The Santa Barbara Symphony Presents Mozart & Mahler This November

The Santa Barbara Symphony's 2019/20 Season continues with Mozart & Mahler, Saturday, November 16 at 8:00PM and Sunday, November 17 at 3:00PM, 2019, the second of nine exciting and versatile programs.

This month, the Symphony brings Santa Barbara the music of Mozart, Mahler, and Pulitzer Prize winner Julia Wolfe with the local debut of world-renowned Croatian soprano Lana Kos. From Mozart's joyous Exsultate, Jubilate to Julia Wolfe's powerful Fuel for Strings along with film by Bill Morrison, to a musical view of heaven through a child's eyes in Mahler's Fourth Symphony, it is a timely program for this season of thanksgiving and gratitude. Mozart & Mahler is made possible through the generosity of the following sponsors: Artist Sponsor Christine A. Green and Selection Sponsors Sam and Alene Hedgpeth, and Dr. Robert W. Weinman.

During this November Symphony Concert Week, Symphony donors who contribute $5,000 or more to the Annual Fund are invited to the first Prelude Event of the 2019/20 season. This Prelude Event is scheduled for November 14th and will be hosted by Symphony Board member Dan Burnham and his wife Meg. Wine and hors d'oeuvres will be served and Symphony guest artist Croatian soprano Lana Kos will engage in a special Q+A with Music and Artistic Director Nir Kabaretti at this exclusive event. Please contact Anaïs Pellegrini, Vice President of Advancement, at 805-898-0107 for more information about this event and annual giving opportunities at the Symphony.

Single tickets for Mozart & Mahler are priced with great seats from $31 and may be purchased online at thesymphony.org or by calling the Granada Theatre Box Office at 805-899-2222. Subscriptions are still available and provide savings and exclusive benefits, purchase online at thesymphony.org or call the Symphony Office at 805-898-9386.

"I am thrilled that Lana Kos-certainly one of the most important sopranos of the operatic world today-is joining us for this concert," said Santa Barbara Symphony Music and Artistic Director Nir Kabaretti, "she just sang for thousands at the Arena di Verona, regarded by many as the Mecca of the opera world." "Having already engaged Lana for the Mahler, I thought it would be meaningful to feature her in another piece, which is why Mozart's Exsultate was programmed," said Kabaretti, "and last but not least, we are thrilled to excite Santa Barbara music lovers with a piece by contemporary female composer Julia Wolfe, whose Fuel for Strings will be performed along with the film by award-winning filmmaker Bill Morrison that inspired the composition."

Mozart's joyous religious motet Exsultate, Jubilate was selected by Maestro Kabaretti specifically for the Santa Barbara debut of world-renowned Croatian soprano powerhouse Lana Kos. Mozart wrote this virtuosic motet in appreciation for Roman castrato Venanzio Rauzzini, as thanks for his debut performance of Mozart's opera Lucio Silla. This delightful work, whose text is religious but not part of the regular liturgy, is a brilliant showpiece that was tailored to Rauzzini's considerable vocal talents. The opening movement supports Alfred Einstein's evaluation that this work is a "vocal concerto." The finale, based on the single word Alleluja, is one of the most delightful and familiar movements from Mozart's sacred pieces, and it provides a luminous ending to this wonderful work of the sixteen-year-old Salzburg prodigy, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Julia Wolfe composed "Fuel" in 2007 as a joint project with filmmaker Bill Morrison. The collaboration was the result of a commission from the European string orchestra Ensemble Resonanz. Wolfe took the request and the result is high-intensity music that explodes to life, taking the audience on a white-hot musical ride throughout its 20 minutes. The music is a perfect correlative to Morrison's film depicting time-lapse vistas of busy waterfronts which will accompany the Santa Barbara Symphony's performance of this great contemporary work. Bill Morrison has collaborated with some of the most influential composers and performers of our time, including John Adams, Philip Glass, Kronos Quartet, Steve Reich, and Julia Wolfe.

Of her composition Fuel for Strings, Pulizter Prize-winner Julia Wolfe wrote, "The idea for Fuel began in conversation with filmmaker Bill Morrison. We talked about the mystery and economy of how things run - the controversy and necessity of fuel - the global implications, the human need. The music takes its inspiration from the fiery strings of Ensemble Resonanz. The members of the group challenged me to write something rip-roaring and virtuosic, asking me to push them to the limit. This request merged with the sounds of transport and harbors - New York and Hamburg - large ships, creaking docks, whistling sounds, and a relentless energy."

Warm and lyrical, Mahler's Fourth Symphony combines deliberate simplicity with a wealth of invention. It is also the most modest in length and orchestra size of his ten, and was composed during a time that Mahler was very interested in the folk traditions of Germany as they were set down in an early-19th-century anthology of poems titled "Des Knaben Wunderhorn" ("The Youth's Magic Horn"). Mahler's interest in these simple peasant verses infused a sense of innocence and child-like simplicity into the heart of his Fourth Symphony. The entire mood and structure of this symphony was built to lead to the finale which exudes a beauty, calm and simplicity that place the performance of this work among the most pacific moments in all of music.

SOPRANO LANA KOSFull lyric Soprano Lana Kos was born in 1984 in Varazdin, Croatia, and acquired her musical skills at the Music Academy of Zagreb. At the age of only seventeen, she made her debut as the Queen of the Night in Mozart`s Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute) and soon after, Mstislav Rostropovich awarded her the lead role of Natasha Rostova in newly produced Sergei Prokofiev`s War and Peace at the Moscow Bolshoi Theatre.

Kos' recent engagements include Violetta in Verdi's La traviata and Desdemona in Verdi's Otello at Bucharest Opera, Liù in Puccini's Turandot at Savonlinna Festival, Liù and Musetta in Puccini's La bohème at Torre del Lago and Teatro di San Carlo, Marguerite in Gounod's Faust at Vilnius City Opera, Verdi Requiem in Zagreb, and Violetta at Teatro Petruzzelli.

Among Lana Kos' future engagements are debut at Teater Erfurt as the title rol in Verdi's opera Aida, Michaëla in Bizet's Carmen at Arena di Verona, debut as Cio Cio San in Puccini's Madama Butterfly, the title role in Bellini's Norma in Bern and Violetta at Teatro Real de Madrid.

Pre-Concert Talks: "Behind the Music" hosted by Saïd Ramón Ara?-zaPLEASE NOTE: The time has changed for 2019/20 Pre-Concert Talks; talks will begin one hour and fifteen minutes prior to each series performance.

Back by popular demand, we present musician and music scholar, Saïd Ramón Ara?-za in "Behind the Music" pre-concert talks. Mr. Ara?-za's extensive musical background, insights, presentation skills and humor will take you on a journey of discovery about each program, bringing each work and its composer to life in a whole new way. Open to all ticket holders, the talks are approximately 30 minutes and are held one hour and fifteen minutes before each subscription concert begins at the Granada Theatre (Holiday Pops and New Year's Eve Pops excluded). For Saturday evening performances, the talk begins at 6:45PM and for Sunday matinee performances, the talk begins at 1:45PM. "Behind the Music" is generously sponsored by Marilynn L. Sullivan and The Chalfant Family Trust, and Patricia Gregory for the Baker Foundation.