Academy of St Martin personnel change for April 2

I have an item to announce that makes me decidedly ambivalent. Pianist and conductor (or conductor and pianist, if you prefer) Murray Perahia has had to cancel his appearances with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. Those cancellations include our much anticipated April 2 concert at Symphony Hall.

That's the bad news (insert appropriate emoticon here). The good news is that the illustrious Sir Neville Marriner, the founder of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, will be on hand on April 2 to conduct. Sir Neville has never appeared on the Celebrity Series at the helm of the Academy of St Martin, though he did once conduct the Minnesota Symphony. Sir Neville will be bringing along with him an up and coming young pianist, Yuja Wang. Wang is a student of the illustrious pianist and educator, Gary Graffman, at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. Here is a link to Wang's web site.

Read our press release on the change.