World Orchestra for Peace

Performers

• World Orchestra for Peace
  Valery Gergiev, Conductor
• Lady Solti, Presenter
• Angela Gheorghiu, Soprano
• René Pape, Bass
• Alumni of the Solti Accademia
  Tereza Gevorgyan, Matilda Paulsson, Roberto Carlos Gòmez Ortiz, Ross Ramgobin
• Cristian Macelaru, Conductor (Solti Foundation US Conductor Award Laureate)

Program

• MOZART Overture to The Marriage of Figaro
• R. STRAUSS Don Juan
• MOZART "In diesen heil'gen Hallen" from Die Zauberflöte
• VERDI "Addio del passato" from La traviata
• MOZART "Là ci darem la mano" from Don Giovanni
• VERDI "Bella figlia dell'amore" from Rigoletto
• MAHLER Adagietto from Symphony No. 5 in C-sharp Minor
• BARTÓK Concerto for Orchestra

Bios

• Valery Gergiev

  
  Valery Gergiev is conductor of the World Orchestra for Peace, succeeding its founder, Sir Georg Solti. He has conducted every one of its 17 concerts since 1998.
  
  A prominent figure in all the world's major concert halls, Mr. Gergiev is the artistic and general director of the Mariinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg, and since 1988 has taken the Mariinsky ballet, opera, and orchestra ensembles to more than 45 countries, garnishing universal acclaim. The Mariinsky Concert Hall opened in 2006, and the new Mariinsky Theatre is scheduled to open in 2013, alongside the classic Mariinsky Theatre. 
  
  Principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra since 2007, Mr. Gergiev performs with the LSO at the Barbican Centre, BBC Proms, and Edinburgh International Festival, as well as on extensive tours of Europe, North America, and Asia. He is also founder and artistic director of the Stars of the White Nights Festival and New Horizons Festival in St. Petersburg, Moscow Easter Festival, Rotterdam Philharmonic Gergiev Festival, Mikkeli Music Festival, and Red Sea Classical Music Festival in Eilat, Israel.
  
  His record releases with the Mariinsky and London Symphony orchestras continually win awards in Europe, Asia, and America. Recent releases include a Mahler symphonic cycle, Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet, Massenet's Don Quichotte, Rodion Shchedrin's The Enchanted Wanderer, and Wagner's Parsifal to name but a few.
  
  Mr. Gergiev has led numerous concert cycles in New York, London, and other international cities focused on the works of single composers, including Berlioz, Brahms, Dutilleux, Mahler, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky, and Wagner, and he has introduced audiences around the world to several rarely performed Russian operas.
  
  Mr. Gergiev's many awards include the Dmitri Shostakovich Award, Netherlands' Knight of the Order of the Dutch Lion, Japan's Order of the Rising Sun, and the French Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur.

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• Valerie Solti

  
  Lady Valerie Solti, née Pitts, first met Georg Solti at The Savoy hotel in 1964, where she went to interview him for a BBC television arts program. They were married in 1967.
  
  Brought up in Leeds and then a student at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, she was first an actress before going to work in television in the 1960s-initially at Granada and later at the BBC, where she presented and produced many programs. As a freelance broadcaster and writer, she later contributed to BBC Radio 3, BBC Music Magazine, Classic FM, Classic FM Magazine, LBC in the UK, and WFMT and WTTW in the US.
  
  Together with her daughters, Lady Solti created the Solti Foundation to assist young professional musicians at the start of their careers, and she is founder and chairman of the Georg Solti Accademia and patron of the World Orchestra for Peace. She has also held a plethora of voluntary posts within organizations in the cultural world. These include the Chicago Symphony and London Philharmonic orchestras, the Mariinsky and Sadler's Wells theater trusts, London's Hungarian Cultural Centre, Budapest's Franz Liszt Academy of Music, London's BRIT School for Performing Arts & Technology, and The Watermill Theatre in Newbury, England.

