TWO COMPOSERS NAMED BY THE CSO: OSVALDO GOLIJOV AND MARK-ANTHONY TURNAGE

APPOINTED AS MEAD COMPOSERS-IN-RESIDENCE WITH THE CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA FOR 2006-2007 & 2007-2008 CONCERT SEASONS

( CHICAGO)-The Chicago Symphony Orchestra announced today that two leading international composers-Osvaldo Golijov and Mark-Anthony Turnage-will each join the Chicago Symphony Orchestra as Mead Composers-in-Residence for two-year residencies, spanning the Orchestra's 2006-2007 and 2007-2008 concert seasons.

Mr. Golijov and Mr. Turnage succeed Augusta Read Thomas, the CSO's current Mead Composer-in-Residence, who concludes her impressive nine-year tenure with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in June 2006. As part of their residencies with the CSO, both Mr. Golijov and Mr. Turnage will have individual works programmed on the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's main subscription series and will work with CSO musicians to curate two MusicNOW new music concerts per season in collaboration with artistic staff and Cliff Colnot, MusicNOW's principal conductor. As Mead Composers-in Residence, each artist will serve as an active advocate for the music of our time: interacting with CSO audiences and encouraging the exploration of new works of music; participating in pre-concert conversations and educational events, both at Symphony Center and in the community; and providing important counsel on CSO commissioning activities and the programming of contemporary works.

"It gives us great pleasure to announce that Osvaldo Golijov and Mark-Anthony Turnage, celebrated artists with unique musical voices and distinct perspectives, have agreed to join the Chicago Symphony Orchestra family as our next Mead Composers-in-Residence," said CSO Association President Deborah R. Card. "For close to twenty years, the CSO has greatly benefited from having leading composers as part of the mix of our artistic team. We are delighted to have these

two gentlemen working with us in this capacity for the next two seasons, reinforcing and building upon the fine work that Augusta Read Thomas and her predecessors have accomplished in the areas of programming, education, and new music advocacy. Our goal is to continue to evolve our Mead Composer-in-Residence program, creating new residencies that will be rich in content and broad in reach, touching numerous aspects of the CSO's performance and educational activities."

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra will present a semi-staged version of Osvaldo Golijov's one-act opera, Ainadamar (Fountain of Tears), as part of its 2007-2008 subscription season. Ainadamar was commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra for the Tanglewood Music Center. The premiere featured soprano Dawn Upshaw in its main role with Robert Spano conducting the Tanglewood Music Center Vocal Fellows and Orchestras. Most recently, in summer 2005, Ainadamar was given its first fully staged production at the Santa Fe Opera in a new production as directed by Peter Sellars. Mr. Golijov's collaboration with Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Ensemble in the 2006-2007 season will result in new works to be featured on Symphony Center's MusicNOW series; a Silk Road theme will be woven throughout the CSO's 2006-2007 entire season as part of a year-long citywide Silk Road celebration to be spearheaded by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Art Institute of Chicago. Also featured on MusicNOW in 2006-2007 will be Ayre, an arrangement of 11 songs, especially written for Ms Upshaw, ranging from Sephardic folk tunes to Semitic electronica to Arabic poetry. Works by Mr. Golijov to be presented on the CSO's 2006-2007 subscription series are yet to be announced. These concerts will mark the first time that the Orchestra has presented music by this remarkable composer at Symphony Center.

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra has commissioned Mark-Anthony Turnage to write a new orchestral work which will be premiered as part of the CSO's 2006-2007 season. Additional music by Mr. Turnage to be included on the CSO subscription and MusicNOW series will be announced in mid-February. The CSO has performed works by Mr. Turnage on two past occasions: the Orchestra presented Some Days under the direction of conductor Bernard Haitink in 1997, and gave the American premiere of his Evening Songs with conductor Christoph Eschenbach in 2000. His composition, No Let Up, commissioned by the CSO for the MusicNOW series, was performed by musicians of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Cliff Colnot in May 2004. Mr. Turnage's presence in Chicago was further reinforced in this time period with a performance of Blood on the Floor, his 75-minute, nine-movement suite for jazz trio and classical ensemble presented by Fulcrum Point at the Joan W. and Irving B. Harris Theater for Music and Dance in June 2004.

