Erik Eino Ochsner to Conduct Lord of the Rings Performance

NEW YORK, March 11, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

- Fellowship of the Ring Performances April 28-May 1 in Tampere

New York-based Erik Eino Ochsner will conduct performances of the Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring: Live to Projection at Tampere Hall in Finland. The performances feature Howard Shore's Academy Award(R)-winning score performed live, synchronized to film.

Conductor Erik E. Ochsner, known for his clear, powerful conducting presence and attention to detail, is one of today's promising and gifted conductors. He is the music director/founder of SONOS Chamber Orchestra, winner of the 2003 American Scandinavian Society's Cultural Advocacy Award. Ochsner led the ensemble in six U.S. premieres, including Karl Jenkins' Requiem, and two world premieres. This season, Ochsner will conduct SONOS in the U.S. premiere of Fredrik Sixten's Requiem.

Ochsner has been involved with the worldwide tour of the Lord of the Rings film projects since 2004. He was assistant conductor/chorus master for the Shanghai workshop of Tan Dun's The First Emperor (Metropolitan Opera World Premiere Commission), and the World premiere of Dun's The Map with Yo-Yo Ma and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. A graduate of Dartmouth College, Ochsner studied with Marin Alsop, Charles Bruck, Erich Kunzel, Helmut Rilling, and Robert Spano.

"Since I grew up in a half-Finnish house, to be invited to conduct in Finland will be an honor and a personal and emotional experience for me and my family," said Ochsner.

The music of The Lord of the Rings is among film music's most complex and comprehensive works. This unique performance sets the score to the film, but allows the music to bear the narrative weight, creating a dramatic live concert experience.

Howard Shore's score captures the sweeping emotion, thrilling vistas and grand journeys, and echoes the construction of Tolkien's Middle-earth. Styles, instruments and performers collected from around the world provide Tolkien's cultures with a unique musical imprint. In operatic fashion, these musical worlds commingle, sometimes combining forces for a culminated power, other times violently clashing... and always bending to the will of the One Ring and its own ominous family of themes.

"This amazing music and fantastic drama have moved me since day one: it is always thrilling and moving," Ochsner described. "What an amazing satisfaction at the end of each and every performance!"

    
    TAMPERE HALL, TAMPERE, FINLAND
    Thursday/Friday April 28-29, 7PM
    Saturday/Sunday April 30-May 1, 3PM
    Tickets: http://www.tamperefilharmonia.fi/fotr/index_eng.html