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• Angela Gheorghiu

  
  Angela Gheorghiu, acclaimed as one of the greatest singing stars of our time, was born in Adjud, Romania. From early childhood, it was clear that her destiny was to be in music. She attended music school and graduated from the National University of Music Bucharest, where her mentor for singing studies was Mia Barbu.
  
  Ms. Gheorghiu made her international debut in 1992 at Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in La bohème, followed by the Metropolitan Opera and the Vienna State Opera. It was at Covent Garden that she first sang her much acclaimed La traviata,   conducted by Sir Georg Solti in 1994, when the BBC cleared its TV schedule to broadcast the opera live. Since then, Ms. Gheorghiu has been in constant demand in opera houses and concert halls around the world: New York, Philadelphia, London, Paris, Salzburg, Berlin, Tokyo, Rome, Seoul, Venice, Athens, Monte Carlo, Chicago, Sao Paulo,   Los Angeles, Lisbon, Valencia, Palermo, Amsterdam, Kuala Lumpur, Zurich, and Vienna, among many others.
  
  Her first exclusive recording contract was in 1995 with Decca, for whom she made several recordings on DVD, including La traviata and Adriana Lecouvreur with the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; L'elisir d'amore with Orchestre de l'Opéra de Lyon; and La bohème with Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala di Milano, as well as numerous CDs to great critical acclaim. Ms. Gheorghiu interpreted the title role in a film version of Tosca, directed by Benoît Jacquot, and Juliette in the movie Roméo et Juliette for Online Classics.
  
  Ms. Gheorghiu has been honored with La médaille de vermeil by the City of Paris and she was appointed Officier et Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture. In December 2010, she received an honorary   doctorate from the George Enescu University of Arts in Iasi, Romani. She also holds the Order of the Star of Romania, the country's highest decoration, awarded personally by the president.

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• René Pape

  
  René Pape received his early musical education in Dresden as a member of the world-famous Dresdner Kreuzchor and completed his studies at the Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber Dresden. He has been a member of Berlin's Staatsoper Unter den Linden since 1988, but first won international recognition when Sir Georg Solti invited him to sing Sarastro in a new production of Die Zauberflöte at the 1995 Salzburg Festival. Musical America named him its 2001 Singer of the Year, and in 2006, he was one of five leading figures honored by the Opera News Awards.
  
  It was at the Unter den Linden where Mr. Pape honed most of the great roles of his career. Daniel Barenboim was an early supporter, and the Staatsoper has played host to Mr. Pape's performances as King Marke in Tristan und Isolde, King Heinrich in Lohengrin, Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte, Pogner in Die Meistersinger, Rocco in Beethoven's Fidelio, Fasolt in Das Rheingold, Hunding in Die Walküre, and the title role in Don Giovanni. The opera house was also the venue for Mr. Pape's appearances as Ramfis in Verdi's Aida, Figaro in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, Leporello in Don Giovanni, and Orest in Strauss's Elektra. In 2006, he expanded his repertoire to include the title role in Boris Godunov, which won him the title Artist of the Year from the German Record Critics' Award Association.
  
  Mr. Pape considers New York's Metropolitan Opera his operatic home away from home. Since his house debut in 1995, he has appeared every season at the Met, in 18 roles and more than 160 performances, including four major debuts: Méphistophélès in Faust, Gurnemanz in Parsifal, Escamillo in Carmen, and the Old Hebrew in Samson et Dalila. In 2009, Mr. Pape gave his first solo recital, featuring German Lieder, to a sold-out Carnegie Hall audience, and has since been in demand as a recitalist. This summer, he sang the role of King Philip II in Don Carlos at the Vienna State Opera.
  
  His numerous acclaimed recordings include Wagner's Tristan und Isolde and Verdi's Requiem for EMI, and as part of Valery Gergiev's first Wagner recording, Parsifal, for the Mariinsky Label.

