BSO LAUNCHES TOUR IN SAN FRANCISCO (DEC. 6 AND 7), AS PART OF THE SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY'S 100th ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION, AND ENDS IN LOS ANGELES (DEC. 10) WITH FIRST-EVER BSO PERFORMANCES IN DISNEY HALL; PERFORMANCES IN SANTA BARBARA (DEC. 8) AND PALM DESERT (DEC. 9) ARE ALSO SCHEDULED

PROGRAMS TO INCLUDE MOZART'S PIANO CONCERTO NO. 25 IN C, K.503, WITH RICHARD GOODE, ELLIOTT CARTER'S FLUTE CONCERTO WITH BSO PRINCIPAL FLUTIST ELIZABETH ROWE, RAVEL'S SUITE NO. 2 FROM DAPHNIS AND CHLOÉ, MAHLER'S SYMPHONY NO. 1, AND BRAHMS'S VIOLIN CONCERTO WITH GIL SHAHAM

Following his two weeks of programs with the BSO, November 17-29, at Symphony Hall in Boston, French conductor Ludovic Morlot and the Boston Symphony Orchestra travel west December 6­-10, 2011, for a four-city tour of California-to include San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Palm Desert, and Los Angeles-that brings highlights of the BSO's Symphony Hall subscription programs to the West Coast of the United States. An assistant conductor of the BSO from 2004 to 2007, Maestro Morlot has since appeared with major orchestras on both sides of the Atlantic, including the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, and Royal Concertgebouw, and beginning this fall is music director of the Seattle Symphony.

BSO JOINS SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY CENTENNIAL SEASON CELEBRATION WITH CONCERTS ON DECEMBER 6 AND 7
In a diverse program December 6 in San Francisco, Maestro Morlot and the BSO are joined by the distinguished American pianist Richard Goode for Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 25 in C, K.503. Also featured on the program is the BSO's principal flutist, Elizabeth Rowe, who is soloist in Elliott Carter's Flute Concerto, a BSO co-commission that received its U.S. premiere with Ms. Rowe and the orchestra in February 2010. The program opens with Berlioz's Roman Carnival Overture, a rambunctious stand-alone concert work made up of music from Berlioz's opera Benvenuto Cellini, and concludes with Bartók's Suite from The Miraculous Mandarin, drawn from the composer's original scandal-inducing stage work about three cash-strapped men who attempt to use the provocative dancing of their female companion to lure passers-by in order to rob them.

The following night, the orchestra concludes its stay in San Francisco with a program including the Symphony No. 4 of Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer John Harbison, a work from 2003 featured as part of the BSO's 2010-2012 survey of the composer's symphony cycle. Written for the Seattle Symphony, the Fourth is a five-movement work touching on a wide range of expressive content and orchestral color. The concert ends with Mahler's at times brooding, at times vigorously energetic First Symphony, the most direct of the composer's nine. In between the two symphonies is Ravel's Suite No. 2 from his orchestral masterpiece, the ballet score Daphnis et Chloé, beginning with a scintillating depiction of the sunrise and gradually gaining momentum until finally expending its energy at the end of a frantic orgiastic dance.

TICKET INFORMATION: Tickets for the December 6 and 7 performances at Davies Symphony Hall range from $15-$120. Subscriptions are available now; Single tickets go on sale July 25 at 8 a.m. Pacific Time at the Box Office, and at 10 a.m. Pacific Time online and by phone. For tickets or more information, please call 415-864-6000 or visit www.sfsymphony.org.

BSO CONCERT IN SANTA BARBARA, DECEMBER 8
On December 8 in Santa Barbara, the Boston Symphony Orchestra opens the program with Berlioz's Roman Carnival Overture and concludes with the Prelude and Love-death from Wagner's monumental music drama Tristan und Isolde, inspired, transcendental music that works its magic as effectively in the concert hall as in the opera house. The concert arrangement is a kind of ultra-concise distillation of the opera's musical and philosophical journey, conflating the very first and very last musical episodes from the complete work. The program will also include Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 25 in C, K.503, with Richard Goode as soloist, and Bartok's Suite from The Miraculous Mandarin.

TICKET INFORMATION: Subscriptions for the December 8 performance at the Granada Theatre are available now; Single tickets go on sale in September. For tickets or more information, please call 805-899-2222 or visit www.granadasb.org.

BSO CONCERT IN PALM DESERT, DECEMBER 9
December 9's Palm Desert program features Berlioz's Roman Carnival Overture, Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 25 in C, K.503, with Richard Goode as soloist, and Mahler's Symphony No. 1.

TICKET INFORMATION: Tickets for the December 9 performance at McCallum Theatre range from $50-$85. A limited number of series subscriptions are available now; wait lists for single tickets will open on November 15, 2011. For tickets, series subscription applications or more information, please call the Palm Springs Friends of the Philharmonic at 760-341-1013 or visit www.psfp.org.

BSO CONCERT IN LOS ANGELES, DECEMBER 10
On December 10 in Los Angeles, the BSO concludes its West Coast tour with a concert featuring Israeli-American violinist Gil Shaham in performing Brahms's rhapsodic Violin Concerto, one of the greatest and most beloved of all works for violin and orchestra, on a program with Harbison's Symphony No. 4 and Ravel's Daphnis et Chloé, Suite No. 2.

