BEETHOVEN'S NINTH SYMPHONY LAUNCHES
PEACE MEETING AT HARVARD

EMC-Sponsored Concert To Feature Boston Debut of Conductor
Charles Ansbacher; Tanglewood Festival Chorus

CAMBRIDGE, MA - What do Sarajevo, Palermo, Vienna, and Dushanbe,Tajikistan have in common? Each city was the site of a high-profile Peace & Reconciliation Concert conducted by Charles Ansbacher. In his Boston debut, Ansbacher will direct the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, along with the Boston Mozart Orchestra, in a concert of the Beethoven Ninth, celebrating women peace builders from around the world. Other performers include soprano Martile Rowland, also in her Boston debut, mezzo-soprano Mary Westbrook-Geha; tenor Mark Evans; and baritone Mark Aliapoulios. The event is set for Monday, November 6 at 7:30 p.m., at the historic Sanders Theatre in Memorial Hall, on the Harvard campus.

"Beethoven's Ninth Symphony was selected because of its historical significance," notes Ansbacher, Principal Guest Conductor of the Sarajevo Philharmonic and Conductor Laureate of the Colorado Springs Symphony Orchestra. "This symphony has been played at momentous peacemaking events, such as the dismantling of the Berlin Wall."

Ansbacher is no stranger to bringing music to the arena of foreign affairs. In December of 1995, three weeks after the beginning of the Dayton Peace Agreement, he conducted a New Year's Eve Concert in war-weary Sarajevo. In April of 1999, Ansbacher was enthusiastically received when he conducted members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in a concert sponsored by the Croatian Embassy to the United States. In January 1997, Ansbacher led an historic performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in the Saint Francis of Asisi Basilica in Palermo, Italy. That concert featured an international cast of singers and the Sarajevo Philharmonic, augmented by musicians from Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia, Macedonia, and Slovenia.

From 1993 to 1997 while living in Vienna, Ansbacher conducted in the important venues of that city, including the Vienna State Opera, the Golden Hall of the famous Musikverein, the Kammeroper, and the Konzerthaus. He was invited for return engagements with the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, the Vienna State Opera, and the Vienna Chamber Opera. He also conducted in the Grossfestspielhaus in Salzburg, and in July of 1998, Maestro Ansbacher made his debut at Austria's famed Bregenz Festival with an appearance of the Vienna Concert Society Orchestra, a branch of the Vienna Symphony.

Ansbacher has conducted major orchestras in more than 30 countries and has collaborated with many of the most acclaimed soloists of our time, including Hermann Baumann, Philippe Entremont, Thomas Hampson, Lynn Harrell, Heinz Holliger, Young Uk Kim, Yo-Yo Ma, Ivo Pogorelich, Leonard Rose, Nadja Solerno?Sonnenberg, Janos Starker, Isaac Stern, and Pincus Zuckerman.

This concert will serve as the official welcoming ceremony for the second annual colloquium of Inclusive Security: Women Waging Peace, a global network of women working to stabilize regions of violent conflict. A two-week long series of events includes public discussions with policy shapers, researchers, and activists from 17 war-torn regions. The initiative was launched in December of 1999 by the Women and Public Policy Program at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.

The concert is sponsored by the EMC Corporation, the lead corporate sponsor of Inclusive Security: Women Waging Peace and the world's leading provider of enterprise storage systems, software, networks and services. Tickets are on sale now from the Harvard Box Office. Prices range from $12-26. Call (617) 496-2222 for ticket information.

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