Orchestra Santa Monica this week announced its exciting 2014-2015 season of four orchestra concerts.
Entering its third season, Orchestra Santa Monica (OSM) has been enthusiastically embraced by music lovers in Santa Monica and its surrounding communities.
OSM will be presenting a new concert experience for its audience. Beginning in January 2015, the orchestra will be performing in the acoustically superb and visually intimate surroundings of the Anne and Jerry Moss Theatre at Santa Monica’s New Roads School.
“I’m tremendously excited about our new season,” said Music Director and Conductor Allen Robert Gross. “Moving into the Moss Theatre at the New Roads School is a big step for us because it will give our audience an intimate concert experience that one rarely has with orchestra concerts. It’s a thrust stage, and our open audience seating allows people to choose where they will wish to have their preferred visual connection to the players and to the music-making.”
The opening concert of the season, on October 26, 2014 will be held at Barnum Hall on the campus of Santa Monica High School. Entitled “Heroic Beethoven and More,” the orchestra will perform his Egmont Overture and the “Eroica” Symphony.
Grammy-winning pianist Gloria Cheng will perform the west coast premiere of Latvian composer Georgs Pelecis’ “Concertino Bianco”, which uses only the white notes on the piano.
OSM’s opening concert at the Moss Theatre on January 18, 2015 will celebrate Mozart’s upcoming birthday, with his symphonies No. 21 and No. 40 and with OSM Principal Oboist Catherine Del Russo as soloist in his Oboe Concerto.
The “Border Crossings” concert on April 19, 2015 continues OSM’s mission of presenting music that represents the diversity of the cultures in our region. Music by the Chinese-born composer Chen Yi blends eastern and western musical idioms to open the concert, and the orchestra will present the west coast premiere of “Andean Elegy” by the Berkeley-born composer Gabriela Lena Frank. “Beyond her music, Frank being of Lithuanian-Jewish and Peruvian-Chinese heritage, personally embodies the ‘border crossings’ idea behind the concert,” said Maestro Gross. Music by Piazzolla and Dvořák round out the program.
Cellist Cécilia Tsan joins the orchestra for its season finale on May 17, 2015 playing Tchaikovsky’s popular Rococo Variations, which takes its inspiration from the 18th-century melodic elegance that the composer loved. To highlight the graceful rococo musical inspiration for the Tchaikovsky, OSM will be joined by Santa Monica’s Elemental Strings youth orchestra, which will play a piece by the Chevalier de Saint-George, who was known in his time as “le Mozart nègre”.
“OSM is committed to collaborating with the community, and Elemental Strings is an important local musical organization that nurtures future musicians and listeners,” said OSM Board President Cindy Bandel.
Orchestra Santa Monica is also continuing its outreach to the community through its successful chamber ensemble concerts. The OSM Woodwind Quintet will once again be performing in Title I Santa Monica schools this year.
Orchestra Santa Monica has received two grants from the City of Santa Monica to support its programs this year as well as grants from the Leo Buscaglia Foundation and the Santa Monica Rotary Club Foundation.
Important support for the Orchestra also comes from Agensys, Inc., RAND, Pacific West Bank, and the first concert of the season is generously sponsored by John Bohn, one of Santa Monica’s most distinguished citizens.
Complete information about the season’s programs can be found at www.orchestrasantamonica.org.
