Mark Grey News

The California Symphony today announced its 2017-18 season, its thirty-first, and its fifth with Music Director Donato Cabrera. The season includes a world premiere and a West Coast premiere, first performances of Mozart's Requiem and Sibelius's Third Symphony, the first performances in more than 20 years of Beethoven's Symphony No. 6, Pastoral, and Mahler's Symphony No. 4, the first performance of a work of Mahler's since the Orchestra's 1997-98 season. The Orchestra also welcomes guest soloists Haochen Zhang in Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 2; soprano Maria Valdes in Barber's Knoxville: Summer of 1915 and in Mahler's Symphony No. 4; and Bruch's Violin Concerto No. 1 with Alexi Kenney. The Orchestra gives the world premiere of new Young American Composer-in-Residence Katherine Balch's newest work, a California Symphony commission; and performs two works by Bay Area-based composer Nathaniel Stookey: the West Coast premiere of YTTE (Yield to Total Elation), and The Composer is Dead, the popular orchestral whodunit by Stookey and author Lemony Snicket, with Broadway star Manoel Felciano as narrator. Other highlights include performances with the San Francisco Conservatory Chorus and conductor Ragnar Bohlin of Vaughan Williams' Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis and Arvo Pärt's Te Deum, as part of the Mozart Requiem concert, and a performance of Smetana's Vltava (Die Moldau).

 Music Director Donato Cabrera leads the California Symphony in the world premiere of the newly-commissioned cello concerto, Tangle Eye, by its current Young American Composer-in-Residence, Dan Visconti, with soloist Inbal Segev on Sunday, May 7 at 4 pm at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek. The Israeli-American cellist, now based in New York, is a champion of contemporary music, and performs as a soloist with a Bay Area orchestra for the first time in the Orchestra's May 7 season finale. This is Visconti's final work as a Young American Composer-in-Residence with the Orchestra; his residency ends this year. The California Symphony also performs Bruckner's Symphony No. 6 for the first time in its 30-year history, and the program opens with Beethoven's Coriolan Overture.

Susanna Phillips stars as Clémence, the Countess of Tripoli, opposite Eric Owens as Jaufré Rudel, a troubadour on a quest to find his perfect love, and Tamara Mumford as the Pilgrim who carries messages back and forth between them.  

Music Director Donato Cabrera leads the California Symphony in a program of French and French-inspired music on Sunday, March 19 at 4 pm at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek.

San Francisco Opera General Director Matthew Shilvock and Music Director Nicola Luisotti today announced plans for the 2017-18 repertory season. The Company's 95th season will open Friday, September 8 with a gala performance of Giacomo Puccini'sTurandot led by Maestro Luisotti and an international cast starring Martina Serafin, Maria Agresta and Brian Jagde.

The California Symphony and Music Director Donato Cabrera ring in the holiday season with two special concerts starring beloved actress Rita Moreno, who narrates Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf in performances with the Orchestra December 20 at 7:30 pm and December 21 at 4 pm at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek.

The California Symphony and Music Director Donato Cabrera ring in the holiday season with two special concerts starring beloved actress Rita Moreno, who narrates Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf in performances with the Orchestra December 20 at 7:30 pm and December 21 at 4 pm at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek.

On paper, it might seem that Kaija Saariaho's L'AMOUR DE LOIN (LOVE FROM AFAR), libretto by Amin Maalouf, couldn't possibly fill a stage the size of the Met's: three characters and a chorus that bobs in and out of the action. Yet, in action, this breathtaking, shimmering piece not only seems at home--particularly in the able hands of soprano Susanna Phillips and the Met orchestra under the  Finnish conductor Susanna Malkki in Robert Lepage's production--but it's hard to imagine hearing it any other way.

Music Director Donato Cabrera leads the California Symphony in the Orchestra's first performance of Beethoven's Symphony No. 4 and a performance of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 23 by Romanian-Austrian pianist Maria Radutu, who is making her West Coast orchestral debut as soloist, Sunday, January 22 at 4 pm at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek. 

The California Symphony and Music Director Donato Cabrera ring in the holiday season with two special concerts starring beloved actress Rita Moreno, who narrates Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf in performances with the Orchestra December 20 at 7:30 pm and December 21 at 4 pm at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek.

Music Director Joana Carneiro and Berkeley Symphony open their 2016-17 season, their eighth together, on Today, October 13 at 7 pm with the world premiere of a commission by the Orchestra of a new work by Paul Dresher, Crazy Eights & Fractured Symmetries; Stravinsky's Petrushka; and violinist Philippe Quint performing Erich Korngold's Violin Concerto at Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley.

