November 5, 2019 :: Relocating from Chicago to California, incoming Executive Director Lisa Dell is an arts champion with a wealth of music experience and a passion to grow the reputation of the California Symphony as a leader in its space. Can you tell us a bit about yourself? I grew up in a creative household, largely due to...
October 26, 2019 :: Composer Kevin Puts’ association with California Symphony dates back to 1996, when he became the orchestra’s third ever Young American Composer-in-Residence. It was an experience he has called “life-changing,” and it launched a career that has so far yielded the prestigious Rome Prize (2002) and a Pulitzer Prize win for his debut opera Silent Night (2012), as well...
October 20, 2019 :: At just 23 years old, she’s a national award-winner, Harvard and New England Conservatory graduate, and a YouTube star. Pleasanton-born flute powerhouse Annie Wu joined us to talk about her California connections, Lizzo, and her wardrobe choice regrets for the flute-beatboxing video she made when she was in high school and which ended up going...
October 17, 2019 :: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Symphony No. 1 in E-flat Major, K. 16 (1764) A child prodigy of staggering talent, itty-bitty Wolfgang Mozart was trundled about Western Europe from ages 7 through 10 by his doting—and exploitative—father. The family arrived in London in April 1764, where eight-year-old Wolfgang formed a close bond with Johann Christian Bach,...
:: By California Symphony Music Director Donato Cabrera. In programming this concert with the California Symphony, there were a few ‘a-ha moments’ that I hoped to share with everyone, on stage and off. Because conductors and unadventurous and nervous marketing departments of most symphony orchestras have sadly codified the repertoire, you, the audience, rarely get to hear all of...
October 9, 2019 :: Support Now Support Now
October 6, 2019 :: Silicon Valley tech whizz by day and California Symphony’s Juilliard-trained virtuoso on weekends, clarinetist Stephen Zielinski answers our burning questions about his life and music career—including how he and Maestro Donato Cabrera share a connection that dates back almost two decades. 1. Can you tell us a little about your life in music? I’ve always...
August 20, 2019 :: Internationally recognized mezzo-soprano Rachel Calloway has been praised by the New York Times for her “penetrating clarity” and “considerable depth of expression” as well as by Opera News for her “adept musicianship and dramatic flair.” She talks with us about growing up in a musical family, her jet-setting career, and the Bay Area connections that...
:: Gabriela Lena Franks’ The Keeper and the Dove song cycle uses text by Pulitzer Prize-winning Cuban-American playwright Nilo Cruz to explore the complex relationship between Mexican artists Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. The “Keeper” allows Kahlo’s spirit form to return to her beloved husband for one last visit during the Dia de los Muertos (Day...
August 15, 2019 :: By California Symphony Music Director Donato Cabrera. As we approach the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth in 2020, I thought we could get a head start by programming his most popular symphony, and perhaps the most recognizable piece of Western Classical Music, his Symphony №5, with one of his lesser known works, The Creatures...
