The Music Plays On — Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges
January 19, 2023 :: Joseph Bologne was born in 1745 on the Caribbean island and French department, Guadeloupe.
CeCe Salinas
Meet CHOPIN IN PARIS Soloist Maria Radutu
January 5, 2023 :: Austrian-Romanian pianist Maria Radutu, soloist in February’s CHOPIN IN PARIS concerts, talks about moving from Romania to Vienna at age 14, and plotting a similar path to artistic freedom in later life. (And plot twist: A snoring dog disrupts an important performance.) Can you tell us a little about yourself? I was born in Bucharest, Romania, and...
Program Notes — CHOPIN IN PARIS
January 3, 2023 :: Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges (1745–1799) Overture to The Anonymous Lover (1780) We possess a fine 1787 portrait of Joseph Bologne in which he embodies the very image of the pre-Revolutionary French gentleman: powdered wig, billowing lace kerchief, richly textured velvet coat, gloves, and an elegant rapier attesting to his fencing skill. But there’s something...
2022 + You: A Year in Review
December 29, 2022 :: Ten concerts, including two world premieres… Ten years of Sound Minds music education classes, uplifting students in a local East Bay community… The launch of Music Director Donato Cabrera’s tenth anniversary season… Thank you for spending this memorable year with the California Symphony! Thank you for so much for joining us in 2022. We can’t...
Meet the Fab Four
October 19, 2022 :: PRINCIPALS JENNIFER CHO (CONCERTMASTER), PHILIP SANTOS (VIOLIN), MARCEL GEMPERLI (VIOLA) AND LEIGHTON FONG (CELLO) TAKE PROMINENT ROLES IN ELGAR’S INTRODUCTION AND ALLEGRO, A WORK THAT HARKS BACK TO THE CONCERTO GROSSO* FORMAT OF THE BAROQUE ERA. WE CAUGHT UP WITH THIS AWESOME FOURSOME AS THEY PREPARE FOR A PROGRAM THAT CELEBRATES THE MELODIC HEART AND SOUL OF THE...
Donato Cabrera’s Ten Seasons of Joyful Learning
October 5, 2022 :: The 2022/23 season celebrates a number of milestones, including Music Director Donato Cabrera’s tenth season with the California Symphony. He sat down with us to share his reflections on the journey so far. Congrats on your tenth season with California Symphony! We should have got you a cake or something but all we’ve prepared are these...
Program Notes — ALL THINGS STRINGS
:: Edward Elgar (1857–1934) Introduction and Allegro, Op. 47 (1905) Had Edward Elgar not been a musician, he just might have been a scientist or an inventor. Fascinated by technology, he was a keen amateur chemist who even patented a method to produce hydrogen sulfide. Thus it’s not surprising that he was an enthusiastic advocate of...
Program Notes — INTERSECTIONS
August 10, 2022 :: Zoltan Kodály (1882–1967) Dances of Galánta (1933) If Zoltan Kodály ever resented his chronic second-banana status to friend and colleague Béla Bartók, he never let on. But it must have rankled. Bartók biographies invariably describe how, in his salad days, he traipsed through the backwaters of Eastern Europe, Edison cylinder recorder in tow, in search...
Meet 2022/23 Season Opener Soloist Inbal Segev
August 9, 2022 :: Inbal Segev on YouTube Musings, Adding Virtuosity, and an Unexpected Connection to Resident Composer Viet Cuong. We last saw you in Walnut Creek in May 2017, in the days before this blog existed. Can you tell us a bit about yourself? I am very much looking forward to returning to play with the California Symphony!...
Behind the Scenes at EPIC FINALE
May 18, 2022 :: This weekend’s EPIC FINALE concert was a fitting exclamation point on the season, as audiences got to hear Viet Cuong’s Next Week’s Trees (live and in-person, not on a screen!), Nathan Chan’s beautiful rendition of Elgar’s Cello Concerto, and Tchaikovsky’s triumphant Symphony No. 5.