March 17, 2009

• Enjoy free Prelude at 7 p.m.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The Alys Stephens Center presents I Musici de Montréal, at 8 p.m. Saturday, April 25, at the Alys Stephens Center, 1200 10th Ave. S. Enjoy a free Prelude pre-show musical discussion at 7 p.m. Tickets are $55, $45 and $35; $15 tickets for those 30 years old and younger. This show is part of the Mr. and Mrs. Wyatt Rushton Haskell Birmingham Music Club Classically Inclined Series. For tickets, call 205-975-2787 or visit www.AlysStephens.org for more information.

Founded by cellist and conductor Yuli Turovsky, I Musici de Montréal is a chamber orchestra of 15 musicians that performs a vast repertoire extending from the Baroque era to the contemporary. The orchestra presents a busy schedule of more than 100 concerts per season throughout the world, including three series in Montreal. I Musici de Montréal have performed in some of the greatest halls in the world: New York's Lincoln Center, the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, Germany, the Seiji Ozawa Hall in Tanglewood, the Tonhalle in Zürich, the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, the Kioi Hall in Tokyo and Philharmonie in Luxemburg, among others.

For their Alys Stephens Center program, the orchestra will perform the music of Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" combined with projection of an award-winning film based on 15 paintings choreographed to the composition. The film won the "Excellence in Cinema" Award at the New York Independent Film & Video Festival and serves as a visual translation of the music. The powerful program continues with Tchaikovsky's "Souvenir de Florence" and Borodin's "Nocturne."