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• Tereza Gevorgyan

  
  Armenian soprano Tereza Gevorgyan was born in 1988. She studied with Rafael Akopyants at the Yerevan Komitas State Conservatory and received her bachelor's degree in 2005. In her third year at the conservatory, she performed as a soloist, playing Serafina in Il campanello, Serpina in La serva padrona, and Fanny in La cambiale di matrimonio.
  
  In 2011, Ms. Gevorgyan was selected for the Georg Solti Accademia in Tuscany, receiving intensive training with Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and Sir Thomas Allen, and performing in Tuscany and Florence. She also recorded an Italian song for the Solti 100th birthday celebration CD, which was produced by Richard Bonynge.
  
  Ms. Gevorgyan's operatic repertoire includes Musetta in La bohème, Norina in Don Pasquale, the title role in Lucia di Lammermoor, Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi, Marfa in The Tsar's Bride, Tatiana in Eugene Onegin, and Antonia in Les contes d'Hoffmann.
  
  Ms. Gevorgyan has won several vocal competitions in Armenia and, most recently, the 2012 Ludmilla Andrew Russian Song Prize contest at the Royal Academy of Music, where she continues her studies with Lillian Watson and Jonathan Papp, having completed her master's degree in performance this year. She is supported by a Raffy Manoukian Scholarship at the Academy.

  
  Matilda Paulsson

  
  Swedish mezzo-soprano Matilda Paulsson first achieved recognition as Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier at the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm during the spring of 2008. She was immediately invited to sing the same role at Staatsoper Hannover as well as Theater Kiel. She has sung Fenena in Nabucco at the Royal Danish Opera; Arsamene in Serse and Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro at the Royal Swedish Opera; and Carmen at the Opera på Skäret, Finnish National Opera, and Royal Swedish Opera. During the summer of 2012, she sang Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni at Opera Hedeland in Denmark.
  
  Ms. Paulsson's career took off rapidly after her studies at the Royal Academy of Music, and master classes at the Georg Solti Accademia and the University College of Opera in Stockholm. She has sung Ottavia in L'incoronazione di Poppea at Drottningholm Palace and made her debut at the Royal Danish Opera as Der Komponist in Robert Carsen's production of Ariadne auf Naxos. Her repertoire also includes Dorabella in Così fan tutte, Orlovsky in Die Fledermaus, Hans in Hänsel und Gretel, and Lisetta in Haydn's Il mondo della luna.
  
  In concert, Ms. Paulsson has appeared under the batons of Sir Charles Mackerras, Gustavo Dudamel, Daniel Harding, Arnold Östman, Alan Buribayev, and others, in venues such as the Royal Albert Hall, St. Paul's Cathedral, St. Martin in the Fields, St. John's Smith Square, Berwald Concert Hall, and Gothenburg Concert Hall. Last spring included a recital at the Suginami Kokodai Recital Hall in Tokyo as well as Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra.
  
  In 2009, Ms. Paulsson's first solo CD, Junge liebe (Caprice), was released, on which she performs a selection of lieder accompanied by Bengt-Åke Lundin. Her second CD, Der Ton (Sterling), includes songs by Joseph Marx.

  
  Roberto Ortiz

  
  Tenor Roberto Ortiz was born in Mexico City. He studied at the Escuela Superior de Música in his hometown, followed by studies with Ryland Davies and Audrey Hyland at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where he earned a master's degree. He has participated in master classes at the Georg Solti Accademia and in opera classes with Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Catherine Malfitano, José Carreras, Susan Young, Dennis O'Neill, Francisco Araiza, and others.
  
  Mr. Ortiz has appeared in concert in England, Mexico, Italy, and Switzerland. In addition to his extensive song and oratorio repertoire, he has sung the roles of Ferrando in Così fan tutte, Egeo in Giasone, Alfredo in La traviata, Jupiter in Semele, and Damon in Acisand Galatea. In America, he has participated in the following festivals: the Golden Gate International Children's and Youth Choral Festival in Oakland, California, in 1995; the Children of the World in Harmony International Youth Choir and Dance Festival in Arizona in 1997; and the International Children's Choir Festival in Arizona in 1999.
  
