Carl St. Clair Leads Pacific Symphony's 40th Anniversary Season

Pacific Symphony's 2018-19 season, which celebrates the orchestra's 40th anniversary opens on Thursday, September 27 with a program featuring American composer Frank Ticheli's "Shooting Stars," commissioned for Pacific Symphony's 25th anniversary and newly revised for this season's celebration; Ravel's "Boléro" highlighting musicians of Pacific Symphony as soloists on stage and in a specially commissioned anniversary film; guest soloist Olga Kern in Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3. In addition, this opening concert presents the Symphony's new concertmaster, Dennis Kim, sharing the solo spotlight with the Symphony's principal violist Meredith Crawford in Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante.

Comprising 12 programs, the 2018-19 Hal and Jeanette Segerstrom Family Foundation Classical Series continues Pacific Symphony's commitment to American music through performances of works by Leonard Bernstein in honor of his centennial and contemporary American works commissioned by the orchestra. The season also reflects the orchestra's diverse repertoire-from core symphonic works to full-length operas-and a penchant for re-interpreting the classics for the 21st century, through choreography, lighting and other multidisciplinary elements.

"The 40th anniversary is a landmark season for Pacific Symphony," said Carl St.Clair, who will lead the orchestra in his 29th season as Music Director. "It has been my pleasure to work with these brilliant musicians over the years, and I look forward to conducting the Symphony in repertoire that showcases their virtuosity and humanity. This will be a season of celebrations: from the Bernstein centennial concert in October, which is particularly meaningful to me because of my cherished experience studying with this great artist, to a concert in April marking the 50th anniversary of the moon landing that will feature a work we've commissioned from Michael Daugherty, one of the most widely performed American composers of his generation. We'll be offering diverse programming throughout the year, including a holiday program in December on which we'll present a 'Nutcracker Suite' with arrangements by both Tchaikovsky and Duke Ellington. In February, we'll return to the Italian operatic repertoire with Puccini's 'Madame Butterfly' for our annual semi-staged opera performances. And we conclude this celebratory season in June with Mahler's Symphony No. 8, the so-called 'Symphony of a Thousand,' which is one of the largest scale works in the classical repertoire. It is sure to be a grand finale to a grand season."

Additional classical programming highlights include works by Prokofiev and Ravel; performances conducted by Rune Bergmann, David Danzmayr and Jean-Marie Zeitouni, and in their Pacific Symphony debuts, Carlos Izcaray, Murry Sidlin and Christopher Warren-Green; and performances with cellist Leonard Elschenbroich, pianists Markus Groh, Olga Kern, Gabriela Martinez and Juho Pohjonen, violinists Augustin Hadelich, Paul Huang and Philippe Quint, and guitarist Pablo Villegas.

"With the 40th anniversary season, we're building on the momentum generated during the 2017-18 season, which included Pacific Symphony's Carnegie Hall debut at the Hall's invitation, and a five-city tour of China, the orchestra's first international tour since 2006, as well as a national broadcast on PBS 'Great Performances' performing Peter Boyer's 'Ellis Island,' " said Pacific Symphony President John Forsyte. "All this provides a musical springboard that naturally unfolds into a season of celebrations as the orchestra enjoys growing national recognition while leading a cultural renaissance in the communities of Orange County."