New West Symphony Blog

Pictures from Barnum Hall 4-27-2008

Bruce Kranicz — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 16:28:15 +0000

Pictures from our April 27th concerts at Barnum Hall - Beethoven

New West Symphony Announces its 2008-09 Concert Series

Rick Newberger — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 01:36:50 +0000

14^th Season includes Salute to the Arts, Celebrations of Beethoven and

Tchaikovsky

The New West Symphony, under the artistic leadership of Music Director Boris Brott, will present six concerts in each of its three performance venues next season as part of its Masterpiece Series. Featuring a range of works from the 18^th to the 20^th centuries, some familiar to audiences and some less well known, the New West will also welcome to its stage an exceptional array of solo performers. The announcement was made by Maestro Brott and Rick Newberger, chair of the Artistic Committee and Immediate Past President of the Association.

“Our goal each year is to deliver a thoroughly entertaining and stimulating ‘world class’ symphonic experience to our communities,” stated Maestro Brott. “With the caliber of our musicians, we can aim for the stars and get all the way there—each year is better than the last.” Added Mr. Newberger, “our programming process is unusual in the symphony world, as it is highly ‘democratic’ and responsive to our audience preferences. Our overall philosophy is to create programs that combine favorite works with important, but maybe less familiar, works by major classical composers, We also seek to present a mix of well known soloists and exciting, young talent.”

Opening Weekend is October 10-12, 2008, featuring an all Beethoven program. Corey Cerovsek performs in the Opus 61 Violin Concerto. Also on the program is the Leonore Overture No. 3 and the seldom performed Symphony No. 2.
The November and January concerts are Salutes to the Arts. On November 7-9, the New West Symphony will be joined on stage by ballet dancers performing Scenes from The Creatures of Prometheus by Beethoven. Also on the program are two other works of “visual music,” Grieg’s Suite No.1 from Peer Gynt and Moussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. This concert is generously sponsored by Micheline and Al Sakharoff.
On January 23-25, the New West salutes the music of the movies, including original and adapted works that have figured prominently in films. Local “discovery” Sean Chen will perform the Rachmaninov Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini (used in many films) plus the haunting Spellbound Concerto by Rozsa. Also on the program are Bernstein’s On the Waterfront Suite, Herrmann’s Suite from Psycho and E.T.:Adventures on Earth by John Williams.
February 27-March 1 features pianist Sara Davis Buechner performing the Mozart Concerto No. 14 on a string-centric program that also includes Britten’s Simple Symphony, Barber’s Adagio for Strings and Dvorak’s Serenade for String Orchestra.
The program on April 24-26 shifts the focus to Hungarian music, featuring the return to the New West stage of pianist Arnaldo Cohen performing the Liszt Concerto No. 1. Also on that program are Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 in the orchestral version and the Bartok Concerto for Orchestra.
The season concludes on the weekend of May 15-17 with a celebration of the music of Tchaikovsky. Works include the Symphony No. 4, Waltzes from Eugene Onegin, Capriccio italien Op 45, and the 1812 Overture complete with cannon.

Season tickets may be reserved by calling the New West Symphony box office at 866-776-8400. Season tickets may also be purchased online at www.newwestsymphony.org. The New West Symphony is the fourth largest symphony orchestra organization in the Los Angeles area presenting regular performances in concert halls in Oxnard, Thousand Oaks and Santa Monica. The orchestra features seventy professional musicians drawn from the Los Angeles region and from as far away as Pennsylvania and Florida.

The New West Symphony performs on Friday at 8:00pm at the Oxnard Performing Arts Center, on Saturday at 8:00pm in the Kavli Theatre of the Countrywide Performing Arts Center in Thousand Oaks, and on Sunday afternoon at 4:00pm at Barnum Hall in Santa Monica

Some photos from the Music Van

Bruce Kranicz — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 23:25:53 +0000

From our visit at THE LAKES

All sorts of Greatness

Rick Newberger — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 18:18:15 +0000

This weekend’s concert is all about Greatness. Taking advantage of an opportunity to bring George Gao to our stage, the program has undergone quite a bit of change since first announced. Mr. Gao is considered a contemporary master of the erhu–sometimes called the “Chinese Violin” but which only has two strings. In the second half of the program, he will play several works which I am pretty sure you’ve not heard before, but which I am also pretty sure you’ll find very entertaining. Chick here to go to Mr. Gao’s website, where there is quite a bit more information about him plus some audio and video to sample.

We had originally also scheduled the majestic (Titanic?) Mahler first symphony. Given the other program changes, we swapped that out for the wonderful Schubert “Great” Symphony in C Major. Click the link to hear the Andante (2nd) movement from that Symphony. By the way, if you are confused as to whether it is the 8th or the 9th Symphony, you are not alone. In the original German catalog of Schubert’s work, it was listed as the 8th (the ninth then being the “Unfinished”). English listings have labelled it the 9th. Since the 1980s most American orchestras have given up the numbers altogether and just call it “The Great” — which it is. Schubert “Great” Symphony D.944, Andante Movement

As a salve to those of us who miss the Mahler, the program also includes the “missing” movement from the First Symphony, now a separate piece called “Blumine.” It was originally the second movement, but was dropped in early publications of the work.

Enjoy the weekend. Let us know what you thought of it!

–Rick Newberger, Artistic Committee Chair

A Blog for the New West Symphony!

Rick Newberger — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 20:42:48 +0000

Welcome to the new New West Symphony Blog. Watch this space for up-to-the-minute news and commentary on the Symphony, our programs, events, and anything else that seems to fit. Check back regularly for new content.