American Cellist Cicely Parnas Makes Her Brevard Symphony Orchestra Debut!

Music overflowing with the elegance and grace of four masterful French composers fills the program when the Brevard Symphony Orchestra presents The French Connection on Saturday, January 21, 2017, at the King Center for the Performing Arts in Melbourne. Gabriel Faure's sweetly somber Pavane opens the concert, followed by one of the most famous works for cello and orchestra - the First Cello Concerto by Camille Saint-Saens. Rising star Cicely Parnas makes her BSO debut with this tuneful showpiece. After intermission, two suites originally composed for piano are heard in their orchestral versions - Claude Debussy's charming Petite Suite is a setting of four miniature tone pictures. Maurice Ravel's Le Tombeau de Couperin salutes not just the great French Baroque master Francois Couperin - but also serves as a musical tribute to friends and colleagues of Ravel's who were lost during World War I.

Prior to the performance, patrons are also invited to join BSO Music Director and Principal Conductor Christopher Confessore for Concert Conversations with the Maestro. This fun, insightful, and interactive chat begins approximately 40 minutes before the performance. Two performances, under the baton of Maestro Confessore, begin at 2:00pm and 8:00pm. Tickets begin at $25 for adults. Special offers are available for new subscribers, teachers, students and active military. Children in grades 4-12 who opt-in to the BSO's free concert club can purchase two tickets to this performance for only $6 each. For tickets, call the King Center Box Office at (321) 242-2219 or purchase online atwww.brevardsymphony.com.

ABOUT THE ARTIST: CICELY PARNAS

American cellist Cicely Parnas, performs recitals, concertos, and educational outreach throughout the country. Her 2016-2017 season includes appearances as soloist with the Charleston Symphony Orchestra, the Acadiana Symphony Orchestra, the Asheville Symphony Orchestra, the Westmoreland Symphony, the Brevard Symphony Orchestra, and the Charlottesville Symphony.

Ms. Parnas has performed recitals at the National Museum for Women in the Arts, the Morgan Library and Museum, University of Florida Performing Arts, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the Salk Science and Music Series in California, the Cosmos Club in Washington, DC, the Chamber Music Society of Palm Beach, the Alys Stephens Performing Arts Center, the Buffalo Chamber Music Society, Vanguard Concerts, and the Washington Center for the Performing Arts. She has also appeared with the Long Bay Symphony, the Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle, the Owensboro Symphony, the Southwest Michigan Symphony, the Vermont Symphony, the Longwood Symphony Orchestra, the Rochester Chamber Orchestra, the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, the Victoria Symphony, the Pensacola Symphony, the Charlotte Symphony, and the Montreal Chamber Orchestra, where she gave the world premiere of Jim McGrath's Concertino for Cello.

In 2012, Ms. Parnas made her Carnegie Hall concerto debut, performing the Saint-Saëns Concerto with the New York String Orchestra under the baton of Jaime Laredo. The New York Times raved: "Cicely Parnas, a fast-rising young cellist, was the impressive soloist in a rhapsodic performance." She toured France performing the Saint-Saëns Concerto with L'Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire. Other international appearances include her participation in the 2013 Young Concert Artists Festivals in Tokyo and Beijing.

No stranger to the limelight, Ms. Parnas was named an inaugural Young Artist in Residence on NPR's Performance Today in 2011, where she was featured in five broadcasts and an American Public Media video spotlight. Winner of the 2012 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, she was presented last season in debuts at Merkin Concert Hall and the Kennedy Center to rave reviews. She was the recipient of YCA's Mortimer Levitt Career Development Award for Women Artists in 2012. She also captured First Prize in the 2011 Cello Concerto Competition at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music.

In addition to her solo career, Ms. Parnas performs in Duo Parnas with her sister, violinist Madalyn Parnas. Duo Parnas has performed as soloists with the Hudson Valley Philharmonic under Randall Fleisher, the El Paso Symphony Orchestra under Lawrence Loh, and the Albany Symphony Orchestra under David Alan Miller, as well as in many recitals with pianist Peter Serkin. Duo Parnas has recorded three albums on the Sheffield Lab label, including their most recent CD, entitled Duo Parnas NOW, which includes 21st century works by Lera Auerbach, William Bolcom, Paul Moravec, and Charles Wuorinen. In 2012, they recorded Brian Fennelly's Fantasia Concertante on Albany Records, a piece written for Duo Parnas and the digital-instrument Fauxharmonic Orchestra.

Granddaughter of the distinguished cellist Leslie Parnas, Cicely Parnas started playing the cello at the age of four and made her concerto debut at eleven with the Woodstock Chamber Orchestra. She has studied with cellists Peter Wiley and Ronald Feldman, and earned an Artist Diploma from Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music, where she worked with Sharon Robinson. Ms. Parnas performs on a 1712 Giovanni Grancino cello.

This concert is sponsored by Nash & Kromash, Attorneys at Law.

The Brevard Symphony's matinee series is sponsored by Health First.

For more information, contact the Brevard Symphony Orchestra at (321) 242-2024 or visit our website at BrevardSymphony.com

The BSO is Brevard's premier professional orchestra. For over 60 years, the Brevard Symphony Orchestra has brought quality performances, educational programs and outreach events to the community. The Orchestra's mission is to entertain and enrich individuals and communities, by creating exceptional, live symphonic music. The BSO is orchestra-in-residence at the King Center for the Performing Arts in Melbourne, Florida.