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The WSO will find on their music stand the score for Manhattan Transfer’s catchy take on Boy From New York City.

NEXT season, the ever-flexible players of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra will find scores on their music stands ranging from Michael Jackson’s punchy Beat It to Dvorak’s soulful New World Symphony; from wizardly Harry Potter movie themes to the Manhattan Transfer’s catchy take on Boy From New York City.

They'll soar into Sibelius, Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert and Brahms, make room for McCartney, Sondheim, Procol Harum and the Moody Blues, and share sonic space with the big voices of Len Cariou and Lorna Luft.

The WSO unveiled its 64th season Friday -- a diverse September-to-May calendar with a total of 57 concert dates.

Of all the guest artists, the one music director Alexander Mickelthwate says he is most thrilled about is world-renowned American soprano Dawn Upshaw in her first Winnipeg appearance.

Upshaw, a four-time Grammy winner in opera, chamber music and classical-vocal categories, will sing with the WSO March 23-24, 2012.

"She has that completely pure, crystal-clean soprano voice... and a very adventurous spirit," says Mickelthwate, now in his fifth season at the podium.

Another superstar making his first trip here is Cuban-American piano virtuoso Horacio Gutierrez. He'll open the season, performing Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No. 2 on Sept. 23-24. "He's huge worldwide," says Mickelthwate.

A living link to a 20th-century giant will take the podium on Oct. 28-29. Maxim Shostakovich, the 72-year-old son of Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich, will guest-conduct a full concert of his father's works.

The 2011-12 season at the Centennial Concert Hall is structured almost identically to the current one, with concerts grouped into series: Masterworks A, B and C, Pops, Sundays with the Family, Soundbytes and Matinees.

The matinees are one-hour shows at 10:30 a.m. on four Fridays, consisting of an introduction by the conductor, one major piece from a concert to be held that weekend, and a Q&A session.

Likely hot tickets in the Masterworks series include pianist Jon Kimura Parker playing Brahms (March 2-3, 2012); Grammy-nominated Chinese lute player Wu Man in a culture-crossing evening called A Night of Song & Dance (Oct. 14-15); pianist Michael Kim in an all-Beethoven show that includes the much-loved 5th Symphony (Nov. 11); and the season-ending performance of Mahler's Symphony No. 2 (Resurrection) with the Winnipeg Philharmonic Choir and acclaimed homegrown soprano Valdine Anderson (May 4-5, 2012).

Dec. 2-3, the WSO showcases a Montreal musician who has been called "the Canadian Mozart." André Mathieu, born in 1929, was a celebrated composer by the age of 10. Rachmaninov judged him "a genius, more so than I am." But the troubled Mathieu became an alcoholic and died destitute at age 39.

Pianist Alain Lefèvre, who has championed Mathieu's works, will perform his Piano Concerto No. 4. The WSO also plans to screen The Child Prodigy, a recent biopic about Mathieu.

Here are some other season highlights:

New Music Festival

THE 21st annual NMF, Jan. 28 to Feb. 3, 2012, will feature Grammy-winning Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho as a guest and present her monumental work Graal Theatre on the opening night. "She is the most active, most famous living female composer," Mickelthwate says.

The festival is highlighting Icelandic music. For the closing night, the orchestra has commissioned a world première by Jóhann Jóhannsson, described by Mickelthwate as "becoming one of the hottest composers on the planet." It will also perform a piece by Kjartan Sveinsson of the Icelandic post-rock band Sigur Rós.

Cellist Shauna Rolston will première a new concerto by the WSO's Vincent Ho. 

Pops

WINNIPEG-BRED Broadway star Len Cariou comes home Nov. 4-6 for Send in the Clowns: An Evening of Stephen Sondheim & Len Cariou. Singers from Winnipeg's Dry Cold Productions will join in the salute to the legendary Broadway composer.

The WSO will have itself a merry little Christmas Dec. 9-11 when vocalist Lorna Luft returns to Winnipeg, paying tribute to her mother in A Judy Garland Christmas: Songs My Mother Taught Me.

 Smooth-harmonizing vocal quartet the Manhattan Transfer closes the pops season April 13-15.

Other shows in the pops lineup include Live and Let Die: A Symphonic Tribute to the Music of Paul McCartney (Sept. 30-Oct. 2) and For Michael -- The Music of Michael Jackson (Feb. 10-12. 2012), starring Gavin Hope with the Jeans 'n Classics Band.

Soundbytes

In this multimedia series, rock historian John Einarson will join the WSO in a guided tour of how classical music has influenced bands such as Procol Harum and the Moody Blues. That show, Rock Owes the Classics, is Nov. 26.

Feb. 25, 2012, the WSO brings in a multimedia presentation on loan from the Chicago Symphony called Dvorak's New World Symphony -- Beyond the Score. It uses a host, actors and screen elements to enrich the audience's music appreciation.

April 28, 2012, the WSO will accompany the Buster Keaton silent film The General.

Sundays with the Family

The animated film The Snowman, presented with a live score, is so loved by family audiences that it's becoming a holiday tradition, almost akin to Handel's Messiah, says Mickelthwate. It's back on Nov. 27.

Other productions in the five-concert, kid-friendly series include Symphonic Sorcery: The Music of Harry Potter (March 4, 2012) and the ever-popular Beethoven Lives Upstairs (Jan. 15, 2012).

2011 Indigenous Festival

The third annual WSO festival celebrating music of aboriginal peoples will be moved from June to Oct. 12-15 and will likely continue as a fall event, Mickelthwate says. Acts on tap so far include Joey Stylez, Andrea Menard and C-Weed.

2011 Summer Season

The WSO will round out the current season by taking part in the International Cello Festival being produced June 15-19 by Winnipeg Cultural Capital 2010, then performing June 24 at Assiniboine Park, June 30 in Kenora and Canada Day at The Forks.

Subscription packages are on sale now at 949-3999 or www.wso.ca . Early-bird prices are in effect until May 15. Tickets to individual concerts go on sale this summer.

alison.mayes@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition February 26, 2011 0