Soka Performing Arts Center Presents Pacific Symphony Plays Mozart

Soka Performing Arts Center presents Pacific Symphony Chamber Orchestra on Sunday, January 9, 2020 at 3pm. This concert is truly a Pacific Symphony family affair as Maestro St.Clair leads the Pacific Symphony Chamber Orchestra in this all-Mozart program, along Concert Master Dennis Kim and Benjamin Smolen who holds the Symphony's Valerie and Hans Imhof Principal Flute Chair. The all-Mozart program includes Flute Concerto in G Major and Violin Concerto No. 3.

About Dennis Kim, violin
After making his solo debut at the age of 14 with the Toronto Philharmonic Orchestra, Dennis Kim has gone on to perform as a soloist with many of the most important orchestras in China and Korea. Highlights include performing on 10 hours' notice to replace an ailing William Preucil, performing Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" 20 times in one week and touring Japan with the Busan Philharmonic in 2008. During his tenure as concertmaster with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra, he was featured annually as a soloist. Over the last two seasons, he was a guest soloist with the Lebanon Philharmonic Orchestra and the Orchestra NOW, with repertoire ranging from Mozart and Haydn to Glass and Penderecki. Future engagements include those with the National Symphony Orchestra of Cuba. A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and Yale School of Music, Kim's teachers include Jaime Laredo, Aaron Rosand, Peter Oundjian, Paul Kantor, Victor Danchenko and Yumi Ninomiya Scott. He plays the 1701 ex-Dushkin Stradivarius, on permanent loan from a generous donor.

About Benjamin Smolen, flute
Benjamin Smolen was appointed principal flutist of Pacific Symphony in September 2011. Since beginning his studies at the age of 10 in Charlotte, North Carolina, he has won top prizes at the Haynes International Flute Competition, the James Pappoutsakis Memorial Flute Competition and the New York Flute Club Young Artist Competition. He has also given solo performances with the Princeton University Orchestra, Charlotte Civic and Youth Orchestras, Gardner Webb Symphony Orchestra, and on National Public Radio's From the Top with pianist Christopher O'Riley. His performances have been featured on NPR, WGBH-Boston, French National Radio, and the Naxos and Mode record labels. Smolen completed his undergraduate studies in the Music and Slavic departments at Princeton University, during which time he also completed a Performance Diploma at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory. He subsequently earned a Master of Music degree in Flute Performance at the New England Conservatory and a Performance Certificate from the University of Michigan.

About Pacific Symphony Orchestra
Led by Music Director Carl St.Clair since 1990, the Pacific Symphony has been the resident orchestra of Orange County's Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall for more than a decade. Currently in its 39th season, the symphony is the largest orchestra formed in the US in the last 50 years. It is not only a fixture of musical life in Southern California, but also recognized as an outstanding ensemble making strides on both the national and international scene. In Orange County, the orchestra presents over 100 concerts and events each year, as well as a rich array of education and community engagement programs, reaching more than 300,000 residents of all ages.

The Symphony offers repertoire that ranges from the great orchestral masterworks to music from today's most prominent composers. Seven seasons ago, the symphony launched the highly successful opera initiative Symphonic Voices, which continued in February 2018 with Mozart's Die Zauberflöte. It also offers a popular pops season, enhanced by state-of-the-art video and sound, led by Principal Pops Conductor Richard Kaufman. Each symphony season also includes Café Ludwig, a chamber music series; an educational Family Musical Mornings series; and Sunday Casual Connections, an orchestral matinee series that offers rich explorations of selected works led by Mr. St.Clair.

The Pacific Symphony's discography comprises 15 recordings, which feature 20th- and 21st-century music by American composers, including William Bolcom, John Corigliano, and Richard Danielpour. In 2012 for Naxos, Mr. St.Clair and the orchestra recorded Philip Glass's The Passion of Ramakrishna, a Pacific Symphony commission. The Symphony has also recorded for Harmonia Mundi, Koch International Classics, Reference Recordings, and Sony Classical, among other labels.

The Pacific Symphony has been recognized with multiple ASCAP Awards for Adventurous Programming and included among the country's five most innovative orchestras by the League of American Orchestras. The Symphony's education and community engagement activities have also been recognized by the league as well as the National Endowment for the Arts.

Tickets are $45-85 and are now available online at performingarts.soka.edu, at the Box Office at 1 University Drive in Aliso Viejo or by calling (949) 480-4ART (4287).