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 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 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…
August 30, 2017
The weirdly named star of our 2017–18 Season Opener’s YTTE (Yield To Total Elation) by Nathaniel Stookey is a one-of-kind, electro-acoustic instrument created by San Francisco-based Grammy-nominated audio engineer and kinetic sculptor, Oliver DiCicco has designed, with whimsical names like “Crawdad” and “Olivetti.” The OOVE, created by Oliver DiCicco and played at our Season Opener…
August 18, 2017
Here’s our press release with everything you need to know about our 2017–18 season opener LYRICAL DREAMS, which features a modern day classic by American composer Samuel Barber, and a whimsical new instrument played by Bay Area composer Nathaniel Stookey (it bears some resemblence to a vacuum cleaner!) The program concludes with an epic masterpiece…
