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Symphony
TWO ORCHESTRAS AND FIVE DISPARATE WORKS IN WEILL HALLby Ron Teplitz Sunday, November 19, 2023 Chamber
"BIRD" QUARTET AT THE ALEXANDER'S CHAMBER MUSIC MARIN CONCERTby Abby Wasserman Sunday, November 12, 2023 Symphony
MARIN SYMPHONY'S CHAMBER ENSEMBLE DAZZLES IN NEW SEASON CONCERTby Abby Wasserman Saturday, November 11, 2023 Recital
DEMANDING SCHUMANN WORK IN MUSIC AT OAKMONT RECITALby Terry McNeill Thursday, November 9, 2023 Symphony
TITANIC SRS MAHLER SYMPHONY IN WEILL NOV. 5by Terry McNeill Sunday, November 5, 2023 Symphony
PROFOUND SCHUMANN CONCERTO PERFORMANCE BY BRESHEARS AT THE JACKSONby Terry McNeill Sunday, October 29, 2023 Chamber
ONE COMPOSER WITH 1,000 GIFTS IN ROMERO RECITALby Terry McNeill Wednesday, October 25, 2023 Symphony
SONIC FIREWORKS IN MINERIA'S WEILL HALL CONCERTby Terry McNeill Friday, October 20, 2023 Chamber
CANTIAMO BEGINS SIGNATURE SERIES IN OCT. 15 CONCERTby Pamela Hicks Gailey Sunday, October 15, 2023 Symphony
THEATRICAL SIBELIUS SYMPHONY HIGHLIGHTS SRS'S OPENING WEEKEND CONCERTSby Terry McNeill Sunday, October 8, 2023 |
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Reviews
11/19/2023 - TWO ORCHESTRAS AND FIVE DISPARATE WORKS IN WEILL HALL - Ron Teplitz
Sonoma State University Department of Music / Alexander Kahn, conductor. SSU Symphony and the Young People's Chamber Orchestra. Tammie Dyer and Anna Washburn, violin; Aaron Westmann, violin and viola; Alexa Haynes-Pilon, cello In a final concert Nov. 19 in the California Festival, the Santa Rosa Symphony Young People’s Chamber Orchestra (YPCO) and the Sonoma State University Orchestra (SSU) performed five sharply contrasting works before an audience of 250 in Weill Hall. The YPCO string ensemble, with players ranging in ...
11/12/2023 - "BIRD" QUARTET AT THE ALEXANDER'S CHAMBER MUSIC MARIN CONCERT - Abby Wasserman
Chamber Music Marin / Alexander String Quartet The Alexander Quartet, consisting of David Samuel, viola, Zakarias Grafilo and Yuna Lee, violin, and cellist Sandy Wilson, gave Chamber Music Marin’s audience a gift November 12 with a sweep of “Russian” quartets by Haydn, Prokofiev and Shostakovich. Sponsored by Chamber Music Marin, the Bay Area e...
11/11/2023 - MARIN SYMPHONY'S CHAMBER ENSEMBLE DAZZLES IN NEW SEASON CONCERT - Abby Wasserman
Marin Symphony / Marin Symphony. Edwin Outwater, conductor. Myung-ju Yeo, flute In the second program of Marin Symphony’s new concert season, my fears that the orchestra would suffer from having no permanent conductor and no home (due to construction at the Marin Center Hall) were thoroughly allayed. I was captivated by every element, from the chamber-size ensemble of 40 featur...
11/9/2023 - DEMANDING SCHUMANN WORK IN MUSIC AT OAKMONT RECITAL - Terry McNeill
Music at Oakmont / Einav Yarden, piano Piano recitals seem to be rare events around here, with only Gustavo Romero’s Spring Lake Village concert in October the exception. There are no formal piano recitals this season in Weill or Schroeder Halls, SRJC’s Newman, Mendocino College or the College of Marin or the Marin Center. So it was refr...
11/5/2023 - TITANIC SRS MAHLER SYMPHONY IN WEILL NOV. 5 - Terry McNeill
Santa Rosa Symphony / Francesco Lecce-Chong, conductor; Third Coast Percussion Quartet The composer Gustav Mahler was reputed to say that a great symphony must encompass the entire world. That comment surely characterized the Santa Rosa Symphony’s Nov. 5 performance of the Mahler D Major in Weill Hall. Over a long 58-minute second half the sprawling work from 1889 was passionately f...
