November 21, 2017 :: The California Symphony’s A LEMONY SNICKET HOLIDAY offers Walnut Creek audiences a sing-along, the Nutcracker, hot cocoa, and a whodunit orchestra mystery, with two shows at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek on Saturday December 23, at 4PM and 8PM. Tickets start at just $20 for kids and students. FAST FACTS ·...
October 13, 2017 :: From October 13th to the 31st, the California Symphony will be exploring mysteries and superstitions surrounding symphonic composers. Pictured left to right: Gustav Mahler, Arnold Schoenberg, and Alban Berg. Composers can be a superstitious bunch. For this Friday the 13th during the spooky month of Halloween, we look at three who were fixated on the power...
September 23, 2017 :: We have a blockbuster line up for our pre-concert talk on Sunday. Joining Music Director Donato Cabrera onstage in the Hofmann Theater at the Lesher Center for the Arts at 3PM, one hour before the performance, will be OOVE inventor Oliver DiCicco, composer Nathaniel Stookey, and soprano Maria Valdes. The talk is free to ticket...
September 20, 2017 :: Dawn Foster-Dodson, 1959–2017 On July 24, we lost to cancer Dawn Foster-Dodson — a talented cellist and long-time member of the California Symphony family of musicians. Our 2017–18 season opener concert, LYRICAL DREAMS, is dedicated to her memory. Dawn joined the California Symphony in 1992 and she continued to play for us through until last season. According...
September 19, 2017 :: Newest members, Stephen Zielinski (pictured on the left) and Alex Orfaly (pictured on the right). We are delighted to welcome Stephen Zielinski, clarinetist, and Alex Orfaly, timpanist as our newest members of the California Symphony. Stephen Zielinski just won the highly competitive audition for Clarinet 2/Eb in June (though, on Sunday he is playing Principal Clarinet)....
September 15, 2017 :: Music Director Donato Cabrera reflects on Mahler, whose Symphony №4 is featured in our season opener, LYRICAL DREAMS, on Sunday, September 24. When listening to a composition by Gustav Mahler, try to think about time and place. As in, the precise time and place Mahler aimed to convey in the music. Mahler was trying...
September 12, 2017 :: Wonder what the musicians think of the music in our new 2017–18 LARGER THAN LIFE season? Well so did we, and so we asked them. In a poll of California Symphony musicians this summer, an astonishing 76% indicated a preference for our season opener, LYRICAL DREAMS, a program that includes pieces either written about or...
September 11, 2017 :: —By Jennifer Cho, California Symphony Concertmaster. Arnold Böcklin’s self portrait inspired the chilling, creepy violin solo in the second movement of Mahler Symphony №4 According to Gustav Mahler’s wife Alma, the second movement in his Symphony №4, which features a uniquely challenging violin solo, was inspired by a self portrait of Arnold Böcklin. Behind the artist,...
September 7, 2017 :: San Francisco Opera first violinist Jennifer Cho is confirmed as Concertmaster for the California Symphony after four years with the orchestra, including a year as Acting Concertmaster during the 2016–17 season. Here’s the official announcement… Cho debuts as Concertmaster with the California Symphony at our season opener LYRICAL DREAMS, Sunday, September 24 at 4pm, at...
September 2, 2017 :: James Agee’s family home in Knoxville, TN, c.1915. The waning days of summer have us waxing nostalgic in the run up to our season opener, LYRICAL DREAMS — Sunday, September 24th at the Lesher Center in Walnut Creek. All three pieces on the program — Barber Knoxville: Summer of 1915, Stookey YTTE (Yield To Total Elation) and Mahler Symphony №4 — are...