TICKET INFORMATION: Subscription tickets for the December 10 performance are available now at the Walt Disney Concert Hall Box Office, online at LAPhil.com, or via credit card by phone at 323-850-2000. Single tickets, available as of August 21, range from $46-$155. A limited number of $10 rush tickets for seniors and full time students may be available at the Walt Disney Concert Hall box office two hours prior to the performance. Valid identification is required; one ticket per person; cash only. Groups of 12 or more may be eligible for special discounts for selected concerts and seating areas. For information, please call 323-850-2000.

LUDOVIC MORLOT
Quickly establishing a strong reputation as one of the leading conductors of his generation, Ludovic Morlot was appointed Music Director of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra in June 2010, a post he assumes in September 2011 for an initial period of six years. Starting in 2012, Ludovic Morlot will combine this new position with that of Chief Conductor of La Monnaie, the celebrated opera house of Brussels. Highlights of the 2010-11 season include debuts with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Symphony, the NDR Symphony Orchestra and the Czech Philharmonic as well as at the Opéra National de Lyon and the Opéra Comique in Paris. He returns to the New York Philharmonic and the Chicago Symphony in addition to the Rotterdam Philharmonic and the Ensemble Intercontemporain in Paris, both of which he conducts regularly. Committed to working with young people, Mr. Morlot conducted the Netherlands Youth Orchestra in January 2010 on a tour that included a concert in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw. Ludovic Morlot has maintained a close working relationship with the Boston Symphony Orchestra since 2001 when he was the Seiji Ozawa Fellowship Conductor at the Tanglewood Music Center and subsequently appointed assistant conductor for the orchestra and their Music Director James Levine (2004-07). He has conducted the orchestra in many public concerts, both in Boston and Tanglewood. Ludovic served as conductor in residence with the Orchestre National de Lyon under David Robertson (2002-04).

RICHARD GOODE
Richard Goode has been hailed for music-making of tremendous emotional power, depth and expressiveness, and has been acknowledged worldwide as one of today's leading interpreters of Classical and Romantic music. In regular performances with the major orchestras, recitals in the world's music capitals, and acclaimed Nonesuch recordings, he has won a large and devoted following. In an extensive profile in The New Yorker, David Blum wrote: "What one remembers most from Goode's playing is not its beauty-exceptional as it is-but his way of coming to grips with the composer's central thought, so that a work tends to make sense beyond one's previous perception of it." In recent seasons Mr. Goode performed and curated a multi-event residency as one of London's South Bank Centre's Artist-in-Residence. This followed his 'engrossing' (NY Times) eight-event Carnegie Hall Perspectives. This celebration of Mr. Goode's artistry included master classes at the City's three leading conservatories - Juilliard, Manhattan and Mannes - and two illustrated talks on his Perspectives repertoire at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He was honored for his contributions to music with the first ever Jean Gimbel Lane Prize in Piano Performance, which culminated in a two-season residency at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL and in May 2010, he was awarded an Honorary Fellowship from Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.

ELIZABETH ROWE
BSO principal flutist Elizabeth Rowe joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 2004 and holds the Walter Piston Principal Flute chair. An accomplished orchestral musician, Ms. Rowe held titled positions with the orchestras of Fort Wayne, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C., before joining the BSO at age twenty-nine. Equally at home in front of the orchestra, she made her BSO solo debut with Mozart's G major flute concerto, K.313, at Tanglewood in August 2008 under the direction of André Previn, subsequently appearing with James Levine and the BSO in the critically acclaimed American premiere performances of Elliott Carter's Flute Concerto in February 2010, and as soloist in Gabriela Lena Frank's Illapa, Tone Poem for Flute and Orchestra at Tanglewood in August 2010 with Miguel Harth-Bedoya conducting. Noted for her insightful teaching, Ms. Rowe attracts flute students from around the country to her lessons and master classes. She currently serves on the faculties of the New England Conservatory and the Tanglewood Music Center and is a regular guest artist at the National Orchestral Institute of Music and the New World Symphony. She has previously taught at both the Peabody Conservatory of Music and the University of Maryland.

GIL SHAHAM
Gil Shaham is one of the foremost violinists of our time. Combining flawless technique with inimitable warmth and a generosity of spirit, he is sought after throughout the world for concerto appearances with leading orchestras and conductors and for recital and ensemble appearances on the great concert stages and at the most prestigious festivals. Shaham has more than two dozen concerto and solo CDs to his name, including bestsellers that have appeared on record charts in the US and abroad. These recordings have earned prestigious awards, including multiple Grammys, a Grand Prix du Disque, Diapason d'Or, and Gramophone Editor's Choice. Gil Shaham was born in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, in 1971. He moved with his parents to Israel where he began violin studies with Samuel Bernstein of the Rubin Academy of Music at the age of seven, receiving annual scholarships from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation. Shaham was awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant in 1990 and in 2008 he received the coveted Avery Fisher Award. He plays the 1699 "Countess Polignac" Stradivarius. He lives in New York City with his wife, violinist Adele Anthony, and their two children.

BSO SPONSORSHIPS
The March 6 BSO concert is sponsored by Commonwealth Worldwide Chauffeured Transportation, the Official Chauffeured Transportation Provider of the BSO. The March 7 concert is sponsored by UBS. The March 9 concert is sponsored by EMC Corporation.