New Haven, CT, January 11, 2011: Join the New Haven Symphony Orchestra (NHSO) and Music Director William Boughton on Thursday, February 3, 7:30pm, at Woolsey Hall for Mysticism Unleashed featuring Wagner’s Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan and Isolde, Read Thomas’ Absolute Ocean and Brahms’ Symphony No. 3. Preview Performance: Wednesday, February 2, 7:00pm, New Canaan High School.

Enjoy an evening of some of the most sublime and dramatic music in the orchestral repertoire. Wagner’s lush portrayal of illicit love is paired with Brahms’s magnificently lyrical Third Symphony. In the midst of these works the orchestra performs Music Alive Composer-in-Residence Augusta Read Thomas’s Absolute Ocean, a charming and engaging work set to three poems by e.e. Cummings featuring soprano Tony Arnold.

John von Rhein of the Chicago Tribune writes, “anything sung by soprano Tony Arnold is worth hearing.” Hailed by the New York Times as “a bold and powerful interpreter,” Arnold has gained international acclaim for sparkling and insightful performances of the most daunting contemporary scores. In 2001, Ms. Arnold was thrust into the international spotlight becoming the only vocalist ever to be awarded first prize in the Gaudeamus International Interpreters Competition. Since that time, Ms. Arnold has established a reputation as a leading specialist in new vocal repertoire.

Tickets ($10-65) can be purchased by contacting the NHSO Box Office at (203) 865-0831, ext. 10 or by visiting www.newhavensymphony.org.

New Canaan concert attendees are asked to please bring a non-perishable food donation to benefit the New Canaan Food Bank in partnership with the Junior League of Stamford-Norwalk.

This concert series is made possible in part by the generous support of Gateway Community College, Greenwich Hospital and WSHU Public Radio.