Peninsula Symphony Orchestra Opens 65th Season Featuring Soloist John O'Conor Tonight

The Peninsula Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Mitchell Sardou Klein will open the venerated and innovative ensemble's 65th season with a pair of concerts in San Bruno and Cupertino featuring the return of popular soloist John O'Conor (performing both the Grieg Piano Concerto and Beethoven's Choral Fantasy), the Masterworks Chorale and music by Brahms, Handel, and Walton. The program will be given tonight, October 25, at 8 pm at the beautiful new Capuchino High School Auditorium in San Bruno. For information, visit www.peninsulasymphony.org .

PENINSULA SYMPHONY 2013-14 SEASON OPENING
Mitchell Sardou Klein, Music Director and Conductor

Tonight, October 25, 2013 at 8 p.m., Capuchino High School Auditorium, 1501 Magnolia Avenue, San Bruno [EDITOR NOTE: change from originally announced venue]
Saturday, October 26, 2013 at 8 p.m., Flint Center/DeAnza College, 21250 Stevens Creek Blvd., Cupertino

John O'Conor, piano

Masterworks Chorale, Bryan Baker, Artistic Director

Program:

Brahms: Academic Festival Overture; Grieg: Piano Concerto; Walton: Crown Imperial; Handel: Zadok the Priest; Beethoven: Choral Fantasy

Tickets are priced $10-$40 and may be purchased at www.peninsulasymphony.org, or by calling the Symphony office at (650) 941-5291.

ABOUT JOHN O'CONOR

Irish pianist John O'Conor has earned a worldwide reputation as a masterful interpreter of the Classic and early-Romantic repertoires. Following initial studies in his native Dublin he studied in Vienna with the renowned pedagogue Dieter Weber, won First Prize at the Beethoven International Piano Competition in Vienna in 1973 and made a special study of Beethoven with the legendary German pianist Wilhelm Kempff. Since then he has toured the world in recital and concerto appearances and makes regular visits to Europe, the USA, Japan, Korea and China.

His recordings on the Telarc label have brought him particular renown. CD Review described his box set of the complete Beethoven Sonatas as "Beethoven playing at its best"; the New York Times named his recording of the Beethoven Bagatelles as the best available; his recording of the John Field Nocturnes spent many weeks on the Billboard charts and his recently released recordings of the complete Beethoven Piano Concertos with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Andreas Delfs have been greeted with great acclaim.

For his services to music he has been decorated with "l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres" by the French Government, the "Ehrenkreuz fur Wissenschaft und Kunst" by the Austrian Government, the Order of the Rising Sun by the Japanese Government and has received many other awards.

ABOUT PENINSULA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Peninsula Symphony Orchestra began in 1949, when two distinct musical ensembles--the Sequoia Symphony & the Peninsula Symphony--and one conductor, Russian-born violinist/conductor Aaron Sten, joined forces. In 1951, under Vincent Guida, symphony clarinetist and business manager, the organization was incorporated as a non-profit association, and a formal board was chosen. With the arrival of current conductor Mitchell Sardou Klein, the Peninsula Symphony grew from a grassroots ensemble to a polished 90-plus member orchestra of well-trained community musicians. The Peninsula Youth Orchestra was established in the spring of 1997, with Mitchell Sardou Klein serving as the Music Director. Today, Peninsula Symphony Orchestra works to enrich the lives of people in the community with inspiring, innovative, high-quality musical presentations at affordable prices, and to promote music education through engaging programs for children and adults.

About Mitchell Sardou Klein

Mitchell Sardou Klein, whose performances on four continents have garnered wide acclaim, enters his 29th season as Music Director and Conductor of the Peninsula Symphony and his 17th season as founding Music Director of the Peninsula Youth Orchestra. He regularly guest conducts orchestras in California, throughout the United States, and in Europe.