American-based Argentinean composer Osvaldo Golijov (b. 1960) captured international attention in 2000 with the premiere of his La Pasión según San Marcos, a dramatic work for orchestra and chorus, filled with an inspired blend of Spanish, Latin American and Jewish musical influences. Mr. Golijov grew up in Argentina, the son of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe. As a young man, he was surrounded by the sounds of classical music, Jewish religious and folk (klezmer) music, and the "new tango" of the great Argentine musician Astor Piazzolla-all of which have had a great influence on his artistic development and compositions. Mr. Golijov moved to Israel in 1983, and then to the United States in 1986. Since 1991, he has been an associate professor at College of the Holy Cross, and he also serves on the faculties of the Boston Conservatory and the Tanglewood Music Center. His music is performed regularly by the most prestigious ensembles and artists around the world, including musicians such as Robert Spano; Miguel Harth-Bedoya; Dawn Upshaw; the Kronos, St. Lawrence, and Borromeo quartets; and orchestras such as the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Los Angeles Philharmonic. As part of his musical explorations, he has also collaborated with the gypsy band Taraf de Haïdouks, Mexican rock band Café Tacuba, klezmer master David Krakauer, tabla virtuoso Zakir Hussain, and Argentinean musician and producer Gustavo Santaolalla. In January/February 2006, New York's Lincoln Center will present "The Passion of Osvaldo Golijov," a festival featuring multiple performances of Ainadamar, major works, and chamber music; late night concerts of tango and klezmer music; and a program at the Film Society of Lincoln Center. Mr. Golijov's works have been recorded on Nonesuch, Sony Classical, Hanssler Classics, Naxos, Koch, and EMI. In addition, he has also composed music for film and is currently at work on a soundtrack for a new movie to be directed by Francis Ford Coppola.

British composer Mark-Anthony Turnage (b. 1960) is one of the most admired and widely performed composers of his generation. Mr. Turnage's highly inventive compositional style-which incorporates his love of jazz and themes inspired by a wide range of interests and concerns, including literature, the arts, politics, and everyday life-results in works with a dramatic musical language that is distinctly his own. A former student of Oliver Knussen and John Lambert at London's Royal College of Music, Mr. Turnage has achieved recognition both in the concert hall and the opera house, first attracting attention for the premiere of his opera Greek at the Munich Biennale Festival in 1988. He has served as composer-in-association with the City of Birmingham Orchestra, English National Opera, London Philharmonic Orchestra, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra and has worked closely with a long list of conductors, classical music groups, and jazz musicians with whom he has made significant recordings of his works. His collaborators have included conductors Sir Simon Rattle, Sir Andrew Davis, and Leonard Slatkin; jazz musicians John Scofield and Peter Erskine; saxophonist Martin Robertson; soloists Evelyn Glennie, Håkan Hardenberger, Christian Lindberg, and Yuri Bashmet; as well as the Berlin Philharmonic, Ensemble Modern, London Sinfonietta, and the Nash Ensemble. Mr. Turnage's music is recorded on the Decca, EMI, Deutsche Grammophon, Chandos, and Black Box labels. His recent recording, Scorched, cowritten with John Scofield and released by Deutsche Grammophon, was nominated for two 2005 Grammy Awards.

Details of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's 2006-2007 season, including complete information about composer residencies with Osvaldo Golijov and Mark-Anthony Turnage will be announced in February 2006.

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra's composer-in-residence program began in 1987, funded by a grant from Meet the Composer, an organization dedicated to advocacy for new music and the sponsorship of residencies by composers with major orchestras throughout the United States. The CSO engaged John Corigliano as its first composer-in-residence in 1987, followed three years later by Shulamit Ran in 1990. After her first three years of working with the Orchestra, the CSO extended Ms. Ran's residency for an additional four years through 1997, sustaining the program without Meet the Composer support.

Augusta Read Thomas was appointed as the Orchestra's third composer-in-residence in 1997. In the past nine seasons, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra has commissioned and premiered five new works by Ms. Thomas: ...words of the sea... (1996); Orbital Beacons (1998); Ceremonial, the first piece of music played by the CSO in the new millennium (2000); Aurora (2000); and Tangle (2004). A sixth work, Astral Canticle for flute, violin, and orchestra, written especially with soloists CSO Principal Flute Mathieu Dufour and CSO Concertmaster Robert Chen in mind, will receive its world premiere performances by the Orchestra in June 2006. Ms. Thomas has been instrumental in the launch and growth of MusicNOW, Symphony Center's nationally recognized and critically acclaimed new music series, which was created in 2000. She has also served as an exemplary advocate for 20th and 21st century music to Symphony Center audiences and the Chicago community at large.

In 2002, the CSO announced that, with the generous support of CSO Trustee Cynthia Sargent and her sister, CSO Governing Member Sally Hands, the CSO's composer-in-residence chair would be endowed for a 20-year term. As a result of this special gift, Ms. Thomas then became the CSO's Mead Composer-in-Residence. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra has the distinction of being the only American orchestra to have an endowed composer-in-residence chair.