April 29, 2022 :: SOLOIST NATHAN CHAN SHARES HIS THOUGHTS ON REUNITING WITH MENTOR DONATO CABRERA, PERFORMING ELGAR’S CELLO CONCERTO AT EPIC FINALE, GROWING UP AS A MUSICAL PRODIGY, AND HOW TO GO VIRAL ON TIKTOK. What’s it like to come home and perform in the Bay Area with your former mentor, Donato Cabrera? It is with great excitement...
:: Principal horn Meredith Brown reflects on the return to live performances, stepping off the hamster wheel, and finding renewed purpose. Way back in 2020, while we were all reeling and horrified by suddenly being plunged into a pandemic, a part of me was learning about life. It turns out that even when you “do what...
April 21, 2022 :: Viet Cuong (b. 1990) Next Week’s Trees (2021) “Light is an invitation to happiness,” wrote beloved poet Mary Oliver in “Poppies”. We could all use such an invitation about now. We’ve been through a period of darkness, of present dread and future fear, a time of foreboding and separation. But such things don’t last. The...
March 30, 2022 :: From a foreign national anthem, to a groundbreaking world premiere that was immediately heralded by critics as “a masterpiece,” and unusual intermission on Sunday afternoon, this weekend’s concerts were almost as drama-filled as the Oscars. #WeStandWithUkraine Both concerts this weekend opened with a rendition of the Ukrainian national anthem, in solidarity with the people of...
March 21, 2022 :: Everyone loves a good fairy tale, featuring dashing heroes and heroines, evil villains, and imperiled protagonists, navigating their way towards a hoped-for happy ending. Shared from one generation to the next, these cautionary tales occupy a special place in popular culture and they have inspired some of the most appealing and memorable music ever written. ...
February 15, 2022 :: Thomas Adès (b. 1971) Three Studies from Couperin (2006) Thomas Adès loathed ‘sports days’—i.e., gym class—in school. (It’s a rare musician who can’t relate to that.) “I’d invent phantom tummy aches and stay at home and listen to records,” he recalls. Those records, collected by his poet/translator father, ranged from folk music to Stravinsky, and...
February 1, 2022 :: Against a background of programming modifications and cancellations by other Bay Area performing arts orgs, California Symphony staff and musicians worked together to give wings to January concerts, TAKE FLIGHT. When All Negatives Add Up to a Positive Over four days of rehearsals and performances and after many dozens of COVID tests, musicians, staff, and...
December 23, 2021 :: The “English horn” becomes the voice of the swan in Sibelius’ haunting tone poem Swan of Tuonela, in one of the best-known solos in the repertoire for the instrument. California Symphony’s James Moore tells us more about this enigmatically-named cousin of the oboe.
December 21, 2021 :: Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958) The Lark Ascending (1914/1921) Nostalgic longing permeates The Lark Ascending. Not a cozy nostalgia that looks back to a rose-tinted past, but rather a spiritual fervor for an idyllic paradise, expressed as the song of a soaring skylark and, on the earth below, human life—a poignant metaphor for our collective yearning...
November 9, 2021 :: By California Symphony staff—Tuesday, November 9, 2021 You had so many great questions and comments! Here are a few things you may—or may not—have noticed as everything came together for FOUR SEASONS, the second concert set of the 2021-22 live and in-person California Symphony season. Your number one question was… What’s the thing that soloist...
