December 29, 2022
Ten concerts, including two world premieres… Ten years of Sound Minds music education classes, uplifting students in a local East Bay community… The launch of Music Director Donato Cabrera’s tenth anniversary season… Thank you for spending this memorable year with the California Symphony! Thank you for so much for joining us in 2022. We can’t…
May 18, 2022
This weekend’s EPIC FINALE concert was a fitting exclamation point on the season, as audiences got to hear Viet Cuong’s Next Week’s Trees (live and in-person, not on a screen!), Nathan Chan’s beautiful rendition of Elgar’s Cello Concerto, and Tchaikovsky’s triumphant Symphony No. 5.
April 29, 2022
SOLOIST NATHAN CHAN SHARES HIS THOUGHTS ON REUNITING WITH MENTOR DONATO CABRERA, PERFORMING ELGAR’S CELLO CONCERTO AT EPIC FINALE, GROWING UP AS A MUSICAL PRODIGY, AND HOW TO GO VIRAL ON TIKTOK. What’s it like to come home and perform in the Bay Area with your former mentor, Donato Cabrera? It is with great excitement…
April 29, 2022
Principal horn Meredith Brown reflects on the return to live performances, stepping off the hamster wheel, and finding renewed purpose. Way back in 2020, while we were all reeling and horrified by suddenly being plunged into a pandemic, a part of me was learning about life. It turns out that even when you “do what…
April 21, 2022
Viet Cuong (b. 1990) Next Week’s Trees (2021) “Light is an invitation to happiness,” wrote beloved poet Mary Oliver in “Poppies”. We could all use such an invitation about now. We’ve been through a period of darkness, of present dread and future fear, a time of foreboding and separation. But such things don’t last. The…
March 30, 2022
From a foreign national anthem, to a groundbreaking world premiere that was immediately heralded by critics as “a masterpiece,” and unusual intermission on Sunday afternoon, this weekend’s concerts were almost as drama-filled as the Oscars. #WeStandWithUkraine Both concerts this weekend opened with a rendition of the Ukrainian national anthem, in solidarity with the people of…
March 21, 2022
Everyone loves a good fairy tale, featuring dashing heroes and heroines, evil villains, and imperiled protagonists, navigating their way towards a hoped-for happy ending. Shared from one generation to the next, these cautionary tales occupy a special place in popular culture and they have inspired some of the most appealing and memorable music ever written. …
February 24, 2022
Katherine Balch connects texts to celebrate women in Illuminate, the final commission and world premiere of her three-year tenure as California Symphony Young American Composer-in-Residence. By Katherine Balch This article was originally posted in February 2020. This summer, I had a few days in between projects to do some hiking in Swiss Alps. During these few…
February 15, 2022
Thomas Adès (b. 1971) Three Studies from Couperin (2006) Thomas Adès loathed ‘sports days’—i.e., gym class—in school. (It’s a rare musician who can’t relate to that.) “I’d invent phantom tummy aches and stay at home and listen to records,” he recalls. Those records, collected by his poet/translator father, ranged from folk music to Stravinsky, and…
February 1, 2022
Against a background of programming modifications and cancellations by other Bay Area performing arts orgs, California Symphony staff and musicians worked together to give wings to January concerts, TAKE FLIGHT. When All Negatives Add Up to a Positive Over four days of rehearsals and performances and after many dozens of COVID tests, musicians, staff, and…