10/29/2023 - PROFOUND SCHUMANN CONCERTO PERFORMANCE BY BRESHEARS AT THE JACKSON - Terry McNeill
Sonoma County Philharmonic / Norman Gamboa, conductor. Starla Breshears, cello A definition of great music is that it enters the ear with ease and leaves the mind with difficulty. That definition was on my mind Oct. 29 when the Sonoma County Philharmonic played its second concert of the season, with the themes of Schumann’s A Minor Cello Concerto staying in my mind for two day...
10/25/2023 - ONE COMPOSER WITH 1,000 GIFTS IN ROMERO RECITAL - Terry McNeill
Spring Lake Village Classical Music Series / Gustavo Romero, piano Texas-base pianist Gustavo Romero made his fourth Spring Lake Village retirement home recital appearance Oct. 25 with memorable and committed performances of just one composer. Just one? Mr. Romero often focuses on the music of one composer each season, and in past appearances it has been Ravel, D...
10/20/2023 - SONIC FIREWORKS IN MINERIA'S WEILL HALL CONCERT - Terry McNeill
Green Music Center / Mineria Symphony Orchestra of Mexico. Carlos Miguel Prieto, conductor. Gabriela Montero, piano It’s a rare concert occurrence when the most popular classical concerto of all time is upstaged by music the audience never heard of. It happened in Weill Hall Oct. 20 when the 75-member Minería Symphony Orchestra of Mexico presented a powerhouse program of the Tchaikovsky B Flat Concerto and nativ...
10/15/2023 - CANTIAMO BEGINS SIGNATURE SERIES IN OCT. 15 CONCERT - Pamela Hicks Gailey
Roses Signature Concert Series / Cantiamo Sonoma. Carol Menke, director Another welcoming concert by Cantiamo Sonoma ushered in the Fall season of the Signature Concerts series Oct. 15 at Santa Rosa’s Roses Presbyterian Church. In remarks from the stage Director Carol Menke said she was quite thrilled by the size of the audience, and the church was about two-thirds full...
10/8/2023 - THEATRICAL SIBELIUS SYMPHONY HIGHLIGHTS SRS'S OPENING WEEKEND CONCERTS - Terry McNeill
Santa Rosa Symphony / Francesco Lecce-Chong, conductor; Olga Kern, piano The 96th season of the Santa Rosa Symphony began with three Weill Hall concerts featuring conventional and popular works. Conventional yes, but the result can be wonderful when played as well as the Orchestra is playing. The Sunday Oct. 8 afternoon concert is reviewed here. Sibelius’ D Major Secon...
9/27/2023 - LEE TRIO AT SPRING LAKE VILLAGE WITH A RARE ENCORE - Terry McNeill
Spring Lake Village Classical Music Series / Lee Trio. Angela Lee, Lisa Lee, Melinda Lee Masur San Francisco-based Lee Trio has been frequent Sonoma County visitors at Music at Oakmont and at the Spring Lake Village Series, and Sept. 27 they returned to SLV for a concert of very early Beethoven and very late Brahms. The E-Flat Major Trio, Op. 1, No. 1, was especially well played, only in pla...
9/17/2023 - SADAVA CONDUCTS ELEGANT SO CO PHIL INAUGURAL CONCERT - Terry McNeill
Sonoma County Philharmonic / Dana Sadava, conductor; Jonathan Seiberlich, tuba Sonoma County’s Philharmonic opened its 24th season Sept. 17 in the Jackson Theater with a program that looked pretty conventional – a Beethoven Symphony, Debussy’s popular Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun and, wait, ooops, a Tuba Concerto. In my memory there has not been a local performance of ...
8/16/2023 - POTENT SCRIABIN INTERPRETATIONS AT SPRING LAKE VILLAGE RECITAL - Terry McNeill
Spring Lake Village Classical Music Series / Dmitry Rachmanov, piano Returning to Santa Rosa Aug. 16 after seven years, Los Angeles-based pianist Dmitry Rachmanov performed an eclectic program before a full-house of residents in the Spring Lake Village retirement home’s concert series. The opening three works, two of Beethoven’s late Bagatelles (Op. 126, G Major and...
8/1/2023 - ODYSSEY IN THE SEARCH FOR YUNCHAN AT HOLLYWOOD BOWL - Abby Wasserman
Los Angeles Philharmomic / Yunchan Lim, piano. Shi-Yeong Sung, conductor The GPS at 6 p.m. August 1 predicted a half-hour to get to the Hollywood Bowl from Westwood, so we left the Japanese restaurant on Westwood Drive at 7:10 with a parking pass and e-tickets ready for the concert featuring conductor Shi-yeong Sung and soloist Yunchan Lim with the L.A. Philharmonic, som...