  As a member of the Opernstudio at the Staatsoper Stuttgart, Mr. Ortiz performed Don Curzio in Le nozze di Figaro, Flavio in Norma, and the Student and Hrázda in Osud during the 2011-2012 season. This September, Mr. Ortiz joined the Young Associate Artists' Programme at the Opernhaus Zürich for the 2012-2013 season.

  
  Ross Ramgobin

  
  British baritone Ross Ramgobin studied English and drama at Brunel University before commencing study at the Royal Academy of Music in 2009. He graduated with distinction with a master's degree in vocal studies and is now in his second year of the Royal Academy Opera, taught by Glenville Hargreaves and Jonathan Papp.
  
  Mr. Ramgobin's roles include Belcore in L'elisir d'amore,  Pastore and Apollo in L'Orfeo, and Aeneas in Dido and Aeneas. His Royal Academy of Music opera scenes roles have included Marcello in La bohème,  Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia,  de Brétigny in Manon, Faninal in Der Rosenkavalier, Dark Fiddler in A Village Romeo and Juliet, and Tarquinius in The Rape of Lucretia. Mr. Ramgobin also played Claudio in Berlioz's Béatrice et Bénédict under Sir Colin Davis, directed by John Copley.
  
  Mr. Ramgobin's 2012 engagements include Papageno in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, Lakai in the prologue from Ariadne auf Naxos, and Haydn's Creation. He was also awarded a place at the 2012 Georg Solti Accademia, where he took part in master classes with Richard Bonynge, Dennis O'Neill, and Angela Gheorghiu.
  
  Future engagements include the title role in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin (sung in Russian) for Royal Opera Academy in March 2013. He will also perform the role of Arasse in Handel's Siroe for the Internationale Händel-Festspiele Göttingen under Laurence Cummings in May 2013.
  
  Mr. Ramgobin is generously supported by the Sybil Tutton Award administered by the Musicians Benevolent Fund, the Catherine Osborne Award, The Mabel Harper Charitable Trust Scholarship, Sophie's Silver Lining Fund, The Carr-Gregory Trust Award, and the Santander Graduate Award.

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• Cristian Macelaru

  
  An accomplished violinist from an early age, Cristian Macelaru was the youngest concertmaster in the history of the Miami Symphony Orchestra and made his Carnegie Hall debut with that orchestra at the age of 19. He also played in the first violin section of the Houston Symphony for two seasons. As a conductor, his main studies were with renowned teacher Larry Rachleff at Rice University, where he received his master's degree in conducting. He completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Miami.
  
  Mr. Macelaru has established an exciting and highly regarded presence through his thoughtful interpretations, poise, and energetic conviction on the podium. He began his work with The Philadelphia Orchestra in the 2010-2011 season and, with the orchestra's vote in September 2011, was named assistant conductor, effective 2011-2012.  Recently, he received the 2012 Solti Foundation US Conductor's Award, a prestigious honor only awarded once before in the foundation's history.  In February 2012, he made his Chicago Symphony Orchestra subscription debut as a replacement for Pierre Boulez to great public and critical acclaim. Other 2011-2012 season highlights included engagements with the Baltimore and Houston symphony orchestras and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, in addition to conducting The Philadelphia Orchestra and assisting conductors Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Charles Dutoit. Mr. Macelaru's 2012-2013 season brings highly anticipated debuts with Montreal's Orchestre Métropolitain, the Windsor Symphony Orchestra, and the Naples Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as a return to the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.
  
  Mr. Macelaru has conducted the Houston Grand Opera in performances of Madama Butterfly, and previous seasons have also seen him with the Pittsburgh and San Diego symphony orchestras, Banatul State Philharmonic Orchestra, Da Camera of Houston, Syzygy Ensemble, Oberlin Symphony Orchestra, and at the Sarasota and Tanglewood contemporary music festivals. As the founder and artistic director of the Crisalis Music Project, Mr. Macelaru spearheaded a program in which young musicians perform in a variety of settings, side by side with established, renowned artists.

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