Press Center

Carnegie Hall today announced that conductor John Oliver has graciously agreed to step in for Kurt Masur, leading the Boston Symphony Orchestra in a performance of Beethoven's Missa Solemnis on Tuesday, March 6 at 8:00 p.m. in Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage. Maestro Masur recently cancelled this appearance due to his current physical condition and the great demands of this particular piece. Maestro Oliver, in his Carnegie Hall conducting debut, leads the previously announced March 6 program, featuring soprano Christine Brewer, mezzo-soprano Michelle DeYoung, tenor Simon O’Neill, bass-baritone Eric Owens, and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus. For further ticket information, the public may contact CarnegieCharge at 212-247-7800.

Following its March 6 performance, the Boston Symphony Orchestra returns to Carnegie Hall for two additional evenings. On Wednesday, March 7 at 8:00 p.m., Christoph Eschenbach leads the BSO in Berlioz’s Overture to Benvenuto Cellini and Symphonie fantastique, as well as Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G with guest soloist Cédric Tiberghien. Stéphane Denève conducts the orchestra in Ravel’s Ma Mère l'Oye (Mother Goose) Suite, Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5, and Stravinsky’s Concerto for Piano and Winds featuring soloist Peter Serkin on Friday, March 9 at 7:30 p.m. In addition, on Thursday, March 8 at 8:00 p.m., conductor Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops perform the New York premiere of Chris Brubeck’s Travels in Time for Three featuring the acclaimed trio Time for Three.

John Oliver founded the Tanglewood Festival Chorus in 1970, and he has since prepared the chorus for more than 900 performances, including appearances with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Symphony Hall, Tanglewood, Carnegie Hall, and on tour in Europe and the Far East, as well as with visiting orchestras and as a solo ensemble. This has included preparations for more than forty commercial releases with James Levine, Seiji Ozawa, Bernard Haitink, Sir Colin Davis, Leonard Bernstein, Keith Lockhart, and John Williams. Mr. Oliver’s affiliation with the BSO began in the mid-1960s, when he prepared the children’s choruses for performances and recordings under Erich Leinsdorf of Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 and excerpts from Berg’s Wozzeck. In 1970, he was named Director of Vocal and Choral Activities at the Tanglewood Music Center. In addition to his work with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus and Tanglewood Music Center, he has held posts as conductor of the Framingham Choral Society, as a member of the faculty and director of the chorus at Boston University, and, for many years, was a member of the faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was a lecturer and then senior lecturer in music. In 1977, he founded the John Oliver Chorale, which performed a wide-ranging repertoire encompassing the great choral masterpieces as well as seldom-heard works by Carissimi, Bruckner, Ives, Martin, and Dallapiccola. Mr. Oliver has appeared as guest conductor with the New Japan Philharmonic, Berkshire Choral Institute, and the Montreal Symphony, with which he made his debut in December 2011 conducting Handel’s Messiah. In the 2001-2002 season, he conducted the Carnegie Hall Choral Workshop in preparation for André Previn’s performance of Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem. He made his Boston Symphony Orchestra conducting debut in August 1985 and has previously conducted the BSO in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion and Mass in B Minor, Donald Martino’s The White Island (a BSO centennial commission specifically including the Tanglewood Festival Chorus), and Beethoven’s Mass in C. This past October, John Oliver received the 2011 Alfred Nash Patterson Lifetime Achievement Award, presented by Choral Arts New England in recognition of his outstanding contributions to choral music.


Bank of America is the Proud Season Sponsor of Carnegie Hall.
  # # #