December 4, 2022
Mozart’s true life story needs no Hollywood-style embellishments, says Music Director Donato Cabrera. Tom Hulce as Wolgang Amadeus Mozart in the 1984 hit movie “Amadeus”. By California Symphony Music Director Donato Cabrera. A murderously jealous rival. A mysterious commission from a “gray messenger.” Rumors of poisoning… If the circumstances of Mozart’s death at 35 read like…
April 16, 2018
The 2017–18 season finale features two European masterpieces (“Something Old”), a world premiere (“Something New”), and a program with a difference At first glance, the line up for the California Symphony’s May 6 season closer —SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW—may look like business as usual. However delve deeper, and there is more to the finale than…
April 16, 2018
Season finale guest artist Zhang first wowed audiences at the age of 5 Then and now: At left, Zhang plays for family in preparation for his first professional gig, just shy of his 5th birthday. Right: Haochen Zhang now. In demand internationally for nearly a decade now, Haochen Zhang first rose to prominence with his 2009 win…
April 16, 2018
The California Symphony’s May 6 season finale includes the world premiere of Balch’s “like a broken clock” California Symphony Young American Composer-in-Residence (2017–2020). Photo credit KatieL Photography. We caught up with Composer-in-Residence Katherine Balch to learn more about like a broken clock, the first of three pieces she will deliver during her three-year residency with the…
April 13, 2018
Haochen Zhang reunites with Music Director Donato Cabrera five years after their first “glittering” collaboration Haochen Zhang and then Music Director candidate Donato Cabrera in 2013. For internationally acclaimed, award-winning pianist Haochen Zhang, the California Symphony’s 2017–18 season finale concert SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW marks Zhang’s second time performing with the orchestra—five years after his 2013…
March 6, 2018
An agricultural engineer, a budding neuroscientist, and ripped pants during a performance: We learned some of the inner secrets of the talented stars of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music who will be featured in our MOZART REQUIEM concerts this month. Esther Tonea, soprano Esther Tonea, soprano 1. Where are you from? I usually say Buford, Georgia, but I…
January 17, 2018
Violin virtuoso Alexi Kenney, comes home to the Bay Area to debut with the California Symphony, January 20 & 21, 2018, at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek. Alexi Kenney on Bruch’s Violin Concerto №1: “It’s is one of my personal favorites and also really a staple of our repertoire. It has everything…
January 10, 2018
Maestro Donato Cabrera’s trip down memory lane reveals a bold choice for a young conductor. Now and Then: Music Director Donato Cabrera at the podium at the Lesher Center in Walnut Creek (left) and at the University of Nevada, Reno in the 1990s (right). Our upcoming PASTORAL BEETHOVEN concerts include a nostalgic selection for California Symphony…
January 9, 2018
We take a closer look at the wildly ambitious 1808 concert which debuted no less than two symphonies, a piano concerto, and a new choral piece (plus a selection of other favorites) in a frigid, four-hour long musical marathon. On a freezing cold winter’s night in Vienna, December 22, 1808, one of the most legendary…
January 3, 2018
The California Symphony and Music Director Donato Cabrera’s first program of the New Year kicks off with two performances of PASTORAL BEETHOVEN at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek on Saturday January 20th at 8pm and Sunday January 21st at 4pm.