7/30/2023 - VOM FESTIVAL'S CLOSING CONCERT A CELEBRATION FOR STRINGS - Terry McNeill
Valley of the Moon Music Festival / Festival apprentices TBA At the closing concert of most music festivals there is a tinge is sadness, with attendees knowing it will be a whole year before again the delights of semi-alfresco music and social camaraderie highlight the summer. It was that way with the last Valley of the Moon Music Festival July 30 at Sonoma ...
7/29/2023 - RITE OF SPRING FOR 88 KEYS AT VOM FESTIVAL - Pamela Hick Gailey
Valley of the Moon Music Festival / Musicians TBA A fan of Stravinsky’s epic symphonic ballet The Rite of Spring (1913) since childhood via Disney’s classic 1940 film Fantasia, I was eagerly anticipating hearing July 29 the four-hands version for the first time. It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon at the Hanna Center, warm but not too hot. The ...
7/27/2023 - A POET'S LOVE SONG CYCLE AT VOM FESTIVAL JULY 27 - Elly Lichenstein
Valley of the Moon Music Festival / Kyle Stegall, tenor; Eric Zivian, piano The tagline for the Valley of the Moon Music Festival's ninth season - "transformations: grand works on an intimate scale" - rang especially true for its eighth concert July 27. Intended to evoke the song evenings (liederabends) of Schumann's time, the evening was touted as an intimate salon present...
7/21/2023 - CHARMING "BARBER" A MENDO FESTIVAL TRIUMPH - Pamela Hicks Gailey
Mendocino Music Festival / Festival Orchestra. Ryan Murray, conductor. The joyously effervescent Mendocino Music Festival, celebrating its 37th year, is unique for several reasons. First, it is pretty far from anywhere, so the audience it draws are either town and county local music lovers, Mendocino tourists looking for something different to do besides take in the go...
7/20/2023 - RARE RAVEL IN MENDO FESTIVAL'S PRESTON HALL - Terry McNeill
Mendocino Music Festival / Kindra Scharich, soprano; Jeffrey LaDeur, piano Mendocino’s Music Festival has always featured an eclectic menu through 37 seasons – jazz, pop, country, big band, blues, soul, classical. This year the center of classical music was Ravel with lectures and concerts. The great French composer was most of the July 20 program in the Preston Recital ...
7/16/2023 - SCHUMANN QUINTET PERFORMANCE RESCUES VOM FESTIVAL'S SECOND CONCERT - Terry McNeill
Concerts at the Valley of the Moon Music Festival, now in the ninth season, are frequently a mix of performances with professional-level interest and polish, and ones that never catch fire. It was that way July 16 in a Hanna Auditorium performance that was billed “the Piano as Orchestra.” No, no Wa...
7/15/2023 - VOM PLAYERS STRIP DOWN A SYMPHONY - Abby Wasserman
Valley of the Moon Music Festival / Kier GoGwilt and Ravenna Lipchik, violin; Elizabeth Blumenstock, viola; Elizabeth Reed and Tanya Tomkins, cello; Axel Tyrolese and Eric Zivian, piano From its beginning nine years ago, Valley of the Moon Music Festival has presented treasures from the Classical to early Romantic periods to educate and delight their audiences. Every year they bring together seasoned professionals and five talented apprentices specializing in performance on origina...
6/18/2023 - CINNABAR HITS IT OUT OF THE PARK WITH A GRAND TOSCA - Pamela Hicks Gailey
Cinnabar Theater / Michelle Drever, soprano; Alex Boyer, tenor; Spencer Dodd, baritone. Additional singers: Jordon Eldredge, Gene Wright, Eric Levintow, Michael Kuo and Chris Pilcher. Mary Chun, conductor; Elly Lichenstein, director Petaluma’s Cinnabar Theater has successfully mounted another seemingly impossible opera for its beloved tiny venue, Puccini’s Tosca. A co-production with San Francisco’s venerable Pocket Opera company, featuring late founder Donald Pippin’s fine English translation, it will run for three performance...
6/17/2023 - ECHO'S PROGRESSIVE MUSICAL FEAST - Abby Wasserman
ECHO Chamber Orchestra / Daniel Canosa, conductor Doug Morton, trumpet (pictured) Brooke Aird, violin Joel Cohen, cello Margot Golding, oboe Steven Braunstein, bassoon A progressive dinner is where each course of a meal is served at a different venue—appetizers one place, entrée the next. A stroll allows time to relish each offering. So it was with ECHO Chamber Orchestra’s progressive “Musical Promenade” June 17. The appetizers (for horns, flutes, and clarinets) w...
