R.H. THOMSON TAKES ON NAPOLEON AT TORONTO SUMMER MUSIC FESTIVAL

July 27, 2006 (Toronto) - Renowned Canadian actor R.H. Thomson will take the stage on August 4th as part of the 2006 Toronto Summer Music Festival, announced Artistic Director Agnes Grossmann today.

Thomson, an award-winning stage and screen performer, has been chosen to narrate the evening's performance of Austrian composer Albert Schoenberg's Ode to Napoleon, a musical version of Lord Bryon's 1814 poem of the same name.

"Thomson has a very dynamic stage presence and the power of his voice and his tremendous acting ability will allow Schoenberg's real message to be conveyed to the audience," said Grossmann.

Schoenberg wrote Ode to Napoleon in 1942, at a time when Hitler and World War II was ravaging his native homeland of Austria. Influenced by these events, the 20-minute composition is a sarcastic, dramatic statement against despotic leaders, the character of Napoleon acting as a metaphor for Hitler.

Ode to Napoleon is written for a piano, a string quartet and a narrator reading Byron's original poem. The New York Philharmonic first performed it on November 23, 1944 at Carnegie Hall.

Thomson will be joining musicians Mayumi Seiler, John Perry, Benjamin Bowman, Stephen Dann and Carole Sirois on the stage at Walter Hall.

Mayumi Seiler is a renowned violinist and the founding Artistic Director of the chamber music series Via Salzburg at the Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto. John Perry is a renowned pianist and recording artist. He is currently a faculty member at the Colburn School for Performing Arts in Los Angeles.

The 2006 Toronto Summer Music Festival runs from July 28 - August 20 and includes performances by renowned artists Richard Goode, Menahem Pressler, the Leipzig String Quartet, Ian Swensen, Shauna Rolston, Mayumi Seiler and Toronto's own Gryphon Trio. The Toronto Summer Music Academy and Festival (TSMAF) is a project of the Silver Creek Music Foundation.

For more information:
Sarah Kiriliuk, SISU Publicity
647-283-1766
Sarah_kiriliuk@sisupublicity.ca