Brazilian pianist Cristina Ortiz, a gold medal winner at the prestigious Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, will be in Santa Monica this Sunday to perform with the New West Symphony. She will play “Momoprecoce” by Heitor Villa-Lobos.
New West Symphony music director Marcelo Lehninger will lead the performance of the program that also includes Maurice Ravel’s “Suite from Ma Mère L’oye” (“Mother Goose”) and “Pictures at an Exhibition” by Modest Mussorgsky in the Ravel orchestration.
Sunday will be the third and final New West Concert performance this weekend.
The first performance will take place today at 8 pm at the Oxnard Performing Arts Center, located at 800 Hobson Way in Oxnard. The program will be repeated on Saturday at 8 pm at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, located at 2100 Thousand Oaks Boulevard in Thousand Oaks.
Sunday’s performance will be held at 4 pm at Barnum Hall (on the campus of Santa Monica High School), located at 601 Pico Boulevard in Santa Monica.
Ortiz is widely considered one of the pre-eminent interpreters of the music of Villa-Lobos.
Praised for the passion and intensity of her playing, she has garnered rave reviews for her performances on world stages of the standard concerto and solo repertoire as well as works by lesser-known composers.
In recent years she has become more involved in chamber music performances and in conducting orchestras from the keyboard.
New West Symphony will also present its “Hear & Now Live” pre-concert discussion about the music on the program before each performance this weekend. These programs will begin at 7 pm tonight and Saturday evenings and 3 pm on Sunday afternoon. The pre-concert programs are free and open to ticket holders for the respective performances.
Founded in 1995, the New West Symphony is a professional orchestra that draws its players from the rich talent pool of professional Los Angeles-area musicians.
Led by music director Marcelo Lehninger, the Symphony is the resident company of the Oxnard Performing Arts Center, the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, and Barnum Hall in Santa Monica.
It presents six Masterpiece Series concerts annually, performing major works from the symphonic repertoire with internationally acclaimed artists as guest soloists.
The Symphony also provides quality outreach and educational opportunities for the communities it serves through its annual “Symphonic Adventures” concert programs for youth, its traveling Music Van, and its partnership with New West Symphony Harmony Project of Ventura County, a year-round music and leadership program for underserved students.
Tickets for this weekend’s performances are priced from $25 to $98, which are available by phone at 866.776.8400. Tickets are also available at each respective concert hall box office before the shows and online at newwestsymphony.org.
