Las Vegas Philharmonic Celebrates Oktoberfest, 10/14

The Las Vegas Philharmonic features Austro-German works in its Oktoberfest - Cabrera Conducts Beethoven, Mozart & Bruckner Concert on Saturday, October 14, 2017 at 7:30 PM in Reynolds Hall at The Smith Center for the Performing Arts. Starting at 6:00 PM, the Philharmonic will host its first Oktoberfest "Beer Garden" in The Smith Center Courtyard. Patrons will have the opportunity to sample a selection of craft beers and German-inspired hors d'oeuvres for $35 per person (reservations required). Music Director Donato Cabrera will host a pre-concert conversation in Reynolds Hall one hour prior to the performance (6:30 PM) for patrons who want to learn more about the history and meaning behind the music to be performed that evening.

The Philharmonic begins with Beethoven's Coriolan Overture based on the play by the Viennese playwright, Heinrich Joseph von Collin. The overture captures the dark and intense bitterness of Coriolanus, a fallen war hero who builds an army to attack his native city of Rome. He ends up tragically taking his own life after a desperate plea from loved ones to stop his war. The Coriolan Overture is one of the most frequently performed and recorded of Beethoven's orchestral works.

Following the overture, the orchestra performs Mozart's Clarinet Concerto in A Major, featuring the Philharmonic's Principal Clarinetist, Cory Tiffin. Mozart completed this piece just before his untimely death in 1791. The piece was originally composed for the lower register basset clarinet played by Mozart's friend, Anton Stadler. However, in subsequent years the basset clarinet was discontinued and the concerto we hear today was edited for performance on a standard clarinet.

Tiffin has served as principal of the Green Bay Symphony, the Beethoven Festival Orchestra, and the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra. He regularly performs with the Chicago Chamber Orchestra and Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra. He is on the music faculty for Loyola University Chicago and is an affiliated private instructor at The University of Chicago. Tiffin graduated from DePaul University's School of Music in Chicago as a student of Larry Combs, Julie DeRoche and Wagner Campos.

To close the evening's program, the Philharmonic will perform Bruckner's Symphony No. 1 in C Minor. Bruckner was an organist for the Linz Cathedral in Austria, who started composing symphonies in his early 40s. His first symphony premiered in Linz in 1868, but Bruckner continued to revise the work over a twenty-year period which lead to its second premiere in Vienna in 1891. The Las Vegas Philharmonic will perform the original Linz version. The symphony opens with a gallant march and in the final fourth movement ends triumphantly in C major.

Single tickets include five price levels in Reynolds Hall: PT Box = $109, A Seating = $105, B Seating = $70, C Seating = $50 and D Seating = $30. Tickets can be purchased online through lvphil.org or The Smith Center Box Office at 702.749.2000. Also, $35 tickets to the pre-concert Oktoberfest Beer Garden reception can be purchased through the box office.

The Las Vegas Philharmonic will offer a shuttle bus service to the concert from the Anthem Center at Independence Center in Henderson and the Starbright Theater in Summerlin. A roundtrip bus ticket costs $20 per concert and can be purchased in conjunction with the patron's concert tickets through the box office or online.