Hill Auditorium
Berliner Philharmoniker
“The Berliners do not hide their expressive investment, nor do they make a show of it. They just give it. And how.” (The Boston Globe)
Listening to conductor Kirill Petrenko’s interpretation of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 5 with the Berliner Philharmoniker promises to be a truly special experience. As The New York Times said of their first American tour together, which was also presented by UMS at Hill Auditorium in 2022, “Even at the very top of the [orchestral] field, playing this spectacular — this virtuosic, colorful, confident, unified, and committed — is vanishingly rare.”
For this limited tour, the orchestra performs Bruckner’s monumental Symphony No. 5, which explores themes of struggle, redemption, and spiritual transcendence, with rich brass chorales in the final movement. Composed in 1876, just a few years before UMS’s very first concert, the work has never been performed on a UMS program — nor did the composer himself ever hear it performed.
Valet parking will be available beginning 1 hour before the performance for $30 per car (cash only) on N University Ave in front of Hill Auditorium.
PROGRAM (Sun 11/24/2024: Hill Auditorium)
Anton Bruckner Symphony No. 5 in B-flat Major
Thank You to Our Sponsors
TITLE SPONSOR
- Menakka and Essel Bailey
- Howard Bond
- Richard Caldarazzo and Eileen Weiser
-
PRESENTING SPONSOR
PRINCIPAL SPONSOR
- Emily Bandera
- Laura Chang and Arnold Chavkin
- James and Nancy Stanley
- Shaomeng Wang and Ju-Yun Li
-
SUPPORTING SPONSOR
- Charles and Julia Eisendrath
- Mr. and Mrs. Donald L. Morelock
MEDIA PARTNERS
Buy Tickets
Berliner Philharmoniker
Hill Auditorium
Limited availability.
CHOOSE A PERFORMANCE:
Or call the ticket office at 734-764-2538
* Student, Senior and Group Discounts may be available
Kirill Petrenko, chief conductor of the Berliner Philharmoniker since August 2019, was born in the Siberian city of Omsk in 1972. At the age of 18, he moved with his family to Vorarlberg in Austria. Following his training as a conductor at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, he worked from 1997 as an assistant and conductor at the city’s Volksoper; afterwards he was music director at the Meininger Theater from 1999 to 2002.
In 2001, he first attracted international attention when he conducted Richard Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen in the production of Christine Mielitz with designs by Alfred Hrdlicka. From 2002 to 2007, Kirill Petrenko was general music director of the Komische Oper Berlin. He has also appeared at the state opera houses in Munich and Vienna, the Semperoper Dresden, the Royal Opera House in London, the Metropolitan Opera New York, the Opéra Bastille in Paris, and the Maggio Musicale Florenz and the Salzburg Festival. From 2013 to 2015, he conducted a new production of Der Ring des Nibelungen at the Bayreuth Festival.
In the autumn of 2013, Kirill Petrenko took up his post as general music director of the Bayerische Staatsoper, which he held until the end of the 2019/20 season. On the concert stage, he has conducted the Vienna Philharmonic, the Berlin and Dresden Staatskapelle, the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonic, and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.
Kirill Petrenko made his debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker in February 2006 with compositions by Bartók and Rachmaninov. In 2015, the orchestra elected him its chief conductor.