DAVID HANDEL TO CONDUCT MEXICO CITY'S ORQUESTA SINFONICA DEL IPN - June 7 and 9 Concerts at IPNs Unidad Cultural Jaime Torres Bodet American conductor David Handel will lead Mexico City's Orquesta Sinfonica Del IPN in concert on Thursday, June 7 at 7 PM and Saturday, June 9 at 12:30 PM at the Unidad Cultural Jaime Torres Bodet, of the Instituto Politecnico Nacional, located at Avenida IPN and Avenida. Wilfrido Massieu s/n Zacatenco D.F. in Mexico City. The program for these concerts will feature Maestro Handel conducting Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 2, "Little Russian", Oberture Lirica by Mexican composer Manuel Enriquez and Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 with Mexican pianist Emilio Lluis. Dynamic American conductor David Handel, Music Director of the National Symphony Orchestra of Bolivia, has been called "one of the most brilliant young conductors performing today... commanding and decisive..." and has developed an extraordinary reputation as an important innovator on the orchestral scene of the Americas. His creative programming and community outreach initiatives have brought record numbers of Bolivians to National Symphony concerts. Since the beginning of his tenure in that country, audience attendance has increased by over 600%, over half of the new audience composed of young concertgoers. His achievements with the National Symphony of Bolivia have drawn international attention as a model for institutional development and community leadership (Sonus Magazine, CNN, ECO-Mexico and IDBAmerica, the Magazine of the Interamerican Development Bank). As a result of his accomplishments in Latin America, David Handel is one of the only American conductors to have been invited to perform in Cuba in recent years. Since serving as Kurt Masur's assistant, David Handel has conducted orchestras throughout the world, including a preview of young conducting talent with the New York Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall. He 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 State Department Cultural Specialist Program. Maestro Handel has twice been a fellow of the prestigious Fulbright Program and has been honored with numerous distinctions including two Rackham awards, the Marguerite Lapp Scholarship for Exceptional Musical Talent, two Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Illinois Arts Council awards, and the Decoration of Illimani for outstanding community service in the arts in La Paz, Bolivia. He is one of the only young conductors ever to have been awarded a conducting fellowship from the Leipzig Gewandhaus. David Handel is represented by Corbett Arts Management. Visit their website at http://www.corbettarts.com/index.html, or call them in San Francisco at (415) 982-2505. Their email address is [log in to unmask] The Orquesta Sinfonica Del IPN is the resident orchestra of Mexico City's Instituto Politecnico Nacional. Visit their Spanish-language website at http://pp.terra.com.mx/~rleal/OSIPN.html. Manuel Enriquez (1925-1994) was active as a violinist, arts administrator and composer. He attended The Juilliard School in New York where he studied violin with the world-renowned pedagogue Ivan Galamian. He also studied composition under the direction of Peter Mennin and Stefan Wolpe. He was director of Mexico's National Conservatory and the Music Department of the National Institute of Fine Arts. Enriquez received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and from Germany's DAAD Institute. More information about this concert is available from the Instituto Politecnico Nacional at 5729 60 00 ext. 53623. For more information about Conductor David Handel, or to arrange an interview with him, contact his press representative Jeffrey James in New York at 516-797-9166 or [log in to unmask] Jeffrey James <[log in to unmask]>