May 3, 2021
It’s been hailed as “a model for residency programs across the country” (Mercury News), and former resident composer Dan Visconti calls it simply the best residency program in the country. California Symphony’s groundbreaking Young American Composer-in-Residence program turns 30 this year, helping to launch the careers of ten composers to date. We checked in with…
November 10, 2020
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…
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,…
October 5, 2020
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…
October 2, 2020
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,…
April 23, 2019
The fifth and final concert set of the 2018/19 season takes place on 5/5, Cinco de Mayo. Here’s our countdown of the top five things that make season finale concert EPIC BRUCKNER an epically wonderful way to celebrate the day. 5. Finale Fiesta For Cinco de Mayo, we’re bringing some Latin flavor to the Lesher…
April 23, 2019
California Symphony Composer-in-Residence Katherine Balch composed Artifacts for New England Conservatory friend and colleague Robyn Bollinger, based on four pieces that are core to solo violin repertoire. Each movement in Artifacts takes its inspiration from diverse works composed between the early 1800s and 1976. By Donato Cabrera, California Symphony Music Director “Robyn and I have…
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 3, 2019
The California Symphony presents EPIC BRUCKNER at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek on Sunday, May 5 at 4pm, featuring: Balch – Artifacts Bruckner – Symphony No. 7 BALCH – ARTIFACTS We’ll have to wait until May 5 to hear the world premiere of Composer-in-Residence Katherine Balch’s violin concerto, Artifacts, but in…
November 9, 2018
What do thimbles have to do with Katherine Balch’s next composition for the California Symphony? Read on for an update on the concerto she is writing for violinist Robyn Bollinger that is set to premiere at the 2018–19 season closer. Left: Robyn Bollinger. Right: Katherine Balch with Robyn and thimble. By California Symphony Young American Composer-in-Residence Katherine…
