Palm Beach Symphony Masterworks Series Concert Will Feature Mozart and More

Spanish-born guest conductor José-Luis Novo will make his Palm Beach Symphony debut leading Heavenly Mischief, a Masterworks Series concert featuring the music of Mozart, an overture by "the Spanish Mozart" Juan Crisóstomo Arriaga and a "Surprise" by Mozart's friend Franz Joseph Haydn. The concert is held Friday, February 7 at 8 p.m. at Benjamin Hall in Palm Beach Gardens and Saturday, February 8 at 7:30 p.m. at the Miramar Cultural Center | ArtsPark.

Solo performances by Palm Beach Symphony principal musicians Nadine Asin (flute) and Kay Kemper (harp) ignite the only music Mozart ever wrote for the harp as they perform with oboes, horns and strings in Concerto for Flute and Harp in C Major. The program also includes Mozart's Symphony No. 35 in D Major ("Haffner"), which that great composer said "positively amazed" even him.

Born half-a-century to the day after Mozart, Arriaga showed the same early promise which was even more short-lived with Arriaga dying at only 19 years of age. His Overture to Los Escalvos Felices shows a joy that is reminiscent of Rossini's operatic works of the time.

Mozart's mentor Haydn closes out the evening with Symphony No. 94 in G Major ("Surprise") written for London audiences that liked their music with a little extra drama.

One of the leaders of a new generation of Hispanic conductors in the U.S., Maestro Novo has served as music director and conductor of the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra in Maryland since 2005 and, in 2016, concluded a 13-year tenure as music director of the Binghamton Philharmonic in New York. Earlier in his career, he was assistant conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra. He is a recipient of a 2008 Adventurous Programing Award from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers.

In addition to 20 years with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Asin has performed with the New York Philharmonic, Great Performers Series of Lincoln Center, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Da Camera Society of Houston and on NPR's Performance Today. Kemper has appeared with, among others, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Pops, Milwaukee Symphony and Atlanta Symphony and she has served as President of the South Florida Chapter of the American Harp Society.

Tickets to the concert at Benjamin Hall, 4875 Grandiflora Road in Palm Beach Gardens, are $20-$100. The evening was generously underwritten by Dodie and Manley Thaler and the Thaler/Howell Foundation. Tickets are available online at PalmBeachSymphony.org; by phone at (561) 281-0145; or by visiting the Palm Beach Symphony Box Office, Monday-Friday from 10 a.m.-3 p.m.

Tickets to the concert at Miramar Cultural Center | ArtsPark, 2400 Civic Center Place in Miramar, are $20-$50 and are available at 954-602-4500 or www.miramarculturalcenter.org.