FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - Media Alert

The All-Gershwin Program Concludes 50th-Anniversary Season Celebration

Saturday, May 7 at 8 PM - An American in Brooklyn
BAM Howard Gilman Opera House

Chelsea Tipton, II, conductor
Cynthia Haymon, soprano
Michael Forest, tenor
Kevin Deas, baritone
Leon Bates, piano
TOTAL PRAISE Choir of Emmanuel Baptist Church
Pastor Frank Haye, Director
Reverend Anthony L. Trufant, Senior Pastor

GEORGE GERSHWIN: Rhapsody in Blue, An American in Paris, Selections from Porgy and Bess

Tickets are $20-$60 and can be purchased by calling (718) 636-4100 or visiting www.BrooklynPhilharmonic.org ($10 Student Rush tickets are available with valid student ID).

Due to illness, conductor Robert Spano will be replaced by Chelsea Tipton, II in his Brooklyn Philharmonic debut for the orchestra's upcoming all-Gerswhin An American in Brooklyn concert in the BAM Howard Gilman Opera House on Saturday, May 7 at 8 PM. The concert concludes the orchestra's two-year 50th-anniversary season celebration, and pays tribute to Brooklyn native George Gershwin's enduring legacy, which helped shape the future of music today. The concert takes place fifty years to the day of the final concert of Brooklyn Philharmonic's inaugural festival in 1955. Mr. Tipton leads the orchestra and soprano Cynthia Haymon, tenor Michael Forest and baritone Kevin Deas in selections from George Gershwin's masterpiece, Porgy and Bess, and two other beloved scores: Rhapsody in Blue, featuring pianist Leon Bates, and An American in Paris. The TOTAL PRAISE Choir of Brooklyn's Emmanuel Baptist Church joins the ensemble for Porgy and Bess. Mr. Tipton also conducts the Philharmonic's July 16 Celebrate Brooklyn program in Brooklyn's Prospect Park. In June 2004, Richard Dyer of The Boston Globe hailed, "Tipton's high energy is centered in quiet charisma."

The program, honoring Brooklyn's contribution to the music world, opens with Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, an innovative masterwork composed by the young Brooklyn native in 1924. The piece is followed with a classic pairing of the breezy An American in Paris and selections from Porgy and Bess, Gershwin's last and perhaps most ambitious classical work, conclude the program.

A pre-concert talk entitled Musical Chairs is hosted by Theodore Wiprud, Brooklyn Philharmonic Curator of Education and Community Engagement, and members of the Brooklyn Philharmonic in the Brooklyn Music School Auditorium, adjacent to BAM, 126 St. Felix Street, at 7 PM. Chelsea Tipton, II participates in a post-concert talk titled For Good Measure hosted by Evans Mirageas, Artistic Advisor to the Brooklyn Philharmonic.

CHELSEA TIPTON, II
The Brooklyn Philharmonic is excited to be welcoming the gifted young American conductor Chelsea Tipton, II. Already engaged to lead the Brooklyn Philharmonic concert this summer at the celebrated Prospect Park series, Tipton makes his BAM debut in this concert. Celebrating his second season as Resident Conductor with the Toledo Symphony Orchestra, Mr. Tipton is committed to building a solid musical foundation for audiences both young and old and has been taking an active role in developing and implementing educational programs for the TSO within the community.

Mr. Tipton's guest conducting engagements have included the Chicago, Houston, Columbus, Atlanta, Alabama, Mississippi, Greenville and Jacksonville Symphony Orchestras; New Jersey and Baton Rouge Symphonies; Louisville and Florida Orchestras, New York Philharmonic (Special Reading Session), Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, Carolina Chamber Symphony, Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra and the Crested Butte Festival Orchestra.

Mr. Tipton recently made his debut with the Boston Pops Orchestra and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. For the 2004-2005-06 seasons guest-conducting engagements include the Chicago, Pittsburgh, Nashville, Atlanta, Detroit and San Antonio Symphonies, the Louisville Orchestra, the Rochester, Brooklyn and Louisiana Philharmonics, and the Windsor Symphony.

Prior to his appointment with the TSO, Mr. Tipton was Associate Conductor with the Savannah Symphony Orchestra for four seasons. He has held faculty positions at Central Michigan University (CMU) as Assistant Professor where he was Director of the CMU Symphony and a Visiting Professor in clarinet and chamber music at Western Michigan University. He has served on the faculty of the Apple Hill Chamber Music Festival in New Hampshire, and served four seasons as Assistant Conductor with the Eastern Music Festival in North Carolina during the summers.

Mr. Tipton earned a Master of Music degree in orchestral conducting from Northern Illinois University and a Bachelor of Music in Clarinet Performance from the Eastman School of Music, where he was also awarded the Performer's Certificate. He has also studied at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music and the Pierre Monteux School for Conductors in Hancock, Maine.

As a clarinetist, Mr. Tipton has performed with several orchestras, including the Rochester Philharmonic, Heidelberg Festival Opera Orchestra (Germany), and Chicago Sinfonietta. He has appeared on the NBC Today Show with Wynton Marsalis and has performed as a section clarinet player with James Galway and the Eastman Philharmonia, Wynton Marsalis and the Eastman Wind Ensemble and the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra on recordings with RCA Classical, CBS Masterworks and Pro Arte labels.

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The Brooklyn Philharmonic's season is supported with public funds from Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, New York City Council, New York State Council on the Arts, New York State Assembly, New York State Senate, National Endowment for the Arts and the United States Department of Education.

Leadership support has been provided by Major Season Sponsor HSBC Bank USA. Major support has been provided by Bank of America, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, The Louis Calder Foundation, the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, Con Edison,The William Randolph Hearst Foundation, the Independence Community Foundation, JP Morgan Chase, KeySpan, the Andrew Mellon Foundation, the MetLife Foundation, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation. Print Media sponsorship is provided by Courier-Life Publications. Printing sponsorship is provided by CF Group. Website sponsorship is provided by Generation X Technologies. Yamaha is the official piano of the Brooklyn Philharmonic.

Please contact Kirshbaum Demler & Associates at 212/222-4843 for additional information.