Santa Barbara Symphony Subscription Sales Underway

Subscription sales have begun for the Santa Barbara Symphony's 2016-17 season, which will open in thrilling fashion October 15 with a performance of Beethoven's jubilant and inspiring Symphony No. 9 featuring several local choruses and popular soloists at the Granada Theatre. The orchestra will present a total of nine programs over the course of its 64th season, including a pair of non-subscription concerts. Series packages start at $62.

"Next season we highlight our ties to the community and abroad with a series of fantastic collaborations, beginning with the very first concert," said Symphony General Manager Susan Anderson. "And as audiences have come to expect, our own fabulous musicians will be in exceptionally fine form. Come join us."

The season-opening performance of Beethoven's uplifting Ninth Symphony, with its rapturous choral setting of Friedrich Schiller's "Ode to Joy," will feature singers from the Santa Barbara Choral Society, Westmont College, UCSB, 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 Seasons and 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.

All performances will take place at the Granada Theatre, 1214 State Street in Santa Barbara. 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.

To order subscriptions, go to www.thesymphony.org/store_symphony or call (805) 898-9386. Single tickets for the 2016-17 season will go on sale in September.