Conductor, composer, and pianist Andre Previn’s achievements have won him honors including the Cross of Merit from both Austria and Germany, a Kennedy Center Honor for Lifetime Achievement, several Grammy Awards, Musical America’s “Musician of the Year,” and the Grand Prix du Disque for the recording of his own opera, A Streetcar Named Desire. In 1996, Mr. Previn was awarded a Knighthood (KBE) by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
This season Mr. Previn will lead the Oslo Philharmonic — as Music Director, Conductor and Soloist — on a tour of the United States, visiting Ann Arbor, Chicago, the Kennedy Center, Philadelphia, and Carnegie Hall. The repertoire will include the Gershwin Piano Concerto in F, Previn’s “Honey & Rue” with Denyce Graves, and the Previn Violin Concerto with Anne-Sophie Mutter.
A frequent guest with the world’s major orchestras — both in concert and on recordings — Mr. Previn appears annually with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, and Vienna Philharmonic, to name a few. Mr. Previn has held the chief artistic posts with such orchestras as the Houston Symphony, London Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Pittsburgh Symphony, and Royal Philharmonic. To mark the occasion of his 75th birthday, the London Symphony Orchestra will be presenting a concert series, featuring Mr. Previn, throughout the month of June.
As a pianist, Mr. Previn often performs together with Anne-Sophie Mutter and Lynn Harrell, and this season the trio will tour Europe. Mr. Previn has performed recitals with Ms. Fleming at Lincoln Center and with Barbara Bonney at Carnegie Hall and the Mozarteum in Salzburg, and regularly gives chamber music concerts with the Emerson String Quartet, as well as members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, and the Vienna Philharmonic.
As a composer, Mr. Previn is published exclusively by G. Schirmer Inc. In 1998, Mr. Previn conducted the premiere performances of A Streetcar Named Desire with the San Francisco Opera and Renée Fleming as Blanche Dubois. The opera, with a libretto by Philip Littell based on Tennessee Williams’s play, was subsequently telecast on PBS and recorded for Deutsche Grammophon. The Emerson String Quartet recently premiered its commission at Carnegie Hall with Barbara Bonney, and this season, Mr. Previn will join Anthony Dean Griffey at Zankel Hall for the world premiere of a new song cycle. Other recent compositions include a violin-and-piano work (Tango Song and Dance) and the Violin Concerto, both written for and recorded on the DG label by Ms. Mutter. During 1999-2000, the Vienna Philharmonic gave the premiere of its commission, Diversions, also recorded by DG. Additional compositions include a piano concerto for Vladimir Ashkenazy, a cello sonata for Yo-Yo Ma, and song cycles for Janet Baker, Kathleen Battle, and Ms. Bonney. Mr. Previn is currently at work on new song cycles for Ms. Bonney, a clarinet sonata for the BSO’s Thomas Martin, and his second opera.
