March 11, 2005

Symphony Silicon Valley announces plans for fourth season

Symphony Silicon Valley, the professional orchestra of the South Bay, continues its growth by announcing a 2005-06 season of seven pairs of concerts.

The symphony’s ensemble of 75-plus musicians will be featured throughout this fourth season, playing everything from jazz riffs to Mozart dances, from big Brahms to Beethoven’s best.

Concerts will again be held at its newly restored performing home, the acoustically exquisite California Theatre. The 1,100-seat movie palace’s conversion to a concert hall has been called one of the most important additions to classical music in the Bay Area.”

The upcoming season’s programs were developed with audiences and musicians in mind/ Many sources were polled to find the right musical mix. Five guest conductors will share the podium for seven programs. Concerts will be presented at 8 p.m. on Saturday nights with the Sunday afternoon concerts scheduled to begin at 2:30 p.m.

The season kicks off Oct. 1-2 with an all-orchestra program that should start the season off on a high note. Patrick Flynn conducts selections from Mendelssohn’s “Midsummer Night’s Dream;” Leonard Bernstein’s “On the Waterfront Suite” and Beethoven’s “Fifth Symphony.”

Cleve conducts Mozart Festival
A special feature of the season will be a Mozart Festival. Mozart specialist George Cleve has been engaged to conduct three programs beginning in December and continuing through March. The Festival atmosphere will continue as Maestro Cleve will also conduct Opera San Jose’s production of Don Giovanni later in the spring.

The year“2006 marks the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth and we will celebrate it in style,” stated Andrew Bales, founder and president of Symphony Silicon Valley. “Our middle three programs will all include a focus on the many aspects of Mozart’s contribution to music. The Prague Symphony, Stephen Prutsman playing Piano Concerto No. 22, selections from his operatic works and a Sinfonia Concertante featuring four soloists from the orchestra.

We will be joined on stage by a choir, and soloists from Opera San Jose to close our Mozart Festival with his magnificent Requiem.”

Three new notable guest artists
Conductors who proved popular with audiences and musicians alike take the podium this season. There will also be three notable new guest artists appearing with Symphony Silicon Valley. All the new guests are pianists, though the range is quite broad.

In late October, David Amram joins the symphony for a presentation of his Triple Concerto. Maestro Paul Polivnick conducts this program, and he feels that “David Amram’s Triple Concerto is the closest a symphony gets to making real jazz its own medium.”

Amram is both composer and musician, and he will play the jazz piano and pan pipes in this work. The Triple Concerto is really 15 featured players including a woodwind quintet, a brass quintet and a jazz quintet playing with the orchestra.

This program plays Oct. 29 and 30 and includes another unusual program choice. Paul Polivnick will conduct the bulk of the evening, but jazz trombone specialist, Dennis Wilson will take the podium to conduct Duke Ellington’s “Black, Brown & Beige.” Polivnick will return for Gershwin’s “An American in Paris.” The program is entitled American Originals.

Later in the season, guest pianist Stephen Prutsman will join Cleve in presenting Mozart’s Piano Concerto #22 in E flat major on a program that also features Brahms “First Symphony.”

A long awaited highlight will be the debut with Symphony Silicon Valley of local piano virtuoso Jon Nakamatsu. He will play Grieg’s Piano Concerto on April 1and 2, 2006, and be conducted by William Boughton. That program will also feature Beethoven’s Egmont Overture and Sibelius’ Fifth Symphony.

Paul Polivnick returns to close the season and brings Korean violinist Ju-Young Baek back after her smashing rendition of Sibelius’ Violin Concerto last month. This time she offers a complete change of pace playing Astor Piazzola’s Four Seasons of Buenos Aires.

This is a tango spin on Vivaldi’s chamber work and promises to be a high-spirited showpiece for Baek. Also on that program will be Debussy’s Petite Suite and Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique. This program is scheduled for May 13 and 14, 2006 in the California Theatre.

Ticket information
Single tickets for the remaining two concert sets of this season are still available.

For the 2005-06 season, only subscription tickets are available for sale at this time. Season package pricing includes minor changes and most subscribers will find little or no change in the 2005-06 season’s prices.

Available single tickets will go on sale after Labor Day. The Symphony Silicon Valley Box Office is open Monday through Friday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 467 South First St., San Jose, Calif., 95113.

Tickets can be ordered by phone at (408) 286-2600 ext.. 23 or at (650) 365-9600 ext. 23 or by mail at: Symphony Silicon Valley, P.O. Box 790, San Jose, CA 95106-0790. The Web address is: www.symphonysiliconvalley.org.