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For more photos, additional information or to schedule interviews, contact

Cheryl Waldner
Communications Coordinator
204-949-3970
communications@wso.mb.ca

The Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra is integral to Winnipeg's rich cultural life, delighting more than 100,000 audience members each year with innovative programming and musical excellence. The WSO presents educational programs for more than 25,000 students annually and tours outside the city reaching out to communities across Manitoba.

The WSO Heats Up Your Winter With Two HOT Concerts!

Winnipeg, MB – January 21, 2010 – The January temperatures in Winnipeg have been higher than normal, but the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra (WSO) is heating the city up even more this weekend with two exotic concerts: Fiesta (January 22) and Rhythm & Heat (January 23)!

WSO Music Director Alexander Mickelthwate will lead the heat wave for both concerts, featuring programs full of richly exotic flavours and rhythms of Mexico, Spain, Egypt, and Argentina. For Friday’s Musically Speaking Fiesta, we look at five composers who fell in love with the exotic and colourful music and dance traditions from the tango to the huapango. Saturday’s Masterworks performance of Rhythm & Heat will leave you breathless with pieces such as Arturo Marquez’s Danzon No. 2, Saint-Saens’ Piano Concerto No. 5 (Egyptian), and Falla’s Three Cornered-Hat.

The weekend’s concerts will also feature the captivating Nareh Arghamanyan, winner of the 2008 Montreal International Music Competition (where she also won the Audience Choice Award and a special award for the best interpretation of a work by Canadian composer Alexina Louie). Born in Armenia in 1989, she began her studies at age five and, only three years later, entered the Tchaikovsky Music School for Talented Children in Yerevan. In 2004, she was the youngest student to be admitted to the University for Music and Performing Arts in Vienna and graduated with the highest honours in 2008.

The WSO performs the Musically Speaking concert, Fiesta, on Friday, January 22 at the Centennial Concert Hall at 8 pm. Tickets range from $18 to $61.

The WSO also performs the Masterworks concert, Rhythm & Heat*, on Saturday, January 23 at 8 pm at the Centennial Concert Hall. Tickets range from $18 to $75.

Tickets for both concerts are available through the WSO box office at 949-3999, online at wso.ca or through Ticketmaster 780-3333 or ticketmaster.ca.

*Rhythm & Heat is also part of our Dinner and a Symphony package. Call the WSO box office at 949-3999 or visit wso.ca for more information.

Click here to listen to Falla’s Three-Cornered Hat - and its sounds of Spain - that will be performed this weekend.

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