April 14, 2019
Q: What instrument is named after a tuba, looks like a French horn, and sounds like a trombone? No, that’s not the beginning of a super nerdy orchestra joke but it’s a pretty good description of the hybrid horn that is the Wagner tuba. A quartet of the rare instruments features in Bruckner’s Symphony No.
August 15, 2019
By California Symphony Music Director Donato Cabrera. As we approach the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth in 2020, I thought we could get a head start by programming his most popular symphony, and perhaps the most recognizable piece of Western Classical Music, his Symphony №5, with one of his lesser known works, The Creatures
August 15, 2019
Ludwig van Beethoven – Overture to The Creatures of Prometheus (1801) We tend not to think of Beethoven as a theatrical composer. We think symphonies, we think sonatas, we think string quartets and piano trios and concertos. After all, he wrote only one opera (Fidelio) plus a smattering of incidental music. And there’s a
April 3, 2019
Katherine Balch – Artifacts, Concerto for Violin and Orchestra (world premiere) One particularly pleasant corner of the repertory is occupied by works that composers have written for good friends, often with that friend’s input and contributions. The Brahms Violin Concerto comes first to mind: Brahms wrote it for Joseph Joachim, one of Brahms’s earliest boosters
April 2, 2019
Music Director Donato Cabrera conducts Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7 at the California Symphony’s season finale—a piece he feels he’s been “waiting more than one lifetime” to conduct. We talked with Maestro about Bruckner, what he finds so appealing about the Seventh Symphony, and how his perspective has been shaped by playing the French horn. 1. Your first instrument
April 2, 2019
American violinist Robyn Bollinger made her Philadelphia Orchestra debut at age twelve. She came to national attention on the radio through her 2014 residency on PRI’s “Performance Today” and several appearances on NPR’s “From the Top.” In 2016, she was a recipient of a prestigious Fellowship from the Annenberg Arts Fellowship Fund. We talked with Bollinger,
March 26, 2019
“Invaluable” is how former intern, Jonathan Spangler, summed up his time with the California Symphony as the Arts Administration Intern. A year on, we caught up with him to see what he thought about his experience. 1. What was your favorite part of the internship? My favorite part of the internship involved the
February 27, 2019
Harry Potter? Han Solo? Elliot from E.T? Or even E.T. himself..? With music from beloved movies like Star Wars, Harry Potter, Superman and E.T. on the program, the costume possibilities are endless for those who really want to get into the spirit of things at the upcoming ALL JOHN WILLIAMS concerts—Mar. 16 & 17 at
February 5, 2019
The Blackhawk Chorus is a premier community chorus that has built a loyal fan base throughout the East Bay since it was founded 28 years ago. The group joins the orchestra for ALL JOHN WILLIAMS—March 16 & 17 at the Lesher Center in Walnut Creek—to add drama for Saving Private Ryan and Star Wars battle scene selections on the program. We
February 4, 2019
John Williams has been nominated for Academy Awards 51 times in a career spanning six decades. He has won five, but lost 46 times, which means that arguably some of his best and most popular works were passed over. In this selected history of Williams at the Oscars, we take a look at 22 of