Philharmonic's anniversary season 'Bridging Generations'
By Roger McBain (Contact)
Saturday, March 7, 2009
The Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra will celebrate traditional and innovative, homegrown and international, past, present and future in its 75th anniversary season.
The 2009-2010 lineup, billed as "Bridging the Generations," will feature seasoned war horses and freshly-commissioned arrivals, renowned guest artists and Evansville's own virtuosi, and it will reunite some of the Philharmonic's leading players and a conductor from seasons past.
Pianist Nino Cocciaralla will perform
with the Evansville Philharmonic in October.
Paula Leggett Chase
Alfred Savia will mark his 21st year
as music director for the Evansville
Phliharmonic Orchestra next seasaon.
Stewart Kershaw, who led the Evansville
Philharmonic from 1980 to 1989, will return
to conduct in the orchestra's Family Reunion
concert in January 2010.
Delmar Pettys
Michael Jinsoo Lim
Steve Morgan will sing in December's Peppermint Pops concerts.
STORY TOOLS
It all comes with the culmination of a two-year Beethoven cycle, completing the orchestra's live performances and downloadable digital recordings of their playing on all of Ludwig van Beethoven's symphonies.
The season begins Sept. 12, with the opening classics concert, featuring the yet-to-be-named silver medalist from the upcoming 2009 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition and a guest podium appearance by Yanami Sakahashi, conductor for the Tochigi City Wind Ensemble in Japan.
The orchestra's music director, Alfred Savia, will conduct the rest of the opening night celebration, in his 21st season leading the musicians. The concert also will premiere a new fanfare commissioned for the orchestra's anniversary. The program will include Jean Sibelius' "Finlandia,' Sergei Rachmaninov's Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini, and Beethoven's Symphony No. 5.
On Oct. 24, Nino Cocchiarella, a pianist, performer and recording artist who grew up in Evansville and has performed across the country and across the Pacific, will play Felix Mendelssohn's Piano Concerto No. 1 and Frederic Chopin's Grand Polonaise Brilliante on a program including Claude Debussy's "Petite Suite" and Beethoven's "symphony No. 4.
The University of Kentucky Opera Theatre will join the Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus on Nov. 21 for a Tribute to Opera, performing selections from all the operas the orchestra has performed over the past two decades.
Stewart Kershaw, the orchestra's music director and conductor from 1980 to 1989, will return with past concertmasters John Macfarlane, Michael Jinsoo Lim, Delmar Pettys and Brennan Sweet for a reunion concert Jan. 21, 2009. The program will include works by Johannes Brahms, Antonin Dvorak, Antonio Vivaldi, Frederick Delius, Zoltan Kodaly, and Sergei Rimski-Korsakov.
Clarinetist Jon Manasse, a guest soloist twice before, will perform with the orchestra Feb. 20 to perform a new clarinet concerto by Lowell Liebermann, who will spend time in Evansville as a composer in residence, on a program that will include Felix Mendelssohn's "The Hebrides" and Beethoven's "Eroica" Symphony No. 3.
Flutist Kelly Sulick and harpist Megan Stout will share the spotlights March 20, as soloists in W.A. Mozart's Concerto for Flute and Harp on a lineup with Strauss' "Die Fledermaus" Overture and Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5.
The Classics lineup will conclude April 24 in a concert featuring the Philharmonic Orchestra, Chorus and guest soloists in Beethoven's "Choral" Symphony No. 9. The program will include Franz Schubert's "Rosamunde" Overture and Ottorino Respighi's "Fountains of Rome."
In a shift to accommodate audience requests, the Classics' starting time will move to 7:30 p.m. for all concerts except September's season opener, schedule to start at 8 p.m. in The Victory.
The Pops series will reprise popular, patriotic and rock standards in a series of programs opening Oct. 3 with The Classical Mystery Tour: A Tribute to the Beatles.
Like all the Pops productions, this show, featuring original members from Broadway's "BEATLEMANIA" show, will play two successive dates, beginning at 7:30 p.m. Saturday and again at 2 p.m. Sunday.
Evansville natives Paula Leggett Chase and Steve Morgan will return to perform in Home for the Holidays, this year's Peppermint Pops holiday show Dec. 5 and for 6. Chase is a veteran hoofer whose Broadway credits include "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" and "Curtains." Morgan is a tenor who has performed with major orchestras in the United States and China, on Broadway (in "Mamma Mia!") and with the a cappella singing group Straight No Chaser.
Steve Lippa will reprise the big band stylings of Frank Sinatra Feb. 6 and 7 in a program titled "Simply Sinatra."
And Steven Mead, a euphonium virtuoso from England will play with the orchestra and chorus April 10 and 11 in what the Philharmonic bills as a "Star-Spangled Spectacular" of patriotic marches, anthems and standards.
Season tickets for next season will hold at this year's prices, but with deeper discounts for full-time students and children 12 and younger.
Instead of the $25 reductions offered in years past, the philharmonic will offer a straight 50 percent student discount. Depending upon seating section and subscription series, that could amount to price cuts ranging from $33.50 to $280.
For more on the season and series tickets, visit the orchestra's Web site at http://www.evansvillephilharmonic.org/ online or call 425-5050.
http://www.courierpress.com/news/2009/mar/07/philharmonics-anniversary-season-bridging/
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