David Bernard to Conduct Massapequa Philharmonic's Season Opener, 10/18

The Massapequa Philharmonic will begin its 2014-2015 season with a performance led by guest conductor David Bernard at Berner Auditorium in Massapequa on Saturday October 18 at 8 pm. The program will feature Tchaikovsky's passionate and electrifying Symphony No. 4, Mozart's sublime Overture to the Magic Flute and Dvorak's endearing Violin Concerto featuring violinist Anna Lee. "It is a thrill to collaborate with the Massapequa Philharmonic and Anna Lee on the orchestra's opening concert," says guest conductor David Bernard. "Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4 scales human emotion from the depths of loneliness and longing up through triumphant elation. One minute the work tugs at your heart strings and then next sends you to the highest heights with a celebration of blinding brilliance. And Anna Lee will enrapture the audience with her artistry in the Dvorak Violin Concerto. It is an honor to share this great music with the people of Massapequa."

The performance venue, Berner Auditorium, is located at 50 Carman Mill Road in Massapequa, New York.

Known as the energetic and incisive Music Director of New York City's Park Avenue Chamber Symphony, David Bernard has performed in more than 20 countries on four continents, including a nine-city tour of the People's Republic of China with the Park Avenue Chamber Symphony and guest conducting appearances with the China Conservatory Orchestra, the ISO Symphony, the Long Island String Festival, the Massapequa Philharmonic, the New York Symphonic Arts Ensemble, the Putnam Symphony and the South Shore Symphony. A two-time First Prize Winner of the Orchestral Conducting competition of The American Prize, David Bernard's discography includes 20 albums spanning music from Vivaldi to Copland, including a complete cycle of Beethoven Symphonies, released on Amazon.com, iTunes, Napster and Rhapsody of which Fanfare Magazine acclaimed "David Bernard is an exceptional conductor. His performances are marked by a strong sense of the music's structure, an outstanding feeling for orchestral texture and phrasing, and a dynamic rhythmic propulsion that makes itself felt even in quiet passages. His interpretations are splendidly proportioned; from the first note to the last the listener feels that this is the way the whole work must go...balances are expertly judged and wonderfully blended...overall, distinguished and elegant music making."

Violinist Anna Lee was born in Seoul, Korea, and started playing violin at age 4. At age 5, she performed the Paganini Violin Concerto with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. Anna has participated in the Aspen Music Festival on a full scholarship where she gave a live National Public Radio performance to much acclaim. In 2006. Anna made her Avery Fisher Hall debut playing with the Little Orchestra Society, and in 2007, she was a top scholarship winner on the NPR Program From the Top. In the summer of 2009, Anna won the International Aspen Music Festival Competition which led to her performance of the Shostakovich Violin Concerto No. 1 with the American Academy of Conducting Orchestras. In April 2011, Anna performed with the New York Philharmonic as a winner of their Young Artists Competition, and she has claimed top prizes in the 2010 and 2012 Menuhin Competition. A former scholarship student in Julliard's Pre-college Division, Anna now attends Harvard University where she has been on a leave of absence to study in Germany.

Photo credit: Matt Dine