NATIONAL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA OF BOLIVIA OPENS 2002 CONCERT SEASON - David
Handel Leads Concerts in Santa Cruz

La Paz, Bolivia - The National Symphony Orchestra of Bolivia, led by its
Music Director David Handel, will open its 2002 concert season on March 15
through 17 in the City of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia.  This is the
first time in the Orchestra's 57-year history that the Andean ensemble of
70 musicians will reach the interior of the country on a continuing basis,
achieving its mandate as a truly national institution.

Repertoire for these concert will include Glinka's Ruslan and Ludmilla
Overture, Borodin's On the Steppes of Central Asia, Mussorgsky's Night on
Bald Mountain and Respighi's The Pines of Rome.

The Orchestra's concerts in Santa Cruz will be followed by various tours
this season to virtually all regions of the country, including Cochabamba,
Trinidad and additional presentations in Santa Cruz.  Further concert tours
in the planning stages include northern Chile and southern Peru.

This important outreach initiative is an important component of the
Orchestra's Music Director, David Handel and has been made possible thanks
to the facilitation of air transportation made possible the United States
Embassy, NAS.

The National Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1945 by European immigrants
escaping Nazi persecution.  Today the 70-piece National Symphony reaches
all sectors of the Bolivian population in all parts of the country,
performing some fifty concerts per season in La Paz, in the interior of the
country and in neighboring countries through concert tours and television
broadcast performances.

The Orchestra's dramatic increase in activity has been paralleled by
an increase in the diversity of its repertoire, beyond the classical
mainstream, now including opera, ballet, popular classics, contemporary,
traditional popular Bolivian music in original orchestral arrangements,
the Bolivian Contemporary Music Festival and more.  Visit their website
at http://www.sinfinocabolivia.org.

Since serving as Kurt Masur's assistant conductor, David Handel has led
orchestras throughout the world, including a preview of young conducting
talent with New York Philharmonic at New York's Carnegie Hall.  He has been
awarded a conducting fellowship from Germany's Leipzig Gewandhaus orchestra
and is one of few American conductors to have been invited to perform in
Cuba in recent years Mr. Handel has represented the United States in Latin
America and Central Asia as a recipient of United States Information Agency
awards and as a Cultural Ambassador through the U.S.  State Department
Cultural Specialist Program.  He has twice been awarded fellowships with
the prestigious Fulbright Program.  More information about David Handel
can be found in English and Spanish on the web at

   http://www.jamesarts.com/artists.htm#DAVIDHANDEL

For further information, please contact Jeffrey James Arts Consulting at
516-797-9166 or [log in to unmask]

Jeffrey James <[log in to unmask]>