6/4/2023 - CANTIAMO'S VIRTUOSO SINGING INSIDE AT ST. SEREPHIM'S CHURCH - Pamela Hicks Gailey
Cantiamo Sonoma / Carol Menke, conductor Cantiamo Sonoma presented their season finale concert June 4th, and although the printed program title Summer Outdoor Concert gave the impression that it was to be held outdoors, the performance was in the uniquely frescoed St. Seraphim’s of Sarov Orthodox Church. It’s is always a pleasure to exp...
5/6/2023 - TWIN PEAKS AND TWIN PIANOS AT THE SANTA ROSA SYMPHONY - Steve Osborn
Santa Rosa Symphony / Francesco Lecce-Chong The May 6 Santa Rosa Symphony concert began and ended on two different mountains, with several perilous ascents and descents marking the space between. The first mountain was Ukraine’s Bald Mountain, as depicted by Modest Mussorgsky in “Night on Bald Mountain,” and the second mountain was Heimgarten...
4/22/2023 - ALASDAIR NEALE’S JUBILANT FAREWELL TO MARIN SYMPHONY - Abby Wasserman
Marin Symphony / Alasdair Neale, conductor. Jeremy Constant, violin Alasdair Neale’s final program as director of the Marin Symphony April 22, was, simply put, a triumph. Mr. Neale is leaving after 22 years for Paris and the next stage of his career, and he will be sorely missed. It has been Mr. Neale’s practice to introduce from the stage Symphony programs, and t...
4/15/2023 - SANTA ROSA'S MAJESTICAL MAGIC FLUTE IN WEILL - Pamela Hicks Gailey
Santa Rosa Symphony / Francesco Lecce-Chong, conductor. Efraín Solís, baritone; Kirk Eichelberger, bass; Victor Cardamone, tenor; Ellen Leslie and Shawnette Sulker, soprano. ArtQuest at Santa Rosa High School Chorus, Jan Sofie, director The Santa Rosa Symphony scored a triumph April 15 in Weill Hall with its concert presentation of Mozart’s final opera Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute), completed and premiered only months prior to the composer’s death in December of 1791. The collaboration with Mozart’s librettist and fellow Free...
4/7/2023 - SPLENDID GOOD FRIDAY RUTTER REQUIEM AT CHURCH OF THE ROSES - Pamela Hicks Gailey
Church of the Roses / Carol Menke, director. Cantiamo Sonoma; Presbyterian Chancel Choir; Roses Chamber Orchestra The choral music of British composer John Rutter holds a special place in the hearts and voices of choral groups worldwide. Like his American counterparts Eric Whitacre and Morten Lauridsen (to name just two of a very large field of the most popular living choral composers) Rutter has spent a lifeti...
4/2/2023 - A JOURNEY THROUGH MUSICAL TIME - Abby Wasserman
Chamber Music Marin / Telegraph String Quartet. Students from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music TBA The Telegraph Quartet, resident quartet at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, created a “Journey for the String Quartet” for Chamber Music Marin April 2 that put the expressive versatility of the form on full display. Compositions by Haydn, Mendelssohn and Gabriela Frank were played with muc...
4/1/2023 - ORCHESTRA SHOWPIECES CLOSE SO CO PHIL'S SEASON - Terry McNeill
Sonoma County Philharmonic / Norman Gamboa, conductor. Matthew Stern, viola Closing a long season April 1 the Sonoma County Philharmonic, the North Coast’s premiere nonprofessional orchestra, performed just two large-scale works that demanded committed instrumental playing. Before 200 in the Jackson Theater conductor Norman Gamboa had his hands full with the eight-part Fan...
3/26/2023 - FROM THE DANUBE TO PUERTO RICO - Steve Osborn
Santa Rosa Symphony / Francesco Lecce-Chong, conductor. Jennifer Frautschi, violin What can be sandwiched between two waltzes and followed by a concerto? The answer is a short symphony. Or at least that was the answer given by the Santa Rosa Symphony during its March 26 program in Weill Hall. The waltzes were the canonical “Artist’s Life” and “Blue Danube” masterpieces by Johann S...