 The Suzi Bass Awards revealed nominations for the 2015-2016 Atlanta professional theatre season on Monday evening, September 12, to patrons and industry artists. The Suzi Nomination Party was generously hosted by the Alliance Theatre, at 6:30pm in The Circle Room, on the third floor, 1280 Peachtree Street, Atlanta, Georgia, 30309. 

The Paul Dresher Ensemble Presents the music theater production Schick Machine September 23-25 on San Francisco's Z Space Main Stage prior to tour. Directed by Rinde Eckert virtuoso percussionist Steven Schick inhabits a fantastical stage filled with huge invented instruments and sound sculptures - including the Hurdy Grande, the Tumbler, the Field of Flowers and the Peacock (a deconstructed pipe organ). After the performance, the audience is invited onstage to engage and explore a kind of audio "maker" sound and visual domain. The production was described at its debut as 'fresh and surprising...often mind-blowing' LA Times

Music Director Joana Carneiro and Berkeley Symphony open their 2016-17 season, their eighth together, on Thursday, October 13 at 7 pm with the world premiere of a commission by the Orchestra of a new work by Paul Dresher, Crazy Eights & Fractured Symmetries; Stravinsky's Petrushka; and violinist Philippe Quint performing Erich Korngold's Violin Concerto at Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley.

WALNUT CREEK, CA (August 9, 2016) – The California Symphony and Music Director Donato Cabrera open the Orchestra's 30th season on Sunday, September 18 at 4 pm at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek, with an early work by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Kevin Puts, written when he was a Young American Composer-in-Residence there, a performance of Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 2, and flutist Annie Wu, an East Bay native and SF Symphony Youth Orchestra alumna, as soloist in Mozart's Flute Concerto in G. 

The acclaimed Calidore String Quartet caps their artistic residency at Stony Brook University with a Carnegie Hall debut performance today, May 10th at 8 p.m. in Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall. The concert propels the quartet into their next high-profile residency with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center II, slated to begin in the 2016 fall concert season. CSQ is the first North American ensemble to be awarded the prestigious Borletti-Buitoni fellowship. This Carnegie recital will feature string quartet works by masterful composers, including two late works by Mozart and Mendelssohn - Mozart's String Quartet in D Major, K. 575 and Mendelssohn's String Quartet in F Minor, Op. 80 - and an early yet radical chamber work by Hindemith, String Quartet No. 4, Op. 22. Tickets start at $35 and are available via CarnegieCharge at (212) 247-7800, at the box office at 57th Street and 7th Avenue or online at www.carnegiehall.org.

BERKELEY, CA (March 22, 2016) – Music Director Joana Carneiro and Berkeley Symphonyclose their 2015-16 season Today, May 5 at 8 pm at Zellerbach Hall with the West Coast premiere of Mark Grey's Frankenstein Symphony, which the Orchestra co-commissioned with Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Violinist Simone Porter makes her first appearance in the Bay Area, performing Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto with the Orchestra.

Lyric Opera of Chicago presents a stunning production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's The King and I, featuring Broadway starsKate Baldwin and Paolo Montalban as Anna Leonowens and the King of Siam. Lyric Opera's The King and I runs April 29 through May 22 (press opening April 30), with 25 performances at the Civic Opera House, 20 N. Wacker Drive, Chicago. Tickets start at $29 and are available at lyricopera.org/king or at 312-827-5600. BroadwayWorld brings you a first look at the cast in action below!

The acclaimed Calidore String Quartet caps their artistic residency at Stony Brook University with a Carnegie Hall debut performance on Tuesday, May 10th at 8 p.m. in Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall. The concert propels the quartet into their next high-profile residency with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center II, slated to begin in the 2016 fall concert season. CSQ is the first North American ensemble to be awarded the prestigious Borletti-Buitoni fellowship. This Carnegie recital will feature string quartet works by masterful composers, including two late works by Mozart and Mendelssohn - Mozart's String Quartet in D Major, K. 575 and Mendelssohn's String Quartet in F Minor, Op. 80 - and an early yet radical chamber work by Hindemith, String Quartet No. 4, Op. 22. Tickets start at $35 and are available via CarnegieCharge at (212) 247-7800, at the box office at 57th Street and 7th Avenue or online at www.carnegiehall.org.

The California Symphony celebrates its 30th season in 2016-17 and its fourth season with Music Director Donato Cabrera, with a year of special programming that highlights the music by a Young American Composer-in-Residence program alumnus on each of its six concerts at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek. Throughout its 30-year history, the Orchestra has made American repertoire its special focus, nurturing and commissioning work from emerging American composers as well as performing the most revered core classical repertoire.