FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


SONOS CHAMBER ORCHESTRA PRESENTS

WORLD PREMIERE OF SUITE OF SIBELIUS' COMPOSITIONS FOR SHAKESPEARE'S THE TEMPEST
ON MARCH 3 & 5



Performance to Include Schoenberg Arrangements of Pieces by Debussy, Mahler, and
Busoni



[January 31, 2005 -- New York, NY] SONOS Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Erik
Ochsner will perform salon music arranged by Arnold Schoenberg and the world
premiere of "Suite from Incidental Music to The Tempest", composed by Jean
Sibelius and arranged by Ochsner, on Thursday, March 3, 2005 (Church of the Holy
Trinity) and Saturday, March 5 (Good Shepherd Church). Tickets for the March 3
program (including a pre-concert cocktail party) are $30 and for the uptown
March 5 program $15. The program will also include works by Debussy, Busoni,
Sibelius, Webern, Mahler, and Torke. The SONOS Chamber Orchestra will be joined
by mezzo-soprano Sonia Gariaeff and bass-baritone Duncan Hartman.



Though many neglected or obscure works by the great Finnish composer Jean
Sibelius (1865-1957) have been rediscovered in recent years, his incidental
music to Shakespeare's The Tempest has still never been heard outside of Finland
or Denmark, where it premiered 1925. Sibelius, commissioned by the theatre
company, wrote approximately 66 minutes worth of fully scored orchestral music,
with chorus and soloists. Ochsner has made an arrangement of 12 of the 37
musical numbers, including all five songs for the Ariel, sung here by San
Francisco based mezzo-soprano Sonia Gariaeff. This SONOS performance marks not
only the world premiere of this new arrangement, but also the first time most of
this music has been heard in North America!



Erkki Salmenhaara in Finnish Music Quarterly, says that Sibelius' Tempest
".displays an astounding richness of imagination and inventive capacity, added
to which it displays features not otherwise present in his later works - not at
least drawn to the extent in which they appear here."



In Vienna, 1918, a group of friends gathered to create the Society for Private
Musical Performances. Members of this group wanted to not only perform great
masterworks in the privacy of their own home, but also to organize concerts to
promote lesser known composers and compositions. In this concert, SONOS
explores some of the arrangements that were made for this group by Arnold
Schoenberg. Pieces by Busoni, a close friend of Sibelius, and Webern, a student
of Schoenberg, will round out the program.



Winner of the 2003 American Scandinavian Society's Cultural Advocacy Award,
SONOS Chamber Orchestra is a versatile group of young professional musicians
based in New York City, devoted to the performance of under-appreciated and
contemporary works. Founded in 2001, SONOS has performed at Weill Recital Hall,
Manhattan's Holy Trinity Church, Scandinavia House, Estonia House, the AIDS
Center of Queens County, and the Finnish American Chamber of Commerce.



Music Director Erik Eino Ochsner has served as Rehearsal and Assistant Conductor
for composer Tan Dun since 2002, when Erik began rehearsing the world premiere
of the opera Tea. Other projects have taken him to Macau, Belgium, France, the
Netherlands, Japan, Korea, New York and Denver. In 2006, Tea will travel to New
Zealand, Shanghai, Tokyo, and San Francisco. Erik served as Assistant Conductor
of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in the world premiere of Tan Dun's "The Map"
(2003), a multi media cello concerto, featuring cellist Yo-Yo Ma.



Formerly the Assistant Conductor of the Brooklyn Philharmonic, Erik is currently
Music Director of SONOS Chamber Orchestra, in New York, which is devoted to
exploring new and often unheard

composers and compositions. (www.sonoschamberorch.org.) A proud dual Finnish -
American citizen, Erik was honored to be the recipient of the 2003 American
Scandinavian Society's Scandinavian Culture Advocacy Award. Erik and SONOS have
performed six U.S. premieres of classical Finnish repertoire. Erik also
currently tours as Assistant Conductor for Howard Shore's Lord of the Rings
Symphony.



"A memorable performance"

- Strad Magazine, January 2004, on SONOS' October 17 concert of All Finnish
string chamber music (which included 2 North American Premieres)

"SONOS . and they have begun carving out a pretty distinctive niche for
themselves doing programming that . not everybody else is doing." - John
Schaefer interviewing Erik Ochsner on Soundcheck, WNYC 93.9 FM on September 23,
2003




Program Information:

SONOS CHAMBER ORCHESTRA

Erik E. Ochsner, Conductor and Music Director

Sonia Gariaeff, mezzo soprano

Duncan Hartman, Bass-baritone



Claude Debussy "Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune", arranged by

Arnold Schoenberg

Ferruccio Busoni "Berceuse élègiaque", arranged by Arnold

Schoenberg

Jean Sibelius World Premiere of Suite from incidental music to "The

Tempest", arranged by Erik Ochsner, featuring mezzo-soprano

Sonia Gariaeff

Anton Webern "Langsamer Satz" for string quartet

Gustav Mahler "Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen", arranged by

Arnold Schoenberg Featuring bass-baritone Duncan Hartman

Michael Torke "Music on the Floor (1995)"



Ticket Information:

Thursday, March 3, 2005 8:00 p.m.

Church of the Holy Trinity

316 E. 88th Street

Tickets $30

(includes pre-concert cocktail party)



Saturday, March 5, 2005 7:30 p.m.

Church of Good Shepherd

608 Isham St, at 208th Street and Broadway

Tickets $15




Tickets can be purchased at the door one half hour prior to each concert.
Advance ticket reservations can be made by calling 212.740.0432. For more
information visit: www.sonoschamberorch.org.





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For more information contact: Beth Krakower, CineMedia Promotions, 212-533-6864
or email beth@...


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