SANTA BARBARA SYMPHONYWill Release Single Tickets for 16-17 Season on 9/15/16

Single-ticket sales for the Santa Barbara Symphony's highly anticipated 2016-17 season will begin Thursday, September 15. The orchestra will present a total of nine programs over the course of its 64th season, which opens October 15 with a performance of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 featuring singers from throughout the region. All performances will take place at the Granada Theatre, 1214 State Street in Santa Barbara. Tickets can be purchased through the Granada box office, (805) 899-2222.

"The season gets underway with a concert that brings singers from throughout our community together, and from there the musical excitement only builds. Our 2016-17 program truly has something for everyone, and the response has been tremendous," said Kathryn R. Martin, interim executive director of the Santa Barbara Symphony.

"The season-opening performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony is a tribute to the enduring spirit of humanity and will be performed by more than 150 singers and 80 orchestra members, with soloists from across the country returning to their Santa Barbara roots, for a spectacular start to the season," she said.

The Symphony's performance of Beethoven's Ninth will involve singers from the Santa Barbara Choral Society, Westmont College, UCSB, Quire of Voyces, and San Marcos High School, as well as soloists Jeanine De Bique (soprano), Nina Yoshida Nelson (mezzo), Benjamin Brecher (tenor), and DeAndre Simmons (bass). The program also will include Rapture, a shimmering orchestral work by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Christopher Rouse. An encore concert will be presented on October 16.

Additional season highlights include a program of Mozart and Tchaikovsky piano concertos featuring soloists Natasha Kislenko and visiting artist Markus Groh (November 19 and 20); guest conductor David Lockington leading Hindemith's Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber, as well as orchestral accompaniment for screened scenes from Walt Disney's beloved Fantasia films (January 28 and 29); the West Coast premiere of American composer Jonathan Leshnoff's Clarinet Concerto along with Copland's iconic Symphony No. 3 (February 11 and 12); a pairing of Vivaldi's The Four Seasonsand Piazzolla's The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires, with guest violinist Philippe Quint (March 18 and 19); Sibelius' Symphony No. 5 and Grieg's Piano Concerto, featuring guest soloist Lilya Zilberstein (April 15 and 16); and a celebration of Paris, including Mozart's Symphony No. 31, Saint-Saëns' Cello Concerto (with guest artist Zuill Bailey), Liszt's Les préludes, and Gershwin's An American in Paris (May 13 and 14). The ensemble's popular New Year's Pops Concert will be led by guest conductor Bob Bernhardt and include an appearance by the spellbinding aerial performance troupe Cirque de la Symphonie. The Santa Barbara Symphony also will present Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf with storyteller Michal Katz as a family concert on November 26.

Complete season program information is available online at www.thesymphony.org/performances/season_2016-17.

Once again, the Santa Barbara Symphony will be led by the ever-compelling Nir Kabaretti, who was named the orchestra's music director in 2006 and its artistic director in 2008. Maestro Kabaretti has conducted the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, Orquesta Filarmonica de Buenos Aires, the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, to name just a few. His extensive operatic experience includes productions at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence, Teatro Real in Madrid, Switzerland's Opéra de Lausanne, and Teatro alla Scala in Milan. Winner of the 1993 Forum Junger Kunstler Conducting Competition in Vienna, he was named the music director of the Southwest Florida Symphony in 2014.

Subscription sales are underway. Series packages start at $62. To order subscriptions, go to www.thesymphony.org/store_symphony or call (805) 898-9386.

The Santa Barbara Symphony was founded in 1953 on the belief that a special city deserves a special orchestra. Consistently lauded for its unique ability to present brilliant concerts, engage the community, and deliver dynamic music education programs, the organization prizes both innovation and artistic excellence, and is widely recognized as one of the region's premier cultural institutions. Its award-winning Music Education Center serves some 5,000 students throughout Santa Barbara County each year. Charismatic Israeli conductor Nir Kabaretti was appointed music director of the Santa Barbara Symphony in 2006. For additional information, visitwww.thesymphony.org.