Symphony Center, and at the Ravinia Festival on Chicago's North Shore where it is in residency each summer. The CSO's comprehensive education and community programs engage more than 90,000 Chicago-area residents annually. Music lovers outside Chicago enjoy the sounds of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra through best-selling recordings and frequent sold-out tour performances in the United States and around the globe. Since 1971, the CSO has undertaken 32 international tours: 24 to Europe, five to the Far East, as well as one each to Russia, Australia, and South America. Recordings by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra have been awarded 58 Grammy Awards from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, more than any other orchestra in the world.

SYMPHONY CENTER TICKET INFORMATION
Subscriptions for 2006-2007 Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Symphony Center Presents series are now available. Subscribers may select from a wide variety of three-, five-, six-, seven-, and ten-concert packages. For more information about tickets to Symphony Center performances, please call the Ticket Sales department at (312) 294-3000 or 800-223-7114 (toll-free), Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.; or visit the CSO Web site at http://www.cso.org. Groups of 20 people or more who are interested in subscribing should call Symphony Center's Group Sales Department at (312) 294-3040. Single tickets for all Symphony Center performances will go on sale in August 2006.

Symphony Center is located at 220 South Michigan Avenue in Chicago.