He made his debut with Symphony Silicon Valley in two sold-out performances in January, 2012. Other recent appearances as a guest conductor in California include the Santa Rosa Symphony, the Inland Empire/Riverside Philharmonic, Ballet San Jose, the California Riverside Ballet and the Livermore-Amador Philharmonic. Concerts elsewhere have included his return to Europe to guest conduct the New Polish Philharmonic and the Suddettic Philharmonic, concert tours of England, France, Spain, Italy, Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Belgium, Holland, Japan, Australia and New Zealand with PYO, numerous return engagements to the San Jose Symphony (the predecessor of Symphony Silicon Valley), and his return to the podium of the Santa Cruz Symphony. Prior guest conducting appearances have included the Seattle Symphony, Richmond Symphony, Eastern Philharmonic, Flagstaff Festival Symphony, Amarillo Symphony, Lexington Philharmonic, South Bend Symphony, and many others. Maestro Klein also has extensive experience in conducting ballet orchestras, including the Kansas City, Lone Star, Oakland, and Westport Ballets, as well as the Theater Ballet of San Francisco and les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo.

Maestro Klein directed over a hundred concerts as Associate Conductor of the Kansas City Philharmonic (where he was also Principal Pops Conductor and Principal Conductor of Starlight Theater, the Philharmonic's summer home), and also served as Music Director of the Santa Cruz Symphony.

Maestro Klein is a winner of many prestigious awards, including the 2008 Diamond Award for Best Individual Artist, the Silver Lei Award from the 2009 Honolulu Film Festival (for the World Premiere of Giancarlo Aquilanti's La Poverta), the 2000 ASCAP Award for Programming of American Music on Foreign Tour, the 2001 Jullie Billiart Award from the College of Notre Dame for Outstanding Community Service, a 1996 award for the year's best television performance program in the Western States (for the one-hour PBS program about him and the Peninsula Symphony) as well as the 1993 Bravo Award for his contribution to the Bay Area's cultural life.

Mr. Klein was born in New York City, into a musical family that included members of the Claremont and Budapest String Quartets. He began cello studies at age four with his father, Irving Klein, founder of the Claremont Quartet. His mother, Elaine Hartong Klein, danced with the Metropolitan Opera Ballet.

Since 1984, he has been Director of the Irving M. Klein International String Competition. Held in San Francisco each June, the Competition has become one of the most prominent in the world, featuring prizes totaling over $25,000, attracting applicants from more than twenty nations annually, and launching numerous major international concert careers.

Cited for his "keen judgment, tight orchestral discipline, feeling for tempo, and unerring control," Maestro Klein has conducted many significant world, American, and West Coast premieres, including works by Bohuslav Martinu, Meyer Kupferman, Joan Tower, Hans Kox, George Barati, Benjamin Lees, Giancarlo Aguilanti, Melissa Hui, Rodion Shchedrin, Brian Holmes, Ron Miller, Lee Actor, Alvin Brehm, and Margaret Garwood. He has appeared frequently on national and international broadcasts, including National Public Radio, the Voice of America, the WFMT Fine Arts Network, PBS Television, and KQED television.

CALENDAR EDITOR PLEASE LIST: CLASSICAL MUSIC EVENT:

PENINSULA SYMPHONY 2013-14 SEASON OPENING
Mitchell Sardou Klein, Music Director and Conductor

Friday, October 25, 2013 at 8 p.m., Capuchino High School Auditorium, 1501 Magnolia Avenue, San Bruno [EDITOR NOTE: change from originally announced venue]
Saturday, October 26, 2013 at 8 p.m., Flint Center/DeAnza College, 21250 Stevens Creek Blvd., Cupertino

John O'Conor, piano

Masterworks Chorale, Bryan Baker, Artistic Director

Program:

Brahms: Academic Festival Overture; Grieg: Piano Concerto; Walton: Crown Imperial; Handel: Zadok the Priest; Beethoven: Choral Fantasy

Tickets are priced $10-$40 and may be purchased at www.peninsulasymphony.org.

To post a comment, you must register and login.