December 3, 2020 :: After what has surely felt like the longest year ever, we’re closing 2020 with some much-needed holiday cheer. Read below to learn more about our featured Season in Song vocalists and their favorite family traditions. What’s something people might be surprised to learn about you? (eg Hidden talent or passion, or someone you’ve performed with / cool...
:: This holiday season, Grammy-winning mezzo-soprano Kelley O’Connor is looking forward having one of her mother’s deliciously rich sticky buns on Christmas morning. Here, Kelley shares the recipe for her mother Diane’s family favorite treat. Pro tip: prepare these the night before and you’re just 30 minutes away from delicious smells in the morning. What You’ll Need…...
December 2, 2020 :: From Mariah Carey to the Simpsons, this classic holiday tune has seen some unique transformations. We’ve ranked and reviewed 5 of them, and given them each superlatives. Be warned, not all of them are exactly super. 1. Worst O Holy Night – Best Lip Sync This Alabama actor achieved infamy after his lip sync video...
November 10, 2020 :: You can usually find these four on stage accompanied by the full California Symphony. This year, they’re going solo… well, sort of. Read below to learn more about the members of the California Symphony String Quartet. Tell us a bit about yourself. Where are you from? Did you grow up in a musical...
:: Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) Suite No. 1 in G Major for Unaccompanied Cello BWV 1007, Prelude (ca. 1720) (1994) Like all musicians, Bach got good gigs and not-so-good gigs. Just about the best gig of all was his six-year stint from 1717 to 1723 as kapellmeister to Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cöthen, a tiny principality in...
November 5, 2020 :: This rockstar cellist was the youngest ever to win a principal position with the Seattle Symphony. Read below to learn a bit more about Joshua, who he’d be if he wasn’t a cellist, and how he’s returning to shake things up and show us a new side of the cello. First, how are you...
November 3, 2020 :: Get to know a little more about California Symphony Principal Cellist Leighton Fong. A California native, Leighton lets us in on his strangest performance story (it involves an improvising a makeshift bow!), his hobbies when he’s not on stage, and taking time to slow down. Originally posted in May, 2020. Tell us a bit about...
October 5, 2020 :: Paquito D’Rivera (b. 1948) Aires Tropicales (1994) After Paquito D’River performed a dazzling jazz-inflected rendition of the Fantaisie-Impromptu on clarinet with combo backup, he pointed out to his Kennedy Center audience that the Fantaisie is the work of that esteemed Puerto Rican composer, Frédéric Chopin—who hails from the Caribbean side of Poland. It was charming,...
:: Former Composer-in-Residence Katherine Balch and returning artist Robyn Bollinger are joining creative forces again, this time for the all new virtual Second Saturdays @ California Symphony concert series. Read on to learn how Balch’s newest composition, Two Songs for Robyn, creatively incorporates sounds from a concrete jungle and the great outdoors. What’s the story...
September 11, 2020 :: Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) The Beethoven Piano Sonatas Nobody ever gets accused of bad taste for programming Beethoven piano sonatas. They are bedrock works after all, foundational to every pianist’s upbringing and subsequent career. The subject of books upon articles upon treatises upon essays upon program notes, they have been sliced, diced, dissected, disassembled, and...