3/12/2023 - SAKURA AND THE MUSICAL ART OF ARRANGEMENT - Abby Wasserman
SAKURA / SAKURA. Stella Cho, Michael Kaufman, Yoshika Masuda, Peter Myers, Nathan Chan, cello In Japanese, sakura means the five-petaled cherry blossom, and members of SAKURA Cello Quintet treated their Chamber Music Marin audience March 12 to a rare musical flowering. All but one of the eleven selections in the program were arrangements, not surprising because until SAKURA formed, f...
3/12/2023 - WEIGHTY RUSSIAN SONATAS IN MALOFEEV'S 222 GALLERY RECITAL - Terry McNeill
The 222 / Alexander Malofeev, piano Russian pianists on American tours often play blockbuster programs, so it was no surprise that Alexander Malofeev’s s recital in Healdsburg’s posh 222 Gallery had Rachmaninoff’s monumental B Flat Sonata as the capstone. The 21-minute work in the 1931 version received a thunderous reading that favor...
3/9/2023 - ARRON-PARK DUO IN CAPTIVATING OAKMONT RECITAL - Terry McNeill
Music at Oakmont / Edward Arron, cello; Jeewon Park, piano The chance of having two virtuoso cello recitals in the North Bay in less than 30 days was not good. The sensational Steven Isserliss Napa recital Feb. 14 simply couldn’t be bettered, but Edward Arron’s Music at Oakmont recital March 9 came close. Very close. With pianist Jeewon Park Mr. Arron ma...
3/4/2023 - MAGNIFIQUE MUSIQUE FRANÇAISE AT MARIN SYMPHONY - Abby Wasserman
Marin Symphony / Alasdair Neale, conductor. David Fung, piano. Marin Symphony Chorus Remarks from Conductor Alasdair Neale introduced Marin Symphony’s March 4 French-themed concert by extolling the “glittering orchestral colors” of Lili Boulanger’s D’un matin de printemps (Of a Morning in Spring), begun in 1917 as a duet for violin and piano and completed as an orchestral tone poem ...
2/26/2023 - EXULTANT VSO PLAYING OF RAVEL BALLET IN THE EMPRESS - Terry McNeill
Vallejo Symphony / Marc Taddei, conductor. Elizabeth Dorman, piano In his spoken introduction to a Vallejo Symphony audience Feb. 26 conductor Marc Taddei pointed to the afternoon’s program with a wedding epigram: something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue. Well, the comment held true for the semi old (Grieg’s Piano Concerto) and the semi ne...
2/23/2023 - JOYFULLY WE SING - Pamela Hicks Gailey
Sonoma State University Department of Music / Christa Durand and Krista Wigle, soprano; Yvonne Wormer, piano It was a welcome surprise to review a Feb. 23 recital given by two new Sonoma State voice faculty colleagues, Christa Durand and Krista Wigle, with pianist Yvonne Wormer. Since being recently retired from a performing and teaching career, I was curious to speak via a video chat with these next gener...
2/20/2023 - FERRANDIS BRINGS FRENCH MUSIC AND CONSUMMATE SKILL TO SANTA ROSA SYMPHONY - Steve Osborn
Santa Rosa Symphony / Bruno Ferrandis, conductor. Jon Nakamatsu, piano The evening of Feb. 19 was a pleasant one on the Santa Rosa Plain. The sun was shining, and the temperature hovered in the low 50s. Inside Weill Hall at the Green Music Center, the Santa Rosa Symphony prepared to begin its latest concert as the audience buzzed about guest conductor Bruno Ferrandis, ...
2/14/2023 - EXALTED ISSERLIS VALENTINES DAY GIFT IN STELLAR NAPA RECITAL - Terry McNeill
Chamber Music in Napa Valley / Steven Isserlis, cello; Connie Shih, piano There were no real surprises in cellist Steven Isserlis’ Napa recital on Valentine Day, and perhaps none was expected. After all, he is among the elite of the world’s cellists, and in the crescent-shaped First United Methodist Church the full-house audience knew well the elevated musical experience...
2/12/2023 - A TRIO WITH BRIO AT CHAMBER MUSIC MARIN! - Abby Wasserman
Chamber Music Marin / Trio Con Brio Copenhagen. Soo-Kyung Hong, cello; Soo-Jin Hong, violin; Jens Elvekjaer, piano Per Nørgård scored one of my favorite films, “Babette’s Feast,” but on Feb. 12 I got to know Nørgård better. In a Chamber Music Marin concert the Trio con Brio Copenhagen played the Danish composer’s mesmerizing 1973 composition Spell, 18 minutes of an astral journey that could have been modeled o...
