Franz Welser-M��st leads The Cleveland Orchestra in concerts featuring Brahms���s Symphony No. 2 at Severance Hall on January 14, 15, and 16

Leila Josefowicz (Photo by J. Henry Fair)

Program for Thursday and Saturday includes Cleveland Orchestra premiere of Thomas Ad��s���s Violin Concerto with Leila Josefowicz as soloist

CLEVELAND, December 18, 2009 ��� Music Director Franz Welser-M��st will conduct The Cleveland Orchestra in a program featuring Brahms���s Symphony No. 2 at Severance Hall on Thursday, January 14, at 8:00 p.m.; Friday, January 15, at 11:00 a.m.; and Saturday, January 16, at 8:00 p.m.

The program for Thursday and Saturday evenings begins with Richard Strauss���s Don Juan, Opus 20, followed by the first Cleveland Orchestra performances of Thomas Ad��s���s Violin Concerto: Concentric Paths, Opus 23, with Leila Josefowicz as soloist. After intermission, the program concludes with Johannes Brahms���s Symphony No. 2 in D major, Opus 73. The Friday morning concert, performed without intermission, consists of the works by Strauss and Brahms.

About Thomas Ad��s���s Violin Concerto: Concentric Paths ���

British composer Thomas Ad��s���s Violin Concerto was written in 2004-05 and given its world premiere in September 2005. Born in London in 1971, Ad��s is widely regarded as the outstanding composer of his generation. In 2000, he became the youngest composer ever to receive the prestigious Grawemeyer Award, often described as ���the Nobel Prize of music.��� Program annotator Paul Schiavo has written that the Violin Concerto ���bears the title Concentric Paths, an allusion that carries possible poetic and certainly formal connotations. Circular patterns, both large and small, permeate the work. The music unfolds in a traditional concerto format of three movements [titled ���Rings,��� ���Paths,��� and ���Rounds���] �Ķ arranged in a familiar fast-slow-fast pattern�Ķ.���

Canadian violinist Leila Josefowicz attracts audiences around the world with her fresh approach to repertoire and dynamic virtuosity. She came to national attention with her Carnegie Hall debut in 1994, at the age of 16. In recognition of her advocacy and commitment to contemporary music, Ms. Josefowicz was awarded a 2008 MacArthur Foundation Fellowship. She has collaborated with contemporary composers including John Adams and Oliver Knussen, and last season she premiered concertos written for her by Steve Mackey, Colin Matthews, and Esa-Pekka Salonen. Ms. Josefowicz first performed with The Cleveland Orchestra in July 1991 and most recently appeared with the Orchestra in October 2005.