Punch Howarth
Concert programs for the 2014-2015 Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra season have been announced by director Linus Lerner and Board of Directors.
There will be two symphonies, five concertos, three overtures, four suites/tone poems, one new original work and the young winner of the Dorothy Vanek Youth Concerto Competition. Featured will be eight soloists and a guest conductor.
All five programs will be performed at SaddleBrooke at 7:30 p.m. on Saturdays, at DesertView Performing Arts Auditorium in Oro Valley at 3:00 p.m., on Sundays at St. Andrews Presbyterian Church and two concerts in Green Valley at 7:30 p.m. on Fridays at Valley Presbyterian Church.
The opening concert on October 4 at SaddleBrooke and October 5 in Oro Valley will feature a huge Suite for Orchestra, The Planets by Holst, a seven part work based upon Astrology. We hope to have NOAO (Kitt Peak) provide slides of the seven planets and other astronomy information. Opening the concert is Berlioz’ Military Opus, Rakoszy March from his Opera Damnation of Faust. Sandra Wright Shen will be soloist in Piano Concerto No. 21 by Mozart. The second program will welcome guest conductor Gabriele Pezone from Italy and Piano soloist Marta Magdalena Lelek from Poland. The rousing Rossini Overture to the Opera L’Italiana in Algeri will open the concert followed by Concerto for Violin and String Orchestra by Panufnik featuring Ms. Lelek. The concert will end with Franz Schubert’s Symphony No. 5. The dates for this concert are November 8 at SaddleBrooke and November 9 in Oro Valley.
The third and fourth concerts will add Green Valley as a site. On February 20 in Green Valley, February 21 at SaddleBrooke and February 22 in Oro Valley three really great works are on tap; von Suppe’s Light Cavalry Overture, Beethoven’s Triple Concerto featuring soloists Melanie Chae, piano, Edwin E. Soo Kim, violin, Zorin Stilin, cello. Following intermission is the very Slavic Symphony No. 8 of Dvorak. The fourth program on April 10 in Green Valley, April 11 at SaddleBrooke and April 12 in Oro Valley opens with an original new work, Psalm 22 by orchestra member Michael Kiefer followed by Martinu’s Rhapsody-Concerto for Viola with Hong-Mei Xiao soloist. The concert concludes with Khachaturian’s delightful Masquerade Suite.
For the closing SASO concert, Mussorgsky’s Tone Poem, Night on Bald Mountain will resonate; Chloe Trevor will solo in the Violin Concerto No. One by Max Bruch and Elgar’s suite of varied descriptive musical vignettes depicting friends, Enigma Variations, close out the season. This program will be at SaddleBrooke on May 9 and May 10 in Oro Valley. Go to www.sasomusic.org for ticket information, orchestra biographies, player memberships and donations.