2/12/2023 - SUBDUED PIANISM IN RARE FORTEPIANO RECITAL IN THE RAVEN - Terry McNeill
Daniel Adam Maltz / Daniel Adam Maltz, fortepianist A fortepiano recital is a rare thing indeed, and other than the frequent performances on the instrument by the splendid Berkeley-based artist Eric Zivian, one cannot think of a formal North Bay fortepiano event in decades. Enter the enterprising folks at Healdsburg’s Raven Theater when they present...
2/4/2023 - ECHO CHAMBER ORCHESTRA CREATES A BUZZ - Abby Wasserman
ECHO Chamber Orchestra / Daniel Canosa, Conductor Composer Matthew Rupert’s Cicadas, Op. 7, opening ECHO Chamber Orchestra’s “The Creation of the World” February 4 program at San Anselmo’s First Presbyterian Church, started so modestly that many in the half-full audience were unaware the concert had begun. It certainly did, with a swelling buzz, ...
2/4/2023 - EVOCATIVE REDWOOD SONG CYCLE AT SO CO PHIL CONCERT - Terry McNeill
Sonoma County Philharmonic / Norman Gamboa, conductor. Chad Somers, tenor On paper Sonoma County Philharmonic’s Feb. 1 concert didn’t look too promising – lightweight works by Grofé and Gotschalk, and four new short pieces set to local poetry. That view was misguided, and though the playing was not always revelatory, it indeed gave considerable pleasure to an audience of...
2/3/2023 - BRAVURA BAROQUE BY THE ABS AT ST. STEPHENS IN TIBURON - Abby Wasserman
American Bach Soloists / Jeffrey Thomas, Director. Hélène Brunet, soprano; Gabriel Benton, harpsichord; Steven Marquardt, trumpet; Nate Helgeson, bassoon; American Bach Soloists, led by Jeffrey Thomas, performed six masterworks by Bach, Vivaldi and Telemann on February 3 in Tiburon’s St. Stephen’s Church. Opening the famed ensemble’s 34th subscription season, the program was generously conceived and beautifully executed, and required five different ...
1/29/2023 - TURINA PERFORMANCE HIGHLIGHTS SSU FACULTY CONCERT - Terry McNeill
Department of Music Facuty Concert / Gail Hernández Rosa, violin; Jill Rachuy Brindel, cello; Marilyn Thompson, piano Music Faculty members used to be obligated to play a formal recital each year, at least in conservatories. But fortunately Sonoma State’s most frequent faculty performers, pianist Marilyn Thompson and cellist Jill Brindel, perform around here regularly and were joined Jan. 28 by violinist Gail Hern...
1/22/2023 - ROMANTIC FERVOR IN FRISSON ENSEMBLE'S RAC CONCERT - Terry McNeill
Redwood Arts Council / Frisson Ensemble New York’s Frisson Ensemble mounted an eclectic program at the Redwood Arts Council’s Jan. 22 concert that was long on informality and high on convincing artistry. Eighty attended in the Occidental Center for the Arts. Britten’s Phantasy Quartet from 1933 opened the formal program featuring oboist...
1/22/2023 - RACH-ING OUT: SANTA ROSA SYMPHONY EXPLORES HOLLYWOOD’S LOVE AFFAIR WITH RACHMANINOFF - Steve Osborn
Santa Rosa Symphony / Francesco Lecce-Chong, conductor It’s no accident that many classic movie scores sound like Sergei Rachmaninoff might have had a hand in them. For the Santa Rosa Symphony’s Jan. 22 concert at Sonoma State’s Weill Hall titled “RACH and the Hollywood Sound,” the second in a series devised by Music Director Francesco Lecce-Chong, the ...
1/21/2023 - ORGAN-CHOIR COMBO IN BACH CELEBRATION - Terry McNeill
Sonoma Bach / C. 1600; Anne Laver, organ Arriving early Jan. 21 for the 3 p.m. organ recital in Schroeder Hall, this reviewer found an already engaged large audience with no organ sounding. It was Sonoma Bach’s popular “Bachgrounder” that precedes each concert, and long-time Music Director Bob Worth was describing from the stage the majest...
1/15/2023 - FRENCH FLAVOR IN RARE FOUR-HAND RECITAL - Judy Walker
Presbyterian Church of the Roses / Nancy Hayashibara and Marilyn Thompson, piano As part of their Roses Signature Concert Series Santa Rosa’s Church of the Roses presented Jan. 15 a piano four-hands recital performed by Marilyn Thompson and Nance Hayashibara. The program consisted of a familiar combination of primarily French works plus a selection from the lively Brahms Hungari... |