'Rhapsody In Blue' Anchors California Symphony's Next Innovative Special Event And Fundraiser

The forward-looking California Symphony, Contra Costa County's only professional orchestra, presents Roaring into the Future - its biggest fundraiser of the season. With Event Co-Chairs Marcia Wilson and Fred Smith, a confluence of about 250 Bay Area community builders, tastemakers, trendsetters, corporate leaders, and entrepreneurs will gather for this premier social event of the East Bay for an evening unlike any other. The event features California Symphony in a performance of Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" led by Music Director Donato Cabrera, best-in-class design, impeccable food, a silent and live auction, and more.

"A model for other regional orchestras" (Mercury News), California Symphony serves thousands of Bay Area residents of all ages and economic circumstances each year through education programs, community engagement, and world-class concerts. A champion of innovation, access, and inclusion, California Symphony is defining what it means to be a modern and relevant American Orchestra.

The California Symphony, entering its seventh season under the leadership of Music Director Donato Cabrera, is distinguished by its vibrant concert programs that combine classics alongside American repertoire and works by living composers, and for bringing music to people in new and unconventional settings. The orchestra includes musicians who perform with the San Francisco Symphony, San Francisco Opera, San Francisco Ballet, and others, and is based in Walnut Creek at the Lesher Center for the Arts with additional recent performances around the region in Napa Valley, Concord, Oakland, and Berkeley.

Outside of the concert hall, the Symphony actively supports music education as a driver for social change through its El Sistema-inspired Sound Minds program at Downer Elementary School in San Pablo, CA, which brings intensive music instruction and academic enrichment to schoolchildren in an area where 94% of students qualify for the federal free or reduced price lunch program, at no cost to the students who participate. The Orchestra also hosts the highly competitive Young American Composer-in-Residence program and its current composer, Katherine Balch. California Symphony has launched the careers of some of today's most well-known artists, including violinist Anne Akiko Meyers, cellists Alisa Weilerstein and Joshua Roman, pianist Kirill Gerstein and composers such as Mason Bates, Christopher Theofanidis, and Kevin Puts.

The mission of the California Symphony is to enhance the lives of those it serves in Contra Costa County and the extended San Francisco Bay Area by performing the full range of orchestral repertoire of the highest quality with special attention to the work of American composers, presenting talented young performers in their first professional concert appearances, featuring performances by world class artists, and providing education outreach programs for the children and adults of our community.

Founded in 1986, our vision is to make classical music relevant to those we serve, bringing in new audiences along the way, and ultimately more fully living up to our name across the state of California.

For more information, please visit www.californiasymphony.org.

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