March 22, 2024
Robert Thies shot to fame in 1995 when he became the first American in four decades—since Van Cliburn’s Cold War win in 1958—to win a Russian piano competition, but things didn’t quite work out as planned… Robert talks with us ending up at zero after his feted win, diving into Clara Schumann’s diaries, and looking…
March 21, 2024
Saad Haddad (b. 1992) Mishwar (World Premiere, 2024) Saad Haddad, the California Symphony’s current Resident Composer, is acclaimed for his distinctive blend of Western art music and Middle Eastern idioms. Haddad has drawn Mishwar (Arabic مشوار(, meaning “A Trip,” out of his own memories. He tells us that: “Throughout my childhood, my family and I made frequent…
March 19, 2024
It’s rare that a concert is stopped midway through a piece, but that’s exactly what happened during Sunday’s MOZART SERENADES concert when part of an instrument broke off mid-performance. The heroic actions and incredible sight-reading talents of one California Symphony musician saved the day. Rarely played today, the basset horn is featured in a number…
March 18, 2024
With an impressive list of commissions and accolades to his name, Saad Haddad makes his California Symphony premiere as the 2024-2026 Young American Composer-in-Residence during BRAHMS OBSESSIONS. We talked to Saad to learn more about how he got here, his musical inspirations, and what he’s excited for as our newest resident composer. Welcome, Saad! Please…
March 7, 2024
Richard Strauss (1864–1949) Serenade in E-flat Major, Op. 7 (1881) Richard Strauss may have been a mere puppy when he wrote his Serenade for wind ensemble, but he was a frisky puppy indeed, already the author of a handful of compositions including a string quartet, a piano sonata, and even an unpublished symphony. He was…
March 5, 2024
One violin, 12 brakedrums, 6 flowerpots, windchimes (glass and metal), dustbins, plumbing pipe… You could be forgiven for mistaking the instrumentation for Lou Harrison’s Concerto for Violin and Percussion Orchestra for a shopping list for ACE Hardware.
This month in MOZART SERENADES, sandwiched between two giants of the wind repertoire—Strauss’ Serenade and Mozart’s Gran Partita—comes a quirky and rhythmic concerto by American maverick composer Lou Harrison. Concertmaster Jennifer Cho becomes the sole strings player on the program, featured alongside five stellar percussionists who use a variety of traditional and non-traditional instruments to create a unique soundscape.
January 16, 2024
GERSHWIN IN NEW YORK guest artist Marcus Roberts has been called “the genius of the modern piano” and has the honors to show for it—he’s been a recipient of the Helen Keller Award for Personal Achievement, Artist-in-Residence for the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, commissioned composer for Chamber Music America, and Grammy nominee for his 1996 album Portraits in Blue. We talked to Marcus to learn more about his music history and what it’s like to improvise classics such as Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue.
January 16, 2024
New York Times music critic Olin Downes described the opening passage of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue as “an outrageous cadenza of the clarinet” after the piece’s premiere in 1924. 100 years later, this passage is considered an iconic orchestral excerpt for professional and amateur clarinetists alike. We talked to California Symphony principal clarinetist Cory Tiffin about his history with the piece ahead of his solo in GERSHWIN IN NEW YORK.
January 2, 2024
Samuel Barber (1910–1981) Symphony No. 1, in One Movement, Op. 9 (1936, rev. 1942) It must have been lonely to be Samuel Barber there for a while. Almost alone of mid-twentieth-century American composers he eschewed the era’s prevailing bleak modernism in favor of a rich musical language that emphasized melody, opulent harmonies, and traditional structures….
December 21, 2023
Allen has been performing with the California Symphony since the very first concert back in 1986. He’s survived exploding canons and thrives on physical challenges like open water swimming in the Bay. Meet Principal Percussionist—and triathlete—Allen Biggs!
