Santa Barbara Symphony To Present Mahler 6!

The Santa Barbara Symphony, under the baton of Maestro Nir Kabaretti, will present Gustav Mahler's monumental Symphony No. 6 for the first time in its 64-year history on Saturday, April 21, at the Granada Theatre. An encore performance will take place on Sunday, April 22. Presented without intermission, the concerts will start at 8 pm on April 21 and at 3 pm on April 22. Tickets start at $29 and can be purchased at www.granadasb.org or by calling 805-899-2222.

Occasionally referred to by the sobriquet "Tragic" (an appellation the composer ultimately discarded), Mahler's Symphony No. 6 is by turns brooding and combative. A reviewer who attended the composition's 1906 premiere lauded its "nerve-wracking intensity." The Sixth is renowned for the hammer strokes - or so-called "blows of fate" - that arise at climactic points in the work's finale.

In a nod to the enduring disagreement among musicologists as to the work's proper movement sequence, the Santa Barbara Symphony will present the Sixth in two forms. The movement order for Saturday's concert will be Allegro/Andante/Scherzo/Finale; on Sunday the order will be Allegro/Scherzo/Andante/Finale. A leading conductor as well as a composer of note, Mahler himself performed the work both ways.

"The name Gustav Mahler has become synonymous with symphonies of exceptional heft and ambition, and his Sixth Symphony is very much in keeping with that legacy," said Maestro Kabaretti, now in his 12th season as the Santa Barbara Symphony's music director. "The Santa Barbara Symphony will make an important artistic statement by performing a work of this magnitude. I can't wait to see the 102 musicians gathering onstage to play this powerful music. This is symphonic music at its best!"

The concerts on April 21 and 22 are generously supported by Chris and David Chernof, Hans Koellner and Karin Jacobson, and Joanne Ando.

The Santa Barbara Symphony's 2017-18 season will continue May 19 and 20 with performances of Vivaldi's Double Violin Concerto featuring Santa Barbara Symphony Concertmaster Jessica Guideri and the acclaimed Anne Akiko Meyers. The Symphony's re-scheduled performances of John Corigliano's Academy Award-winning score for The Red Violin, accompanied by François Girard's engrossing film in its entirety and featuring Canadian violinist Lara St. John as soloist, will take place June 16 and 17.

The Granada Theatre is located at 1214 State Street in Santa Barbara. Complete season program information is available online at www.thesymphony.org.

The Santa Barbara Symphony is 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 music director of the Southwest Florida Symphony in 2014.

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 more than 10,000 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, visit www.thesymphony.org.