90th Anniversary Santa Rosa Symphony Season begins October 7, 8 and 9
Santa Rosa Symphony’s 90th Anniversary Season opens with the first of five Music Dirctor Candidates, Francesco Lecce-Chong’s “From Beethoven to Bates,” October 7, 8 and 9 at the Green Music Center, featuring award-winning pianist Joyce Yang, joining the orchestra for Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3.
Francesco Lecce-Chong, winner of the Solti Foundation Career Assistance Award and The Presser Foundation Music Award, was appointed as Music Director and Conductor of the Eugene Symphony in Oregon in April of this year and promoted to Associate Conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra this summer. While at the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, he helped create the first MSO Composer Institute.
“I look forward to working with the Santa Rosa Symphony in October as a music director candidate,” says Lecce Chong. “I'm thrilled with the prospect of joining an orchestra with such a rich history of artistic excellence that is fully committed to serving and enriching its community through music.”
Yang, as the youngest 2005 Cliburn contestant at 19, won a silver medal and took home the Steven De Groote Memorial Award for Best Performance of Chamber Music and the Beverley Taylor Smith Award for Best Performance of a New Work. She solos with the world’s top orchestras and chamber musicians. See full bio below.
Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.3 provides breathtaking solo lines that will spotlight what Washington Post calls Yang’s agility, balance and velocity, which it says is as impressive as her detail and clarity. “Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto,” says Lecce-Chong, “is the only one of his piano concertos in a minor key and the masterful composer dives into it with a dark, passionate work – breathtaking in its virtuosic writing for the soloist, and punctuated by powerful orchestral interludes.”
The program, thoughtfully crafted and conducted by Music Director Candidate Francesco Lecco-Chong also includes Garages of the Valley by Grammy-nominated, Bay Area resident, Mason Bates. Enhanced by electronic music, Garages of the Valley is an ode to Silicon Valley dot-com titans who started in a garage. Bates is the most performed composer of his time. Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4 comprises the second half of the concert, taking the audience, according to Lecce-Chong, from tragedy to triumph with terrifying brass fanfares to a painfully lonely moment with a single bassoon. Lecce-Chong declares the piece a work of creative genius.
The 90th Season is set apart with the Symphony’s search for the next Music Director. Each of the five final contenders will conduct one concert set this season October 2017-February 2018. They will also be interviewed by popular musicologist Kayleen Asbo in the pre-concert talks. Audiences will also have an opportunity to provide feedback, which will be taken into consideration by the Music Director Search Committee. Learn more about the Candidates in this short video in which they each introduce themselves.
Program Notes are available on the Symphony website to further enhance the patron’s experience.
Concert Times and Location
Saturday, October 8 and Monday, October 10 at 8 PM, and Sunday, October 9 at 3 PM.
Discovery Open Rehearsal Saturday, October 8 at 2 PM.
Performances are at Weill Hall, Green Music Center, Sonoma State University
Tickets
Single tickets start at $29 and can be purchased by calling SRS Patrons Services at (707) 546-8742, or online at www.srsymphony.org, or in person at the Symphony Patron Services Office at 50 Santa Rosa Avenue from 9 AM to 5:00 PM. Monday-Friday, except Wednesdays 10:30 AM to 5:00 PM, and on Saturdays of performance weekends from 10 AM to 1 PM. Tickets may also be purchased at the door 1 1/2 hours before each performance.
Student Rush tickets (student I.D. required) can be purchased for $10 30 minutes before performance. Discovery Open Rehearsal tickets are $17 for adults and $10 for youth (under 18).
Free tickets for youth, ages 7-17. Patrons may request ONE FREE ticket for a youth 7-17 with each paid adult ticket to a Classical Series concert. This offer is not available online; please contact Patron Services by phone or in person.
